FALLS CHURCH – Staff from RASMAS will attend the upcoming ASHP: American Society of Health System Pharmacists Midyear Meeting in New Orleans December 4-8.

HERNDON – The most recent edition of the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Voice Of Technology featured RASMAS in its summer 2010 edition.

Writer Mark Toner’s cover story mentioned RASMAS as one of the many examples of how Northern Virginia non-profits such as Noblis are driving transformation in the healthcare industry.

Find out more:

• Summer 2010 edition of Voice Of Technology
  
• The Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Health Technology Committee
  

The medical code set ICD-10 will replace ICD-9. Insurers are now preparing for the issue. Click on the document for a copy of the Noblis Insights Panel

FALLS CHURCH – Noblis Health Innovation has launched an effort to help member hospitals prepare for ICD-10, the replacement for the ICD-9 system of diagnostic and treatment codes.

The new section is online at www.noblis.org/icd10.

The section includes information on recent Noblis Insights Panel on ICD-10 where 150 top healthcare executives and thought leaders were polled on the issue of the adoption of ICD-10. It also includes:

• A short document to help healthcare organizations determine if they are prepared for ICD-10. It is called ICD-10, Are You Ready?
• An explanatory document entitled What you need to know about ICD-10.
• A set of web links for resources on ICD-10.
• A set of explanatory videos on the subject of ICD-10

For more information, contact Kurt Acker, Manager, at 703-610-2536 or email him at kurt.acker@noblis.org or icd10@noblis.org

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Pharmaceuticals, food, and operating room products had the largest increases, according to Noblis

FALLS CHURCH – March 1, 2010 – Noblis, the provider of the RASMAS recall management service, reported that the number of released alerts rose at a steady rate of four percent between 2008 and 2009.  Although the rate of increase seems modest, the number of products involved in each recall increased dramatically, resulting in over 50 percent more products being recalled.  According to RASMAS analysts, the top three product domains with the most activity by product count were pharmaceuticals, food, and operating room (OR) products, specifically:

• Pharmaceutical product recalls increased by 108%
• Food recalls increased by 236%
• OR product recalls grew by 327%

“The past year has been quite challenging, not only in terms of the number of recalls, but the size of each recall and its impact on healthcare organizations.  In September, a pharmaceutical recall was released for Tylenol.  Initially, the recall included a small number of products, but by December, the recall expanded to include many other McNeil products,” stated RASMAS principal, Bill Klein.  “In the OR domain, a worldwide class II recall for the Flexima and Percuflex Drainage Catheter covered 134 products and over 750,000 units.  The large number of products and units affected by this recall and its wide geographic distribution demonstrate the impact a single recall can have on patient safety.  While all the players in the healthcare product supply chain continue to work on improving safety, this recall shows that effects of any single recall can reverberate across a broad swath of facilities and providers.”

Established in 2004, Noblis’ RASMAS helps healthcare organizations receive timely and actionable healthcare product recalls, offers comprehensive workflow capabilities, and provides access to a growing online community of healthcare professionals.  The RASMAS team provides quality control of recall information.  They focus on cataloging, tracking, and confirming the specifics of recalled products as well as ensuring that information is sent to RASMAS subscribers as quickly as possible.  RASMAS classifies recall notices into fifteen product domains:

• Biologics
• Biomedical Devices
• Blood Products
• Children’s Consumer Products
• Engineering and Facilities
• Food
• Information Systems
• Laboratory Products
• Medical Supplies
• OR Products
• Other Products (e.g., prosthetics)
• Pharmaceuticals
• Radiology Products
• Tissue
• Veterinary Products

The RASMAS database contains over 20, alerts released since 2004.  In 2009, the RASMAS released more than 3,200 alerts to healthcare organizations.

Today 8 of the top 10 hospitals on the 2009 US News and World Report’s America’s Best Hospitals Honor Roll are Noblis’ RASMAS subscribers.  Many leading hospitals utilize the RASMAS web-based service to transform their patient safety culture by driving patient safety best practices, improving cost management, and reducing exposure to product recall liability throughout the enterprise.

About Noblis

Noblis, a nonprofit science, technology and strategy organization, brings the best of scientific thought, management, and engineering know-how in an impartial environment to find timely, innovative, and enduring solutions to our clients’ greatest challenges.

Noblis works in essential areas, including healthcare; national security and intelligence; transportation; sustainability: energy, environment, and climate; and enterprise services. For more information on Noblis, please visit noblis.org.

About Noblis Health Innovation and RASMAS

In Health Innovation, Noblis is a catalyst and trusted resource for innovative and constructive transformation in healthcare serving both government and non-government organizations. Noblis Health Innovation is leading the way in clinical design, quality improvement, and patient safety. Health Innovation’s core capabilities include Engineering Methodologies to Strategically Implement Regulatory Change (ICD-10), Health Information Technology (HIT), Modeling and Analytics, Organizational Transformation, and Healthcare Market-Facility Planning and Capitalization.

BALTIMORE – Look for RASMAS staffer Kurt Acker at the 6th annual Maryland Patient Safety Conference.

The theme of the day is “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work …Hope, Trust, Partnership” with keynote speaker Susan E. Sheridan, co-founder and president of Consumers Advancing Patient Safety. The event runs from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be held March 19, 2010 at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Cooperating organizations in the conference include The Beacon Institute, LifeSpan’s Educational Affiliate; Health Facilities Association of Maryland; Maryland Association of Healthcare Executives; Maryland Healthcare Education Institute; Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment; Maryland Nurses Association; Maryland Organization of Nurse Executives; Maryland Society for Healthcare Risk Management and Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality. See marylandpatientsafety.org

Robin White, the head nurse of a pediatrics inpatient unit, and Jason Rundell, a physician’s assistant, train as part of regular Miltary Health System exercises called TeamSTEPPS. The training is one of the many programs of the MHS.

FALLS CHURCH -  Meet RASMAS and Noblis Health Innovation team at the 2010 Military Health System Conference.

The theme of the conference is “Sharing Knowledge: Achieving Breakthrough Performance.” Each day will feature its own educational theme, centering on achievements and performance in healthcare delivery, research, education and training.

The meeting will be held January 25-28, 2010 at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The actual conference runs from January 25 – 28; the exposition runs January 26 – 27. Noblis Health Innovation’s Kurt Acker will be at Booth 136.

Three-thousand military and civilian medical personnel from the MHS are expected to attend, creating an opportunity to share knowledge and improve best practices. As a learning organization, the MHS expects its 2010 conference to promote professionalism across the force, enhance partnerships within and outside the federal sector, and focus on ways to best serve the preventive and healthcare needs of our diverse beneficiary population.

Further details can be found at www.health.mil/mhsconference.

FALLS CHURCH -  Geneticist Dietrich Stephan of the Ignite Institute will speak at a at a free breakfast meeting January 19, 2010, sponsored by the Northern Virginia Technology Council‘s Health Techonology Committee.

The Ignite Institute is a new non-profit based in Fairfax that will enable individual patients to use genetic testing to help prevent the onset of certain disorders and diseases. Ignite is the first entity to fully integrate biomedical research, development, commercialization and clinical care. (more…)

FALLS CHURCH – A leading official in the field of medicine and health information technology will speak at Noblis Dec. 15 at a free breakfast meeting sponsored by the Northern Virginia Technology Council‘s Health Techonology Committee.

Dr. John Loonsk, chief medical officer for CGI Federal, will speak on “Prerequisites for Meaningful Health IT.” Loonsk was the Director for Interoperability and Standards within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. The talk will address electronic medical records as they relate to federal stimulus legislation and proposed healthcare reform. Questions include: (more…)

LAS VEGAS – Look for RASMAS staff Joe Driscoll  and Kurt Acker at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Mid Year Clinical Meeting and Exhibition. We will be attending with our business partner EXP Pharmaceutical Services Corp. and introducing a new recall/returns solution.

The meeting runs from December 6-10 in Las Vegas. Please stop by and visit us at booth number 2007. For more information, see www.ashp.org