Tag: cloud computing

Cloud-Based Medical Info: ONC, Feds Miss the Obvious

Posted on by Greg Dennis

The federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has developed a Federal IT Strategic Plan aimed at reducing IT disparities between underserved communities. ONC published a draft of the plan in an online blog and is now seeking comments and suggestions.

We have one suggestion: Promote widespread adoption of cloud-based medical information exchange.

While the plan refers to telemedicine in general as one way to improve the usage of healthcare IT, there is no evidence the ONC recognizes that this long-used term should now include cloud-based data exchange. Nor is there any recognition of the superiority of cloud-based services for meeting the plan’s other goals.

Three of those goals are:

• Achieve adoption and information exchange through meaningful use of health IT

• Improve care, improve population health and reduce healthcare costs through the use of health IT

• Inspire confidence and trust in health IT

Cloud-based medical information exchange advances these goals in many ways.

Because it is vendor-neutral, it overcomes incompatibilities between different facilities’ IT systems –not just in underserved communities but also in the common scenarios where a rural facility is transferring patients with complex conditions to better-equipped institutions outside the community. Here is an example of just such a set-up in the San Diego area, where eMix has made a big difference: http://bit.ly/g5Umvq

The modest, per-usage fee for using a service like eMix also makes it affordable and scalable for underserved communities. No software or hardware purchase is required. Nor is there a maintenance contract because maintenance is the service provider’s responsibility.

Cloud services reduce costs in other ways, too – by avoiding the substantial labor associated with virtual private networks and the labor, postage, and courier costs associated with burning and sending files on CDs.

Cloud-based medical information exchange improves care, as well, because it is a much faster way of getting medical files in the hands of the physicians who need to see them. This is especially true for emergency cases.

Finally, cloud-based exchange inspires confidence and trust in health IT because it ends the frustration that until recently characterized most efforts to exchange files between IT systems. Until recently, sharing files between systems that didn’t talk to each other was labor-intensive, expensive, and loaded with breakdown potential.

Those days are over – but only for the institutions that are taking advantage of the technology.

If the ONC is serious about its goals, then it should be promoting this simple-to-adopt, simple-to-use solution in its strategic plan.

Healthcare IT’s Failings: Even the Onion Has Noticed

Posted on by Greg Dennis

How far behind is healthcare in the full and efficient use of information technology?

So far behind that even The Onion has noticed.

The satirical newspaper and website normally focuses on “stories” such as Joe Biden’s fascination with hot babes and his muscle car. Recently, though, The Onion took aim at the shortcomings of healthcare IT with an article titled “Quick-Lube Shop Masters Electronic Record Keeping Six Years Before Medical Industry.” Written in typical Onion style that makes it seem like an actual news report, the article quotes a fictitious garage owner:

‘We figured that a basic database would help us with everything from scheduling regular appointments to predicting future lubrication requirements,’ said the proprietor of the local oil-change shop, Karl Lemke, who has no special logistical or programming skills, and who described his organizational methods, which are far more advanced than those of any hospital emergency room, as ‘basic, common-sense stuff.’

‘We can even contact your insurance provider for you to see if you’re covered and for how much, which means we can get to work on what’s wrong without bothering you about it. The system not only saves me hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, but it saves my customers a bundle, too.’

And here’s the part that really hurts: “Lemke added that he also routinely and politely inquires about his customers’ health and well-being, which puts him roughly 145 years ahead of the medical industry.”

Of course things aren’t nearly as bad as The Onion makes them out to be.

Thanks to the efforts of cloud computing pioneers such as eMix and others, things are in fact getting better. And hundreds of millions of federal stimulus dollars are flowing into healthcare to get MDs’ office online and to computerize and interconnect hospitals’ records through PACS and other technology.

But as one wag said about The Onion story to blogger Neil Versel, the current status of medical industry It is “so pathetic that a bunch of young joke writers in NYC who almost never go to the doctor have noticed.”

Patient Safety and Cloud Computing

Posted on by Greg Dennis

There are loads of advantages to cloud-based sharing of medical data, but bottom-line, it’s about patient safety, says radiologist Murray Reicher, M.D.

Writing in the latest issue of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (“Riding the Cloud to Improve Patient Safety,” November/December 2010), Reicher says that sharing data via the cloud makes it possible to move information much faster than old methods. This can save patients from unnecessary procedures and radiation – and in emergency cases, potential injury from delayed treatment. (Full article at http://psqh.com/novemberdecember-2010/684-information-exchange.html.)

Dr. Reicher is the founder and chairman of DR Systems, which created eMix, one of the first of the new cloud-based medical information sharing services. He’s also a practicing radiologist.

In the article, Dr. Reicher describes a number of common scenarios that can harm patients because the conventional ways of sharing data – such as burning files to CDs and sending them by express mail – are too slow and clumsy. For instance, if doctors assigned to an emergency patient need to see a prior CT scan from another facility before starting treatment, the patient’s condition could worsen while they wait. In other circumstances, facilities might re-image a patient whose files can’t be obtained in time, which exposes the patient to extra radiation.

Cloud-based data-sharing such as eMix addresses all these situations because it moves data quickly on the Internet, which also overcomes the hurdle of incompatible, proprietary IT systems at different facilities. It is also secure, trackable, and affordable because it is priced on a low, per-use basis without any software or hardware purchase. It is versatile, too. Besides medical institutions, the files can be pushed to patients’ computers, doctors offices, and other remote locations.

“The limitation is no longer the technology itself but simply the speed of adoption,” Reicher writes. The rest of the business world is catching on – 20 million businesses and more than a billion people use cloud-based services, he says, citing a Microsoft claim. His gentle nudge to his own industry: Get with the program!

Full article — http://psqh.com/novemberdecember-2010/684-information-exchange.html.

eMix a Radiology Success in Montana

Posted on by Greg Dennis

Healthcare Informatics magazine reports in its new issue on eMix and the Montana consortium known as IMOM. Using eMix (Electronic Medical Information Exchange — http://www.emix.com) IMOM facilities are sharing radiology images and reports.

See the full article at http://tinyurl.com/29b35db.

Montana facilities use eMix to share radiology images and reports much more quickly and at less expense — realizing a key goal for many of the state’s rural healthcare facilities.

The article puts it this way:

“eMix uses cloud-based technology to house images after they are encrypted and pass through eight layers of security that include a physically secure data center and member and user authentication. The uploaded images are then accessible to the intended recipient through a simple download following an e-mail notification.

“Beginning in November 2009, three Montana health providers-Great Falls Clinic, St. Luke Community Hospital in Ronan, and Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, all with different PACS, started beta testing the eMix service. No significant problems were encountered, and three additional facilities-Benefis Health System in Great Falls, St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings, and Glendive Medical Center in Glendive, were added as beta sites. In March 2010 beta testing concluded and the facilities signed up with eMix to continue sharing images.”

eMix is a venture of DR Systems (www.dominator.com), a client of Dowling & Dennis PR.

eMix Radiology Cloud Computing Expands

Posted on by Greg Dennis

Radiology is in a transition phase when it comes to sharing radiology data between various users. We’re moving from sharing files on old technology such as CDs to sharing images and reports using cloud computing– that is, sharing the files in electronic form using a hosted service on the Internet.

During this transition time, however, hospitals are still getting a lot of radiology files on CDs. How they move those files to hospitals and doctors without the expense, hassle, and time delays of mail or shipping? eMix – created by DR Systems, a client of Dowling & Dennis PR — has found a way.

eMix (“electronic medical information exchange,” http://www.emix.com) is the leading cloud-based system for sharing radiology images and reports. It has just added a terrific new feature: The ability to import data from CDs.

Now when hospitals get radiology data on CDs, they can import it into eMix. From there, the files can be read, moved to another hospital IT system such as a PACS or radiology information system, or sent via the cloud to another hospital or doctor.

The process is as simple as sending email. The new eMix feature enables them editing of the imported exam’s medical record number (MRN) so it corresponds to their own numbering system and also create a radiology order session number.

This new feature also allows users to import data into eMix from a USB thumb drive, external hard disk, and/or other digital storage device. That makes eMix the ideal bridge into the future, from the technology mix we have today.

eMix Radiology Sharing Service Debuts

Posted on by Greg Dennis

eMix, a groundbreaking new technology for sharing radiology images and reports, has made its debut in Montana health facilities. A number of other health systems are also lined up to use eMix (“electronic medical information exchange”).

For “Healthcare IT” magazine’s coverage of this exciting new service, see http://tinyurl.com/yfo4of7.

The first three institutions to use eMix were Great Falls Clinic,
Kalispell Regional Medical Center, and St. Luke Community Healthcare. The service was created by DR Systems, a client of Dowling & Dennis PR.

eMix solves a problem that has vexed medical imaging: how to securely share radiology data between proprietary PACS and other IT systems that don’t “talk to each other.” The solution: eMix uses “cloud computing” to make data sharing as easy as sending and receiving email.

The three Montana facilities are involved in a grassroots organization called Image Movement of Montana (IMOM), which formed to address the difficulty of sharing radiology images and reports. IMOM approached numerous vendors for possible solutions. DR System’s eMix was by far the most attractive option because it was simple, affordable, and required no new hardware or software.

For more information, visit http://www.emix.com.