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eHealth News and Analysis - free to your inbox The Green Report analyses the initiatives, trends and politics in e-health care in South Africa. With its finger on the pulse of developments in the industry the Report brings you timely information and analysis to assist you in your business life. You can make your thoughts and opinions heard through The Green Report by e-mailing the editor, Dr David Green (david@green.za.net) To stop receiving The Green Report e-mail report-unsubscribe@green.za.net This month's stories: Bluebird - A service that should be used, but will it? Bluebird has burst onto the scene of e-health initiatives in South Africa. A month ago, when the last Green Report went out, it was merely a pilot scheme involving 15 practices. In the three weeks since its launch it has had 235 applications for installation from doctors. Bluebird is a system for the exchange of clinical information between doctors. In essence lab reports, reports on X-rays, referrals to specialists and their replies, in fact just about any information that currently is exchanged by doctors can be more easily and better exchanged by the Bluebird system. The communications are encrypted by a public key - private key system that all happens automatically. The updating of the public key list on each computer happens seamlessly in the background when other communications with the system are taking place. The ability to trend and analyse lab results without having to shuffle through piles of paper lab results is but one advantage of a system such as this that springs to mind. The problem is that doctors the world over, and in South Africa in particular, are very slow adopters of new systems and technologies. Will doctors use Bluebird in sufficient numbers to make it a viable business? How will doctors be encouraged or cajoled into taking the leap into using this technology? The Green Report (TGR) put this question to Dr Darryl Vine of Bluebird. "We realised that this was our biggest problem and wanted to reduce friction as much as possible" said Vine. The software is free to install, usage charges are small and are limited to those sending information, system requirements are minimal and it works with any practice management application. It has no billing module or anything else that is likely to get practice management companies upset. "In addition we provide some really neat extra tools - there is a drug database, online appointment book and medical and personal address books" Vine said. The system also automates the printing of letters to the patients to send them their results, recall them for follow up tests in the future or prints a list of recall telephone numbers so that the receptionist can call patients for follow-up visits. Finally, two of the three large pathology groups have already committed to using the system so Bluebird will be useful from the moment of installation. Is all of this enough to get the system in widespread use? TGR has seen so many good ideas not take off because of lack of adoption by the medical profession that it is hard not to be touch concerned that this one may experience some problems. On the other hand technology adoption is beginning to happen within the profession on a scale not previously seen, Bluebird has given thought to the slow adoption cycle amongst doctors and no cash outlay is required to get up and running on the system. To quote Vine once again: "The synergies that have come together (a blue-chip well funded IT company with a very strong email pedigree, major commitment from two of the three large pathology groups, well thought out technology, ideas that have their origins in the medical rather than the IT world) to reduce the friction and give Doctors a superb very easy to use system, that essentially is not costing them anything is, I believe, unlikely to happen again. If the medical fraternity is going to embrace time saving technology, Bluebird offers the ideal opportunity to do so." It is a system that is long overdue in medical practices - despite this patience is required as the profession takes time to adopt the system. Have your say - click here to contact The Green Report Does the crash on the Nasdaq mean the end of the "New Economy?" What is the New Economy, if it is anything at all? It is certainly not a bunch of dot com billionaires, or spectacular IPOs or even dot coms themselves. Perhaps New Economy is too grand a term to describe the changes happening around us, perhaps we should just talk about the Internet and the way in which the Internet changes how we do things, most notably communicate. If the Internet has changed the way we communicate and through that the way that we do business, then what does the plummeting of stock prices on the Nasdaq mean for these changes? A stock price is a derivative which, at best, vaguely reflects what is happening in the business it represents, but usually represents the sentiments of investors which are based on who knows what. The Nasdaq is a derivative of derivatives. Those people and companies who focussed themselves on being one day dot com wonders through soaring stock prices without building sustainable and realistic businesses, based on the changed way in which we communicate, will be destroyed in the current adjustments of stock prices. Those that have focussed on their businesses may be hurt, but will not die. This is a fundamentally healthy thing - it will make the businesses based on Internet technologies more robust into the future. The Nasdaq crash does not herald the end of the New Economy, just that its arrival will be more evolutionary than initially expected. Have your say - click here to contact The Green Report Use technology to help patients comply with their medicines Most people on anti-hypertensive medication don't feel sick. Remembering to take medication on a daily basis under these circumstances is difficult, if not impossible. Patients who would benefit from a daily reminder can be enrolled to receive a daily SMS message to prompt them to take their medication. Fill in this form This service is free to your patients. The service is sponsored by HealthBridge who provide a real-time patient validation and claims submission system. Healthbridge allows practitioners direct access to the processing systems of the medical aids with an immediate response, resulting in faster payment (14 days from date of service to date of payment) a reduction in bad debt, and reduced administration. Have your say - click here to contact The Green Report An excellent Antibiotics resource online The Johns Hopkins division of infectious diseases has launched an exceptional resource for the prescription of antibiotics. Called the Antibiotic Guide it is by far and away the best resource of its kind seen by TGR. After registration (which is free) the site is simple and intuitive to navigate. Information on antibiotics is accessed by diagnosis, by pathogen or by antibiotic. Each entry on each antibiotic has a responsible expert who updates the information at least on a monthly basis - no waiting for months for new information to become available here. The ability to test proposed antibiotic therapy for a particular diagnosis against that suggested by the expert is available - and they don't pull any punches in criticising poor choices. The manager of the project describes this as an "in-your-face evidence-based medical guideline." The main problem for South African users is the need to dial-up to the Internet and then wait - not conducive to use right in the clinical setting. However relief is at hand - on the 2nd of May the whole system will be available for download to palmtop computers. Now doctors just need to get their palmtops! This site raises (again) the question of the necessity (or otherwise) of generating South African specific data and web services. TGR is clear on this - it is not necessary to re-invent the wheel. This site provides an excellent and accurate service, why spend money and do it again here? Very few of the medicines may be registered in one country and not the other and perhaps some required levels of evidence differ. This does not mean that the whole job needs to be redone here. Local initiatives should look at adding value worldwide, not repeating what is done elsewhere. Have your say - click here to contact The Green Report Set your computer to work for cancer research How many hours a day does your computer just sit there with its screen saver just doing its thing? It is possible for your computer to be doing useful work when you are not. United Devices in conjunction with Intel have developed a system to put your computers fallow time to use. By downloading a simple application your screen saver becomes part of a network of computers looking for molecules that may be useful as medicines in the treatment of cancer. When online your computer downloads a package of information relating to 50 or so molecules. These are tested for chemical matches with target proteins and enzymes that exist in the human body. The current target molecule is a superoxide dismutase. You do not need to be connected to the Internet at the time of the processing of the data. The screen saver works away and only sends the information once it has completed its tasks and you are next online. By using this distributed computing model many more molecules can be analysed than by using costly super computers. Apart from the fun and value of participating in an initiative such as this, the distributed computing model is an interesting one that holds potential for all sorts of problems and services. Whilst different in its applications, Napster has shown us the power of "peer-to-peer" computing and changed the way that many think about storing data and making it available over the Internet. In essence the distributed computing model of United Devices is a variation on peer-to-peer computing. Watch this space, it will prove to be exciting. Have your say - click here to contact The Green Report Longevity in Holland and legalised Euthanasia We are all aware that Holland recently became the first country in the world to decriminalise voluntary Euthanasia for human beings. TGR hopes that this headline in the latest British Medical Journal is not a direct result of this! Dutch life expectancy slips behind that of European neighbours Have your say - click here to contact The Green Report Incubated and Hosted by: See also: Hypertension and Compliance initiatives. |
