This week’s Google announcement of a secure online portal they are piloting that will allow consumers to save their personal medical records and allow Internet access to anyone they authorize, has sparked a growing privacy (or the lack of) concern.

The whole idea of the portals is to give more control of health-related information to patients and also to (hopefully) lower overall health care costs. But, while many consumers may feel their personal records placed on the portal are federally protected by HIPAA, in reality their privacy may end up compromised.

HIPAA only provides protection in three types of institutions: medical care providers such as hospitals and physicians, health insurance companies, and medical records clearing houses. If a consumer pulls their medical records and gives them to a non-HIPAA covered entity or person, they lose their HIPAA privacy protections.

Google is partnering with The Cleveland Clinic to pilot the program where up to 10,000 patients may voluntarily share their medical information such as prescriptions, conditions and allergies between the clinic and an online Google profile. Last October, Microsoft announced its HealthVault, a similar service.

Google is taking the more appropriate course of conducting a significant pilot program to test whether personal health record portals do what they are intended to do. This should iron out many of the privacy concerns. Microsoft, while enjoying first-to-market success, has released HealthVault to the early adopter market and may have to address privacy by trial and error that could leave subscribers open to privacy vulnerabilities.

Wall Street Journal, Google Blog, Reuters, SC Magazine, Associated Press, MedHeadlines, MediConnect Blog, MediConnect Global

The Supreme Court Wednesday sided with medical device manufacturers in an 8 to 1 ruling protecting medical device manufacturers “that have passed the most rigorous federal review standards from lawsuits by consumers who allege that the devices caused them harm.”

This decision could make it more difficult for product liability litigation, but it is important to remember that the decision only applies to Class III medical devices, which is based on the highest level of FDA scrutiny. The decision also refers to medical devices approved by the FDA and does not include drugs.

In January, we pointed out that a New England Journal of Medicine report concluded that drug-eluting stents were not associated with an increased risk of death, and that the FDA a month before that said they expected to issue new testing requirements for drug-coated stents. (See Drug-coated Stents Considered Safe)

Devices and drugs, such as these stents, may not be covered by this decision unless they fall within the Class III medical device category.

Washington Post

A Google news search on electronic health records brings up thousands of entries—it’s a huge topic of discussion among the health care industry and a favorite among many politicians with grandeurs of health care reform.

Very few articles point out reasons why the health care industry shouldn’t completely move to a digital medical record format other than the archaic method of hand writing records is so entrenched most health care providers won’t take the time to make the change. (Reports indicate that only 10 – 20 percent of U.S. health care providers currently use electronic medical record systems.)

Many providers indicate the change is cost prohibitive—even though most experts can show digital records will save more costs over time than the current system. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said to a reporter at The Oregonian that he saw a recent study that showed savings of $1 billion in Oregon alone if electronic health care records were in place.

Whether the entire medical record system converts to an electronic format or not, or the current handwritten system implements a more aggressive scanning system to digitize paper records, or a combination of both, digitized medical records solve a lot of today’s issues and costs.

• Sharing hardcopy records requires duplication services along with the methods needed to ensure confidentiality and privacy—digital records are easy to share once authorizations are in place.
• Reviewing and analyzing hardcopy records is cumbersome and time consuming—digital records are easier and allow for word searches and scans to speed review. They also improve accuracy of things such as prescribing prescriptions—difficult due to illegible handwriting.
• Organizing hardcopy records in multiple ways, such as by chronology and category, requires multiple copies—digital records can be stored with multiple categories easily.
• Protecting confidential hardcopy medical records from disaster, theft, or tampering by unauthorized individuals incurs storage, staff and security costs—digital records are easier to protect off site against disasters such hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Digitized medical records require very little physical storage space. Paper records require a large amount of storage space.

Overall, the shift to digital makes it easier to store, share, review, organize, and protect medical records in a much more efficient and cost effective manner. With digital records, the integrity of the original is never compromised, searching is easy, and sharing with others when necessary is fast, simple and inexpensive.

One of the greatest opportunities we have here at MediConnect Global is to interact with and learn how our customers conduct their businesses. We can better understand how our technology solutions and services can enhance, automate and streamline their needs.  Updates and enhancements developed for one customer can be benefit all our customers.

Today, most enhancements to RapidRetrieve are designed to meet the specific needs of customers—needs they’ve voiced to us to make their lives easier and more productive.

This week MediConnect announced three such new enhancements to its RapidRetrieve online medical records retrieval and digitization system. The enhancements include full chronological sorting of medical records, medical record review by physician, nurse or legal consultants, and insurance policy number validation.

Additionally, MediConnect enhanced its Partner Program by creating a new software development kit and Partner Portal. This will allow software companies, integrators and resellers to build and provide RapidRetrieve functionality directly in their case and agent management software and services—again, making it easier to quickly order and obtain digitized medical records.

It was just a little more than a month ago the Food and Drug Administration reacted to the concerns expressed by researchers that drug-coated stents could possibly cause complications including blood clots years after implementation. They did this by stating that they expected to issue new testing requirements for drug-coated stents.

Now, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that the use of drug-eluting stents was not associated with an increased risk of death and supports their use for off-label indications.

About half of stents currently placed in heart patients in the United States are used “off-label” –for purposes not officially approved by the FDA. The earlier studies suggested drug-coated stents used off-label posed a small risk and warranted further examination by the FDA.

Narrowed coronary arteries deliver blood and oxygen to the heart muscle. To enlarge the artery, doctors install a wire mesh stent. The stent can cause scar tissue that again narrows the artery. Stents coated with an anti-inflammatory drug slows scar tissue growth and the narrowing of the arteries it causes.

One of the most frustrating and time-consuming tasks legal professionals face when working on malpractice, product liability, personal injury, workers compensation, or other medical-related legal cases is collecting, organizing and analyzing their clients’ personal medical records, according to a new white paper published by MediConnect Global, Inc.

According to Strategies and Best Practices in Medical Record Retrieval, co-written by Thomas A. Schultz, a partner for Lopez, Hodes, Restaino, Milman & Skikos of Newport Beach, Calif., law firms must use patient medical records more than they ever have in the past for use in litigation.

“Initially it doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult to obtain medical records for clients,” said Schultz. “But, there are so many things to remember and sequences to go through that one little mistake can delay record retrieval significantly and delay litigation in important cases. This white paper will walk legal professionals through the most critical and strategic steps to obtaining client medical records—and ultimately saving them time and costs.”

The white paper outlines 14 strategic ways law firms can improve the medical record retrieval process making it easier to build and win profitable cases.

Strategies and Best Practices in Medical Record Retrieval is available at the MediConnect Global Web site. www.mediconnect.net

Getting medical records into your organizations can be a trying process—it takes time, costs money, and requires great effort in working with healthcare providers to release the records you need. The more you need, the more difficult it becomes.

At MediConnect Global we’re experts at medical records — that is our focus, our business and no body knows more about them then we do. The purpose of this blog is to take some of the mystery out of our process of obtaining medical records, provide strategic litigation support when using medical records, help increase new policies for insurers, and basically share our expertise and perspectives on what we see that can help us help you.

Our blog is a place where you can get on-going information, ideas and strategies on how you can better use and obtain medical records for your organizations. Posts written by our executives and staff will provide information, tips, techniques, and services that will benefit you. We’ll also cover other important topics such as:

• Strategies and best practices in medical record retrieval
• Universal authorization
• Electronic medical records
• Digitized signatures

Our desire is to create a blog that encourages dialog and discussion about medical records, which means we want to hear from you! Let us know by your comments how you’ve overcome issues in obtaining medical records, your strategies, and what successes you’ve had with medical records. We hope you find the blog useful and come back often.