GooPatient - a PHR that works like Twitter

If you're familiar with Twitter, you understand hashtags. Imagine using hashtags in a similar way to flag your medical problems in your personal health record.

GooPatient is a simple Personal Health Records software that works like Twitter. Here's a short video explaining GooPatient:

VA Challenges IT Geeks and Industry to Spread Access to Personal Health Records

VA will offer a $50,000 prize to the first team or individual to build a personal health record using the Blue Button download format and arrange for the record’s installation on the websites of 25,000 physicians in the United States. The contest runs through October 18, 2011 – unless a winner is declared sooner.

The contest builds on VA’s offer to its health care enrollees the ability to download their personal health records securely from VA’s computer system, where a recent upgrade has allowed them to see their laboratory results.

Google Health will be discontinued

Wow, I did not expect this.


Google Health will be discontinued as a service.
The product will continue service through January 1, 2012.
After this date, you will no longer be able to view, enter or edit data stored in Google Health. You will be able to download the data you stored in Google Health, in a number of useful formats, through January 1, 2013.

You can read about this on the Google Blog.

Securing ePHI with Effective Database Activity Monitoring

Complimentary health IT webinar: Securing ePHI with Effective Database Activity Monitoring

Tuesday, April 26, 20111
2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
Complimentary Webinar

Electronic patient health information can be widely distributed throughout multiple databases within a provider's IT infrastructure. Database Activity Monitoring is an advanced technology that enables IT security teams to automatically capture full session details without impacting database administrator resources or system performance.

Learning Objectives:

1. ePHI compliance requirements
2. Capabilities of database activity monitoring
3. Learn from example user cases

Healthrageous, Inc.

Have you heard of Healthrageous?

Launched in 2010, Healthrageous, Inc. designs and delivers highly effective, personalized, interactive, motivational self-management solutions that help individuals shed unhealthy habits and embrace healthy lifestyles. Healthrageous achieves its success by combining wireless biometric sensors, smart phones, individualized coaching, incentive programs and social network support in a real-time, interactive, feedback-rich experience that keeps individuals involved and motivated toward achieving their personal health and wellness goals. The company’s solutions are based on technologies developed at the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, teaching affiliates of Harvard Medical School. Healthrageous, Inc. is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Watch this video as Dr. Joseph Kvedar from the Center for Connected Health talks about the genesis of Healthrageous™ and the concept of connected health. Healthrageous™ offers personalized, interactive health self-management programs that help individuals shed unhealthy habits - and reduce health care costs.



You can learn more about Healthrageous here.

Blue Button for Downloading Health Information

New Markle Survey Finds U.S. Public and Doctors Alike Support ‘Blue Button’ for Downloading Health Information

· Roughly 2 in 3 of the public and doctors agree that people should be able to download their personal health information.
· Government leads the way: Both Medicare and the VA for the first time ever offer a blue button for beneficiaries and veterans.
· Delivering electronic copies to patients is important, majority of public says, for billions in health IT incentives to doctors and hospitals to be well-spent.
· More than 80 percent of the public and doctors call privacy safeguards an important requirement for health IT incentives program.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Both the U.S. public and doctors overwhelmingly agree that people should be able to go online to download copies of their medical information, according to a new survey released today by the Markle Foundation.

Snapshots of the Markle Survey on Health in a Networked Life 2010—the first of its kind to compare public and doctor priorities for health information technology—will be previewed at the Health 2.0 conference this week in San Francisco.

#mHealth: Hype or Reality? What needs to be done?

Today is the last day of the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference. As a physician champion for the HCPLive Network, I'm excited to blog about some of the highlights from this meeting. You can also follow updates about the mHealth Networking Conference on HCPLive.com.

This afternoon, the closing session started with a panel discussion titiled, "mHealth: Hype or Reality? What needs to be done?" The panelists included: Neil Versel, FierceMobileHealthcare; Paulanne Balch, MD, Physician Lead, Health Connect Messaging, Kaiser Permanente; John Mattison, MD, CMIO, Kaiser Permanente, and C. Peter Waegemann, mHealth Initiative.

Let's start with the personal health record (PHR) hype. Are consumers even using PHRs? Perhaps patients are expecting too much too soon. Within closed systems like a Kaiser Permanente, you'll find active engagement among consumers who are using integrated PHRs.

Patients with chronic diseases are less likely to use the Internet

According to a recent report titled, "Chronic Disease and the Internet" that was published by Pew Internet & American Life Project:

U.S. adults living with chronic disease are significantly less likely than healthy adults to have access to the internet (62% vs. 81%). 

How will these patients gain access to valuable online disease management resources? After all, aren't these the individuals who should be using online personal health records and interactive disease management tools? Shouldn't they be the ones participating in online forums, sharing stories, and encouraging each other with social support? So much consumer health education content is written specifically for patients who have several chronic conditions and who need to learn ways to improve the self management of their conditions. How will they gain access to this information if they're not getting online?

As the general patient population gets more comfortable with computers and the Internet, they are also at risk for misinformation. After all, a large proportion of health content that's published on the Internet is inaccurate and I don't think we'll ever know how to quantify this amount given the volume of blogs and forums where people are talking about medical conditions.

You can read the report titled, "Chronic Disease and the Internet" here. This report is the result of collaboration between the Pew Internet Project and the California HealthCare Foundation

Do we risk losing privacy by switching to electronic health records?

There are many people out there who fear that their medical data will be at greater risk for theft once we convert from a paper system to an electronic system. That's a legitimate fear. After all, we've heard many stories where hospitals and health clinics lost patient data when a laptop got stolen or when hackers infiltrated electronic medical databases. It's much more difficult for someone to break into a file room and dig out your paper medical chart.

Given that we now live in a digital era, we must leverage the latest data security measures to ensure patient privacy and data integrity. Sometimes I wonder if online health portals will have more robust IT security measures compared to online banking portals. What do you value more? Your health data privacy or your money in the bank?

It's good to know that researchers are constantly developing new ways to preserve patient privacy. Some are developing algorithms to protect the privacy of patient data while allowing clinical researchers to use the same patient data to answer clinical questions. Other companies are relying on biometric scanners like fingerprint readers and retina scanners to ensure that hackers are not able to "crack" your password and log in as you. 

As hospitals and medical offices switch to electronic health records this year, I hope that administrators and physicians are thinking about the importance of patient privacy as they handle all this electronic patient data.

PHRs motivate patients to improve health

New national survey FINDS personal health records motivate consumers to improve their health

• Tools that help people manage their health are still not widely used
• Doctors may hold key to increasing adoption

Oakland, CA — Americans who have access to their health information through personal health records (PHRs) report that they know more about their health, ask more questions, and take better care of themselves than when their health information was less accessible to them in paper records, according to a ground-breaking study released today by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF).

The survey indicates one in 14 Americans has used a personal health record, double the number of users from a year earlier. Users say that secure, password-protected PHRs give them the confidence they need to access their personal information online, and when they do, they pay more attention to their health. One in three PHR users say they used the PHR to take a specific action to improve their health – sparking hope that these technologies could be the long-awaited tools that help engage patients in taking better care of themselves. Surprisingly, the benefits of PHR use are most valued among populations that have been difficult for health care providers to engage:  those with multiple chronic conditions, less education, and lower incomes.

#HIMSS10 Physician Synergy Sessions about PHRs (overflowing room)

This morning, I came out of a Physician Synergy Session tiled, "Transactional Patient Portals - What, Why, and How." Eric Liderman, MD, MPH, along with his team from Kaiser Permanente (KP) were discussing some of their experiences with a personal health record (PHR) and the room was packed!

The KP example involved "My Health Manager" and the speakers were presenting some very interesting data from their network of physicians and patients. Here are some interesting tidbits from this session:

• 57% of patients want some type of secure PHR
• over 40% of KP patients are active users of the "My Health Manager" PHR
• The use of this PHR boosted patient retention, satisfaction, and involvement in their health
• Patients are provided with links to a health/drug encyclopedia so that they can learn about their health "at the moment" they are presented with the information
• When the PHR service was provided, patients were very eager to look up their lab results
• The Medicare population is the most active group utilizing online prescription refills (they probably also take the most medications compared to other groups) 
• Exposing data to consumers reveals weaknesses in the clinical process
• Physician advisory boards and physician champions are key to the successful adoption, implementation and use of a PHR

Many major health plans are now reimbursing for "eCare," so if you're a physician and you've been thinking about using secure messaging to communicate with your patients and deliver care, you should look into this. 

What's happening at Keas?

Have you heard of Keas? Maybe you've heard of Adam Bosworth. He's a Harvard grad (I think he should have gone to MIT) and he headed Google Health when he was at Google. Now, he's the Founder, President & CEO of Keas.

Keas (www.keas.com) is an interactive service that enables the best medical minds in healthcare to provide individuals with ongoing advice and interpretation about their unique health data—such as lab results and current conditions—and help them take action to achieve their health goals. The mission of Keas™ is simple: To help you understand what your health data means and how you can use it to be as healthy as possible.

So, what's happening at Keas these days? The latest news is a press release from Feb 8: 

Pfizer and Keas Partner to Help Consumers Take a More Active Role in Their Health and Wellness

Pfizer and Keas announced today they have entered into an alliance to collaborate on the Keas platform to enable Health and Wellness experts to author, sell and distribute personalized online Care Plans directly to patients. Pfizer and Keas will collaborate to develop care plans and related capabilities that seek to provide consumers, patients and their providers an intuitive, engaging, easy-to-use, and low-cost way to manage their health & wellness, prevention and care delivery...

Having worked in the personal health record or PHR space in the past, I'm very curious to see what happens with Keas as this company takes a different approach to disease and wellness management through their care plans.

Empowering patients to use technology to manage their care

The American Medical Association (AMA) is having a series of health information technology (health IT) webinars and the final episode will focus on empowering patients to use technology to manage their care.  

Learn how technology enables remote monitoring, patient self-management and reporting, teleconsultation and electronic visits—all of which can help your practice efficiently manage patients during “Engaging patients in using technology to manage their personal health care,” a free webinar scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. Eastern time Feb. 4.

The webinar is the final program in a four-part series from the AMA and TransforMED, a subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians, that aims to help physician practices successfully implement health information technology (IT) and improve their efficiency and quality of care. Visit the AMA health IT Web site and click on “Health IT webinars” to learn more about this program and view others in the series.

How do we empower patients so that they can know how to responsibly leverage technology to manage their own conditions? The Internet contains a ton of inaccurate health information. Do most patients know how to recognize reliable health content?

MEDFUSION MAINTAINS LEADERSHIP IN PATIENT PORTAL PERFORMANCE

MEDFUSION MAINTAINS LEADERSHIP IN PATIENT PORTAL PERFORMANCE

For the third consecutive year, Medfusion is ranked the leader in patient portals in the KLAS 2009 “Software Category Leader”

Raleigh, NC – December 18, 2009 – This week Medfusion was announced as the “KLAS 2009 Software Category Leader” in patient portals by KLAS, a research firm that independently gathers and reports accurate, honest and impartial vendor performance information for the healthcare industry.

(read more...)

AMAfluhelp.org for professionals and consumers

Remember that AMAfluhelp.org is available as an online resource for both health care professionals and consumers (patients). AMAfluhelp.org features some great web-based tools and resources.

Are you a patient? Some of the many features and benefits for Patients include:

• Health Sessions - A directory of Health Session Programs offers you a variety of personalized, condition-specific health and wellness programs authored by expert health professionals. These Health Sessions are delivered on a scheduled basis and consist of a brief set of questions and answers, educational information specific to the symptoms, vital signs, medication issues related to your health conditions and goals. Based on your answers, you receive immediate feedback and expert guidance.
• Health Team - This Feature allows you to invite family caregivers, friends, and/or your doctor and other health professionals to join your health team. Upon accepting your invitation, members of your Health team can receive secure reports and notifications generated from your health sessions.
• Health Team Messages Center - Your Health Team members can better communicate through a secure message board that allows you, your family caregivers, and the health professionals involved in your care to post notes and recommendations that will assure better coordination of care. Recommendations generated by each completed Health Session are also posted to the message board for your Health Team to review.
• Personal Health Record - Through connectivity with Microsoft® HealthVault™, you can get your latest medication list, receive lab results and immunization records electronically, store x-rays, and EKGs. You can also upload, store, and graph measurements from home blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, and other devices.

Are you a health care professional? Important features and functions of AMAFluHelp.org for healthcare professionals include:

• Session Alerts Dashboard - This exception-management triage tool makes it easy to identify which Patients need the most attention according to the rules logic algorithm built into the Health Session Program(s). The dashboard is a customizable tabular viewer, consisting of rows and columns. Each row displays the responses from each patient Health Session by date in a green-yellow-red color-coded alert criteria. These responses are divided into columns representing various question types including symptoms, vital signs, medications, behavior, knowledge and others. The dashboard gives Healthcare Professionals the ability to monitor and manage up to 2,000 Patients who have granted access to their records via the Health Team invitation.
• Patient Record - Double-clicking on any patient row in the Session Alerts Dashboard will show an entire patient record, including their detailed Health Session responses, medication list, vital signs, alerts summary, and patient notes, and listing of the Patient Health Team members and message center.
• Health Team Message Center - Members of the Patient’s Health Team can communicate through a secure message board that allows the health professionals, you, your family caregivers, and involved in your care to post notes and recommendations that will improve coordination of care. Recommendations generated from completed Health Session are also posted to the Message Board and made available to the Health Team.

Visit AMAfluhelp.org

Microsoft HealthVault in Thailand

Microsoft's personal health record (PHR) service HealthVault is going to Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. I've never been to Thailand but I know some people who moved to live there a few years ago. Here's a snippet from InformationWeek about HealthVault in Thailand:

With HealthVault, international patients who receive treatment at Bumrungrad will be able to access and share their medical records via the Web once they're back home, promoting continuity of care. The records are available free to Bumrungrad's approximately 420,000 international patients as well as to those living locally.

Bumrungrad has 1.5 million patients, and about 45,000 of those annually are Americans who travel to Thailand for healthcare services that are too expensive in the U.S., or aren't readily available to them if they're living outside the U.S. as expatriates.

Sounds like some exciting developments in the international PHR space. Since we're all connected by the Internet, it should be relatively easy to access health records from anywhere in the world. I'm sure we'll be hearing some interesting things about Google Health in the near future as they make inroads in the PHR space.

MDLiveCare providesTeleHealth on Google Health

The full headline is actually, "MDLiveCare First TeleHealth Provider to Launch on the Google Health Platform." Let me share this interesting press release (this is from PR Newswire)

New Service Brings Patients On-Demand Access to Health Care Online

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7 - MDLiveCare, an on-demand telehealth company, announced today at the Health2.0 conference in San Francisco a partnership with Google Health. The partnership includes the secure flow of medical data between MDLiveCare and Google Health, an online Personal Health Record (PHR). Specifically, any Google Health user that has an MDLiveCare HIPAA secure video, phone or email telehealth consultation with a board certified physician or mental health therapist will be able to share his or her medical records with the doctor in advance of the appointment and get records back after the appointment from that doctor.

The integration is the first of its kind on the Google platform, marking the introduction of telehealth services to Google Health's directory of online services.

"Patients remember less than 25% of what they're told when they consult with a doctor," said Bob Smoley, CEO of MDLiveCare. "By directly synchronizing the information that's shared during telehealth consultations with electronic patient health records, we're able to provide patients with a convenient solution to review their physician or therapist encounters, time and time again, which significantly increases patient awareness and treatment compliance. This integration allows us to further empower patients with better access to all of their health information and to provide a service unprecedented in medicine today."

MDLiveCare is also one of the first integrated services to offer up a complete history of the doctor's clinical notes in a patient's Google Health Account, allowing for enhanced portability and continuity of care.

"We are excited about our collaboration with MDLiveCare," said Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager, Google Health. "Our users have been telling us that they want more access to convenience services, like being able to securely email, schedule, and consult a doctor online. MDLiveCare represents this type of online model. It allows our users the ability to access and use telehealth services with their medical data captured at the point of care."

MDLiveCare provides access to a national network of board certified physicians and licensed mental health therapists, including specialists in the fields of pediatrics and dermatology, through its unique and extensive services and software platform. Physicians credentialed to operate on the platform are required to pass a rigorous evaluation process that establishes their board certifications, clinical knowledge and patient manner, as well as their ability to operate the system. Once certified, network physicians and therapists interact with patients remotely and are able to diagnose and treat an extensive list of common conditions; in addition, they are able to order lab tests and write electronic prescriptions via the system's direct connection to one of the largest networks of labs and pharmacies in the country. At the heart of this integration with Google Health, patient's electronic personal health records can be used at the point-of-care by doctors.

About MDLiveCare Health Services, Inc. (https://www.MDLiveCare.com)

Founded in 2006, and headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida - MDLiveCare brings the most advanced telehealth solution available today. With 24/7/365 access to board certified doctors and licensed therapists via video, phone, and email, health care access is now available after hours, at the workplace, while traveling, in rural areas, to the chronically ill and bed ridden, or anyone seeking medical attention at their convenience. Recently, MDLiveCare received a significant investment from the iCan Group (http://www.theiCanGroup.com), now its largest investor, to expand its programs across multiple distribution channels. The iCan Group is a dynamic, fast-growing family of companies devoted to offering smart, affordable health and life insurance choices, forensic medical bill audits, and a variety of health related benefits. In addition to the tens of thousands of existing customers, the iCan Group is the answer for many to the healthcare crisis suffered by more than 47 million uninsured and 100 million unhappily insured people in the US today. The company and its subsidiaries are based in Boca Raton.

SOURCE MDLiveCare Health Services, Inc.

MSN and personal health management

Microsoft got into the personal health record (PHR) business through HealthVault. Now, they have launched "My Health Info," a personal health management service. Store your data on HealthVault and then manage your health using My Health Info.

The names seem a bit confusing to me. The name "My Health Info" seems to reflect another PHR. After all, your health record is information. Is Microsoft evolving HealthVault and simply adding a few widgets, or are they really trying to launch an entirely different service that goes beyond the PHR?

This is what happens if your health data gets breached

If your health data gets breached, do you know what could happen? So many patient records are becoming digitized as more providers and hospitals rely on electronic health records (EHRs) instead of paper medical charts. Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new regulations regarding the notification of patients if their electronic health information gets breached. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also issued final rules about how consumers ought to be notified when electronic personal health record (PHR) information gets compromised.

We hear so many stories about hospitals, clinics, and health plans having problems with data security. Highly experienced can probably break into most hospitals and health plans and compromise health data.

Under the HITECH provisions within ARRA, the Department of Health and Human Services has to perform research on privacy, security and breach-notification requirements for PHR vendors. Let's see what happens with Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault. If you keep your personal health information online, do you feel confident that it's safe and secure?

Tips on managing online passwords

My wife and I have had had several discussions about Internet security and online passwords. Why? Because my Facebook account got hacked over the weekend. We probably all know that accounts can get hacked, but can you imagine the headache if your accounts shared the same passwords? What if you couldn't get into your e-mail account anymore? What if you couldn't access your online banking accounts? (that wasn't the case in my situation, so I didn't lose control of my e-mail, blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, PayPal, or any of my bank accounts. I was able to send a Tweet to all my followers to warn them about my Facebook situation).

If you have a common password that protects your personal health record (PHR), then you could be exposing yourself to potential hackers. Do you consider your health record more important than your banking accounts?

Many of us have a variety of online accounts. Do you use the same password on several accounts? You're putting yourself at grave risk if you do that. I admit that there was a time when I used a few passwords among different accounts. However, I now have unique passwords for every account and I use a systematic approach so that I can easily remember every one.

Allow me to share a few Internet security tips:

• Never use the same password on multiple accounts. This may lead to someone hacking your Facebook account and then eventually getting access into other things (like your bank account, PayPal, credit card accounts, etc.)
• Never use a dictionary word as your password. Using "wojljsdflkwe" is better than that any word that would appear in a dictionary.
  
• Never use numbers that reflect your personal profile. Don't use numbers that may reflect your birthday, your address, your phone #, etc.

How can you systematically create a unique password for each website so that you can remember your password easily?

Suppose you really like the word "Amazon" as your password. It's 6 characters, so it works as a password on many websites. Let's see how we can use this word to create unique passwords for 3 different websites. We'll use the unique letter(s), common number(s), common word technique. This is a very basic technique that works quite well if you're a newbie at this.

1. The unique letter(s) is based on the name of the website. Choose the 3rd and last letters of the website title as your unique letters and this becomes the first few letters of your password.
2. Choose a common number. Let's choose 16 (legal driving age). This is the second component of your password.
   
3. Choose a common word. Let's choose "zamazon" (I love to shop on Amazon, but we don't want to use a word that can be found in the dictionary, so we'll add a "z" to amazon). This becomes the end of your password.
   

When you combine these elements, we end up with 3 unique passwords for the following 3 websites:

1. Paypal: the password would be "yl16zamazon" (y = 3rd letter; l = last letter)
   
2. Chase: the password would be "ae16zamazon" (a = 3rd letter; e = last letter)
   
3. Google: the password would be "oe16zamazon" (o = 3rd letter; e = last letter)
   

You can get really creative using this technique and you can develop unique password patterns for every website that you visit. You could end with your unique letters. You could flank your common numbers/letters around your unique letters. You could also choose different patterns for different types of websites. For instance, for banking sites, you may choose to start with the common number and end with the unique letters. For social networking sites, you may want to use the method in reverse (or change your common # or letter). You may want to have one common word for websites that start with a vowel and a different common word for websites that start in a consonant. Once you have a series of consistent patterns, you only need to remember your common number(s) and common word(s). This can reduce your risk for password theft which could lead to identity theft and a series of other major headaches. If you're married, you don't have to share your actual passwords with your spouse. You simply have to explain your method and share your common words/numbers. Let your spouse go through the exercise of coming up with a method. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?