patient care news from FierceHealthIT

> Here's an interesting telehealth project; a new pilot has linked hospitals in rural Ethiopia with India's leading cardiac institute. Read more...

In a recent blog post, hospitalist Dr. Bob Wachter says he continues to be impressed with the ways in which clinical IT is lending a hand in patient care, particularly when it comes to collecting Read more...

A new study suggests that healthcare CIOs and software marketing executives are even father apart in their understanding of one another than you might think. The study, which surveyed 100 IT Read more...

While hospitals buy it to increase patient safety and improve nurse productivity, some of the point-of-care technology they've implemented can sometimes interfere with bedside care, according to a Read more...

Without a doubt, there are a number of good reasons why RHIOs/HIEs should exist. Certainly, it can improve overall patient care if all of the providers a patient is likely to see have the same Read more...

Working with anonymized claims data from 11 million Humana enrollees, University of Miami researchers will begin work on a study of unexpected drug interactions and dangerous prescribing practices. Read more...

The University of Missouri School of Medicine has struck a deal with a commercial sector giant, Cerner, to develop patient care and physician training tools. Among other projects, the two will work to enhance Cerner's EMR system to better address care of chronic conditions. The partners will also give patients access to a version of the EMR, and allow them to enter vital statistics such as weight, blood pressure or blood glucose levels into the system. Another joint project is to develop …

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Automated hospital asset tracking isn't a new idea. WiFi isn't a new idea. And of course, hospitals have always kept track of patients as they move through the system. But when you hit the HIMSS show floor, expect to see new solutions that integrate many of these elements into a large hospital ecosystem--one that starts at the ED door and extends across the hospital's assets, people, medication systems and more. These days, many solutions are being built around WiFi, linking asset tracking, patient tracking, pharmacy dispensing and more. I see the emergence, ultimately, of a "hospital operating system," one that goes well beyond IT integration efforts to an almost self-aware level.

It's difficult to characterize these technologies in a single sentence, as they range from systems that focus largely on RFID tagging to network analysis to others largely focused on keeping tabs on patients. For example, there's Emergin's nurse call and patient monitoring systems, which rest on a larger hospital IT integration platform. There are several vendors, such as Ekahau, Trapeze Networks, Versus and Aero Scout, that use WiFi to track not only traditional hard assets, but also equipment and/or people within the organization. But the bottom line, as always, is the patients, and simply tracking them is only part of the way. I'm going to ask vendors like these for some hard data as to how all of this might improve the patient care process, and I encourage you to do the same.

The American Medical Informatics Association last week issued a report that predicts efforts to access and use health care data for purposes unrelated to patient care are quite likely to grow as EHR adoption increases. Among other things, the report calls for a national framework for secondary uses of health information. As defined by the report, secondary use of health information includes: marketing and other commercial uses; payment; provider certification or accreditation; public …

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> Illinois hospital updates patient care with electronic information system from Computer Programs and Systems. Article

> Massachusetts medical groups launch eHealth plan. Article

> Catholic Healthcare Partners to outsource tech operations. …

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