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Our virtual collaboration continues to include more communication specialists and technology professionals.

Tools for efficiency — Mobile Computing Tools for Commuting Professionals.

“The healthcare system is really disease care, and not much of a system,” said Steve Case in his keynote speech at a recent healthcare industry convention. The Internet visionary turned e-health entrepreneur made some pertinent observations on the ongoing revolution to put consumers back in charge of their own electronic health records. It may seem to some observers that adoption of technology across healthcare has been painfully slow, but as Case pointed out, 15 or 20 years ago most people also believed eCommerce could never work because most would not want to share their credit card information. As things turned out, the key to the current state of widespread eCommerce was interactivity and convenience. Not only did consumers share their credit card information, they also allowed companies to store that information online and advise them on purchases based on their personal buying habits. Case drew a parallel for the need to empower and engage healthcare consumers to more actively manage their own care. “It’s crazy to think that consumers have exceptional tools to manage their financial portfolios and fantasy football teams, but lack valuable tools to effectively manage their healthcare. We need to move from a static situation – when the patient has a problem – to a more engaging application that will bring them back to online health resources more habitually,” he said.

The latest in a series of forward looking podcasts regarding the increasing role of information technology in the transformation of healthcare is now available for download. Dr. Jack Lord, senior VP and CIO of Humana, shares his thoughts on patient-centered healthcare as “moving out of a world that we refer to as the world of sickness and death to a world of life and happiness.” Regardless of fabulous advancements an d discoveries of new molecules, devices and medical techniques, much rethinking is still needed for the actual delivery of services. Regarding the need for political consensus on the need to create a connected IT architecture for healthcare, Lord says, “I think it becomes really important to understand that you need to look at population health in a way where each person’s health becomes sort of a tile that fits into a mosaic that allows you to understand what is going on with that person’s life, that person’s family and their connectivity.”

Trust for America’s Health has released a report explaining why after 40 years of progress, infant mortality rates in the US have been stalled since 2000. Some of the trends are disturbing, yet provide sound information for how to reverse the current trends of prematurity and low birth weight babies that are most often associated with health issues in the mother such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. The report explains how by assuring primary health care to all women aged 15-44, better birth outcomes will be guaranteed.

Our summer TMIS eNewsletter includes an article of interest to our Washington and California readers. A new survey of licensed drivers in Washington and California reveals how well the new hands-free law, making talking on a cell phone while driving without the use of a hands-free, is understood. The new law took effect on July 1, 2008.

Several of our articles reveal some innovative ways government and health care businesses and organizations are collaborating to achieve the President’s goal of most Americans having access to a secure, interoperable electronic health record (EHR) by 2014. In Hawaii, the state’s largest health insurer has announced that it will provide $20 million in grants for physicians to acquire health records. Over 7000 Hawaii physicians who have already been using electronic prescribing are now well positioned to migrate to the full electronic health record, and some physicians have already been fully on EHR for several years. One family physician says his EHR has brought a full paradigm shift in the way he practices medicine, and that nothing in his career has had such a profoundly positive influence on the way he cares for his patients.

I am grateful to be in a collaborative business with many talented and skilled professionals. Additional feedback and recommendations for our products and services at TM Information Services are always welcome.

- Mary M. McLaughlin

TMIS News