The Readmore 2014

Included in the handout materials at last week's WVHIN board meeting was a copy of a article appearing in Health Care's Most Wired Magazine by fellow board member, Sarah Chouinard, M.D.The article, Transforming Health Care In West Virginia, provides a glimpse of the efforts to improve...

On Friday the board of the West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN) met and covered a variety of topics and continued its efforts to coordinate the creation of a successfully integrated health information system. (Note: The WVHIN board is still in the search phase for an Executive Director).Topics of the board included the following:1. A...

Fard Johnmar and I today had a discussion about the post, Running a hospital: Do I get paid too much?, by Paul Levy, CEO at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston. Fard mentioned that this is a great example of transparency in health care (Note: Mr. Levy raises an interesting note in the comments -- I cited to the transparency summary to...

A new West Virginia blog, courtesy of Oncee, who has the uncanny ability to sniff out and spot Mslogs (Mountain State Blogs).Lawrence Messina, who covers the Statehouse beat for the AP, is now blogging at Lincoln Walks At Midnight: A Just-The-Facts Approach to Politics and Government in the Moutain State of West Virginia. Great URL: MyWVHome.On behalf...

Jeff Drummond over at the HIPAA Blog reports on a recent North Carolina Court of Appeals decision in Acosta v. Byrum indicating that a private cause of action is not allowed under HIPAA, but that a HIPAA breach is evidence that the standard of care was not met in a common law claim for breach of privacy and negligent infliction of emotional distress.The...

In 2006 I was appointed to serve a four year term as a Board Member of the new West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN). The WVHIN was created in 2006 to help guide the state's efforts and oversee the implementation of a private/public interoperable health information system for West Virginia.Last week I was speaking with Sallie Hunt, Chief...

While exploring Revolution Health last week I happened upon Steve Case's blog on the site and signed up for the new post alert feature since the RSS feature has not been fully activated. A recent post by Case caught my attention because is addresses some things that I have been thinking about as I prepare a presentation on Healthcare Blogging and...

Over the last few months I've been involved in a project to understand the barriers to e-prescribing in West Virginia (spin off of HISPC project) and assist with developing legislation to modify current West Virginia law and reduce current restrictions on e-prescribing in West Virginia.Today I received notice from an AHLA colleague announcing the...

Revolution Health, launched its preview version in December 2006, and is scheduled for a mid January 2007 public launch. Over the holidays I took the opportunity to register as a beta user and try out some of the features and tools. Over the last couple of weeks I've continued to...

CMS has issued HIPAA Security Guidance (link to guidance document pdf) for HIPAA covered entities on the risks and possible mitigation strategies for remote use of and access to Protected Health Information (EPHI). The guidance sets forth CMS' minimal compliance expectations for covered entities seeking to safeguard EPHI that is accessed, stored or...

Susan Wong Romaine, an attorney at our firm recently authored an article on attorney-client privilege appearing in the Winter 2006 edition of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia Newsletter. Congratulations to Susan on a great article.The article, Update on Attorney-Client...

How about this for EMR GMR innovation. Graham Walker, a Stanford med student, has built his own web 2.0 mock up of a better EMR interface. A great example of what web 2.0 might bring to health care in 2007 and beyond. I'll be interested to read the comments from physicians and others who have to work with EMR software on a day to day basis.Watch...

Lately I haven't had time to blog much because of a busy work schedule and the holidays. Again too much to blog about and too little time. However, I couldn't pass this up.A simple lesson from the Hero of Harlem that has universal application. Quoting Mr. Autrey, "Good things happen...