e-HealthExpert.org - Primum non nocere

The US Government published (2005.12.23) a list of the 20 messaging and vocabulary standards that from now on will be used at the US Government funded health care information systems.

“The portfolio of 20 adopted standards will be used in all federal agencies implementing new, and to the extent possible, in modifying existing health information technology systems, as well as related business processes”

These seem to be big news as this list has the potential to be the basis for further Health IT Interoperability initiatives.

The main adoptees are: HL7 2.x, DICOM, SNOMED CT, LOINC and HIPAA (Trans. and Code Sets).

The list may be freely downloaded from the US Gov. Printing Office.

(The e-HealthExpert.org members will have to log into the e-HealthExpert.org site to be able to download a copy by following the "attachment"/"fr23de05-78.pdf" link presented bellow these lines.)

The International Journal for Quality in Health Care published this month (Dec 2005) the preliminary results of a study about the the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored "Performance Assessment Tool for quality improvement in Hospitals" Project (PATH).

The article is titled "A performance assessment framework for hospitals: the WHO regional office for Europe PATH project"

The following was taken from that article's abstract:

Objective . The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe launched in 2003 a project aiming to develop and disseminate a flexible and comprehensive tool for the assessment of hospital performance and referred to as the performance assessment tool for quality improvement in hospitals (PATH). This project aims at supporting hospitals in assessing their performance, questioning their own results, and translating them into actions for improvement, by providing hospitals with tools for performance assessment and by enabling collegial support and networking among participating hospitals.

Newsweek has a very interesting article by no less than Google's own CEO, Eric Schmidt.

In that article, named "Google: Ten Golden Rules", it is explained how Google has been inspired by Peter Drucker to manage their "knowledge workers".

It seems that they have been following Drucker's doctrine, according to which knowledge workers believe they are paid to be effective, not to work 9 to 5, and that smart businesses must "strip away everything that gets in their knowledge workers' way."

Google believes that in doing that kind of management those that succeed will attract the best performers, securing "the single biggest factor for competitive advantage in the next 25 years"

You may print the full article from: "Google: Ten Golden Rules - printer"

Jakob Nielsen is well known author that has been writing about computer usability for years. His "Top Ten Web Design Mistakes" article series is by now well known and appreciated globally.

In April 2005 he wrote a small article on Medical Software Usability, named "Medical Usability: How to Kill Patients Through Bad Design". The following was taken from that article:

"A field study identified twenty-two ways that automated hospital systems can result in the wrong medication being dispensed to patients. Most of these flaws are classic usability problems that have been understood for decades."

That article's full text is available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050411.html and the full list of Nielsen's "Alertbox" articles on usability are available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/

Taking steps to reduce IT turnover - When it comes to the topic of employee retention within the IT industry, most organizations just don't get it. Too often, there is a feeling that IT turnover is an intractable problem and that high turnover rates are simply a way of life. But that's not so -- you can recognize the causes of the problems and move to correct them before they lead to turnover. [IT Manager's Journal]

EMIS offers washable keyboards with systems - Primary care systems supplier, EMIS, has started to offer washable computer keyboards as standard with its systems. [EHI Primary Care]

The US Dep. of Health & Human Services announced, in 2005.08.19, the formation of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The full Statement of Organization, Functions, and Delegations of Authority is available as ONC Health IT formation paper (Html/Text) or ONC Health IT formation paper (pdf)

The new Office has the following mission:

"The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology provides leadership for the development and nationwide implementation of an interoperable health information technology infrastructure to improve the quality and efficiency of health care and the ability of consumers to manage their care and safety.

The Journal of Medical Internet Research is assembling a special theme issue on "Online Cancer Services".
Most articles are also of interest for those having (or preparing to have) their Hospital/Clinics interfaced with the Internet.
Articles for the upcoming issue will be published as they become available. You may find them at: http://www.jmir.org/2005/3/

An article at the EHI Primary Care site reports that the chairman of the British Medical Association has criticised the UK government's choice agenda and dubbed the "Choose and Book" program a "fiasco" that takes no account of how GPs and hospitals work.

"Choose and Book" is a UK national project that intends to combine electronic booking and a choice of time, date and place for first outpatient appointment (more at: Choose and Book Site)

A recent survey of more than 2000 members of the public conducted by YouGov for the BMA found ‘choice of where to have an operation’ came bottom of a list of 10 options of where those surveyed thought NHS funding should be prioritised. Cleaner hospitals, improved accident and emergency and shorter waits for outpatient appointments were the top three priorities rated by the public.

The chairman of the British Medical Association told doctors at the annual representative that "Choose and Book": “Has been a fiasco so far because people who do not work with doctors or patients have devised a system which does not begin to understand the basis on which GPs refer and hospitals organise clinics. This is just a mini example of the much bigger mess that could be coming our way with Connecting for Health (*) if the new systems are not planned with the involvement of the nurses and doctors who deliver the services to patients.”

(*) Connecting for Health is the UK's National ten year Programme for IT (more at: Connecting for Health Site)

The full article is available at: Choose and Book a 'fiasco', claims BMA chair

Is the enterprise software licensing business dying? Is anybody out there buying new licenses?
Based on news from the past few weeks, it seems that there are very few buyers.
The collapse of new licensing revenue isn't news -- it started five years ago -- but the latest news makes it look like a permanent and accelerating fact of life for software vendors.
The article, titled IT Execs to Vendors: Your Software Stinks, sets the tone for the industry's most recent quarter. Ouch! It contains the astonishing claim by the CIO of British Petroleum that out of a $2B IT budget, only $30M is allocated for new software licenses.
Source: [IT Manager's Journal]