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

powered by performancing firefox

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.