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Dignity exec to talk at HIMSS16 about how its helped create the specialist suite Optum360.

With more than 300 educational sessions and over 1,300 exhibiting companies, the annual HIMSS conference presents an extreme challenge even for the most physically fit attendees. It pays to know your way around the Sands Expo Center before you get off the shuttle bus in the morning. The HIMSS16 mobile app is the perfect solution for navigating the event. It provides a complete list of exhibitors with the locations of their booths, and provides a scalable version of the show floor map. You’ll find exhibitors listed with their booth numbers, a description of their services and contact information. See all of our HIMSS16 previews To help you manage your schedule while you’re at the conference, the app provides a personal agenda feature. You can quickly scroll through the schedule of educational sessions and save any that look interesting. You’ll find locations, descriptions of the sessions and bios for the speakers. The app can also help you network with other attendees. When you open the app, you’ll see an activity feed with updates posted by other attendees. Join in and participate or just scan the list to see what other people are doing now and planning to do later. To use other features, like the Agenda and Exhibitor list, tap the menu in the upper left corner. You’ll find plenty of helpful housekeeping features, including a directory of food services in the conference center, the shuttle schedule, locations of recharge cafes and even locations to get a massage. The app is free and available in Apple iOS and Andriod formats. You can download it directly from their app stores; just search for HIMSS16.  Or follow links from the HIMSS16 Conference Mobile App page. When you open the app, you need to login with your HIMSS membership email and password. If you’ve forgotten your member or conference registration account credentials, just reset them.  Twitter: @GusVenditto

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A recent study funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality suggests that patients with fully electronic health records experienced fewer adverse events such as hospital-acquired infections. In order to be considered a fully electronic EHR, "physician notes, nursing assessments, problem lists, medication lists, discharge summaries and provider orders are electronically generated," according to researchers. Using 2012 and 2013 Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System data, AHRQ examined outcomes for cardiovascular, pneumonia and surgery patients – specifically with regard to occurrence rates of 21 adverse events in four clinical domains: hospital-acquired infections, adverse drug events, general events (falls or pressure ulcers, for instance) and post-procedural events. [Also: CMS awards $110M for patient safety] "To assess the role of EHRs in preventing adverse events, the researchers measured to what extent care received by patients in the 1,351 hospitals was captured by a fully electronic EHR," said Amy Helwig, MD, deputy director of AHRQ's Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, and Edwin Lomotan, MD, medical officer and chief of clinical informatics at AHRQ's Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement, in a blog post. The findings of the study, published in the Journal of Patient Safety, show that, of more than 45,000 patients at risk for nearly 350,000 adverse events in the study sample, 13 percent were exposed to fully electronic health records. Among all patients examined in the study, the occurrence rate of adverse events was 2.3 percent, or 7,820 adverse events. Patients with EHRs, meanwhile, had 17 to 30 percent lower odds of any adverse event. Helwig and Lomotan said that health IT has shown patient safety gains, but research to prove it has often looked at just one healthcare provider at a time. "A question that remains unanswered is the impact of fully installed electronic health records systems used in multiple organizations," they wrote. "Another big question: can EHRs go beyond improving safety-related processes to actually preventing adverse events, such as potentially deadly hospital-acquired infections, from reaching patients?" The findings from "Electronic Health Record Adoption and Rates of In-hospital Adverse Events"  suggest hospitals with EHR can offer more coordinated care from admission to discharge to reduce the risk of patient harm. They note, however, that adverse event odds varied by medical condition and type of event. “For example, patients hospitalized for pneumonia and exposed to a fully electronic EHR had 35 percent lower odds of adverse drug events, 34 percent lower odds of hospital-acquired infections, and 25 percent lower odds of general events. Among patients hospitalized for cardiovascular surgery, a fully electronic EHR was associated with 31 percent lower odds of post-procedural events and 21 percent fewer general events," they wrote. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] Helwig and Lomotan caution that the AHRQ study raises a few questions. “The findings showed a significant relationship between fully electronic EHRs and adverse drug event rates for patients hospitalized with pneumonia, but not for those with cardiovascular disease or needing surgery,” they wrote. “This may be due to the fact that certain high-alert medications, such as opioids, which are often associated with adverse drug events, were not included in the MPSMS measures." Still, the authors said as more hospitals mature in their use of EHRs, those systems can play a key role in preventing adverse events. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN

Patients with access to their online health information who received timely alerts about gaps in care were more inclined to receive preventative tests and screenings compared with patients who didn't use the service, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Rates of preventive health screenings, chronic disease management tasks and vaccinations around the country remain low, according to the study. More than  20-80 percent of adults fail to obtain the health services they need. "Making sure patients receive appropriate tests and screenings is a critical part of providing high-quality healthcare, but it can be challenging and time-consuming to get patients to follow through due to a variety of reasons,” the study’s lead author Shayna L. Henry, Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation, said in a statement. The study found that 8.8 percent of patients who used an online portal were more likely to receive colorectal cancer screenings than those members who didn't, and online users were 11.9 percent more likely to complete their HbA1c testing than non-users. [Also: Patients struggle with sharing health information online] Additionally, 9.1 percent of online users were more likely to visit providers for mammogram screenings, while 6.1 percent were more likely than non-users to receive a Pap smear. However, there was no noticeable difference between online and non-registered members when it came Patient access to health data, appointment reminders improve care gaps and patient engagement to receiving vaccinations. Researchers analyzed the electronic health records of 838,638 Kaiser Permanente members in Southern California. Around 40 percent of these members use the online Patient Action Plan, or oPAP, a Web-based system launched in 2012 that provides access to personalized health information. It also sends emails to members if they're in need of preventative care based on their last appointments for preventative screenings and specific health conditions, such as smoking and diabetes. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook]  “Our study demonstrates that by creating a customized and personalized communication to patients about their care needs, healthcare providers can directly engage patients and close important gaps in care, particularly for preventive screenings for cancer,” Henry said. "Although the findings represent only a small segment of the overall KPSC membership and the effect sizes are modest," the study's authors said, "the results of the present study indicate the oPAP has considerable potential to be a model for cost- and resource-effective patient engagement in health maintenance and disease prevention." Twitter: @JessiefDavis

UPMC doctors are piloting a new program to administer gene tests to patients to determine whether they are likely to respond to medications. For example, a simple blood test can determine whether a patient with clogged arteries has a gene variant that makes them less likely to respond to blood-thinning medication. At UPMC, doctors are testing for that gene before prescribing medications to patients who receive a stent. With this pilot, UPMC is among first-mover health networks embracing genomics to improve patient care. NorthShore University Health System, for instance, earlier this year opened a pharmacogenomics clinic and is working to incorporate that data into patient records so clinicians can access what it called “systematic and discrete data points” when treating patients. [Also: Pharmacogenomics coming to EMRs] UPMC’s goal is to use clinical pharmacogenomics knowledge to individualize patient treatments – part of a broader program at UPMC that officials say could eventually include a wide variety of drugs to improve outcomes for patients. "Increasingly we are able to pinpoint gene variations and other factors that affect how patients metabolize drugs, allowing us to more precisely target the right drug for the right patient," said Philip Empey, assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, and the leader of the program, in a statement. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] The genetic and clinical information that is gathered for the PreCISE-Rx program, also feeds UPMC's data analytics program, which is expected to lead to new scientific insights into how and why drugs work for some patients but not others, and to identify new drug targets. More than 700 patients are expected to be treated through this project at UPMC Presbyterian's cath lab in the coming year. Past studies show that 30 percent of patients are unlikely to appropriately metabolize clopidogrel (the blood thinning medication), and about 10 percent experience complications because of the blood thinner's ineffectiveness. The UPMC research team will follow up with patients and collect data to evaluate their outcomes. UPMC plans to roll out the program at other hospital cath labs and expand it to include other medications. Twitter: @HealthITNews

McKesson Health Solutions and Health QX on Wednesday announced an alliance designed to help insurers quickly design and scale complex bundled payment models. The agreement also aims to ensure those programs provide timely and accurate payment to providers. Under the terms of the agreement, HealthQX and McKesson will jointly market their solutions to their respective customers, as well as coordinate consulting and service offerings, giving payers a single point of contact when creating bundled payment programs. The announcement was made at the Healthcare Financial Management Association's annual National Payment Innovation Summit, which is being held this week in Memphis, Tennessee. [Also: McKesson gears up for the next era] The agreement unites industry leaders whose combined offerings start with claims analysis, using HealthQX's ClarityQX; it extends to enterprise-class operation using McKesson's Episode Management and its other value-based reimbursement tools. This closes the gaps that can derail bundled payment programs, as payers and providers define how payments should be administered or -- later -- as payers attempt to scale operations to enterprise levels. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] The development is expected to be positive for payers and providers struggling to master the complexity of bundled payment models. Just last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services implemented the final rule for its first mandatory bundled payment program. Starting in April, acute care hospitals in targeted regions will receive bundled payments for lower extremity joint replacements or reattachments. This aligns with CMS's goal of having 30 percent of reimbursement made via alternative payments this year, and 50 percent by 2018. "Interest in bundled payment as a fast path to (value-based reimbursement) has never been greater, and payers and providers alike need help getting started and scaling up," said Carolyn Wukitch, senior vice president of McKesson Health Solutions, in a statement. Twitter: @JELagasse

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