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Report from HIMSS07 |
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Attendees at HIMSS07 (February 26th—March 1st) were strongly urged to expedite IT system investment and deployment. Focusing on EHR, CPOE, consumer portals, e-prescription programs, patient scheduling systems, PHR and others, speakers promoted system benefits, but largely ignored the issue of funding such systems.
While Steven Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, shared his lofty vision for the future of healthcare, General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, brought attendees down to reality by speaking about the 'flattened global world' and the risk that America be left behind by nations that are advancing at rapid rates in education and healthcare. Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt brought the issue of national healthcare costs to the forefront, by recalling that in 1951 healthcare spending was 4% of the GDP; a cost that doubles every 15 to 20 years, rendering it unsustainable in the future.
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Structured Asynchronous Collaboration: The New Panacea |
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There are two general types of collaborative technologies—synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous collaboration technologies are commonly used in organizations today and include:
- Real-time meetings
- Telecommuting and video conferencing
- E-mail listservs
- Blogs
- Project management tools
With all of the different pulls on healthcare and quality professionals’ time, undertaking improvement activities without the use of collaborative technologies would be quite daunting. But, as we move beyond e-mail, spreadsheets and static project plans, asynchronous technologies will help us to achieve something that is more dynamic—allowing for version control and fostering of participation from multiple stakeholders, in multiple locations, at multiple times.
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CCHIT Certified Technology Products: What Are They and Who Needs Them? |
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During February’s HIMSS07 conference, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Michael Leavitt, urged attendees to require that HIT vendors provide Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) certification for their products.
CCHIT was created in 2004 as a voluntary private-sector organization by three leading HIT industry associations, AHIMA, HIMSS and Alliance. In September 2005, HHS charged CCHIT to certify three categories of products:
- Ambulatory EHRs for the office-based physician or provider
- Inpatient EHRs for hospitals and health systems
- The network components through which they interoperate and share information
CCHIT is a very recent initiative, completing its first round of certification for ambulatory EHR products last year (CCHIT plans to announce certified inpatient EHR products in 2007). Visit the CCHIT website for the complete list of certified products by type or company name.
Given the three areas of current focus, only a limited number of healthcare technologies will be eligible for certification at this time, and the absence of CCHIT certification will not indicate a deficiency in these technologies.
HealthGate’s Collaboration Architect does not require CCHIT certification, as it is not an EHR or EHR network component. |
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Product Highlight: Collaboration Architect Version Comparison |
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Unlike the all too common combination of e-mail, spreadsheets, project plans and related materials used for updating and reviewing documents, HealthGate’s Collaboration Architect maintains a centralized audit trail of content changes. Collaboration Architect provides a sophisticated, yet simple, version comparison tool within its document management system to help identify words or sections of documents that have been modified over time.
From the Document List, identify a document of interest and select the Document Details icon to display the number of versions (current and archived) that exist for that document. Click the History link next to the number of versions to display the comprehensive version history for that document. Select the version numbers of the documents you wish to compare (e.g., version 1 and version 4) and select the Compare link at the bottom of the screen.
Collaboration Architect will display a single version of the document highlighting all the changes that have been made. Additions to the document will be noted in green highlight and deletions will be noted in red strikethrough text.
This feature is particularly useful for project team members wishing to review edits made during a previous document cycle, and for people who have not been intimately involved with the editorial process (but may have approval authority) to quickly review modifications made to a document. |
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