Chico (short for Computer Hospital Intensive Care Operator) allows doctors and other medical workers at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami to virtually examine patients, speak to them, and access digital files--even if they are miles away. As the population gets older and the shortage of healthcare professionals becomes more acute, video-conferencing robots like Chico may be the future of medicine.
Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, have all cited technology in their campaigns for healthcare reform. However, while IT may feature in the next president's healthcare agenda, doubt remains as to whether any of the candidates will deliver fully on their proposals.
The fusion of x-ray capabilities with functional imaging technology such as SPECT and PET has resulted in hybrid equipment. The utilization of these modalities have resulted in greater diagnostic certainty and enhanced patient management through their advanced visualization capabilities. Until recently, fusing MRI with radiography has been problematic, with most solutions using a moving-bed patient system between MR and x-ray suites. A team from the department of radiology at The Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa has added to the armamentarium of fusion imaging with the creation and deployment of a MRI/radiography system.
Surely one of the most pronounced healthcare industry trends is towards "transparency." Hospitals are beginning to post various quality metrics on their Web sites. Patients can study the details of hospitals' performance and outcomes on common procedures. Others are disclosing the likely cost of these procedures. It's a profound shift, one that is long overdue--and needed, when you consider that we consumers will be increasingly asked to foot the healthcare bill in the years ahead.
But there is one area of pricing that remains in the clouds, namely the cost of new information systems and other technology. Software vendors love to tout their new contracts. My inbox is brimming with announcements. But ask them how much the deal was for, and more often than not, you will be stonewalled. Go to the hospital or medical group customer, and oftentimes, you get the same result. I have attempted to shine light on this topic in our "Deal" feature in HealthLeaders magazine, but it has been a struggle. Sometimes CIOs are just reluctant to talk about much the hospital actually had to ante up. Other times they have signed confidentiality agreements with their software suppliers to keep quiet.
Now, who exactly is being served by this murkiness around the cost of clinical IT? Well, it's certainly not potential purchasers of clinical IT. If buyers cannot obtain realistic estimates of cost prior to even sending out the RFPs, they are working in a vacuum. And for cash-strapped physician groups, the murkiness around cost may just result in suspicion that EMR vendors are an unscrupulous bunch.
My hunch is that software vendors like these confidentiality agreements because they are cutting deals left and right, charging the well-heeled customers way more than those of lesser means. Non-disclosure may also offer psychological protection to the insecure, who wonder if they have been gouged or got a good deal.
I guess you could say that the "value" of software is kind of like a house. It is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. But at least with housing transactions, it's easy to see what somebody else paid. I'm all for free markets. I also think that transparency on cost helps keeps them that way.
Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute has received a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will be used to study premature and stillbirth infant deaths. Prematurity causes 1 million newborn baby deaths a year worldwide, according to officials at Children's, who said the grant money will be used to "review current published literature and identify opportunities for new areas of research to reduce the incidence of prematurity and stillbirths worldwide." Children's will hold an international summit in Seattle next year on the topic of prematurity.
Already a troubled system, Iraqi medical care has fallen to the brink of collapse since the U.S.-led invasion five years ago. Scores of doctors have been slain, cancer patients have to hunt down their own drugs--even IV fluid is in short supply. A former deputy health minister and the head of the ministry's security force will stand trial, a year after they were accused of letting Shiite death squads use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings. Adding to the problems, specialists are in short supply.
The Shriners Hospitals for Children will offer free medical care for up to 500 working-class children from Georgia whose treatment would otherwise be funded through the state health insurance plan. The Shriner's charity offer is expected to save the state $1.3 million annually on the state insurance program called PeachCare, which covers children in families who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford health insurance.
Gov. Chet Culver of Iowa proposed a group of insurance company mandates designed to make healthcare more affordable while laying the foundation for universal coverage, such as requiring insurance companies to permit young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans until their 25th birthday. Insurance companies also would be compelled to give coverage to individuals who switch from group plans to individual plans, without a waiting period for the new plan to begin or underwriting the person for pre-existing conditions which were previously covered.
The U.S. Congress needs to pass healthcare IT legislation before private companies develop multiple systems that don't talk to each other, according to members of the Health IT Now Coalition and the Information Technology Industry Council. The groups urged Congress to move ahead with health IT legislation such as the Promoting Health Information Technology Act, which would establish a public/private group to recommend health IT standards and certification and would budget $163 million a year for healthcare providers to adopt health IT products.
The latest upheaval in the U.S. bond market is threatening two major Minnesota hospital chains with serious financial pain. Park Nicollet Health Care Services will pay an extra $86,000 in interest on its outstanding debt in one week alone. And if Fairview Health Services can't refinance its $450 million in debt, the chain of hospitals and clinics could see a jump in its interest rates that would cost it an extra $3.5 million a month.
