Integrating clinical information into PHR/EHR’s
Two recent news articles describe interesting advances of the two big Personal/EHR’s: Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. First, Google is now integrating CVS perscriptions filled. A classic problem with EHR’s is medication reconcilliation, meaning understanding what the patient has actually taken. While having picked up the meds at CVS does not mean the patient actually took them, it is more accurate than simply knowing that the physician prescribed them. Of course if the patient used any other pharmacy, it will be missed… but this is a start.
CVS Caremark expands Google Health partnership - Daily Business Update - The Boston Globe: “CVS Caremark Corp., the Rhode Island company that operates a pharmacy chain, said it has expanded its partnership with Google Health by providing CVS/pharmacy customers with the ability to securely download their prescription and medication histories to their Google Health account.”
Closer to home for me, NYP is now experimenting with uploading information into HealthVault. I do not know any more about this than the article describes, but will investigate it.
NewYork-Presbyterian Offers Digital Records - NYTimes.com: “A major obstacle to adoption [of EHR's] has been getting useful medical and patient information into personal health records. Typing one’s personal health information into an online form is time-consuming, mind-numbing and error-prone.
To overcome that challenge, Microsoft and Google have announced partnerships in recent months with large health care providers like Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente to explore transferring patient data automatically into personal health records.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, whose centers and clinics provide about 20 percent of the health care in New York, is the first large institution to move beyond the pilot stage this week as it begins to offer consumer-controlled health records for patients, and its experience will be closely watched in the industry.”