Forbes contributor Nicole Fisher, claimed proponent of healthcare human rights, writes long article on EHRs that neglects to mention patient harm

The field of health IT lives a charmed life.<br /><br />Even self-stated human rights advocates in healthcare won't seem to broach the topic of <b>EHR-related harms</b> and<b> lack of informed consent processes</b> regarding their use in a patient's care, even when authors openly state their concerns for patient and human rights.<br /><br />This is despite known harms at potentially alarming levels as indicated by organizations including the IOM, FDA, ECRI Institute, AHRQ, Harvard Med Mal insurer CRICO, The Joint Commission, NHS in the UK, and others.<br /><br />Forbes contributor Nicole Fisher (<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/</a>) published an article in Forbes dated 3/18/2014 and entitled <b>"Electronic Health Records - Expensive, Disruptive And Here To Stay</b>" (<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2014/03/18/electronic-health-records-expensive-disruptive-and-here-to-stay/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2014/03/18/electronic-health-records-expensive-disruptive-and-here-to-stay/</a>).<br /><br />You can read the article at the above link.  It focuses on physician distraction and dissatisfaction, poor usability and usefulness, expense, and related issues.  Of course, quotes from HHS figure prominently.<br /><br />Nowhere, however, is mention of EHR-related harms to patients, such as reported by the aforementioned organizations mentioned - as in this very small sample list of posts, which contain links to source:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare: "CRICO Malpractice Claims Analysis Confirms Risks in EHRs"</b><br /><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2014/02/patient-safety-quality-healthcare.html">hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2014/02/patient-safety-quality-healthcare.html</a><br /><br /><b>Peering Underneath the Iceberg's Water Level: ECRI "Deep Dive" Study of Health IT "Events"</b><br /><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html</a><br /><br /><b>Internal FDA memorandum on HIT risks</b><br /><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html</a><br /><br /><b>IOM Report - "Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care"</b><br /><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/11/iom-report-on-health-it-safety-nix-fda.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/11/iom-report-on-health-it-safety-nix-fda.html</a><br /><br /><b>EHRs and Deadly glitches</b><br /><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/glitch">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/glitch</a> (multiple posts)<br /><br /><b>Not to forget issues of breach of privacy:</b>  <br /><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/medical%20record%20privacy">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/medical%20record%20privacy</a> (multiple posts)</blockquote><br />Nor are mentioned the issues of the experimental, unregulated nature of this technology, and the lack of any informed consent process regarding patient's rights to decide whether or not to have these systems used in their care.<br /><br />The only mention of "<b>unintended consequences</b>" links to "<a href="http://www.emrandhipaa.com/guest/2014/03/11/unintended-icd-10-consequences-inadequate-clinical-documentation-can-negatively-impact-physician-profiles-icd-10-tuesdays/">Unintended ICD-10 Consequences: Inadequate Clinical Documentation Can Negatively Impact Physician Profiles</a>." <br /><br />This is in my view disappointing, and seems to be yet another extraordinary healthcare IT industry accommodation, remarkable for an author with the following bio (emphases mine):<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/</a><br /><br />Nicole Fisher is the Founder and Principal at HHR Strategies, <b>a health care and human rights focused advising firm.</b> Additionally, she is a Senior Policy Advisor and health policy expert on health economic analyses mainly focusing on Medicare, Medicaid and health reform, <b>specifically as they impact women and children</b>. Nicole runs a Health Innovation and Policy page at Forbes.com highlighting and advising companies, ideas and people that are changing the health care landscape. She is also currently pursuing her PhD at the University of North Carolina in the Health Policy and Management Department. Her writing has appeared in other publications such as Health Affairs, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Journal, Wright on Health, The Health Care Blog and Health Services Research. Before pursuing her PhD in health policy, Nicole earned her Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and her undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri. Her health care and policy work at those institutions <b>had an emphasis on underserved populations, women's and children’s issues</b>. She presides on several Boards for domestic and international health organizations and <b>frequently speaks on health reform and human rights.</b></blockquote><br />One might conclude the computer has more rights than the patient and the clinician via this Forbes piece.<br /><br />Finally, although I am a domain specialist (<a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2013/february/18/scot-silverstein-health-information-technology.aspx">http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2013/february/18/scot-silverstein-health-information-technology.aspx</a>), I am getting rather tired of having to point out the obvious to major media outlets and writers, in essence doing their homework for them.  I'm sure other bloggers feel the same way.  <br /><br />The title of the Forbes piece should have been "<b>Electronic Health Records - Expensive, Disruptive, Deadly."</b><br /><br />To the author of the Forbes piece and other HIT writers, here is the face (and gravestone) of someone injured by this "disruptive" technology.  <b> </b><a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-mother-passed-away.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-mother-passed-away.html</a><br /><b><br /></b>A few babies too:  <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/06/babys-death-spotlights-safety-risks.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/06/babys-death-spotlights-safety-risks.html</a><b></b><br /><b><br /></b>A family man:  <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/09/sweet-death-that-wasnt-very-sweet-how_24.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/09/sweet-death-that-wasnt-very-sweet-how_24.html</a><br /><br />I know of others from my legal work supporting the EHR-related injured and deceased that I cannot mention.  And I am but one person.<br /><br />If health IT were causing rapes** and child abuse, rather then merely causing mundane severe injuries and equally mundane deaths, would the media would pay more attention? <br /><br />-- SS<br /><br />** I sadly note that EHR's without proper security measures in force actually did enable rape-like behavior in 2011, as at <b>"EHR as Molestation Candidate Selector: What was this Resident looking for in the EHR before 'examining' female patients?"</b> at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-was-this-medical-resident-looking.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-was-this-medical-resident-looking.html</a>.<br /><br />

Forbes contributor Nicole Fisher, claimed proponent of healthcare human rights, writes long article on EHRs that neglects to mention patient harm

The field of health IT lives a charmed life.Even self-stated human rights advocates in healthcare won't seem to broach the topic of EHR-related harms and lack of informed consent processes regarding t…

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Forbes: Obamacare Billionaire: What One Entrepreneur's Rise Says About The Future Of Medicine

An article in Forbes appeared today (4/18/12) entitled "<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/04/18/obamacare-billionaire-what-one-entrepreneurs-rise-says-about-the-future-of-medicine/5/">Obamacare Billionaire: What One Entrepreneur's Rise Says About The Future Of Medicine</a>" by Matthew Herper.<br /><br />The article is largely a hagiography of Cerner founder Neal Patterson:<br /><br /><blockquote>North Kansas City is an unlikely place to launch a revolution in American health care. Yet here, amid the dilapidated grain elevators, fast food joints and vast green plains, the dream of using computers to keep you alive at a reasonable cost is battling onward. In a bunkerlike building built to withstand a direct hit by a category five tornado, 22,000 servers handle 150 million health care transactions a day, roughly one-third of the patient data for the entire U.S. Records of your blood pressure, cholesterol, lab test results, that gallbladder surgery last year—and how much you paid for it—may sit there right now. Armed guards stand watch.<br /><br />This is a data center at the headquarters of Cerner, the world’s largest stand-alone maker of health IT systems—and company number 1,621 on FORBES’ Global 2000 list—where the blood-and-guts realities of medicine meet the ­sterile speed and exactitude of the computer revolution. </blockquote><br />Omitted are some pertinent negative accounts, such as Cerner's role in the failed £12.7bn ($20bn U.S.) National Programme for IT in the NHS (NPfIT), as described <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/?loc=cases&sloc=granger_speaks_out">here</a> and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/cerners-blitzkrieg-on-london-wheres-raf.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Patterson is quoted with the standard industry bellicose grandiosity and hysterics about computers "revolutionizing" (as opposed to facilitating) medicine:<br /><br /><blockquote>... In 1999 a report from the prestigious Institute of Medicine gave Patterson hope that the rest of medicine was ready to follow in Mayo’s footsteps. Titled “To Err Is Human,” the report detailed how between 44,000 and 98,000 people die every year in hospitals from preventable mistakes, like getting the wrong medicine or the wrong dose of the right one. The ­report specifically prescribed better computer systems as a way to prevent these deadly mistakes. Patterson cites that study as the moment when health IT entered the mainstream. But it was still slow going, and that drove him nuts. His customers at that time were more worried about the Y2K bug than they were about <span style="font-weight: bold;">revolutionizing health care</span>.</blockquote><br />I first heard him and other HIT CEO's uttering the "revolution" line at a Microsoft Healthcare Users Group meeting ca. 1997 and attended largely by IT technicians. I was probably the only Medical Informatics-trained professional in attendance, and perhaps the only physician there.<br /><br />When I then asked those in the room how many had healthcare experience or had even read the Merck Manual, few hands went up. The CEO's could not then satisfactorily explain how medicine would be "revolutionized" by such a crowd. (One of those CEO's, of erstwhile HIT vendor HBOC, was later found to be seriously cooking the books after acquisition by McKesson. See "<a href="http://www.fbi.gov/sanfrancisco/press-releases/2009/sf111909b.htm"><span>Former McKesson HBOC Chairman Convicted of Securities Fraud; Defrauded Investors Lost in Excess of $8 Billion</span></a>" at FBI.gov. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Some revolution...)</span><br /><br />Unfortunately, most medical errors have little to do with documentation, either paper or electronic, as I wrote in Dec. 2010 at<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>"<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-healthcare-it-solution-to-wrong.html">Is Healthcare IT a Solution to the Wrong Problem?</a>". The latter, however, has introduced many new <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/updated-reading-list-on-health-it.html">errors modes and other social-technical problems</a>, permitted <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/01/2011-closes-on-note-of-electronic.html">massive security breaches</a> (it's very hard to haul away 10,000 paper charts without being noticed) and opportunities for medical records evidence spoliation simply not possible with paper.<br /><br />There are a few <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/02/health-it-ddulites-and-disregard-for.html">Ddulite-ish</a> quotes from Eric Topol and David Bates in an article with a clear tone of exalting health IT.<br /><br />I am quoted in the Forbes article in about the only comment critical of health IT, and the only comment concerning the ethics of human subjects experimentation conducted with this technology, as it exists in 2012:<br /><br /><blockquote>... <span style="font-weight: bold;">the Hippocratic oath says nothing about breaking eggs to make omelets</span>. “We’re kind of headed in the wrong direction,” says Scot Silverstein, a health IT expert at Drexel University who believes that the current systems are too prone to randomly losing data<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">[I had cited</span> <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/%7Ehitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146">this study</a> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">- ed.]</span></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span>and complicating doctors’ lives.</blockquote><br />While the "breaking eggs to make omelets" metaphor was not mine, it reminded me that I just carried out my final earthly duty for my mother, injured in mid 2010 by a health IT-related error and deceased since June 2011. I filed her final IRS tax return yesterday, the due date.<br /><br /><span jsid="text" class="commentBody">I just hope my mother is enjoying her omelet in the Pearly Gates Diner. Scrambled eggs were about all she could eat well after the health IT accident.</span><br /><br />As a result of that experience, my new business card (phone # redacted):<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ816cVuHWs6a6JHRvCv3Eg5mS_dE3ys3CfjSmUwEwZhrc35wFTqN4uJFYSbhZTdfZJGuyzbuJiv_ED8e3BftgodtuvyyQ5-2Oj8vEQCiAozTfs4R0ZXziQYJTc6ITSChhkddVI1ryXP_J/s1600/business_card_nonum.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5732943107289611266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ816cVuHWs6a6JHRvCv3Eg5mS_dE3ys3CfjSmUwEwZhrc35wFTqN4uJFYSbhZTdfZJGuyzbuJiv_ED8e3BftgodtuvyyQ5-2Oj8vEQCiAozTfs4R0ZXziQYJTc6ITSChhkddVI1ryXP_J/s320/business_card_nonum.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 275px; height: 153px;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">(Click to enlarge)</span><br /></div><br /><br />I no longer merely write about health IT risks. I find past involvement with attorneys early in my medical career, as Manager of Medical Programs and Medical Review Officer (drug testing officer) for one of the largest public transit authorities in the United States, quite helpful in this new role.<br /><br />The "eggs that get broken", as in a well known old nursery rhyme from the early 1800's, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty">cannot be reassembled</a>. Those injured or killed in the unregulated, thoughtless, cavalier journey to some mystical medical cybernetic utopia deserve justice, and the eggheads responsible for their harms have earned the privilege of explaining themselves in the courtroom and being properly penalized where appropriate.<br /><br />The future of medicine - if it is to not become a nightmare <a href="http://bioethics.od.nih.gov/IRB.html#policies">ignoring the lessons of history</a>, repeating the <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/">mistakes of the past</a> - belongs to those willing to take an ethical stand in defense of medicine's core values, and in defense of patients.<br /><br />-- SS

Forbes: Obamacare Billionaire: What One Entrepreneur's Rise Says About The Future Of Medicine

An article in Forbes appeared today (4/18/12) entitled "Obamacare Billionaire: What One Entrepreneur's Rise Says About The Future Of Medicine" by Matthew Herper.The article is largely a hagiography of…

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Healthcare Renewal Named a Forbes "Must Read" Health Blog

Healthcare Renewal has been named a Forbes "must read" health blog, one of three under the category "physician blogs."<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">These Web sites cover the many facets of health with integrity and authority--in a more useful, personal way</span>" writes Forbes journalist and health reporter Rebecca Ruiz on Oct. 7 (link to article, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/07/best-health-blogs-lifestyle-health-blogs-health-information.html">page 1</a> and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/07/best-health-blogs-lifestyle-health-blogs-health-information_2.html">page 2</a>).<br /><br />-- SS<a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/07/best-health-blogs-lifestyle-health-blogs-health-information_2.html" target="_blank"><br /></a>

Healthcare Renewal Named a Forbes "Must Read" Health Blog

Healthcare Renewal has been named a Forbes "must read" health blog, one of three under the category "physician blogs.""These Web sites cover the many facets of health with integrity and authority--in …

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