John D. Halamka

Early Experiences with Personal Health Records

Over the past year, several payers, employers, and commercial vendors have announced personal health record projects. Few of these are widely deployed and few are fully integrated into ambulatory or hospital-based electronic record systems. The earliest adopters of personal health records have many lessons learned that can inform these new initiatives. We present three case studies--MyChart at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, PatientSite at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Indivo at Childrens Hospital Boston. We describe our implementation challenges from 1999 to 2007 and postulate the evolving challenges we will face over the next five years.

Health Care IT Collaboration in Massachusetts: The Experience of Creating Regional Connectivity

The state of Massachusetts has significant early experience in planning for and implementing interoperability networks for exchange of clinical and financial data. Members of our evolving data-sharing organizations gained valuable experience that is of potential benefit to others regarding the governance, policies, and technologies underpinning regional health information organizations. We describe the history, roles, and evolution of organizations and their plans for and success with pilot projects.

CareWeb™, a web-based medical record for an integrated health care delivery system

With the advent of Integrated Health care Delivery Systems, medical records are increasingly distributed across multiple institutions. Timely access to these medical records is a critical need for health care providers. The CareWeb project provides an architecture for World Wide Web-based retrieval of electronic medical records from heterogeneous data sources. Using Health Level 7 (HL7), web technologies and readily available software components, we consolidated the electronic records of Bostons Beth Israel and Deaconess Hospitals. We report on the creation of CareWeb (freya.bidmc.harvard.edu/careweb.htm) and propose it as a means to electronically link Integrated Health care Delivery Systems and geographically distant information resources.

Early Experiences With Big Data At An Academic Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), an academic health care institution affiliated with Harvard University, has been an early adopter of electronic applications since the 1970s. Various departments of the medical center and the physician practice groups affiliated with it have implemented electronic health records, filmless imaging, and networked medical devices to such an extent that data storage at BIDMC now amounts to three petabytes and continues to grow at a rate of 25 percent a year. Initially, the greatest technical challenge was the cost and complexity of data storage. However, today the major focus is on transforming raw data into information, knowledge, and wisdom. This article discusses the data growth, increasing importance of analytics, and changing user requirements that have shaped the management of big data at BIDMC.

PatientSite: Patient-Centered Communication, Services, and Access to Information

Healthcare providers are not meeting the needs of online consumers. Over half the U.S. population is currently online and the place they turn for health information, after their doctors, is the Internet1 (Fig. 2.1). In another survey, Internet users were almost as likely to turn to the Internet for healthcare information as they were their physician.2

There Are Important Reasons For Delaying Implementation Of The New ICD-10 Coding System

Federal authorities have recently signaled that they would consider delaying some aspects of implementation of the newest version of the International Classification of Diseases, known as ICD-10-CM, a coding system used to define health care charges and diagnoses. Some industry groups have reacted with dismay, and many providers with relief. We are concerned that adopting this new classification system for reimbursement will be disruptive and costly and will offer no material improvement over the current system. Because the health care community is also working to integrate health information technology and federal meaningful-use specifications that require the adoption of other complex coding standardization systems (such as the system called SNOMED CT), we recommend that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services consider delaying the adoption of ICD-10-CM. Policy makers should also begin planning now for ways to make the coming transition to ICD-11 as tolerable as possible for the health care and payment community.

Internet portal use in an academic multiple sclerosis center

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of a secure internet portal in an academic Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective case-control chart review of 240 patients during the years 2008 and 2009. Patient demographic and clinical information was extracted from our online medical records, and portal use metrics were provided by Information Systems. Descriptive statistics were utilized to explore characteristics of portal users, how the portal is used, and what associations exist between medical resource utilization and active portal use. Logistic regression identified independent patient predictors and barriers to portal use. RESULTS Portal users tended to be young professionals with minimal physical disability. The most frequently used portal feature was secure patient-physician messaging. Message content largely consisted of requests for medications or refills in addition to self-reported side effects. Independent predictors and barriers of portal use include the number of medications prescribed by our staff (OR 1.69, p<0.0001), Caucasian ethnicity (OR 5.04, p=0.007), arm and hand disability (OR 0.23, p=0.01), and impaired vision (OR 0.31, p=0.01). Discussion MS patients use the internet in a greater proportion than the general US population, yet physical disability limits their access. Technological adaptations such as voice-activated commands and easy font-size adjustment may help patients overcome these barriers. CONCLUSION Future research should explore the influence of portal technology on healthcare resource utilization and cost. Additional emedicine applications could be linked to the patient portal for disease monitoring and prospective investigation.

Best Practices in Clinical Decision Support: the Case of Preventive Care Reminders.

BACKGROUND: Evidence demonstrates that clinical decision support (CDS) is a powerful tool for improving healthcare quality and ensuring patient safety. However, implementing and maintaining effective decision support interventions presents multiple technical and organizational challenges. PURPOSE: To identify best practices for CDS, using the domain of preventive care reminders as an example. METHODS: We assembled a panel of experts in CDS and held a series of facilitated online and in-person discussions. We analyzed the results of these discussions using a grounded theory method to elicit themes and best practices. RESULTS: Eight best practice themes were identified as important: deliver CDS in the most appropriate ways, develop effective governance structures, consider use of incentives, be aware of workflow, keep content current, monitor and evaluate impact, maintain high quality data, and consider sharing content. Keys themes within each of these areas were also described. CONCLUSION: Successful implementation of CDS requires consideration of both technical and socio-technical factors. The themes identified in this study provide guidance on crucial factors that need consideration when CDS is implemented across healthcare settings. These best practice themes may be useful for developers, implementers, and users of decision support.

Making smart investments in health information technology: core principles.

Over the past five years, thousands of public- and private-sector employees, many volunteering their time, have worked to advance the cause of interoperable, certified, secure electronic health records. As new federal funds become available, should we invest right away or wait for technology and policy perfection? Do we leverage the accomplishments of existing national organizations, or do we start from scratch? The time to invest is now, building on the organizations we already have. To ensure wise investment, I suggest guiding principles assembled from the input of hundreds of providers, patients, payers, vendors, government employees, and standards-development organizations.

Towards Meaningful Medication-Related Clinical Decision Support: Recommendations for an Initial Implementation

SUMMARY Clinical decision support (CDS) can improve safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of patient care, especially when implemented in computerized provider order entry (CPOE) applications. Medication-related decision support logic forms a large component of the CDS logic in any CPOE system. However, organizations wishing to implement CDS must either purchase the computable clinical content or develop it themselves. Content provided by vendors does not always meet local expectations. Most organizations lack the resources to customize the clinical content and the expertise to implement it effectively. In this paper, we describe the recommendations of a national expert panel on two basic medication-related CDS areas, specifically, drug-drug interaction (DDI) checking and duplicate therapy checking. The goals of this study were to define a starter set of medication-related alerts that healthcare organizations can implement in their clinical information systems. We also draw on the experiences of diverse institutions to highlight the realities of implementing medication decision support. These findings represent the experiences of institutions with a long history in the domain of medication decision support, and the hope is that this guidance may improve the feasibility and efficiency CDS adoption across healthcare settings.