Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law (CTeL)

If you are not aware of it (well, it wasn’t on my radar screen, which needs some cleaning, but there it is), there is an organization called the Center for Telehealth and e-Health Law (CTeL) that was created in 2006 with a grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Their focus is exactly that–regulatory, privacy and government facing issues. Their home page has a nifty news feed for telemedicine and telehealth, if you don’t.  One recent event they sponsored was their monthly ‘Washington Live! Brown Bag Telehealth Seminar’ (Wikipedia: Brown Bag Seminar), topic: Is there a role for Telehealth and Remote Monitoring?  [A bit of a headscratcher, as we have been presuming that for a while.] Nonetheless, the summary is dense reading. Telehealth was discussed as…

EMR implementation: the law of unintended consequences

This must-read ‘Gray Lady’ (New York Times) article by Pauline Chen, M.D. demonstrates, from the physician point of view, how even well prepared, eager and enthusiastic physicians, in the examining room, faced with patient and simultaneously inputting into an EMR across the room…..can resemble a ‘clown car.’ (or roller skating?)  The solution?  Memorizing and jotting notes while taking the patient’s information, then typing it all in the EMR later.  Efficient?  Good use of time?  It is a more standard workaround than anyone cares to admit. (see later comments). 

But more importantly:

 

‘…just because EMR improves information sharing and retrieval, it doesn’t necessarily follow that our communication with patients and colleagues will also be better.’

Telemedicine as Cisco Systems' seat at eHealth table

This local report from the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, near Cisco System’s Research Triangle Park campus, is a bit of a puff piece.  It opens pleasantly with one of Cisco’s 4,300 Research Triangle Park employees being examined by a Cisco Health Center physician in San Jose, CA via Cisco’s Health Presence telemedicine platform that incorporates a high-res camera, electronic stethoscope, and other remote examining devices.  But here’s the nugget justifying these surely money-losing tests in far-flung rural health systems in California and the Southwest: