HMIGSA Blog

How does hospital ambience effect patient health?

2010-03-03T12:39:00.001-06:00

Does a fancy hospital interior and soothing music help promote faster healing? Sharp Hospital system certainly things so. NPR’s Marketplace even covers the story:

Dan Gross is executive vice president of Sharp Healthcare. I meet up with him in the lobby for my tour of the swanky Sharp Memorial. Its a $200-million hospital in San Diego. And it’s built with the principals of what’s known as “evidence-based design.”

GROSS: There’s a lot of research today and a lot of conversation around how the design of a hospital really promotes comfort, healing and produces better quality outcomes for patients.

Does a “nice” hospital actually improve health outcomes? That will be difficult to ascertain. Building a fancy hospital may improve outcomes, or it may be the case that nicer hospitals attractive relatively richer, relatively healthier patients.

Even if “evidenced-based design” does improve health outcomes, the change in ambience may not affect patient health directly. For instance, Sharp talks about using the Disney concept of on-stage and off-stage work where “…nurses have private areas ‘off stage’ where they can prepare medications uninterrupted.” Having nurses think they are “on stage” may incentivize them to work harder, smarter and more professionally. Further, a more luxurious hospital may attract higher quality staff.

From an individual hospital’s point of view, it doesn’t matter which mechanism is causing this improvement in health. From society’s point of view, however, if fancy new hospitals simply attract the best staff and healthier, more affluent patients, then improved hospital design may be a waste of resources.

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Building a Network

2010-03-02T09:43:00.001-06:00

In my walk into work this morning, I listened to a podcast titled “Building a Network”. I felt it was appropriate to share in light of HIMSS and ACHE this month. The podcast focuses on three main points:

Grow Volume Indiscriminately
GIVE GIVE GIVE (don’t take, take, take)
Keep In Touch

The cast also emphasizes the difference between “networking” and “building a network”. As you travel to Atlanta or Chicago, spend 30 minutes listening to this podcast and let us know if it helps in how you appropriate you ACHE/HIMSS experience.

Oh, yeah ... and there's a blooper in the show. Did you catch it?

Source: http://manager-tools.com/2006/05/building-a-network

Win free netbook with Windows 7 and Office Ultimate

2010-02-27T20:04:00.000-06:00

Time is running out to get your Student Rally entries in. Go here and submit today - http://cot.ag/56mU9X ^AG

Even if you don't win, you can get a copy of Office Ultimate for 60 bones using your student email :)

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Obama's Healthcare Summit

2010-02-26T11:03:00.001-06:00

How did Obama’s Healthcare Summit go? It was basically a pile of bad ideas. Senator Harkin gave the best explanation of what’s truly needed, but I’ll save that for last.

Examples of BAD IDEAS include

Starting over. John McCain asked to “Go back to the beginning” and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said ”If we can start over, we can write a healthcare bill.” The whole start over rhetoric is dumb. If you don’t like the current proposals, say what you don’t like about them. If you have suggestions on how to do it better, say them. Suggesting a “do over” is not helpful. Even if you think health care in the U.S. is perfect and prefer the status quo, you should stand up and say that rather than asking for a clean slate.

Health Reform will lower the deficit. Expanding federal entitlement programs will NOT lower the deficit. In the short-run, additional tax revenue and cuts to other programs may decrease the deficit in the very short run, but adding or expanding big government programs never lowers the deficit.

Reforming medical malpractice. I have documented that the medical malpractice system does not work well (see here and here). However, malpractice costs are a small share of the overall health care dollars. If physicians prescribe too many tests and treatments because they wish to avoid being sued, than tort reform could decrease costs more drastically. However, this issue is more of a partisan one where Republicans can pander to their physician supporters and Democrats can pander to their attorney supporters.

End Waste and Abuse. This is a laudable goal, but determining what is waste and abuse is difficult. If you get an MRI for an injury, you may not need the MRI, but it will provide the doctor with some helpful information. This is certainly not fraud, but it may be waste. Having Medicare administrators who are far from the hospital floor determine what is wasteful is not as easy as political rhetoric makes it sound. Further, although there is much waste in the Medicare system, there is much waste when doctors are paid by private insurers as well. Every President promises to reduce Medicare fraud and waste, but few succeed.

“We actually create more diabetes through the food stamp program and the school lunch program.” - Senator Coburn. Do poor people buy more unhealthy food? Yes. Is it because of these programs? No. The poor have less money and fast food is cheap. Fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive. Increasing redistribution would allow the poor to eat healthier, but if Senator Coburn wants to mandate that poor people eat healthy, that is stupid. People on food stamps aren’t all of a sudden start shopping at Whole Foods. The food police are not the solution to health reform.

Here’s where the GOOD IDEAS were:

Incremental Reform doesn’t work. Senator Wyden said, “The evidence says incremental reform not only does less, it costs more.”

The most sensible comments came from Senator Harkin. In order to reduce health insurance premiums and Medicare expenses, we need cost control (i.e., rationing). We need to limit the medical care we make available to ourselves. Every person who wants and MRI or back surgery shouldn’t get one. These will be tough decisions, but they must be made, otherwise health insurance premiums will gobble up more and more of our wages.

Of course, no senator could support rationing care, but that is what Senator Harkin is essence supporting. Here is a quotation:

“Well, quite frankly, if we want insurance reforms you can only do that if everybody is in the pool. You can only get everybody in the pool if you make it affordable for middle class families and others. You can only make it affordable for middle class families and others if you have cost controls.”

The full transcript of the summit can be found in three parts (1, 2, 3). NPR also has some good analysis here.

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Health IT & Productivity

2010-02-25T01:47:00.002-06:00

Since I'm not sure when the 'powers that be' will cut me off from this site again...If you'd like to continue to read my posts, follow Health IT and Productivity:

http://healthblog.hutsoncentral.net

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Microsoft Unveils New Government Cloud Offerings at Eighth Annual Public Sector CIO Summit

2010-02-25T01:32:00.001-06:00

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 24, 2010 — Today, at the eighth annual Microsoft U.S. Public Sector CIO Summit, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a number of new enhancements and certifications for the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) that continue to raise the bar in cloud security and privacy. In a keynote speech addressing more than 300 public sector CIOs, Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft Online, launched an industry first — a new dedicated government cloud offering based on the BPOS. For education, Microsoft also announced it is extending identity federation services to Microsoft Live@edu to help schools improve collaboration and security, as well as simplify identity management and support interoperability among disparate software applications.

At Microsoft’s Public Sector CIO Summit in Redmond, Ron Markezich and Curt Kolcun introduce a new version of a dedicated government cloud offering as part of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite to help meet the highest security and privacy needs of U.S. government agencies and contractors.
The new Business Productivity Online Suite Federal is optimized to meet the security, privacy and compliance needs of U.S. federal government agencies. In addition, Markezich announced future capabilities and certifications that will continue to raise the bar in cloud security and privacy, including two-factor authentication, enhanced encryption and the expected attainment of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification, an important requirement for government information technology, in the next six months.
“Microsoft is the first and only cloud provider to offer this level of protection and security for governments,” said Markezich. “We were able to achieve this industry first thanks to our experience providing dedicated cloud services for the past five years.”
Markezich also announced several new customers including the City of Newark and Florida State College at Jacksonville, one of the 10 largest U.S. universities.
“In the City of Newark, we are focused on ensuring that our IT modernization and cost-saving programs exceed the mayor’s overall objectives of renewing government,” said Michael Greene, CIO of the city of Newark, N.J. “That’s why we closely examined Microsoft’s approach, which blends cloud-based services and on-premises software. It just made sense. We ultimately went with Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite — it’s the catalyst that will allow our team to focus on upgrading to Windows 7 and Office 2010. This model provides us best-of-breed collaborative technologies along with the ability to comply with federal and state regulations. We’ll save money, receive guaranteed uptime, and now have the benefit of working with a trusted party to manage it with us.”
Microsoft Online Services for Government

Microsoft Online Services are available for government customers of all sizes. These versions, and the security and privacy enhancements being announced today, include the following:
•
Business Productivity Online Suite meets a wide variety of industry standards and certifications, including International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type I and Type II, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Title 21 CFR Part 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2, and Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) compliance. Today, more than 500 state and local governments use Microsoft Online Services in the United States, including 48 of 50 states. These range from the largest entities with tens of thousands of seats to the smallest of municipalities.
•
Business Productivity Online Suite Federal is launching today for U.S. federal government agencies, related government contractors and others that require the highest levels of security features and protocols. The new offering includes all the certifications and security features of the Business Productivity Online Suite and more. The service is housed on separate, dedicated infrastructure in secured facilities. Physical access to those systems is limited by biometric access controls to a small number of individuals who, in compliance with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), must be citizens of the United States who have undergone rigorous background checks, including fingerprinting.
“Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite will now offer unmatched capabilities for our government customers and their unique needs,” said Curt Kolcun, vice president of Microsoft U.S. Public Sector. “The enhancements we’re introducing today and over the next six months raise the bar on security and privacy. The reason that governments in 48 of the 50 U.S. states have chosen from our Microsoft Online Services for offerings is in large part because our offerings are built from the ground up with enterprise-grade security and privacy in mind.”
Microsoft Cloud Services for Government
Microsoft offers a spectrum of cloud computing solutions — from infrastructure to applications for organizations and individuals. Microsoft cloud services for government are interoperable and elastic solutions that enable rapid delivery of easy-to-use solutions in response to changing business needs while leveraging existing IT investments and familiar applications.
At this week’s CIO Summit, several government entities’ cloud solutions based on Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud services platform that provides a development, service hosting and service management environment, will be featured. To aid government transparency, the City of Miami created a public-facing 3-1-1 application using Azure to monitor and analyze non-emergency requests, such as pothole repair or missed trash pickup in their area. Another unique application of Azure, an example provided by the City of Chicago, will also be discussed. Last summer, organizers of the “Taste of Chicago,” one of the largest outdoor food and music festivals in the world, used Azure to provide interactive, online maps that its residents and visitors used to plan visits to the event. Visitors to the event could search by day, stage, event, and vendor and then print out a tailored map to use as a guide at the festival.
Developing Identity Federation Services for Live@edu With the University of Washington
Microsoft’s cloud services deliver a unique value for schools and universities by providing solutions that foster simple, “anywhere, anytime” collaboration. In the past six months more than 10,000 schools have signed up for Microsoft Live@edu, Microsoft’s hosted e-mail, communications and collaboration solution for students. Florida State College at Jacksonville and the University of South Carolina are recent wins and join the thousands of other institutions in more than 100 countries already providing Live@edu to tens of millions of students worldwide.
“The University of Washington believes federation and interoperability are key elements to effective, seamless collaboration in complex environments,” said Terry Gray, associate vice president of Technology Strategy at the University of Washington. “We have a long-standing relationship with Microsoft, and we are excited to work together on the development of a wide range of technologies that will have an impact on how institutions collaborate worldwide.”
As part of this relationship, the University of Washington will help provide service configuration feedback, implementation documentation, migration guidance and service testing on two identity federation options. First, customers with an existing investment in Active Directory will be able to extend that platform to the cloud with Active Directory Federated Services (ADFSv2) and enable access to Live@edu services. Second, customers with investments in alternative identity platforms, such as OpenLDAP, will be able to take advantage of full SAML/Shibboleth federation support. The University of Washington will also be one of the first institutions in the world to roll out a federated identity solution with Microsoft on Live@edu.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/feb10/02-24CIOSummitPR.mspx

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SmartDraw: One Stop Mapping Tool

2010-02-23T11:26:00.001-06:00

Microsoft Visio and Mindjet’s Mindmap have been my programs of choice for some time. However, sitting in my operations management class, I was compelled to find a better tool for creating Decision Trees. A brief google search produced “SmartDraw”….and I am impressed. Not only does this program make decision tree creation easy, but it assists in creating fishbones, gantt charts, schematics, floors plans, mind maps, org charts…

Larger View

Tablet PC + OneNote = Right Sized EMR??

2010-02-12T19:17:00.001-06:00

While the media will be focused today on Apple’s Tablet announcement, I’d like to remind HealthBlog readers that there’s nothing new about Tablet devices. I have been evangelizing the use of Tablet PCs in health for nearly a decade. And over the last several years, particularly with the release of Windows Vista and now Windows 7, the Tablet PC value proposition for healthcare providers just gets better and better.

First of all, the devices themselves are better. And, healthcare providers have more choices than ever before (I have four Tablet PCs on my desk right now). There are excellent Tablets available from most major manufacturers including ones made expressly for clinicians such as the devices offered by Motion Computing, Panasonic, Tablet Kiosk and other vendors.

Of course, it’s not really so much about the device as it is what you can do with it. First and foremost, these are full-function computing and productivity solutions (unlike that shiny new Apple). Tablet PCs more closely mimic the familiar patient chart. They can be used, digital pen in hand, without feeling intrusive in the physician-patient encounter. They accommodate multi-modal data input including keyboard (when docked), digital inking, point and click, voice and even touch including multi-touch with Windows 7. The inherent speech engine in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is so good, it is even possible to do excellent speech recognition dictation if you are willing to put in a little effort up front. When connected wirelessly to a corporate network or the Internet, Tablet PCs provide instant access to the information you need, when and where you need it. They can also run all of the other applications you might want to use in your office or home.

All of this functionality hasn’t been lost on clinicians. Just yesterday I was contacted by
Dr. Alan Rosenbach
. Dr. Rosenbach runs a very successful solo dermatology practice in the Los Angeles area. He called me because he wanted to share his enthusiasm for his Tablet PC running
Microsoft Office OneNote
. He said for the last three years, he has been using OneNote as the official EMR for his office. He does all of his chart notes and tracks all of his patients with OneNote. He uses a Tablet PC from
Fujitsu. He makes extensive use of digital inking for both data entry and illustrations on clinical findings. He also embeds photos in his patients’ “charts” and attaches transcriptions and other documents to each patient’s record. Most remarkably, he says, OneNote has never gone “down” for even a second. And of course, he loves the low, low price.

What Dr. Rosenbach didn’t know until I told him, was that there is actually a company that has for many years been selling an EMR solution based on Microsoft Office OneNote for the Tablet PC. That company is the Ablet Factory. I received an update from company founder, Fritz Switzer, in this morning’s mail. I had asked him to tell me what medical specialties where particularly drawn to his company’s solution. He replied:

“With regard to the mix of specialties we see using our OneNote EMR products, a large number of psychiatrists and podiatrists lead the specialty roster. I have referred to this fact as “we provide a head to toe solution”. Chiropractors and pain management specialists are also recurring practice types. We have seen a common thread with this usage mix. The practices have a large number of “graphically oriented” forms/templates. The digital inking of a Tablet with drawing capabilities of OneNote provide a platform where a conventional EMR falls short”.

The Ablet Factory also offers a medical vocabulary plug-in for their EMR solution called
WordMgr 2010. It takes care of spell check, digital inking recognition and improved speech recognition for more than 100,000 medical terms and abbreviations.

If there is a downside here, it is that this EMR solution isn’t “certified” by ONCHIT. It also may not meet “meaningful use” criteria. So, if you are looking for a government handout to pay for your EMR, you are likely out of luck. On the other hand, thousands of docs in solo or small group practices have found an easy pathway to digitizing patient records that is simply “good enough”, at least for now. And this solution will only set you back about $700 for software. Add another $250 if you want the medical vocabulary plug-in. At those prices, who needs a bailout from the government anyway?

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SharePoint in Healthcare

2010-02-12T00:35:00.000-06:00

For those who may be doubting that SharePoint has any place in healthcare (or even referring to it as “ScarePoint”), here is a list of healthcare organizations using SharePoint to power both their public website and intranet:

Both Public and Private Sites

Intranets

Partners Healthcare
Mayo Health System
VA Desert Pacific
VA Saint Louis
University of Illinios – Chicago
UMHS – Family and Community Medicine

Something tells me that if Cleveland Clinic, Partners, Mayo, SSM, and the VA are using SharePoint, then it must have some legs. What is holding others back? How can barriers be addressed?

Oh, one more things….SharePoint is HIPAA compliant. What? Yea! You’re move, Healthcare.

Healthcare Spending

2010-02-12T00:05:00.001-06:00

Why is public spending overtaking private? Maybe a 39% increase in premiums would explain it. Here’s some more detail on that and other stories of interest this week.

Will government spending on health care overtake private spending in the U.S.?
Government Stimulus: China vs. U.S. (in pictures)
Odds of Obamacare becoming law.
How economic theory is undermining efforts to solve environmental problems?
California health insurance premiums rise by 39%.

Source

Hands on social media workshop in Berkeley

2010-02-12T00:03:00.001-06:00

By Matthew Holt

Speranza Avram from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Center for Health Leadership writes to say that they’re hosting a two-day conference on April 15-16 called 21st Century Tools for Health Leaders: Using New Media and Health Communication Technologies. New media tools including social media, blogs, digital storytelling, video, virtual communities, Twitter, mobile phones and more, are being effectively used to facilitate the management of health organizations, support health education and disease management, inform health research and promote health advocacy. We invite health leaders, practitioners, educators and students to join us. Early bird registration ends March 12! Click here for more information about the conference and to register on-line. Or watch the video.

Source

Outlook 2010 Conversation

2009-12-23T15:53:00.000-06:00

Here’s a good video I found that explains on the new conversations feature in Outlook 2010 helps keep related emails group in your inbox. This is very similar to how Gmail operates. I know that Conversations are a feature within Outlook 2007, but Microsoft has enhanced the experience so it is actually useful now :)

Internet Calendars in Outlook

2009-12-08T16:42:00.001-06:00

To go along with my iPhone Calendar post, here is a quick how-to for adding the same .ics calendar to your outlook. This is of course assuming you already have your Outlook set up.

Step 1: Navigate to Control Panel >> Mail or Mail (32-bit) >> E-mail Accounts >> Internet Calendars
N.B. if you’re using Vista/7, you may need to change your control panel view to see the “mail” icon

Step 2: Press “New”, paste your the URL to the .ics version of the calendar, and click “Add”

Step 3: Give your Calendar a useful name and press “ok”

Step 4: Open Outlook, navigate to the calendar function, and select your new calendar

Internet Calendar on iPhone

2009-12-08T16:28:00.001-06:00

I just figured out how to do this and I wanted to share it. This definitely works with Google Calendar, but theoretically can work just as easily with any .ics calendar hosted on the internet.

Okay, so you have your calendar on your phone, but you want to know what someone else is doing or stay in touch with some organization you’re a part of. Well. you can have access to both on the same calendar function on the iPhone.

Step 1: Get the .ics file for your desired calendar
In Google Calendar, tell you friend/association to go to Settings >> Calendars >> [Name of Calendar] >> Calendar Address: ICAL

Step 2: Copy the resulting URL ending in .ics and email it to your iPhone

Step 3: Find email and copy the URL

Step 4: Enter Settings on the iPhone and click on “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”

Step 5: Select “Add Account”

Step 6: Select “Other”

Step 7: Select “Add Subscribed Calendar”

Step 8: Paste desired URL and press “Next”

Step 9: Add a name and Press “Save”

Step 10: Press the HomeButton and Enter the iPhone Calendar. Click on the “Calendars” button in the upper left hand corner and you’ll see your new subscribed calendar.

Apparently, if you don’t have a MacOSX running iCal, you can’t customize the colors of the calendar, but if anyone finds a work around for this, please let me know.

iPhone Tips

2009-11-20T10:40:00.001-06:00

Found these across the internet and thought I’d share a few:

Silence an Incoming Call – Four options for dealing with calls you’d rather not take (when you can’t or don’t want to hit decline):

Press the power button once to silence the ringer; the phone still rings on the caller's end and then goes to voicemail.
Press the volume button once to silence the ringer; the phone still rings on the caller's end and then goes to voicemail.
Press the power button twice to send the call directly to voicemail.(Didn’t know about this one)
Flip the switch to put all calls on silent, then go into Setting and turn off “vibrate”
If you have a jailbroken phone, you can install “SBSetting” and use a vibrate toggle for even faster movement between completely silent and just vibrate.

Set the Camera as Your Instant-On App -- If you frequently grab the iPhone to take photos, set the Camera app to launch when you double-press the Home button. You must still use the Slide to Unlock slider to wake the phone, but then you can double-press the Home button to go straight to the Camera.

Open the Settings application, go to General > Home and tap Camera in the list of options. If you listen to music often, set the iPod Controls switch to Off; otherwise, a double-press of the Home button brings up playback controls while music is playing.

The Autofocusing on your 3GS Camera -- The iPhone doesn’t capture a photo until you release the shutter button. Instead of tapping the button to take a photo, press and hold the button as you frame your shot. On the iPhone 3GS, you can still tap the screen to set a focus area with the button held down. When you’re ready to take the picture, release the button. This technique minimizes camera movement because you don’t have to both press and release the button with your finger.

Scrub Playback in the iPod or Music app -- When you're listening to a song, podcast, or audiobook, tap the progress slider at the top of the screen to move to another section of the track. However, the combination of a relatively small screen, the size of most people's fingers, and sometimes lengthy media make this a coarse way of scrolling. What if you just want to back up a few seconds in an hour-long podcast?

Tap the playhead on the slider and then drag your finger down to scrub the playback at various speeds; the rate appears above the slider, such as "Quarter Speed Scrubbing." The farther down the screen you slide your finger, the more fine-grained control you have over moving the playhead.

Use the Clock App to Set a Sleep Timer -- If you enjoy going to sleep to music or an audiobook, a combination of two apps lets you do it with the iPhone.

Open the Clock app and tap the Timer button.
Set the duration of the timer.
Tap the When Timer Ends button and instead of selecting an alarm sound, tap Sleep iPod.
Open the iPod app and play your audio.

Great for making sure you are trying to be productive….I don’t know if this is the best tip, but I hadn’t heard of it before :)

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

2009-11-18T16:14:00.001-06:00

For those of you looking for a better experience with your office applications (but aren’t afraid of a few potential bugs), here is a link to the new Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Suite.

They have nice video that overviews some of the new features. My personal favorites are the changes to Outlook and OneNote PLUS the Office Web Apps. Things are still in progress, but everything is stable enough that I’ve moved over to using the beta (but I still suggest you keep your previous version installed in case you hit a snag).

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta (use IE for best results)

Update to Website

2009-11-11T13:45:00.001-06:00

Hi HMIGSAers,

I wanted to let everyone know that we’ll soon launch an updated website for HMIGSA. Stay posted on it’s progress by RSSing to this blog more visiting:

http://hmi.missouri.edu/hmigsa2/

THANKS!

Jared

Advice from Jon Hammond

2009-04-07T00:06:00.001-05:00

I have spoken to several people about my experiences interviewing for fellowship positions this year, and during the interviewing process I made several pages of notes that I wanted to share to hopefully help the next group of student in the interviewing process. I thought some of this information might be useful for those interviewing for internships as this time as well. There are a lot of things that I could have done better, and I learned a lot about interviewing during the process, and so I wanted to pass some of that information on. Others may have had similar or even different experiences, so by no means are all the questions or answers going to be obtained from my experiences, but I hope they may help someone in the future.

Before I began my application process, I focused on 15 fellowships’ that I wanted to apply to. I figured if I applied to 15 places, that I would get phone interviews at half of those, and then hopefully have on site interviews at 3-4 places. I was able to phone interview at 7-8 different places, but I was only extended one on site invitation; fortunately I had a good on-site visit which ultimately resulted in an offer. After several places did not offer me an on-site interview I was able to f/u by either phone or email and ask some additional questions about my interview and some of the things they may have been looking for, and things I could have done better. I was given some very good and candid feedback, and everyone was very glad to help me with my questions. Some of the feedback that I received via email included the following:

“The bottom line is that we had a very competitive group of applicants and the interview team had to rate all candidates based on overall performance around areas like work experience, confidence/demeanor when communicating, portrayed level of commitment to the area for the longer-term, fellowship vs. job inclination and interest in/knowledge about (Organization here). Quite a few candidates ranked very closely together so our prioritization was driven by how each of you stacked against each other.”

Another said: “If there was one thing I would recommend to you in your future interviews it would be to show greater enthusiasm for what you are talking about. In the fellowship selection process we are not necessarily looking for the candidate with the most experience. Instead we are looking for people who offer great potential and a passion for the work. I have no doubt that you have both of these characteristics. Unfortunately, you failed to convey your passion over the phone.”

Another provided this feedback: “All told, I think you gave a strong interview, especially when we engaged in an active dialog. So, even though I will highlight some potential areas for improvement, these are generally minor. On the monologs, your answers were still good, but not quite as strong. I think that you used the word concise in one of your previous emails, and I think that's a fair word to use. You may want to trim the tangential details down just a bit, and focus on your actions/behavior. A couple direct sentences describing the situation that you're in is often sufficient, but if you're spending much more than about 30 seconds on the situation and haven't started talking about what you did/thought/approached/etc., you're probably going too in depth there.

In describing what you did/your actions, you should have a general understanding of what you want to convey to me. To say it another way, why does the story that you're telling me show that you're a strong candidate? Your response to the question of 'tell me about a time that you had to incorporate the input from many different stakeholders' may be a good illustration of this. Your example was good one - you worked with many different departments to create and develop a product. But, I don't know if you showed initiative involving others. Or showed leadership incorporating and resolving conflicting expectations. Or showed communication skills convincing a single party of a necessary outcome. Or showed project management skills juggling a dozen different obligations. Or show problem solving skills walking through a single complex issue that arose. So, you answered the question - which is great - but you kind of missed an opportunity to show how great you are :)

My hunch is that you didn't get a chance to prepare as well as you'd have liked (which is understandable - I know how hectic your schedule is). I say this because your most concise (and probably strongest) response was to my most obvious question 'tell me about a time that you had to show leadership.' However, questions that were still standard but less slightly common didn't elicit quite as concise of a response. For an interview like this, you should probably have a general idea of what example (around 3 minutes or so in length) you will use to a couple dozen different questions (leadership, communication, presentation, conflict resolution, ethics, teamwork, project management, managing multiple obligations, organization, etc.). Like I said, all of these are minor, and me highlighting them here is really me being nit-picky.

The first thing that I realized is that this is a very competitive process, and getting discouraged doesn’t help. You are competing with MHA or MBA grads from other programs all over the country, and there are a lot of good qualified people interviewing. I also believe that it helps to be a little lucky. Sometimes you get a person on the phone that you can more easily connect with, and sometimes you get someone that seems like they are just going through the motions. I would definitely recommend some mock telephone, and/or mock in person interviews, as this is the best way to get feedback about how you could improve your interviewing skills over the phone. If you sound enthusiastic and professional on the phone, then you will perform well on the telephone interviews.

I also listed about 18 different questions that I was asked during my interview process. Many of these are pretty common questions, and there are certainly many others that could be asked, but knowing immediately how you would answer this list of questions will help start a foundation for good phone and face-to-face interviewing.

Tell us about yourself.
What attracted you to the position at (organization here)?
What three things would you think keep a hospital CEO up at night?
Do you see yourself more in an operations or a corporate role and why?
Describe a time when you were faced with making an ethical decision, and what was the outcome.
Describe a time when you were disappointed, and what did you do.
Describe a time when you met an obstacle and how did you overcome it.
What about this particular fellowship (job/internship) was attractive to you?
Describe an obstacle that you had to overcome.
Why do you want to pursue a fellowship over going straight into a job?
What do you think the weaknesses of this particular fellowship might be? Strengths?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of managers you have had in the past, and how would you describe your management style?
What are your three achievements you are most proud of?
What are your specific expectations of the fellowship (job) position?
What are your greatest strengths? Weaknesses?
Describe a time when you had prioritize your time. What was the situation and how did you do it?
Describe a time when you had to resolve a conflict between co-workers.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

HIMSS 2009 Conference Day I

2009-04-06T00:36:00.001-05:00

Hello Readers!

Today was the first day of the HIMSS 2009 Conference (although they did have things yesterday, but I wasn’t here so it doesn’t count…right?) Before things got started, however, I have a few experiences to share from Saturday.

Dr. Kochendorfer and I kicked off our Saturday morning by driving to Milwaukee (from Chicago) and meeting with the Health Informatics folks at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. There we introduced from of the work we’ve accomplished at MU and then shared out thoughts about the stimulus package, our NIH Grant, and potential collaborative with UWM. We were very encouraged by the meeting and I am happy to share more with all of you’d like. Just comment on this post.

We then ate at a local Korean BBQ. The UWM folks were quite impressed with my courage to eat there since I have never had Korean food before, but were also quick to comment on how foolish it might be :)

From Milwaukee, we drove straight to downtown Chicago for a meeting with Bernard Ewigman (Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago). Dr. Kochendorfer, Dr. Belden, and I spoke with Dr. Ewigman about evaluation approaches to our NIH grant proposal. He also agreed to write a strong letter of recommendation and assist with the grant proposal as much as possible. EVENTS OF THE HIMSS

We attended on education session today because it seemed the most interesting. It was titled “Value-Driven Health Care: Leveraging Data to Improve Efficiency, Productivity, Quality”. The presentation was given by David Katz MD, JD. You may remember him from some classroom readings. He outlined how EMR data could improve efficiency, producitivity and quality. EMR data would help to identify outliers, empower management and physicians to address these outliers, control them. Once controlled, the organizations could implement measures to improve the group as a whole. Dr. Kochendorfer and I had a few reservations about his methods, solutions, and conclusions, but I will leave that for another time if I get comments showing interest.

After the education session, I set up a meeting with Mark Anderson (CEO of AC Group). Dr. Belden was interested in discussing out HIMSS Usability White Paper. We got that and MORE. It was evident that Mark was very passionate about his chosen professions and loved the chance to speak with me and two docs about his ideas, expertise, and experiences. Ask always, leave comments and ask questions.

“Pre-Habit” Work Part II

2009-04-01T10:56:00.001-05:00

The sequential nature of the seven habits: The maturity continuum.

Low Maturity: Dependence

Dependence basically means that you need others to get what you want. It is the attitude of “you”. “You take are of me”…”You come through for me or you don’t come through for me”…”I blame you for the results”. It is very “you” oriented. Dependence means that you are not free from external influence.

Middle Maturity: Independence

Independence means you are pretty much free from external influence. That is, the control and support of others. You can get what you want from your own efforts. Independence is the attitude of “I”. “I can do it”…”I am responsible”…”I’m self-reliant”…”I can choose”

High Maturity: Interdependence

If people were interdependent they would think in terms of “we” because it is the basic approach of needing other people to accomplish with you what you desire. Examples, a marriage, family, or an executive team. “I want what you want and what we want together”…”We can cooperate” “We can combine our ability, skills, and best efforts to achieve what we want”

The important caveat for the maturity continuum is that until you and I are independent, we cannot be interdependent. We cannot work together unless we have learned to work for ourselves.

If you take some quiet reflection, where do you find yourself on the maturity continuum? Can you think of times when you or others acted ‘dependently’? How did it affect effectiveness with people? What do you think it will take to shift your paradigm to a higher level of maturity?

Are you already working interdependently? What experiences can you share?

Thanks

Gateway HIMSS Conference

2009-03-25T08:54:00.002-05:00

Hello HMIGSAers!

I was in invited to the local HIMSS meeting. Mark Anderson, CEO of AC Group, gave a presentation on the impact of the stimulus package on healthcare IT. The central theme was that EHR adoption needs financial incentive.

Click here to see the presentation.

-- Post From My iPhone

My Digital Health

2009-03-21T20:46:00.001-05:00

Using an established scientific technology platform developed by Entelos for the life sciences industry, MyDigitalHealth will use your health and lifestyle information to create a personalized computer simulation of you. This personal health simulation can then be used to look at your future health outcomes and risks and how those might change based on different actions you could take. MyDigitalHealth puts the power of computer simulation and "what if" analysis into your hands, letting you take control of your health.
Link
http://www.mydigitalhealth.com/about.htm

A New Addition to the HMI Family

2009-03-15T13:02:00.001-05:00

HELLO HMIGSAers,

I am not sure if you knew but I am sure that by now you noticed that Zeyana, our first year HI student, has been pregnant. Yesterday she gave birth to a baby boy. Zeyana's husband has come from Tanzania to be with her during this time.

I was wondering if anyone would like to take charge in putting some cash together... maybe to buy her some baby gifts? In America, it is customary to have a baby shower but this is usually done before the baby is born. I think that she would really feel honored to feel the expression of kindness from her classmates.

She is still in Columbia Regional Hospital today but she will be going home (University Village Apartments) tomorrow.
Have a great weekend and CONGRATULATIONS, ZEYANA!

“Pre-Habit” Work Part I

2009-03-11T14:27:00.001-05:00

Over the next few posts, I would like to introduce the idea of the seven habits and some of the underlying principles necessary to achieve them. I’ll start with some excerpts from Stephen Covey’s book.

The seven habits is not a quick fix program

It is the process of personal and interpersonal development requiring your best efforts and patience over an extended period of time. It is meant to increase your capacity to achieve your personal and professional goals and develop better working relationships associates and all of your loved ones.

A habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is the theoretical component: What to do and why to do it? Skill is the practical side: How to do it? Desire is the motivation side: The want to do it.

The 7 Habits are common-sense, but not always common practice.

During the beginning of the industrial revolution, there was a shift from character development to personality techniques. In other words, a shift to appearing to be rather than actually being. Because of the shift from the industrial age to the information age, this trend has accelerated.

This week, tell us what efforts you’ve put forward to practice shifting back to character development and away from personality techniques. What have you been instead of seemed to be?

Becoming a better executive

2009-03-11T09:05:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,

I spoke with Amy, Dustin, and Kyle today about an idea that I’ve been
milling around for a while now. The idea started with a simple question:

What have I done today to become a better executive? This week? This semester?

The answer may be difficult for anyone to put their finger on. However, I think it is a question perceived as important. How often do we stop and think about what we are doing to become better executives? How often do we think about what we *could* be doing? I think this is one of those things that is at least in the back of everyone’s mind. I’d like to bring it forward.

After brainstorming some ideas, I think the four of us agree that the HMIGSA Blog would be a good tool to get the conversation started on this topic.

I’d like to start with Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. He has some great strategies that can be implemented in both a personal and professional capacity.

My thought is this: Make blog posts starting with “pre-habits” and then the 7 habits. We’d post one habit per month. HMIGSAers can then spend the week reflecting on the habit and comment with their personal thoughts or experiences. Pretty simple, but far from easy. Eventually, as you read each others’ comments, you pick out a few gems that you think you want to try in your journey to become a better executive. You can then share those experiences with the group and we grow even more.

I think this idea solidified for me during the VA Friday Forum. After
hearing about the level of autonomy and responsibility afforded to those students privileged enough to work for the VA, I started to think I was missing out. I wanted to know more about what they were doing and how they were doing it. I wanted to know what struggles they faced and how they managed them.

Each of these two facets (7 habits and Shared Experiences) could have an immediate impact on how we think about ourselves, our degrees, our careers, and our lives.

Andrew

EMR Strategy

2009-02-15T19:52:00.001-06:00

I was sent this 119 page pre-publication report on EMR strategies. Below are some elements I found to be important:

Computer science as a discipline does not subsume health/biomedical informatics, although computer scientists can and do make major contributions to that field. Health/biomedical informatics is more than medical computer science, drawing also on the decision, cognitive, and information sciences as well as engineering, organizational theory, and sociology with a health and biomedical emphasis that is largely lacking in the world of computer science research.
Specialists in health/biomedical informatics can serve a bridging function between the computer science community and the world of biomedicine with which computer science researchers are largely unfamiliar
In the future, health care providers will need to rely increasingly on information technology (IT) to acquire, manage, analyze, and disseminate health care information and knowledge.
Any systematic effort to change the medical and health information management paradigm from one based on paper to one based on IT must address two basic challenges:

using the best technology available today to build and deploy systems in the short term and
identifying the gaps between the best of today’s technology and what is ultimately needed to improve health care.

Principles for Evolutionary Change

Focus on improvements in care —technology is secondary.
Seek incremental gain from incremental effort.
Record available data so that today’s biomedical knowledge can be used to interpret the data to drive care, process improvement, and research.
Design for human and organizational factors so that social and institutional processes will not pose barriers to appropriately taking advantage of technology.
Support the cognitive functions of all caregivers, including health professionals, patients, and their families.

Principles for Radical Change

Architect information and workflow systems to accommodate disruptive change.
Archive data for subsequent re-interpretation, that is, in anticipation of future advances in biomedical knowledge that may change today’s interpretation of data and advances in computer science that may provide new ways of extracting meaningful and useful knowledge from existing data stores.
Seek and develop technologies that identify and eliminate ineffective work processes.
Seek and develop technologies that clarify the context of data.

This analysis leads to six important recommendations for the federal
government:

Incentivize clinical performance gains rather than acquisition of IT per se.
Encourage initiatives to empower iterative process improvement and small scale optimization.
Encourage development of standards and measures of health care IT performance related to cognitive support for health professionals and patients, adaptability to support iterative process improvement, and effective use to improve quality.
Encourage interdisciplinary research in three critical areas: (a) organizational systems-level research into the design of health care systems processes and workflow; (b) computable knowledge structures and models for medicine needed to make sense of available patient data including preferences, health behaviors, and so on; and (c) human-computer interaction in a clinical context.
Encourage (or at least do not impede) efforts by health care institutions and communities to aggregate data about health care people, processes, and outcomes from all sources subject to appropriate protection of privacy and confidentiality.
Support additional education and training efforts at the intersection of health care, computer science, and health/biomedical informatics. Current programs of the National Library of Medicine and other institutes of the National Institutes of Health are exemplars of such support.

The senior management in health care institutions and health care payers have often taken the lead in the deployment of IT for health care. They should:

Organize incentives, roles, workflow, processes, and supporting infrastructure
to encourage, support, and respond to opportunities for clinical performance
gains.
Balance the institution’s IT portfolio among automation, connectivity, decision
support, and data-mining capabilities.
Develop the necessary data infrastructure for health care improvement by
aggregating data regarding people, processes, and outcomes from all sources.
Insist that vendors supply IT that permits the separation of data from
applications and facilitates data transfers to and from other non-vendor
applications in sharable and generally useful formats.
Seek IT solutions that yield incremental gains from incremental efforts.

Let me know what you think of this report!

Thanks!
Andrew

Computational Technology for Effective Health
Care: Immediate Steps and Strategic Directions
Willam W. Stead and Herbert S. Lin, editors;
Committee on Engaging the Computer Science Research
Community in Health Care Informatics;
National Research Council

This free PDF was downloaded from:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12572.html

Administrative Internship Tips

2009-01-16T22:14:00.004-06:00

I’ve been approached by a few people with questions regarding summer internships, so I thought I would blog about some tips that first years might hopefully find helpful in their search for the right internship.

1. Deadlines. Most internship application periods are open in January with deadlines due in mid to late February. So this is prime time to be asking questions, sending in resumes and application forms. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your mentors if you have any questions about the process.

2. Finding an internship. There is not just ONE way to find an internship and this is usually the hardest part about the whole internship process. One of the roadblocks I encountered was the fact that some, if not, most internships aren’t even advertised. Some internships are offered through alums, networking, and a little bit of luck. If there is a particular place that interest you, find out if we have alum who are working there and ask around. Also, since some internships aren’t advertised, if they offer a fellowship, you can ask their main contact person whether they offer an internship as well. You can also check out this website from MGMA, which lists opportunities by state: http://www.mgma.com/pd/default.aspx?id=694. Go to “Student Benefits” and click on “ MGMA and ACMPE Internship-Residency Directory.” Be sure to look for “paid” internships and the length of them (12 weeks). In addition, attending the ACHE Congress is also a great way to locate your future preceptor. An intern I met during my internship found his through Congress and interviewed with his preceptor during the four day event.

3. Don’t get discouraged. Candy and Dr. DeGraaff will ensure that you will be placed somewhere for the summer. Don’t fret if you haven’t gotten one by March or if you didn’t get your first choice. Everything always works itself out in the end and usually for the better. Most of us didn’t know where we were going until late April. A lot of organizations will not make their final decisions until then.

4. Don’t limit yourself. This can be said for the type of organization and geography. Many of us know about the top academic medical centers who are usually recognized through U.S. News and World Report but if medical centers aren’t your interest, don’t hesitate to reach out to consulting firms, pharmaceutical companies and health associations. Many of them offer internships that will provide you with great exposure to management and leadership. In addition, this is one of the few times that you’ll be able to check out a completely new city for a short period of time, so don’t be afraid to absorb yourself in new experiences.

I hope that these tips will give you better insight in finding a great internship.

Best Wishes,
Anna

First HMI-MedZou Meeting!!!

2009-01-05T14:11:00.002-06:00

Hello HMIGSAers!

I hope you all had a good break and you're looking forward to a few more weeks of rest, relaxation and wellness. We had our first meeting of 2009 for MedZou today! A lot was discussed, but an important topic was the integration of HMI students. I asked for the new directors to think of how they could best utilize the competencies of the HMI department. I hope we'll have a better idea by next week.

I would personally like to call any student interested to help Chris and I write an IT grant proposal. I think it was be a great experience for all involved and it would really help serve MedZou.

Below is an overview of what we discussed during the meeting.

Minutes for 1/5/2009

We will hold clinic on Thursday 1/8

(1) We had two pediatric pts last clinic. They should have SCHIPs, but for some reason they did not. The solution was for the pts to talk with Angie.
(2) Documentation Issues
- Labs & Scripts
- No Calling in Scripts!
- Issues with forgetting to write scripts (we still need a plan)
(3) F/U for pts to ensure pts follow med instructions
- Working with Dr. Howestine in Block 3 to better educate M1 students about health literacy
(4) Information Management
- Mike Lynch came and told us the clinic’s documentation was adequate!! He will possibly help us leverage EMR integration
(5) Directorship of Clinic
- We decided that 2 new directors and 1 old director would help with clinic operations for the next month
(6) Council of Chairs
- We are inviting Dr. Churchill to the clinic for a tour (Kayla and Vincent)
(7) Scheduling Clinical Students
- Jessica is working to start a Google Calendar for Med students to sign up
(8) IT Grant
- Andrew and Chris are going to get together to discuss writing a grant for $25,000 to use for a website competition
(9) Data Management
- Ryan suggested we have a single person handle collection of data for the clinic. Kayla suggested Brett S.
(10) Labs expansion
- Training people is the biggest issue with expanding labs. The protocol is written.
(11) Nursing Oversight
- Ryan has arranged for two nursing students to help us at the clinic and his faculty advisor will serve as the nursing liason.
(12) Defining Roles
- Serve people mentioned the need for creating clearly defined roles for incoming nursing students. I suggest we do not stop there. I think it would be a good idea to record as many roles as possible within the clinic to reduce confusion during turnovers and transitions. I really like the idea Emily advocating of a true team mentality when it comes to running the clinic. Perhaps a strategic plan coupled with a solid vision, mission and goals will be the best bet.
(13) Areas where IT can help?!?!?
- Organization of Documents (HIPAA Training, Lab Training, Labs, Scripts, Pt. Records)
- Scheduling (Calendars, Invites, Appt. Requests)
- Document Collaboration (Grant Writing)
- Data Collection (RYAN’s Bag, Recording Nursing Hrs)
- Knowledge Management (Access to Articles, Chronic Disease Algorithms)

It seems like information technologies are the new frontier in health care (actually it started in the ‘80s, but who’s counting). President-Elect Obama has made it very clear that one of his first initiatives when entering office is the widespread implementation of EMRs in healthcare and internet access for healthcare providers across the nation. I think it is fantastic that all of you are ready and willing to accept the use of IT in MedZou. It can only serve to benefit yourself and your community in the future.

Topic of the Week

2008-12-05T09:34:00.002-06:00

Tips for internship and fellowship interviews:
What to expect, How to prepare, Finding the Best Fit

Administrative Internship Opportunity

2008-11-28T19:05:00.003-06:00

First Years,

There is a summer administrative internship opportunity at the University of Florida's College of Medicine in the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. It fulfills the 12 week summer requirement and they are looking for MHA students.

Here is a description taken from their website:

The internship’s primary focus is physician group operations and management in an academic health system environment. The position includes project management in physician revenue cycle principles, strategic marketing and planning, research and decision support.

Located in North Central Florida, Gainesville is the educational, business and cultural center for the region and provides easy access to an array of metropolitan offerings such as Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa.

The application process is competitive, and applicants should submit a letter of consideration and their resume by March of each fiscal year. For more information, please contact:

Mr. Leslie R. Jebson MHA, CMPE, CHE
Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
UF&Shands Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute
University of Florida College of Medicine
PO Box 112727
Gainesville, FL 32611

Workin' with Alumni

2008-11-17T11:41:00.002-06:00

We had a promising suggestion from one of our alumni regarding integration with our website. Dexter D'Costa thought a "Topic of the Week" would be a great way for students to ask questions and for alumni to share their expertise.

Email your questions to hmigsa@gmail.com and we'll post a "Topic of the Week" and alumni can post a comment of their personal experience for students to read and respond.

Thanks Dexter!

MGC HIMSS Scholarship 2008 Application- $1000 Cash Award!!!

2008-11-13T10:52:00.001-06:00

The Midwest Gateway Chapter of HIMSS (St. Louis) annually awards a
$1000 cash scholarship. This year the application process has been
simplified and made easy to encourage more student applications.

The scholarship is awarded to HIMSS student members who have achieved
academic excellence and have the potential to be future leaders in the
healthcare information and management systems industry.

Scholarship Eligibility: Students pursuing an undergraduate or
master’s or advanced degree (PhD) in health informatics (HI),
health information technology (HIT), and/or health information
management (HIM), in the Missouri and Illinois region. (Proof of current
HIMSS membership required).

The scholarship is awarded to the student deemed most deserving as determined by the MGC HIMSS Scholarship Review Board.

Applications are now accepted for the 2008 MGC HIMSS Scholarship.

Completed applications must be postmarked no later than December 26, 2008.
Winners will be notified no later than March 31, 2009.

Midwest Gateway Scholarship Application Checklist:
- Complete application
- Resume or Curriculum Vitae
- Personal statement
- Letter of recommendation in sealed envelope
- Proof of current HIMSS membership

Visit our "Student's Corner" on the MGC HIMSS Chapter website at
www.himssmidwest.org at
http://www.himssmidwest.org/education/education.html

For more information, contact:
Dexter D'Costa, MBBS, MHA, CPHIMS
MGC HIMSS Student/Scholarship Liaison
Email: dr_dexterdcosta@yahoo.com
Phone: 573-529-1791

From the Sidelines

2008-10-27T12:15:00.000-05:00

Some memories rock . Tonight will be one such nite. I started following American football last season for the first time when Mizzou took centrestage. So , I am pretty new with the terms in football and the rules. All I have played is lawn tennis, cricket, softball , badminton, table tennis.

Tonight I went with the hope of getting to know some more people in the HMI department. When I reached , everyone was practicing . To my wonder I found an interesting and prettyl cheerleader on the sidelines. Through conversation I learnt that her name is Lana. The practiced went on. To the sideline spectator, it looked like Andrew was in total control of the proceedings . Kyle is the cool cucumber . One minute he stands there pondering over his moves. The next minute he is running like a cheetah(or tiger).

Well during practice we had some really good catches and moves, mostly by Michelle and the new girls on the block. Suddenly everyone started moving towards the field and we knew that it was time for the game to start.

Have to mention here that it was getting too cold now. I had one leather jacket on and then another one. Things started pretty smoothly. Kyle was off like a Cheetah every time he had the ball in his hand. Ackil made the defense of the day, he plucked the ball out of thin air. Excellent save!!! Kyle kept running goals and Andrew kept planning from the sidelines and Jessica made 2 wonderful throws that I think really setup the game for a win, I thought. All the girls, especially Nicole and Michelle were too good on the defense and Kyle was unstoppable on the offense.
We won 18-3 against Mad Dawgz (they looked like a good team).

New Funding Opportunity for HMIGSA

2008-10-23T16:53:00.004-05:00

Our buddy Nishant has done it again!!!

Nishant has turned us on to Google Adsense to help HMIGSA make some money from our website.

My concern with the prospect centered around the eye sores Google Ads would put on an already aesthetically mediocre web experience. After doing some searching on my own, however, I found an interesting way to use javascript and Google Adsense. Basically, when you first navigate to our website, a box fades into the center of your browser asking you to click on some links. Once you click on one of them, then the box won't appear again unless you close and reopen your browser.

The other side to this venture is getting permission from the University. I took the first step by signing us up for Google Adsense, but they have an approval period of 1-2 business days. Hopefully by the time we hear back from Google, Kyle will have gained approval from the "power that be" at MU.

Please make any comments you may have about this new revenue opportunity. And yes, YOU CAN POST A COMMENT WITHOUT SIGNING IN!!!!

Below are some links about how they pay and how we are supposed to make money.

THANKS NISHANT!

How much will I earn through Google Adsense?

When do we get paid?

Behavioral Interviewing

2008-10-21T13:29:00.004-05:00

Nishant Jain has kindly provided a Guide to Behavioral Interviewing to help 1st and 2nd year students in our quest for internships, fellowships, and careers.

Topics in this guide include:
What is Behavior Based Interviewing?
What Do Employers Evaluate in A Behavioral Interview?
How Are Behavioral Questions Different from Other Types of Interviewing Questions?
Examples of Behavioral-Based Models
How Can I Prepare for A Behavioral Interview?

Click here if you'd like to see the whole Microsoft Word 2007 document.

HMIGSA Featured in ACHE Regent's Fall Newsletter!

2008-10-16T16:16:00.003-05:00

I am happy and proud to announce that HMIGSA is featured in the ACHE Missouri Regent's Fall newsletter. Our MS Bike event from September are highlighted under the "Updates from the Higher Education Network" section of the online newsletter. Thank you to ALL who participated and I hope we will continue to make great strides for our organization through philanthropy, ACHE, and all other areas of HMIGSA!

To access the newsletter, please click on the link below. You will need to enter your username and password.

Regent's Newsletter

Regards,

Anna

CHC '08: With a Vengeance

2008-10-07T13:46:00.009-05:00

It just keeps getting better.

After a long night of refining PowerPoint slides, we were reinvigorated this morning with the Keynote Address from Cerner CEO and Co-Founder, Neal Patterson. Demand for rapid change in the current healthcare market has pushed Cerner to adopt a new strategy to include Client Committees and open source projects.

What does that mean?

Client Committees are a collaboration between a participating healthcare institution and a Cerner physician strategist. Together these two forces will pool resources to developed new functionalities based on the various Cerner platforms.

Open source means that Cerner has decided to make the source code for the programs freely available to their clients. Giving clients the freedom to innovate and customize Cerner products to their needs.

Demonstrating (but not demonstrating) the possibilities!!

Neal Patterson made it clear that the products they would discuss coming out of the new business strategy would not be demonstrated during the keynote. However, he didn't actually define what they were doing on stage...and for lack of a better word, it looked like a demonstration to me.

Patterson was looking for a WOW-factor from the work presented during the keynote. Dr. Mike LeFerve (UMHC Chief Medical Informatics Officer) and Brian Lancaster (Cerner Director of Physician Stategy) showcased the work that University of Missouri has worked hard to development. The main focus during their showcase was the patient & condition summary screens. Links below allow you to download presentation related to what was presented.

The other notable demonstration the new launch of iAware. The new tool brings the meaning of patient-centered care to a whole new playing field. There are two dynamic screens in the patient's bedroom. The mainscreen is a 50" LCD monitor with various "Cerner Gadgets" displaying the patient's current status. The second display is 15" display on a pivot designed for patient use. The really interesting aspect of these two monitor is that they adjust to the environment around them.

During a mock encounter between a nurse and a patient, a warning pop-up displayed on the 15" screen. It informed the patient that the beeping they were hearing was normal and it was a simply notification that they IV medication was almost empty and should be attended to. The nurse is then notified and enters with the replacement IV bag. On the patient 15" screen a photo, name, and credentials of the nurse walking into the patient's room are displayed. The patient can then use the 15" touch display to look up a minutae of facts regarding the medication being administered and other facts regarding their care. The large display behind the patient (designed for nurse and clinician use), then adjust display the new medication and monitor the progress/level of the medication administration. WOW!!!!

After the exciting keynote, presentations were given throughout the day explain the "behind the scenes" work that took place to create, development, and maintain the various demonstrations.

If you'd like to see the three PowerPoint presentation, follow the links below.

To have a general overview of the Medical Home project presented by Dr. Mike LeFevre, Dr. Jeff Belden, Dr. Hal Williamson, and Marilee Bomar, APRN, CLICK HERE

To have an in depth discussion regarding the development and creation of Discern Analytics with Patient & Condition Summary Screens developed by Dr. Karl Kochendorfer, Jared Coberly, and Andrew Hutson, CLICK HERE

To review the possibilities for creating rules and summary screens using Cerner Discern Desktop presented by Jared Coberly and Scott Barger, CLICK HERE

CHC '08 PART DEUX

2008-10-06T21:36:00.005-05:00

Hey HMIGSAers,

Busy day at CHC. We had two presentations reporting on our successes at University of Missouri Healthcare regarding PQRI reporting and HotSpot dictation within PowerChart.

PQRI Summary:
According to an article from JAMIA, written by Paul Tang et. al, reporting care based on claims/administrative data alone produces a statistically significant difference when compared to clinical data from an electronic health record. More specifically, out of 5385 patients, only 75% of patients who had diabetes were identified using claims data compared to 94% using clinical data from an EHR. The conclusion is that quality measure reporting will be better performed using data elements from a populated EHR.

For more details, Click Here to download the PowerPoint slides presented by Karl Kochendorfer, M.D. and Rob Odom.

HotSpot Dictation:
Completing chart notes using a structured electronic health record, like PowerChart, significantly limits a physician's diagnosis. In addition, taking the time to fill out a structured EHR after a patient encounter is more time consuming for the physician than dictating. In order to remedy these issues within EHRs, specifically Cerner PowerChart, the University of Missouri Department of Internal Medicine is piloting a program to improve electronic documentation efficiency by implementing structured documents with dictation.

For more details, Click Here to download the PowerPoint slides presented by Emily Coberly, M.D. and Bryan Rose. Click Here if you would like to read the article published in Physician Executive.

Cerner Health Conference '08

2008-10-05T22:40:00.005-05:00

Hello all!

I just wanted to give a brief update to the activities here at CHC '08 in Kansas City. The atmosphere here is chaotic. Over 7,000 healthcare professionals have joined together to share their innovations in the field of Health Informatics.

Here's a picture of the Solutions Gallery (where all the business showed their stuff).

Here is a list of the companies I was able to speak with and who I felt where doing some amazing things with technology.

Welch Allyn
Drager
Lexi Comp
Talyst
Sigma International
Microsoft
Emmi Solutions
Flo Healthcare
Bernoulli Enterprise
Niceware Healthcare
Dragon Medical Nuance
Motion Computing F5

HIMSS '09 Keynote Speakers

2008-10-02T23:58:00.003-05:00

There are four Keynote speakers for the HIMSS '09 Conference. If you'd like to read more about each individual speaker, follow the link provided.

Keynote Speakers

Dennis Quaid
Award-winning actor and director
President, The Quaid Foundation
for Patient Safety

George C. Halvorson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals

Alan Greenspan
Economist, Former Chairman, board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

Jerry M. Linenger, MD, MSSM, MPH, PhD
Captain, Medical Corps, USN (Ret.)
NASA Astronaut
Space Analyst, NBC News

International Bazaar

2008-09-17T22:03:00.000-05:00

International Bazaar

DATE: Tuesday, September 23rd

LOCATION: Lowry Mall(rainsite:Stotler Lounge)

TIME: 11am-2pm

Mizzou's International Students would like to offer a taste of their culture to Mid-Missouri. International bazaar is one of Mizzou's longest running traditions. This year marks the 33rd annual International Bazaar and the 1st MU International day. Come enjoy FREE ethnic food, beverages, and souvenirs.

How Will Alumni Stay in Touch?

2008-09-08T22:57:00.000-05:00

START BLOGGING!!!

Once HMIGSA members get familiar with the minimal technological tools we are now implementing, every past, present and future member will become part of a true network.

Hopefully, this blog is the beginning of such a transformation.

Together, we will positively impact the future of healthcare.