www.healthcaregoesmobile.com

Laptop security has been a big topic of discussion lately, including two recent posts from our community bloggers John McCormack and Bradley Dick.

In fact, more than 12,000 laptops are stolen every week from airports alone. In 2009, the average cost of a missing laptop was $49,246. What if one of those was from your organization? Would your patient data be safe?

Much of the discussion around mobile technology and wireless networks revolves around soft cost benefits such as improved patient care and reducing inefficiencies. But what about hard costs and measureable, financial return on investment (ROI)?

At this year’s HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition, one educational session that promised an inside look at a $1 million ROI on mobile point-of-care looked appealing because it promised to share how to put a hard cost dollar figure around implementing technology.

I hope this headline caught your attention. It certainly grabbed my eye at HIMSS in Atlanta recently. This was the enticing title of an educational session, and the presentation definitely delivered. Dr. Larry Holder of Decatur Memorial Hospital in Illinois recounted how a focused experiment on perfecting blood transfusion orders made all the difference in adoption of the hospital’s CPOE system among its 160 physicians.

The buzz coming out of HIMSS10 in Atlanta centered much around the long awaited meaning of "meaningful use" as it relates to the forthcoming flood of stimulus dollars. As InformationWeek Healthcare reports, the uncertain requirements are already spiking IT spending among healthcare providers. But the current climate also makes it a good time to be conducting research in the mobile health IT space.

I just wanted to start by saying that I am an avid BlackBerry user and have been since my RIM 850. Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way and a large number of them seem to be physicians.

This is where the conflict begins and your life gets more complicated. I find it interesting how we love to segment ourselves in technology and immediately factions start forming. It’s not good enough that we all find email a valuable tool and want access, but somehow if you don't access email the same way I do then we are at odds.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to attend HIMSS before, it’s a massive event with an abundance of interesting educational sessions, breakfast presentations, and vendors all discussing healthcare technology. While sitting in some of today’s sessions, a number of messages about mHealth jumped out at me and explained how consumers are the driving forces behind mobile health and at-home connections with physicians.

About a year ago, I wrote on another blog that Voalté, which competes with Ascom, Cisco and others, wants to be the central communications engine--or traffic cop--on healthcare's iPhones. At HIMSS10, the Sarasota, Fla.-based developer of point-of-care communication technology is making its Voalté One solution available to Blackberry users, too.

Would COE be any less meaningful than CPOE?

If a nurse or PA, a resident or pharmacist – and not a provider – conducts order entry, would a meaningful use incentive proposal be met?

Yes, it’s time for the insanity that is HIMSS and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what HIMSS brings to us. 

We get the chance to see our colleagues who we may only see once or twice a year – especially those of us who work remotely. I think I’ve only seen my boss about five times since last HIMSS.  This is an important part of our social and business networking, and no, not the Facebook kind but real face-to-face time with our colleagues from across the nation. 

With the average annual failure rates for non-ruggedized handheld computers hovering around 38 percent, it stands to reason that a maker of ruggedized handheld devices would team up with a mobile clinical software developer and an end-to-end solutions integration firm to provide healthcare professionals with 24/7 access to EMRs, regardless of location.

Starting now, I am improving healthcare by:

How would you complete this sentence? That’s what a new portal, www.intelstartnow, wants to hear from you. In conjunction with the upcoming HIMSS conference, March 1-4, the new site debuted this week and already has several industry thought leaders and executives who have submitted their ideas for how they will to contribute to a better healthcare system going forward.

The great strength of mobile computing is that data can easily traverse from one place to another. That’s also the great risk – as a recent security breach illustrates.

Right now, online data lockers are barely a blip on the radar, showing up as secure sites where individuals can keep Web site passwords and other information, or as basic computer backup services. But as consumer data becomes more important to businesses, and cloud computing eliminates the need for physical presences, this technology may very well put customer data in the hands of consumers--even in healthcare.

We’ve read all kinds of studies showing how technology at the point of care can prove beneficial. However, the story of Dan Woolley, who was trapped in the ruins of a hotel during the recent earthquake in Haiti, illustrates just how valuable computerized devices can be at the point of care.

Nashville, Tenn.-based SunCrest Healthcare, a regional provider of home health, private duty, companion care and therapy services, has chosen Philips to supply telehealth monitors for its home care patients.