What is Google Glass? It is a computer that you wear, like glasses, with a display that is mounted to your head. It can be voice activated, meaning that you do not need to use your hands to operate it. Google Glass displays information similar to that of a smartphone. It can interact with the Internet through voice commands. It has a camera, enabling it to take pictures and videos.

Although still in the testing stages, health experts are predicting that it could have a big effect on healthcare. Healthcare experts cited a number of examples where Google Glass could have a large impact.

Applications for Doctors

A surgeon in the operating room, for example, using Google Glass, could see a list of items and images for his patients, or he could share what he is seeing with another physician to help reach a diagnosis or assist on a procedure.

An anesthesiologist could use the Google Glass to display vital signs that usually appear on monitors. When doing rounds, a physician could use Glass to call up a patient’s chart for viewing.

Some are predicting Google Glass will eventually become as commonplace in medical settings as the computer is now, because it allows people to free up their hands. They can access all kinds of information without interrupting whatever they are doing. A surgeon prepping for an operation, for example, can view information without interrupting his preparations.

Further into the future, as technology advances, there could be a host of applications for Google Glass. As a physician is looking at someone’s arm, for example, Glass could provide an image of CT scan data. Like an X-ray, Glass could incorporate different views.

A dermatologist who is examining a rash could use the Glass to compare what he is seeing to a database of dermatological information and come up with a diagnosis.

As prevention and wellness become more important, the potential for devices such as Glass will really explode, according to some public health experts.

Boundless Opportunities

In fact, some experts say it is too early to tell yet what uses Glass may be put to. It may have applications not envisioned by its inventors, just as devices like the iPhone and Android exceeded the uses envisioned by their creators, with thousands of unforeseen applications.

If your hospital or medical facility needs professionals skilled in the applications of cutting-edge tools such as Google Glass, call a recruiter at Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We look forward to hearing how we may be of service.

The mission of the coordinator for health IT policy is twofold – first, to develop a nationwide health IT system, one that will allow different healthcare organizations to exchange information (while protecting the security and privacy of the information), and second, to promote the use of health information technology among providers.

The Committee itself focuses on policy guidelines for the development and implementation of a nationwide health information infrastructure, which includes standards for the sharing of patient medical information.

The goals of the policy makers include:

• fostering the development of a health information technology network that covers the entire country and enables organizations to use and share information;
• protecting patient information;
• improving healthcare quality;
• reducing healthcare costs;
• soliciting opinions from the public about health IT;
• helping healthcare organizations work together more effectively;
• improving the response to healthcare emergencies;
• improving health and clinical research;
• promoting a more effective healthcare marketplace;
• reducing the disparities in healthcare;
• coordinating health IT policy;
• strategic planning for putting healthcare IT exchange into place, and
• setting up a governing structure for the Nationwide Healthcare Information Network.

The Committee was formed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Act stipulates that the Committee make recommendations in areas where standards, specifications and certification criteria are needed.

The Committee has set up work groups in a number of different areas, including certification and adoption, consumer empowerment, information exchange, meaningful use, Nationwide Health Information Network, privacy and security, and quality measures. The work group meetings are open to the public.

The Committee is made up of three people who are appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Thirteen members are appointed by the Comptroller General of the United States. Four members are appointed by the majority and minority leaders of the Senate and the speaker and minority leaders of the House of Representatives.

Other members are appointed by the president. The current chair of the Committee is Dr. Farzad Mostashari.

If your hospital or medical facility is looking for IT professionals who have the expertise to keep electronic patient records private, contact Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We will find and place individuals who are accomplished in assessments, migrations, HCIS project and staff augmentation, upgrades, implementations, Interim Management Services (IMS), and project management. Contact us today.

Even though the need for protection is increasing, the shortage of IT professionals who know about cybersecurity is growing. Recent studies have shown that this shortage is having an effect on many different industries, including healthcare.

In one study, two-thirds of the companies surveyed reported that they did not have enough people to handle their cybersecurity needs. All of this means that there is a greater likelihood of someone breaking into these IT systems.

In fact, IT officials report that the number of cyber break-ins is on the rise, costing businesses a significant amount of time and money. Security breaches are likely to grow as different types of malware proliferate and more electronic platforms are developed with mobile devices and cloud computing, along with social networking.

Even now, organizations are struggling to deal with breaches in their security – fewer than one-third of companies responding to a recent survey said they can recover from an attack within one day, while almost half said it may take as long as a week.

Moreover, IT professionals say that with the growth in new technologies, security personnel need to acquire new IT skills and knowledge to cope with new and varied threats, including increased risks with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and cloud computing. More than three-fourths of those reporting in a recent study said that BYOD represents a big security risk, and that new skills will be needed to handle this risk. More than two-thirds of those responding in the study also said that social media is another security issue, especially in the area of content filtering.

Security risks involving software applications are the most pressing concern, IT people say. Despite this concern, few organizations are focusing on software development to take care of these issues. Even though a large majority of firms say they are most worried about applications that are susceptible to cyberattack, this issue is not paramount when looking for software development contractors.

In the healthcare industry, surveys have shown that the number one issue regarding cybersecurity is patient privacy.

Business leaders need to be educated about the ever-growing and changing cybersecurity threats, according to IT professionals. If adequate defensive measures are not taken, the consequences could be dire for business growth and the economy as a whole.

To help alleviate these problems in the healthcare industry, staffing firms like Morgan Hunter Healthcare can help organizations access pools of IT security talent to make sure their systems are secure. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you find these IT professionals who are critical to keeping your facility safe.

Due to the instantaneous, ubiquitous access to information that electronic records provide, some argue that it opens up such a system to privacy abuse.

Some experts say the healthcare industry as a whole needs to pay more attention to the issue, and realize the importance of maintaining patient privacy. Traditional attitudes toward health information remain stubbornly embedded in the way healthcare organizations do business.

There are data security measures that healthcare organizations can take to protect patient privacy, such as unique patient and access identifiers; encrypting the transmission of information; having information security officers with responsibility towards police record-keeping practices; and installing firewalls, which are electronic barriers that prevent unauthorized access.

Maintaining patient privacy, accountability and clear guidelines are key, according to healthcare privacy experts.

One especially important element of electronic records is that they enable organizations to monitor everyone who accesses patient records. There is an audit trail that can deter unauthorized people from looking at records.

Healthcare organizations must take steps to actively monitor activity with regard to records and investigate diligently if there is suspicion of unauthorized access. This is an important component if deterrence is to be effective. If people know that they will be caught when they access healthcare records they should not be looking at, and that it may impact their job and career, they are much less likely to breach patient privacy.

Moreover, using certain data mining techniques increases the effectiveness of the monitoring process. For example, screening the records of high-profile patients – which are likely to draw increased curiosity – and unexpected links, such as someone who works in pediatrics looking at adult patient records, could be used as effective monitoring techniques.

Security experts say this method is more efficient than attempting to restrict access through numerous security procedures, which can also affect patient care.

It is important to have the right people who are competent, who know the privacy guidelines as well as the technology, to make all of this work.

If your hospital or medical facility needs IT professionals skilled in keeping electronic patient records private, contact Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We can source and place individuals skilled in HCIS project and staff augmentation, assessments, implementations, migrations, upgrades, project management, and Interim Management Services (IMS). Contact us today.

Businesses have been using these techniques for a number of years. Healthcare, however, is lagging in the big data arena because of the slower pace of moving over to electronic health records. Now that healthcare organizations are moving to electronic records, it has opened the way for aggregation of clinical and financial data previously unavailable.

The analysis of big data will become ever more important with all of the changes in healthcare taking place, changes in the way care is delivered and payment is made. Mining the data can help to determine how effective and efficient patient care really is.

Leaders in the healthcare industry realize the importance of big data. A recent survey showed that a majority consider big data analytics to be among the highest priorities going forward. Although leaders understand its importance, because of its novelty, they are unsure how to approach the issue of big data and how to make the best use of it.

Hospitals are now collecting huge amounts of data from a variety of sources. The data itself, is still in an unstructured form – data is scattered across different formats, such as email, text message and video, as well as multiple software formats being used.  The facilities are having a hard time managing all of the information. Data sets are becoming so large and complex that they are having more difficulty in capturing the data, storing it, searching it, analyzing it, and sharing it with the technology they have available.

Plus, there needs to be some type of standardization to determine what data should be stored and how, as well as how it should be shared. The different types of data that need to be stored range from images to genomic information and health history.

The good news is that hospitals are making an effort to attack this issue.  . Many report collecting more data than ever, and most are employing some type of data analysis software. Experts advise hospitals to begin with small data-mining projects that can demonstrate their effectiveness, and then build from there, constantly re-evaluating.

If you have experience in big data analytics, we want to hear from you! Here at Morgan Hunter Healthcare, our clients are clamoring for professionals with these skills. Contact us today to learn more about these great opportunities!

Computer technology can facilitate the collection and use of demographic data to improve the quality of care for minority communities. Hospitals that have patient race, ethnicity and language information in their databases would be able to more readily identify disparities in their practice settings and develop policies to take care of them.

Say, for example, the data shows that there are big differences in the number of admissions for certain health conditions, admissions that could have been prevented with better outpatient care. For example, the admission rate for African-American children with asthma is more than three times that of white children. And these admissions could have been prevented with better outpatient care.

The same is true for adults with diabetes with long-term complications. There are big differences also in the admission rates between African-American and white adults with the disease, admissions which are preventable. Healthcare organizations would be able to more readily identify these disparities using information technology, and then put policies in place to take care of them.

The electronic medical record system can also help hospitals and physicians manage data on language needs to provide better services to people with limited English. For example, when healthcare staff members collect information on a person’s language and communications needs, the technology will enable them to easily choose appropriate caregivers to fit the situation. The aggregation of data may show them that they need to provide more bilingual physicians or interpreters for particular languages. When the language preference of the patient is available electronically, hospitals are also able to have a better idea of day-to-day patient needs and can provide the appropriate interpretation services.

Organizations are also currently working on ways to make electronic health records accessible to people with disabilities.

Information technology can also help relieve disparities in treatment by making it easier for minority communities to access healthcare. It does this by streamlining the enrollment process. Applicants can become enrolled by completing a single online form.

Applicants need only complete a single online form to be enrolled in a coverage program for which they are eligible. With electronic access, users can also update their health and demographic information immediately from any location, rather than making changes through the mail or at the physician’s office. Some states have already established online enrollment applications.

Digital records also reduce disparities in care by providing clinicians with immediate information, which will enable better clinical decision making through the use of health reminders and alerts.

If your hospital, medical center or other medical facility is looking for employees who are well-versed in the of-the-minute healthcare IT tools and strategies, contact Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We can – and will – source and place candidates who are experts in assessments, project management, activation support, implementations, and more. We look forward to hearing from you.

What this means for a medical practice is that you no longer have to buy the computer hardware and software. All you have to do is install one application that will allow you to access a service via the Web that contains all of the electronic health record software you will need. Servers at another location, owned by another company, would run all of your EMR software programs.

There is a front end to the system, what the client sees, and a back end, where the cloud platform is located – the computers, servers and data storage. A central server allows the computers to communicate with each other over the Internet.

There are a number of advantages to the cloud system. One is that if your practice is using a cloud, you can access your EMR applications and data from anywhere at any time. The data wouldn’t be restricted to one computer where it is stored.

This would reduce cost because users would not need to spend any money on computer hardware or software. With all of the processing power in the cloud, all the user needs is a basic computer with the software that allows the user to connect to the cloud hardware. All of your data would be stored in data storage hardware in the cloud.

With cloud computing, you pay a monthly fee, so initially it is obviously much cheaper to go with the Web-based platform. However, some argue that over a long period of time, it could end up costing you more than a conventional EMR platform.

You automatically stay up to date with the latest computing features as the administrator installs it on the cloud hardware. You also don’t have to worry about computer troubleshooting and repair, since all that, along with updates, is taken care of at the back end.

Using a cloud platform also has other advantages – it allows practices to keep their medical billing services software connected to their payer network more easily; it allows all of the vendors and services to integrate using this one Web-based platform; and it allows physicians to connect to outside vendors through software integration products.

There are downsides to cloud computing, such as limited ability to customize the software, a reliance on the vendor for backups and security, and bandwidth that is dependent on the Internet connection.

If your practice or hospital needs EMR IT professionals who specialize in consulting, assessments, implementations, migrations or upgrades, contact Morgan Hunter Healthcare!

According to medical experts, there is actually plenty left to do. Issues remain, for example, with effectively analyzing all of the data generated, improving interoperability among different electronic systems so they can share data, and refining the EHR platforms themselves to make them more user friendly.

Making use of all the data in the electronic systems will be an ongoing challenge, according to Dr. William Hersh, an expert in medical informatics. Data quality is still a real problem, involving everything from making data entry easier, to making it interoperable and reusable. The EHR should be able to provide the analytical tools for clinicians to use for research and in improving and measuring healthcare quality, tools which still need to be refined.

In fact, some physicians argue that EHRs need to evolve to a more open and flexible format, something similar to what is offered by social networks, mobile phones and mobile applications. Many EHR platforms are now stand-alone systems, attempting to provide a complete, self-contained information platform, but, some experts say, what is needed more is an EHR that is dynamic, that fits into the rapidly changing information infrastructure. As a stand-alone system, the EHR operating model forces users to push information into a confined, inflexible platform.

This model makes it difficult to access data in a way that gives a real view of a patient’s healthcare over time, and the healthcare of groups. Databases are controlled by EHR companies. So, if a clinician wants to do research or analysis, he or she usually must enlist the help of his or her information services department, as well as the EHR vendor’s IT support staff. This type of bottleneck has led some academic medical centers to move their data into an open-source system where it can be analyzed without going through the vendor, and the results can be shared throughout the healthcare system. So, there is still plenty of room for improving and refining the EHR platform.

Hersh argues that there needs to be a shift in the mindset of healthcare professionals in general, where, he says, information itself is currently not valued as much as it should be. If the healthcare industry is truly to make best use of the new technology, it must place more emphasis on the collection and integration of healthcare information. For many clinicians, collecting such information is still seen as a frustrating chore.

If you’re looking for employees skilled in healthcare IT technology, contact Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We can source and place individuals skilled in HCIS project and staff augmentation, assessments, implementations, migrations, upgrades, project management, go-lives and Client Activation Support. Contact us today!

And that will mean increased costs for many medical facilities that use contingent labor. However, because of the nature of contingent work, it is unclear how much the extra costs will be, and how much will be shouldered by staffing agencies and medical facilities.

The Affordable Care Act (ACT) requires employer coverage for full-time employees. The alternative is that the employer pays financial penalties for not providing coverage. The ACT sets full-time status at 30 hours a week on average.

The ACT also makes no distinction between temporary and permanent employees.  This creates problems in assessing the status of contingent workers, whether they meet this threshold or not. And this has created differing assessments of the costs incurred – on average, medical facilities have said they expect to absorb about 15 percent of the increased costs, while staffing firms have said they expect to pass along about 65 percent of the increased costs to healthcare organizations.

The government has, however, provided some guidance, saying it will allow employers to use a 12-month measurement period to determine if contingent workers are full time. These guidelines extend through 2014.

Moreover, given the increased demand for healthcare as more people enter the system, analysts are projecting that the healthcare staffing market will grow by 8 percent in 2013. With the combination of healthcare reform and the aging of baby boomers and their retirement, there will be a huge demand for healthcare workers among both healthcare providers and staffing firms.

Staffing firms will incur higher costs from providing insurance to their workers or by paying the penalties instead, and they will want healthcare organizations to shoulder some of the increased costs. But these costs are different from regular payroll taxes, so current contracts won’t have provisions for them. As a result, experts say staffing firms and healthcare providers need to get together as soon as possible to figure out how they will allocate these costs. The breakdown could range from staffing firms paying for all of the increased costs, to the providers absorbing all the costs, to something in between.

Staffing companies probably will bring up healthcare reform costs as contracts come up for negotiation with providers. So, providers should project what costs might be coming and work from those projections, using historical data regarding length of assignment and hours worked.

If you’ve partnered with a staffing firm, have you and its leadership discussed how the increased costs of the ACT will be split between you? If so, how did it go?

If you’d like to discuss the increased costs associated with the ACT with us, don’t hesitate to contact us. All of us at Morgan Hunter Healthcare are here to make your staffing life easier. Contact us today.

For example, one healthcare provider used information in its database to check whether breast biopsies were being given in a timely manner. Upon further analysis, they discovered that the time it took for biopsies to be taken from when the lump was first noticed, ranged from immediately to almost 10 days after it was spotted.

Analysis of the electronic data stored in the system of another provider showed that in 14 percent of all maternity cases, physicians were inducing labor before 39 weeks, which resulted in too many babies ending up in intensive care and too many Cesarean sections. By making physicians aware of this data, they were able to prevent 235 women from having C-sections.

As these electronic systems become more sophisticated, they are able to perform more complex analysis of data by creating automated analysis platforms.

Moreover, data analysis can lead to change in what is considered to be best practice. For example, several years ago HCA, a company with 163 hospitals and more than 100 surgery centers, teamed up with the Center for Disease Control and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to share data about prescriptions for flu-related medications and also data about anything that would point to an increase in flu-like illness. They also shared laboratory data that would show increases in white blood cell count or other signs of infection among patients.

With the three organizations working together, they were able to compile and analyze data from a number of different states and environments, which helped improve detection and trends of the flu.

Another instance of data analysis changing practice is the way MRSA infection is handled. HCA is currently compiling data from more than 40 hospitals about MRSA infections, cultures, sensitivities, antibiotics, and changes in practice. The results of the analysis will show a workable way to avoid MRSA infections in hospitals.

And a recent study by Kaiser Permanente has shown that physicians who use electronic health records (EHR) have a greater chance of finding diabetic patients who need increased medication. They also are able to better manage diabetic risk factors for patients.

This is the first study to show how EHRs can help physicians improve treatment for diabetic patients. The EHRs enabled clinicians to get access to more information and to get better decision support, which helped them identify patients who needed medication changes and retesting.

The EHR was associated with big improvements in patient care, according to researchers. Patients who had high blood sugar or high cholesterol levels were more likely to get a change in medication and follow-up testing if their healthcare provider was using an EHR.

The amount of data being fed into healthcare data warehouses is tremendous, and as IT platforms move toward increasing integration of the data, it will enable providers a much more powerful tool to improve patient outcomes. If you’re looking for employees skilled in healthcare IT technology, contact Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We can source and place individuals skilled in HCIS project and staff augmentation, assessments, implementations, migrations, upgrades, project management, go-lives and Client Activation Support contact us today.