A BlackBerry in an iPhone World

On May 28th, 2012 Dr. John Halamka, a physician and highly regarded healthcare IT thought leader, delivered the opening keynote address at the annual Canadian eHealth conference held this year in Vancouver, BC. Dr. Halamaka demonstrated how health IT is transforming the hospital in which he works and offered practical advice on how Canadian healthcare organizations and professionals can realize similar benefits. Fail to innovate, he warned, and “you risk becoming a BlackBerry in an iPhone world.”

Check out the rest of my article in Technology for Doctors

Mike

 

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 25,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band – C-H-I!

Sung to the tune from the theme song for the television show “Rawhide”

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’ … (x4) … C-H-I! (do, do, do;
do, do, do)

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’, get those projects goin’
Keep that money flowin’, C-H-I
Outcomes really matter, and Richard’s in a lather
Wishin’ CMA was on his side
All the things we’re missin’,
standards, doctors, vision
We’re waiting for the answer to arrive

CHORUS

Move ‘em on, hit ‘em up,
Hit ‘em up, move ‘em on,
Move ‘em on, hit ‘em up C-H-I!

Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in
Ride ‘em in, cut ‘em out,
Call ‘em out, ride ‘em in C-H-I!

Movin’, Movin’, Movin’, though they’re disapprovin’
Jurisdictions groovin’, C-H-I
Don’t try to understand them
tell ‘em the “win” you’ll hand ‘em
Soon we’ll have a system nation-wide
My heart is calculatin’; The vendors will be waitin’
Waitin’ for the money to arrive

eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band – eHealth Adoption Blues

Sung to the tune of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”

I see that Blueprint comin’,
rollin’ ‘round the bend,
And I ain’t changed my practice
since I don’t know when
I’m stuck with paper records,
and time keeps draggin’ on.
But the Blueprint keeps a-rollin’,
on out to everyone.

When I was just a baby, my momma told me,
“Son, Always be a smart boy, don’t trust those
guys named “RON”  But then Infoway gave a
briefing, I really saw the light
This architecture’s brilliant
and Ron was oh, so right!

I bet there’s rich folk buyin’ … a fancy EHR.
They’re prob’ly goin mobile, and thinkn’ PHR,
We’ve got to keep it movin’, I know it has to be,
So when I’m old and needy,
eHealth will take care of me.

So free me from my bias,
and let eHealth save the day
And let’s all join the movement,
there is no better way
A fully coded record, that’s where I want to be
And let’s thank Ron for helping,
take my blues away from me!!

eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band – Theme Song

Sung to the tune of the Beatle’s “Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

We’re the eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band
We care about our health care state
Our journey takes us clear across the land
To find the tools to make it great

We’re the eHealth leaders
Just ask the Twitter tweeters
More than geeks and keeners
Yeah….

We’re the eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band
We’re trying to build the E-H-R…
So join us on our quest, we need a hand
To get adoption near and far
Come and join our “health” club
Not to get a back rub
Join the eHealth Lonely Hearts … Club … Band

eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band Rocks eHealth 2011

For as long as I have been attending the annual Canadian eHealth conference (known to many “old timers” as the COACH conference), the Blues Night has been the place where people at all levels let their hair down (those who still have hair) and have a good time.  Heck, I still remember dancing with Linda Miller in Quebec City.  Where else can do you get the chance to boogey with an Assistant Deputy Minister?

This year, the blue’s night organizers had a special treat in store.  In addition to the professional musicians, the opening act was a group of well known eHealth leaders with varying levels of music ability.   The “eHealth Lonely Hearts Club Band” served up a short set of familiar songs (at least for me, but then again, my hair has turned grey).  While the melodies might have been familiar, the lyrics to several songs were modified to have special relevance to audience.  I will post the lyrics as separate blog posts.

If you look at pictures of the audience, you can see me, beer in hand, singing along with the band.   I thoroughly enjoyed the band’s performance and
hope that we can get the band together again next year.   If we do,  I will be there again, in the front row, singing my heart out.

Mike

 

OCRI IT in Healthcare: Canada Health Infoway Update

Want to learn more about what is happening at Canada Health Infoway and, perhaps more importantly, ask questions to an Infoway executive?  If you live in the Ottawa area, you have an opportunity to do so at the monthly OCRI IT in Healthcare seminar on May 25th.  Our guest this month is Shelagh Maloney, Executive Director, External Liaison, Consumer Health and Innovation.  Ms. Maloney will provide an update on the progress of the pan-Canadian electronic health record implementation. You can more details about this event here.

The OCRI IT in Healthcare seminar series facilitates the exposure and exchange of experiences and ideas.  The seminars are targeted at health care providers, policymakers, IT entrepreneurs, technology developers, and students. The focus is on technologies that have actually been implemented; IT infrastructure development efforts and their costs/benefits; technology adoption experiences; and new public initiatives to support IT in health care. Speakers represent a cross-section from the life sciences community including vendors and developers of technology, researchers, and public officials.

Mike

Steven Huesing Virtual Debates – First Debate

About a month ago I wrote a blog post about the The Steven Huesing Debates on Digitizing Canada’s Healthcare System. This virtual debate series is intended provide a platform to engage all stakeholders in open, unfettered discussions about the about the major issues impacting eHealth adoption and use, such as:

• Measuring the return on value to the patient
• Improving quality and safety
• Data sharing to respect the privacy rights of patients
• The appropriateness of the current agenda

The debates will be conducted virtually and will include a public commenting period. The first debate took place on 12 April 2011 and the public commenting period is now open. You can find information about the debate series as well as a recording and written synopsis of the first debate here.

I urge readers of this blog to participate in the virtual debate. Please check out the virtual debate website and offer your thoughts and comments. In particular, please offer your thoughts on the topics to be discussed In future debate sessions. The currently identified topics include:

• Patients as co-creators/owners: Should the HIT agenda change to build the infrastructure that ensures personal health information rests with the patient who shares it with others? Do you want patients to genuinely become a co-creators—to share power
• Aligning business models to incent using these systems: What changes in the current approach (business model and incentives) are necessary to speed up adoption and change processes of care to drive out more value?
• The need for e-health policy: The technology roll-out is advancing before we have e-health policies in place. What policies are needed to address challenges or potential barriers?
• Regulation vs. government edict: What would be the best approach to creating a carrot and/or stick regime to speed up adoption by clinicians?
• The right balance between top-down and bottom-up to drive the agenda: Is HIT in Canada emphasizing a more grassroots agenda driven by the patient and providers rather than a top-down approache driven by governments?
• Do we need a higher sense of urgency with the HIT agenda? If the answer is yes, then what do we do to build this into decision making and implementation?

What are your thoughts on these proposed topics? Are there additional topics that should be considered? Please go here to participate. Also, please let people in your own networks know about the debate series and encourage them to participate

Mike

Infoway turns to the “crowd” for ideas

I first heard about this idea last fall and thought it was a great way to engage a wider audience in coming with new ideas for how to use IT to transform healthcare services delivery. Infoway’s ImagineNation ideas challenges offers cash prizes for “bold, new ideas – or creative combinations of existing ideas.”

Ideas will be evaluated according to four criteria:

1. Impact on Health and Health Care in Canada (30%)
2. Innovation & Originality (30%)
3. Effective Use of Technology (20%)
4. Feasibility (20%)

A total of $35,000 in prize money is available and will be awarded as follows:

• $100 for up to 50 top ideas
• $250 for the idea that receives the most votes from Canadians (“Canada’s Choice” Award)
• $5,000 for each of up to 5 top finalists
• An additional $5,000 for the winning idea

The top ideas will be announced July 5th just after the Canada Day long weekend.   You can find more details here.

According to Infoway, they plan to “promote the leading ideas” though the exact details of how they will do so have not been specified.  As well, they are “considering future initiatives that may be informed by the best ideas“.

Overall, I think that the notion of a public “challenge” is a good way to raise greater awareness of the impact that IT can have on healthcare and to more meaningfully engage Canadians in Infoway’s mission.   The US First Lady, Michelle Obama, issued a similar challenge last year to develop mobile applications to combat childhood obesity and not only raised awareness about this growing problem but also stimulated development of some innovative mobile applications.

I do wish that the public input would have a greater impact on selecting the winning ideas.  Perhaps a more substantial cash award could be associated with the “people’s choice”.  Or, maybe the criteria could be adjusted so that public voting would factor into the choice of the top winners.

Mike

 

 

New Brunswick issues RFI for EMR program

I noticed today that the government of New Brunswick has issued an RFI to “identify suppliers who can demonstrate their competency and capability to deliver a comprehensive solution to assist the Department of Health in implementing an integrated Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution.”

According to the RFI, “the New Brunswick Electronic Medical Record initiative is made up of three key components, each with their specific project plans.  The three component projects in the EMR initiative include the following:
1.  Phase I – NB Program Plan Development
2.  Phase II – NB EMR Solution Implementation
3.  Phase III – NB EMR Integration

The RFI explains that NB is considering three different architectural models:

• Standalone EMR (installed / operated in physicians office)
• External EMR (EMR operated as an ASP by the vendor)
• Internal EMR (installed / operated within the Provinces infrastructure)

The RFI, part of phase I,  states that the end goal of this process is to “issue  one RFP (or possibly  a  series of  Requests  for Proposals  (RFPs)  for the different project phases).”

You can download a free copy of the RFI at the NB tenders site.

Mike