Posts tagged ‘Medicine’

January 28th, 2010

IPad ! How it can Revolutionize Medicine?

by admin

I am excited with my  new Apple Ipad.

Why?

Because it has a bigger screen then my Iphone and that makes it interesting,in addition many or almost all of the APP store applications for Iphone will work on it.

Medical applications on Ipad are some of the things that will be keenly looked up to.The larger screen size will be a definite benefit.It will be definitely one the most useful applications in the world of Medicine.It is a great way to read books and journals on the move.The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich color, so it’s easy to read, even in low light.

Writing Notes on Ipad is fun!!

With its expansive display and large, onscreen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy.It is also makes it easier to sync with Iphone.

Calender Scheduling is a very important tool for physicians.

iPad makes it easy to stay on schedule by displaying day, week, month, or list views of your calendar. You can see an overview of a whole month or the details of a single day. iPad even shows multiple calendars at once, so you can manage work and family schedules at the same time.

Health Record

iPad makes it easy to stay on schedule and display patient notes and also to keep track of patient health.

Medical applications

It’s a half-inch deep and weighs just 1.5 pounds. The screen is about 10 inches on the diagonal. It’s basically a smart notepad.Imagine this in a flip-up case, in every examination room at your clinic.

But,the numerous  applications on Iphone,which makes Ipad a killer tool for physicians.In my previous lecture on Medicine 2.0 world,I had talked in brief about how in upcoming years,physicians can move from paper based records to electronic medical records.

Imagine Airstrip application transposed on Ipad!!

Application features

AirStrip CRITICAL CARE can greatly reduce and even eliminate time delay in the clinical assessment and treatment of patients. Clinical features include:

  • Virtual Views – Remote, virtual real-time monitoring of live cardiac rhythm strips and other waveform data such as pulse oximetry, end tidal CO2 and peak ventilator pressures.
  • Strip Zooming – The zoom feature maintains relative size of waveforms and the background grid allows for easy assessment and measurements.
  • Automated Caliper – The automated caliper measures designated intervals, both automatically and manually.
  • Strip Scrolling – The scroll function allows users to quickly scroll through stored waveform data, such as telemetry strips.
  • Patient Data Display – Tidal volume, airway pressure, flow and volume readings are also available in virtual real-time, directly from patient monitors.

Access to typical bedside patient monitoring data is also available including heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, blood pressure and additional numeric and waveform data captured by the patient monitor.

Image courtesy:Apple Inc.

Popularity: 29% [?]

CategoryIpad | Comment9 Comments »

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December 5th, 2007

PHR: Pretty Half-hearted Reception for Personal Health Record

by admin

Which type of Personal Health Record Application do you prefer?

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Why is that despite the presence or more than 200 vendors of PHR products only less than 5 % of the consumers in North America use any PHR.

The main reasons are:

1.Lack of privacy policy

2.Lack of communication between providers and users

3.Lack of education about benefits of PHR.

In the first generation model of PHRs,

Vendors have had a hard time selling the idea of a personal medical diary to healthy consumers who see their doctors maybe once or twice a year. In addition to privacy and security concerns, patients are staying away because the PHRs on the market aren’t doing much to entice them, analysts say. The industry also has failed to come up with a convincing argument for why doctors should encourage their use.

But ,now with the growth of Web 2.0 technology,PHR can developed with next generation models,
Vendors are reaching out to health plans and employers in hopes of encouraging PHR use through incentives. And expanded data sets make the records more useful to physicians.
as PHR vendors add functionalities such as secure e-mailing and online scheduling, more people will create PHRs.

Also the lack of consensus definition about what exactly is PHR is hampering widespread use.Many of the consumers and also vendors assume that PHR ane EHR are one and the same product.While in some aspects they deal with your health record,but in reality they are two different entities all together.

PHR are individually controlled record of your health either in electronic or paper based format.While EHR are your health records controlled by the Hospital or medical center,

The future:

But while there is great hope for the future of PHRs, it remains to be seen what role they will play in transforming health care, even if they gain widespread acceptance among patients.

Many physicians and also patients are still skeptical about the potential benefits of PHR,they feel that it may not deliver the results as projected.Only time will tell,when internet came around in the nineties many thought it was also a passing fad,but today it is part of our life.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

CategoryGoogle Health, Health Education, Medicine 2.0, Microsoft Health Vault, Personal Health Record, PHR, Privacy | CommentNo Comments »

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December 3rd, 2007

Personal Health Record-offline Vs Online

by admin

Which type of Personal Health Record Application do you prefer?

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The recent surge in activities around Personal Health Record business sector has been burgeoning.After the planned entry of Google Health by Google ,which was anticipated to change the health care system in North America,there was increased media speculation about Microsoft being left behind.But,Microsoft had their own plans with the entry of Microsoft Health Vault.There are numerous myths about the battle fought between Microsoft and Google on Health Sector.
Microsoft Health Vault is just a platform,it is a collection of different vendors selling PHR products.Microsoft offers a environment in which all these vendors of PHR products could be together.
What Google plans is going to keenly watched will it be similar to Google Social or Android-mobile phone application platform or just a stand alone Personal Health Record?
Google plans to launch an online health service that will include personal medical records, health-care-related search features, diet and exercise regimens, and a directory of physicians with links to Web sites.

Health is unique but also Universal, it is extremely complex and expensive.To create an ideal PHR business model is not going to be an easy task.People who use PHR,ie stakeholders ranging from patients to physicians to health officials in Government are all worried about one major issue and that is Privacy and security of the collected data.

Privacy Pitfalls

Anita Allen, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on privacy law, says no matter what entity endorses personal online medical records, privacy issues will loom large. “Anyone’s health records should be regarded as personal and sensitive,” says Allen. “People need to be mindful of discrimination from employers and insurers.”

One issue with HealthVault and similar efforts is that they aren’t covered by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPAA, passed in 1996, created standards for electronic health care transactions and addressed security and privacy issues. Under HIPAA, a patient’s medical record and payment history can’t be linked to an individual by an unauthorized person. These rules apply to health plans, health care clearinghouses — such as billing services and information providers — and health care networks.

Although HIPAA covers the institutions installing EMR systems, Allen says that regulation wouldn’t cover entities like Microsoft, Google or any other web service that allows medical records to be stored online. “HIPAA doesn’t prevent you from uploading information and accepting terms of an agreement. Anything that happens to those records is routine and covered in courts under privacy law.”

More here..

The other questions which are pertinent to PHR world are

Populating the data-should it be by physicians or individuals?

How will the business vendors of PHR products generate revenues if they offer it for free?If paid ,Who will pay for the system?Patients or their employers or insurance.

How long will the health data be stored?How many years?


Meanwhile Wallstreet Journal along with Harris Interactive has just released another poll about Personal health records and their impact on American people.
The survey of 2,153 U.S. adults, conducted Nov. 12-14, shows three-quarters of respondents agree that patients could receive better care if doctors and researchers were able to share information more easily via electronic systems and 63% agree sharing of such records could decrease medical errors. Fifty-five percent agree this could reduce health-care costs, compared with 15% who disagree. However, about one-quarter of adults remain unsure whether electronic medical records can provide these benefits.

More here..

There still many more questions which need to be answered,before we can have a conclusive answer.Health care industry is a large ocean and PHR is just one subset of this ocean.

The Laws of More (Moore’s, on computing power; Nielsen’s, on bandwidth) continue to make technology smaller, more powerful, more ubiquitous, easier to use and cheaper to buy. But human beings are rapidly approaching the satiation point when it comes to how much time they can devote to using all this technology.

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Popularity: 54% [?]

CategoryGoogle Health, Medicine 2.0, Microsoft Health Vault, Personal Health Record, PHR, Privacy, Technology | Comment5 Comments »

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