on October 4, 2011 |
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Topics: Orthopedics, Service Lines, Clinical Technology, Patient Registry, Information Technology
Sean Buckley
On Sept. 15, the National Joint Registry (NJR) of England and Wales issued their annual report on joint replacement procedures performed in the UK. The registry, which now houses over 1.1 million records of joint replacement procedures, had it's highest number of single-year submissions in 2010, and continues to offer a wealth of data to providers and researchers on joint replacement surgery. This year's report continues to substantiate the role of the NJR in identifying issues with metal-on-metal hips, issues that were initially flagged by the NJR along with other national registries worldwide.
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UK National Joint Registry reports data from more than one million joint replacements
on September 6, 2011 |
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Topics: Patient Registry, Information Technology, Orthopedics, Service Lines
Sean Buckley
Earlier this summer, the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) completed its pilot phase, pulling data from over 3,600 primary and revision joint replacement procedures from eight different reporting sites. The registry, a collaborative effort of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) and other clinical organizations along with health insurers, the device industry, and the government, aims to have participation from 90 percent of hospitals by October of 2013. Getting that level of participation in just over two years will likely prove a significant challenge, but the rewards inherent to such a broad data set can be significant. Today, as the recalls for DePuy's ASR metal-on-metal hips lead to countless lawsuits and FDA complaints, the need for more transparency into orthopedic procedures are devices becomes more apparent.
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Pilot phase of national joint replacement registry finishes
on February 28, 2011 |
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Topics: Cardiovascular, Service Lines, Telemedicine, Information Technology
Greetings from CRT 2011! We are at the Omni Hotel in Washington, DC for the annual Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) conference sponsored by Washington Hospital Center (WHC). This boutique interventional cardiology conference began Sunday and will continue through Tuesday afternoon with scientific sessions spanning medical and interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, and vascular research.
At yesterday's ACS and AMI Management workshop, presenters from the Washington Hospital Center highlighted its novel telemedicine pilot program, the CodeHeart Application, to aid the management and treatment of ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. If successful, care innovations such as these could drastically reduce door to balloon times and heighten efficiencies at hospitals performing emergent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Through the program, hospital leaders collaborated with AT&T to create a secure network, enabling EMS staff to transmit live video containing EKG readings from the emergency ambulance to physicians' Apple iPhones for patients experiencing a STEMI. Physicians can interpret results quickly and accurately to determine whether to activate the cath lab and team should treatment with emergent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) be necessary. The system--using cloud technology and a single 5 MB iPhone application--downloads information using password-protected Apple iTunes software. Likewise, hospital administrators worked closely with cell phone service providers to ensure that data transmission is HIPPA compliant.
So far, the hospital has found that images are interpreted with 95 percent accuracy for patients experiencing ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, ventricular arrhythmia, and other cardiovascular events. Further, these data can be downloaded to the hospital's electronic medical records (EMR) and movable workstations within the ED and patient rooms, expediting hospital operations. WHC is now delivering smart phones to ambulance staff, hospital cardiologists, ED physicians, fellows and several referring hospitals in Maryland that send their patients to WHC for intervention. Though an initially expensive endeavor, this telemedicine initiative has the potential to impact care in areas beyond cardiology. Additional disease states, including stroke and trauma, are areas for expansion for these programs and could result in additional clinical and potentially financial benefits in the future.
Stay tuned for more updates from Technology Insights' coverage of CRT 2011.
