If you haven’t taken a look yet, now might be a good time, with the updated Connector Software at HealthVault and the new announcement made today about eClinicalWorks being sold at Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club beginning in the spring, so medical records can become a “boxed” product. Dell is offering either a desktop or tablet pc along with the packaged offer, hint, go for the tablet. The product sold is to be the “software as a service” model, with records being maintained outside of the physician’s office. The idea was born from using the software in their own in-house clinics within the stores. I am guessing here there’s a pretty good chance of the PHR connectivity being here as well with HealthVault, so now you can make it a one stop shop, put the EHR in the cart and pick up some glucose and heart monitors while at Sam’s Club this Spring.
See what else eClinicalWorks can connect with as well for one stop encrypted log in at the hospital and doctor’s office.
Proxense RFID and Encrypted Biometric Tracking for Hospitals and more…
Also a preview of what was to come was announced in November, 2008.
eClinicalWorks Users Annual Meeting – Integration and the Future of EHRS and PHRs
I just updated my HealthVault Connector software over the weekend and the compact SQL server that comes with the update. The HealthVault 
group has been busy with many updates, not only with devices but also with connecting vendors.
You may start seeing the printed stamps on products that have been certified by HealthVault, in other words devices that are certified to work with HealthVault via a USB cable and with the Connector Software. The Connector Software is a free desktop application that allows devices and their information to automatically enter the data into HealthVault. You can opt to have the Connector run when you start your computer under preferences. One of the biggest problems with acceptance of online records goes something like this:
Personal Health Records (PHR), I don’t do technology said the CEO, “it’s for those guys over there”
Back on topic here, the diagram below shows how all the multiple areas of data come together with HealthVault to accumulate and enable sharing of health data. As you can see there are many areas that can now send the data and help you compile your PHR with HealthVault. Notice that Health care Associations and Health Plans are included, as well as information potentially from employers. Many of the connecting vendors have an internal PHR that has now been built to use within their system as well as importing the information into HealthVault. Such is the case for a simple example at Kaiser Permanente, whereby the internal patient health record can be exported to HealthVault, so upon seeing a physician outside of the network, the Kaiser medical records exported would be available to an out of network physician.
Here is what the software looks like on your computer. The first screen walks you through setting up your device that will be reporting information and data back to the HealthVault. It is pretty straight forward. As you can see below, it found no devices, which means I should have a device such as a glucose meter, scale, etc. plugged in before going further.
In the next step, I select the type of device from a drop down list to include. For this example I chose a Blood Glucose meter, One Touch from Lifescan, one of the devices that works with HealthVault.
There may be additional required software from the vendor to be installed, in that case you will get a warning to make sure all the information from the vendor has been either installed or preferences have been created.
There are also some desktop widgets that can be installed to keep the information on your desktop for quick and easy access.
Here are a few screenshots, and the full demonstration videos are located here to see a range of products and software companies.
HealthVault Connecting with EHR/EMR Software from Hospitals and Doctors Offices
Here’ some additional good news, depending on the software your doctor uses, there’s the ability to connect and share records with the software in your doctor’s office. Be sure to check with your doctor’s office and see if their software has been added to the list and if the office is running software from the vendor that has been upgraded to allow the connections.
Connecting with Hospitals and EHR/EMR Medical Records – eClinicalWorks and Life Scan glucose monitor from Johnson and Johnson
EClinicalWorks, which is installed at many practices is now making the connection available, again, check with your doctor’s office to see if the version of the vendor software is enabled.
In this case scenario the example on the website shows a child who spends time between 2 locations, parents who are no longer living together, but share in the care and custody of their child, a very common scenario today. The child uses a LifeScan glucose meter. Both physicians at Mom’s side and Dad’s side are using eClinicalWorks at the office. As you can see the device connects to the HealthVault and there is a spot on the screen to send the information to the HealthVault.
This screen shows how EClinicalWorks can export to the HealthVault at the one doctor’s office. It can import as well. In this case, the physician exports the information to the EHR from eClinicalWorks.
Later, when visiting the 2nd doctor, let’s say at Dad’s area, the information already imported from a prior visit with Mom can be exported, so when Dad takes the child to the doctor, all the records are complete from what has occurred from when he is with Mom.
At the Urgent Care Center, or let’s say at a Minute Clinic location for a simple example, the information can also be shared. The example below shows information from the hospital going to eClinicalWorks, accessed by the physician through the portal, and then again shared or exported to the HealthVault.
Other Vendors such as NextGen EMR/EHRs offer the same capabilities. The procedures for the EHR/EMR vendors may vary depending on how the information is connected, but for the patient, the process is the same from their end.
There are several other vendors to include NoMoreClipboard.com, Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc., PeaceHealth, Allscripts™, Kryptiq Corp., Greenway®, MEDSEEK, and Eclipsys now working with the HealthVault for connectivity and sharing of information.
Washington Hospital connecting to HealthVault with Microsoft Amalga (formerly known as Azyxxi). This was the birthplace of Amalga, developed by ER physicians and acquired by Microsoft in 2006 and used by Medstar.
Medstar is a healthcare company in the Washington DC area operating several hospitals. Amalga is a data aggregating system in use at several major hospitals, such as St. Josephs in Orange, California. For additional information, you can check out this recent interview with Steve Shihadeh, Vice President Microsoft Health Solutions.
Clinical Trials – Use your HealthVault Account Information to connect and find Clinical Trials – Make the search easy for Trials
Why spend your time searching the web when it can be done with a couple clicks and based on your specific medical data? Also, if you are an investigator, this can help cut to the chase with qualifying potential candidates as the search will be based on current medical chart information, thus it will cut down on locating interested patients and having to go back and forth with additional series of questions in the qualification process, and it offers a means of direct communication and alerts with the patients once a connection/qualification process has been established.
Also, if you want to just check out the search capabilities and see how it works, use the widget under the resources column located next to the links for setting up a PHR account.
For a full listing of websites that connect to the HealthVault, use the link below.
Websites that connect to HealthVault
Related Reading:
This is an exceptionally informative post! Patients want products like HealthVault and the industry will see a positive boost in patient care outcomes as a result.
ReplyDeleteLol, ah yes. The "one as*hole in the middle" map to "healthcare revolution." Well, anything is better than the phone-to-pen model.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Anonymous at April 20th: come on... you are paid to write less transparent blog comments than that.
I am not quite sure what you mean by paid, but you will find less than 1/2 dozen articles on this blog that were paid for, and actually they were done almost over 2 years ago when the blog was started and carry a disclaimer too.
ReplyDeleteI have an entire section on PHRs, so it is one of the topics I write about frequently with bringing as much information as I can. I used to be a coder and thus my comments and posts are done from that area of focus.