Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs appeared before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs on February 4th to discuss the President’s VA budget request for FY 2011. The President’s budget provides $125 billion in 2011 which is almost $60.3 billion in discretionary resources and nearly $64.7 billion in mandatory funding.
The Secretary reported that in December 2009, the VA successfully exchanged electronic health record information in a pilot program between the VA Medical Center in San Diego and a local Kaiser Permanente hospital using the Nationwide Health Information Network. During the second quarter of 2010, DOD plans to join the pilot and there are plans to add additional Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record health community sites. The VA has $52 million available in IT funds in 2011 to continue the development and implementation of this priority.
The budget provides $51.5 million to use for medical care in 2011, which is an increase of $4 billion or 8.5 percent over the 2010 level. In 2011, the budget provides $2.6 billion to help meet the needs of veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The FY 2011 budget also includes funding to treat new patients resulting from the recent decision to add Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, and B-cell leukemia to the list of presumptive conditions for veterans with service in Vietnam.
The VA’s 2011 budget includes $250 million to strengthen access to healthcare for 3.2 million enrolled veterans living in rural and highly rural areas. Plans are to provide new rural health outreach and delivery initiatives and to expand the use of home-based primary care and mental health services.
The VA intends to expand the use of cutting edge telehealth technologies and would like to invest in $163 million in 2011 for home telehealth to take advantage of the latest technological advancement in healthcare delivery. The VA’s home telehealth program cares for 35,000 patients and a recent study found that patients enrolled in home telehealth programs experienced a 25 percent reduction in the average number of days hospitalized and a 19 percent reduction in hospitalizations.
According to the Secretary, the Department’s IT operations and maintenance program supports 334,000 users situated in 1,400 healthcare facilities, 57 regional offices, 158 national cemeteries around the country, plus the IT program maintains 8.5 million vital health and benefit records for veterans. The FY 2011 budget provides $3.3 billion for IT, which is the same level of funding provided in 2010.
The IT resources requested would fund IT to process education claims, to help the Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise project replace outdated technology, further develop the paperless claims processing system, and continue to develop the VA’s EHR system for $342.2 million.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Status of Mobile Health
Over 300 people attending the first mHealth Networking Conference on February 3-4, 2010 in Washington D.C. were eager to hear the latest on the mHealth revolution. The top thought leaders in the field Claudia Tessier President mHealth Initiative and Vice President C. Peter Waegemann presented their vision for mHealth. Both keynote speakers see mobile health as a huge wave hitting the healthcare field with the result that many new mobile communication systems are here today with many others coming on board in the near future.
Waegemann explained how ehealth differs from mhealth in that the focus for ehealth is on using electronic medical records and other technologies while mhealth health focuses on behavioral and structural changes.
Mobile devices are performing many functions in the virtual world that include accessing patient information at the point-of-care, developing medical networks, and providing remote virtual care. Physicians are now able to use the increasing number of Apps available not only for patient care but also to search and find the most current scientific and medical research information available worldwide.
Developing mobile health technology will save billions by using new technologies that will result in fewer office visits and better quality of care. Physicians will be able to research all of the newer options for treatments, be able to readily and easily communicate with wellness and care providers, patients will be able to contact disease specific groups, communication with payers will be easier, and clinicians will have access to all the necessary information needed to treat patients.
However, experts in the field are realistic and see the hurdles that must be overcome. The issues that need to be addressed involve standard development, legal requirements, certification, payment systems, confidentiality issues, and behavioral changes.
As Waegemann sees the future, the doctor’s role will change from lone doctor to a role similar to being the conductor of an orchestra. Healthcare will no longer be physician driven but will be largely participatory health to include all stakeholders, insurance companies, long term caregivers dentists, public health officials, hospitals, primary care providers, consumers, financial institutions, alternate health systems, and consumer/patient health systems involved in wellness.
Keynoter Claudia Tessier, President, and Co-Founder of the mHealth Initiative presented the 12 clusters for mHealth applications.
1. To help patients prepare for their doctor’s visit, select caregivers, or schedule appointments
2. To provide access to worldwide web-based resources
3. To provide point-of-care information on the patient to doctors and clinicians so that the patient’s history is available in real time and use mobile devices to communicate with electronic medical records
4. Apps are available to helps patients manage chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and others
5. Help to educate not only patients but also provide new apps in nursing and in other areas
6. To communicate with laboratories, pharmacies, and other colleagues
7. To help the staff make the office work efficiently and to help the staff to communicate better with third parties, payers, laboratories, plus help the staff track supplies and equipment
8. To provide for financial apps to be able to help patients understand their eligibility for services and their billing
9. Help to provide emergency care before the patient arrives at the emergency department and start triage before the patient arrives
10. To provide invaluable information to help public health officials track epidemics, outbreaks, and help to instruct consumers and patients on staying safe
11. To use for pharma/clinical trials and be able to rely on information from mobile devices other than the patient for routine data collection
12. Body area networks will operate where people will wear sensors to collect biometric data with the data sent to mobile phones
Since mobile health or mHealth is developing at such a rapid rate, the mHealth Initiative has just announced that their next mHealth Networking Conference will be held September 8-9, 2010 in San Diego California.
For more information on the mHealth networking conferences go to www.mobih.org.
Waegemann explained how ehealth differs from mhealth in that the focus for ehealth is on using electronic medical records and other technologies while mhealth health focuses on behavioral and structural changes.
Mobile devices are performing many functions in the virtual world that include accessing patient information at the point-of-care, developing medical networks, and providing remote virtual care. Physicians are now able to use the increasing number of Apps available not only for patient care but also to search and find the most current scientific and medical research information available worldwide.
Developing mobile health technology will save billions by using new technologies that will result in fewer office visits and better quality of care. Physicians will be able to research all of the newer options for treatments, be able to readily and easily communicate with wellness and care providers, patients will be able to contact disease specific groups, communication with payers will be easier, and clinicians will have access to all the necessary information needed to treat patients.
However, experts in the field are realistic and see the hurdles that must be overcome. The issues that need to be addressed involve standard development, legal requirements, certification, payment systems, confidentiality issues, and behavioral changes.
As Waegemann sees the future, the doctor’s role will change from lone doctor to a role similar to being the conductor of an orchestra. Healthcare will no longer be physician driven but will be largely participatory health to include all stakeholders, insurance companies, long term caregivers dentists, public health officials, hospitals, primary care providers, consumers, financial institutions, alternate health systems, and consumer/patient health systems involved in wellness.
Keynoter Claudia Tessier, President, and Co-Founder of the mHealth Initiative presented the 12 clusters for mHealth applications.
1. To help patients prepare for their doctor’s visit, select caregivers, or schedule appointments
2. To provide access to worldwide web-based resources
3. To provide point-of-care information on the patient to doctors and clinicians so that the patient’s history is available in real time and use mobile devices to communicate with electronic medical records
4. Apps are available to helps patients manage chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and others
5. Help to educate not only patients but also provide new apps in nursing and in other areas
6. To communicate with laboratories, pharmacies, and other colleagues
7. To help the staff make the office work efficiently and to help the staff to communicate better with third parties, payers, laboratories, plus help the staff track supplies and equipment
8. To provide for financial apps to be able to help patients understand their eligibility for services and their billing
9. Help to provide emergency care before the patient arrives at the emergency department and start triage before the patient arrives
10. To provide invaluable information to help public health officials track epidemics, outbreaks, and help to instruct consumers and patients on staying safe
11. To use for pharma/clinical trials and be able to rely on information from mobile devices other than the patient for routine data collection
12. Body area networks will operate where people will wear sensors to collect biometric data with the data sent to mobile phones
Since mobile health or mHealth is developing at such a rapid rate, the mHealth Initiative has just announced that their next mHealth Networking Conference will be held September 8-9, 2010 in San Diego California.
For more information on the mHealth networking conferences go to www.mobih.org.
Hospital Using Mobile Tech
As Program Director for the Stroke and Neuroscience Program at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring Maryland, Andrew Barbash MD, is actively working to convince others on how to effectively use mobile chat and texting via smart phones to practice medicine in today’s world.
As a keynote speaker at the mHealth Networking Conference on February 3, 2010, he discussed how texting and using mobile chat via his smart phone enables him to treat stroke patients at Holy Cross hospital more efficiently especially during emergency situations. He uses text chat and secure document and message services to share important information with colleagues, staff, patients, and family caregivers.
In today’s medical world, communicating via virtual consultation rooms provides an efficient means to meet “face-to-face” online. As long as the physician, nurse, care manager, or the patient’s family is in a location with a computer, a web cam, and a connection to the internet, a virtual consultation can take place. Using this technology facilitates not only timely consultations, but at the same time, the doctor is able to review the patient’s history and immediately insert the new data into the patient’s electronic medical record.
As Dr. Barbash pointed out, the reward for using the right technology is to advance healthcare communication, workflow, and efficiency. This can all be easily accomplished by having the right clinical expertise available online by voice, text, or video or whatever it takes to have information at the doctor’s fingertips anytime or anywhere 24/7.
As Dr. Barbash emphasized, the result in using effective technology enables busy clinical practitioners to take complete control over what information and tasks they need to capture, how they want to view and organize the data, and how they want to share the information.
To promote the use of technology, Dr. Barbash is one of the founders of the NowDox community which can be found at www.apractis.com. NowDox is a free professionally supported community to simplify health collaborations. For more information, go to Dr. Barbash on Google Talk at abarbash@gmail.com.
As a keynote speaker at the mHealth Networking Conference on February 3, 2010, he discussed how texting and using mobile chat via his smart phone enables him to treat stroke patients at Holy Cross hospital more efficiently especially during emergency situations. He uses text chat and secure document and message services to share important information with colleagues, staff, patients, and family caregivers.
In today’s medical world, communicating via virtual consultation rooms provides an efficient means to meet “face-to-face” online. As long as the physician, nurse, care manager, or the patient’s family is in a location with a computer, a web cam, and a connection to the internet, a virtual consultation can take place. Using this technology facilitates not only timely consultations, but at the same time, the doctor is able to review the patient’s history and immediately insert the new data into the patient’s electronic medical record.
As Dr. Barbash pointed out, the reward for using the right technology is to advance healthcare communication, workflow, and efficiency. This can all be easily accomplished by having the right clinical expertise available online by voice, text, or video or whatever it takes to have information at the doctor’s fingertips anytime or anywhere 24/7.
As Dr. Barbash emphasized, the result in using effective technology enables busy clinical practitioners to take complete control over what information and tasks they need to capture, how they want to view and organize the data, and how they want to share the information.
To promote the use of technology, Dr. Barbash is one of the founders of the NowDox community which can be found at www.apractis.com. NowDox is a free professionally supported community to simplify health collaborations. For more information, go to Dr. Barbash on Google Talk at abarbash@gmail.com.
FCC Addressing mHealth
Dr. Mohit Kaushal, Digital Healthcare Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC, speaking at the mHealth Networking Conference on February 3-4 in Washington D.C., sees the enormous potential for mobile health. He was very impressed with how mHealth helped a man survive in Haiti because he was able to use the apps on his iPhone to treat his fractured leg and other wounds. This story just points out what telecommunication devices and the right software can do in an emergency situation.
Kaushal reports that the FCC realizes the importance of mobile health and is actively promoting mobile health apps in the FCC National Broadband Plan. However, there are still several barriers to address concerning reimbursement issues, the infrastructure needed, and the concerns that involve regulatory and wireless spectrum issues. As reported, much of the country is not yet covered by wireless networks.
As directed by the Recovery Act, the FCC has the responsibility to develop the national broadband plan needed to provide better healthcare in this country via mobile devices and smart phones. The Act requires the FCC to guide and consult with NITA in the implementation of their Broadband Technology Opportunities Program at the Department of Commerce and submit the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to Congress. The FCC is planning to submit the plan in March.
At another meeting held in Washington D.C, FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell spoke at the National Press Club before the Free State Foundation on January 29th and stressed how the mobile app revolution is really helping to save lives. McDowell said the app revolution allows consumers to choose from over 630 mobile devices produced by 32 manufacturers, At the same time, literally hundreds of thousands of mobile apps created by thousand of entrepreneurs have come on the scene with more pouring over the horizon and are now available to app-thirsty consumers through an increasing number of outlets.
Kaushal reports that the FCC realizes the importance of mobile health and is actively promoting mobile health apps in the FCC National Broadband Plan. However, there are still several barriers to address concerning reimbursement issues, the infrastructure needed, and the concerns that involve regulatory and wireless spectrum issues. As reported, much of the country is not yet covered by wireless networks.
As directed by the Recovery Act, the FCC has the responsibility to develop the national broadband plan needed to provide better healthcare in this country via mobile devices and smart phones. The Act requires the FCC to guide and consult with NITA in the implementation of their Broadband Technology Opportunities Program at the Department of Commerce and submit the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to Congress. The FCC is planning to submit the plan in March.
At another meeting held in Washington D.C, FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell spoke at the National Press Club before the Free State Foundation on January 29th and stressed how the mobile app revolution is really helping to save lives. McDowell said the app revolution allows consumers to choose from over 630 mobile devices produced by 32 manufacturers, At the same time, literally hundreds of thousands of mobile apps created by thousand of entrepreneurs have come on the scene with more pouring over the horizon and are now available to app-thirsty consumers through an increasing number of outlets.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
HHS FY 2011 Budget Request
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the media budget briefing held February 1 remarked that whether fighting a pandemic, protecting food safety, or transforming the healthcare system with electronic medical records, the agency is guided by some of the finest scientific and medical experts in the world. The President’s HHS FY 2011 budget request totals $911 billion in outlays, an increase of $51 billion over FY 2010.
The budget request for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is $78 million, which is $17 million above FY 2010. The budget request in conjunction with the $2 billion appropriated to ONC under the Recovery Act, will enable HHS to continue implementing the HITECH Act, accelerate the adoption of health IT, and help physicians achieve meaningful use of EHRs.
ONC’s plans for the $2 billion Recovery Act investment in health IT includes $693 million to establish the Health IT Extension Program, $564 million for a Health Information Exchange State Grant Program, $118 million to develop the health IT workforce, $235 million to go to the Beacon Communities Program, $24 million to carry out responsibilities under HITECH Act, $20 million for NIST to develop health IT standards testing, and $345 million to advance the care of all Americans with EHRs by 2014.
The FY 2011 Budget request for HHS divisions includes other funds and programs to advance the health IT agenda and related items.
Highlights include:
• NIH—the budget request is $32.2 billion with an increase of $1.0 billion or 3.2 percent over the FY 2010. In FY 2011, NIH will use the funding to support innovative research, to support genomics and other high throughput technologies that will provide for innovative efforts against cancer and autism, translate basic science into new and better treatments, reinvigorate the biomedical research community, use science to enable healthcare reform, and to focus on global health. The research portfolio for nanotechnology research would increase by $30 million for a total of $359 million. Opportunities to advance science would be accomplished through research and development contracts for comparative effectiveness studies or to support research centers for genomic and other high throughput technologies
• AHRQ—the budget request includes $611 million with an increase of $214 million above FY 2010. The budget includes $32 million which is $4 million above the FY 2010 level for health IT research. This research entails developing and disseminating evidence and evidence-based tools to inform stakeholders how health IT can improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare. The health IT program will also continue to fund research in strategic focus areas concerning “meaningful use” in collaboration with the ONC for HIT. The budget request for health IT would fund 44 research and training grants to improve the quality and safety of care by looking at the effective use of Health IT, by providing contracts to support the National Resource Center for Health IT, as well as projects to develop and disseminate evidence and evidence-based tools on the use of health IT. The budget request includes $65 million for the AHRQ patient safety program. AHRQ wants to improve primary care and clinical outcomes by supporting healthcare redesign, provide for clinical community linkages, care coordination, and the integration of health IT. AHRQ wants to increase funding for HCUP by nearly $2 million
• CMS—the budget request for CMS is $784.3 billion a net increase of $48.3 billion over FY 2010. This budget request makes fighting healthcare fraud a priority by investing an additional $250 million in new resources and be used to support legislative and administrative changes. This funding would expand data sharing and coordination between HHS and DOJ to help stop fraudulent schemes and practices, and to help expose systemic vulnerabilities that have been exploited by fraudulent healthcare providers. This funding would also provide for the investment in cutting edge and data mining technologies. The budget request includes $3.6 billion, an increase of $186 million to strengthen and revamp IT systems so that CMS can meet the future challenges of both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The agency wants to increase investments in program management and would invest $110 million for the Health Care Data Improvement Initiative to replace aging information systems, and to transform the healthcare data environment. CMS wants to go from a system primarily focused on claims processing and to focus on state-of- the-art data analysis and information sharing
• CDC—the budget request is $10.6 billion with an increase of $101 million above FY 2010. The budget request calls for $307 million to go for Health Statistics, Health Marketing, and Public Health Informatics. The budget for Health Statistics includes $162 million, $23 million above FY 2010 to obtain and use statistics to understand health problems and recognize emerging trends. The budget includes $78 million a decrease of $2 million to go for health marketing. The Public Health Informatics budget of $67 million would fund information systems and IT to prevent diseases, disability, and other public health diseases. The budget request includes $352 million which is $16 million above FY 2010 for global health programs and also includes $20 million to reduce the rates of morbidity and disability due to chronic disease in up to ten of the largest U.S. cities
• HRSA—the budget request is $7.6 billion with an increase of $29 billion above FY 2010. The budget would provide an increase of $412 million to improve access to healthcare in underserved areas and includes $142 million to improve access to quality rural healthcare. Within this total, $62 million would be used to help Critical Access Hospitals conduct research on rural health issues and support community access to emergency devices. $290 million would be used to expand services at health centers. HRSA will work to develop stronger links between telehealth activities and other investments in rural health. The requested funds for telehealth would total $12 million. The budget request includes $995 million which is an increase of $33 million to support healthcare workforce programs to increase the number of providers in underserved areas. In addition, the budget includes $113 million to maintain training for underrepresented minorities and for financially disadvantaged students in health professions
• FDA—the budget request for $4 billion with an increase of $748 million over FY 2010 would go to support medical product safety, and allow FDA to invest in tools to assure the safety of increasingly complex drugs, medical devices, and biological products. The budget request would provide $1.4 billion for medical product safety which is an increase of $101 million above FY 2010. With the budget request, FDA would provide $4 million to establish a medical device registry. The budget calls for a $25 million increase for advancing regulatory science at FDA. The budget includes $15 million for nanotechnology related research and the increased resources would allow FDA to update review standards and provide regulatory pathways for new technologies such as biosimilars
• SAMHSA—the budget requests $3.7 billion a net increase of $110 million over FY 2010. The budget includes $136 million an increase of $34 million to administer and support national data collection efforts on drug related emergency room visits and deaths. The agency would also fund a new initiative to design and test community level early warning systems to detect the emergence of new drug threats and assist in identifying the public health and safety consequences of drug abuse
• Indian Health Service—the IHS budget requests $5.4 billion an increase of $354 million over FY 2010 and includes an increase of $4 million to support secure data exchange. The budget includes $864 million with an increase of $84 million to purchase medical care including essential services such as inpatient and outpatient care, routing and emergency care, and medical support services such as diagnostic imaging, physical therapy, and laboratory services
Go to www.hhs.gov/budget or to www.hhs.gov/asrt/ob/docbudget/2011budgetinbrief.pdf for more information.
The budget request for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is $78 million, which is $17 million above FY 2010. The budget request in conjunction with the $2 billion appropriated to ONC under the Recovery Act, will enable HHS to continue implementing the HITECH Act, accelerate the adoption of health IT, and help physicians achieve meaningful use of EHRs.
ONC’s plans for the $2 billion Recovery Act investment in health IT includes $693 million to establish the Health IT Extension Program, $564 million for a Health Information Exchange State Grant Program, $118 million to develop the health IT workforce, $235 million to go to the Beacon Communities Program, $24 million to carry out responsibilities under HITECH Act, $20 million for NIST to develop health IT standards testing, and $345 million to advance the care of all Americans with EHRs by 2014.
The FY 2011 Budget request for HHS divisions includes other funds and programs to advance the health IT agenda and related items.
Highlights include:
• NIH—the budget request is $32.2 billion with an increase of $1.0 billion or 3.2 percent over the FY 2010. In FY 2011, NIH will use the funding to support innovative research, to support genomics and other high throughput technologies that will provide for innovative efforts against cancer and autism, translate basic science into new and better treatments, reinvigorate the biomedical research community, use science to enable healthcare reform, and to focus on global health. The research portfolio for nanotechnology research would increase by $30 million for a total of $359 million. Opportunities to advance science would be accomplished through research and development contracts for comparative effectiveness studies or to support research centers for genomic and other high throughput technologies
• AHRQ—the budget request includes $611 million with an increase of $214 million above FY 2010. The budget includes $32 million which is $4 million above the FY 2010 level for health IT research. This research entails developing and disseminating evidence and evidence-based tools to inform stakeholders how health IT can improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare. The health IT program will also continue to fund research in strategic focus areas concerning “meaningful use” in collaboration with the ONC for HIT. The budget request for health IT would fund 44 research and training grants to improve the quality and safety of care by looking at the effective use of Health IT, by providing contracts to support the National Resource Center for Health IT, as well as projects to develop and disseminate evidence and evidence-based tools on the use of health IT. The budget request includes $65 million for the AHRQ patient safety program. AHRQ wants to improve primary care and clinical outcomes by supporting healthcare redesign, provide for clinical community linkages, care coordination, and the integration of health IT. AHRQ wants to increase funding for HCUP by nearly $2 million
• CMS—the budget request for CMS is $784.3 billion a net increase of $48.3 billion over FY 2010. This budget request makes fighting healthcare fraud a priority by investing an additional $250 million in new resources and be used to support legislative and administrative changes. This funding would expand data sharing and coordination between HHS and DOJ to help stop fraudulent schemes and practices, and to help expose systemic vulnerabilities that have been exploited by fraudulent healthcare providers. This funding would also provide for the investment in cutting edge and data mining technologies. The budget request includes $3.6 billion, an increase of $186 million to strengthen and revamp IT systems so that CMS can meet the future challenges of both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The agency wants to increase investments in program management and would invest $110 million for the Health Care Data Improvement Initiative to replace aging information systems, and to transform the healthcare data environment. CMS wants to go from a system primarily focused on claims processing and to focus on state-of- the-art data analysis and information sharing
• CDC—the budget request is $10.6 billion with an increase of $101 million above FY 2010. The budget request calls for $307 million to go for Health Statistics, Health Marketing, and Public Health Informatics. The budget for Health Statistics includes $162 million, $23 million above FY 2010 to obtain and use statistics to understand health problems and recognize emerging trends. The budget includes $78 million a decrease of $2 million to go for health marketing. The Public Health Informatics budget of $67 million would fund information systems and IT to prevent diseases, disability, and other public health diseases. The budget request includes $352 million which is $16 million above FY 2010 for global health programs and also includes $20 million to reduce the rates of morbidity and disability due to chronic disease in up to ten of the largest U.S. cities
• HRSA—the budget request is $7.6 billion with an increase of $29 billion above FY 2010. The budget would provide an increase of $412 million to improve access to healthcare in underserved areas and includes $142 million to improve access to quality rural healthcare. Within this total, $62 million would be used to help Critical Access Hospitals conduct research on rural health issues and support community access to emergency devices. $290 million would be used to expand services at health centers. HRSA will work to develop stronger links between telehealth activities and other investments in rural health. The requested funds for telehealth would total $12 million. The budget request includes $995 million which is an increase of $33 million to support healthcare workforce programs to increase the number of providers in underserved areas. In addition, the budget includes $113 million to maintain training for underrepresented minorities and for financially disadvantaged students in health professions
• FDA—the budget request for $4 billion with an increase of $748 million over FY 2010 would go to support medical product safety, and allow FDA to invest in tools to assure the safety of increasingly complex drugs, medical devices, and biological products. The budget request would provide $1.4 billion for medical product safety which is an increase of $101 million above FY 2010. With the budget request, FDA would provide $4 million to establish a medical device registry. The budget calls for a $25 million increase for advancing regulatory science at FDA. The budget includes $15 million for nanotechnology related research and the increased resources would allow FDA to update review standards and provide regulatory pathways for new technologies such as biosimilars
• SAMHSA—the budget requests $3.7 billion a net increase of $110 million over FY 2010. The budget includes $136 million an increase of $34 million to administer and support national data collection efforts on drug related emergency room visits and deaths. The agency would also fund a new initiative to design and test community level early warning systems to detect the emergence of new drug threats and assist in identifying the public health and safety consequences of drug abuse
• Indian Health Service—the IHS budget requests $5.4 billion an increase of $354 million over FY 2010 and includes an increase of $4 million to support secure data exchange. The budget includes $864 million with an increase of $84 million to purchase medical care including essential services such as inpatient and outpatient care, routing and emergency care, and medical support services such as diagnostic imaging, physical therapy, and laboratory services
Go to www.hhs.gov/budget or to www.hhs.gov/asrt/ob/docbudget/2011budgetinbrief.pdf for more information.
Setting the Standard for eHealth
Ronald Paulus, MD, MBA, and Executive Vice President for Clinical Operations and Chief Innovation Officer for the Geisinger Health System, discussed how effectively their health information system works.
Speaking at the eHealth Initiative’s Annual Conference held January 25-26 in Washington D.C., he explained how the system serves more than 2.3 million residents throughout 42 counties in central and northeastern Pennsylvania. This is accomplished through three main hubs, retail clinics, 60 plus a medical health sites, 48 distribute practices, and helps 1000 practices to have immediate access to information on their patients.
Paulus said that the Electronic Health System is fully integrated across all ambulatory and inpatient sites of care and has 3.5 million patient records on hand, 138,000 active users of “My Geisinger PHR”, and today 2,000 non Geisinger physicians are also using the system,
Geisinger has developed and implemented an advanced medical home. The medical home concept features a team to provide patient centered primary care, and high quality specialists are available for referrals. According to an article in the publication, “Health Affairs”, patient centered medical homes can improve care coordination and quality while reducing costs. The article points out that according to first year results, hospital admissions fell by 20 percent and total medical costs were down by 7 percent.
Geisinger has signed an agreement with Philips VISICU to launch the eICU Program® within six months that will ensure continuous remote monitoring of intensive care patients at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center near Wilkes-Barre. Geisinger will also consider making eICU services available to other hospitals in the region.
The eICU technology will analyze patient data from monitors, life support systems, electronic health records, medical orders, and other sources of information. The system will alert staff when a patient is trending toward a serious health event. eICU programs in general show a 29 to 64 percent decrease in mortality and a 50 percent decrease in patient length of stay.
Geisinger also has plans to implement the mobile version of the program eCareMobil to expand critical care support to post anesthesia and emergency departments temporarily transforming any patient bed with network connectivity into a critical care location.
Using the latest in telemedicine technology Geisinger recently partnered with Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg and Lewistown Hospital to expand stroke services in the Central Susquehanna Valley and Lewistown area. With this partnership, Geisinger’s stroke specialist is available to hospital patients 24/7.
Researchers at the Geisinger Medical Center recently received funding totaling more than $44,000 from the NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC) to develop a collaborative project to focus on personalized health care. By partnering with NYULMC, data will be collected from two very divergent populations allowing for collaborative research. Both institutions will integrate the data into their electronic health record systems.
This grant funding will enable Geisinger to administer electronic questionnaires to patients with osteoarthritis via new touch-screen monitors in its orthopedic clinics. Results from the questionnaires will enable physicians to track patient-reported outcomes.
For more information on the eHealth Initiative Annual Conference, go to www.ehealthinitiative.org. For details on Geiginger’s eHealth activities go to www.geisiner.org.
Speaking at the eHealth Initiative’s Annual Conference held January 25-26 in Washington D.C., he explained how the system serves more than 2.3 million residents throughout 42 counties in central and northeastern Pennsylvania. This is accomplished through three main hubs, retail clinics, 60 plus a medical health sites, 48 distribute practices, and helps 1000 practices to have immediate access to information on their patients.
Paulus said that the Electronic Health System is fully integrated across all ambulatory and inpatient sites of care and has 3.5 million patient records on hand, 138,000 active users of “My Geisinger PHR”, and today 2,000 non Geisinger physicians are also using the system,
Geisinger has developed and implemented an advanced medical home. The medical home concept features a team to provide patient centered primary care, and high quality specialists are available for referrals. According to an article in the publication, “Health Affairs”, patient centered medical homes can improve care coordination and quality while reducing costs. The article points out that according to first year results, hospital admissions fell by 20 percent and total medical costs were down by 7 percent.
Geisinger has signed an agreement with Philips VISICU to launch the eICU Program® within six months that will ensure continuous remote monitoring of intensive care patients at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center near Wilkes-Barre. Geisinger will also consider making eICU services available to other hospitals in the region.
The eICU technology will analyze patient data from monitors, life support systems, electronic health records, medical orders, and other sources of information. The system will alert staff when a patient is trending toward a serious health event. eICU programs in general show a 29 to 64 percent decrease in mortality and a 50 percent decrease in patient length of stay.
Geisinger also has plans to implement the mobile version of the program eCareMobil to expand critical care support to post anesthesia and emergency departments temporarily transforming any patient bed with network connectivity into a critical care location.
Using the latest in telemedicine technology Geisinger recently partnered with Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg and Lewistown Hospital to expand stroke services in the Central Susquehanna Valley and Lewistown area. With this partnership, Geisinger’s stroke specialist is available to hospital patients 24/7.
Researchers at the Geisinger Medical Center recently received funding totaling more than $44,000 from the NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC) to develop a collaborative project to focus on personalized health care. By partnering with NYULMC, data will be collected from two very divergent populations allowing for collaborative research. Both institutions will integrate the data into their electronic health record systems.
This grant funding will enable Geisinger to administer electronic questionnaires to patients with osteoarthritis via new touch-screen monitors in its orthopedic clinics. Results from the questionnaires will enable physicians to track patient-reported outcomes.
For more information on the eHealth Initiative Annual Conference, go to www.ehealthinitiative.org. For details on Geiginger’s eHealth activities go to www.geisiner.org.
Mobile MedlinePlus Launched
The National Library of Medicine’s new Mobile MedlinePlus builds on NLM’s MedlinePlus internet service that provides consumer health information to over 10 million visitors per month. The site can be found at (http://m.medlineplus.gov).
The mobile internet audience is large and growing fast and almost doubled from February 2007 to 2009. The mobile internet audience is now able to access the site through desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices. Some experts predict that within the next five years, more people will connect to the internet via mobile devices than by desktop or laptop computers.
Mobile MedlinePlus information is available in English and Spanish and includes summaries for over 800 diseases, wellness topics, the latest health news, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, and information on prescription and over-the-counter medications.
For example, the “Talking with Your Doctor” page provides information on how to get the most out of your doctor’s visit, the site helps individuals choose specific over the counter medications and learn about side effects, look up information if suddenly your child’s school calls you to tell you your child doesn’t feel well, and the site can be used to learn about safe drinking water when traveling abroad.
The mobile internet audience is large and growing fast and almost doubled from February 2007 to 2009. The mobile internet audience is now able to access the site through desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices. Some experts predict that within the next five years, more people will connect to the internet via mobile devices than by desktop or laptop computers.
Mobile MedlinePlus information is available in English and Spanish and includes summaries for over 800 diseases, wellness topics, the latest health news, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, and information on prescription and over-the-counter medications.
For example, the “Talking with Your Doctor” page provides information on how to get the most out of your doctor’s visit, the site helps individuals choose specific over the counter medications and learn about side effects, look up information if suddenly your child’s school calls you to tell you your child doesn’t feel well, and the site can be used to learn about safe drinking water when traveling abroad.
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