June 25, 2012
Debates about the productivity yield of IT are new to health care but not to other sectors of the economy. During the 1970s and 1980s, the computing capacity of the U.S. economy increased more than a hundredfold while the rate of productivity growth fell dramatically to less than half the rate of the preceding 25 years.1 The relationship between the rapid increase in IT use and the simultaneous slowdown in productivity became widely known as the “IT productivity paradox,” and economists debated whether investing billions of dollars in IT was worthwhile. The Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow observed in 1987 that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Cost effectiveness, Health technology, Information technology, Technology | No Comments
June 6, 2012
Abstract:
Abstract: The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 that was signed into law as part of the “stimulus package” represents the largest US initiative to date that is designed to encourage widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs). In light of the changes anticipated from this policy initiative, the purpose of this paper is to review and summarize the literature on the benefits and drawbacks of EHR systems. Much of the literature has focused on key EHR functionalities, including clinical decision support systems, computerized order entry systems, and health information exchange. Our paper describes the potential benefits of EHRs that include clinical outcomes (eg, improved quality, reduced medical errors), organizational outcomes (eg, financial and operational benefits), and societal outcomes (eg, improved ability to conduct research, improved population health, reduced costs). Despite these benefits, studies in the literature highlight drawbacks associated with EHRs, which include the high upfront acquisition costs, ongoing maintenance costs, and disruptions to workflows that contribute to temporary losses in productivity that are the result of learning a new system. Moreover, EHRs are associated with potential perceived privacy concerns among patients, which are further addressed legislatively in the HITECH Act. Overall, experts and policymakers believe that significant benefits to patients and society can be realized when EHRs are widely adopted and used in a “meaningful” way.
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Information technology, Medical records | No Comments
May 29, 2012
“What Is This Guide For? How Should It Be Used?
As a health communicator, you craft health and safety messages that can have a profound impact on the public. Using social media, these messages can reach more audiences and have an even greater impact on the public. This Guide aims to assist you in translating your messages so they resonate and are relevant to social media audiences, and encourage action, engagement, and interaction. It is largely tactical, giving you specific ways to write for social media channels.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Information technology, Social media | No Comments
May 16, 2012
Following a Clinical Adoption workshop held in November 2009, Canadian change management (CM) practitioners came together to develop a common approach for addressing gaps in e-Health CM practices. Through collaborative dialogue, the group, collectively known as the Pan-Canadian CM Network, conducted a current-state analysis and environmental scan of e-Health CM activities and methodologies. As a result, a National CM Framework was developed to promote a best practice model that supports users in their adoption of e-Health solutions. This article will review the six core framework elements required in a CM process to ensure adoption and achieved return on investment, highlighted by examples of practical Canadian applications.
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Canada, e-health, Information technology | No Comments
May 14, 2012
“The FSMB has developed this policy to encourage physicians who use social media and social networking to protect themselves from unintended consequences of such practices and to maintain the public trust by:
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Information technology, Policy, Social media | No Comments
April 30, 2012
According to PwC’s consumer survey of 1,060 U.S. adults, about one-third of consumers are using the social space as a natural habitat for health discussions. Social media typically consists of four characteristics that have changed the nature of interactions among people and organizations: user generated content, community, rapid distribution, and open, two-way dialogue. This report dives into the social world of the health industry and provides insights into new and emerging relationships between consumers and the biggest health companies that serve them. It examines how individuals think about and use the social channel; how some providers, insurers, medical device, and pharmaceutical companies are responding; and discusses specific implications for organizations to take advantage of with this new view into the 21st century patient.”
This paper requires that you register to access it; however, it is completely free to do so.
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Information technology, Social media | No Comments
March 7, 2012
This TED talk looks at how crowdsourcing can be used to help improve service to patients. Crowdsourcing is “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers (crowdsourcing, 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing.).”
According to Lucien Engelen (“a technologist and innovator who is working to put patients into the healthcare team”), “you can use your smartphone to find a local ATM, but what if you need a defibrillator? At TEDxMaastricht, Lucien Engelen shows us online innovations that are changing the way we save lives, including a crowdsourced map of local defibrillators.”
To watch the video visit: http://www.ted.com/talks/lucien_engelen_crowdsource_your_health.html.
Posted in Multimedia, READ Portal | Tagged with Health technology, Information technology, Technology | No Comments
February 24, 2012
KEY MESSAGES:
- Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary area of applied research that produces high quality information about health technologies—drugs, medical technologies and health interventions. The HTA produces recommendations on whether a health technology should be considered, funded and adopted into practice. The goal is to use the research and recommendations from the HTA to inform decisions that will improve quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.
- In Canada, there are several well-established agencies at the national and provincial levels that successfully perform HTA. More and more, however, HTA units are being implemented in a local/ hospital-based setting, based on a growing awareness that the local context needs to be taken into account when assessing health technologies.
- Four different models for performing local/hospital-based HTA have been identified and are currently in use world-wide: the ambassador model; mini-HTA; internal committee; and HTA unit. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. There is insufficient evidence available to adequately assess which of these models would be the best for Canadian hospitals.
- Research shows that local/hospital-based HTA may influence decision-making. There are reports from isolated experiences related to local/hospital-based HTA on hospital decisions and budgets, as well as positive perceptions from managers and clinicians.
- It is difficult to evaluate the overall impacts of HTA on the various levels of healthcare delivery, largely because most hospital-based HTA experiences are recent and there is a paucity of data. Further research is necessary to explore the conditions under which local/hospital-based HTA results and recommendations can have an impact on hospital policies, clinical decisions and quality of patient care.
- The potential exists to share expertise and methodologies between local/hospital-based HTA units. However, there are challenges in directly transferring research knowledge from one organization to another, given the specificity of the context from hospital to hospital.
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with e-health, Health technology, Information technology | No Comments
February 13, 2012
“If implemented appropriately, health IT can help improve health care providers’ performance, better communication between patients and providers, and enhance patient safety, which ultimately may lead to better care for Americans. Health IT is designed to help improve the performance of health professionals, reduce costs, and enhance patient safety. For example, the number of patients who receive the correct medication in hospitals increases when these hospitals implement well-planned, robust computerized prescribing mechanisms and use barcoding systems. However, poorly designed health IT can create new hazards in the already complex delivery of care.
In the wake of more widespread use of health IT, the Department of Health and Human Services asked the IOM to evaluate health IT safety concerns and to recommend ways that both government and the private sector can make patient care safer using health IT. The IOM finds that safe use of health IT relies on several factors, clinicians and patients among them. Safety analyses should not look for a single cause of problems but should consider the system as a whole when looking for ways to make a safer system. Vendors, users, government, and the private sector all have roles to play. The IOM’s recommendations include improving transparency in the reporting of health IT safety incidents and enhancing monitoring of health IT products.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with e-health, Health technology, Information technology | No Comments
January 17, 2012
To determine whether the services they provide are meeting population needs, local health departments (LHDs) use a variety of formal and informal assessments, including community health assessments and communitywide health-improvement plans. Despite these efforts, the services do not always meet the needs, for a variety of reasons, including competing funding priorities, political mandates, and natural shifts in population makeup and health concerns. Geographic information system (GIS) mapping software provides a promising tool to enhance priority-setting and resource allocation for LHDs by displaying complex geospatial information in an integrated and visual way, enabling staff to compare the geographic distribution of population health in a community (i.e., where services are needed) with the geographic distribution of LHD programs and expenditures (i.e., where services are provided). Using such an approach, LHDs can identify gaps between program services and community health needs. This report presents findings from interviews with 65 staff at four LHDs and three case studies to test potential solutions for how maps can be used to address the gaps between public health needs and LHD services. It describes options for accessing easy-to-use, no-cost GIS data and tools and suggests ways in which LHDs can integrate new GIS approaches into their activities.
Click here to read the full article
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Health technology, Information technology, Policy | No Comments
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