Feature Articles

Drones and the Future of Disaster Response

Four continental states and one U.S. territory took a beating this fall as one natural disaster after another rocked communities in Northern California and along the Gulf Coast, spreading disaster relief resources and personnel thin as federal, state, and local governments scrabbled to address the crises. Wildfires in California's wine country claimed at least 42 lives, 8,400 structures, and 245,000 acres of land in October. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma pummeled Louisiana, Texas, and Florida only to be followed by Hurricane Maria, which slammed Puerto Rico on September 20 and left much of the U.S. territory without communications systems, electricity, clean water, or functioning hospitals....

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HLN's Report on Patient Centered CDS Learning Network Conference

The Learning Network is an initiative funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) whose goal is to encourage collaboration and development of tools and resources to support clinical decision support (CDS) as it relates to individual patients and their caregivers. This work is an offshoot of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) initiative which focuses on the relationship between healthcare providers in patients in making better, more informed, healthcare decisions. A sister project to the Learning Network is the AHRQ-funded CDS Connect Repository which has begun to house shareable CDS artifacts which represent evidence-based standards of care.

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Developing Nations Improving Health Communication Through the Use of DHIS2 (Part 1)

DHIS2 implementations are spreading steadily among national health services in developing countries as well as among international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to improving health in the developing world through the use of health information technology. As an open source solution, DHIS2 offers developing countries the advantage of adopting a cost-effective and flexible solution for aggregate statistical data collection, validation, analysis, management, and presentation as well as for data sharing between healthcare professionals and facilities. Organizations and individuals who work with humanitarian software solutions will need to know what DHIS2 is, how it works, and how it might be implemented by national health services and other health-related projects across the globe...

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Why Cloud-Based Public Health Solutions are a Good Option for Clinical Decision Support

Cloud computing is one of the most powerful technology deployment strategies in use today. In fact, the notion of cloud resources has become prominent in consumer computing with only a limited understanding of what it means or does (e.g., Apple iCloud and Google Cloud). In this article we will examine some of the key reasons to host public health clinical decision support (CDS) solutions in the cloud. In a recent national survey, 95% of respondents indicated that they were using some form of cloud computing in their environment...The first step is to to understand the difference between cloud computing and traditional computing.

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A New Pricing Model for Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recent $5 billion-per-year commitment to modular Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) technologies has signaled a long-overdue paradigm shift in the way we think about Medicaid information systems. This shift is already beginning to revolutionize and improve a health care system that over 73 million people depend on every day. Currently, MMIS services is at least a $7 billion-per-year industry. As the influence of modular, cloud-based, and SaaS (Software as a Service) technologies continue to exert themselves on MMIS, this industry will mature and move into the 21st century. One exciting aspect of this maturation will be a new pricing model for MMIS services.

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Moving Counter-Clockwise: Lessons from Hurricanes, Floods and Earthquakes

The plethora of natural disasters raises all sorts of complicated but expected issues – from discussions of the legitimacy of global warming to the adequacy (or lack thereof) of on the ground relief efforts. One would have thought that post-Katrina, we would be ready, willing and able to provide immediate relief to those in need of disaster relief...despite capacities, we have been stunningly slow in moving these new services into disaster areas. Instead of technology advancing the ball, it is as if we are moving our clocks backwards. Sure, in the absence of cell towers, creative workarounds have been enabled like ATT&T facilitating communications to/from the mainland for its customers.

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Reflecting on Data as a Service Provider in Education

One would think that all educators have been keen for decades on collecting, analyzing, thinking about, using data creatively and making data available across the disciplines and within their own institutions.  Sadly, this has not happened.  Education is way behind healthcare in this regard. Within the past several decades, though, have data have become the “new kid on the education block” and have garnered real interest.  Indeed, institutions now talk about data informed decision-making although to be sure, it often stops -- not enables – innovation because the absence of data is rolled out as the excuse for making forward progress.

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Improving Healthcare Delivery: Data as Service Provider

We have all experienced, or know someone who has experienced, problems with our healthcare delivery systems. To be sure, there are commonalities among the issues that arise but each patient’s situation has unique, personal features.  These differences can lead to vastly different outcomes, including those affecting family caregivers. Consider a couple general examples. There can be a range of medical errors, whether caused by physicians or other medical personnel, some largely inconsequential and others leading to devastating outcomes; there can be discontinuity of care with siloed or non-integrative providers and procedures where each sector of the medical profession is working to solve the body part problem in their limited sphere and coordination is hard to achieve...

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America’s Healthcare Secret Pricing Scandal Exposed

For everyone who is literally sick and tired of being held ransom by a corrupt healthcare system where insurance companies, their lobbyists, hospital networks, and pharmaceutical companies have had the upper hand by keeping us in the pricing dark, Pratter believes it is time for the unsustainability and unfairness of secret pricing and crippling “surprise” medical bills to stop. This article exposes America’s secret pricing scandal like never before and how it is carefully and purposefully crafted. A review of several self-insured companies’ medical bills has led to the following conclusions. They call their pricing proprietary. We call it secret and unethical. Take your secretly priced anti-nausea medicine and keep reading.

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MOTECH: How An Open Source SMS Medical Platform Is Improving Patient Engagement and Reaching Underserved Populations in Developing Nations

Implementation of the MOTECH Suite is spreading rapidly among government health services and humanitarian organizations that address the health of potentially vulnerable or at-risk populations across the globe. As an open source solution, MOTECH affords a number of advantages for health services, particularly in low resource areas of the world. Organizations or individuals who work with software solutions to healthcare-related humanitarian issues will need to know what MOTECH is, how it works, and how it might be used to improve the health of various populations...

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OpenMRS Conference in Uganda Redefines Global Health IT Collaboration

Hundreds of developers and health experts gathered in Uganda this past December to attend the OpenMRS Implementers conference. This event has in many ways redefined the global health IT landscape. This is the first OpenMRS conference that has been officially sponsored by the government of a nation, setting the stage for future conferences that can bring together open source developers and government officials to build national health IT solutions. Read More »

South Carolina Awards BIS Contract: the First Multimillion-Dollar Opportunity of Many

On December 30th, the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS) indicated its intent to award the SAS institute with a substantial contract to furnish a new Business Intelligence System (BIS). The contract, finalized on January 10th, represents a $45 million dollar, seven-year commitment on behalf of South Carolina. Other bidders on the contract included Truven Health Analytics, Deloitte, Optum, and Elder Research. James Samimi-Farr. This business intelligence platform constitutes part of South Carolina’s overall Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) replacement project.

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A Discussion of Medicaid’s $5 Billion/Year IT Infrastructure Transformation

CMS provides funding to the tune of 5 billion dollars per year to support the Medicaid information technology platforms run by the states. In December 2015, CMS issued a final rule, Mechanized Claims Processing and Information Retrieval Systems (90%  Federal/10% State), to assist states to update Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS) in over 20 states. These changes will allow states to improve customer service and support the dynamic nature of Medicaid eligibility, enrollment, and delivery systems. Also within this rule was language directing the Medicaid Enterprise towards an open, modular architecture.

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Will “Digital Fingerprint” Forensics Thwart the Data Thieves Lurking in Hospital EHR Corridors?

As Halloween approaches, the usual spate of horror movies will intrigue audiences across the US, replete with slashers named Jason or Freddie running amuck in the corridors of all too easily accessible hospitals. They grab a hospital gown and the zombies fit right in.  While this is just a movie you can turn off, the real horror of patient data theft can follow you...Unfortunately, this horror movie scenario is similar to how data thefts often occur at medical facilities. In 2015, the healthcare industry was one of the top three hardest hit industries with serious data breaches and major attacks, along with government and manufacturers. Packed with a wealth of exploitable information such as credit card data, email addresses, Social Security numbers, employment information and medical history records, much of which will remain valid for years, if not decades and fetch a high price on the black market.

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VistA is Going Places, and Also Staying Put

The Veterans Health Administration's hospital software, VistA, is a computing legend. Few pieces of software have become the subject of a popular book (Best Care Anywhere), won repeated awards for their usability, or been credited with a 180-degree turn-around in an organization's quality. But VistA is getting long in the tooth, and many--including now the VA itself--are questioning whether it's time for something new.The speculations aren't just about VistA. They extend to all health care software of that generation, including the industry's leading electroinc health record (EHR) system--Epic--and the venerable Intermountain Healthcare.

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