2012 Patient-centered Computing and eHealth: Transforming Healthcare Quality

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

We are pleased toannounce that the Clinical Informatics Research & Development group (CIRD) at Partners HealthCare System, and the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, aresponsoring, for a fifth year, the Harvard Medical School Continuing MedicalEducation course entitled: Patient-Centered Computing and eHealth:Transforming Healthcare Quality, April 30-May 2, 2012, at the Conference Center at Waltham Woods.

This course iscomprised of 2 1/2 days of keynote presentations, workshops, and paneldiscussions, which explore current topics in the meaningful and effective useof health IT for providers and patients. Our Faculty are drawn from the expertsacross Partners HealthCare, Harvard Medical School, and across the country – each with deep realworld experience in the issues that must be considered to effectively design,implement, and use health IT to transform care. Our students are healthcareleaders, clinicians, and IT professionals, — all of whom are dedicated to theeffective use of health it to transform health care quality, improve patientsafety, and reduce unwarranted costs of care.

Below is some of the greatfeedback we received from prior courses:

"Really thought this was an extremely high valueexperience. The effort was obvious. I greatly appreciated theopportunity to participate."
"The workshop topics were wonderful. It would havebeen terrific to be able to attend them all!"
"I saw the entire course presenting the [health IT]situation with all of the associated issues that need to be accommodated andconsidered. It did not provide a solution - the perfect solution is notthere yet - this provides the things to consider in getting there - itpresented the fully reality and presented it quite well."
“Dr. Middleton &his team at Harvard are at the epicenter of bringing effective ContinuousQuality Improvement to main stream medicine.”
“Top faculty. Greatorganization and scheduling. Varied educational methods.”

Brief 2012 Course Description

This practical course presents the work of national experts inpatient-centered computing and eHealth using a format that will enable acquisitionof new knowledge and allow students to take-away skills for immediateapplication back home. Through plenary presentations, panel discussions andworkshops, participants will have an opportunity to see the ‘big picture’,understand current best practices, and take away practical lessons learned andinsights about how to effectively use health IT.

Students will interact withexperts about the current opportunities and challenges that arise from implementationand use of patient-centered health IT tools, including, but not limited to:

best practices and guidelines for the use of eHealth applications (e.g. Electronic Health Records [EHRs], Personal Health Records [PHRs], secure messaging, web visits),
the evidence base regarding health IT’s role in behavior change and chronic disease self-management (e.g. diabetes, heart failure, depression),
the role of eHealth in enhancing patient safety and reducing medical error, and potential unintended consequences of use
the value proposition for physicians and other stakeholders of using eHealth strategies,
patients' perspectives on eHealth applications and technologies, and their viewpoint about the impact on healthcare costs, quality and satisfaction,
information about working collaboratively and communicating effectively with patients to assess and differentiate the quality of healthcare information on the Internet, and publicly reported quality measures,
opportunities and risks in clinical data sharing,
the potential for provider and patient technologies to support improved public health reporting and community wellness, and
future research and development directions in patient-centered computing and eHealth.

Keynoters for 2012 include:

David Blumenthal, MD, Harvard Medical School - e-Health for Patient Safety, Quality, and Care: TransformingU.S. Healthcare

Dr. David Blumenthal is the founding director of theMongan Institute for Health Policy at MGH, and has returned to the Massachusetts General Hospitalfollowing two years in Washington, DC,as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for theObama administration. In his role at the ONC, Dr. Blumenthal forged policies that will guide thedevelopment and dissemination of electronic health records (EHRs) for decadesto come. In particular, he led the initiative that set standards for meaningfuluse of EHRs, which in turn determine the content and functionality of theserecords. Dr. Blumenthal has advised Democratic presidential candidates fromMichael Dukakis to Barack Obama on health related issues, and is the author of TheHeart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office. In this keynotepresentation, Dr. Blumenthal will review the current state of health care andeHealth, and discuss the future needs and opportunities for eHealth to helptransform U.S. healthcare delivery.

Victor Strecher, PhD, MPH, University of Michigan - Personalizing andTailoring Clinical Care to Improve Patient Health Outcomes

Evidence supports the benefits of tailoring eHealthapplications. They are more salient, increase adoption and reach and havegreater impact. The process of “deep tailoring” is emerging, which goes beyondtailoring based upon demographic and nominal characteristics only to includemore culturally sensitive and multi-level variables. This approach to thedesign of personalized services has implications for practice re-design and thepotential to enhance health outcomes, making it relevant to the practicingprovider. Key concepts will be described and examples presented from current applications.

John D. Halamka, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School - Toward Meaningful Use: National Policy andStandards Review and Update

The landscape for health information technology (HIT)standards is evolving quickly in the U.S. with financial incentives, regulatoryreform and legislation to support HIT adoption and meaningful use. Dr. Halamka,recognized as a national expert in this field and Chair of the US HealthcareInformation Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), will review nationwideactivities, policy initiatives, standards normalization and acceleration andEHR certification and tell you what you need to know as it applies to yourclinical practice.

Robert Wachter, MD, University of California, San Francisco -- Digital Medicine in the Era of Health Reform

Dr. Robert Wachter will highlight the current stateof the art of medical practice with respect to quality and patient safety, andthe opportunity for health IT to contribute to transformation of U.S. healthcaredelivery. In his books, Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America’sTerrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, and Understanding PatientSafety, Dr. Wachter has described the many ways in which we need to improveupon how U.S. healthcare is delivered. He is widely regarded as the founder ofthe Hospitalist movement, and a leading expert in patient safety and quality:he is the editor of the AHRQ Web M&M, a case-based patient safety journalon the Web, and AHRQ Patient Safety Network, the leading federal patient safetyportal. Together, the sites receive over two million unique visits each year.

Kim Nazi, FACHE, PhDc,Veterans Health Administration -- 5^th Annual Warner Slack Keynote Lecture - Project Health Design and eHealth: Designing the Future of Healthcare

Healthcare delivery systems of the future willrequire deep understanding of consumer/patient needs for engagement in theirown health and wellness, health information management, and decision support.Patients will seek PHR systems which are personal, connected, and provide value.They must be supportive and enabling of increasing consumerism. This boldvision of PHR systems will be presented in the context of the transformation ofthe present health care system into a more patient-centric one. Key examples toilluminate these issues will be drawn from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation“Project Health Design.”

David Ahern, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School -- Behavioral Health Informatics and eHealth:Aligning Decision-Support Systems to the Cognitive Models of Providers andPatients

Patients and providers often have radically differentideas about the health and disease states they are working on improvingtogether. These differences impact communication, understanding, and healthcareoutcomes. Consideration of the cognitive models of patients and providers inthe design of health IT applications and personalized services is critical forsuccessful practice re-design and the effective use and application of healthIT. Theories underlying behavioral health informatics will be discussed, andpractical examples presented demonstrating their impact on EMR and PHR designand use.

Blackford Middleton, MD, MPH, MSc, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Partners Heatlhcare, Harvard Medical School -- Thinking about Clinical Decision Support: AReview of the State of the Art

Dr. Middleton will address the patient safetyimperative and healthcare transformation using healthcare IT and clinicaldecision support. He will discuss critical features and functions of EHRs andPHRs; and discuss the current state of the art with respect to providingeffective clinical decision support for providers and patients using thesetechnologies. Notable findings from current research and examples from currentapplications will be presented.

Course Objectives

Participants will gain current, state-of-the art knowledge about patient-centered computing and eHealth.
Participants will be able to identify best practices and guidelines for the meaningful use of patient-centered health IT.
Participants will attain a better understanding about the theoretical and practical opportunities and challenges in implementing and utilizing patient-centered eHealth applications.
Participants will learn how to effectively use and/or implement the following eHealth technologies: EHRs, PHRs, and clinical decision support.
Participants will attain practical understanding of the issues surrounding healthcare information exchange, and data reuse for public health and community wellness.

This course would note be possible without generous unrestricted educational grants from:

Nuance
Intersystems
Intelligent Medical Objects
NextGen

Thanks for reading -- hope to see you there!

H@cking Medicine at MIT

2011-09-27T18:20:00.001-04:00

Folks, posting for a friend to promote what sounds like a great conference: H@cking Medicine at MIT
We are proud to announce Hacking Medicine, the first event of its kind. Engineers, scientists, physicians, and entrepreneurs, in one location, creating disruptive healthcare solutions today.If you want to radically change healthcare, then apply now: http://bit.ly/nXIF3P. Bring your skills, your ideas, or both. We're selecting 100 people just like you.Be part of the inaugural conference. Leave with a team and a hack on its first steps towards becoming a company and disrupting healthcare.For more information or to apply to be one of the 100: http://hackingmedicine.mit.edu/Hacking Medicine takes place October 22nd and 23rd at the Media Lab at MIT. If you are selected we will send you more detailed logistics.Healthcare needs you, come be part of the solution.The Hacking Medicine Team

Harvard CME Course: Patient-centered Computing and eHealth -- Transforming Healthcare Quality

2011-05-08T10:32:00.000-04:00

It has been terrific fun to be with all students and faculty at this year's course -- thanks all, and Happy Mother's Day.

See tweetstream summary of course #pcehealth11 at http://bit.ly/inxozL, and thanks to excellent live tweeting by Janice McCallum (#janicemccallum)!

Send in your comments and suggestions for the next course!

Clinical Informatics R&D

2012 Patient-centered Computing and eHealth: Transforming Healthcare Quality

H@cking Medicine at MIT

H@cking Medicine at MIT

Harvard CME Course: Patient-centered Computing and eHealth -- Transforming Healthcare Quality