Jerry Fahrni

Category: Technology

  • Stanford offers glimpse of 3D Radiology images on Flickr

    skull“The Stanford Radiology 3D Imaging Laboratory uses computed tomography and Magnetic Resonance imaging data to create three-dimensional images of the human body. Individual CT and MR scans of the body are taken around a single axis that are stacked and rendered using complex computer algorithms to create a three-dimensional volume of data. The images produced from this data can be manipulated on-screen to provide doctors with unique interior perspectives of the human body for diagnosing and treating patients. Each month the lab produces nearly 20,000 images. “- The Stanford 3D Radiology Lab has posted some pretty cool images on Flickr. If you get a moment stop and take a look, you won’t be disappointed. My favorite image is the skull, of course.

  • Shortage of qualified IT staff

    Hospitals and Health Networks: “As if it already weren’t tough enough to find and retain quality health information technology professionals, the recent passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act as part of the Obama administration’s broader economic stimulus package may only make the task more difficult. “We had a shortage of talent before this stimulus was initiated,” says Timothy R. Zoph, chief information officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. “This will exacerbate the problem.” Compounding the issue further is a triple whammy of major IT projects facing every health care organization. Not only is there the HITECH-fueled push for electronic health records, the stimulus law also tightens HIPAA privacy and security requirements, something American Health Information Management Association CEO Linda Kloss calls a “very big challenge.” And already in the works is the transition to ICD-10 coding and the related ANSI X12 5010 electronic transactions.” – I can tell you from personal experience that this is already a big issue. IT departments are struggling to keep up with the limited technology in use by healthcare today; I cannot imagine the future as hospitals continue to adopt more and more advanced technology.

  • Top 50 blogs to further your healthcare career

    e-Health News Bog: “No matter how you learn, the following top fifty blogs can help you stay in tune with healthcare and help you further your healthcare career. The blogs are divided by categories, and then listed alphabetically within those categories. This is one way we can show our readers that we do not prefer one blog over another. The blogs listed below have been updated within the past two months and are fairly active.” – My site didn’t make the cut. I just can’t catch a break. Oh, wait, it could be that these sites are all related to radiology. Whew, that’s a relief.

  • What’s the “green grade” for your healthcare organization?

    HealthBlog: “Going Green in Healthcare IT and improving organizational efficiency along the way – Strategies to improve “operational efficiency” in healthcare organizations are a recurring theme here on HealthBlog.  That’s why I wanted to share a new article on Green IT written by my colleague Chris Sullivan who manages our US health provider industry for Microsoft.  I know that Chris and his team would be very pleased to work with you directly or point you to additional resources in your quest to drive greater efficiency in your organization—a mission, in these challenging economic times, that has never been more important.”
    (more…)

  • 2009 ‘Most Wired Hospitals’

    Healthcare IT News: “The Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking study, conducted annually by Hospitals and Health Networks, has named the “100 Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems” for 2009. The survey measured the use of information technology at 1,314 hospitals for quality, customer service, public health and safety, business processes and workforce issues. The magazine also released lists of the “25 Most Improved,” the “25 Most Wireless” and the “25 Most Wired – Small and Rural” hospitals.” – The article goes on to list the winning hospitals, sorted by state. I’m sad to say we are not on the list. Maybe next year.

  • Beyond patient safety with technology and automation

    I had reason to do some thinking about healthcare automation over the weekend, and after much thought decided that healthcare, specifically pharmacy, was a little strange in several ways. As an industry, healthcare rarely looks beyond patient safety when talking about technology and automation. Let’s face it, patient safety is the rally cry for any department in need of a jumpstart to complete a project that has stalled for one reason or another. Unfortunately the investment of time, energy and capital resources typically stops immediately after implementation secondary to meeting the patient safety goal. However, this model seldom allows for technology and automation to be taken to the next logical step.
    (more…)

  • Open source software for hospital use.

    HIT Consultant Blog: “…But bringing state-of-the-art technology to health care is expensive, often running well into eight figures. Still, there are ways to keep the cost down and also provide excellent care. Forbes caught up with David Whiles, CIO of Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas, to look at ways to save huge amounts of money without sacrificing quality…So what did you do? – We came across the VistA (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) system, which was developed by the Veterans Administration. That’s used by all the 160-plus VA hospitals in the United States, plus all of their outpatient ambulatory clinics. It’s been in use by the Veterans Administration for more than 20 years. It’s a very mature system. It’s won a number of accolades from the Institute of Medicine.” – Imagine that, open source software being used in a hospital. The software may be a few years old, but thinking outside the box and implementing open source software in a hospital sure sounds cutting edge to me. Where do I apply?

  • End-user virtualization in a hospital.

    InformationWeek:”Norton Healthcare, the largest health care supplier in the Louisville, Ky., region, has adopted end-user virtualization as a means of giving doctors and nurses a desktop that follows them on their rounds.

    The five-unit acute-care hospital chain and supplier of 11 neighborhood clinics is in the process of providing 1,000 thin clients to end-user end points, such as nursing stations, clinic treatment centers, and 50 physician offices. With three shifts a day, most end points have three different users every 24 hours, noted Brian Cox, director of IT customer services.

    With VMware view set up, Cox has been able to let doctors and nurses move around the hospital and still access their desktop from the closest thin client, often at the nursing station of a wing instead of having to go back to their own desks. Their desktops can be called up from any location and used to enter patient information or look up patient records.” – Thin clients can be a useful piece of hardware in a hospital setting and I’ve touched on them before. The article doesn’t make it absolutely clear, but your personal desktop actually follows you around regardless of what machine you use to log on. Thin clients are also easier to manage and maintain than traditional desktop PCs from an IT standpoint. I realize this is not cloud computing, however it’s the same basic idea on a small, internalized scale.

  • Technology + Medical Home = Pharmacist Opportunity

    Modernmedicine.com:

    “Pharmacists certainly have the skills, training, and knowledge to be prime players in a coordinated approach,” said Judy Cahill, executive director of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. “An inherent shortcoming to this idea, however, is lack of pharmacist access to patients’ medical records. For them to play a pivotal part in care management, the medical record is essential.”

    Keckley agrees. Lack of pharmacist access to patient medical records currently limits the role of pharmacist to medication management only, rather than offering an opportunity to manage care between patients and providers, such as nutritionists and physical therapists, he saids.

    Two developments can change that: the increasing use of electronic medical records and the industry-wide promotion of electronic prescription transmission. EMRs will allow pharmacists access to diagnostic rationales and long-range patient treatment histories. For example, an EMR can give pharmacists access to laboratory data. HIPAA privacy concerns may have to be addressed through authorization forms, and state boards of pharmacy may have to reexamine current regulatory practices.

    But these concerns are already being addressed through medication therapy medication initiatives across the country — many sponsored by health plans that see a cost advantage in having pharmacists counsel patients. E-prescribing not only gives pharmacists access to insurance information — data available through pharmacy benefit management software — it also enhances communication with physicians.

    Several emerging e-prescribing models, sponsored by health plans, include e-prescribing as a component of EMRs. “Bring into that the use of clinical management tools, which are the tools that DM companies now market, and pharmacists will be able to offer a degree of coordination, especially for patients with chronic diseases, that no other provider, including physicians, are as readily able to provide,” said Keckley. “Plans could consider paying for that service.”

    This is a prime example of how technology can be used to expand the pharmacist’s role in patient care.

    Get more information about a medical home here.

  • Talking “meaningful use” with our CIO.

    The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is an $850 billion stimulus package passed by Congress aimed at encouraging economic growth in various industries through government spending. If you’re in healthcare, then you may be able to take advantage of $51 billion that has been allocated to the healthcare industry, $19 billion of which is aimed at the adoption and implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), also known as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). The only way to get your share of the money is to demonstrate that you are a “meaningful user” of an EHR system. The problem is figuring out what a “meaningful user” is.

    My curiosity about being a “meaningful user” led me to the office of our CIO, where I casually asked him if we were going to qualify for any of the funds allocated by the ARRA. He informed me that “meaningful user” had not been completely defined, and is currently a hot topic of discussion.

    (more…)