Industry Insight

Borden Appointed to Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority

MRO Corp, a provider of disclosure management services and applications for healthcare organizations, recently announced that its chief technology officer, David Borden, was appointed to the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority. The authority is responsible for developing, establishing, and maintaining a health information exchange (HIE) that complies with federal and state laws and promotes efficient and effective communication among multiple healthcare providers, payers, and participants.

Borden has 30 years of experience working in IT. During his 10 years with MRO, Borden has spearheaded multiple HIT initiatives, including meaningful use certification, patient portal development, and building an esMD interface for submissions of medical records to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Most recently, Borden’s research has focused on HIE initiatives, including the Direct Project, and he is driving MRO’s development of various HIE solutions by early 2013, including a Direct Project HISP and Direct Secure Messaging capabilities.

— Source: MRO Corp

 

Medical Center Adds Mayo Clinic Telestroke Program

Residents of the largest city in the Navajo Nation who need emergency medical care for a stroke may benefit from a Mayo Clinic telestroke program now available at Tuba City Regional Health Care. Tuba City is located in northcentral Arizona within the Painted Desert. Most of the area’s population belongs to the Navajo and Hopi tribes.

“This telestroke partnership between our physicians and Mayo Clinic means our Navajo and Hopi patients can now have immediate high-tech, state-of-the-art stroke care,” says Joseph Engelken, CEO of Tuba City Regional Health Care.

Mayo Clinic serves as the hub in a network of 11 other spoke centers, all but one in Arizona. Tuba City Regional Health Care will become the 12th hospital to be part of the telestroke service from Mayo Clinic.

When Mayo Clinic began its stroke telemedicine program in 2005, statistics revealed that 40% of residents in Arizona lived outside an area with immediate stroke expertise. In telestroke care, the use of a telestroke computer located in a rural hospital lets a stroke patient be seen in real time by a neurology specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. The Mayo stroke neurologist, whose face appears on a computer screen, consults with emergency department physicians at the rural site and evaluates the patient.

The neurologist, via computer, smartphone technology, portable tablets, or laptops, can examine patients showing signs of stroke. In addition to patient assessment, the neurologist can view scans of the patient’s brain to detect possible damage from a hemorrhage or blocked artery.

A major benefit of the collaboration is that patients with stroke symptoms who meet the criteria often can receive clot-busting medications within the narrow window of time necessary to minimize permanent injury to the brain.

— Source: Mayo Clinic

 

MHC Partners With Healthcare Organizations in Statewide Health Information Network

Signaling a transformation in the way technology enables physicians and hospitals to improve care, MHC recently announced that five hospitals and healthcare providers are the first to participate in Missouri’s health information network.

BJC HealthCare, a large nonprofit healthcare organization; Mercy, with 31 acute care hospitals and 1,700 integrated physicians in the Midwest; and SSM Health Care, with 17 hospitals and the first healthcare winner of the Malcolm Baldrige Award, provide almost 40% of inpatient care in Missouri. These organizations, along with Burrell Behavioral Health, a provider of behavioral health services, and Nevada Medical Clinic, a rural multispecialty clinic, support thousands of physicians and caregivers in providing healthcare to Missourians.

The MHC network provides secure methods to share electronic patient records, referrals, discharge summaries, and other clinical documents. While many healthcare systems can communicate within their own walls, joining the MHC network allows doctors to electronically communicate health-related information across all hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers.

The MHC health information network is powered by InterSystems HealthShare, a healthcare informatics platform for information exchange and analytics within a hospital network and across a community, region, or nation.

— Source: InterSystems Corporation

 

CHIME Foundation Honors Glaser With Lifetime Achievement Award

John Glaser, PhD, CEO of Siemens Healthcare Health Services Business Unit, has been selected as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Foundation. The award recognizes contributions to the HIT industry throughout the recipient’s entire career, and Glaser was honored for a 35-year career that involves numerous leadership roles and involvement in many groundbreaking initiatives.

Glaser joined Siemens Healthcare in August 2010 as CEO of the global HIT business. He is responsible for overseeing product development, strategy, portfolio management, financial performance, and overall customer satisfaction. Prior to this move, he was vice president and chief information officer of Boston-based Partners Healthcare, an organization that implements IT in a range of settings.

Glaser is a spokesperson for the HIT industry. He has championed the push to demonstrate how IT capabilities can enhance healthcare delivery. He served as the founding chairman of CHIME in 1992, and his long-term involvement was instrumental in helping the society grow into a professional development and advocacy organization for HIT.

— Source: College of Healthcare Information Management Executives