Recent Statements made by Dr. Farzard Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health IT, requested cooperation between software companies and caregivers to prevent patient harm caused by faulty electronic records. He specifically challenged the industry to “step up” and agree to a code of conduct that sets forth principles to protect patients, guard against fraud, and empower the HIT industry to finally realize its potential to revolutionize healthcare.

For the time being, cooperation is voluntary. Rising to this challenge will rely solely on the goodwill of all parties involved, including vendors. Mostashari’s comments have already sparked reform in the HIT community. Motivated by this challenge, cloud-based electronic health record provider, athenhealth has proactively addressed this issue by proposing “The HIT Code of Conduct”.  At its core, this code of conduct creates a uniform set of high standards that providers should expect and demand as they invest in technology and services as a means to improve care delivery.

Five principles outline athenahealth’s plan and provide a simple framework to help EHR vendors focus on some of the top issues involved in ensuring that health IT doesn’t cause more problems than it hopes to solve:

• Empower Data Portability and Provider Choice
• Build a True Nationwide Information Backbone
• Protect Patients
• Prevent Fraud
• Drive Meaningful Use

DICOM Grid is onboard with this code of conduct and we have signed on to show our support. If you are a HIT vendor, an industry stakeholders, or a policy maker interested in joining the mission, sign on to the code in full or just to the sections that apply to your organization.

A survey released this time last year reported that 45 percent of doctors already owned iPads and 75 percent of physicians planned on purchasing a tablet device in the future.  Surely these numbers have since increased and the medical world seems to be uniting under one common cultish belief: the Cult of Mac.  Not even the healthcare industry could prevent the Mac-bug from perforating hospital walls and invading physician’s homes.  It is a sickness many of us have caught and quite frankly, no one is looking for a cure.

As iPads become the new instrument of choice in doctors’ day-to-day work, it is not surprising that developers have become obsessed with launching new, useful medical apps for these devices.  Already there are thousands and thousands of apps for medical personnel to choose from.  How though, can people differentiate the legitimate technology from the, for lack of a better word, crap? After all, patients’ lives are at stake which makes choosing a medical app much more serious than downloading the latest version of “Temple Run” on your iPhone. There need to be regulations for these medical apps, right?

Enter the FDA.  The US House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee hosted a three-day series of hearings this week.  The prime focus was mostly on the FDA regulation of mobile medical apps.  A major discussion point was the need for the FDA to publish final medical app guidance.  Additionally, there was talk of whether or not the ONC or another group should assist the FDA in their app regulation efforts.  Brian Dolan, Co-Founder and Editor of @MobiHealthNews, provides a great summary of the major discussion points from these hearings.  To learn more, see his article, 10 threads from Congress’ hearings on the FDA regulation of medical apps.

Due to the timeliness of this topic in healthcare and because of DICOM Grid’s mHealth Madness Month competition, we thought it would be fun to list 5 medical apps that have generated some buzz in the health community.  Buckle up; you are in for a tech blast that is going to last.

docBeat

 We first came across docBeat at their app launching party at HIMSS this year.  docBeat breaks down the communication barriers that exist between physicians today, transforming medical collaboration and improving patient care.  With their secure messaging application, doctors and medical staff can exchange patient information via Smartphones and table devices while complying with HIPAA standards.  It is simple and easy- to-use.  The best news is, it is free for physicians!

Medrills

This app utilizes 3D visualizations and interactive tools to teach emergency medical concepts and skills.  The 3D graphics are truly amazing and they aid in providing unmatched training on the go.  Medrills was released by ArchieMD and was created to increase the knowledge of medical personnel, enable effective distribution of training materials, reduce training costs, and to improve certification rates nationwide.   There have been four series released to better target the skill sets of specific groups, including Military, Paramedic, Nursing, and Civilian.

drawMD

drawMD improves patient engagement and allows individuals to understand their conditions on a more granular level.  With this app, physicians are able to create detailed, interactive visuals to explain complex procedures to their patients.  drawMD allows individuals to make more knowledgeable decisions about their treatment options and eases the frustrations many doctors face when trying to explain complex concepts orally.    

Human Anatomy Atlas

This app is not only great for healthcare professionals, it is useful for patients and students as well.  Human Anatomy Atlas is an award-winning human anatomy general reference.  It is a 3D visualization and learning tool used to explore the systems of the human body.  The app contains thousands of anatomical structures, including all major organs and systems.  It is a great learning tool for those that need to brush up on their anatomical knowledge base. 

Local Anesthesia

iMedicalApps recently released an extensive review about the Local Anesthesia app.  The app provides helpful dose toxicity calculations for local anesthetics.  This is especially useful for doctors who use multiple agents.  It provides a toxicity calculator based on all agents used and can be used to track administered anesthetics.  For only $9.99, iMedicalApps recommends this download. 

These five apps do not even scratch the surface of the mobile device potential that currently exists.  We have said it before, and we will say it again, iPads are transforming healthcare permanently.

While we are on the topic, want the chance to win your own iPad? Join DICOM Grid for our mHealth Madness Month competition.  The winner will receive an iPad mini!

With this tablet you will not only be able to download all the neat medical apps we have talked about, you will also have the ability to view patients’ medical images from the comforts of home.  Request a demo to learn about DICOM Grid’s elaborate mobile viewer.

As always, thanks for following DICOM Grid.  Let us know your thoughts on Mobile Health!

If only HIMSS could be held in NOLA every year…

The location of HIMSS 2013 was perfect and the discussions were riveting.  This year was all about patient engagement, interoperability, and the future of healthcare technology.

Patient Engagement

In healthcare, the number one priority is, of course, the patients.  After all, that’s the reason most of us got involved in the medical industry in the first place.  The goal now is to encourage patients to take control of their medical data.  This was a major discussion point at HIMSS this year.  With platforms like AccessMyImages, patients can easily track and send their medical data with the click of a button.

Interoperability

It is hard to imagine that in the 21^st century, different medical systems still have difficulty communicating.  Patient information is not easily exchanged outside the hospital walls.  The goal now is to create one, communicative medical system that breaks down the silos that currently exist in medical organizations.

Future of Healthcare Technology

Clinton said it best in his speech on Wednesday: “There’s nothing wrong we can’t fix.”  While the healthcare industry undoubtedly has a long way to go, raising awareness about the current issues in the medical world is the first step in making positive changes.  Together, we can create an expansive healthcare system.

At DICOM Grid, we made sure to step up our social game at HIMSS, too.  We started the week off with a bang at Athenahealth’s “Clarity in the Cloud” party.  It was there we attended the funeral for “the death of traditional software”, and celebrated the future of healthcare technology.

We also made an appearance at the launching party of docBeat, a new, HIPAA compliant, app that allows doctors to securely exchange patient information right from their Smartphones.

Overall, HIMSS this year was a major achievement.  Kudos to everyone involved in the planning of such a successful event.  Look out for DICOM Grid next year, at HIMSS 2014 in Orlando, Florida.  We cannot wait to see you there!

Can’t wait another year? Request a demo today to learn how DICOM Grid is changing the future of healthcare.

Meaningful use and patient engagement have been strong discussion topics this year, making us feel right at home here in New Orleans.

DICOM Grid recently launched a new and improve patient portal, AccessMyImages, which allows individuals to take control of their data and historical images. The timing of this could not have been better considering all the buzz about Meaningful Use Stage 2 at HIMSS this year.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Fortunately for all of you reading this, there is still time to stop by booth 718 in the exhibition hall to preview how DICOM Grid can help manage your medical image exchange needs. Don’t wait too long though! Tomorrow is the last day to see a demonstration of the platform in-person.

Just make sure you stop by to speak with us. Worst-case scenario is you will get to chat with some really interesting, wonderful, enlightening, funny, and charming people.

Hope to see you tomorrow. In the meantime, check out DICOM Grid’s website to learn more about our services. Have a great rest of the conference everyone, and safe travels in your returns home!

If you do not get a chance to stop by our booth here in New Orleans, request a demo and schedule a time to learn more about DICOM Grid at your convenience.

Hats off to Athenahealth for throwing a great bash. And you can’t have a successful party without a funeral service, right? Midway through the event the entire crowd was ushered outside to bid farewell to what has been the technological lifeblood to many healthcare enterprises, you guessed it, software. In announcing the “death of software” Athenahealth’s CEO, Jonathan Bush, was not preaching doom and gloom, but celebrating the new opportunities ahead. With the passing of the traditional model of software, we welcome a SaaS revolution. The cloud is marching in!

It’s no secret that the delivery method of software in the healthcare climate is starting to change due to cloud computing and software as a service models. This transformation is accelerated by a number of industry trends.

Breaking down of vendor silos

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the breaking down of silos can lead to more coordinated care for patients, reduced medical costs by preventing repeat procedures, and can improve overall efficiency within the hospital system.

Ability to exchange information

In the same vein, the ability to transfer patient information between systems and facilities is critical. We are seeing more and more institutions replace outdated infrastructure and VPNs with Internet-based technology.

Easy access to information

24/7 access to information on any device is also high on the priority list. With the rise of tablets in healthcare, organizations are seeking out solutions that support mobility.

As a disruptive innovator, DICOM Grid works with organizations that are seeking ways to capitalize on the changes cloud services deliver. We help these organizations break down silos, exchange information, and improve access to information. SaaS delivery models and the cloud make it all possible. Discover what the cloud can do for your organization by requesting a demo of DICOM Grid’s image exchange platform. If you are in NOLA for HIMSS make sure to stop by booth 718 to talk disruption and opportunity.

Why the change? Incorporating a VNA into an infrastructure is transforming from idealistic desire to logical necessity.

A recent article written by Dr. Rasu B. Shrestha and published in Applied Radiology, effectively outlines the benefits of implementing a VNA.  In his article entitled “Enterprise vendor neutral archive: Guide to riding the bandwagon”, Dr. Shrestha discusses the previous slow pace of expansion of VNAs and explains why this trend is quickly reversing.

Although there is debate in the industry about how best to engage this strategy, here are some of the benefits, which drive the debate:

1. Reduce Cost: By centrally managing data in a vendor neutral format, it is easier for the institution to both manage data and develop additional interfaces that are required for the emerging world of networked care.  Upgrading and adding systems no longer requires costly data migrations and enables institutions to take advantage of new tools, regardless of vendor.
2. Flexibility: Hand-in-hand with cost reduction is the flexibility a VNA provides a health care system.  Decoupling information from PACS and proprietary formats results in making it easy to add new systems, tools, and modalities on a best of breed basis.  An archive separate from PACS also provides important disaster recovery capabilities at a low price point.  In the event a PACS is down, VNAs are often able to provide DR capability, greatly reducing loss of productivity and ensuring ongoing ability to deliver patient care.
3. Accessibility: A VNA, properly configured, allows for image access across expansive networks.  This can provide the core capability needed to manage new business models as well as to implement image exchange and sharing systems.

At DICOM Grid, we have been developing these themes as well as providing the capability to deliver our software both as an onsite software installations, as well as a software as a service model.  This flexibility is important as institutions begin to consider cloud and hybrid offerings.

To learn more read Dr. Shrestha’s article, where he classed DICOM Grid a “thoroughbred” in the VNA marketplace.

Request a demo today and discover more about DICOM Grid’s VNA Solution.

This past Sunday morning at about 9:30 a.m., my daughter pulled herself out of the pool after a hard swim: the100 meter free style.

She started to complain of pain and then soon was doubled over, vomiting.

An ambulance rushed her to Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Three units of morphine later, she was a bit groggy, but comfortable enough. The team performed an ultrasound.

Despite the best efforts of the tech and the radiologist, they couldn’t see everything they needed to see.

Ninety minutes after she drank the contrast solution, she had a CT exam and 30 minutes after that, we knew enough so that she could go home.  We walked out with our records and a CD with her imaging studies.

This isn’t a quiz and she is now back at 5th grade feeling fine (for the medically curious, email me – mpanner@dicomgrid.com).  Everyone at Inova was caring and responsive.

Still, I couldn’t help but focus on the importance of imaging.

After I asked whether a CT and the radiation exposure was really worth it, one doctor said to me, given her symptoms, there were two choices, imaging or surgery.

I was also struck how easy it was to move imaging inside the hospital, but how hard it was to share it with others.  The radiologist was critical to the process, but in some ways was only the beginning.  The specialists we consulted all wanted to see the imaging.  They valued the radiology report, but wanted to view the studies themselves.

I used the cloud-based image exchange platform, www.accessmyimages.com, to upload the two studies and share them with another doctor outside the hospital.  Otherwise, I would have had to copy and mail the CD, which would have hardly happened in the 30 minutes it took me to use www.accessmyimages.com.

As a result of my career, I have been a part of the medical imaging world for quite some time now and have heard many use cases.  Still, there is nothing like first hand experience to bring home the patient point of view. Sending studies through www.accessmyimages.com ensured that I could share the imaging information with other doctors outside of the hospital easily and quickly. I wasn’t held hostage to a CD and there were fewer barriers to communication.  We take this for granted in so many areas of our life, but in healthcare, it is still a challenge.

In the world of advanced imaging, it is important to see the patient, but maybe even more important to see inside the patient.  How we move that imaging is going to be core to improving patient care and letting anxious parents everywhere, sleep a little bit better.

At DICOM Grid, we can ease some of the stress that comes with unexpected health emergencies.  To see for yourself, request a demo today.

The “CODiEs” are the Software and information industry’s equivalent to the Academy Awards with winners representing the best products, technologies, and services created by or for information services providers.

What challenges does the best medical information solution solve?

The ability to share and exchange medical images between disparate systems has been a challenge for healthcare organizations around the world. DICOM Grid powers a cloud-based solution that enables organizations to easily deploy applications that support medical image exchange and sharing, vendor neutral archiving, mobile viewing and Health Information Exchange. Request a demo to see DG Suite in action!

What criteria was used to determine the award winner?

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program. The first round review of all nominees is  information services executives with considerable industry expertise.  DG Suite was evaluated for its user experience and usability, innovation of model, interoperability, search capabilities, and more. The judges were responsible for selecting the CODiE Awards finalists. Finally, SIIA members then vote on the finalist products. Scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners.

Want to see the solution for yourself?

Is your organization looking for a better way to manage medical imaging information? We can help. DG Suite allows organizations to centrally access, exchange, and store medical images online. Contact info@dicomgrid.com to learn more.

Is this difference in opinion due to age?  A recent study, mentioned in Physicians Practice, shows a direct correlation between a physician’s age and their willingness to incorporate new technology into their practice.  Interestingly, a physician’s age is tied into a variety of other factors that may affect this difference in opinion.

According to the article,  many senior doctors are unwilling to adopt new technology not because they are unable to use it, but more as a result of the cost. One claim is physicians, who are close to retirement especially, will not ever see the payoff from implementing a new technology system.

Additionally, many solo practices are owned by older physicians, while young residents straight out of medical school gravitate towards larger hospital systems.  Private practices, by nature, do not have expendable resources for technological purposes.

This technology gap is not only seen in the medical device/technology realm.  One study found that throughout the day, younger physicians check their personal devices twice as much as their senior colleagues.

A challenge for many health IT companies is to develop technologies that are simple to use. The success of any technology is often based on the user experience. At DICOM Grid, our intuitive platform allows for an easy transition in any medical facility. In designing our medical image exchange solution, (used for sharing images between facilities, transferring studies between modalities, vendor neutral archive, and more) we focused on the end user’s experience.  It’s easy…see for yourself, get started with a demo.

What will become of the medical world as more and more technology resistant doctors retire? How can we ensure that every physician in a medical practice is comfortable using new technology?  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

EHR adoption in the healthcare

To date, fewer than 20% of U.S. hospitals have successfully adopted electronic health records (EHR). The task of transforming paper records to electronic can be daunting. The larger the health facility, the more daunting the initiative becomes. While about half of all doctors are using some sort of EHR, only 34% of them claim to have a comprehensive system.

Why is this? What impediments are standing in the way, and what challenges is the industry as a whole working through?

1. Standardization of formats and codes

Standardization of diagnostic codes is critical. The amount of medical data now electronically encoded is staggering. Yet, much of it is not accessible for analysis because of a lack of standardization. Why? A universal consensus on exactly what information should be collected from a patient is continuing to evolve. In the meantime, diagnostic codes differ from facility to facility and keywords may not be identified or used appropriately when tagging patients.

2. Greater flexibility in programming

It’s rare for an off-the-shelf software package to work for all facilities. Each healthcare organization has its own protocols and demands functionality that must be incorporated into a final customized product.

Developers are constantly improving their grasp of the end users’ needs and working to deliver features that doctors and nurses want, need, and can use efficiently.

3. Streamlined data sharing

Vendor silos make it difficult to share information across disparate systems. A huge focus is being paid to the build out of vendor neutral systems that can send and receive information to and from healthcare organizations regardless of location.

There is also the question of who the data should be shared with. When medical records are shared it is usually only with other locations within one particular health care network. In the United States the patient owns the records, but it takes a formal request, and often extra convincing, for an individual to acquire his or her own records. If the patient is the owner, then should that person be able to decide who sees the records? There are many questions to be answered along these lines.

4. Security of medical records is critical

Fundamental to the entire project is the question of whether patients and health-care providers will trust an electronic system to handle medical records. Should patients be able to opt-in? Should EHR be assumed unless a patient opts out? Who should have access to the records? Generally, facilities which have adopted EHR have tiers of access with greater security for more sensitive data.

Another difficulty with EHR is that of capturing official signatures to authorize procedures, drug prescriptions, transfers, etc. Pharmaceutical online signature capturing must be able to be verified to prevent the theft of drugs. New technologies are being developed to capture and verify signatures without expensive hardware additions.

e-signature image provided by Silanis

Read more about the Legalities of e-Signatures in Insurance – A Resource Guide.

Electronic medical records for the future

Although there are many difficulties and shortcomings in the process toward fully implementing electronic medical record keeping systems, as more and more successes are noted, and systems are improved and simplified, EHR will become the standard for the future. Fewer medical mistakes and an improved ability to capture and apply medical advances will benefit all. What innovations will aid the transition from paper to electronic? Let us know in the comment section below.