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Saw this on the television another day regarding insurance for women.  Peggy Robertson is denied insurance for having a C-Section previously.  The insurance does not want to cover for the cost of another c-section if she indeed decided to have another child.  The only way the insurance company will cover her is if she gets Sterilized.  This really is absurd!

What does this have to do with EHR you ask?  With medical information be digitized now a days, it is easier and easier to calculate where the costs are.  One aspect we have to make sure EHR doesn’t get into is helping insurance companies come up with algorithms like above.  If women had c-section then no insurance coverage).  We are truly in a serious need of healthcare overhaul.

I always pondered regarding the idea of flu shots since you are essentially injecting virus into your body and you have no idea what kind of reaction your body will come back with. As in the video, this beautiful lady was a former cheerleader who thought nothing of the vaccine. However, even in a one in a million chance, if your body reacts negatively to it, your chance is now 1 in 1 with no way of turning back.

Recently Kaiser announced the creation of a massive genetic database.

The article states:

The effort will make use of existing saliva samples taken from California patients, whose average age is 65. Their DNA will be analyzed for 700,000 genetic variations called single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, using array analysis technology from Affymetrix in Santa Clara, CA. Through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the resulting information will be available to other researchers, along with a trove of patient data including patients’ Kaiser Permanente electronic health records, information about the air and water quality in their neighborhoods, and surveys about their lifestyles.

A genetic database together with large EHR system it will definitely advance the development of personalize medicine.

I just saw this article called eHealth scandals making us sick regarding how EHR has failed in Canada.

Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter has just issued a scathing report on his province’s EHR efforts, concluding the government lost control of the project, which began in 2002, and has spent $1 billion with little to show for it, leaving its future mired in controversy.

What few people understand is that the cost of implementing an EHR system can really balloon if it is not managed carefully.  It is especially worse when third party consultants are used.  Hopefully we don’t get anymore of these stories with the stimulus money.

Epic Systems is one of the EHR companies that have really dominated the IT health care industry.  However, it is not be mentioned as some of other companies such as Cerner, Allscripts, and Quality Systems because it is a private company.

Forbes came out with an article recently regarding Epics called Wired Medicine’s Silent Giant.  I have been to the Epic’s head quarter for training and they really have state of the art facility.  Their buildings were better than any other tech companies I have been to (e.g. Oracle, Cisco, IBM, & Microsoft).  My first thought is that they must be doing extremely well to be building like crazy.  I didn’t have much of a chance to play around with their software but I hope they are really helping the hospitals and eventually the patients.

I saw this article this morning regarding bio surveillance, the detection and observation of disease outbreaks, and it is quite fascinating.

The basic idea behind the article is that with a computerized system, there are more automation, integration, and analysis that can do done on top of that data.  With additional analysis,  doctors might be able to picking outbreaks similar to H1N1 much faster than it was previously.  On the flip side, people are traveling more and more so the rate in which flu spreads is getting faster and faster in comparison to the past.

However, in order for such detection to be successful, a well defined data exchange system will have to in place between different hospitals.  If that doesn’t work, at least we will have Google flu trend as a mean track how bad the flu season is.

Technology can accomplish great things if it is used properly and it has made human lives much easier compare to the past.  However, because of technology if something goes wrong, the consequence is as severe as the convenience it provided.

With the focus of technology on health care, there are reasons to be worried.  From privacy to security, there are a lot of possible ways things can go wrong if not handled properly.   If nothing else, the cost technology can sore as a result of mishandle of planning and it will cost the tax payers.

It will be good to pay attention to the negative news instead of simply looking at the benefits of EHR systems.