eHealth updates - 8 November 2012

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.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Meaningful use measures and metadata. The AHRQ has developed the U.S. Healthcare Knowledgebase (USHIK) to help providers and vendors in the USA navigate the new Clinical Quality Measures (CQM) specifications. The final 2014 CQMs for health professionals and hospitals are now available.

Assisted Living Innovation Platform programme (ALIP): ALIP has formed a virtual catalogue containing all the examples of assistive technology, telecare, telemedicine, telehealth, telehealthcare, e-health and m-health developed to date.

Guardian Professional - Healthcare Network: How to secure patient trust in electronic record systems. “A breach of personal data could do considerable damage, so trusts must build patient privacy into NHS IT systems.”  

Institution of Engineering and Technology: Annual Healthcare Technologies Lecture. The Annual Healthcare Technologies Lecture on 21 November 2012 hosts keynote speaker Professor Lionel Tarassenko who will be presenting his lecture on 'Mobile health for chronic disease management: what have we learnt in the last decade?'

ISHIMR 2013: Exploiting Health Informatics for Connected, Collaborative and Customized Patient Care. The International Symposium for Health Information Management Research (ISHIMR), will take place on 26-28 June 2013, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. ISHIMR 2013 will bring together researchers in the general area of e-health, health information management and health informatics and will provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of their research activities. The deadline for submission of papers and poster abstracts is 28 February 2013.

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Communicating the experience of chronic pain and illness through blogging. The objective of this study was to examine via an online questionnaire the perceived psychosocial and health benefits of blogging among patients who use this media to communicate their experience of chronic pain or illness.

JMIR: Disordered eating in a digital age: eating behaviours, health, and quality of life in users of websites with pro-eating disorder content. "Much concern has been raised over pro-eating disorder (pro-ED) website communities, but little quantitative research has been conducted on these websites and their users". This study aimed to examine associations between levels of pro-ED website usage, disordered eating behaviours, and quality of life.

JMIR: Patient perceptions of a personal health record: a test of the diffusion of innovation model. The aim of thus study undertaken in the USA was to apply a theoretical model, the diffusion of innovation model, to the study of PHRs and conduct an exploratory empirical study on the applicability of the model to the study of perceptions of PHRs. A secondary objective was to assess whether perceptions of PHRs predict the perceived value of the PHR for communicating with the doctor’s office.

JMIR: Telemedicine consultations: an alternative model to increase access to diabetes specialist care in underserved rural communities. This study, undertaken in the USA, found that teleconsultations were well accepted by users both patients and primary care doctors, and mean HbA1c decreased from 9.6 per cent to 8.5 per cent (P < .001).

New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM): Electronic health records and national patient safety goals. "Electronic health records (EHRs) are essential to improving patient safety. Hospitals and health care providers are implementing EHRs rapidly in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009..... Recent evidence has highlighted substantial and often unexpected risks resulting from the use of EHRs and other forms of health information technology."

Journal for Patient Compliance: Home Telehealth User Compliance and the Technology Acceptance Model. This article discusses user compliance for home telehealth. The article can be accessed in volume 2, issue 3.

Patient View: European Directory of Health Apps 2012-2013 (PDF 5MB). This Directory contains facts about 200 smartphone health apps capable of helping patients self-manage their medical conditions. The health apps described have all been recommended by patient groups and empowered consumers, then categorised and indexed in several ways (including by local language), to make the details easy for readers to find. Another distinction about the Directory is that it lists health apps on all of the major operating systems (Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Windows Phone).

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE): Using computers and ICT to support people with dementia. A new guide has been launched which supports computer activities for people with dementia. It helps care managers and their staff to use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve quality of life for their clients. The plain-language guide means that professionals who use it do not need to be technically-minded. There are nine useful sections on the web-based tool, ranging from getting the right kit through to using ICT in reminiscence and life story activities.
See also SCIE’s Get Connected programme.