Home

 Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center

The NRTRC provides technical assistance in developing telehealth networks and applications to serve rural and underserved communities.

Purpose:

The NRTRC leverages the collective expertise of 33 telehealth networks in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming to share information and resources and develop new telehealth programs.

NRTRC Services:

• Provide technical assistance for new programs and applications
• Increase exposure to telehealth as a healthcare delivery tool
• Improve access to specialty care through regional collaboration
• Develop information on best practices and telehealth toolkits
• Provide information and facilitate discussion of regional regulatory, policy, and reimbursement issue

News & Information 

Tablet use continues to increase among docs (posted: 5-15-12)

Rogers to bring remote monitoring baby pajamas to Canada (posted 5-10-12)

Traditional telecom companies are stepping up their activity in mobile and wireless health, especially for remote monitoring devices and services.

As MobiHealthNews briefly noted, Last week at the annual American Telemedicine Association meeting, AT&T announced a deal with Valued Relationships Inc. (VRI) to offer remote patient monitoring services. Franklin, Ohio-based VRI will provide a telemonitoring center with 24/7 nurse coverage for patients with chronic diseases and those recently discharged from the hospital.

To continue reading click here

Sotera Wireless gets FDA nod for mobile vital sign monitor (posted: 4-16-12)

As we noted in our recently published Mobile Health: State of the Industry Q1 2012 report, late last month the FDA granted Sotera Wireless 510(k) clearance for its wearable vital signs monitoring device, the ViSi Mobile Monitoring system. Sotera submitted the system to the FDA last August and received Class II 510(k) clearance on March 22nd of this year.

Click here to read more

Sheridan company gets grant to develop mobile wound care app (posted 3-26-12)

A Sheridan company is developing an app for Apple products to help doctors treat wounds. 

Todd Guion is designing the wound care app for MobileHealthWare, LLC. with a $10,000 grant from the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center.

The company wants nursing homes, home care groups, and other health agencies to be able to track the healing process.

Click here to read the whole story

Draft senate bill to ease telehealth licensure challenges (posted: 2-7-12)

At some point this Spring, and perhaps as early as April, Senator Tom Udall, a Democrat from New Mexico, plans to introduce a bill that would help ease some of the biggest barriers currently facing telehealth. The expected bill, which is still being drafted, would streamline licensure portability for physicians and make it easier for them to practice telemedicine in more than one state.

Udall’s legislative assistant Fern Goodhart told Government Health ITthat the bill would streamline licensure for physicians by creating a unified set of standardized data in a comprehensive, interoperable database of primary source verified credentials that might include claims history, hospital privileges, and criminal background check with one unified application. Goodhart also predicted that multi-state could just be the beginning and telemedicine could have nationwide licensure ultimately.

To continue reading click here.

CDC Releases iPad App

More and more people are using smart phones and tablets to view emails and social media accounts, watch movies, and read books or magazines. Increasingly, people are also using these tools to find health information.

As users begin to prefer mobile technology for "just in time" internet access, it is important that CDC enables fast and efficient mobile delivery of CDC's critical health information.  To this end, we are announcing our first application (or "app") for the Apple iPad platform.

To read the full press release and to download the app click here.

Google Helps Emergency Room Docs to Predict Flu Trends (posted: 1-19-12)

Google, the search-engine giant, may be able to help doctors anticipate when they’ll get a surge in the number of patients they see with flu symptoms.

That’s the new finding from a team of doctors, based in Baltimore, who relied on Google Flu Trends, a service that tracks the number of flu-related Internet searches by folks like you and me.  In an article this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, those doctors, led by Dr. Richard Rothman, an emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine describe how data from Google Flu Trends stacked up against conventional systems to track the spread of flu.

Click here to continue reading

Upcoming Events

• SE Minnesota Beacon CommunitySE Minnesota Beacon Community
  
  Time: 12:00 pm
  
  Southeast Minnesota Beacon Community Collaboration for Healthcare Transformation at 12:00 pm

• May 24, 2012
  • TympanometersTympanometers
    
    Time: 12:00 pm
    
    at 12:00 pm

Network Profiles

The University of Wyoming's Center for Rural Health Research and Education (CRHRE)

The University of Wyoming’s Center for Rural Health Research and Education (CRHRE) has been working to spread the word about telemedicine and has taken the lead in significant pilot projects in Wyoming for several years. As a driving force behind Wyoming Network for Telehealth (WyNETTE), the CRHRE has been moving telehealth projects forward. We provided support of the construction of a 7-hospital network in the southeast portion of Wyoming four years ago.

Click here to read more...

Recent Updates

Home May 15, 2012
Contact Us May 9, 2012
Our Members May 9, 2012
About Us May 9, 2012
News/Press May 8, 2012

NRTRC RSS

Click here to subscribe to this feed.

The Ehealth, Telehealth and Telemedicine Blog

Click here to subscribe to this feed.


Going to APA in August? Consider Attending the 7-Hour CE Workshop on “Best Practices” in Telepsychology

Join us at this INTERMEDIATE workshop to explore the complex controversies behind licensure, informed consent, HIPAA, online marketing, reimbursement, and other pivotal concerns for professionals. It examines the scientific literature and legal and ethical codes that are relevant to safe and successful telepractice (psychotherapy, assessment, and supervision). Technologies covered include telephones and cell phones; text-messaging; [...]

Telemental Health Efficacy Outcomes Surpass Face-to-Face Encounters with 98,609 Patients

In an article published in Psychiatric Services, Linda Godleski, M.D., Adam Darkins, M.D., M.P.H. & John Peters, M.S. reported clinical outcomes of the largest assessment in telemental health. Conducted at the Veteran’s Administration (VA), the study compared inpatient psychiatric admissions and days of psychiatric hospitalization among 98,609 patients who participated in remote clinical videoconferencing, for an [...]

Telecare Aware Latest

Click here to subscribe to this feed.


The forefront of mHealth: Learning from Saxon times

Spend 15 minutes with a cup of coffee and the video below to hear Dr Leslie Saxon sum up the present situation for remote monitoring of patients with heart implants and the case for, and current limitations on, mHealth generally. "It's a civil rights issue." Wow! It's better than many a two-day conference. Don't miss the anecdotes that start at 8mins 45secs.
{youtube}e_NZnG3ClbU{/youtube}
See this TEDMED page for biographical information on Dr Saxon.

Who, What, When? The History Project

Who invented the pendant alarm? When was the first telecare fridge monitor produced? Which company first sold a GPS tracker for people with dementia? Who first patented a system for asking health questions remotely?

{jcomments on}

Join in with our Telecare and Telehealth History Project and help us find and record the answers to these and many other questions! As the industry matures this list will become an invaluable resource.

Leave a suggestion for an addition or just ask a question in the comments and we will see if other readers can provide the answer - with proof!

What	Who Designed It	Who Did It First	Date	Evidence Source
Pendant alarm
Fridge monitor
GPS tracker for people with dementia
Device for asking health questions remotely

mobihealthnews

Click here to subscribe to this feed.


@Health2Con: Digital health incubators, academies, kitchens

One of the more entertaining panels at this week’s Health 2.0 Spring Fling event here in Boston was the panel on digital health incubators. While the lineup did not include a rep from Rock Health as originally advertised, the panel did include founders from a handful of other increasingly high-profile organizations. Only two of them [...]

Survey: 7 percent of Health 2.0 companies have exited

At the Health 2.0 Spring Fling conference in Boston this week, Health 2.0 co-founders Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya shared some preliminary data points from a survey they conducted with companies that have demoed or participated in a Health 2.0 event since the first one in 2007. All told more than 360 companies have been [...]

Federal Telemedicine News

Click here to subscribe to this feed.


HIT Improves Patient Care

The importance of health IT to improve patient safety and quality was the topic at the May 9^th Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics panel held on Capitol Hill. Neal Neuberger, Executive Director for the HIMSS Institute for e-Health Policy and the organizer for the event, is anxious to see the convergence of health IT and quality that will greatly improve the safety needs for all patients.

As panel moderator, Don E. Detmer M.D., Medical Director of the Division of Advocacy and Health Policy for the, American College of Surgeons commented on the Institute of Medicine’s November 2011 report “Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care”. As he pointed out, IOM recommends making improvements to the reporting of health IT safety incidents but also the importance for monitoring of health IT products.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told the attendees that he is requesting that meaningful use be amended to also address the needs of behavioral providers in order for reimbursement to be provided. Always interested in this issue, the Senator in 2011 introduced the “Behavioral Health Information Technology Act”.

As the Senator explained, “Since mental health and behavioral providers are frozen out of meaningful use, meaningful use needs to be amended  and pilots need to be initiated to address the specific needs of behavior and mental health providers.”

Also, the Senator in March 2012 released a report to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pension (HELP) concerning ACA’s impact on health reform. The report details how ruling the ACA unconstitutional would hamper health IT. To further discuss the issue, the Senator is chairing the HELP committee’s May 16^th hearing on healthcare delivery system reform.

Also attending the Capitol Hill event, Representative Erik Paulsen (R-MN) the Co-Chair of the Medical Technology Caucus in the House is happy to see health IT receive so much attention. He introduced “The Protect Medical Innovation Act” in 2011 (H.R 436) that would amend the Internal Revenue Code and repeal the excise tax on medical devices. He is hoping to see the medical device tax repeal effort come to the House floor in 2012.

HHS was represented on the panel, as Kevin Larsen, M.D., Medical Director for Meaningful Use, within ONC, is responsible for coordinating the clinical quality measures for Meaningful Use Certification. He told the attendees that ONC has proposed capabilities, related standards, and implementation specifications that certified EHR technology users will need to consider.

Laura L. Adams, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Quality Institute, recounted how a while back, she gave an overdose of medicine to a child in a hospital. The child almost died but fortunately did survive. She has asked herself the question many times “How did this happen?”

As she explained, before the drug was given to the child, paper records were handed around six times from person to person. This is a situation that can lead to mistakes that are often easily made since so many people are handling the information. Sometimes just one decimal point out of place can create a dangerous situation in terms of safety for the hospital staff and for the patient.

Adams overall is looking at changes that need to take place in the healthcare system. As she commented, “We can start by using HIT to improve quality—not just to measure quality. But equally important, it is vital to shift the payment system from volume to value as quickly as possible and not make payments to providers on a piecework basis. Today’s system makes it possible for the worst cardiac surgeon, primary care doctor, etc., typically to get paid the same as the best.”

Equally important, data must follow the patient through community-wide HIEs where hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies payers, ambulatory centers, public health primary care providers, patients and families, and specialty physicians contribute to the electronic record.

Optum Health Inc, a health services company with 60 million individuals, supports 1 in 5 emergency department visits, manages programs for 1 out of every 4 Medicaid recipients, and provides for 4.5 billion electronic transactions per month reports Ted Hoy, Sr. Vice President and General Manager for Optum Cloud Solutions.

Optum Health like many others is faced with the major challenge of dealing with interoperability in today’s healthcare world. As Hoy pointed out, there are a number of factors affecting the current state of interoperability. Today, top concerns are standards and policy issues, lack of fully aligned commercial objectives, working with the new delivery models such as ACOs and medical homes, and dealing with episodic care models like bundled payments.

One of the most important requirements related to interoperability is that all information must be shared seamlessly between all stakeholders in the system. As Hoy explained, unfortunately, many EHR systems already in place are stand-alone closed applications that effectively block the flow of information and are not designed to share information more broadly across all care settings.

   

How health IT plays an important role part in the Bronx community was described by Eric Gayle, M.D., New York Regional Medical Director for the Institute for Family Health. He emphasized that in order to improve patient safety using IT is essential to provide point-of-care checks and reviews. Also, in the Bronx healthcare community, evidence-based alerts and specific to the patient play a central role.

Screenings are provided for colorectal screening in appropriate age groups, depression screening for the adult population, PPD screening in patients with HIV, and finger stick glucose testing in patients with diabetes plus other screening events

Maggie Lohnes, Healthcare Principal, at the Mitre Corporation, presented her comments representing HIMSS. She is Co-Chair of the HIMSS Quality, Cost & Safety Committee. She recently led the HIMSS eMeasures Recommendations Task Force. Lohnes presented the highlights included in the nine eMeasures recommendations formally sent to the HHS Secretary.

A few of the recommended highlights include developing and funding an industry-standard clinical value set library to be used for eMeasure development, developing a central portal for distribution of eMeasure specifications to easily identify, download, and monitor for changes, requiring that the eMeasure testing process include a testing site plus developing an implementation guide to be used by vendors.

For more information on future briefings, email asimmons@e-healthpolicy.org or email neal@e-healthpolicy.org.

Reducing Non-Emergency ED Use

The Washington State Health Care Authority is working with their State Hospital Association and physicians on a legislative mandate to reduce non-emergency use of hospital emergency departments as well as other over utilized emergency services.

The new plan to begin July 1, 2012, included in the Supplemental Budget passed April 11 by the Legislature calls for $31 million to be achieved in savings including both state and federal matching funds.

Hospitals and doctors will be encouraged to refer non-emergency patients to more efficient and effective levels of care and educate all clients about the appropriate use of emergency departments.

One of the objectives for hospitals across the state is to implement electronic health information exchanges to enable emergency department physicians and community primary care physicians to quickly share information on high emergency department patient users especially patients with drug or painkiller seeking behaviors.

Key features of the plan to start July 1 include:

·        Distributing information on the appropriate use of emergency department services

·        Working together to establish systems for referrals of non-emergencies to primary care providers within a 72 hour window

·        Establishing protocol for feedback reports so that the state and individual hospitals can track emergency department use and services received

·        Implementing guidelines around the state to identify narcotic-seeking behaviors and to share decision-making information about narcotics prescribing

·        Collaborating with the state, doctors, and hospitals on issues and concerns