TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

Improving health care outcomes depends on a lot of things, including expanding the use of telemedicine, which will make it easier for patients in remote areas to see a primary care physician or a specialist. The downside is the required equipment can be costly. But that could change if technologists come up with innovative ways to use every-day computer equipment, say, like webcams.

A graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has done just that. He found a way to turn the low-cost camera that connects to a PC into a stethoscope. Writing in the Optics Express journal, a team led by Ming-Zher Poh, a student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, showed how a webcam could be used "to monitor a person's pulse by tracking minute changes in the way light reflects off their face as blood flows beneath the skin," the White Coat Notes blog reported. The team is working on altering the camera so it can measure oxygen saturation, respiration rate and blood pressure.

Counterfeit drugs are big problem in developing countries and technology might have found a way to fight it. In an article on how wireless technologies are expanding in the health field, especially in the developing world, Fast Company posted an article today on how simple texting can combat fake drugs, which result in not curing a disease or ailment, and it erodes confidence in modern medicine. From Fast Company:

Using fake drugs has tragic consequences -- there is decreased immunity and people lose faith in life-saving medicine. Technologists came up with a solution: individuals can verify the authenticity of medicine by sending a text message with an ID number printed on the box of legitimate medicine, then the drug company text back verifying that the medicine is ok to use.

A lot of work went into the development of meaningful use standards -- those requirements that an electronic health record system has to do to be considered a bona fide electronic health record system.

But the federal government has some work to do to inform physicians that the standards exist and that there are serious financial repercussions for not following them, according to a recent survey conducted by Physicians' Reciprocal Insurers in Long Island, N.Y. Healthcare IT News reports:

While 85 percent of physicians were aware of the financial incentives for implementing the systems, more than 35 percent did not know that they face government-assessed financial penalties for not complying beginning in January 2015.

Maybe more disturbing, was the finding that of the two-thirds of doctors who were unaware of the financial penalties, more than 65 percent - once they were informed that they faced costs equal to a 1 percent reduction of their annual Medicare payments per year up to 5 percent -- said that fact would not make them purchase an EHR system.

That works out to about 20 percent of all doctors not willing, despite financial loss, to install an EHR system, making it more difficult for the Obama administration to meet its goal of having a large majority of Americans in possession of an electronic health record by 2015.

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Act seemed to have given sales of electronic health records systems a pop.

KLAS Enterprises wrote in its annual report on EHR adoption in hospitals that while sales hit a seven-year low in 2008, purchases of the systems doubled in 2009 because of the law, according to an article on Health Data Management's website. The winning vendors: Epic and Cerner Corp.

Sales volumes were not reported.

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, weighed in on electronic health records on Monday in an article he co-authored for MDNews.com. Gingrich, and co-author Jeff Kao, who is general manager of NCR Healthcare, a member of Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation, write that the meaningful use definition the federal government asks doctors and hospitals follow when purchasing an electronic health record system, should also be applied to patients. Specifically, EHRs should be developed with a meaningful use for the public.

They write:

As health care reform takes hold, reducing costs will be a critical barometer of success. Administrative costs currently account for 7 percent of health care expenditures each year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. As an estimated 34 million previously uninsured Americans begin to access our health care system, these costs are is [sic] likely to grow if technology doesn't offset the increased volume. Automating routine health care transactions by allowing patients to pre-register, schedule appointments and pay bills how and when it is most convenient for them can significantly reduce administrative costs while streamlining the anticipated increase in patient flow.

Getting patients engaged up front may also help minimize consumer skepticism of adopting electronic health records. According to a recent Harris Interactive survey, only 26 percent of respondents said they want their medical records digitized and 40 percent believe they will result in more efficient care delivery. Giving patients greater access to and control over managing their health information can allay those concerns while supporting the ultimate objectives of an EHR, which are to enhance the efficiency and quality of care, by improving the accuracy of patient data, and creating a truly paperless workflow.