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$96m Medical IT System Down Under is Useless: Whistleblowers

The U.S. is about to embark on spending more money the the annual budget of NASA on health IT. If the experiences in other countries are an indication, I am afraid we will see more "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1">Apollo 1's</a>" than "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11">Apollo 11's</a>." Here's a situation being experienced Down Under (I'd posted an insiders's view on the HIT situation there in late 2007 <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=australia">at this link</a>): <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">The Age.com.AU Nick Miller April 17, 2009 <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/04/16/1239474999842.html">$96m medical IT system useless: whistleblowers</a> A NEW $96 million computer system for Victorian hospitals that promised to cut down on dangerous medication errors will be almost useless when it goes "live" this year, insiders say. Other new computer systems that handle finance and manage patient records are plagued with serious problems that take days, even weeks, to fix. And in a further embarrassment for the years-overdue $360 million HealthSMART program, a hospital chosen by the Government to be a flagship "lead agency" — Ballarat Health System — has quit the project because it could not justify the expense. An anonymous letter from "health-sector employees" sent to The Age says the Cerner clinical systems, intended to cut down on mistakes in doses or combinations of medicines, is being rushed into hospitals — with none of the medication functions working — so the Government will not be embarrassed before next year's election. "The whole reason for this system was to introduce electronic medication," the letter says. "But next year is an election year and we must hit the agreed dates. This means the system will be almost useless when first live." Documents released to The Age by the Department of Human Services under freedom of information, and the department's own website, confirm that when clinical systems go live at the first two hospitals late this year, they will not include its most significant functions. These include ordering pathology tests or medical scans, medication management for emergency patients or inpatients, and "decision support" functions that cross-check drugs and doses. Leaked reports show other new HealthSmart systems are highly unreliable. In the last quarter of 2008, the reports showed serious problems with the "PCMS" system, which tracks patient records, books operating theatres and warns doctors of a patient's particular allergies or chronic health problems. As of December, the system was used at five health services, including Northern, Frankston and Royal Women's hospitals. Hospitals also reported major problems with the FMIS financial software that runs budgets, purchases, accounts and assets at seven hospitals, including Box Hill, Northern, Frankston, Monash and Peter Mac. Ten hospitals were targeted for the Cerner clinical system, with Eastern Health, the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and Ballarat Health Service as "lead agencies". The Age's FoI documents say Ballarat is "unlikely to proceed given costs included in business-case". One hospital CEO told The Age he "will be very surprised if it stacks up", as the system cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to run each year. Another senior Victorian health IT expert said most hospitals would never take up the software. "No one likes using it because it's s---," he said. "It's totally inflexible." [I guess I don't need to spell out the expletive - ed.] A Health Department spokesman denied all the allegations, without giving any detail. A spokesman for acting Health Minister Lisa Neville denied that hospitals were being pressured over HealthSMART to avoid embarrassment before the election. Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said it was vital that Victoria's hospitals got a modern IT system, but the Government was failing to deliver one. "It's a massive cost to health services, and it seems the timing is being driven by the next election rather than the best clinical care," she said. </blockquote>I can add little by way of commentary to this article. It speaks for itself and bodes poorly for our new Apollo project-in-postmodern-times challenge of "<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/12392282/To-The-Moon-In-A-Hot-Air-Balloon-Why-Is-Clinical-IT-Difficult">Reaching the Moon by Hot Air Balloon</a>." -- SS

$96m Medical IT System Down Under is Useless: Whistleblowers

The U.S. is about to embark on spending more money the the annual budget of NASA on health IT. If the experiences in other countries are a...

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A Software Engineer's Eloquence on Health IT

Here is an eloquent piece from the same software engineer/patient whose travails were covered at "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/04/most-interesting-patient-account-of.html">A Most Interesting Patient Account of Misery by EHR</a>." If we had more people of this mindset in healthcare IT, we'd be much further along the diffusion curve and have far better, safer HIT: From <a target="blank" href="http://dmsblog.burtongroup.com/data_management_strategie/2009/04/unfortunate-issues-for-a-national-health-it-network.html">Unfortunate Issues for a National Health IT Network</a>: <div style="margin-left: 40px;">It would be wonderful if HIT could deliver President Obama's, or former PM Tony Blair's, vision. It would also be wonderful if HIT was about "saving lives". Tragically, the opposite is too often true. Poorly implemented HIT can do great harm ... As IT professionals, we must resist the allure of wealth, prestige, and "solving big problems" when the cost of our exuberance is measurable in human lives. We must in the case of HIT proceed as trusted engineers, as builders of the great bridges over which our loved ones drive. We must rationally and soberly asses the HIT challenges we face before we start coding. If we are not up to this challenge, then we have a professional obligation to walk away from the fun and the money. While a national HIT network may someday deliver "life-saving" technology, achieving that vision will be a long, arduous, and expensive journey that requires of IT professionals a renewed emphasis on user interface design and data engineering fundamentals. </div> Addendum- A reader at the AMIA clinical information systems workgroup points out that these words are truly worthy of the spirit of ACM.org's <a href="http://www.acm.org/about/se-code">Engineer’s Code</a>: <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">“Ethical tensions can best be addressed by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, rather than blind reliance on detailed regulations. These Principles should influence software engineers to consider broadly who is affected by their work; to examine if they and their colleagues are treating other human beings with due respect; to consider how the public, if reasonably well informed, would view their decisions; to analyze how the least empowered will be affected by their decisions; and to consider whether their acts would be judged worthy of the ideal professional working as a software engineer. In all these judgments concern for the health, safety and welfare of the public is primary; that is, the "Public Interest" is central to this Code.”</blockquote> Now, if only such words could form the standard of practice, not the exception. -- SS

A Software Engineer's Eloquence on Health IT

Here is an eloquent piece from the same software engineer/patient whose travails were covered at " A Most Interesting Patient Account o...

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Complacency and Healthcare IT: Who is Taken More Seriously on Risk, A CMIO or A Public Transit Authority Doctor?

In this post I make a very shameful comparison. Shameful to the healthcare industry, that is, and coming from an unusual perspective due to my diverse professional background. I received quite interesting comments from a number of informatics colleagues regarding the linked patient's account of Health IT mayhem at "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/04/most-interesting-patient-account-of.html">A Most Interesting Patient Account of Misery by EHR</a>". The comments suggested that patient's account was not unusual. Example: <blockquote>Without being specific I can say from first hand information that this is not an isolated incident... the horrific experience is unfortunately in my direct experience typical. </blockquote> and this: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;">... As you know, I’ve been in the HIT business, advocating for full integration of computing into clinical care, for more than three decades. The upshot, though, is that this country’s hospitals are not ready for wholesale automation of even the most rudimentary kind (such as using barcodes in clinical settings), much less a real EMR. I’d give it another 10-15 years ... before even considering advocacy for much in the way of EMRs. Not that there are EMRs we should advocate for now, in any case. </blockquote> and this: <blockquote>This hits home, I hope this gentleman keeps telling his story. He is one of the lucky ones that "lived to tell". These are the stories no one believes until it happens to them or a loved one ... He would be saving lives if he talks. I know the retaliation is hard to swallow. I lost my job, but walked out with dignity because I know that I did the right thing. This was such a traumatic event for him and he was one of the lucky ones who were coherent enough to know that something was wrong.</blockquote> My colleagues are afraid of giving specifics largely due to fear of reprisal from their healthcare and health IT employers. Health IT chaos, though, is clearly more widespread than commonly reported. Yet in the U.S. in 2009 we find ourselves poised to rapidly spend $20 billion, more than the annual budget of <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> (at <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992911190127639.html">$18.7 billion</a>), on these unproven technologies. Now, a little history from my heterogeneous past: After a 1990 subway accident in Philadelphia that killed several people and injured hundreds, at a time when I was Medical Programs Manager [of preventive programs] and Medical Review Officer for the regional transit authority <a href="http://www.septa.org/">SEPTA</a> (pre-informatics), I became sensitized to the potential outcomes of complacency. As I wrote <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-it-project-success-and-failure.html">here</a>, some of the the factors contributing to the accident involved complacency and the ignoring of medical advice by non medical personnel. Yet, the National Transportation Safety Board (<a href="http://www.ntsb.gov/">NTSB</a>) came in and investigated thoroughly. Improvements were made. Has something similar ever occurred after an HIT failure? It always puzzled me why my <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/hit-misadventure">concerns about health IT problems</a>, dating from my time as a hospital-based Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) in the 1990's, seemed to raise little concern among the IT and hospital administration and even among some of the hospital physicians themselves. It still puzzles me why my colleagues in active CMIO roles report the same problems in 2009. It concerns me greatly that HIT is entirely unregulated as its devices become far more complex, and more intrusive in the "biochemical pathways-like" organizational complexities of healthcare. It concerns me that HIT vendors have the best environment of any healthcare vendor: <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-care-information-technology.html">freedom from liability and accountability, and freedom from defect disclosure</a>. It concerns me that hospital executives have agreed to such terms, I believe <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-it-hold-harmless-and-defects-gag.html">violating</a> both their Joint Commission safety standards obligations and their fiduciary responsibilities. As a hospital CMIO observing profound HIT difficulties, it was as if I was supposed to simply acquiesce to the chaos in a medical ICU, in a cardiac catheterization lab, medical clinics, etc. caused by HIT design and implementation deficiencies. It was as if the reaction to my detailed accounts of issues putting patients at risk was that I was simply not a 'team player.' The complacency was palpable. The behaviors consistent with a belief that the IT personnel were wizards, exempt from the scrutiny afforded to mere mortals, was equally palpable. It was jarring and bizarre. In fact, being a CMIO was more jarring than my earlier physician role in the Philadelphia transit authority, where I sometimes had to deal with very troubled vehicle operators with substance abuse problems and aggressive, sometimes abusive and very scary Philly union officials. As an example of what I dealt with in that environment, I scanned a 1988 SEPTA transport workers union newsletter whose cover shows a drawing of an injured employee on crutches and a Donald Duck figure with a stethoscope representing the Medical Department physicians, holding a note telling the ostensibly crippled employee to return to work. The newsletter cover is at <a target="blank" href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/scotsilv/SEPTA_quack.jpg">this link</a> (jpg) and below. <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOVK20jFEtLDaMdSFlFDH1I11RIvfTHzEh8_YpjtJPsMcmXZjghJa1ouj5psvT57_EBtc9wnH_2TrIfAUyiWdT4oPZ2zqIWDbFERdnMIOEZW89NFqcWxUBWaD-FOAwdtCxH62bJ3Vo7AKA/s1600-h/SEPTA_quack.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325864928131939490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOVK20jFEtLDaMdSFlFDH1I11RIvfTHzEh8_YpjtJPsMcmXZjghJa1ouj5psvT57_EBtc9wnH_2TrIfAUyiWdT4oPZ2zqIWDbFERdnMIOEZW89NFqcWxUBWaD-FOAwdtCxH62bJ3Vo7AKA/s320/SEPTA_quack.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 441px; height: 352px;" /></a>(click to enlarge) </div> Note the text about the medical department and the duck cartoon on the right depicting the doctors ("quack, quack"). In retrospect, I felt far less uncomfortable as a physician in the mass transit environment than I did as a CMIO at a major hospital. I did not expect much in the way of rigor and science from a transit agency and transit union leaders. Remarkably, though, I also never feared retaliation or being fired for pointing out potential safety problems. Doing so, in fact, was taken quite seriously, by the Medical Director, the GM's office, Industrial Relations, the system Safety Officer, even the unions when presented the cold, hard facts. Never as Medical Programs Manager and Medical Review Officer was I ignored, as I was as a hospital CMIO. I felt less comfortable as a hospital CMIO than in the mass transit authority, as I expected a lot more from hospital leadership ... and still do. On the other hand, I respected the union leaders' directness and unabashed defense of their membership. Physicians can learn something from them in regards to defense of patient care, and defense of their own profession. My writing style has, in part, certainly been informed by past interactions with <a href="http://www.twu.com/">TWU</a>, <a href="http://www.utu.org/">UTU</a>, <a href="http://www.ble.org/">BLET</a>, <a href="http://www.brs.org/">BRS</a> and other transit union leaders and members. -- SS Addendum Apr. 18: Although the causality of this terrible accident just one day after my post above is yet to be determined, I am often reminded of the public safety aspects of my prior line of work in ensuring fitness for duty of public servants in safety sensitive roles: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;"> Sat, Apr. 18, 2009 <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/43216407.html">Man struck, killed by SEPTA bus</a> By DAVID GAMBACORTA Philadelphia Daily News Milton Boneta cheated death seven months ago when he was struck by a SEPTA bus in his wheelchair at 8th Street and Girard Avenue. Fate revisited him in cruel fashion at the same intersection yesterday. This time, he was not as lucky. Police said the Route 47 bus crushed Boneta, 61, as he crossed 8th Street in his motorized wheelchair at about 4:15 p.m. Based on the reactions of witnesses and the grisly scene, there was no chance he could have survived this accident ... "The operator told me to check for a pulse or to see if he was breathing," [a witness] said, adding that his body clearly was too badly mangled for any lifesaving efforts.</blockquote> Remembering what I used to do in public transit vs. the inability to perform a similar function as a CMIO in hospitals brings into focus the absurdity of allowing IT personnel to have a veto on issues that concern patient care and safety. (As the head of the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics of a major medical center who had his staff review my <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/medinfo.htm">HIT site</a> recently wrote me, he "could not imagine any reasonable individual" - i.e., hospital executive - allowing that situation to occur, and found it "downright scary.") Hospitals can cover up and bury their mistakes, especially when related to the relatively esoteric issues of HIT dysfunction, so perhaps their attitudes can be more cavalier than in the transit industry. -- SS

Complacency and Healthcare IT: Who is Taken More Seriously on Risk, A CMIO or A Public Transit Authority Doctor?

In this post I make a very shameful comparison. Shameful to the healthcare industry, that is, and coming from an unusual perspective due to...

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Health IT Vendor Blames HIT Problems on Those Damn Doctors, Since HIT is Perfect, Like Mother and Apple Pie

Seen on the HisTALK blog: <blockquote>http://histalk2.com/2009/04/16/news-41609/#comment-3996 <div class="cauthor"><a href="http://www.icainformatics.com/" rel="external nofollow">Mythoughts Exactly</a> Says: </div> In my experience with EMR implementations, the big reason they are unsuccessful is because as Pete Potomus says “Drs are busy people” [busy with patient care activities and responsibilities - ed.], they want it to be flexible enough to conform to their individual standards and the customer doesn’t take ownership of the process of implementation and customization to the individual physician needs. It’s not that many of the EMRs don’t have the flexibility - it’s that the medical profession is too “busy” to take the time to learn the application [sure, doctors have all the time in the world to learn how to use tools <a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.tinyurl.com/hostileuserexper">like this</a> - ed.], take advantage of all the functionality available and standardize their practice. Like any new “instrument” used in the practice of medicine, EMR take a lot of work to learn, tailor to the individual practice and become efficient. </blockquote> I cannot fathom the remarkable arrogance and insensitivity above to the turmoil most physicians now find themselves in, squeezed from all sides - political, financial, legal, regulatory - in trying to render patient care. This commenter's profile links to a Health IT vendor, <a href="http://www.icainformatics.com/">Informatics Corporation of America</a>. I find the comment "Like any new 'instrument' used in the practice of medicine, EMR take a lot of work to learn, tailor to the individual practice and become efficient" quite interesting. I find it of interest in that, unlike other new instruments used in the practice of medicine, Health IT is entirely unregulated, and the vendors <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-care-information-technology.html">unaccountable</a>. Also, why does it take so much work to learn? Why is that rarely asked by the pundits and those who make money from HIT? Could it be due to the <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/hostileuserexper">poor user experience</a> HIT too often presents? HIT is also not as infinitely malleable as the writer suggests, especially in areas such as workflow customization, clinical content, cognitive support and other areas. Further, in may large HC organizations, bureaucracy often prevents full use of customization features even as they exist. Doctors and other clinicians then suffer. One wonders if this vendor has ever considered that physicians’ reluctance to “standardize their practices" [i.e., alter their practices to conform to the IT designer's beliefs about medicine - ed.] might in fact be the best stance relative to patient safety in 2009? Or do they have absolute faith in HIT? One wonders if this vendor merely believes the National Research Council's <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12572">report on widespread inadequacies of HIT</a> (the highest scientific body in the land), including the recommendation that "in the long term, [HIT] success will depend upon accelerating interdisciplinary research in biomedical informatics, computer science, social science, and health care engineering [to improve HIT]" is merely senseless prattle? There is a reason I write about a cross-occupational invasion, piracy if you will, of medicine by IT. Physicians and other clinicians are being taken hostage - they either comply with the IT industry's demands for compliance to the <a href="http://www.syleum.com/2009/03/17/healthcare-data-model/">cesspool</a> all too often created by health IT (and the demands of its enforcers, a.k.a. government in 2009), or else. Health IT failure is, after all, entirely doctors' fault. Right?Wrong. This canard has to stop. Now. I've heard it for years (since at least the mid 1990's), and I for one, am tired of hearing it. Who are IT personnel of any stripe to be telling physicians what to do? What, exactly, are their qualifications to render such judgments? (When physicians and other clinicians hear this type of "advice" they should ask this question. Loudly.) The problems with HIT are that HIT is largely experimental and often substandard or defective, its purveyors conflicted and arrogant. Worse, many have grown imperious due to <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/10/physicians-learned-helplessness.html">physicians' learned helplessness</a> and vendors' shielding from liability.We complain about dishonesty, dangerous products and conflicts of interest in pharma? Health IT seems significantly worse. Apparently, this HIT company has found solutions to all the problems in the corpus below: <blockquote> Joint Commission: <a href="http://www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_42.htm">Sentinel Events Alert on HIT</a>, Dec. 2008. National Research Council report. <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12572">Current Approaches to U.S. Healthcare Information Technology are Insufficient</a>. Computational Technology for Effective Health Care: Immediate Steps and Strategic Directions, Jan. 2009 <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15302.htm"> The National Programme for IT in the NHS: Progress since 2006,</a> Public Accounts Committee, January 2009. Summary points <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15304.htm">here</a>. <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/medinfo.htm">Common Examples of Healthcare IT Difficulties</a> (website). S. Silverstein, MD, Drexel University College of Information Science and Technology. <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/301/12/1276">Health Care Information Technology Vendors' "Hold Harmless" Clause - Implications for Patients and Clinicians</a>, Ross Koppel and David Kreda, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2009; 301(12):1276-1278 <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/regulation_and_oversight_hoffman.pdf">Finding a Cure: The Case for Regulation And Oversight of Electronic Health Records Systems</a>, Hoffman and Podgurski, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 2008 vol. 22, No. 1 <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18213422">Failure to Provide Clinicians Useful IT Systems: Opportunities to Leapfrog Current Technologies</a>, Ball et al., Methods Inf Med 2008; 47: 4–7, <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/301/9/919">IT Vulnerabilities Highlighted by Errors, Malfunctions at Veterans’ Medical Centers</a>, JAMA Mar. 4, 2009, p. 919-920. <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/116/6/1506">Unexpected Increased Mortality After Implementation of a Commercially Sold Computerized Physician Order Entry System</a>, Han et al., Pediatrics Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. 1506-1512 <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/10/1197">Role of Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in Facilitating Medication Errors</a>. Ross Koppel, PhD, et al, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005;293:1197-1203 <a href="http://www.jamia.org/cgi/content/short/15/4/408">Workarounds to Barcode Medication Administration Systems: Their Occurrences, Causes and Threats to Patient Safety</a>, Koppel, Wetterneck, Telles & Karsh, JAMIA 2008;15:408-423 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06coben.html">The Computer Will See You Now</a>, New York Times, Armstrong-Coben, March 5, 2009, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-it-project-success-and-failure.html">Health IT Project Success and Failure: Recommendations from Literature and an AMIA Workshop</a>. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Bonnie Kaplan and Kimberly D. Harris-Salamone (preprint, doi:10.1197/jamia.M2997) <a href="http://iig.umit.at/efmi/badinformatics.htm">Bad Health Informatics Can Kill</a>. Working Group for Assessment of Health Information Systems of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI). <a href="http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/167/13/1400">Electronic Health Record Use and the Quality of Ambulatory Care in the United States</a>. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:1400-1405 <a href="http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/165/10/1111.pdf">High Rates of Adverse Drug Events in a Highly Computerized Hospital</a>, Nebeker at al., Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:1111-1116. "<a href="http://articles.icmcc.org/2009/01/23/dutch-ehr-postponed-are-they-in-good-company/">Dutch nationwide EHR postponed: Are they in good company?</a>", ICMCC.org, Jan. 24, 2009 “<a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/12/11/bisa1211.htm">Avoiding EMR meltdown</a>.” About a third of practices that buy electronic medical records systems stop using them within a year, AMA News, Dec. 2006. "The failure rates of EMR implementations are also consistently high at close to 50%", from <a href="http://www.infoclin.ca/assets/emr%20success%20methodologies%20framework%20development%20ishimr%202006%20v2.pdf">Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Health Information Management Research</a> – iSHIMR 2006 "Industry experts estimate that failure rates of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) implementations range from 50–80%.", from <a href="https://www.advancedmd.com/pressroom/white_papers/commonsense_to_emrs.pdf">A Commonsense Approach to EMRs</a>, July 2006 <a href="http://www.taxonomer.com/PublishTxgd001/index.htm">Adverse Effects of Information Technology in Healthcare</a>. This knowledge center presents a collection of information on the adverse effects of information technology in its application to healthcare. It also references sources of information on information security, and related media reports. <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Goldfinch_pessimism_PAR.pdf">Pessimism, Computer Failure, and Information Systems Development in the Public Sector</a>. Shaun Goldfinch, University of Otago, New Zealand, Public Administration Review 67;5:917-929, Sept/Oct. 2007</blockquote> -- SS

Health IT Vendor Blames HIT Problems on Those Damn Doctors, Since HIT is Perfect, Like Mother and Apple Pie

Seen on the HisTALK blog: http://histalk2.com/2009/04/16/news-41609/#comment-3996 Mythoughts Exactly Says: In my experience with EMR i...

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A Most Interesting Patient Account of Misery by EHR

As I have written many times, health IT can achieve many of its touted benefits, but only if done well. "Done well" is not as easy at it might seem in the complex world of healthcare. I am providing <a href="http://www.syleum.com/2009/03/17/healthcare-data-model/">a link to a fascinating story</a> by a patient, <a href="http://www.burtongroup.com/AboutUs/Bios/PrintBio.aspx?Id=137">Joe Bugajski</a>, who is a professional in enterprise architecture, data access strategies, application engineering, information integration and quality, technology standards, and other related domains, with impressive big-industry expertise. The story is here: <blockquote style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | Joe Bugajski <a href="http://www.syleum.com/2009/03/17/healthcare-data-model/" rel="bookmark" title="The Data Model That Nearly Killed Me">The Data Model That Nearly Killed Me</a></blockquote><a href="http://www.syleum.com/2009/03/17/healthcare-data-model/" rel="bookmark" title="The Data Model That Nearly Killed Me"></a> It is worth reading in its entirety. It illustrates many of the points I've made on HC Renewal about healthcare IT difficulties in the real world (as opposed to the Bernie Madoff world of "unlimited returns, no matter what.") Here is an excerpt: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;"> ... Medical personnel at urgent care and the hospital who interacted with me all used a version of the same electronic health information system (the “system”). It became clear that everyone was fighting that system. Indeed, they wasted between 40% and 60% of their time making the system do something useful for them. The system kept everyone from fulfilling their duties - the health information system did not help medical professionals perform their duties. Since my hospital stay, I confirmed that electronic health information systems are mostly broken. I interviewed medical professionals, healthcare IT experts, and my allergist. They confirmed my sickbed analysis. Indeed, several experts said that they longed for handwritten charts once more hanging from the foot of every patient’s bed. (Again, please read Prof. Dr. Armstrong-Coben’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06coben.html?scp=7&sq=medicine&st=nyt" target="_self">Op-Ed article</a>.) My analysis argues for careful analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) associated with building a national health information network. If the nation simply accepts the President’s vision while healthcare IT vendors collect some of the $20 billion stimulus bounty, individuals and businesses will pay higher medical costs, patients will receive inferior care, and medical professionals will lose precious time fighting IT systems instead of delivering better care.</blockquote> A SWOT analysis is a good idea. Unfortunately, such an analysis is difficult in face of HIT <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-care-information-technology.html">contractual gag clauses</a>, lack of cross-institutional knowledge sharing, and a societal meme that "health IT is all plug and play goodness and apple pie, always and forever" that got inserted into the national psyche. This meme somehow short-circuited the critical approaches necessary towards perfecting and proving an experimental technology (which was how many if not most informatics professionals viewed HIT when I started my fellowship in the early 1990's). I believe this meme arose and was propagated largely through efforts of the marketing arms of vendors, trade associations and pundits. I agree with Mr. Bugajski's conclusions, which parallel my own writings over the past few years: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;">A national health information network, while a laudable vision, will require massive data integration engineering at a scale never before undertaken by the IT industry ... Mr. President, don’t be fooled by IT vendors telling (false) tales of munificent and magnificent skills with their heath information system development. Rather, ask them to depart immediately. Instead call upon our nation’s best system and data architects to report for duty. [As I've noted over the years, Medical Informatics experts have that expertise with respect to HIT - ed.]... The national health information network envisioned by President Barak Obama is a pipedream. That is, unless and until information technology (IT) professionals [ideally with leadership and input from Medical Informatics professionals --ed.] learn how to build systems and data models that meet end-user requirements (read, useful to medical professionals). My recent experience with an urgent care clinic and a major tertiary care hospital convinced me that the United States will require a long time before there is a consistent data model capable of recording a patient’s health information, let alone a data model capable of accurately and reliably transmitting that information from one healthcare institution to another. Much of the groundwork required to achieve the vision needs to be done. The $20 billion allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a health information network will be squandered by IT vendors and hospital administrators [as I opined in my recent <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/02/medinformaticsmd-in-wall-street-journal.html">WSJ letter to the editor</a> - ed.] long before the nation has a viable network unless and until the administration acts rationally to establish a program of development that is free of vendor and administrative greed. Take it from a guy who recently found breathing very difficult, do not hold your breath waiting for a national health information network to appear.</blockquote> I fear (from over a decades' experience), unfortunately, that due to arrogance, greed, irrational exuberance, inappropriate overconfidence in computing, and other forms of stupidity, many in HIT and government will receive these well-engineered words no differently than as depicted in this medieval illustration: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9jDMKp3aTcSAKpJgoQTVZsa21Kl9oZGf0FyWiVkRDpFDevXwJLMTTAraOKW_senshpT4eyrD8Crbc-TLwuBhD4d6VPy5vB_RRXCB4L1e99rwHexmcUgvHPMEKkJhQlKZqElNSVB030ryV/s1600-h/pearls.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325668947517052226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9jDMKp3aTcSAKpJgoQTVZsa21Kl9oZGf0FyWiVkRDpFDevXwJLMTTAraOKW_senshpT4eyrD8Crbc-TLwuBhD4d6VPy5vB_RRXCB4L1e99rwHexmcUgvHPMEKkJhQlKZqElNSVB030ryV/s320/pearls.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 352px; height: 236px;" /></a> -- SS

A Most Interesting Patient Account of Misery by EHR

As I have written many times, health IT can achieve many of its touted benefits, but only if done well. "Done well" is not as ea...

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Introducing the Google Lime Scholarship

Today, we're pleased to announce the most recent addition to our scholarship programs, the Google Lime Scholarship for Students with Disabilities. We're partnering with <a href="http://www.limeconnect.com/">Lime</a> to offer scholarships to students with disabilities who are pursuing university degrees in the field of computer science in Canada or the U.S. Lime is a not-for-profit organization that brings together global corporations and people with disabilities, bringing to light an untapped source of talent. Scholarships will be granted for the 2009–2010 academic year, and recipients will be invited to attend an all-expenses-paid retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View in 2010. We hope that this program will increase opportunities for students with disabilities and encourage them to pursue careers in computer science. We also hope to foster long-lasting relationships through which these students can support each other over the course of their academic studies. The deadline to apply for this year's Lime Scholarship is June 1, 2009. For complete details, visit <a href="http://www.google.com/jobs/scholarships">www.google.com/jobs/scholarships</a>. Posted by Meghan O'Farrell, Talent and Outreach Programs Specialist

Introducing the Google Lime Scholarship

Today, we're pleased to announce the most recent addition to our scholarship programs, the Google Lime Scholarship for Students with Dis...

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YouTube Symphony Orchestra: from idea to reality

(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=mjTQtrvsAP8">YouTube</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=mjTQtrvsAP8"> Blog</a>) Today represents the final culmination of an idea many months in the making: a first-class global orchestra brought together by YouTube. This week, over 90 musicians from around the world -- including a Spanish guitarist, a Dutch harpist and a Lithuanian birbyne player — have gathered in New York City in preparation for tonight's historic YouTube Symphony Orchestra performance at Carnegie Hall. And today on YouTube's homepage, we are proud to present the world premiere of Tan Dun's composition "Internet Symphony, Eroica," as selected and mashed up from nearly 3,000 video submissions from around the globe. Maestro — the mash-up, please! <object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oC4FAyg64OI&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oC4FAyg64OI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object> Along with the "Eroica" premiere, we're also posting exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the preparation leading up to tonight's performance. Learn more about the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/symphony">YouTube Symphony Orchestra</a> by watching candid vlogs, early rehearsals with conductor and creative director <a href="http://www.youtube.com/michaeltilsonthomas">Michael Tilson Thomas</a>, and meet-and-greets between the musicians lucky enough to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event. Many thanks to our "Vlog Squad" team of classical musicians (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/alicelizard">Caeli Smith</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/jeremydenk">Jeremy Denk</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/eikosudoh">Eiko Sudoh</a>), and to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/gramafilm">Harmony Films</a>, who are currently putting together a full-length documentary on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. And for those of you who can't make it to New York in time for the big show, don't fret. We'll be posting the full performance from Carnegie Hall on YouTube tomorrow at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/symphony">www.youtube.com/symphony</a>. Posted by Michele Flannery, YouTube Music

YouTube Symphony Orchestra: from idea to reality

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog ) Today represents the final culmination of an idea many months in the making: a first-class global orc...

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