A voluntary, patient-controlled system of unique identifiers is the only way to ensure acceptable levels of safety and accuracy when exchanging medical information through an electronic national network, according to The National Alliance for Health Information Technology. Led by its Technology Leadership and Policy Committees, the Alliance has concluded that the current statistical process for matching patients to their records based on such attributes as name, address and birth date is too unreliable.
Hard to believe, but this marks the 38th--and final--edition of the revamped HealthLeaders Media IT for 2007. Tomorrow would be our normal publishing date, but we're bumping it up a day for the New Year. Next week we'll be back to our regular Tuesday routine.
This time of year, sometimes people ask me, "What was the big story of the year?" Truth be told, I don't think that way. The industry is too big to say there is ONE big story. We did see several pronounced trends: the government's increased push to promote clinical IT ranks near the top, the expansion of personal health record technology, and the broadening of hospital EMR sponsorship under Stark. That said, there is an almost indefinite number of compelling stories, of data sharing, of staff leadership, of IT implementations large and small. Most of the real action is away from the lofty programs envisioned in Washington, DC. There are hospitals struggling to automate their clinical documentation, there are physician practices trying to integrate their clinical and administrative systems, and there are countless patients learning to use online tools to connect with the healthcare system. So maybe the big story is how this massive industry manages to lumber along in the first place. I am certain of one thing: I share a privileged perch to be able to watch, analyze and comment on it all.
Before closing, I would just like to acknowledge all the great readers out there. Your ongoing feedback and response to the e-newsletter have been truly encouraging. Many of you have contributed to our weekly Leaders Forum. In 2007, 34 people contributed to this feature, addressing a host of topics such as telemedicine, green hospital technology, and the use of guest Wi-Fi services in the hospital. Space prohibits me from acknowledging all the authors individually. However, I would like to encourage others in the field to consider publishing as well. This technology beat is simply too big for just one reporter like me to cover, so your first-person accounts and opinions really enrich the mix.
In addition to running these contributed features, we ran audio interviews with 17 leaders from across the industry. To me, conducting these audio interviews is the fun part of the job. The industry is blessed with so many talented people, and I am glad to share their voice--both literally and figuratively--with our readership, which now exceeds 30,000 subscribers. There's just no substitute for hearing a Bruce Landes discussing the pitfalls to EMR adoption or an Ed Marx discussing how CIOs can use a blog to motivate staff. As they say, a reporter is only as good as his or her sources. And many of mine--such as Stew Watson--are patient indeed, as I pressed them into multi-segment audio interviews. And this past October, I was able to produce a string of podcasts recorded live at our Top Leadership Team event here in Chicago and get them to our growing online audience within a matter of minutes. Watch for similar immediacy from 2008 trade shows and conferences.
The Johns Hopkins University has received $10 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lead a landmark study on trachoma, a bacterial eye disease that afflicts 84 million people around the world every year and blinds about 4 million. The award is one of the largest ever to support trachoma research.
Employee health is weighing heavily on corporate America. According to the CDC, 75 percent of our nation's healthcare costs are due to lifestyle/obesity-related diseases. Enterprising employers are investing in the health of their employees and realizing less acute care, disability and lower general healthcare costs. Indirect improvements such as better employee morale and retention rates seem to result from these programs as well.
The small clinic at Kaival Hospital in India matches infertile couples with local women, cares for the women during pregnancy and delivery, and counsels them afterward. These surrogate mothers, pioneers in the growing field of outsourced pregnancies, have given birth to roughly 40 babies. Now more than 50 women in this city are pregnant with the children of couples from the United States, Taiwan, Britain and beyond.
New York has one of the most far-reaching mental health statutes in the country. It gives great latitude to doctors, social workers and relatives to force mentally ill people into treatment, and it provides money for clinical services. Just how far states can go to get mentally ill people into treatment is a key issue in Virginia, which is struggling with changing its mental health system after a mentally ill gunman shot and killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in April before killing himself.