A Patient-Centered IT Strategy

Here is the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) model:

H1N1 Rap

Check it out! Winner of the 2009 Flu Prevention PSA Contest:



(YouTube blocked? Save this link for viewing at home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gwUdmPl0bU)

Need a doctor for swine flu? Website provides guidance

Microsoft just deployed an interactive Web site designed to help people decide whether a case of swine flu requires a doctor's attention, employing the same type of triage calculations that doctors at Emory University use.

This tool is intended only for people over 12 years of age. Enter your age and answer additional questions about fever, other symptoms and your underlying health, and the site will advise whether a doctor's attention is recommended.

Microsoft licensed the self-assessment tool from Emory, which based it on key risks factors for a bad flu outcome according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A large insurer tested the tool against more than 2,500 records of patient visits for flulike symptoms in Colorado, and only two people deemed low-risk were hospitalized within the following two weeks.

"It reflects the best available science," said Emory emergency medicine specialist Dr. Arthur Kellermann.

The CDC also posts lists of signs to seek emergency flu care, including for children, at http://www.flu.gov.

Predicting Domestic Abuse with EHRs

Jean DerGurahian of ModernHealthcare.com reports:

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have developed a prototype that uses information culled from electronic health records, or EHRs, to paint a picture of a patient's medical history. Its first application has been toward predicting domestic abuse cases, but lead researcher, Ben Reis, said the goal is to expand the use for other conditions.

Valuable tool or ethically questionable profiling?

UPDATE:
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, healthcare executives see EHR data as their organizations' most valuable asset. Read the PwC report on secondary use of health data.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

IS HIPAA Security Officer Dave Fry sends the following notice from John Dowd of the National Cyber Security Alliance:

October 2009 is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NSCAM), which the FBI endorses and participates. The NSCAM event has been held every October since 2001, as a national awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation's critical cyber infrastructure.

Cyber security requires vigilance 365 days per year. However, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Cyber Security Alliance, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, coordinate to shed a brighter light in October on what home users, schools, businesses and governments need to do in order to protect their computers, children, and data.

Ultimately, our cyber infrastructure is only as strong as the weakest link. No individuals, business, or government entity is solely responsible for cyber security. Everyone has a role and everyone needs to share the responsibility to secure their part of cyber space and the networks they use. The steps we take may differ based on what we do online and our responsibilities. However, everyone needs to understand how their individual actions have a collective impact on cyber security.

Please read the Awareness Month Fact Sheet, Awareness Month What Home Users Can Do Tip Sheet, and the Awareness Month CSAVE Fact Sheet.

You can read more by visiting STAYSAFEONLINE.ORG.