Ebola on the Internet: The Digital Health Warning from Boston to West Africa

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With a 60% spike in reported cases over the past two weeks, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues to spread at a frightening rate. Physicians, disaster relief responders and the World Health Organization (WHO) alike remain unsure of how to stop the deadliest outbreak to date—but one Boston-bred digital health company could have predicted it was coming. HealthMap, a team of researchers, epidemiologists, and software developers at Boston Children’s Hospital, has been conducting online outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats since its founding in 2006. According to a recent article published in TIME Magazine, HealthMap had already alerted key U.S. government agencies about West Africa’s Ebola outbreak days before the WHO first announced it.

Using its online program, HealthMap is able to deliver aggregated intelligence on a range of emerging infectious diseases. In creating this app, HealthMap scours social media, online news sources and eyewitness reports for early signs of disease outbreaks. In bringing these data together, HealthMap achieves a unified view of current infectious diseases, their effects on human health, and can share these views with the public via a mobile app called “Outbreaks Near Me.”

Regarding the Ebola outbreak, HealthMap accessed a Kenyan news report on 23 deaths due to hemorrhagic fever in March, and promptly notified U.S. officials. Although action was not taken after this initial report, it appears that online technology has improved the ability to detect and track outbreaks. As of now, most major U.S. government agencies subscribe to Healthmap.org’s daily email alerts and online postings.

Sources: TIME Magazine and NPR

Check out HealthMap’s website here for more information.

About DoseSpot

DoseSpot is a Surescripts™ certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Surescripts Publishes the 2013 National e-Prescribing Progress Report

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Surescripts recently published their annual National Progress Report highlighting advances in e-Prescribing throughout the United States. Without a doubt e-Prescribing is ‘here to stay’ and DoseSpot continues to be at the forefront of e-Prescribing integration services.

Below are a few key figures from the National Progress Report:

#1. More than 1.04 Billion e-Prescriptions were sent in 2013.

#2. 699 Million medication histories were delivered which often assist in limiting drug-drug interaction errors.

#3. Office-based physician adoption continues to grow and currently stands at 73%.

#4. 95% of pharmacies have adopted e-Prescribing.

About DoseSpot

DoseSpot is a Surescripts™ certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

5 Tips To Guide Your EHR Through Meaningful Use Stage 2

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Looking for tips to navigate MU stage 2 requirements?  View one tip on drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks below and visit http://www.dosespot.com/meaningful-use-tips to download all 5 certification tips!

Meaningful Use Stage 2: Tip #2 –

§ 170.314(a)(2) Drug-drug, drug-allergy interaction checks

Objective: In addition to providing drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks, this criteria requires EHRs to adjust the level of interactions based on user roles (ie: administrator).

Tip: Provide an easy-to-use user interface so a user can quickly adjust the interactions. DoseSpot allows the user to turn on and off the drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions as well adjust the severity level display between minor, moderate and major interactions.

Click here for more blog posts at ePrescribing.org on Meaningful Use.

Bear River Mental Health Prescribes with DoseSpot

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About Bear River Mental Health:

Bear River Mental Health (BRMH) provides comprehensive mental health services to more than 3,000 patients annually at their eight locations across Utah.  Delivering mental health services according to the best practice guidelines with respect to appropriate medical necessity for more than 35 years, BRMH offers an array of services including:

• Assessments

• Behavior Management

• Crisis Management

• Medication Management

• Peer Support

• Psychological Testing

• Psychosocial Rehabilitation

• Psychotherapy

• Residential Services

• Respite Care

• Skills Development

e-Prescribing Integration:

“DoseSpot support is second to none” exclaims Thad Hunsaker, BRMH.  All eight of the BRMH offices use DoseSpot, with physicians accessing the e-Prescribing solution from multiple locations.  Thad explains, “Geographic location hasn’t added any difficulty where the service is provided online.” As a mental health organization, BRMH uses DoseSpot for more than just e-Prescribing.  “Patient medication management has long been an integral part of our treatment.  DoseSpot helps us manage this process online” adds Thad.  DoseSpot equips physicians with the capabilities to build a patient’s medication profile and then automatically review any drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions.

For the rest of this Case Study please visit http://www.dosespot.com/bear-river-mental-health.

Telehealth Overview, Utilization and Trends

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Gone are the days of taking the morning off from work to squeeze in a last minute doctor’s appointment to diagnose the flu-like symptoms you developed over night. The new alternative is telehealth, a concept that is bringing innovation to the traditional methods of healthcare delivery and accessibility, providing patients and doctors with greater flexibility and efficiency. Telehealth has already taken 2014 by storm and has instantly become the new healthcare IT buzz word. So much so that DoseSpot created a new Telehealth White Paper to share information on current telehealth utilization and upcoming trends. Within the white paper you will also find information on how telehealth companies can leverage e-Prescribing software to enhance the telehealth visit for both doctors and patients.

To download DoseSpot’s Telehealth White Paper, please visit www.dosespot.com/telehealth-whitepaper.

Government Shutdown and Impact on HealthIT

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As we enter day three of the government shutdown, below are a few insightful healthIT and e-prescribing related articles that we think are great resources.

Also to keep in mind, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology website and Twitter handle (@ONC_HealthIT) are not being updated at this time.  You can find the Department of Health and Human Services contingency plan here.

Happy reading and keep up the awesome work!

ONC to take hit in government shutdown

‘Should Congress fail to pass legislation to continue funding the federal government, as it appears likely, the Department of Health and Human Services will be forced to furlough more than half of its employees. And the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT would be hit particularly hard.

Of the total 184 on-board staffers at ONC, only four would be retained and charged with handling “orderly phase-down and suspension of operations.”

Indeed, a government shutdown would mean ONC will put on hold its standards and interoperability work, privacy and security policy activities, clinical quality measure development, as well as maintaining the Certified Health IT Product List.’

According to Tom Sullivan, Editor, Government Health IT

What the Government Shutdown means for HealthIT Development

‘Non-essential US government operations are shut down as of last night.  That has some impacts on us in the Health IT Standards development space:

1. You won’t be able to test your CCDA documents or your implementation of the Direct transport.  TTT is down (the DNS name isn’t even found right now).
2. IHE testing supported by NIST will be offline (the servers are being shut down).
3. The Certified Health IT Products List won’t be updated.  It will still function, but you won’t see newly certified products after 9/27.  Certifiers can still operate if they have local copies of test tools.
4. Federal Employees engaged in standards development will not be on HL7 or IHE calls, or responding to e-mails.  You may see SOME e-mails today ensuring an orderly shutdown, but that will be it until things are resolved……..’

According to Keith Boone, Technology Blogger, Standards Architect at GE Healthcare, Director at large for Health Level Seven

Government shutdown could cause ‘chaos’ for ONC, health IT

‘John Halamka, FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member and CIO at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, passed along an email to FierceHealthIT from one of his employees which said that, because the National Insitute of Standards and Technology is closed, certification of technology systems will be delayed. Document verification efforts, instead, will take place manually, it said.’

‘Meanwhile, FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member Todd Richardson, vice president and CIO at Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus, Inc., said he isn’t too worried about the shutdown.”Perhaps I’m a mid-west pundit, but I don’t get too alarmed by all the noise coming out of D.C., and certainly am not about to make any rash decisions about which projects I need to look at stopping or slowing down,” Richardson, also a FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member, said in an email.’

According to FierceHealthIT

Government Shutdown Halts Health IT

‘The shutdown’s impact on health IT goes much deeper than the lapse in social media activity. It’s also being felt by multiple key ONC programs. For example, the administration of the Certified Health Information Technology Product List (CHPL) has stopped reporting to work. The CHPL maintains a public repository of EHR systems that have been tested and certified to ONC standards. Providers can only use products from this list to qualify for MU and receive payments under the program.

Work on the federally-funded Standards and Interoperability Framework has also ceased. This program is a collaboration of government agencies and private organizations geared toward improving the interoperability of health IT systems. In addition, the ONC will be unable to continue other standards, testing, and policy activities — all of which could have a marked impact on health IT privacy, security, and clinical quality measure development.

Finally, even though MU incentive dollars are still being paid out to providers during the shutdown, a lengthy government standoff could stall provider efforts to meet current Stage 1 and upcoming Stage 2 MU requirements. For example, without continued certification and testing, many health IT systems will remain uncertified, potentially stalling a healthcare provider’s ability to meet MU targets.

While the government shutdown isn’t “halting” health IT, it’s definitely an unwelcome obstacle standing in the way of continued health IT progress. Hopefully, the shutdown is short-lived.’

According to Ken Congdon, editor-in-chief, Healthcare Technology Online

Health Disparities to be Tackled in Meaningful Use Stage 3

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While EHR companies are working to meet Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 criteria, industry leaders have been collaborating to develop MU Stage 3 requirements.  Last week, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth published an action plan, Leveraging Meaningful Use to Reduce Health Disparities Plan, to leverage MU Stage 3 requirements to reduce health disparities.

According to Healthcare IT News, the proposed action plan:

1. Recommends that EHRs have the ability to stratify patients’ specific conditions by variables such as race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and disability status.
2. Calls for greater use of patient data collected and shared through devices such as smartphones.
3. Emphasizes the need to ensure that electronic health information is effectively communicated to patients, so they are better able to utilize its benefits.

The goal is to address health disparities as part of Stage 3 requirements resulting in improved health outcomes and measurement nationwide.  Notable statistics surrounding disparities highlighted in the action plan include:

• 58 million people ages five and older speak a language other than English at home
• 56 million people live with a disability
• Women account for 50.8 percent of the population
• The U.S. Hispanic population reached 50.5 million, increasing 43 percent from the year 2000 and accounting for over half of the total population increase in the U.S.

e-Prescribing State By State – Texas

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Featured e-Prescribing State: Texas

Office Based Physicians e-Prescribing in Texas

Interested in another state’s e-Prescribing statistics? Just Contact DoseSpot.

Source: Surescripts State Progress Reports

Meaningful Use: Stage 1 vs. Stage 2

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With Stage 2 right around the corner many EHRs, physicians, dentists, and other ‘eligible professionals’ are seeking guidance. So here it is! Today’s blog post features a Stage 1 vs. Stage 2 Comparison Table for 3 Meaningful Use Core Objectives.

More comparisons are coming…stay tuned!

….Congrats to last week’s DoseSpot #TuesdayTweetup winner @jasmith1437 and runner up @techydoc.

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Stage 1 Objective: CPOE

Use CPOE for medication orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines

Stage 1 Measure: CPOE

More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

Stage 2 Objective: CPOE

Use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines

Stage 2 Measure: CPOE

More than 60% of medication, 30% of laboratory, and 30% of radiology orders created by the EP during the EHR reporting period are recorded using CPOE

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Stage 1 Objective: e-Prescribing

Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

Stage 1 Measure: e-Prescribing

More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

Stage 2 Objective: e-Prescribing

Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

Stage 2 Measure: e-Prescribing

More than 50% of all permissible prescriptions written by the EP are compared to at least one drug formulary and transmitted electronically using Certified EHR Technology

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Stage 1 Objective: Record Demographics

Record demographics: Preferred language, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Date of birth

Stage 1 Measure: Record Demographics

More than 50% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

Stage 2 Objective: Record Demographics

Record demographics: Preferred language, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Date of birth

Stage 2 Measure: Record Demographics

More than 80% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

Source: http://go.cms.gov/12r3Gsc

e-Prescribing State By State – New York

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Featured e-Prescribing State: New York

Office Based Physicians e-Prescribing in New York

Interested in another state’s e-Prescribing statistics? Just Contact DoseSpot.

Source: Surescripts State Progress Reports