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Overview | Agenda | Workshops | Exhibitors | Sponsorship Opportunities
Three initiatives that use the technology to promote effective communication -- between patient and physician and in electronic prescribing -- will be recognized through the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium Investing in Information Awards to be presented at HealthMart 2003 on October 24. The eighth annual awards ceremony will honor John Halamka, MD, CIO of CareGroup HealthCare System, for PatientSite; John P. Glaser, PhD, Vice President & CIO of Partners Healthcare System for Patient Gateway; and Stephen Burns, Vice President & General Manager of PocketScript, LLC, a Subsidiary of Zix Corporation, for an electronic prescription pilot program. The Investing in Information Awards honor organizations and individuals who have invested capital, knowledge and leadership to use traditional and state-of-the-art technologies to promote efficient and effective communication of health information. PatientSite CareGroup HealthCare System created PatientSite to provide a secure platform to allow patients to view their clinical records and communicate with their health care team. This program allows patients to ask non-urgent questions about care or symptoms, request an appointment or referral, renew a prescription, update demographic information, such as phone number or address, review test results, and view and add comments to portions of their medical records. PatientSite has evolved through continuous quality improvement to fulfill a greater role between patients and their care providers. "While there are other patient/doctor communication sites on the Internet, the market differentiator for PatientSite is the fact that patients can view online their CareGroup hospitals' and doctors' offices medical records," said Dr. Halamka. PatientSite is custom-fitted to each practice through user preferences and configuration setup. Mail can be received and forwarded to tailored groups. Providers can choose their forwarding options and may create distribution lists to disseminate education to specified patient populations. The initial pilot implementation for PatientSite was April through August 2000, and there are now more than 15,000 patients enrolled. To date, practice participation has been entirely voluntary. Caregroup helps publicize PatientSite by supplying practices enrolling in PatientSite with brochures that can be distributed to patients when they arrive in the office for appointments. In addition, the CareGroup Web page has a link to the PatientSite splash page, from which users may take a tour of the application. PatientSite has been self-promoting in that patients may register for the site, and if their CareGroup provider is not enrolled, the PatientSite support team receives the registration request and follows up with this provider. PatientSite has been acknowledged as a "Noteworthy" security initiative by the Markle Foundation's Connecting for Health program. Patient Gateway Patient Gateway, a secure portal developed by Partners Healthcare that allows patients to communicate with their physicians and staff online, is the kind of application that will become a routine service-and-care offering, according to Glaser. Patients use Patient Gateway for non-urgent matters, such as to request routine appointments, prescriptions and referral authorizations; obtain quality health and disease information; and to find directions. Patients have the ability to create their own personal profiles by entering information about insurance, contact, pharmacy and other information. "While there is much to learn, there is no doubt that care quality and service quality will increase through Patient Gateway," said Glaser. Partners' first practice using Patient Gateway went live in February, 2002, and a pilot involving 13 practices is being conducted. About 8,700 patients are using the application, and 1,000 patients are added per month. The pilot practices used a range of techniques to inform patients of the availability of interaction through Web-based technology. The physician may tell the consumer about Patient Gateway; there is product literature in waiting rooms; and some practices send mailings to their patients. "The impact on practice operations appears to be modest: The physician is not overwhelmed by patient messages," said Glaser, who expects that payers gradually will reimburse for "e-visits" that are conducted using these applications. Partners plans to pursue general availability of Patient Gateway next year. "In the meantime, we need to enhance the application, given patient and provider feedback, tune our support model for the application and do some research on impact," said Glaser. Patient Gateway has been acknowledged as a "Noteworthy" security initiative by the Markle Foundation's Connecting for Health program. PocketScript PocketScript is an e-prescribing system that enables physicians to electronically write and securely fax prescriptions generated in the physician's office to the pharmacy. PocketScript has partnered with both Tufts Health Plan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in efforts that offer comprehensive e-prescribing programs that improve patient safety and reduce medical costs. In the initial pilot with Tufts, approximately 200 Massachusetts physicians participated over a period of 12 months in 2001-2002, and about 2 million prescriptions were sent through the PocketScript system. The e-prescribing system identified possible drug interactions and supplied formulary information for all health plans to prescribers. In addition, some of the prescriber sites participating in the pilot were able to view patient drug history via a link to AdvancePCS. Subsequently, Tufts announced that the program would be expanded to 5,000 physicians. A study of the pilot program found that patient safety errors were reduced by 8.93 per physician per year; inpatient admissions increased at a slower rate; hospital days decreased for the pilot group, as did emergency department visits. Prescribers cited cases where the link to patient history through the e-prescribing system impacted patient safety. For example, a diabetic who had not picked up the previous two months' supply of insulin was identified through the program. The BCBS pilot, in conjunction with Express Scripts, Incorporated, involves 100 nurses, primary care and specialty physicians across the state. "The good news is that this project is positive for everybody," said Burns. "It saves time for prescribing physicians; it's safer for patients and saves them time because the prescription gets to the pharmacy before they do; and it's cost-effective for health plans." The PocketScript system is the first to make e-prescribing software available on a personal digital assistant over a wireless service network that allows physicians real-time access to patients' prescriptions.
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