iPad apps debut, MDs weigh in on communication, EHRs

Mary Stevens, Editor

Apple's announcement of the iPad made headlines last week. Shortly after the announcement, vendors began announcing applications that might help make the device a game-changer for healthcare IT--or not.

At press time, the ayes still held a narrow lead in our poll of CMIO.net readers about whether or not the technology has the functionality to be widely adopted within healthcare. Among respondents, the affirmative responses held a 51-45 edge. 
 
Call them believers: Health IT company Voalté has announced that its point-of-care application, Voalté One, will be available on the iPad platform. The Voalté One Application is expected to be available for the iPad by Apple’s shipment date in late March, according to the company. In addition, CoActiv Medical has launched a new Exam-PACS touch-screen image view. The iPad system will support bi-directional data communication between a PACS and iPad using the Apple device’s built-in WiFi capabilities. Both applications were originally built for the iPhone platform.

Whatever devices are used, healthcare communication needs to get more virtual, according to C. Peter Waegemann, MD, vice president for development for mHealth Initiative. In a CMIO.net Web Exclusive, Waegemann stressed that new communication patterns are vital to better delivery of healthcare, a topic on which he presented during the International mHealth Networking Conference Feb. 3-4 in Washington, D.C. One of the main points of discussion at the conference is the need for new communication management, Waegemann said. “Some doctors are afraid of information overflow because of the potential to receive 500 emails a day, so we need a system where someone is managing the priority of emails for the doctor and what is going into them.”

You can add a Journal of the American Medical Association commentary to the voices calling for a longer EHR adoption timeline. It is hard to tell how well these complex health IT systems are being implemented and used, and "rapid implementations could lead to significant patient safety events,” according to the Feb. 3 commentary by co-authors Dean Sittig, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences at Houston, and David Classen, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City. They call for coordinated oversight by healthcare providers implementing these systems and by government authorities. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledges the possiblitility that there might be negative unintended consequences associated with Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT initiatives, including activities related to meaningful use of EHR technology. Therefore, the HHS has issued a contract bid to create a panel to identify and explore the negative unintended consequences. "While some unintended consequences are desirable, the purpose of this contract is to identify and address those that are undesirable and potentially harmful,” HHS said. 

Such as EHRs that don't provide meaningful information? Stay tuned.

--Mary Stevens, Editor