Health informatics, grant funding, consumer health, electronic health record systems, patient-centred care, telus health space, google health, microsoft health vault, open access, P2P health, European Union, Privacy, Data Protection, Big Data, Health information technology, EHR, health policy
Effective July 1, 2010, the Ontario government has fixed the price of generic medicines at 25% of the price of the equivalent brand name drug. In addition, approximately $800 million a year currently paid by generic drug companies to pharmacies in rebates will be banned. As Ontario struggles to contain the costs of health care, it seems that arbitrary price controls are not the answer. The system needs a overhaul.
New eHealth Platform TELUS health space has potential to allow Canadians manage their own healthcare. However, though access to personal health records (PHRs) online has the potential to revolutionize healthcare, there are some challenges to be overcome. The technical challenges are important, but workable. The human side -- education, tools and encouraging buy-in to the concept are crucial in determining whether the full potential of PHRs to revolutionize health care will be realized.
As announced on the CIHR website: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has partnered with the National Research Council's Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI) and the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) in the creation of this central, electronic repository for CIHR-funded research publications." This is a great new resource. I look forward to using it.
A 21st Century Roadmap for Advancing America’s Health: The Path From Peril to Progress, the 2nd report by the Commission on U.S. Federal Leadership in Health and Medicine was published this week. Drawing on recommendations from working groups representing key areas in which progress is needed, the Commission put forth a comprehensive strategy.
There is very little evidence on which to base EHR implementation investment decisions. Fortunately, that is changing. Findings from the recently released EHR Impact study: The Socio-Economic Impact of Interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Eprescribing Systems in Europe and Beyond, show that EHRs and ePrescribing are not quick wins, but they are sustainable wins. An important finding was that interoperability is a prime driver of benefits from EHR and ePrescribing systems as benefits rely on access to information regardless of place and time. Local, closed ICT systems lacking interoperability would not release these substantial gains. Extremely important to success of such investments, also, is the skill and expertise of executives and managers in managing organisational change and resource redeployment.
Although electronic health systems hold great promise, there are still barriers to adoption that includethe cost of purchasing a system, defining needs and customizing a system to meet those needs, uncertainty about the return on investment, and concern about meeting future needs (scalability, compatibility with other systems, ability to add functionality). What evidence is there to evaluate what system to invest in, best practices in implementation, and how to measure return on investment across an organization? This post discusses some available evidence.
There is very little guidance available on implementation of electronic medical record systems. This post points to a couple of facts on implementation of electronic medical record systems and to an excellent guide.