Kanteron Systems blog

The US federal government’s current shift to sharing health information using open-source technology could potentially reduce costs and time for patients and the government, according to a panel discussion of health IT experts who gathered Oct. 30 in Washington, D.C., which sought to frame the progress of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) and how the federally-developed CONNECT system (an open-source implementation of the NHIN specifications that enables federal agencies and healthcare providers to exchange patient information) promotes the adoption and use of standards-based health IT systems while streamlining information, ideas and reducing costs.

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Postmortem CT is a good alternative for a refused autopsy, as well as a valuable adjunct for a standard autopsy, because it detects injuries that may be overlooked during the examination, according to a review in this month’s issue of European Radiology by Mark Scholing, MD, from the trauma unit and department of surgery at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.

Thomson Reuters reported that the profit margin of U.S. hospitals was 3.1 % in the 3rd quarter of 2009, up from 0.17 % in the 3rd quarter of 2008. The increase in profit margin applied to all classes of hospitals, including small, medium and large community hospitals, as well as teaching hospitals and major academic medical centers.Total hospital margins improved in the 1st quarter, with about 30 % of hospitals operating in the red–a big improvement over the 50 % reported in the 3rd quarter. Source.

Source. Radiologists’ workloads grew substantially in the past few years, with procedures increasing 7 % and physician work relative value units (RVUs) increasing 10 % from 2002-2003 to 2006-2007, according to research published in this month’s Radiology by Mythreyi Bhargavan, PhD, from the research department at the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the department of radiology and radiological science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues.In 2006-2007, the researchers reported that the average annual workload per FTE radiologist was 14,900 procedures, an increase of 7 % since 2002-2003 and 34 % since 1991-1992. Annual RVUs per FTE radiologist were 10,200, an increase of 10 % since 2002-2003 and 70.3 % since 1991-1992.Bhargavan and colleagues found that academic practices performed about 1/3 fewer procedures per FTE radiologist than others. In most types of practice, radiologists in a 75th-percentile practice performed at least 65 % more procedures annually than radiologists in a 25th-percentile practice. The researchers said that their regression analysis showed that practices that used external off-hours teleradiology services performed 27 % more procedures than otherwise similar practices that did not use these services. Workload varied substantially among similar practices.The authors noted that radiologists have been able to increase their workload by such large amounts while keeping their annual work hours relatively fixed through the use of new technology, “whether that technology is embodied in equipment and software–for example, in PACS and 3D reconstruction–or in organizational arrangements, such as the use of external off-hours teleradiology services.”Kanteron Systems is an experienced Healthcare IT company supplying a broad range of software solutions, from PACS and 3D reconstruction workstations, to teleradiology.

Source. A recently-published report by Harald A. Deutsch, MD, and Fran Turisco of the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), an IT and business services company headquartered in Falls Church, Va. on EHR and health information exchange (HIE) initiatives suggests that the United States should look at similar efforts in Europe as a guide for its development of large-scale e-health systems.The report paints a bleak historical picture of U.S. e-health initiatives. According to the authors, a review of 145 HIEs implemented in the U.S. found that only 32 of them are still active, while just 20 of those have achieved some level of success. Although the Obama Administration has taken steps toward revamping state and regional e-health efforts with the enactment of the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, the authors warned that the complexity involved in eventually implementing a national health information network (NHIN) means it could take many years to accomplish.Europe has been dealing with these issues for more than a decade, and many European countries have been able to implement large-scale e-health initiatives. The European path to e-health system implementation has been varied and can provide some valuable lessons for future U.S. efforts, the authors noted.Kanteron Systems is a European Healthcare IT company with experience implementing EHR and HIE solutions.

Many hospitals are considering vendor-neutral solutions for archiving and accessing medical images to avoid being locked into closed, proprietary software, according the report “In Enterprise Imaging: A Vendor Reality Check” from market research firm KLAS.The study found that while many providers are looking to their PACS vendor as a likely enterprise imaging partner, they also recognize the potential pitfalls of getting locked into a proprietary solution that may not translate well from one department to another.”A number of hospitals are beginning to take ownership of their medical images by building PACS-neutral archives and storage management layers,” Brown said. “This approach allows the PACS to simply become a physician-friendly viewing and interaction layer that can be upgraded or replaced without the typically painful migration.”Kanteron Systems offer one of the most robust, interoperable, and high-performance vendor-neutral PACS in the market.

A publication from ABI Research examines wireless telehealth and forecasts that 15 million systems will be in use–mainly in North America–by early in 2012. Source.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Tuesday June 2nd, Methodist Hospital turned away patients in ambulances, for the first time in its 100-plus history. Why? Because the electronic health records (EHR) system had gone down the prior afternoon — due to a power surge — and the backlog of paperwork was no longer tolerable.Kanteron Systems offers high-availability HIS and EHR technology, with off-site and disaster recovery options.

Increased utilization of advanced medical imaging has improved the life expectancy of patients in the United States by nearly nine months, according to a study, led by Columbia University economics professor Frank Lichtenberg, PhD, released this month from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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