This is Community Health Center Week

Secretary Sebelius announces National Health Center week. The second week of August is dedicated to recognizing the role that community health centers play across our nation. Millions of Americans, of all ages, receive primary and preventive care at community health centers. The Affordable Care Act provides $11 billion to expand community health centers over the next five years.



Learn more about community health centers here.

Hospitals Ready to Meet Some Components of Meaningful Use

HIMSS Analytics introduces ongoing analysis of hospitals’ capability to meet meaningful use requirements, with 9.61 percent of participating hospitals indicating they have the capability to achieve 12 core measures for these new rules

CHICAGO (November 15, 2010) – As healthcare organizations strive to meet the requirements of meaningful use, preliminary data from HIMSS Analytics indicate that the 687 hospitals responding to the survey have the ability to meet both core and menu requirements for Stage 1 of meaningful use. The final rules designate a “core” group of requirements that must be met, plus an additional “menu” of procedures from which providers may choose, according to the government announcement on meaningful use.

Rather than provide a single data snapshot, HIMSS Analytics released this preliminary data, which is statistically significant at a 99 percent confidence level and a 5 percent margin of error, as the first step in its ongoing study of the progress of healthcare organizations to meet meaningful use. Each quarter, beginning January 2011, HIMSS Analytics will release updated data and analysis on meaningful use compliance for healthcare organizations.

Bizmatics Announces CCHIT 2011 Full Certification for EMR PrognoCIS

Bizmatics Announces CCHIT 2011 Full Certification for EMR PrognoCIS

San Jose, CA - November 11, 2010 - PrognoCIS EMR v2.0 has been named a fully CCHIT Certified® 2011 Ambulatory EHR. PrognoCIS EMR, a product of healthcare software and services company Bizmatics, Inc. has been tested and passed inspection of 100 percent of CCHIT’s 2011 criteria. Approved on October 22, 2010, PrognoCIS v2.0 has also received a prestigious five-star usability rating from CCHIT. The CCHIT Certified® program is an independently developed certification that includes a rigorous inspection of an EHR’s integrated functionality, interoperability and security using criteria developed by CCHIT’s broadly representative, expert work groups.

“We are very excited about getting full CCHIT 2011 certification. We believe this confirms our position as one of the top-tier EMR vendors in the market. Our comprehensive EMR feature set along with highest usability rating - as tested by CCHIT - will help clinics in quick and easy adoption,” says Vinay Deshpande, CEO of Bizmatics, Inc.

Practice Fusion (Free EMR) certified as an EHR Module

If you're looking for a free electronic medical record, you may want to consider Practice Fusion - a free, web-based Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Practice Fusion EMR Certification

Practice Fusion is ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 compliant and is certified as an EHR Module in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 Meaningful Use measures required to qualify eligible providers for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Drummond Group Inc., an Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ATCB) certified fifteen modules of Practice Fusion's EHR system on October 18, 2010. A key step toward our guarantee of Complete EHR certification for 2011 incentives, Practice Fusion was granted certification for eight privacy and security criteria and seven criteria around core Meaningful Use features.

The ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification program tests and certifies that Complete EHRs meet all of the 2011/2012 criteria and EHR Modules meet one or more – but not all – of the criteria approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) for either eligible provider or hospital technology.

Learn more here.

Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program

Have you heard of the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program?

Here's information about the SHARP program from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology:

The purpose of the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program is to fund research focused on achieving breakthrough advances to address well-documented problems that have impeded adoption of health IT and to accelerate progress towards achieving nationwide meaningful use of health IT in support of a high-performing, continuously-learning health care system.

ONC expects to award four cooperative agreements:

1. Security of Health Information Technology
2. Patient-Centered Cognitive Support
3. Healthcare Application and Network Platform Architectures
4. Secondary Use of EHR Data

Here are some interesting "Facts-At-A-Glance" about the SHARP Program:

• The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has awarded $60 million in cooperative agreements for the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program.
• The SHARP program seeks to support improvements in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare, through advanced information technology.
• The research projects supported by the SHARP program will focus on solving current and expected future challenges that represent barriers to adoption and meaningful use of health IT. These projects will focus on areas where "breakthrough" advances are needed to realize the full potential of health IT.
• Each awardee in the SHARP Program will implement a focused research project in one of the following four areas where breakthrough advances are needed to address barriers to the adoption of health IT to meet the goal of making electronic health records (EHRs) available for all Americans by 2014.

HIMSS Launches Quality 101 Website

HIMSS Launches Quality 101 Website

Quality healthcare relies on health information technology as a tool that can be leveraged to improve healthcare delivery and lead to operational, clinical and financial efficiencies

CHICAGO (September 1, 2010) – With quality and quality reporting as an integral component of electronic health record incentives for Meaningful Use, HIMSS introduces an online resource – Quality 101 – designed as a primer on the basics and metrics of quality measurement and improvement.

The HIMSS Patient Safety & Quality Outcomes Committee developed this tool as a portal into the world of quality, quality measurement and improvement.  Introduced in phases each quarter, Phase 1 is a ‘primer’ to quality measures with Phase 2 focused on the Plan-D-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle approach to quality improvement and related quality components.

“Quality measurement and improvement activities have, until recently, been running on separate tracks and parallel tracks with the adoption of healthcare information technology.   With the passage of ARRA and the meaningful use requirements for incentive payment from CMS, we have the de facto merging of these two activities,” said Lou Diamond, M.B.Ch.B., F.A.C.P., F.C.P. (S.A.) Chair, HIMSS Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes Committee.  Dr. Diamond is also Vice President and Medical Director, Healthcare and Scientific, Thomson Reuters.  “The Quality 101 website will be attempting to bridge these two parallel worlds, by providing basic information and updates focused on quality measurement and improvement.”

CCHIT will certify EHRs for the ONC

If you work in the world of health information technology, your world is full of acronyms. You're probably already familiar with all of these, but in case you aren't:

• The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT)
• Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
• Office of the National Coordinator (ONC)
• Office of the National Coordinator of these Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs)

It's no surprise that the government has chosen to work with the CCHIT to certify EHRs. CCHIT won't be the only organization. So far, the Drummond Group has also received approval from the ONC, but we're sure to see several other organizations approving EHRs for meaningful use (as outlined in the HITECH Act).

So, if you're waiting to select an EHR that's certified by the ONC, your wait is coming to an end! CCHIT has been in the business of certifying EHRs for many years and they'll be kicking things off with a Town Call on Sept 20.  Here's more information:

CCHIT Approved as ONC Authorized Testing and Certification Body

The Certification Commission has been recognized by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB) under the initial certification program created to certify that electronic health records (EHRs) are capable of meeting the criteria to support meaningful use and qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Town Call, September 20, on the Authorized HHS Certification program

CCHIT plans to launch its authorized HHS certification program on September 20 at 1:00 PM Eastern time with a Town Call Web-cast describing its application and testing process. CCHIT will take new health IT developer applications immediately after at http://cchit.org and the first group of HHS certified complete EHRs and EHR modules will be announced within weeks of that launch.

Accelerating the Adoption of EHR Virtual Seminar

Successful EHR adoption must be built on the right technology (storage, server, and mobile platforms) that ensure you meet meaningful use requirements. But time is running out to implement the technology infrastructure that will be needed.

Attend the "Accelerating the Adoption of EHR" Virtual Seminar that's coming up on Sept 14.  Learn how to:

• Select EHR technology that will get you to meaningful use
• Rationalize and unify multiple EHR systems
• Optimize the performance and scalability of your infrastructure
• Improve EHR system accessibility with the latest Web portal technologies
• Meet capacity and bandwidth requirements for PACs integration
• Identify the pros and cons of vendor vs. open-source mobile apps

Click here for more information.

What is a virtual seminar? You’ll enter a vibrant interface – along with several hundred of your peers – and experience expert informational sessions, peer interaction and the sharing of technology solution insights. You'll attend sessions with our HIT experts, you'll visit vendor booths with product demo information and live reps to answer your questions, you'll download background information on best practices for implementing EHR, and you'll interact with your peers. We've held many virtual seminars with rave reviews on both the content received and the easy-to-navigate online experience.

Using information technology to improve patient care

Here's an upcoming webinar that may be of interest:

Making a case for IT: How two healthcare organizations used information technology to improve patient care

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is offering billions of dollars in subsidies to healthcare providers to stimulate the use of IT. But plenty of organizations are already innovators in their use of IT to improve overall operations and improve delivery of care.

Modern Healthcare's second annual IT Case Study Contest recently profiled five such organizations. Attend this webcast to learn more from two of the winners, including:

    * How IT is being used to improve care and delivery
    * Strategies for seeking funding under the federal stimulus law
    * How IT is working as a driver toward financial efficiencies

Date and time:
August 25, 2010
8am pacific | 10am central | 11am eastern

Visit ModernHealthcare.com/Webcast8 to register.

AMA webinar: Making health IT work for you: learn how the federal incentive programs apply to your practice

You won't want to miss this AMA webinar titled, " Making health IT work for you: learn how the federal incentive programs apply to your practice ."

Mon, Aug 16, 2010
Time: 05:00 PM EDT

Join the American Medical Association (AMA) for its first in a series of webinars designed to help you make Health IT work for your practice.

The 90-minute live webinar will review the final regulations, incentive program criteria and what steps to take so you can attest to meaningful use of certified EHR technology. At the end of the webinar, you will know how to:

• Calculate incentive dollars
• Describe the significance of EHR certification
• Interpret the criteria and measures that meet Stage 1 meaningful use requirements
• Describe the requirements that relate to earning incentives for meaningful use of certified EHR technology

A live question and answer session will follow the presentation.


Click here for more information.

Bizmatics Inc. Announces CCHIT Certified® 2011 Ambulatory EHR

This came out yesterday on BusinessWire. PrognoCIS by Bizmatics is another great option for physicians across all specialties who are looking for an EHR solution that includes billing services and a patient portal. Here's a snippet from the press release:

Bizmatics Inc. Announces CCHIT Certified® 2011 Ambulatory EHR Conditional Pre-market Certification for PrognoCIS EMR

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bizmatics is pleased to announce that on 15^th June, our flagship EMR product PrognoCIS V 2.0 is a pre-market, conditionally CCHIT Certified® 2011 Ambulatory EHR. PrognoCIS has earned a 5 Star usability rating upon completion and successful certification for CCHIT Certified 2011. Bizmatics CEO Mr. Vinay Deshpande was quoted as saying, “PrognoCIS has been a strong, stable EMR for many years, and we believe this CCHIT certification helps poise Bizmatics for the HealthCare IT future we all see coming.”

“PrognoCIS has been a strong, stable EMR for many years, and we believe this CCHIT certification helps poise Bizmatics for the HealthCare IT future we all see coming.”

Earlier this year PrognoCIS was awarded a Surescript certification for medication history, formulary checking and eligibility in addition to e-prescription. PrognoCIS has earned a reputation of successful completion of each industry required Milestone.

Read the full press release here.

A free EHR for small medical practices

Over the weekend, my wife and I were at a picnic where we were with several other physicians. We somehow stumbled upon the topic of electronic health records (EHRs). Most of these physicians are in small medical practices. Some are specialists and others work in primary care. I mentioned that Practice Fusion is a free EHR that includes capabilities like e-Prescribing and these physicians had never heard of the concept of a free EHR.

The funny thing is that doctors are accustomed to free things. Drug reps would bring free lunches. They even used to bring free pens and stethoscopes (although those days are now over). We still get free CME and if you participate in market research activities, then you may get a free Amazon gift card or a free iPod.  We have free medical software for smartphones (like Epocrates). So, why is the concept of a free EHR surprising?

Learn more about Practice Fusion by visiting: http://www.practicefusion.com/

Allscripts to aquire Eclipsys

Are we about to see some major mergers and acquisitions in the health information technology industry? Perhaps we're about to witness a series of M&As as health IT companies try to dominate the industry and gobble up all the ARRA funds related to HITECH. Eclipsys (Misys Healthcare Solutions) is probably best known for a CPOE system called Sunrise. My wife used Sunrise during her family residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

According to Healthcare IT News (which is published in partnership with HIMSS):

Allscripts, makers of electronic health records for physician practices will buy healthcare information technology company Eclipsys, which provides technology for hospitals and clinicians. The all-stock deal is valued at $1.3 billion.

According to Allscripts, the merger will:

• Form one company with the industry's largest network of clients on one product platform, resulting in a single patient record
• Make for a combined client base that includes 180,000 physicians, 1,500 hospitals and 10,000 post-acute organizations
• Reduce Misys ownership in Allscripts through share buyback and secondary offering
• Be accretive to Allscripts non-GAAP earnings starting in calendar year 2011

Wow.  So, who's next? McKesson? Epic Systems? GE Healthcare? HP? Cerner?  athenahealth?

Lunch with Sermo's Dr. Daniel Palestrant here at #HIMSS10

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Dr. Daniel Palestrant (Founder and CEO of Sermo) today here at HIMSS10. We had a great discussions today and we talked about physician adoption of EHRs, the use of social media, the evolution of Sermo, our families, and many other interesting health IT topics. Given that the vast majority of physicians are not early adopters of technology, what has made Sermo so successful as an online physician community? It was a really fun discussion given my personal interests in social media and health information technology.

Yesterday, athenahealth and Sermo released data about "Enabling Physicians to Leverage Technology to Improve Patient Care." What do physicians really think about ARRA and HITECH? What are their opinions regarding EHRs and "meaningful use"? Are physician opinions polarized, or are they in unison on these topics? Let's wait to see what type of data athenahealth and Sermo release over the next several weeks.

Daniel shared some great insights about the practical needs of physicians as they relate to practice management, billing, clinical workflow, reimbursement, EHR usability, and more. Through Daniel, I also met Adam Sharp, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Sermo and Jonathan Bush, athenahealth's Chairman and CEO. Thanks again for your time today Daniel. It was a real pleasure to connect and I look forward to chatting again in the future.

Special thanks to HP for sponsoring me to attend and blog here at HIMSS10.

Eclipsys releases Helios - an open platform (#HIMSS10)

Eclipsys Introduces Open Platform to Transform Health IT and Drive Electronic Health Record Adoption

 Helios By Eclipsys™ Marks Fundamental Shift from Closed, Proprietary Systems; Powers the New Release of Eclipsys Sunrise Enterprise 5.5 to Help Hospitals Meet ARRA Meaningful Use and HIMSS Analytics Stage 7

Atlanta - March 1, 2010 - Underscoring its rich tradition of healthcare technology firsts, Eclipsys Corporation (NASDAQ: ECLP) today announced the release of Helios by Eclipsys™, an industry-defining open architecture platform designed to deliver vendor choice and flexibility to a sector grappling with lagging technology adoption and soaring costs. Moving away from traditional, proprietary operating systems, Eclipsys™ is opening up its platform to provide certified third-party companies open, secure access to common services and visual and data integration. Through Helios by Eclipsys™, healthcare organizations can now utilize best-of-breed applications in an integrated environment with Eclipsys enterprise solutions. The result is reduced costs, enhanced ability to embrace and extend current technology investments, and removal of the technology innovation constraints caused by waiting for a single vendor's development timeline.

Would you pick a different EHR if you had to start over?

I meet many physicians who are unhappy with their current electronic health record (EHR) solution. Some were early adopters and they chose a system that was relatively inexpensive. Others are using systems that are simply too complicated or cumbersome to use. Is the grass greener on the other side if you switch to a new EHR platform?  Or, will you simply get confronted with a different set of headaches or frustrations?

• Is your current EHR certified by the CCHIT? 
• Do you qualify for financial assistance through the HITECH Act? 
• Do you have a specific EHR system that you'd like to get?
• Are you willing to use a free EHR?
• If you work in different offices, how many different EHRs are you currently using?

I'm sure that many physicians wish they could simply start over. Once you invest time, money, and energy into an EHR, it's very difficult to make a change.  However, maybe it makes sense to switch if you're going to qualify for some of the financial incentives tied to the HITECH Act if you can demonstrate "meaningful use" and also leverage e-prescribing.

$1.1 Billion for Comparative Effectiveness Research

It's hard to imagine $1.1 billion. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 created the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research to coordinate comparative effectiveness research across the Federal government. The Council will specifically make recommendations for the $400 million allocated to the Office of the Secretary for CER.

ARRA provides:

• $300 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• $400 million for the National Institutes of Health, and
• $400 million for the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services

These funds are to support research assessing the comparative effectiveness of health care treatments and strategies, through efforts that:

1. Conduct, support, or synthesize research that compares the clinical outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of items, services, and procedures that are used to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases, disorders, and other health conditions.
2. Encourage the development and use of clinical registries, clinical data networks, and other forms of electronic health data that can be used to generate or obtain outcomes data.

So, that totals to $1.1 billion. Wow!  So, how many groups and organizations are going after this money?  Here's a link to the HHS.gov website where you can read about Sec. 804. Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Happy birthday ARRA

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA (Pub.L. 111-5), is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress on February 17, 2009. It's now one year old! Happy birthday!

You can track the money on Recovery.gov and see where the money's going.

Total Obligated HHS Funds: $69.5 Billion (as of 1/29/10)
Total Gross Outlays: $48.2 Billion (as of 1/29/10)

$25.8 billion is set aside for Health Information Technology (Health IT, HITECH)

• $60M Program to Fund Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) 
• $80 Million Will Be Made Available to Support Health IT Workforce 
• Nearly $1.2 Billion in Grants Available to Help Doctors and Hospitals Use Electronic Health Records

AMIA President and CEO, Dr. Don E. Detmer speaking about CME and informatics (#ACME10)

Thanks for the great presentation this morning Dr. Detmer. The world of medical/biomedical/health informatics is rapidly changing and it was refreshing to hear Dr. Detmer speak about how informatics may impact the continuing medical education (CME) community as members of the health care community increase the use of health information technology for the care of patients.

It was great to hear what the AMIA is doing. I'm most excited about the possibility of seeing a new medical subspecialty emerge within the American Board of Preventive Medicine. That specialty is "Applied Clinical Informatics."

Let's see how the CME community will leverage potential opportunities in the area of health informatics as hospitals and medical offices implement electronic health records (EHRs) under the HITECH provisions of ARRA.

Incentives for meaningful use of EHRs

The government is providing incentives for physicians to get them to "meaningfully use" electronic health records or EHRs. So many physicians are still using paper records that it's hard to imagine that the overwhelming majority will rapidly adopt an EHR system and use it in a "meaningful" way.

After all, what type of computer skills do you need to be a "meaningful" user? What if you're still using paper and voice dictations and relying on someone else to enter all the information into a computer? What if you're very slow at typing? What if you quickly get frustrated whenever you try to use a computer? What if you're just not a computer user?

I'm sure there's a generation of physicians who are preparing for retirement over the next few years. If they're still using paper records, they probably won't invest thousands of dollars to implement an EHR. What about those physicians who are getting burned out of clinical medicine? Maybe they're getting more motivated to leave the world of clinical medicine to pursue other career options (especially non-clinical jobs).

If you're currently using a CCHIT certified EHR, then you're very fortunate because you probably won't need to make many (or any) changes to your clinical workflow to benefit from these new government incentives. If you're not currently using an EHR, then I hope you're investing time and resources to make the right decision about an EHR so that you don't end up making a critical mistake for your practice.