Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Developments In Health Care IT

Several newspapers recently published articles related to health care information technology. Summaries appear below.
Los Angeles Times: Search engines can be good supplemental diagnostic tools for physicians, according to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, the Times reports. For the report, sleep specialist Hangwi Tang and rheumatologist Hwee Kwoon Ng of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, examined case records published over a one-year period in the New England Journal of Medicine, without looking at the correct diagnoses. They then selected three to five terms from the records to search using Google and found that the search engine produced information that enabled them make a correct diagnosis 58% of the time. Tang said the practice is more beneficial if done by physicians or health experts who "have a better handle on which symptoms are unusual and for the technical terms for the symptoms" (Brink, Los Angeles Times, 11/20).

AP/South Florida Sun-Sentinel: A new federal regulation that enables hospitals to donate electronic health record systems to physician practices under certain conditions, along with newly adopted technology standards that allow software from different companies to be interoperable, has increased the interest in and usage of EHRs, the AP/Sun-Sentinel reports. The two developments might "be the spark" needed "to pull the $1.5 billion electronic health records industry into the medical mainstream," according to the AP/Sun-Sentinel reports (Twiddy, AP/South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 11/ 19).

St. Paul Pioneer Press: The practice of physicians providing medical advice via telephone or e-mail is becoming "a fast-growing" solution to unnecessary office visits, and some insurers in the last year have begun to offer reimbursements for medical advice given through e-mail, known as e-care, the Pioneer Press reports. Proponents of the practice maintain that it can "increase the speed and convenience of [physicians'] services so they won't lose patients with simple infections or illnesses to the growing number of retail walk-in facilities," according to the Pioneer Press. In addition, e-care is safer and more easily documented than care provided via telephone, for which insurers provide little or no reimbursement (Olson, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11/20).

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