electronic health record

It seems the EHR pundits are starting to notice one of the side effects of EHR technology: the liabilities EHRs impose on users.

Of course, such liabilities are presented as the fault not of a cavalier industry that's disregarded notions of good software engineering, proper conduct of human subjects experimentation, appropriate methodologies for medical device trials, etc.

(while promoting the data these devices generate as 'revolutionizing healthcare') -- but as the fault of plaintiff trial lawyers.

It's interesting how most of the information below seems to have a hard time "staying put" on the Wikipedia page for "Electronic Health Record" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_health_record

This from iHealthBeat:

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Bill Would Establish New Legal Protections for EHR Adopters

The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has formally launched MedlinePlus Connect.

This free service allows health organizations and health information technology (HIT) providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus.gov, a trusted source of authoritative, up-to-date health information for patients, families and health care providers.

From the blog "Australian Health Information Technology":

I have noted that numerous policy makers I've spoken with freely admit their knowledge of healthcare IT is zero, or limited to what they've seen and heard in the press (i.e., mainly marketing messages in disguise).

Since most of these officials have little time to study the issues about health IT in depth, I've created a zipped archive of four articles I consider key.

The articles can serve as a primer on health IT problems:

In another example of executive branch spin on healthcare - this time, the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) within HHS - data that gave an off-narrative message about healthcare IT was initially withheld according to Modern Healthcare's Joseph Conn.

The data withholding is reminiscent of the data manipulation practiced in the pharmaceutical industry.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today issued a final rule to establish the permanent certification program for health information technology.

The permanent certification program provides new features that will enhance the certification of health information technology, including increasing the comprehensiveness, transparency, reliability, and efficiency of the current processes used for the certification of electronic health record (EHR) technology.

A reader, Dr. Scott Monteith, a psychiatrist, shared his thoughts on government-mandated 'Meaningful Use' of Electronic Medical Records ('MU') with me after reading a number of my EHR posts, and asked if he could share his thoughts via Healthcare Renewal.

At "Cart before the horse, again" I observed the irrationality of creating "meaningful use" rules for health IT before usability issues (i.e., poor usability) had been robustly addressed, and the further irrationality of the IOM studying HIT safety after HIT became slated for national rollout in the next few years.

The horse seems to be starting to catch up to the cart (or is it the other way around?):