Health IT & Quality: Precision Requires FHIR
By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH On January 20, 2016, President Barack Obama celebrated the one-year anniversary of his announcement of the Precision Medicine Initiative. The initiative, first announced in the president’s 2015 State of the Union address, initially included $215 million in research funding (“Precision Medicine Initiative,” n.d.). Most medical treatments are designed to … Continued
Department of Homeland Security Issues Ransomware Warning to Hospitals
In response to a series of ransomware attacks that crippled healthcare systems across the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) released a warning on specific types of ransomware used in recent attacks. The warning is directed at all organizations … Continued
Failure Recovery Tool Offers Guidance Amid the ‘Chaos and Shock’ of Medical Errors
This article appears in the March issue of Patient Safety Monitor. Hospitals need to have a structure in place to respond to patient safety failures Healthcare can be a stressful industry to work in, particularly when something goes wrong. Instead of relying on humans to react under pressure, one organization is offering a structured … Continued
AHRQ releases new tool to reduce CAUTI
Building on its Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently released a new toolkit aimed at reducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) in hospitals. Released in October 2015, the toolkit consists of three modules: implementation, sustainability, and resources. Hospitals can use … Continued
The Emory Experience: Quality Improvement Skills Labs in Interdisciplinary Education
By Ariadne K. DeSimone In spring 2014, one day after taking my Step 2 Clinical Knowledge of the United States Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE), I finally had time to turn my attention to thoughts about my future and to the email messages that had accumulated over the past month. One announcement stood out: The Emory … Continued
The Emory Experience: Quality Improvement Skills Labs in Interdisciplinary Education
By Ariadne K. DeSimone In spring 2014, one day after taking my Step 2 Clinical Knowledge of the United States Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE), I finally had time to turn my attention to thoughts about my future and to the email messages that had accumulated over the past month. One announcement stood out: The Emory … Continued
The Emory Experience: Quality Improvement Skills Labs in Interdisciplinary Education
By Ariadne K. DeSimone In spring 2014, one day after taking my Step 2 Clinical Knowledge of the United States Medical Licensure Examination (USMLE), I finally had time to turn my attention to thoughts about my future and to the email messages that had accumulated over the past month. One announcement stood out: The … Continued
ECRI Institute Issues Technology Hazards List for 2016
Reprocessing of flexible endoscopes rises to #1 hazard; failure to recognize clinical alarms, health IT errors and other issues remain perennial hazards. Every year hospitals are blindsided and patients are harmed by unexpected health technology hazards. Medical technology is intended to improve patient care, but even the best technology—if configured, used, or maintained improperly—can lead … Continued
Study Shows Positive Effects From UVC Robot
A new study on use of UV light in the short C-wavelength (UVC) for disinfection was presented at IDWeek 2015. The study showed that Tru-D SmartUVC significantly reduced healthcare-associated infections (HAI) caused by common multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) in hospitals. Tru-D SmartUVC was the UVC device selected for this study and proved its ability to reduce … Continued
Medfusion Launches Mobile App to Simplify Healthcare Records
To provide patients with a single destination for all of their medical records, Medfusion—a patient engagement platform dedicated to facilitating the relationship between doctors and patients—has developed a consumer mobile application called Medfusion Plus. For decades, if patients wanted access to their medical records, they had to request and pay for a paper copy, which … Continued