History of the World

via bbc.co.uk

Implementation Starter Kit: Lessons & Resources to Accelerate Adoption

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Implementation Starter Kit: Lessons & Resources to Accelerate Adoption

• Agenda
• Presenter Biographical Sketches
• Public Sector Panel
  • Doug Fridsma, NHIN, Office of the National Coordinator, HHS
  • Hunt Blair, Deputy Director, Health Care Reform, Office of Vermont Health Access
  • Jessica Kahn, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, HHS
  • Kim Davis-Allen, Alabama Medicaid
  • Ken Buetow, National Cancer Institute, HHS
  • Kathleen M. Roberts, National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Implementation Experiences Panel
  • David Muntz, Baylor
    
    • Muntz Questions and Answers
  • Jay Colfer, Eclipsys (Baylor vendor)
  • Charles Christian, Good Samaritan
  • Michelle Freed, McKesson (Good Samaritan)
  • Mitzi Cardenas, Truman Medical
  • Mike Valentine, Cerner (Truman Medical)
  • Michael Sauk, University of Wisconsin
  • Sumit Rana, Epic (University of Wisconsin)
• Implementation Experiences Panel, con’t
  • Amanda Parsons, New York City Primary Care Information Project (NYC PCIP)
    • Parsons Commentary
  • Sidd Shah, eClinical Works (NYC PCIP)
  • Dick Thompson, Quality Health Network
    • Thompson, About Axolotl
    • Thompson, Quality Health Network Overview
  • Ray Scott, Axolotl (Quality Health Network)
  • John Blair, Taconic, IPA
  • Jennifer Brull, Solo Family Physician, Plainville, KS
  • Maria Rudolph, eMDs (Dr. Brull’s vendor)
• Innovation Panel
  • David Stuart Buck, Healthcare for the Homeless – Houston & Baylor College of Medicine
    • Buck, Healthcare for the Homeless
  • Paul Uhrig, SureScripts
    • Uhrig, Buyer's Guide
  • Tom Morrison, NaviNet
  • Sherry Reynolds, Group Health
    • Reynolds, Article
  • Will Ross, Redwood MedNet
  • Peter Levin, Veterans Administration

via healthit.hhs.gov

Converting cellulose into ethanol

llustration of sugar molecules in corn biomass.

Researchers have developed a method of processing cellulose from plants and other non-edible natural products into individual sugar molecules that then can be fermented by bacteria to produce ethanol. Plant cellulose contains long chains of useful sugars that store plenty of energy, but it is largely inaccessible due to the difficulty of breaking down cellulose. Joseph Binder and Ronald Raines converted cellulose to simple sugars with a combination of an ionic liquid, acid, and chromatography and suggest that their technique could be developed into a largescale industrial process to produce biofuel or other products. After the completion of the short (approximately 2–4 hours) chemical reaction, Binder and Raines report that bacteria and yeast could easily ferment the extracted sugars into ethanol. Compared to other industrial processes, the technique does not require as much dangerous, concentrated acid. The authors say the reaction can be used on many sources of lignocellulose, including non-food feedstocks such as switchgrass, wood, crop residues, and paper wastes. The technique is currently constrained by the expense of the ionic liquid, and must remain efficient if it is to be scaled up to a fullsize biorefinery, according to the authors. 

"Fermentable sugars by chemical hydrolysis of biomass" 
by Joseph B. Binder and Ronald T. Raines

[Full Text] OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

via pnas.org

NPRM on Certification Programs

The Office of the Nation Coordinator has published a corrected version of the NPRM on Certification Programs. The corrected version has been put into bureaucratic language and had typos, etc. fixed. It is substantially the same document as the draft version previously posted. After the proposed rule is published the comment period will begin.

Certification of Health IT will provide assurance to purchasers and other users that an EHR system, or other relevant technology, offers the necessary technological capability, functionality, and security to help them meet the meaningful use criteria established for a given phase. Providers and patients must also be confident that the electronic health IT products and systems they use are secure, can maintain data confidentially, and can work with other systems to share information. Confidence in health IT systems is an important part of advancing health IT system adoption and allowing for the realization of the benefits of improved patient care.

Eligible professionals and eligible hospitals who seek to qualify for incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs are required by statute to use Certified EHR Technology. Once certified, Complete EHRs and EHR Modules would be able to be used by eligible professionals and eligible hospitals, or be combined, to meet the statutory requirement for Certified EHR Technology.

To this end, an NPRM proposing the establishment of certification programs for purposes of testing and certifying health information technology was issued in March 2010 with a request for comments. The NPRM proposes:

A temporary certification program to assure the availability of Certified EHR Technology prior to the date on which health care providers seeking the incentive payments would begin to report demonstrable meaningful use of Certified EHR Technology.

A permanent certification program to replace the temporary certification program.

The corrected proposed rule to be published in the Federal Register March 10, 2010 is here:

http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2010-04991_PI.pdf