Tag Archives: health information technology

Moore Foundation awards $500,000-plus grant to AHCJ

The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a grant of more than half a million dollars to strengthen the knowledge and skills of health care journalists.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation made the three-year grant of $509,400 to the Missouri-based center to assist in educating journalists in building their knowledge base in several areas.

Along with continuing the foundation’s support of a web-based core curriculum on health information technology, the grant will support a new curriculum on patient safety, curated resources for freelance journalists and an endowing sponsorship of the annual conference of AHCJ.

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Is the ‘medical virtualist’ specialty coming to a health system near you?

Photo: Roy Blumenthal via Flickr

The Journal of the American Medical Association not long ago published an online editorial by two physicians at NewYork-Presbyterian that called for the creation of a new medical specialty focused on virtual care.

Others expanded on this idea in a blog post last month on the Health Affairs website, calling for a “virtualist movement“ that involves not just physician specialists but whole care teams devoted to virtual care. This virtual team would include nurses, pharmacists, medical social workers, psychologists, nutritionists and physical therapists. Continue reading

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation supports health IT training for journalists

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded a three-year $230,000 grant to the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

The funding will support the association’s annual conference, a new web-based reporting curriculum on health information technology and a regional journalism workshop on health IT. Continue reading

Why we still need human relationships in an era of digital medicine

Is computerized medicine all it’s cracked up to be? Or has it so dramatically eliminated the human factor that we risk doing more harm than good?

Photo: @CharlesOrnstein via Twitter

Photo: @CharlesOrnstein via Twitter

That was the premise of Wednesday’s AHCJ New York City chapter meeting with guest speaker Robert Wachter, M.D., professor and associate chair, department of medicine and director, division of hospital medicine, at the University of California, San Francisco. Wachter provided the backstory of his hospital’s switch from analog to digital systems, how this process has hurt peer and patient relationships – and very nearly killed a 12-year old boy.

Wachter said he was excited about the push for computerized medicine a decade ago. “We had this grand idea that they [computers] would solve everything.” However, he since has come to believe that was that although computers are transforming his profession, it isn’t always for the better. Continue reading

How close are we to meeting the promise of electronic health records?

Photo: Carla K. JohnsonA panel of experts discusses health information technology at an AHCJ Chicago chapter event on March 3 in Chicago. From left: Dr. Arnold “Ned” Wagner Jr., chief medical information officer, NorthShore University HealthSystem; Dr. Diane Bradley, senior vice president, chief quality and outcomes officer, Allscripts; Eric Yablonka, vice president and chief information officer, University of Chicago Medicine; and moderator Neil Versel, an independent journalist.

Photo: Carla K. JohnsonA panel of experts discuss health information technology at an AHCJ Chicago chapter event on March 3 in Chicago. From left: Dr. Arnold “Ned” Wagner Jr., chief medical information officer, NorthShore University HealthSystem; Dr. Diane Bradley, senior vice president, chief quality and outcomes officer, Allscripts; Eric Yablonka, vice president and chief information officer, University of Chicago Medicine; and moderator Neil Versel, an independent journalist.

Yes, technology is transforming health care. No, we haven’t come anywhere close to realizing the vision.

Smooth patient handoffs, data-driven performance improvement and real-time analytics are still mostly dreams, although those ambitions have been talked about for years.

Independent journalist Neil Versel, who specializes in health information technology, moderated a panel on March 3. The AHCJ Chicago chapter event was held at AMA Plaza, the new headquarters of the American Medical Association.

Electronic medical record systems “need to play nicer together so they can use each other’s information as if it was natively generated,” said Arnold “Ned” Wagner Jr., M.D., chief medical information officer of NorthShore University HealthSystem. “Can we talk to each other transparently? Well, partly. The success of communication depends on human behavior and (technology’s) job is to help understand the reality of what motivates people to do things.” Continue reading