Meaningful Use is the phrase used in the 2009 HITECH Act to describe the standard providers must achieve to receive incentive payments for purchasing and implementing an EHR system. The term meaningful use combines clinical use of the EHR (i.e. ePrescribing), health information exchange, and reporting of clinical quality measures. Achieving meaningful use also requires the use of an EHR that has been certified by a body such as CCHIT, Drummond Group, ICSA Laboratories, Inc. or InfoGuard Laboratories, Inc. The term can also apply informally to the process of achieving the standard, for example “How is our practice doing with meaningful use?”
mHealth
An abbreviation for Mobile Health, mHealth is a blanket label for transmitting health services, and indeed practicing medicine, using mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets. mHealth has large implications not only for newer devices like smartphones and high-end tablets, but also for feature phones and low-cost tablets in developing nations. Many different software and hardware applications fit under the umbrella of mHealth so the term is used conceptually to talk about future innovations and delivery systems.
As managers, providers and employees, we always have to be looking ahead at how the technology on our horizon will affect how our organizations administer health care. In the spirit of looking forward to the future, we present “2.0 Tuesday”, a feature on Manage My Practice about how technology is impacting our practices, and our patient and population outcomes.
We hope you enjoy looking ahead with us, and share your ideas, reactions and comments below!
Everybody has been holding their breath to see which EHR software will pass the ONC-ATCB (Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare IT – Authorized Testing & Certification Body) 2011/2012 certification. Some will buy a system based on this information, and others will continue on with their system feeling a great sense of relief that the system they’ve already paid for is now certified. Still others will wonder if their system of choice has applied and failed, or not applied yet. All this and more information is available on the websites of the three companies that have been approved via the Temporary Certification Program for Health Information Technology.
CCHIT and Drummond announced their first group of certified systems October 1, 2010 and InfoGard has yet to make an announcement.
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EHR software companies “…are required to provide complete information on the details of their ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 certification, including company and product name and version, date certified, unique product identification number, the criteria for which they are certified, and the clinical quality measures for which they were tested, and any additional software a complete EHR or EHR module relied upon to demonstrate its compliance with a certification criteria,” states the CCHIT website. This information should be available on the product websites, the certifying body website and the ONCHIT website.
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As you are reviewing the bolded product names below, notice that the information is split into separate categories for providers and hospitals, is divided based on the company that certified the EHR and is also broken into complete EHRs software versus software modules.
ELIGIBLE PROVIDERS
Complete EHRs for Eligible Providers (CCHIT)
ABEL Medical Software, Inc. for ABELMed EHR – EMR/PM, version 11
Allscripts, Allscripts Professional EHR, version 9.2
Aprima Medical Software, Inc. for Aprima, version 2011
athenahealth, Inc. for athenaclinicals, version 10.10
CureMD Corporation for CureMD EHR, version 10
The DocPatientNetwork.com for Doctations, version 2.0
Epic Systems Corporation for EpicCare Ambulatory – Core EMR, version Spring 2008
GE Healthcare for Centricity Advance, version 10.1
gloStream, Inc. for gloEMR, version 6.0
Intuitive Medical Software for UroChartEHR, version 4.0
MCS – Medical Communication Systems, Inc. for iPatientCare, version 4.0
Medical Informatics Engineering for WebChart EHR, version 5.1
meditab Software, Inc. for IMS, version 14.0
NeoDeck Software for NeoMed EHR, version 3.0
NextGen Healthcare for NextGen Ambulatory EHR, version 5.6
Nortec Software Inc for Nortec Ambulatory EHR, version 7.0
Pulse Systems for 2011 Pulse Complete EHR, version 2011
SuccessEHS for SuccessEHS, version 6.0
EHR Modules for Eligible Providers (CCHIT)
Allscripts for Allscripts Peak Practice, version 5.5
eClinicalWorks LLC for eClinicalWorks, version 8.0.48
NexTech Systems, Inc. for NexTech Practice 2011, version 9.7
nextEMR, LLC for nextEMR, LLC, version 1.5.0.0
Sammy Systems for SammyEHR, version 1.1.248
Universal EMR Solutions for Physician’s Solution, version 5.0
Vision Infonet Inc., for MDCare EMR, version 4.2
WellCentive for WellCentive Registry, version 2.0
Complete EHRs for Eligible Providers (Drummond)
ChartLogic, Inc for ChartLogic EMR 7, version not noted
EHR Modules for Eligible Providers (Drummond)
ifa united i-tech Inc. for ifa EMR, modules 170.302.A-J, 170.302.M, 170.302.O-V (specialized to ophthalmology)
QRS INC. for PARADIGM, version 8.3, modules 170.302.A-W, 170.304.A, 170.304.C-J
HOSPITALS
Complete EHRs for Hospitals (CCHIT)
Epic Systems Corporation for EpicCare Inpatient – Core EMR, version Spring 2008
EHR Modules for Hospitals (CCHIT)
Allscripts for Allscripts ED, version 6.3
Health Care Systems, Inc. for HCS eMR, version 4.0
PeriGen for PeriBirth, version 4.3.50
Prognosis Health Information Systems for ChartAccess, version 4
ARRA: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also called “The Stimulus Package” or “The Stimulus Bill.” Of the $850B in the bill, $51B is pegged for the health care industry and $19B of that will be used to incent medical practices to adopt EMRs/EHRs.
CCHIT: the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is a private organization that certifies EMRs and EHRs based on 475 criteria spanning functionality, interoperability and security. CCHIT does not evaluate ease of use of products, financial viability of the company offering the software; or the quality of customer support offered by the software vendor. Whether or not CCHIT will be THE certifying organization to approve “qualified EMRs” will be announced at the end of the year. (Can be pronounced “SEA-CHIT” or each letter can be pronounced as in “C.C.H.I.T.”)
Comparative Effectiveness: Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) compares treatments and strategies to improve health. For CER, HITECH provides $300M for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, $400M for the National Institutes of Health, and $400M for the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. (more…)
ARRA: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also called “The Stimulus Package” or “The Stimulus Bill.” Of the $850B in the bill, $51B is pegged for the health care industry and $19B of that will be used to incent medical practices to adopt EMRs/EHRs.