PHR: Personal health data better protected by ISO standard

From The Finnancial Channel:

ISO has published a new technical specification which will increase protection of personal health information processed, stored and transferred by computer systems for subsequent use by clinicians and others in healthcare organizations, according to ISO.

ISO/TS 14265:2011, Health informatics – Classification of purposes for processing personal health information, defines a set of high-level categories of purposes for which such personal health information can be processed .

Electronic health records are used more and more. They involve the systematic electronic collection of health information about individual patients or populations, such as information about the physical or and mental health of an individual or provision of health services.

Health information is usually documented by healthcare professionals as part of the process of delivering care, and subsequently used to support the continuing care of each patient. However, PHR information might also be needed and used to enable the healthcare organization to manage its services better and more safely, and for a wider range of purposes such as public health, education and research.

Information may at times need to be shared with other organizations. For ethical and legal reasons, health information technology should only be used for the purposes for which it was collected or created. Up to now there has been no standard listing of the possible kinds of purpose of use of personal health information.

Report: Electronic health records still need work

From CBS Money Watch: 

America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system's conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out, according to experts who spent months studying the issue.

Hospitals and doctors' offices increasingly are going digital, the Bipartisan Policy Center says in a report released Friday. But there's been little progress getting the computer systems to talk to one another, exchanging data the way financial companies do.

"The level of health information exchange in the U.S. is extremely low," the report says.

At the consumer level, few people maintain a personal health record on their laptop or electronic tablet, partly due to concerns about privacy, security and accuracy that the government hasn't resolved.

"How will sensitive health data be kept confidential and secure in digital data-sharing environments?" the report asks. "Many consumers ... are waiting for a reassuring answer to this question."

The report offers a window on progress toward a goal set by President Barack Obama, and President George W. Bush before him, that everyone in the United States should have an electronic health record by 2014.

While making no predictions, the report offers a collection of details indicating that the goal is a long shot at best.

"Will 100 percent of our nation have electronic health records by 2014?" asked Janet Marchibroda, who directs the center's health records technology initiative. "I would say getting to that last mile is difficult." She expects the majority of hospitals and doctors to meet the goal, but it's another matter when it comes to consumers.

In politically polarized Washington, the center tries to tackle national problems from a pragmatic perspective. The report, more than six months in the making, was produced by a panel representing hospitals, doctors, insurers, consumers and technology companies. The review was led by two former senators with ties to the health care industry, Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Republican Bill Frist of Tennessee.

Electronic medical records are seen as a crucial component in creating a system that's more efficient and less prone to error. The government has committed up to $30 billion to encourage this shift, mostly through incentive payments to hospitals and doctors that were authorized in 2009 under Obama's economic stimulus law. Payments started flowing last year.

Healthcare Analyst Values MMRGlobal Patents at $300-800 Million

From Market Watch:

MMRGlobal, Inc. MMRF -0.25% ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records ("PHR"), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, today announced that The MichaelBassGroup ("MBG"), a leading investment banking and strategic advisory services firm ( www.michaelbass.com ), issued a special report January 20, 2012 ( http://michaelbass.com/PDF/JAN20MMRF.pdf ) citing the global market for Personal Health Records at $19 billion, and focusing on the patents issued, pending and owned by MyMedicalRecords, Inc., the Company's wholly owned-subsidiary, in connection with a METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ONLINE MEDICAL RECORDS, and a METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ONLINE RECORDS. In their report, MBG valued these patents at a minimum of $300 million to as much as $800 million. The patents cover numerous claims involving the provision of Personal Health Records and other health information and document management systems and technologies. The patents (amongst other things) address the management of paper and other information contained in a Personal Health Record and deal with the fact that while doctors are migrating to Electronic Medical Records, they still receive an average of 1033 faxes per month of patient information.

According to the report, several movements are behind the growing popularity of PHRs, including social networking and the Health 2.0 movement. PHRs are also a tool for patient self-management on the Web. Many consumers have PHRs through their employers, health insurers, health providers or through independent vendors. One estimate indicates that 70 million people in the United States have access to personal health information.

The Company has already entered into a non-exclusive license agreement for $30 million with Surgery Center Management, LLC ("SCM"), $5 million of which became due on December 23, 2011. SCM purchased a cashier's check payable to MyMedicalRecords, Inc. as proof of funds, a copy of which has been given to the Company (see image). MMR has made demand on SCM to turn over the check and expects to bring a resolution to this matter through SCM Legal Counsel soon. Separately, the Company has also entered into a patent license agreement in Australia and other joint venture marketing and strategic partnership agreements in China.

The valuation was based on industry accepted patent evaluation methods, PatentValuePredictor.com, which was developed by Richard A. Neifeld and Dr. Martin Goffman. Dr. Neifeld holds a JD degree from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in Physics from Rutgers University and is the former chair of the Interference Committee of the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association. Dr. Martin Goffman holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Temple University and is the principal of Martin Goffman Associates. Patent Value Predictor reports are based on patented macroeconomic models for automatically valuing patents. The reports are backed by patent and financial databases, which record the proprietary statistics used to predict the potential market size, and a patent's predicted share of this market. Many factors, such as the number of patents in the technology area, profit margins, and the GDP, figure into the statistically predicted valuation. The report specifically excludes the Company's biotech assets from the valuation.

Should Every Patient Have a Unique ID Number for All Medical Records

As the U.S. invests billions of dollars to convert from paper-based medical records to electronic ones, has the time come to offer everyone a unique health-care identification number?

Proponents say universal patient identifiers, or UPIs, deserve a serious look because they are the most efficient way to connect patients to their medical data. They say UPIs not only facilitate information sharing among doctors and guard against needless medical errors, but may also offer a safety advantage in that health records would never again need to be stored alongside financial data like Social Security numbers. UPIs, they say, would both improve care and lower costs.

Privacy activists aren't buying it. They say that information from medical records already is routinely collected and sold for commercial gain without patient consent and that a health-care ID system would only encourage more of the same. The result, they say, will be more patients losing trust in the personal health records system and hiding things from their doctors, resulting in a deterioration in care. They agree that it's crucial to move medical history records into the digital age. But they say it can be done without resorting to universal health IDs.

Personal Health Record:E-Health vetting plan abandoned

From The Australian IT:

A broad range of bodies, including the Consumers Health Forum, the Australian Privacy Foundation, the Pharmacy Guild, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, the Medical History Software Industry Association and individual vendors have called for the establishment of a broad-based new PCEHR governance structure.

But in an addendum to the PCEHR Concept of Operations issued late Wednesday, Health says the departmental secretary will take on the role permanently, with a small caveat that “another body established by a law of the Commonwealth may be prescribed by the regulations to be the System Operator in the future, if necessary”.

The policy previously stated that “The PCEHR health information system would be managed by a single System Operator under a governance model that would be defined in the future”.

Now, the department says: “Having the Secretary of the Department as the System Operator will ensure accountability and transparency of operations and coverage by commonwealth financial, data security and privacy arrangements.

“It will also allow a smooth transition from contractual governance arrangements established for the system build, and the ability to coordinate the necessary jurisdictional and stakeholder involvement.”

The operator will be aided by a Jurisdictional Advisory Committee, comprising one representative from each of the federal, state and territory health departments, and an Independent Advisory Council which includes healthcare provider, consumer and other sector stakeholder representatives, although observers have previously noted the operator is not obliged to heed any advice from either source.

When the PCEHR system commences operation, more than 500,000 health providers working across public and private healthcare organisations nationwide will have access to personal health information about their patients via a centralised record repository and indexing system.

Patients and providers will have to opt-in to this voluntary system, and consent arrangements will allow patients to control which providers can access personal health records.

But every Australian listed on the Medicare and Veterans Affairs databases has already been assigned a unique, 16-digit Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI) through the identity and records matching service to be operated by Medicare, while providers have been issued Healthcare Provider Identifiers through their professional registration bodies.

The addendum also advises that healthcare organisations will have to agree to certain conditions around intellectual property rights, external auditing and access to information, to gain registration with the PCEHR system.

“This will require additional system functionality to maintain registration details and a process to support registration,” it notes.

Delta College Health Information Technology program still taking applicants for program

From MLive.com:

Delta College’s Health Information Technology program is looking for new students to sign up before thefederal funding that helps support the program runs out.

The program is designed for people with a health care or health information technology background to get training in three areas: clinician-practitioner, implementation manager and technical software support.

The program began in 2010 after Delta received $1.41 million out of $14.6 million given to 17 Midwestern community colleges to offer the medical history training. The money came from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“We are encouraging applications still,” said Sharon Leenhouts, health information technology program coordinator. “We can only give the scholarships until the resources have been exhausted.”

Leenhouts said the program has had about 30 graduates and another 270 currently in the program.

The program has open entry and open exit, so students can take courses whenever they want. But Dave Case, lead faculty with the Health Information Technology Department, said the program is designed to take about six months. An example of a student in the program, Case said, would be a nurse or medical assistant interested in improving their credentials.

“It adds to their resume, to their employability and their advancement,” Case said. “Our local hospitals are rapidly incorporating technology.”

The clinician or practitioner consultant track is for students who already are licensed professionals or have significant experience in federal, state or local public health agencies. The implementation managers track teaches students to manage health information technology systems and mobile adoption support teams. The third track, technical and software support, teaches students how to maintain and support technology systems in clinical and public and personal health information settings.

State of Illinois Selects InterSystems HealthShare for Statewide Electronic Health Records

From MarketWatch:

InterSystems Corporation, a global leader in software for connected care, today announced that InterSystems HealthShare(TM) has been selected as the technology platform for the Illinois Health Information Exchange. Estimated value of the contract is $7.25 million.

Building our electronic health record information exchange is a major step in transforming health care and helping patients," Governor Quinn said. "Statewide access to electronic records means that vital patient information will be instantly available to doctors and hospitals when it is needed most, improving health care delivery and saving lives."

Development of the Illinois HIE is funded through a federal grant program established to allow states to assist health care providers and hospitals with the exchange of electronic health records (EHRs). Illinois received $18.8 million over four years to develop this capacity, and the first phase of exchange services is expected to be available statewide in April 2012.

Comprehensive, Massively Scalable Solution

The statewide HIE network will provide seamless clinical information flow to more than 50,000 healthcare providers, payers and state agencies. It is expected to serve a patient population of 13 million individuals, according to Laura Zaremba, Director of the Illinois Office of Health Information Technology.

InterSystems HealthShare is a breakthrough software solution that provides the massive scalability needed to support Illinois' large patient population and a rich feature set that goes beyond basic HIE and interoperability requirements. It provides a unified strategic informatics platform designed to fulfill the requirements of regional health information and personal health records  exchanges and IDNs both now and in the future.

Patients should have online access to medical records, says report

From The Guardian:

NHS patients will be allowed to see and edit their medical records under proposals in a government-commissioned report.

The plan is contained in a report that an expert advisory group, headed by Professor Steve Field, the coalition's NHS troubleshooter, is finalising before handing it to the Department of Health.

The changes would enable patients to view their whole medical history, study the result of diagnostic tests and see what drugs they have been prescribed before. They would also be able to check on their next appointment and order a repeat prescription.

The NHS Future Forum will outline the significant extension of patients' rights in a report on how greater availability of information in the health service can improve treatment and make users of NHS services feel more involved and empowered.

The plan will help the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, finally realise his longstanding goal of an "information revolution" intended to help put patients more in control of their own care and health information.

The scheme could be operational in England inside three years, the forum believes.

One forum member said that in an age when citizens could access their bank account details from their home computer, it was "unsustainable" for existing restrictions on patients' access to their personal health records to continue.

Currently, patients' right to see their records is protected under the NHS Constitution but they have to apply for access and explain why they want to see them.