Small Practice Physicians Continue to Lag in Health IT Adoption

Study sees gaps in IT adoption
Doctors in smaller practices continued to lag behind their counterparts in big groups in the availability of information technology, according to a new study by the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington.

The study, which included information from 12,000 physicians, found an increase for both small and large practices in access to information technology for each of five clinical activities. But the gaps in adoption persisted in two areas -- obtaining treatment guidelines and exchanging clinical data with other doctors -- and widened in three areas: accessing patient notes, generating preventive-care reminders and writing prescriptions.

Smaller practices "appear to be at risk of being left behind," according to Joy Grossman, co-author of the study, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For instance, the study said about 8% of small practices (one to nine doctors) reported access to IT systems for prescriptions in 2000-01, a number that increased slightly to 13% in 2004-05. By contrast, the proportion of larger groups (51 or more doctors) with similar access grew to 47% in 2004-05 from 19% in 2000-01, the study said. Read more. -- by Michael Romano / HITS staff writer

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New PDA Tool for Pain Description by Patients

LATEST NEWS
December 16, 2006
Brits Create PDA Pain Tool
(November 13, 2006) Researchers at Brunel University in Uxbridge, England, have developed a handheld system that enables patients to record and rate pain. The Web-based system features a three-dimensional rotating visualization of the human body to help patients better explain the location of their pain.

Patients can mark their pain on an area of the 3D body then classify it as burning, aching, stabbing, pins and needles, or numbness. The pain data and image then can be stored and reviewed by physicians.

Researchers plan to use the software to help improve identification and treatment of back pain. For more information, click here.

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Physicians Really Need Converged Devices, but They Don't Seem to be Available Yet

If only
physicians had more than two hands, this wouldn't be a problem.
Clinicians are forced to carry multiple mobile devices to effectively
communicate with colleagues and patients, according to a recent
report from Spyglass Consulting Group. The firm finds that 67% of
clinicians interviewed report carrying multiple mobile devices to
manage communications with different groups of people, or to address
communication requirements for specific job functions. Clinicians tell
Spyglass that they are experimenting with a wide variety of different
types of mobile devices, including pagers, cell phones, "smart phones"
and VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) phones. The right mobile
communications device, says Spyglass, is dependent upon the work
environment, job responsibilities and personal preferences. The study
adds that clinicians lack tools to filter, manage and prioritize
communications to and from colleagues and patients. According to the
research firm, clinicians also report having difficulties communicating
with colleagues due to a dependency on paper-based workflows and a lack
of standardized tools and processes to collaborate with colleagues
across the continuum of care. For more information on the Spyglass
report, Healthcare Without Bounds: Trends in Mobile Communications,
click here.

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New Personal Health Record

The American Academy of Family Physicians and several large corporations are sponsoring a new personal health record entitled "Dossia," that is currently in development using latest security standards. If there is significant adoption and interfacing to EMR's, billing products, and other mobile computer programs, there is the potential to get some traction on creating usable electronic medical records for patients. Read more about it here.

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New version of Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia for Handhelds

Tarascon has offered a new PDA version of their very popular drug reference.  Features of the new version include: 

A NEWLY-UPDATED,
custom-designed user interface, new features, and 6 new calculators makes the
Tarascon Pharmacopoeia a must-have application for your Palm or Pocket PC
device. The additional features and improved functionality join the existing
trusted content to create a tailored way to navigate the most popular drug
content available for handheld devices.

New Features Include:

• Six new Calculators, including: Glomerular Filtration Rate,
  temperature conversion, and weight conversion
• New, customizable drug views, so you can see the information that
  is most important to you, first
• New, Bookmarks feature allows you to quickly get to your most
  referenced drugs
• New, High Resolution interface and fonts
• Supports Palm, full-screen and landscape modes
• New expiration behavior to allow more functionality after
  expiration
• Improved support for navigation buttons

The
New Tarascon Pharmacopoeia is now available for your Palm or Pocket PC device.
To learn more about the Tarascon Pharmacopoeia, please visit http://www.tarascon.com
.

Tarascon

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Canadian and US Primary Care Physicians Lag in use of Health IT

A new study published in Health Affairs compares the IT use of primary care physicians in 7 countries finding that US physicians have the lowest rates of EMR use, electronic drug interaction checking, preventative services reminders, and several other important markers.  I'm not surprised by these findings as the primary care health system in the US is dysfunctional right now with a premium placed on volume of patients, and little overhead to pay for IT enhancements.  On top of that, IT systems are frequently overpriced and poorly designed and conceived for the primary care setting.  A major emphasis should be placed on continuing to develop simple, effective systems that enhance primary care practice. 


Canadian and U.S. Primary Care Physicians Lag In Use Of Health IT

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New Tool from AHRQ to Determine Recommended Preventive Services

• Recommendation of preventive services by primary care physicians goes electronic. The HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on Oct. 26 unveiled its new Electronic Preventive Services Selector (ePSS) tool for primary clinicians to use with a personal digital assistant (PDA) or desktop computer. The interactive tool allows clinicians to access the latest recommendations from the AHRQ-sponsored U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The ePSS is designed for use at the point of care and contains 110 recommendations for specific populations covering 59 separate preventive services topics, AHRQ says. The agency adds that the real-time search function permits a clinician to input a patient's age, gender and selected behavioral risk factors — such as whether the patient is a smoker — in the appropriate fields. The software then cross-references the patient characteristics entered with the applicable AHRQ task force recommendations and generates a report specifically tailored for that patient. The report has information on screening tests ranging from mammograms to ultrasounds for detecting abdominal aortic aneurysms, as well as counseling topics and information on preventive medications. View and download the tool at www.ePSS.ahrq.gov.

Palm Treo 700wx vs. Palm Treo 700p

Well, just received a new Treo 700p, but haven't even had time to swap it out with my old Treo 650. I am looking forward to the larger memory and being able to upgrade the e-mail program and some additional programs that I couldn't run on the 650 due to running out of memory. In the meanwhile, here is a nice review comparing the 700wx vs. the 700p. Click here.

Palm Treo 700wx Now Available for Sprint Users

Palm just announced that the Treo 700wx is now available for Sprint users. As you can see from my previous post, physicians who are using many applications on their handhelds may find this a useful upgrade from their current Treo 650 models. The 700wx is the Windows version of the Treo and also comes with broadband-like speeds over the respective phone data networks. With the 700wx, you get additional usable memory (60MB of ROM) as with the 700p. I'll let you know soon how the 700p functions as I will be receiving a unit this coming week. You can read the marketing information on the 700wx here.

Running out of Memory

I've always advised physicians to buy devices that have plenty of memory and an expansion card. So, why am I running out of memory? Well, unfortunately, the Treo 650 phone/pda by Palm only has about 20MB of usable onboard memory. This means that programs like ePocrates, HanDBase, and other useful medical programs soon run out of space. So, I'm going to be giving the new Treo 700P a whirl. This device sports about 60MB of usable onboard memory, although the total is 128MB. Sure would be nice to have all of that usable, as there are many programs that work best on the main memory section of the PDA. Information on the Treo 700P can be found here.

Palm Ultralight Bluetooth Headset features

A brief review about the new bluetooth headset from Palm. It has DSP, a great carrying case, and can be charged with the same charger as your current Treo....a real advantage when traveling. See the review here

New Ultralight Wireless Headset for Treo Devices

Palm just announced a new wireless headset. I have had problems with poor sound quality and inability to hear due to lack of an in-ear headset in previous ones I have tried (Motorola among others). This headset appears to overcome some of these limitations without the bulkiness of the "Jabra" headsets. See product info here.

Treo 650 Review

Here's a great review on the Treo 650 that was posted this weekend on the Washington Post site. It's by Rob Pegoraro, who has a respectable column in the newspaper each weekend. In addition to the programs that he mentions for personal use (e.g. Google mobile, getting baseball scores and weather), I highly recommend Voice Dial by VoiceSignal, which voice-enables all your Outlook contacts on your phone so that you can voice dial any contact. The review can be found here.

New Motorola Q Phone

There is a nice review of the new Motorola Q phone posted here. Unfortunately, the phone doesn't run the full Windows Mobile 5.0 software, but is a version for smartphones. Many software vendors in the healthcare IT space have yet to develop their software for this platform, so make sure you check that your favorite programs work before considering this device. Unfortunately, PocketBilling has not been developed for this platform to date. Neither has ePocrates, and most other major medical programs.

New Palm Handhelds

Palm has released a new fleet of models over the past few months and we have updated our comprehensive PDA selection webpage to reflect this. The good news is that the model variety is now converging allowing for easier selection. Make sure to select a handheld that has at least 32-128MB of RAM and that is expandable. There is only one model now that isn't (Palm Z22), so avoid this particular model. The life drive has a huge 4GB built-in hard drive, but it is a little slow to access files, so only choose that one if you plan on storing picture albums or extensive music collections. Finally, if you want a phone/PDA you can pick either the Treo 650 or the new 700W which runs the Windows operating system. It's nice to have these choices, and at the same time not be overwhelmed with too many options. I've also found that the Palm T/X runs wireless flawlessly right out of the box and with minimal setup. It is the most reliable wireless configuration I have seen on a handheld to date. My Treo also continues to function as a workhorse with all the features needed by a busy physician.