Electronic Medical Records are deemed to be a big step in the direction of reducing healthcare costs and such systems tend to cost around $20,000 to install for a physician. But in comes Practice Fusion a San Francisco based startup that offers a web-based digital medical record system for free.

The service will generate revenue from Google Adsense advertisements. AS per the agreement, Google won’t have access to any patient data and the advertisers will get basic information about the physicians seeing their ads. The doctors have an option to opt out of advertisements by paying a monthly fees of $250.

Here are the challenges which their tool addresses:

• Free: We do not charge licensing fees for our application, nor do we charge for hosting.
• Integrated and Interoperable: Connecting physicians to other physicians, their patients, healthcare groups and RHIOs–delivering secure, shared patient information.
• On-Demand: Our Solution is web-based requiring no software to implement and manage. Provisioning is a fraction of the time of client-server solutions.
• One View: We provide unified, aggregated views into clinical data across the entire physician and patient community.

This would indeed be a cost-effective solution for small clinics and individual doctors but bigger organizations will adopt tools which work in-house so they have control over the data they generate.

Source (here)

Popularity: 5% [?]

DNA Direct is a company providing access to genetic test ordering through the web and phone. They have developed a notion of virtual genetics clinic to facilitate this process.

Genetic tests can tell you if you carry a genetic risk, screen you for disease, or screen you for carrier status. This information will empower an individual enabling him to make better health decisions.

Mosts of the tests can be ordered online  and the test kit arrives in mail. Tests are easy to carry out and you need to send the sample back for analysis. Detailed reports on your tests come up on the web site.

Some of the tests they offer:

• Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency
• Blood Clotting Disorders
• Breast & Ovarian Cancer
• Cystic Fibrosis
• Drug Metabolism (CYP2D6 Gene)
• Hemochromatosis
• Infertility
• PreGen-Plus Colon Cancer Screening
• Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
• Tamoxifen

(PBS affiliate aired a segment on Genetics Testing Through The Web)

The process has indeed been made very friendly and should encourage individuals to undergo these tests.

How Genetics and Genetic Testing works?

Source: Here

Popularity: 4% [?]

Motion C5 is the first product in the new mobile clinical assistant (MCA) category of PCs from Motion Computing.  It is a tablet PC, customized for healthcare.

In a press release Intel announced:

The mobile clinical assistant (MCA) is ready to enable nurses to spend more time with patients, do their jobs on the move while remaining connected, and manage the administration of medications. Motion Computing’s C5 is the first product based on Intel’s MCA platform and has earned support from clinicians and nurses participating in pilot studies around the world.

This is a huge step by Intel to build a platform specifically targeting healthcare, enabling better connection of clinicians to comprehensive patient information on a real time basis.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Some of the features of Motion C5 are:

• wireless connectivity: to access patient information and physician’s order.
• RFID: to identify patients, medications and assets
• integrated bar code reader: to manage medicines or costly supplies
• integrated digital camera (2.0 megapixels): to take pictures and capture video for patient education and required documentation
• sealed design: wipeable for quick cleaning and disinfecting
• bluetooth: to help capture patient vital signs
• security: integrated fingerprint reader, hardware based encryption

This is indeed a great step by Intel and Motion Computing to bring quality to Healthcare. Technologies like this save time, money and energy and enhance the user experience.

For detailed specs visit here. For a virtual tour visit here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Health Care is seeing a sudden spurt of social networking and informational sites. Since I closely follow this field, I thought it would be nice to compile a list of sites and provide details on features they support.

DailyStrength.org

This provides a community where people can write their own diary as well as participate in discussion around various topics (related to disease, wellness, parenting etc.). Main features of the site are:

• Communities (groups on various topics of interest e.g. diseases, teens, parenting etc.)
• Discussions (forum like thread)
• Treatments
• Recent News
• Resources (articles, websites, books etc.)
• Treatments
• Profile
• Ability to join communities
• My Journal/Diary
• Share post on all communities or just your journal
• My Hugbook
• Send Messages/Receive Messages (private / public)
• Add a Friend
• My Photos
• My Page
• How am I feeling today?
• My treatments

OrganizedWisdom.com

It is centered around sharing user experience with certain treatment or product or anything on those lines. The idea is to create a wisdom card out of the experience and share it with the user community. Main features of the site are:

• Share Wisdom/Experience
• Select a topic from a list of existing topics
• Share your story
• What happened?
• What went wrong?
• What went right?
• Lessons learnt
• Recommend (step 3)
• Contact this person
• Contact this place
• Check out this product
• Here is an idea
• Take this action
• Review the wisdom card you just created
• Publish the wisdom card
• My Profile
• My Wisdom
• Wisdom cards that user created
• Others wisdom cards saved by the user
• Saved expert wisdom (doctor reviewed content)
• Search
• Wisdom Cards
• View Wisdom Card Content
• View other wisdom cards from the same user
• Add wisdom card link to social bookmarking sites
• Mark wisdom card as useful or not
• Mark wisdom card as “Expert Wisdom Card”
• Email wisdom card
• Save wisdom card
• Print wisdom card
• Health Library
• View doctor reviewed content (from healthwise) on the topic

Vimo.com (comparison shopping for health)

This allows users to compare health insurance plans and health savings plan. It also allows users to rate hospitals and doctors.

• Individuals and Families
• Health Insurance Plan Search
• Browse Health Insurance Plan
• Get a quote
• Small Businesses
• Health Insurance Plan Search
• Browse Health Insurance Plan
• Get a quote
• HSAs
• Search for Health Savings Accounts
• Compare Health Savings Accounts
• Browse Health Savings Accounts
• Doctors
• Rate a doctor
• Find a doctor (specialty, location, last name etc.)
• Read reviews about a doctor
• Browse doctors
• Hospitals
• Search Hospitals
• Browse Hospitals
• Search Procedures (cost estimate given)
• Browse Procedures
• Dentists
• Find a dentist
• Recommend your dentist
• Read reviews about your dentist

Sermo.com (by physicians, for physicians)

Only physicians can join this network but the idea is to exchange observations and knowledge among them.

PatientOpinion.org

• See what other patients are saying about their health care experience in an area (zip code)
• See what other patients are saying about their health care experience
• Latest
• Thanks
• Moans
• Add your own story so that others can learn from your experience
• Rate the care you received at hospital
• Set up your own diary to keep track of your appointments and the questions you want to ask.

worldmedcard.com (Personal Health Record)

• About Me
• Basic Information
• Emergency Contact
• Allergies
• Medical Allergies
• Other Allergies
• Medications
• I am taking
• Have taken in the past
• Family History
• Vaccinations
• I had
• Plan to have
• Illness
• Surgeries
• Medical Tests
• Blood pressure log
• Blood sugar log
• Weight log
• Symptoms log
• Cholesterol log
• Health Visits / Appointments
• My Doctors
• My primary care physician
• Other doctors I have seen
• Insurance Company
• Insurance details
• Contacts
• Print my health record
• Print my summary health record card
• PHR USB Key to carry the data
• PHR available on cell phone / mobile devices

www.healthline.com (search engine for health related stuff)

• Health Channels: Health Channels are your one-stop resource for top health articles, current news, HealthMaps®, recommended web searches and more.
• Diseases and Conditions
• Drugs
• Symptoms
• Tests: Diagnostic Tests

Some others which I won’t be able to cover in detail are:

• Mdjunction.com
• www.caringbridge.org
• www.carepages.com
• www.breastcancer.org
• www.webmd.com

The founder of AOL has launched a new social networking site around health called RevolutionHealth which I will cover in some later post. I have seen the beta version of the system and it holds great promise.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Nurse bots are mechanized robots being designed by scientists funded by European Union. These bots will perform basic tasks such as mopping up spillages, taking messages and guiding visitors to hospital beds. The initial three nurse bot system will be developed as a prototype by 2010.

It is believed that nurse bots could potentially work with robo-surgeons, already in use at a small number of hospitals internationally.

The robots would use “swarm” to communicate with each other.

Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville, Mississippi is using the Pyxis HelpMate SP Robotic Courier System to move stuff around in the hospital like meals for patients, medicine, lab samples, supplies and medical records. It has been nicknamed “EMMA” (Electronics Materials Management Associate)

EMMA

Popularity: 3% [?]