By Jonathon Dreyer – As a kid, whenever I couldn’t reach something, I used to pull my sweatshirt over my hands and extend my arms forcefully, triumphantly exclaiming “Go-go Gadget arms!” Little did I know at the time that those innovations and neat devices from Inspector Gadget would contain usability lessons that apply to current challenges in health IT.
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By Dr. Gary Bevill & William Taunton – Initially a four-doctor practice, SAMA Healthcare Services is breaking ground in coordinated, patient-centered health care in rural El Dorado, Arkansas. Although SAMA doctors had known early on that this is how they wanted to practice medicine, they could do only so much until they got support from the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, an Affordable Care Act program. Dr. Gary Bevill and SAMA patient William Taunton recently talked about the initiative.
By Matt Fisher – A Shakespearean Tangle: The current state of medical data is very complicated. The amount of medical data being created is exploding all of the time. The explosion is being facilitated by the always increasing number of ways of creating it and a broadening array of people or entities how want access to it.
By D’Arcy Gue – On the face of it, the use of computers to order prescriptions seems like a no-brainer. Who, after all, is capable of reading a physician’s handwriting? But if we set aside clichés, there is still this question: Does e-prescribing provide distinct benefits over handwritten patient prescriptions? With acknowledgement of some drawbacks, it would seem the scales tip decidedly toward e-prescribing as a net positive.
By Matt Fisher – The annual OIG Work Plan was published on November 2nd. The Work Plan each year identifies what the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services will review and provides insight into what the OIG contemplates as risk areas.
By William Hersh MD – One of my favorite events each year is the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium. It is an excellent meeting that brings together presentation of new research, up-to-date summaries of progress in the field, and great social events.
By Dr. Ehab Hanna – Trust between patients and their doctors is central to better care; however, strong relationships between clinical and IT teams are also key. Support staff who do not have good relationships with their medical colleagues will face challenges with new implementations and technical adoption. Applying some simple Art of Medicine principles can help build trust between these teams.
By Howard Sklamberg, J.D., Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., & Melinda K. Plaisier, M.S.W. – Across FDA, we are devoting tremendous effort, in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, toward activities that drive–and increase–product and manufacturing quality.
Who doesn’t like a good list? Whether you are on it, know someone on it, or aspire to be on it, you always want to read the list. Here are some interesting lists I think deserve sharing, starting with The Joint Commission’s Annual Report and their thumbs up to 1,043 hospitals.