April 2011

Ambulatory providers overly optimistic about reaching MU

Although nearly 80 percent of ambulatory providers that have purchased an EMR are confident they will qualify for meaningful use (MU) in 2011, a closer look at what functionalities they have actually implemented reveals that most still have significant holes to fill, according to a KLAS report.

Over two thirds of the surveyed providers are not sharing medical records electronically with patients, and nearly half have not implemented clinical decision support (CDS) rules, two key MU requirements. The report, "Ambulatory EMR: A KLAS Guide to Meaningful Use Success," presents the results of interviews with 597 ambulatory providers using 25 different EMR systems. The study measured vendor performance in eight key MU areas: progress notes, drug-drug and drug-allergy alerts, CPOE, data mining tools, e-prescribing, CDS rules, patient electronic access to medical records, and viewing active medication, allergy, and problem lists. The report notes that Epic and Greenway customers appear best-prepared overall to qualify for MU incentives this year, with high usage and high clinician satisfaction in the key MU areas measured. Providers using Praxis, SRSsoft, simplifyMD, and LSS, however, appear the least prepared to qualify for MU in 2011.

ONC Employs Social Media For Input On Strategy

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) last week said it's accepting comments on proposed revisions to the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan through April 22 via its "Health IT Buzz" blog. This experiment in social media means that all comments are publicly viewable right on the blog page. The 80-page proposal is the first update to the strategic plan since 2008 and spells out ONC's strategy for meeting national health IT goals from 2011 through 2015.

Federal IT Reform: Something Left and Right Can Agree On?

The Obama administration is promoting an aggressive IT reform agenda, and it appears to be attracting bipartisan support. However, "these are early days, and significant work still needs to be done in terms of cultural change in embracing better and more efficient IT management, as well as improving contracting vehicles and processes," said John Weiler, vice-chair of the IT Acquisition Advisory Council.

NPR’s Andy Carvin, tweeting the Middle East

Andy Carvin is tweeting, relentlessly. Seven days a week, often up to 16 hours a day. He once went 20 hours straight, pumping out more than 1,400 brief messages on his Twitter account, @acarvin. That’s his guess, at least. It’s easy to lose count. Since December, Carvin, a social-media strategist at NPR in Washington, has become a one-man Twitter news bureau, chronicling fast-moving developments throughout the Middle East. By grabbing bits and pieces from Facebook, YouTube and the wider Internet and mixing them with a stunning array of eyewitness sources, Carvin has constructed a vivid and constantly evolving mosaic of the region’s convulsions. At a given moment, Carvin may be tweeting links to fresh video from Libyan rebels, photos of street protests in Bahrain or the highlights of a NATO news conference. His followers, in turn, point him to more material — on-the-ground accounts of the government crackdown in Yemen, breaking reports from Tahrir Square, the latest from Jordan or Syria. The result is a dizzying, nonstop ride across the geopolitical landscape, 140 characters at a time.

Life360 Wins as Smartphones Become Family Utilities

Life360 isn't a hot new app embraced by the digerati, it’s a family safety app that has been around since 2008, when it won the Android Developer Challenge. But you wouldn't know that by looking at its growth over the last six months, which has skyrocketed to 2 million families or about 4 million downloads, up from 300,000 families in November.

After signing up 3,000 to 5,000 new users a week for much of last year, the service took off in November and has been on a tear, reaching 125,000 new sign-ups last week. Life360 lets families locate each other online and through iPhone and Android apps and get information about local threats. In November, Life360 added a check-in button in addition to a panic button. With one click, users can push out their location to a spouse or parent and confirm where they are and that they are safe. That has helped boost daily engagement with about a quarter of all users checking in every day. The fact that location-sharing has also become more common has also certainly helped Life360. But the big story appears to be that Life360 is finally reaping the benefits of the rise of smartphones, which are becoming family utility tools, said founder and CEO Chris Hulls.

Industry-friendly subcommittee delivers for telecom firms

When the nation’s broadband providers were frustrated in their attempt to stop the Federal Communications Commission from creating new rules to regulate the Internet, the fight moved to the House. The far more sympathetic Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology voted 15 to 8 to “disapprove” the FCC’s rules. Since the FCC action on Dec. 21, members of the subcommittee have collected $81,500 in contributions from broadband and wireless providers and their trade associations. More than half the total went to three key members who pushed the anti-rules resolution. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), chairman of the subcommittee, received the most, at $19,500. Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), vice chairman, was second, at $16,000. And Rep Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the full House Commerce Committee, received $11,000.

On April 8, the House approved the measure by a 240-179 vote, with 234 Republicans in favor and two opposed. Chances of it succeeding are slim, however, because of opposition in the Senate and a veto threat from the Obama Administration.

The real push behind the resolution appears to have come from a letter-writing campaign by Freedom Works and the closely affiliated tea party movement. A draft “Letter to Congress,” circulated to tea party groups, says the rules, known as network neutrality, are bad for free market principles and free speech and accuses the FCC of acting “under the cover of darkness” to “regulate the Internet whether we like it or not.” Freedom Works is headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) who lobbied on behalf of Verizon in 2008 when he was with the firm DLA Piper US LLP. A 2005 National Journal article reported that Freedom Works accepted money from Verizon and SBC Communications Inc. (now AT&T Inc.).

The committee's contributions came from political action committees controlled by the nation’s largest broadband and wireless companies and their trade associations: Verizon/Verizon Wireless Inc.; AT&T; Qwest Communications International Inc.; the United States Telecom Association; Comcast Corp.; Sprint Nextel Corp.; Time Warner Cable; the National Cable & Telecommunications Association; T-Mobile USA Inc. and CTIA —The Wireless Association. Overall, the broadband industry has showered members of the subcommittee with nearly $1.3 million in contributions since 2009, according to an Investigative Reporting Workshop analysis of Federal Election Commission filings. The top recipient during that time was Chairman Upton, who received $80,000. Second was Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) at $76,000. Waxman is former chairman of the full committee. He lost the chairmanship when the Republicans took control of the House after the midterm elections. Despite the generosity of the companies, Rep Waxman voted against overturning the rules.

House Takes Flight Of Network Neutrality Fancy

The House of Representatives resumed its flight from reality on April 8 when it voted to repeal the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules to mandate an open and non-discriminatory Internet. The vote was 240-179, with six Democrats siding with the Republicans. On April 5, the House went through its warm-up act by approving the procedures used for the repeal, breaking out yet again the rambling, discredited arguments that have no basis in fact but which seem to take on additional merit when screeched at the top of a legislator’s lungs. No, the government is not about to “take control of your Internet,” as Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) vehemently argued. Nor is the government going to “assign priority and value” to content, as Rep Blackburn said. The concept behind a neutral Internet is quite simple: Those companies which provide access to the Internet can't play favorites. That’s the opposite of taking control and does not assign any priorities or values. That was the legal ground rule when the Internet was created, and which needs to be reinstated since the 2005 FCC decision taking away some of the FCC’s legal authority to enforce nondiscrimination.

The Republican side of the debate had almost a desperate, tin-hat conspiratorial air to it. Read paragraph 84, which will “squelch jobs and growth,” Blackburn said. Look at paragraph 47, footnote 148, Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) advised. One of those sets out the case-by-case basis for determining rule violations – a concept most liked for its flexibility. The other doesn't preclude a specialized offering, like Koshernet, as quoted in the order and it certainly isn't religious persecution. It says that network operators can't hide behind a Koshernet or like product that filters out some sites to get out of Net Neutrality obligations. If there were a dodge like that, the Net Neutrality rules, vague and incomplete as they are now, would be even more useless. Then again, neither Koshernet, nor any similar Web site, is a carrier.

White House rallies support for spectrum auctions

The White House ramped up the pressure on Congress to move ahead with auctions of the nation’s airwaves, arguing the step is crucial for economic growth.

Administration officials outlined their case for devoting a larger swath of the airwaves to mobile broadband, saying policies to promote communication on tablets and smart phones will also create jobs and reduce the deficit. "The issues of spectrum and of wireless communications are going to be essential to our growth," said Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, adding that the revenue from the auctions could help reduce the deficit. The officials said airwave auctions are the way to help all Americans gain access to the mobile Internet, which was one of the goals outlined in President Obama’s State of the Union address. Goolsbee said the increasing use of broadband requires the government to confront a "major challenge:" a spectrum crunch that could occur as more people use iPads and BlackBerries to watch video and surf the Web.

Senate Dems want changes to electronic privacy laws

The law that governs how law enforcement can access digital communications is outdated and badly in need of an update, according to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At a hearing to discuss the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) argued the law is currently a source of confusion for law enforcement and the American public due to conflicting standards for digital forms of communication. "For example, the contents of a single e-mail could be subject to as many as four different levels of privacy protections under ECPA, depending on where it is stored, and when it is sent," Chairman Leahy said in his opening statement. "There are also no clear standards under that law for how and under which circumstances the Government can access cell phone or other mobile location information when investigating crime or national security matters." Leahy's stance was echoed by other Democrats on the committee, who pointed out that police are able to access cloud-based email accounts and files without warrants, even though they would need court approval to access a suspect's computer.

An Attack Sheds Light on Internet Security Holes

The Comodo Group, an Internet security company, has been attacked in the last month by a talkative and professed patriotic Iranian hacker who infiltrated several of the company’s partners and used them to threaten the security of myriad big-name Web sites. But the case is a problem for not only Comodo, which initially believed the attack was the work of the Iranian government. It has also cast a spotlight on the global system that supposedly secures communications and commerce on the Web.

The encryption used by many Web sites to prevent eavesdropping on their interactions with visitors is not very secure. This technology is in use when Web addresses start with “https” (in which “s” stands for secure) and a closed lock icon appears on Web browsers. These sites rely on third-party organizations, like Comodo, to provide “certificates” that guarantee sites’ authenticity to Web browsers. But many security experts say the problems start with the proliferation of organizations permitted to issue certificates. Browser makers like Microsoft, Mozilla, Google and Apple have authorized a large and growing number of entities around the world — both private companies and government bodies — to create them. Many private “certificate authorities” have, in turn, worked with resellers and deputized other unknown companies to issue certificates in a “chain of trust” that now involves many hundreds of players, any of which may in fact be a weak link.

Benton

Search