eHealth updates - 7 February 2013

New policy, guidance and e-health initiatives from across the UK. For more information about the e-health theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: e-health.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

BMC Health Services Research: The effect of electronic medical record adoption on outcomes in US hospitals. The overall approach was to compare outcomes for the two years before and two years after the year of EMR adoption, at 708 acute-care hospitals in the US from 2000 to 2007. "We looked at the effect of EMR on outcomes using two methods. First, we compared the outcomes by quarter for the period before and after EMR adoption among hospitals that adopted EMR. Second, we compared hospitals that adopted EMR to those that did not, before and after EMR adoption, using a generalized linear model".

BMC Health Services Research: A mixed methods descriptive investigation of readiness to change in rural hospitals participating in a tele-critical care intervention. "Telemedicine technology can improve care to patients in rural and medically underserved communities yet adoption has been slow. The objective of this study was to study organizational readiness to participate in an academic-community hospital partnership including clinician education and telemedicine outreach focused on sepsis and trauma care in underserved, rural hospitals". The research was undertaken in a rural area in the USA.

Care Information Scotland: This Care Information Scotland web page has helpful information on telecare.

Commonwealth Fund: Telehealth and telemedicine case studies. These four case studies describe ways in which telehealth and telemedicine have been implemented and scaled up in various organisations. They also outline lessons learned from early adopters.

Commonwealth Fund: Scaling telehealth programs: Lessons from early adopters. Remote patient monitoring (RPM)—like home teleheath and telemonitoring—can help improve coordination, improve patients’ experience of care, and reduce hospital admissions and costs. Such technologies remotely collect, track, and transmit health data from a patient’s home to a health care provider and can facilitate communication and help engage patients in the management of their own care. Early lessons include promoting a culture of openness and preparedness; using a multidisciplinary team-based approach; establishing leadership support; minimizing barriers to patient enrolment, like cost; and including nonstandard measures, like patient experience and staff satisfaction, in programme evaluations.

DH: Paperless NHS: Jeremy Hunt leads discussion. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt led a panel discussion on achieving his ambition for a paperless NHS by 2018. He pledged that one region in England would have a fully portable electronic health record in place across health and social care by the time of the next election. Hunt also said that technology could help the NHS tackle its two main challenges – an ageing population and financial sustainability.

Digital Policy Alliance: Living independently: shouldering the burden of chronic disease. How technology can help manage the increasing demands for care from an ageing population (PDF 441KB). The cross-party Digital Policy Alliance highlights the potential benefits of using telehealth and telecare in managing long-term conditions and identifies significant barriers to adoption and suggests some remedies for these.

eHealth Insider: eHealth Insider are inviting entries for the EHI Awards 2013. This year’s awards include new categories ‘Best use of IT to support healthcare business efficiency’ and ‘Best use of IT to support clinical treatment and care’.

Health in Wales: New online health check for over-50s. Online assessments and community-based support will enable over-50s in Wales to assess and improve their own health. It is a Programme for Government commitment to introduce health checks for people aged over 50. The aim is to support and empower people over 50 to have greater control over their own health and wellbeing. Health checks are part of a greater shift in emphasis towards improving and protecting health, rather than simply treating illness.

Implementation Science: WhatisKT wiki: a case study of a platform for knowledge translation terms and definitions - Descriptive analysis. Over 100 knowledge translation (KT) terms with unclear definitions and varying emphases are currently used in research and practice. The authors of this study from Implementation Science built a wiki, a website where users collaborate on content, to facilitate clarification of these ambiguous terms through dialogue. The study describes the wiki’s content and use.

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Type 1 diabetes eHealth psychoeducation: youth recruitment, participation, and satisfaction. “The Internet and other eHealth technologies offer a platform for improving the dissemination and accessibility of psychoeducational programs for youth with chronic illness. However, little is known about the recruitment process and yield of diverse samples in Internet research with youth who have a chronic illness.”

JMIR: Periodic email prompts to re-use an Internet-delivered computer-tailored lifestyle program: Influence of prompt content and timing. “Adherence to Internet-delivered lifestyle interventions using multiple tailoring is suboptimal. Therefore, it is essential to invest in proactive strategies, such as periodic email prompts, to boost re-use of the intervention. This study investigated the influence of content and timing of a single email prompt on re-use of an Internet-delivered computer-tailored (CT) lifestyle program.”

JMIR: Correlates of health-related social media use among adults. “Sixty percent of Internet users report using the Internet to look for health information. Social media sites are emerging as a potential source for online health information. However, little is known about how people use social media for such purposes.” 

JMIR: Evaluation of user interface and workflow design of a bedside nursing clinical decision support system. “Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are important tools to improve health care outcomes and reduce preventable medical adverse events. However, the effectiveness and success of CDSS depend on their implementation context and usability in complex health care settings. As a result, usability design and validation, especially in real world clinical settings, are crucial aspects of successful CDSS implementations.”

JMIR: Eight questions about physician-rating websites: A systematic review. “Physician-rating websites are currently gaining in popularity because they increase transparency in the health care system. However, research on the characteristics and content of these portals remains limited. This study aimed to identify and synthesize published evidence in peer-reviewed journals regarding frequently discussed issues about physician-rating websites.” 

NHS Confederation Mental Health Network: E-mental health: what’s all the fuss about?  "E-mental health is the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support and improve mental health, including the use of online resources, social media and smartphone applications". It has the potential "to support cultural transformation and a move towards a social model of health, by empowering service users to exercise greater choice and control and to manage their own conditions more effectively". This paper explores how the mental health sector can make the most of opportunities offered by e-mental health.
News: Digital age can transform mental healthcare.

NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH): Call for additional ITK themes. This page outlines the programme for expanding the range of topics/themes supported by the NHS Interoperability Toolkit (ITK). NHS CFH are asking for ideas and priorities for future releases. On 11 February they will consolidate all the ideas they receive and add these to a new 'long list'of topics. On 13 February they will publish the new extended list and ask for help with prioritising the individual topics.

NHS Institute 3 million lives: South Gloucestershire GP speaks on Telehealth in the area. This presentation looks at how Telehealth benefits patients and GP's.

NHS Wales Informatics Service: Caldicott Manual. The revised Caldicott "Principles into Practice" Manual is now available. Originally launched in 2008 by Dame Fiona Caldicott, the manual is seen as a key element of the Information Governance agenda in Wales, providing organisations working in Health and Social Care with a set of recommendations and principles to help ensure that personally identifiable information (including that of patients, staff and service users) is adequately protected. The 2012 revision reflects organisational change and increased Governance responsibilities including the establishment of the Wales Information Governance Board (WIGB) as well as updated annexes used to measure compliance.

NHS Wales: My Health Online. The My Health Online service which allows patients to book appointments and order repeat prescriptions over the internet is now available in over a third of GP practices across Wales.

Patient Information Forum: Registrations have just opened for the 8th Annual Patient Information Conference. The event is on 2nd May in Birmingham. It is aimed at professionals who communicate with patients and the public about their health. 

Patient Information Forum: UK survey exploring health literacy and health information providers. The Patient Information Forum is undertaking research on health literacy; developing an insight into how information producers and providers view it, what they understand about it and what strategies are in place to meet health literacy needs. The survey is available until 1 March 2013.  

Plos Medicine: The Effectiveness of Mobile-Health Technology-Based Health Behaviour Change or Disease Management Interventions for Health Care Consumers: A Systematic Review. “Mobile technologies could be a powerful media for providing individual level support to health care consumers”. This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of mobile technology interventions delivered to health care consumers.