Viewpoint

I recently had the pleasure of being invited to moderate a panel at the World Congress Third Annual Leadership Summit on mHealth, held July 28-29 in Cambridge, Mass. I found the conference informative, the panelists well versed in their respective topics of expertise and the exhibitors entertaining (highlights included AT&T’s diabetes app, Humana’s wireless teddy bears and Rubbermaid Healthcare’s telemedicine solution). But what I will remember most about the event was meeting a powerfully proactive patient.

Wife and mother Natasha Gajewski was hard at work – living her busy life and staying in shape by practicing Zumba, a Latin-inspired, dance-fitness program – when she was diagnosed with a chronic, incurable disease.

Understandably, the diagnosis left her scared and feeling more than a little helpless. Her doctor suggested she keep a diary of her symptoms to help clarify her diagnosis and redefine her treatment plan. Gajewski needed an easy way to capture and log data and thought, “There must be an app for that!”

But there wasn’t.

So Gajewski decided to take matters into her own hands and build one herself.

Based upon the axiom that “participatory healthcare + evidence-based medicine = happier, healthier patients,” Symple App was born.

The intuitive interface allows users to define their own symptoms, while some elegant programming makes it possible to log symptoms with as few as a half-dozen screen touches.

The app tracks symptoms and triggers, and can even remind the user to log observations at the same time every day in order to standardize data. The tool bridges the gaps between doctor visits, allowing the patient to share only important data with their healthcare provider on a schedule that makes sense for both parties involved.

“Getting diagnosed with an incurable disease is a life-changing experience, but it’s not scary anymore,” Gajewski says. “Now, I’m a scientist of my health, not a victim of my disease.”

Symple App is currently going through its beta-testing phase.

On her Web site, www.SympleApp.com, Gajewski quotes Shannon Brownlee (from an article titled “21^st Century Leeches” in the New Health Dialogue blog), which sums up her perspective perfectly: “As a patient, I want to be the driver; my physician is the GPS.”

Enjoy the magazine. If you’re in Salt Lake City for AHIMA the beginning of October, we hope to see you. And, until next time, here’s wishing you good healthcare IT.

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay,” said former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. “The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”

For several years, print publications have been criticized – often rightly – for being stuck in their ways, afraid or unwilling to change or go against the grain or do something different.

Here at Health Management Technology, we look at our annual readers’ survey as an opportunity for us to change for the better in order to provide more of what our readers want.

We were gratified to see that our expert roundups are among the most popular features (the favorite of more than 70 percent of you); we recently introduced them as a regular feature based upon feedback on another reader survey. We thought the roundups were a good way for readers to get a variety of perspectives on important subjects in a short amount of time; it turns out you agree.

And that brings me to another change we’ve implemented: keeping it short and sweet.

For better or worse, most people I know are busier than they’ve ever been. Honestly, when was the last time you sat down and read an entire 3,500-word feature article in a magazine?

In our continuing effort to make sure our readers and advertisers get the most bang for their buck, we are running more short stories, editing them down to their most important points, so that you can quickly glean something positive from reading a page-long case study on one organization’s purchase and implementation of an EHR system, for example – and then get on with the rest of your busy day.

Also faring well in the readership survey: our weekly e-newsletter, bylined case studies, industry news, hospital and EHR features, Thought Leaders and product announcements. Rest assured we will continue to provide you with these popular regular items.

Some other key findings of the survey: Nearly half of readers surveyed have read or looked through all of the most recent four magazines. Our audience is varied: Readers’ IT networks range from serving less than 50 to more than 10,000 users. Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed saved an issue for future reference; 60 percent visited a vendor Web site after seeing a story or ad in this magazine; 65 percent shared HMT with a coworker or supervisor; more than 20 percent contacted a vendor after seeing them here; and nearly 10 percent of you purchased a product featured in these pages.

More than half of readers surveyed are more likely to inquire about a company featured in an HMT advertisement, and more than a third are more likely to consider that company during product evaluations.

These are encouraging numbers; they keep us motivated to continue to improve on giving our readers what they want.

Enjoy the magazine. Until next time, here’s wishing you good healthcare IT.

Coding.

Does that term evoke images of pristine, crisp, detailed ICD-10 code zip-zapping around the ether, leaving reduced claims and billing errors in its formidable wake? Or does the mere thought of abandoning the relatively simpler days of ICD-9 give you a bellyache?

In this issue of HMT, we’re focusing on that very issue, with a roundup of experts discussing the best ways to minimize mistakes during the conversion to ICD-10, as well as other articles on coding, claims and compliance.

I have a vested interest in this coding conversion conversation.

I recently received a bill for a few hundred dollars from the local hospital. Since I hadn’t been to the hospital, this concerned me. I contacted the billing office, and a person there gave me several other numbers to call. After discussing the situation with a number of representatives from the hospital, the company that handles the hospital’s billing and my health insurance company, I contacted the only two doctors I had seen within the past year who were connected in any way to the hospital. Both assured me I didn’t owe them anything.

Apparently, the only way to get an itemized bill was to obtain and fill out a form allowing the hospital to send such information to me.

I filled out the form and sent it in. The next week I received another bill from the hospital, this time threatening to contact a collection service if the bill wasn’t paid immediately in full.

I again filled out the form to request an itemized bill and sent it in. Weeks went by. Finally, I received in the mail a work order, coded for insurance, but nothing in English to tell me – the lowly patient – what I supposedly received for my money.

Before I could contact the hospital yet again, I received a call from a collection agency; and every day after that for a few weeks, several times a day.

I sent a letter to the collection agency, explaining the bill is in error and I am disputing it.

A co-worker gave me the name of someone to talk with at the hospital. We played phone tag. The harassing phone calls from the collection agency stopped.

Until yesterday, that is, when the calls began anew, with renewed vigor.

I guess I’ll resume my phone-tag rally with the hospital, and continue to hope for a smooth transition to ICD-10 so that billing errors like this one – all too commonplace today – might become a thing of the past.

On a separate topic, I will be moderating a panel discussion, “From the Technology and Clinical Perspectives: Enterprise Planning for a Diversity of Mobile Devices,” at the third annual World Congress Leadership Summit on mHealth, July 28-29 in Cambridge, Mass. Hope to see you there.

Enjoy the magazine. And, until next time, here’s wishing you good healthcare IT.

Congratulations are in order: We’ve made it halfway through another year. And as we do every June, it’s time for us at Health Management Technology magazine to unveil our healthcare IT resource guide for 2011-2012.

Regardless of whether your political ideologies swing left or right, it must be acknowledged that the $19 billion worth of federal incentive programs offered through the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act have provided an impetus for change within the healthcare industry, motivating practices both small and large to jump into the electronic fray sooner rather than later.

With incentive payments beginning this year for electronic health records systems and in 2013 for ICD-10 conversions, it’s no wonder there are literally thousands of healthcare IT vendors – and more cropping up all the time – willing to help providers achieve meaningful use.

And in order to meet meaningful use, the current Stage 1 proposal states that a minimum of 40 percent of prescriptions must be sent electronically; this increases to 50 percent in Stage 2 and 80 percent in Stage 3. It’s a safe bet that everywhere along the meaningful-use timeline, there will be a veritable plethora of vendors vying for your attention.

This resource guide is our attempt to make some sense of the wide and wild landscape that is healthcare IT, to identify companies based upon their strengths and, hopefully, to provide a source of valuable information to our readers. At the very least, it provides a starting point for those seeking the right healthcare IT vendor and solution for their particular situation and circumstance.

The resource guide is set up as follows: Companies are listed under one or more of about 80 topic-specific categories – for example, CPOE (computerized physician order entry) – so that vendors can be located based upon need. The index in the back of the book lists companies alphabetically, so that if you have a particular vendor in mind, you can immediately find information about that company, the services it provides, a description, its Web site address and physical address.

I’d like to thank every member of the team here at NP Communications for going above and beyond again this year to put this resource guide together. It was a daunting task; but, happily, no one balked and ran for the hills!

Enjoy the magazine. If you’re in Orlando for HFMA the end of June, we hope to see you. And, until next time, here’s wishing you good healthcare IT.