The current issue of the American Health Lawyers Association’s Connections magazine features an article I co-authored with fellow AHLA health lawyer, Jody Joiner , on the impact of social media use in health care. The article, Risky Business: Treating Tweeting the Symptoms of Social Media (PDF version) , is featured in the March 2010 issue of AHLA Connections (Vol.14, No

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AHLA Connections: Legal Implications of Health Care Social Media

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology of HHS (the Department of Health and Human Services) has issued a proposed rule “RIN 0991-AB59 Proposed Establishment of Certification Programs for Health Information Technology.” The proposed rule is available in PDF at this link and more information is available from ONC itself at this link . I have written a response to the proposed rule that will be sent as a public comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal ( http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html ).

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On ONC’s "Proposed Establishment of Certification Programs for Health Information Technology"

The VA and DoD have been working for a number of years on interfacing the VistA EHR system and the military’s EHR, AHLTA (why anyone would want to interface to AHLTA in its present state is of concern to me, but…) [ Note: this is not to denigrate the military, and I am very thankful to all who serve and defend our country and freedoms. HIT problems seem unfortunately universal - ed. ] The interface attempt, likely done by the usual actors in the traditional “business IT” manner has resulted in the predictable: Glitch prompts VA to shut e-health data exchange with Defense NextGov.com By Bob Brewin 03/04/2010 The Veterans Affairs Department closed off access to the Defense Department’s huge electronic health record system on Monday because it found errors in some patients’ medical data clinicians downloaded from the Defense network, according to a departmental patient safety alert, which Nextgov obtained.

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VA / DoD EHR Interface Debacle: Will It Take the Luminosity Of A Dozen Supernovas To Shed Light On The Obvious About Healthcare IT?

At ” Bungled Brachytherapy, Computer Interfaces and Other Mysteries At The Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital ” at this link I reported on serious problems involving brachytherapy treatment of prostate cancer at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia. One of the issues involved computer problems, in the form of failure to network a key computer involved in treatment evaluation. Now at the other end of the state, Pittsburgh, more prostate-related computer problems have occurred: Prostate cancer test interpretation flawed By Walter F

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Computers and Prostate Problems in Pennsylvania, East and West

Martin Memorial too mum: Hospital staff violated privacy of shark victim , an article from the Palm Beach Post. The article highlights the impact ubiquitous mobile devices with cameras are having on our society and the potential liability risks associated with the use/misuse of these devices by health care employees. The article indicates that various hospital employees took photos of a shark bite victim when he arrived in the emergency room.

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Lesson for Hospitals and Health Care Providers: Photos of Shark Bite Victim

In many posts on this blog, Roy Poses has lamented the fact that there are no personal repercussions for healthcare executives embroiled in malfeasance and scandals. He recently wrote : So, here we go again … To repeat, seemingly ad infinitum, these are just the latest in a now long parade of settlements and guilty pleas and criminal convictions, sometimes involving charges like bribery , fraud , or kickbacks , that serve as reminders of poor behavior by myriad health care organizations.

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FDA Criminal Division to Increase Prosecutions

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT held a meeting of the HIT Policy Committee , Adoption/Certification Workgroup on February 25, 2010. The topic was “HIT safety.” The agenda, presenters and presentations are available at this link . At this meeting FDA testimony was given by Jeffrey Shuren, Director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

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FDA on Health IT Adverse Consequences: 44 Reported Injuries And 6 Deaths In Two Years, Probably Just ‘Tip of Iceberg’

Govt introduced eight new services under tax net. However for some services, like rail transport service and health care service, the additional liability due to bringing them under tax net will be off set by availing CENVAT credit by the service receipient. For Example, in the case of health care service, the service receipient is Insurance Companies and what ever service tax paid by the hospital will be availed as CENVAT credit by Insurance Company.

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CENVAT credit will take care of additional service tax coverage

Today Jody Joiner and I presented at the AHLA Hospitals and Health Systems Institute on the use of social media by hospitals and health care providers. We provided an overview of social media use by hospitals and health care providers, discussed the pros/cons of using social media in the health care environment, presented case studies of the risks and legal implications and did a short role play involving tweets in the context of a medical negligence case.

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AHLA Hospital’s Friend or Foe: The Age of Social Media and Health 2.0

[Note: the hyperlinks in this posting are very informative, so do check them - ed.] A workgroup of the Healthcare IT Policy Committee, a federal advisory body, will hear testimony on the safety of health information technology during a public hearing tomorrow (Feb. 25, 2010) in Washington.

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Health IT Caused Death & Injury, Extent Unknown, But Regulation Bad Since it Would Slow Government’s Campaign To Spur Widespread Adoption

A review of several first principles might serve as a useful addendum to the posting ” Health IT Caused Death & Injury, Extent Unknown, But Regulation Bad .” First principle: A computer can free professionals from tedious, repetitive work which does not require judgment. It can provide facts and figures with lightning speed, giving domain experts more time to exercise their judgment thoughtfully [ source ]

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Forgotten First Principles in Healthcare IT

And the march of settlements continues…. As reported by the Tulsa (Oklahoma) World , A company that provides hospital pharmacy management services in Tulsa has agreed to pay $1 million in civil penalties for failing to account for large amounts of missing prescription drugs , the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tulsa announced Friday.

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Cardinal Health Settles, Novartis Settles

At ” Networked, Interoperable, Secure National Medical Records a Castle in the Sky? ” I wrote that the holy grail of electronic medical record efforts – the creation of a networked, interoperable, secure national medical records system – may be far more difficult than anyone expected due to vulnerabilities in current, widespread IT networking and OS platforms. Now we hear the situation is even worse than in the articles I cited at that post: Wall Street Journal Feb

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Networked EMR’s and Healthcare Information Security: Practical When Massive IT Security Breaches Continue?

The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported how students at the University of California have been providing a satirical approach to the problems of the university’s leadership: It’s been a seriously dramatic year at the University of California, where hundreds of students seized buildings, demonstrated and shut down regents meetings last fall to protest rising tuition and the perceived privatization of the public school. It’s also been a satirically dramatic year, thanks to the UC Movement for Efficient Privatization, a fledgling group of mostly grad students in business attire that uses humor tinged with sarcasm to lampoon UC officials. Their own name is an example.

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University of California CEO – You Can Reduce My Pay if "You Throw In Air Force One"

The Associated Press just reported on the latest trend in commercially sponsored clinical research, direct investment by contract research organizations (CROs) in the development of specific drugs by particular pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. Here is the background in the article: Pharmaceutical companies previously did all their own research and testing and submitted the results to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to put a medication on the market. Since the 1990s or so, Big Pharma has farmed out more and more of that testing to companies like Quintiles Transnational Corp., which grew quickly to meet the demand

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Quintiles to More Heavily Directly Invest in the Drugs Which it Evaluates – But Not to Worry, Says an Expert?

Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius and the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, David Blumenthal, announced the HITECH funding under the ARRA for State Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) and Regional Extension Center (RECs) across the country. The White House Press Release provides a detailed list of HIEs and RECs receiving grants.

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WV HIT Funding Under HITECH: WVHIN Gets $7.8M and WV REC gets $6M

Lest we be led into believing that healthcare IT is a tried and true, safe, proven technology: Friday, February 05, 2010 iHealthBeat.org Has Your Organization Had a Patient Safety Issue Directly Resulting From an Electronic System? Thirty-two percent of health IT professionals surveyed said their health care organization has had a patient safety or health care quality issue that could be classified as being a direct result of having an electronic system , according to a recent Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society survey . Meanwhile, 10% of respondents said they have had clients report patient safety or health care quality issues that were a direct result of having an electronic system, according to the survey.

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The Yin and Yang of Electronic Health Records

The Committee on Court Administration and Case Management of the Judicial Conference of the United States has issued a memo regarding Juror Use of Electronic Communication Technologies . At its December 2009 meeting, the Judicial Conference Committee endorsed a set of suggested jury instructions that federal district judges should consider using to help deter jurors from using electronic technologies to research or communicate about cases while they serve as jurors. The recommended instructions were developed as a result of the increased use of web enabled mobile phones and devices that can be used to research information and communicated in a variety of ways, including email, social media, etc

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Model Jury Instruction: Warning Jurors on Use of Electronic Technology and Social Media

A few dozen people demonstrated at the statehouse Tuesday in opposition to Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposals to reduce state aid for those with serious mental illnesses and to cut back on eligibility for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

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Groups rally at Capitol against proposed health care cuts (The Arizona Republic)

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County Council made two major changes to the new employee health care plan before…

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Salt Lake County revises, then OKs health care plan (Deseret News)