Technology in Integrated Care
This section focuses on applications of technology -- hardware and software -- in integrated and collaborative care. Look for articles, links to downloadable Open Source social networking software and other articles of note. If you have a content suggestion for this section, or would like to become editor of this section, please contact David Hunter.
Technology connects rural residents with psychiatrists
By Alison Knezevich
via The Charleston Gazette
Posted: August 10, 2009
CLAY, W.Va. -- Dr. Marilou Patalinjug Tyner greeted her patient as she always would.
"How are you doing today?"
"Could be doing better," her patient replied. "I've been having some personal problems. Not sleeping."
The 52-year-old woman has depression. She hadn't been taking her medication for two or three days. It made her too drowsy.
The exchange didn't happen in the psychiatrist's office. Patalinjug Tyner was in a conference room at Process Strategies in Charleston. She faced a 32-inch computer screen with a Web camera perched on top.
The patient was at Prestera Center's office on Main Street in Clay. She sat in a small room with a television screen - 50 miles away from her doctor, up a stretch of interstate and miles of winding rural roads.
Telemedicine like this uses videoconferencing technology to connect doctors with patients over long distances. Process Strategies, a sister company of Highland Hospital, has been using it for about seven years, Highland CEO Dave McWatters said.
Technology helps bridge rural mental health care gap, but challenges persist
By LYNDA WADDINGTON
via THE IOWA INDEPENDENT
Posted: August 5, 2009
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Agricultural populations have problems accessing health care services for a number of reasons: rural areas lack qualified health care professionals, and residents face financial constraints and even local stigmas that serve as barriers to getting treatment. These challenges are even more pronounced when residents need to access behavioral or mental health services, experts said here Monday during a conference on rural health care.
Making a Difference Despite Distance
“It’s a group of extremely rural women in several different states who come together over the Internet to talk about life, shared experiences, challenges and simply support one another,” said Clarann Weinert, a professor at the Montana State University College of Nursing and a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, while explaining the Women To Women program. “What we’ve learned is that by allowing these women, most of whom were suffering from severe depression, to come together in this way, we’ve been able to significantly reduce their depression. We know this because of the measures we are taking, and also because the women are telling us how much being a part of the group has helped them.”
The program, which began in the mid-1990s, is open to women between the ages of 35 and 65 who have a chronic illness. Those accepted into the program must either live in a town with a population under 12,500 or live further than 25 miles from a town with a population in excess of 12,500.
To date more than 700 women from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington have participated in the program, which includes a 22-month computer-based support group that is moderated by a health care professional. The computer-based support has been so successful that most women who participate form some sort of social network of their own once the 22-month program ends so that they can continue to be in contact with one another.
DOD offers online mental health counseling
By Mary Mosquera
via Government Health IT
Posted: August 3, 2009
The Defense Department’s military health system will launch Aug. 1 an online system to support counseling and other behavioral healthcare for service members and their families. DOD’s TRICARE health system is targeting the services especially to military and eligible reserves returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Web-based TRICARE Assistance Program (TRIAP) is a demonstration project that lets members and their families use computers, Web cams and associated software to speak virtually face-to-face with a licensed counselor at any time, according to Rear Adm. Christine Hunter, deputy director of the TRICARE Management Activity, which administers the military health plan.
TRICARE’s regional contractors provide the behavioral health services, which include assessments, short-term counseling and, if the TRIAP counselor determines more specialized care is necessary, a referral to a more comprehensive level of care.
Plato's Cave: New 3D Visualization System
By Michael
via Medgadget
Posted: July 29, 2009
A new radiology visualization platform, called Plato's Cave, has been implemented at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. The engineers and clinicians have pulled expertise from a number of companies in the industry to develop a system that can be utilized for advanced radiology readings or as a technology to perform preoperative surgical planning for advanced cases, such as intracranial aneurysms or facial surgery. The system uses a projector to display images on a screen and specialized glasses to show them in three dimensions. The physician can use a traditional video game controller to navigate through the volumetric visualization.
The Doctor Is In and Logged On.
By RAHUL PARIKH
via The Health Care Blog
Posted: July 22, 2009
Wow. I've just taken care of three patients in 12 minutes, and I didn't do it by "churning" them through my office as if it's some sort of factory assembly line. Rather, those patients (their parents, more specifically -- I'm a pediatrician), e-mailed me over a secure network with questions and descriptions of signs and symptoms.
One mother attached a digital photo of a rash on her 3-month-old daughter's face; it turned out be nothing more serious than baby acne (it'll go away in a month or so). Another mom had noticed that her son was missing one of his pre-kindergarten immunizations (she had pulled up his shot records online) and requested that I order it. And the father of a 5-month-old boy told me that his son has been constipated off and on for the last month. I e-mailed him a questionnaire so I could determine whether the family should try something at home or bring the child to the office.
In the past, these parents would have left a phone message and we probably would have spent the better part of a day or two playing phone tag. Or they would have had to make an appointment, strap their children into car seats, pack diaper bags and snacks and sit in a waiting room full of sick children -- only to spend 5 to 10 minutes with me while I told them everything was fine. Instead, we fixed the issues by e-mail, allowing parents to stay in their lives at home and at work.
Such interactions are no longer a pipe dream for the future of medicine. This is how I (and several thousand of my colleagues at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California) practice medicine every day. In 2006, we implemented an electronic medical record system and haven't looked back.
Ingenious use of tech: Training Med Students in Second Life (virtual) Hospitals
by Shahid N. Shah
via The Healthcare IT Guy
Posted: July 22, 2009
Discover Magazine asks Can Training in Second Life Teach Doctors to Save Real Lives? While many in the tech world are looking at the ARRA Stimulus Bill’s money being spent on EMRs and giving the world the thousandth version of a medical records system it’s great to see some creative technologists are using their brains on simulations and training programs that could actually make better doctors, not just more efficient administrators.
Going Green in Healthcare IT and improving organizational efficiency along the way
by Bill Crounse, MD
via HealthBlog
Posted: July 8, 2009
Strategies to improve “operational efficiency” in healthcare organizations are a recurring theme here on HealthBlog. That’s why I wanted to share a new article on Green IT written by my colleague Chris Sullivan who manages our US health provider industry for Microsoft. I know that Chris and his team would be very pleased to work with you directly or point you to additional resources in your quest to drive greater efficiency in your organization—a mission, in these challenging economic times, that has never been more important.