IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The retailer plans to bring its low-cost, high-volume mentality to the healthcare industry by offering a deal that includes hardware, software, installation, maintenance and training to convert a doctor's office from using paper to digital medical records.

Last week, Westborough-based eClinicalWorks divulged that it plans to roll out a low-cost, rapidly deployed, on-demand electronic health record software subscription offering this spring. For marketing muscle, it will partner with Wal-Mart, and the system will be bundled with hardware from Dell Inc. EClinicalWorks will provide training, software maintenance, services, and upgrades for about $25,000 in upfront costs to physicians, said eClinicalWorks CEO Girish Navani. That’s about half of a typical installation, he said.

Two of the health care providers involved in the project have teamed up with Microsoft HealthVault, and the other is partnered with Google Health.

Although e-health records are in use in all three communities, many patients have little access to those records and must aggregate their own records if they receive care from more than one or two providers. “It is difficult for patients or medical personnel to easily see the entirety of a patient’s medical information; clearly this is needed to provide the best care,” the health care authority’s administrator, Steve Hill, said in a statement.

Dr. Neal Sikka, an emergency room physician at George Washington University Medical Center, recalls an eye-opening incident that happened while he was away at a medical conference.

"My son fell and scraped his knee. My wife called, and I told her to take a picture and send it to me. She took a picture with her cell phone," said Sikka. "I looked at it, and told her how to clean it and take care of it."

"I just gave [Sikka] a ring," Vishal Giare said, "and got initial input on how serious it might be."

Sikka, an emergency physician at George Washington University (GWU), looked at the photos and recommended a trip to the hospital.

What if my blood sugar's too high today? Is it time for my blood-pressure pill? Researchers are trying to harness the power of cell phones to help fight chronic diseases with nagging text messages or more-customized two-way interactions.

"I call it medical minutes," said Dr. Richard Katz of George Washington University Hospital in the nation's capital.

He's testing whether inner-city diabetics, an especially difficult-to-treat population, might better control their blood sugar - thus saving Medicaid money - by tracking their disease using Internet-ready cell phones, which are provided with reduced monthly rates as long as the patients regularly comply.

The Metro Fiber Build project will establish a high-speed broadband connection between Marshall's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, St. Mary's Medical Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital.

'We actually had some nurses who were completely computer-illiterate. They didn't use a computer at work, and they had no use for it at home,' said Jerry Luck, director of facilities systems administration at the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

To see his patients, Dr. Drury Armistead sits down in front of his computer and opens a video feed.

Armistead, a dermatologist with the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, is part of the growing telehealth program that connects patients and doctors, no matter the distance.

Two days a week, Armistead virtually examines patients at the VA medical centers in Altoona and Erie, Pa. -- more than 100 miles away from his West Virginia office.

The FCC selected Western North Carolina as the first U.S. region to get a grant under the Rural Health Care Pilot Program.

Howard Schmidt, the nation’s cyber security coordinator, said this week that the administration wants to make online commerce more secure so that government, industry and consumers will feel comfortable doing more of their business to the Internet.

As Wichita health care providers move toward paperless work environments, the security of private data is paramount to successful systems.

Yet electronic health records are surprisingly easy to hack into and are vulnerable to exploitation, according to a study by the eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program.

The provider of consulting services will help the department and the governor’s eHealth Board complete a project to design “a model and architecture for a state-level HIE entity and state-level HIE business and technical services in Wisconsin,” according to the RFP.

Wisconsin is receiving $9.44 million in federal Recovery Act funds to support efforts to create a state heath information exchange. The estimated cost to establish a fully operating health information exchange statewide was set at $1.2 billion by the Finance Committee of the original Wisconsin e-Health Board, according to Peter Stombom, former CIO for Meriter Hospital in Madison and a founder and past Chair of the national CIO healthcare association CHIME.

Marshfield Clinic and other health care systems are embracing telemedicine to enable pharmacists and physicians to provide care from afar.

Once completed, Chippewa Falls will be a hub for rural communities in Northwest Wisconsin to connect with other existing networks more efficiently than ever before.

But the downsized $10 million commitment that remains in the 2007-09 state budget, which calls for $57.2 billion in overall spending over the next two years, strikes some as downright paltry.