WASHINGTON, D.C. - Health reform will span a new non-profit institute for patient safety and better healthcare outcomes.

Bloomberg reports  that Section 6301 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a new organization called the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The Institute will test methods and drugs, all in an an attempt to deliver more effective treatments at a lower cost.

Other headlines today: (more…)

FALLS CHURCH – Today’s roundup of top headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation.

• HHS panel advises on data glitches that affect patient safety: Hospitals and doctors should be required to report data glitches that create “hazards and near-misses” that affect patient safety to a national patient safety organization starting in 2013, according to recommendations proposed Monday by a Health and Human Services Department advisory workgroup.
• VA looks to computerize processing of G.I. bill benefits: Having missed its original deadline last summer to streamline claims processing for the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, the Obama administration is trying to make good by launching new software April 1.
• EMR data theft booming: Acceleration in the use of electronic medical records may lead to an increase in personal health information theft, according to a new study that shows there were more than 275,000 cases of medical information theft in the U.S. last year.
• HHS wiki airs concerns about planned health network service: The Health and Human Services Department’s month-old wiki for its new “Nationwide Health Information Network Direct” service is publicizing the service and airing concerns that it might impinge on state health information exchanges.
• Use of surgical robots on rise in operating rooms: Surgical robots won FDA approval in 2000, and there are now 1,395 of them in 860 hospitals worldwide, performing more than 200,000 operations a year.
• Tricare extends Web-based mental health counseling demo: A demonstration project that links enrollees with mental health counselors via the Internet has been extended through March 20, 2011.

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FALLS CHURCH – A number of recalls of AEDs, or Automated External Defibrillators, are in progress this month. The recalls are from the manufacturers Cardiac Science and Philips Healthcare.

Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, are portable devices that analyze heart rhythms of patients with cardiac arrest.  If the AED finds a problem, it automatically delivers a shock to restore normal heart rates until the patient can be seen at a hospital.

Recalls include:

• Cardiac Science Corporation announced that some of their AEDs had the potential for devices not to deliver therapy. By May, 2010, the company will have a software update available that enhances the AED’s self-test capability to detect this issue. There are a number of models affected, including those sold under the brands Powerheart, Burdick Cardiovive, GE Responder, and CardioLife.  On their website, Cardiac Science has a form where owners can look up serial numbers, as well as register for maintenance reminder emails: http://www.cardiacscience.com/services-support/service-announcements-and-upgrades/voluntary-medical-device-correction.php

• Philips Healthcare is conducting a recall of a limited number of HeartStart AEDs produced in October 2009. The voluntary recall is of specific OnSite, First Aid, HS1, and Home defibrillators (HS1) and FR2 defibrillators. Failure of a capacitor during use could prevent the AED from working properly. Like Cardiac Science, Philips has information on their website where building managers and other AED owners can look up serial numbers and find out if their model is affected. The page is at: http://www.healthcare.philips.com/us_en/products/resuscitation/aeds/actions.wpd

For those who want to look up recall information about a wide range of AEDs, the Food and Drug Administration’s CDRH, or Center for Devices and Radiological Health, has a database lookup tool at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfRES/res.cfm

To get the best results, type in ‘spacekey’ AED ’spacekey’ to find results containing AEDs.

WASHINGTON – As of October 1, 2011, the federal government will limit updates to medical codes. The freeze is so that providers, payers, clearinghouses, and health IT vendors, will not have to simultaneously keep pace with code updates while also reconfiguring their existing systems for the new ICD-10-CM/PCS codes. This news according to reporter Tom Sullivan of Healthcare IT News.

Other headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation:

• ‘Connect’ HIE gateway to support cloud services: The next version of ‘Connect,’ a software gateway that helps agencies and other organizations share health-related information, will offer cloud-computing-based options for standing up health information services, according to leaders of the project.
• The healthcare law: Answers to frequently asked questions: The healthcare bill is more than 2,000 pages long — with hundreds more to come from regulators filling in the details. It will take years before all the details are set and people can see how the plan will affect their situation. But here are some commonly asked questions that can be answered now.
• HHS panel considers central authority for health IT vocabulary: A federal advisory task force is considering whether a central authority is needed to define and enforce medical vocabulary terms to be used in health care messaging, records and data exchange.
• Sharp momentum shift back to the Democrats after passing health bill: Political momentum has shifted so fast over the last week that it has given Republicans whiplash.

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FALLS CHURCH – Today’s roundup of top headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation.

• VA chief pledges acquisition streamlining: Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told a House panel on Wednesday that he could cut $2 billion from the department’s $15 billion annual procurement budget through management reforms, including the development of a centralized acquisition infrastructure.
• VA working on ‘Aviva’ — next generation of VistA: The Veterans Affairs Department is at work on the next-generation of VistA, its 20-plus year-old electronic medical record system, which is often praised by users but considered a headache to planners working to bring VA health systems fully into the Internet age.
• N.Y. health insurers to offer virtual doc visits: BlueCross BlueShield announced that it is offering virtual physician visits to members and employers in New York who want to connect to doctors via videoconferencing or text messaging.
• Long-term acute-care hospitals face growing scrutiny: The Senate Finance Committee has launched an investigation into quality-of-care concerns at the nation’s roughly 400 long-term acute-care (LTAC) hospitals
• Ohio House bill would test medical home system: The Ohio House of Representatives last week unanimously passed a bill that would create and test a patient-centered medical home system in the state.
• Electronic healthcare won’t be denied: Obstacles abound, no doubt. But three huge constituents will demand it: government, large providers — and the customers who will benefit.

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FALLS CHURCH – Today’s roundup of top headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation.

• ONC corrects EHR certification rule: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has withdrawn the proposed rule establishing a certification program for electronic health records software and replaced it with a corrected version.
• VA and DOD expand health data exchange pilot: The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are expanding their health data exchange pilot project to hospitals in the southeastern corner of Virginia to take advantage of the high concentration of current and retired military service members in that area.
• VA investigating security breach of veterans’ medical data: The Veterans Affairs Department’s inspector general has launched a criminal investigation into a physician assistant’s alleged downloading of veterans’ clinical data at its Atlanta medical center, sources have told Nextgov.
• Vendors vie for platform space:Vendors duke it out at HIMSS conference in bid to provide the healthcare platform that everyone wants.
• Chopra cites fed projects as health IT catalysts: A National Cancer Institute registry service that will allow patients, federal health researchers and healthcare providers to access its data is just the first of a slew of examples that the Obama administration hopes will spur the so called “meaningful use” of health IT.

Want the Noblis Health Innovation headlines in your inbox each morning? Sign up for our RSS feed. And follow the latest news on health safety and recall on Twitter at http://twitter.com/healthrecall.

FALLS CHURCH – Today’s roundup of top headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation.

• Doctor leads quest for safer ways to care for patients: Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, medical director of the Quality and Safety Research Group at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, travels the country advising hospitals on innovative safety measures.
• HHS plans to award health care innovation task orders: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is looking to award 12 to 15 contracts in the coming months for its “Action II” program to spark innovation in health care delivery, including use of health information technology.
• VA may restore access to DOD medical record systems soon: The Veterans Affairs Department is working to fix computer flaws that caused it to shut down all electronic access to Defense Department patient medical record systems on March 1.
• VA to automate its Agent Orange claims process: The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to announce today that it will fully automate how it pays claims for illnesses related to exposure to the chemical Agent Orange to keep an overburdened system from collapse.
• Obama launches attack on insurers: The White House is mounting a stinging, sustained broadside against health insurance rate increases as President Obama and his aides enter what they hope will be the final stretch of a year-long political war over healthcare reform.
• NAE, IOM discuss engineering innovations in health care: Charles M. Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering, and Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, participated in a regional meeting on “Engineering Innovations in Health Care” held at the University of Miami.

Want the Noblis Health Innovation headlines in your inbox each morning? Sign up for our RSS feed. And follow the latest news on health safety and recall on Twitter at http://twitter.com/healthrecall.

FALLS CHURCH – Today’s roundup of top headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation.

• Obama wields analysis of insurers in health battle: Seeking support for an overhaul, the administration is pointing to a Goldman Sachs study suggesting investors buy insurance shares because rates are up and competition is down.

• Lab quality law permits data exchange, CMS says: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last week clarified that a 1988 law setting up national quality standards for medical testing labs does permit the labs to electronically exchange test data, an essential feature of the administration’s health IT adoption plan.

• Weekend hospital care not as prompt as weekday care: Hospitals are less likely to perform a major procedure on a patient on the same day as admission if that patient was admitted over the weekend, than on a patient admitted during a weekday, according to new findings by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality(AHRQ).

• Maine HIE demonstration nears finish line: Maine’s HealthInfoNet, a statewide health information exchange, is nearing the end of its clinical demonstration phase, but plans are already underway for expanding the network.

• Lessons at Indian hospital about births: A small, underfunded hospital in Arizona, with about 500 births a year, is outperforming richer institutions when it comes to keeping Caesarean rates down.

• Boston Globe: “FDA lax on conflicts of interest”: The Food and Drug Administration has done far too little to avoid conflicts of interest among those who serve on its scientific panels and advisory boards, says this Boston Globe editorial.

Want the Noblis Health Innovation headlines in your inbox each morning? Sign up for our RSS feed. And follow the latest news on health safety and recall on Twitter at http://twitter.com/healthrecall.

FALLS CHURCH – Today’s roundup of top headlines in the field of healthcare, compiled daily by the library services department of Noblis Health Innovation.

• Glitch prompts VA to shut e-health data exchange with Defense: The Veterans Affairs Department closed off access to the Defense Department’s huge electronic health record system on Monday because it found errors in some patients’ medical data clinicians downloaded from the Defense network, according to an internal patient safety alert the department issued and obtained by Nextgov.
• Obama takes health care deadline to Democrats: President Obama met with insurance executives and selected House Democrats, as party leaders struggled to figure out whether they can meet his timetable.
• Congress asks top health insurers about medical claim denials: U.S. Congressional members requested chief executives from the country’s four biggest health insurers to testify at a hearing on March 23 about medical claim denials for patients with pre-existing medical conditions.
• Market for EMRs forecast to reach $5.4B by 2015: The North American market for EMR systems will grow to $5.4 billion annually by 2015, according to a forecast from Global Industry Analysts
• Connecticut AG wants reported adverse events in the public record: If the state attorney general has his way, hospitals in Connecticut may soon face increased public scrutiny of reported adverse events–joining five other states (Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington) with laws on the books that require specific disclosure of adverse events.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the FDA posted an information page on the newest food contamination scare,  the HVP Recall. A bit of the basic information is posted here for consumers. The FDA has also posted the page HVP for industry to inform industry what to do.

At this time, no illnesses are known to be associated with this problem of contamination. Below, a few of the FDA’s frequently asked questions. (more…)