PDF Healthcare

PDF is a file format that can be used to send or receive information during the process of the health information exchange. In other words , PDF's are being used in healthcare as "capsules" or "containers" to include or attach images or information for sending or receiving purposes. The PDF Healthcare Best Practices Guide is a result of the a working group, co chaired by INtel and Adobe that has decided to submit PDF Healthcare to the ASTM (American Society fo Testing and Materials International and the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)for balloting to demonstrate that it's compatible with CCR (Continuity of Care Record as proposed by ASTM and Health Level Seven's Clinical Document Architecture (CDA).
The best practices guide is tailored to the healthcare industry and describes use of fonts, metadata, security and the way PDF is used. It is generally agreed that PDF is a format this is very consistent with the ultimate goals of standardization. Additionally, security can be enhanced with PDF by embedding paswords and permissions on the dcoument.

Clearly, the advantages are: familiarity, and also that PDF uses XML (extensible markup language) standards, so that you can incorporate xml data into and as a standardized data set within the PDF. So, as a result, it is now being developed and proposed to put the CCR XML inside of a pdf . Thus the pdf can either be printed off in the event the end user does not have EMR (electronic medical records) or if they do have EMR, the emr can extact the CCR XML data to populate the EMR.

This can be used for PHR's and EMR's.

Another Bill, Another Day, Another Dollar

This Bill is not the one you receive in the mail from the cable company.

This is a bill introduced and has some bi-partisan support, it is called the "The Independent Health Record Trust Act, which was introduced into Congress in mid-July by Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) and on last count this week has bi-partisan support from 49 House members, aims to create independent health record trusts, or IHRTs, that would manage the electronic medical records of patients upon voluntary participation by consumers signing up for these electronic accounts." as reported by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee in InformationWeek .

I dont know about you...but most patients and people I know.. are not going to jump to give their personal medical information to the government to control. What an interesting name the bill has though... "trusts", this should conjure up images of George Orwell smirking over us.

Patrick Kennedy also introduced a bill earlier this year to incentivize doctors to adopt electronic medical records. So, our politicians are taking heed.

Unintended consequence. It does serve a greater and grander purpose ;the so called unintended consequence. This is the unintended consequence for the overall good, (not Marxist, I promise) but, educating and raising the bar on awareness of the need for people to generate their own Personal Health Record or PHR.

In the end , the PHR will be the stimulus for healthcare revolution. A revolution that will not take place until control of healthcare information and the healthcare dollar is given to the people, "the masses"...so, in my eyes, this is a good thing.

Control of your healthcare information is the "opioid of the masses", just watch.

E health project that is failing, clearly a bigger Personal Health Record (PHR) is not better

When we first read about Dossia's intentions we applauded it. Now, we see the realities of multi-corporate "cooperation".

It is easy to see why large initiatives fail...widespread usage of a commodotized PHR will be inevitable , but , will probably be through slow adoption, acquisition and mergers rather than super large initiatives. Large government initiatives or large multi corporate partnerships are good in theory, but , practically speaking, precedents suggest otherwise..

Read the recent article entitled: Another E-Health Project In Disarray
Partners in initiative known as Dossia squabble over money, deliverables. Will the health industry ever get this right?
in http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001393
and I quote "An ambitious program to provide electronic health records to more than 2.5 million people is starting to unravel, as the partners in the multimillion-dollar initiative turn to legal action against each other."

Hurricane Season is here, have you done your PHR?

As we approach the time of year that hurricanes pay us visits... all of us in geographically susceptible regions, must be thinking about preparation.

Personal health records should be atop the list of "first aid" preparation particularly the elderly.

Think about it.. a hurricane hits, your pharmacy is closed, you dont recall your medication list, interactions, dosages and more. You need to have this information accessible. If Katrina taught us anything, it was preparedness makes a difference. Several doctor's offices were closed, people could not reach their doctor's for help regarding their history. Additionally, most doctors have paper based charts, and those in the wake of Katrina, lost many of their files... This was part of the problem that was brought to the forefront of the medical community's attention. It was a precipitant to wake up and move towards an electronic patient record.

A new interesting website hosted by the American Red Cross is http://www.Safeandwell.org , this website was created to help natural disaster victims get updates on the status of family members, friends and loved ones and to potentially communicate with those involved in rescue efforts.

Is there any reason to not take the time to sign up for a phr? I dont think so, privacy perhaps is the biggest concern, but most phr's are committed to not sharing personal health data.

As you know , we have a free phr service located at http://www.PassportMD.com and although there are many others that are very good as well, I can speak to the purpose and success of PassportMD. It is free and you can print off your medication list before any natural disaster and keep it in your wallet or with you at all times.

Take a few moments to do this and to tell your friends about this, it is very important.

If you do not feel comfortable being prepared for disasters using a phr, let me know why so we can address those concerns and correct them if they are an issue with our service.

Toward Electronic Patient Records

After a decade of debate, electronic records for patients through their doctors is gaining acceptance. EMR's have arrived. I think that it is generally now a "given" about electronic records that it is no longer "if" but now is "when" will my doctor, my hospital or "myself" be a participant in the electronic and digital revolution that is encompassing all of healthcare.

I spent two days touring TEPR2007, the annual trade show for EMR vendors and came to the conclusion that there are a myriad of choices from software vendors, middleware and hardware. The paradigm shift is inevitable and in full swing. EMR's are being standardized and as a result commoditized. Bells and whistles unique to particular vendors but at the end of the day, they all do the same thing.

Certification of vendors as long as not costly prohibitive to prevent creative development by smaller vendors is a good thing. Standardization is a must.

I predict XML will be the winner as the standardization tool with integration and flexibility to maintain CCR, HL-7, X12N, NCPDP and I also think PDF's will move to forefront of medical information sharing capabilities.

Key concepts in the PHR world will be access audit trails and transparency of data, 2 factor authentication and exciting work will be developed as a result of RHIO's and Markle grants.