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Tag Archives: electronic medical records

Top Four Biotech Trends of 2009

5 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on December 31, 2009

These may not all be consensus picks (and don’t miss the IVB’s year-end deal-centric fun) but I’m sticking with these four trends as the ones that have really shaped the year that was: Follow-on Biologics. Call them what you want (we like “biosimilars”, but we’re internationalist like that), there’s no denying that biosimilars were a major [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 Biosimilars, Comparative Effectiveness, electronic medical records, Personalized Effectiveness, Personalized Medicine

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Importance of Telemedicine, Implementation and Data Security

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on December 15, 2009

Since the Canadian and U.S. stimuli directed fuding towards electronic medical records (EMR), we’ve been following developments in the area as part of our Biotech Trends series here on the blog and have noted successes and failures. A few recent stories highlight risks and benefits: A recent Scientific American story (H/T @mikesgene) turned an analytical [...]

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Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Ontario’s New EMR Adoption Program

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on November 12, 2009

Ontario is providing up to $29,800 per physician over 3 years for new adopters of electronic medical records. In the few weeks since the program has been implemented, the OMA has gotten over 650 inquiries and over 150 applicants. There’s a local option and a cloud option, which runs off the eHealth Ontario servers. Interestingly, up [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 eHealth Ontario, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, Ontario, Ontario Medical Association, OntarioMD

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Pogue Mugs On CBS and Interviews Blumenthal While Australia Shows How It’s Done

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on October 26, 2009

David Pogue waded into the EMR narrative this week, with a piece on CBS News that took a look at the U.S. efforts with an interesting focus on Kaiser’s EMR efforts. Pogue follows up with a blog post containing a transcript of his full interview with David Blumenthal. Interestingly, the main negative angle in his CBS piece [...]

News Australia, David Pogue, EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, Health IT

Cumberland Ends Bio IPO Drought But Prices Under Range. Next Up, Emdeon.

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on August 11, 2009

Cumberland Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CPIX) raised $85 million in its IPO today, pricing at $17 per share. This was less than the $19-21 per share range, but since it’s the first bio IPO since November 2007 we won’t complain. The company is planning to use the proceeds to buy late-stage or approved therapies for acute care [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News biopharma, biotech, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, electronic medical records, Emdeon, EMR, initial public offering, IPO, pharma

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Meeting on Health IT

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on August 6, 2009

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is meeting now. The meeting is broadcast live online at http://tr.im/vK3G. They just finished introductions. Eric Schimidt, Eric Lander and Harold Varmus are there, among other luminaries. 100% in-person attendance. “21 members include 4 winners of MacArthur ‘genius’ awards, 3 Nobel laureates, 2 university presidents, as [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, PCAST, personal health records, PHR, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Salesforce.com Clouds the EMR Field

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on August 5, 2009

The WSJ Health Blog notes today that Salesforce.com’s investment in Practice Fusion, though not a large financial investment, follows an appealing trend in the EMR space. Both Salesforce.com and Practice Fusion are cloud computing plays (aka hosted services / ASP) where software and data live on company servers rather than on local PCs in doctors’ offices. This will be [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 ASP, cloud computing, EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, hosted services, personal health records, PHR, Practice Fusion, SaaS, Salesforce.com

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Ottawa Telehealth Success, Privacy Fiasco in Alberta, Beta Test in Montreal

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on July 10, 2009

New data yesterday from a home telehealth monitoring program developed by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute claims a whopping 54% cut in hospital readmission for heart failure patients. Readmission rates dropped to under 15% for patients on the program, which includes daily vitals monitoring and immediate contact if anything seems amiss. UOHI says they realize [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Alberta Health Service, EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, McGill University Health Centre, MedforYou, Medical.MD, MUHC, personal health records, PHR, privacy breach, University of Ottawa (UOHI)

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: GE’s First Healthymagination Project Aims to Speed EMR Adoption, May Also Help GE Sell Stuff

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on June 15, 2009

GE has put $100 million — the first installment of a promised $6 billion commitment to its “healthymagination” goals — into funding zero-interest loans to physicians’ offices, hospitals, clinics, etc. to support the purchase of (GE’s own) electronic medical records (EMR) systems. The program is called “Stimulus Simplicity” and it has a couple of very [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, GE Finance, healthymagination, Stimulus Simplicity

Health IT in Ontario: Electronic Medical Records, eHealth Procurement Need Help; Online Resources Make Progress

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on June 11, 2009

The Ontario Health Quality Council’s (OHQC) 2009 Annual Report On Ontario’s Health System was released earlier this week, and it notes that Ontario lags when it comes to EMR adoption: 25 percent of family-practice doctors in Ontario had electronic medical records, compared to 50 percent in Alberta, 98 percent in the Netherlands and 89 percent in [...]

Jeremy Grushcow CMA, eHealth Ontario, electronic medical records, EMR, mydoctor.ca, myhospitalcare.ca, OHA, OHQC report, OMA, Ontario Hospital Association, Ontario Medical Association

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Your eHealth Future from CNET News

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 19, 2009

CNET News has been taking a look at electronic medical records over the last few days in a feature called “Your eHealth Future” (hat tip to the WSJ Health Blog). They are covering health care reform from the IT side, presented in six articles, all accessible through this link: 1. Dragging health records into the Digital Age; Microsoft, [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 eHealth, electronic health records, electronic medical records

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Telus/Microsoft and GE’s Global Healthcare Initiative Come to Canada

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 7, 2009

Two Canadian developments on the electronic medical records front: Telus-Microsoft: Telus and Microsoft are developing a patient-centred system that would allow individuals to access and manage their medical records and would interface directly with health care providers’ systems to gather and share the data. Canada Health Infoway wants to make sure it’s secure. The CBC story [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Canada, Canada Health Infoway, eHealth, electronic health records, electronic medical records, GE Canada, Google Health, healthymagination, IBM, Infoway, MaRS, Microsoft, Telus

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Health IT and EMR Have an Advocate in New OMA President Suzanne Strasberg

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on May 4, 2009

Dr. Suzanne Strasberg took over as the incoming president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Saturday night at their annual gala. The OMA press release headlines Dr. Strasberg’s call for access to family physicians, but health IT also figures prominently. Dr. Strasberg indicated that she would focus on a number of initiatives, including “expansion of the [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Canada, EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, Health IT, Ontario, Ontario Medical Association, Strasberg

FTC Proposed Rule for Medical Record Privacy for Non-HIPAA Entities

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 21, 2009

One of the concerns about the privacy of electronic medical records is that many of the major providers — notably Google and Microsoft — are not “covered entities” under HIPAA and are therefore not subject to its privacy provisions. The funding for Electronic Health Records in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 comes with [...]

Jeremy Grushcow EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, EMR, FTC, HHS, proposed rule, regulations

Wednesday Brain Dump: Two of Everything! Edition

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 15, 2009

Two Camels! Dolly the cloned sheep, meet Injaz the cloned camel. Two R&D Heads! The combined Pfizer-Wyeth will have Mikael Dolsten heading up the newly created BioTherapeutics Research Group and Martin Mackay heading up the small molecule PharmaTherapeutics Research Group. (Two CapitalLetters!) The In Vivo Blog has a podcast interviewing both. Two VA Initiatives! In addition to the electronic [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Wednesday Brain Dump Burrill, cloned camel, data protection, Department of Vetrans Affairs, EHR, electronic health records, electronic medical records, Elk Run, EMR, FOB, Follow-On Biologics, Health Canada, J&J, Mayo Clinic, Molecular Templates, Personalized Medicine, Pfizer, Pine Island, Schering-Plough, SEB, Simponi, Subsequent Entry Biologics, Texas Life Sciences Collaboration Center, VA, Wyeth

Trends Update — Electronic Medical Records: Military and Vetrans System Should Speed Adoption, Standards

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 11, 2009

In a speech Thursday, President Obama announced that the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments will set up a system that will ultimately provide “unified lifetime electronic health record” for members of the armed services. Any large-scale government implementation like this is bound to help set standards and encourage adoption by other providers. With luck it will [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 Defense Department, electronic medical records, Obama, Vetrans Affairs

Trends in 2009 Update: Hospital Hits Electronic Medical Record Milestone

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on April 7, 2009

As the momentum behind electronic medical records builds, New York-Presbyterian Hospital – with the help of the Microsoft Health Solutions Group – has kicked it up a notch with MyNYP.org, an electronic personal health record. According to a report in the New York Times on Sunday: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital … is the first large institution to move beyond the pilot [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 electronic medical records, Google Health, Microsoft Health Solutions, MyNYP.org, New York Presbyterian Hospital

Ontario Budget 2009: Initial Reactions are “Encouraging”

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on March 27, 2009

Generally positive reviews of Ontario’s 2009 budget are coming in from the innovation community: TBI gives a shout-out to the Emerging Technologies Fund: The Biotechnology Initiative (TBI) would like to credit Premier Dalton McGunity and Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson for their quick response to the looming economic uncertainty by the creation of the Emerging Technologies [...]

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Electronic Medical Records Update: Walmart Solution, Google Problem

3 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on March 14, 2009

When we identified electronic medical records as a trend in 2009, it was before $19 billion of the stimulus was allocated to implementing EMR. With that money on the table, the movement toward wide scale implementation has only accelerated: This week, Walmart announced that it will be offering an EMR solution through Sam’s Club, using Dell [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 eClinicalWorks, electronic medical records, Google, Google Docs, Google Health, privacy breach, Stimulus, Walmart

Allocating Spending to Support R&D: UK, U.S. and Canadian Approaches

9 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 28, 2009

The U.S., Canada and the UK have all acknowledged the central importance of R&D even in these recessionary times. However, the three national governments have decided to focus their spending on different steps of the R&D equation: Education: UK Takes the Long View British PM Gordon Brown, in a speech this week, identified three priorities: research, education and training, [...]

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TBI Breakfast: BIO and Biotech in the State of Georgia

1 Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 19, 2009

I just came back from a very enjoyable TBI Breakfast with talks by Carol Henderson, the Director of the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Graeme McRae, the Chairman & CEO of Bioniche Life Sciences, Inc. which has an Animal Health division facility in Athens, Georgia. Graeme’s talk, as usual, was very interesting and not very print-able. Carol’s talk [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News BIO 2009, Bioniche, electronic medical records, GDEcD, Georgia, Life Sciences Coalition, TBI Breakfast

Personalized Medicine: The “SNP Doctor”

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 17, 2009

BIO SmartBrief picked up a story today about a device being tested called the mohel Snip Doctor, a hand-held diagnostic device that: looks for known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) – single letter changes in the genetic code – that can affect an individual’s response to medical treatment. While most current approaches to personalized medicine are mechanistic (e.g., [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News DNA Electronics, electronic medical records, genome sequencing, Imperial College London, Personalized Medicine, Pfizer, Snip Doctor, SNP

More Info on Canadian Electronic Medical Records Implementation

2 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 12, 2009

In our Trends in 2009 series, we noted that Electronic Medical Records are poised to make significant inroads this year in Canada and the U.S. Yesterday, Leona Aglukkaq, Canada’s Minister of Health, confirmed that: Funding of $500 million announced today is in addition to $400 million in support provided to Canada Health Infoway in Budget [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Canada Budget 2009, Certification, Consumer Health Platform, electronic medical records, Health Canada, Infoway

U.S. Stimulus Compromise (Updated)

14 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 11, 2009

Initial reporting (NYT, WSJ) on the bill coming out of the House-Senate conference committee this evening indicates that the $789 billion package will include most of the Bio-related provisions: It keeps the additional $6.5 billion for the NIH that was in the Senate version; The $1.1 billion for Comparative Effectiveness is also still in; and [...]

Bailout, Dani Peters, Jeremy Grushcow, News ARPA-E, Comparative Effectiveness, DOE, electronic medical records, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, NSF, Pelosi, Steve Chu, Stimulus, USDA

Electronic Medical Records and Public Health

Leave a Comment Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 5, 2009

Here’s one electronic records initiative that looks good as cost-savings and doesn’t seem too controversial from a privacy perspective: …as the province moves toward electronic health records, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, said she wants children’s immunization charts to be included. …By law children in Ontario must be vaccinated against measles, mumps, [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, News, Trends in 2009 Dr. Barbara Yaffe, electronic medical records, immunization

Trends in 2009: Electronic Medical Records

7 Comments Posted by Jeremy Grushcow on February 4, 2009

EMR got a boost in Canada’s budget, and is getting traction in the U.S. as well. In Canada, EMR initiatives are likely to be implemented by the Provincial health plans directly, with back-end services from a variety of vendors. In the U.S., the ultimate structure is less clear. Google has tried to get ahead of [...]

Jeremy Grushcow, Trends in 2009 Canada Budget 2009, electronic medical records, Google Health, HIPAA, privacy

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