In 2014, the ACR launched the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE), a national electronic health record (EHR)-enabled registry. The goal: To help participating rheumatologists and practices leverage the new wave of big data created by the use of EHR, advance research and improve overall quality of care. A new analysis examines the RISE structure and the initial patient data collected by the registry…
Choose the Right EHR the 1st Time
With so many electronic health record (EHR) systems on the market, it can be difficult to decide which one to choose. You may want to ask your peers for recommendations, visit practices that are using a system you’re contemplating and consider advice in trade journals. Jeffrey G. Lawson, MD, physician, Piedmont Arthritis Clinic, Greenville, S.C.,…
How to Get Your EHR Up … & Keep It Running
Implementing a new electronic health record (EHR) system is no easy task—and one that a physician shouldn’t tackle alone. From the onset, you need to get buy-in from your practice’s colleagues. To do this, designate a physician champion to take charge of the effort. “This is a challenging position, because it’s difficult to convince people…
RISE Offers Hope & Enhances Patient Care
For more than a decade, Kaleb Michaud, PhD, has volunteered for the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). As an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, he spent much of that time serving on a task force dedicated to the development of RISE (the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness). As an enhanced version…
Patient Can’t Always Access Complete Medical Records, Doctors Say
(Reuters Health)—Technology makes it possible for patients to access medical records online, but a thicket of legal issues may still keep people from always seeing everything in their chart, some doctors say. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) gives U.S. patients the right to access their medical records and control who else has…
Online Portals Can Function as Important Physician–Patient Communication Tools
Patient portals are online programs and applications that help patients and physicians interact. Although there are many different implementations, most will have some sort of messaging component to help with communication between the doctor and the patient, as well as access to at least some elements of the chart, such as test results. “Patients should…
Cyber Risks: A New Area of Liability for Medical Practices
Computerization of healthcare in general, and medical records in particular, has opened additional areas of liability for medical practices that many may not be addressing. A data breach of patient records can have major financial and business impacts on the practice when they occur. Data Intrusions Increasing The number of data intrusions hit a record…
Patients OK with Secure Web Portals for Test Results
(Reuters Health)—Of all the ways for patients to receive their medical test results, one option—password-protected websites—appears to be preferred much of the time, a study suggests. U.S. researchers surveyed about 400 adults and found they were generally comfortable with web portals regardless of how sensitive the test results might be. This was among the most…
KeMo Disease: A Newly Recognized Debilitating Musculoskeletal Disease
Dr. Simon Helfgott’s essay, “Barking at the Moon,” in the July 2015 issue of The Rheumatologist, about the unintended consequences of EHRs (electronic health records) prompted me to share my experience regarding the newly recognized KeMo disease. Keyboarding and mouse-clicking (KeMo) activity now consumes about 50% of the medical clinician’s day, as the modern EHRs…
Electronic Health Records Software Often Written Without Doctors’ Input
(Reuters Health)—The reason why many doctors find electronic health records (EHR) difficult to use might be that the software wasn’t properly tested, researchers suggests. Current guidelines and industry standards suggest that new EHR software should be tested by at least 15 end users with a clinical background to make sure they are usable and safe…
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