by medicaltechont | Feb 14, 2015 | United States
Modernizing Medicine, creator of the Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA), a cloud-based, specialty-specific electronic medical record (EMR) system, on January 29 responded to recent announcements from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and leading health insurers, regarding the concerted push away from fee-for-service healthcare models in favor of outcome-based reimbursements.
CMS has announced that 85 percent of Medicare payments in 2016 could be based on quality of care, and that number could grow to 90 percent in 2018. Additionally, a UnitedHealth Group executive was reported to have said that the company plans to increase value- based payments to doctors and hospitals by 20 percent this year, forecasting over $40 billion in payments tied to value or quality of care.
“This major shift in payment models requires the right tools and reporting systems if physicians and provider organizations want to safeguard against penalties from volume-based medicine and benefit from related incentives,” said Modernizing Medicine’s CEO and Co- founder Dan Cane in a statement issued following the recent announcements from CMS and HHS. “Modernizing Medicine is deeply committed to the physicians and healthcare professionals we serve, and we believe that health information technology vendors share a large part of the responsibility to ease the impending transition toward quality reporting and outcomes-based reimbursements.”
Unlike EMRs using templates or macros, EMA was designed with unique structured data technology that handles the Value-based Payment Modifier and enables quality reporting including Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) program reporting. Cane believes Modernizing Medicine is in a market leading position in providing a system that addresses this burden for physicians, enabling them to focus on practicing medicine without fear of the upcoming changes.
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by medicaltechont | Feb 14, 2015 | Canada, Dubai, World
Canadian Specialist Hospital (CSH), one of the leading private sector hospitals in the UAE, has won the topmost rating from Dubai Health Authority (DHA) for progress made in electronic documentation in line with international best practices in integrating information technology for improved patient care.
The DHA evaluation of the level of electronic documentation of medical records in hospitals was based on the internationally accepted Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). The evaluation process also coincides with Dubai’s ‘Smart City’ initiative, aimed to transform the city into one of the smartest in the world by providing seamless access to various services and utilities across high speed wireless internet.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR) enable hospitals and clinicians to maintain and track data over digital devices to identify and monitor patients for preventive visits, screening and timely intervention. With the paperless system, authorised persons can update data using the Hospital Management System (HIS) anywhere in the hospital so that for doctors, nurses and care-givers have quick and easy access to real-time patient information.
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by medicaltechont | Mar 15, 2014 | eHealth, EHR, Software
A Fredericton doctor says the province’s new electronic medical records system has created an uneven playing field.
Dr. Doug Varty was one of about 60 doctors who adopted electronic records before the new system was introduced.
He says he is out tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of work because the Department of Health and the New Brunswick Medical Society went with a program that no one was using.
In addition, Varty won’t be able to link to the provincial system, he said.
“That’s a very important part of any EMR is being able to download your data — you know, your lab reports, your X-ray reports, consultant reports and all those sorts of things, automatically, and in a timely fashion. And we’re being denied that,” Varty said.
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by medicaltechont | Oct 8, 2013 | e-Health, eHealth
After more than a decade of hard work and collaboration, digital health is making treatment safer, more efficient, and, ultimately, better for Canadians.
Consider the following:
Use of electronic medical records (EMR) in community-based practices in Canada has yielded efficiency and patient care benefits valued at $1.3-billion since 2006.
Drug information systems reduce prescription errors and result in fewer adverse drug events with annual estimated benefits of $475-million.
Tele-health saved patients over 47 million kilometres in travel and $70-million in personal travel costs in 2010 alone.
Through investment with our jurisdictional partners, Canada Health Infoway has already established the foundational requirements for securely capturing, storing, sharing, accessing and managing health information. And while every province and territory is at a different stage of development, they are all working on these foundational elements according to their local priorities and needs.
Canadian consumers are comfortable with digital tools and are global leaders in the adoption and use of information technologies such as social media, online shopping and digital banking. Coupled with a growing desire to manage our wellness and to take on more active roles in the management of our chronic diseases, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in our digital health journey.
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by medicaltechont | Mar 25, 2010 | Healthcare, Ontario MD, Technology
By Anne-Marie Tobin (CP) – Mar 24, 2010
TORONTO — As Donna Hammill-Chalk undergoes treatment for breast cancer, she can log onto the website at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, type in a username and secure password, and gain access to her medical records.
In Prince Edward Island, her mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in December, doesn’t have electronic records – but if they existed, it would be easier for her to share updates on her condition and treatment with her four grown children living in different parts of the world.
“Cancer – you lose all control and you can get some control back by having access to your information,” Hammill-Chalk said in an interview Wednesday from her home in Markham, Ont., where she is recovering from a mastectomy.
“I think in this day and age, patients need to take ownership and accountability for managing their own care. And you can’t do that if you don’t have the information.”
She tells her story in a report card on cancer, released by the Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada. The report also calls for more funding for cancer drugs, bans everywhere on smoking in cars with kids and more genetic testing so treatments can be targeted to those who will benefit.
Dr. Pierre Major, chair of the report card committee, said the electronic records system at Sunnybrook, known at MyChart, is the only one he’s aware of that’s available to cancer patients in Canada.
Physicians there have told him they’re happy with it, he said.
“It’s great because patients look up in their chart what the results are, and it saves phone calls. The patients are happy because they can access their results or even change their appointments.”
It’s something that Marlene Nicholson, who lives in Bedford, N.S., can only wish for as she helps her mother navigate the health-care system. She’s Hammill-Chalk’s sister, and has made the three-hour drive to Lower Freetown, P.E.I., on numerous occasions in recent months to support their 69-year-old mom, Margaret Hammill, during her medical appointments.
With one sister in Ontario, another in Bahrain, and a brother in California, she has to relay a lot of information, Nicholson said.
“When the siblings are at a distance, yes, it would be great to be able to just say ‘OK, go here’ or ‘Mom has a password’ or whatever it takes, or if we could send a file … everybody can have access to it.”
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