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I’ve been thinking a lot about ways that Health Care and the medical system in general can be improved through the use of IT. In the United States right now, we are over 1 year into the so-called “Meaningful Use” guidelines established by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. This means that thousands of doctors, clinics, hospitals and other care facilities are getting beyond the ramping up stage into potential “Meaningful Use” territory. However, what the government considers a meaningful usage of technology may not necessarily be the silver bullet for solving an entire industry’s IT challenges.

Meaningful Use – Core Requirements

 

1. Use computerized order entry for medication orders.
2. Implement drug-drug, drug-allergy checks.
3. Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically.
4. Record demographics.
5. Maintain an up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses.
6. Maintain active medication list.
7. Maintain active medication allergy list.
8. Record and chart changes in vital signs.
9. Record smoking status for patients 13 years old or older.
10. Implement one clinical decision support rule.
11. Report ambulatory quality measures to CMS or the States.
12. Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information upon request.
13. Provide clinical summaries to patients for each office visit.
14. Capability to exchange key clinical information electronically among providers and patient authorized entities.
15. Protect electronic health information (privacy & security)

 

Meaningful Use – Menu Requirements

• Implement drug-formulary checks.
• Incorporate clinical lab-test results into certified EHR as structured data.
• Generate lists of patients by specific conditions to use for quality improvement, reduction of disparities, research, and outreach.
• Send reminders to patients per patient preference for preventive/ follow-up care.
• Provide patients with timely electronic access to their health information (including lab results, problem list, medication lists, allergies).
• Use certified EHR to identify patient-specific education resources and provide to patient if appropriate.
• Perform medication reconciliation as relevant.
• Provide summary care record for transitions in care or referrals.
• Capability to submit electronic data to immunization registries and actual submission.
• Capability to provide electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies and actual transmission.

The following excellent eHealth overview diagram shows the most popular standards in each touch point of the healthcare ecosystem (from care to billing):

 

EHR
An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a
Patient Information
History
Medications
Allergies

 

ECG

• RR interval The interval between an R wave and the next R wave . Normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 bpm 0.6 to 1.2s
• P wave During normal atrial depolarization, the main electrical vector is directed from the SA node towards the AV node, and spreads from the right atrium to the left atrium. This turns into the P wave on the ECG. 80ms
• PR interval The PR interval is measured from the beginning of the P wave to the beginning of the QRS complex. The PR interval reflects the time the electrical impulse takes to travel from the sinus node through the AV node and entering the ventricles. The PR interval is therefore a good estimate of AV node function. 120 to 200ms
• PR segment The PR segment connects the P wave and the QRS complex. The impulse vector is from the AV node to the bundle of His to the bundle branches and then to the Purkinje Fibers. This electrical activity does not produce a contraction directly and is merely traveling down towards the ventricles and this shows up flat on the ECG. The PR interval is more clinically relevant. 50 to 120ms
• QRS complex The QRS complex reflects the rapid depolarization of the right and left ventricles. They have a large muscle mass compared to the atria and so the QRS complex usually has a much larger amplitude than the P-wave. 80 to 120ms
• J-point The point at which the QRS complex finishes and the ST segment begins. Used to measure the degree of ST elevation or depression present.
• ST segment The ST segment connects the QRS complex and the T wave. The ST segment represents the period when the ventricles are depolarized. It is isoelectric. 80 to 120ms
• T wave The T wave represents the repolarization (or recovery) of the ventricles. The interval from the beginning of the QRS complex to the apex of the T wave is referred to as the absolute refractory period. The last half of the T wave is referred to as the relative refractory period (or vulnerable period). 160ms
• ST interval The ST interval is measured from the J point to the end of the T wave. 320ms
• QT interval The QT interval is measured from the beginning of the QRS complex to the end of the T wave. A prolonged QT interval is a risk factor for ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death. It varies with heart rate and for clinical relevance requires a correction for this, giving the QTc. Up to 420ms in heart rate of 60 bpm. See diagram at right for other heart rates.
• U wave The U wave is hypothesized to be caused by the repolarization of the interventricular septum. They normally have a low amplitude, and even more often completely absent. They always follow the T wave and also follow the same direction in amplitude. If they are too prominent we suspect hypokalemia, hypercalcemia or hyperthyroidism usually.
• J wave The J wave, elevated J-Point or Osborn Wave appears as a late delta wave following the QRS or as a small secondary R wave . It is considered pathognomonic of hypothermia or hypocalcemia.

There are other rival standards to OpenECG’s SCP-ECG is HL7 aECG.

 

DICOM
Patients may have had any number of previous X-Rays, CT Scans, MRIs, Ultrasound procedures or other advanced 3D Images taken. In this case, a web-based DICOM viewer would provide the instant access needed to make decisions quicker and more reliably.

 

HL7
A standardized Messaging format is required to send Patient data between offices, which is where Health Level Seven (HL7) comes into the picture. Why is the standard called HL7? This is an important question with a relatively straightforward answer, but it requires a quick trip into Computer Science history. The number seven in HL7 refers to the top level of the seven-layer International Standards Organization’s (ISO) communications model for Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) – the application layer. The application level addresses definition of the data to be exchanged, the timing of the interchange, and the communication of certain errors to the application. The infamous OSI Model for network communications is listed in descending order with Application layer on top, as follows:
7. Application
6. Presentation
5. Session
4. Transport
3. Network
2. Data Link
1. Physical

The seventh level at which HL7 was implemented also supports important functions such as security checks, participant identification, availability checks, exchange mechanism negotiations and, most importantly, data exchange structuring. HL7 focuses on the interface requirements of the entire health care organization, while most other efforts focus on the requirements of a particular department such as Radiology or Critical Care. HL7 undertakes ongoing development of protocols on the fastest possible track that is both responsive and responsible to its members. The group addresses unique requirements of the already installed hospital and departmental systems all over the world in over 40 countries, some of which use mature or legacy technologies (via HL7 version 2), and others of which use more cutting-edge systems (that support both the older and less expressive version 2 and the XML-based version 3 of the HL7 messaging standard).

The following is an example of the original version of HL7 version 2:

MSH|^~&|MegaReg|XYZHospC|SuperOE|XYZImgCtr|20060529090131-0500||ADT^A01^ADT_A01|01052901|P|2.5
EVN||200605290901||||200605290900
PID|||56782445^^^UAReg^PI||KLEINSAMPLE^BARRY^Q^JR||19620910|M||2028-9^^HL70005^RA99113^^XYZ|260 GOODWIN CREST DRIVE^^BIRMINGHAM^AL^35 209^^M~NICKELL’S PICKLES^10000 W 100TH AVE^BIRMINGHAM^AL^35200^^O |||||||0105I30001^^^99DEF^AN
PV1||I|W^389^1^UABH^^^^3||||12345^MORGAN^REX^J^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L||678 90^GRAINGER^LUCY^X^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L|MED|||||A0||13579^POTTER^SHER MAN^T^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L|||||||||||||||||||||||||||200605290900
OBX|1|NM|^Body Height||1.80|m^Meter^ISO+|||||F
OBX|2|NM|^Body Weight||79|kg^Kilogram^ISO+|||||F
AL1|1||^ASPIRIN
DG1|1||786.50^CHEST PAIN, UNSPECIFIED^I9|||A

The HAPI Test Panel is an HL7 v2.x test tool that should come in handy for testing purposes on older v 2.x messages.

Here is the equivalent message in the new Reference Information Model (RIM) for HL7 version 3 (which is now an XML-based, more machine-readable format):

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <PRPA_IN101001UV01 ITSVersion="XML_1.0" xmlns="urn:hl7-org:v3" 
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <id extension="3948375" root="2.16.840.1.113883.19.10.700363.2288"/>
   <creationTime value="20060501140010"/>
   <versionCode code="NE2006"/>
   <!-- Interaction is a notification of a person registration -->
   <interactionId extension="PRPA_IN101001UV01" root="2.16.840.1.113883.1.6"/>
   <processingCode code="P"/>
   <processingModeCode code="T"/>
   <acceptAckCode code="ER"/>
   <receiver>
     <device>
     <id extension="922" root="2.16.840.1.113883.19.9"/>
     <name>Master MPI</name>
       <asAgent>
         <representedOrganization>
           <id extension="1002003" root="2.16.840.1.113883.19.200"/>
           <name>Alpha Hospital</name>
         </representedOrganization>
       </asAgent>
     </device>
   </receiver>
   <sender>
     <device>
       <id extension="1" root="2.16.840.1.113883.19.9"/>
     </device>
   </sender>
   <controlActProcess moodCode="EVN">
     <code code="PRPA_TE101001UV01" codeSystem="2.16.840.1.113883.1.18"/>
     <effectiveTime value="20060501140008"/>
     <authorOrPerformer typeCode="AUT">
       <assignedPerson>
         <id extension="000338475" root="2.16.840.1.113883.19.201"/>
         <assignedPerson>
           <name use="L">
             <given>Arthur</given>
             <family>Author</family>
           </name>
         </assignedPerson>
         <representedOrganization>
           <id extension="1002777" root="2.16.840.1.113883.19.200"/>
           <name>Regional Person Registry</name>
         </representedOrganization>
       </assignedPerson>
     </authorOrPerformer>
     <subject>

     <!-- registration event has been removed
          see next section of this whitepaper-->

     </subject>
    </controlActProcess>
 </PRPA_IN101001UV01>

http://www.ringholm.de/docs/01200_en_HL7v3_using_HL7v2_terms.htm

http://www.ringholm.de/docs/04300_en.htm

 

Billing
As the book offers, billing is one of the most complicated parts of the healthcare industry. It can provide multiple Beneficiaries (Non-Profit Organizations & Individuals), Payers (Insurers & Government bodies), Providers (Hospitals & Clinics) and potentially if drugs or procedures are involved, Prescribers (Doctors & Nurses). Due to the nature and urgency of medical care, billing is often done after-the-fact to recoup costs of the procedure, but planned or “elective” care procedures are almost always carefully calculated and accounted for before service is provided.

The leading billing standard is X12 and billing “transactions” are carried out based on specific procedure or billing codes, usually ICD-9 (however, by 2014 the required standard for coding will be ICD-10).

 

Scheduling

 

Patient-editable
The ability for a patient to be able to access and potentially edit their own electronic health record is key to any successful and meaningful implementation of an EHR system.

 

 

 

Speech Recognition
Nuance’s Dragon Medical, and similar offerings from Speech Recognition software providers should be high up on the list of meaningful use. It can free the healthcare provider from staring at a screen rather than interacting with the patient, which helps prevent the .

 

 

Related Articles

• Where is the Value in Health IT?
• More on electronic health records
• Doc-Office Use of Basic EHRs Hits Nearly 40%, Survey Finds.
• How long until patients see the benefits of meaningful use of EHRs?

I’ve been thinking a lot about ways that Health Care and the medical system in general can be improved through the use of IT. In the United States right now,...