Here are my posts on Informatics and EHR (electronic health records).
“I, EHR” A thoughtful first person reply by our friend, the EHR
A couple of our University of Colorado medical students and their mentor wrote this wonderful, thoughtful piece about the intersection of medicine and technology and how it has impacted our colleagues. This is a unique first-person EHR response to the various critiques. I don’t have feelings and I can’t read, but I do know what … Continue reading ““I, EHR” A thoughtful first person reply by our friend, the EHR”
My Failure Resume
This is my Failure Resume. I got the idea from several sources, and thought: this will be fun and humbling for me, and perhaps encouraging to my junior colleagues facing a tough uphill climb through academia or in their organizations. In hindsight, it is easy to cherry-pick my best successes (ignoring my many failures) and … Continue reading “My Failure Resume”
CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED integrated into EHR. Wow. Humility thy name is…
Yes! I am an internist. Yes! I have practiced for many years. Yes! I know about CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED*. Yes! I vaguely recalled that we installed built-in calculators right into our EHR to reduce the barriers for our docs to use these calculators while seeing patients. No, until today, I had not actually used them … Continue reading “CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED integrated into EHR. Wow. Humility thy name is…”
Shouldiscreen.com is a great example of “there are more smart people who don’t work for you than who do.”
https://shouldiscreen.com/ Sometimes our patients push us into our discomfort zone. Thanks to one of my long-time patients, who, as a former smoker, wanted to discuss the risks and benefits of low-dose CT scan Lung Cancer Screening. She had heard of this opportunity at her employer, and wanted to see if I could get her set … Continue reading “Shouldiscreen.com is a great example of “there are more smart people who don’t work for you than who do.””
CHIME’s CMIO Leadership Academy in Ojai. Listen and learn.
http://chimecentral.org/mediaposts/cmio-leadership-academy-2019-images Thanks to George Reynolds and those organizing CHIME’s recent Leadership Academy for existing and upcoming CMIO’s. I enjoyed teaching this year with other co-faculty like Brian Patty, Natalie Pageler, Cindy Kuelbs, George, Howard Landa, Keith Fraidenburg and David Butler. The topics we covered in our Academy over 2 days included such CMIO best hits … Continue reading “CHIME’s CMIO Leadership Academy in Ojai. Listen and learn.”
Innovation partnerships at UCHealth (Healthfinch)
Our UCHealth Care Innovation Center is dedicated to implementing partnerships with companies that improve and simplify our work. Our most recent example is our partnership with Healthfinch to improve prescription renewals, by assessing the data in the electronic health record, presenting it to nurses and pharmacists on a centralized prescription renewal team and demonstrating efficiencies, … Continue reading “Innovation partnerships at UCHealth (Healthfinch)”
Showing Rx Co-Pay Cost at time of Prescribing, in the EHR (info transparency!)
Sometimes you work hard, and cool things happen. UCHealth is partnering with RxRevu, makers of SwiftRx, an EHR-embedded tool that shows prescribing doctors the co-pay cost of patient medications AT THE TIME OF PRESCRIBING! We believe we’re one of the first in the country to do this successfully. Yes, at the time of prescribing. NOT … Continue reading “Showing Rx Co-Pay Cost at time of Prescribing, in the EHR (info transparency!)”
EHR Sprint Optimization Executive Summary – using Stories, Images AND Data to change minds
Many of you know that in my role as CMIO at UCHealth, I’ve stepped in my share of potholes. My Failure Resume is replete with examples (eg: my 16 year journey to implementing Open Notes). Having studied the Open Notes phenomenon back in 2000 and published in 2003, it was a big disappointment when, after … Continue reading “EHR Sprint Optimization Executive Summary – using Stories, Images AND Data to change minds”
New PIGlet? Or, interested in medical informatics? How to start…
Are you a PIGlet? Someone interested in the field of medical informatics? One of our newest informaticists coined the term PIGlet (Physician Informatics Group member). Cute. Increasingly I’m meeting with medical students, medical residents and now physicians as well as allied health persons (nurses, physical therapists) interested in the field, and unsure how to get … Continue reading “New PIGlet? Or, interested in medical informatics? How to start…”
737 Max software lessons – a critique for EHR (IEEE news)
https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer I watch the airline industry as both a beacon towards safety culture, and also as a cautionary tale of “there but for the grace of God, go I.” This article from a software developer with intimate knowledge of engineering, software and design principles, rips the 737-Max experience apart in a way I have not … Continue reading “737 Max software lessons – a critique for EHR (IEEE news)”
I Can See Clearly That My Sprain is Gone – Ukulele parody (and an XGM talk)
We (Dr. Peter Sachs, Vice Chair of Radiology at UCHealth, and I) recently had the pleasure of presenting our recent quality improvement work at Epic’s XGM (eXpert’s Group Meeting) in Verona, WI this week. In brief, we created and turned on the ability for patients to view their own radiology IMAGES online in their patient … Continue reading “I Can See Clearly That My Sprain is Gone – Ukulele parody (and an XGM talk)”
What is a Yottabyte, and How Do You Treat It? (a talk)
I gave a keynote speech late last year at Technology Awareness Day, hosted by the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus about Big Data, Tech acceleration, and Artificial Intelligence, as applied to healthcare. I enjoy making my colleagues uncomfortable. How long will doctors have jobs? Will the AI eliminate internal medicine doctors? If Watson can … Continue reading “What is a Yottabyte, and How Do You Treat It? (a talk)”
Denver Regional Clinical Informatics Summit (and ukulele) – second annual, hosted at UCHealth
Okay, so you’re probably here for the Informatics knowledge, but too bad, we’ll lead with ukulele. Thanks to Dave Beuther for writing us a world-premiere song parody of Grace Vanderwaal’s “I don’t know my name” ultimately winning America’s Got Talent a couple years ago (meaning Grace, not Dave). I’m really grateful to our Denver Region … Continue reading “Denver Regional Clinical Informatics Summit (and ukulele) – second annual, hosted at UCHealth”
Video: Dr. Sieja discusses EHR Optimization Sprints
Congratulations to Dr. Sieja and team for publication of UCHealths’ experience regarding EHR Optimization Sprints. You can do it too! Read about our published experience at Mayo Clinic Proceedings. https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(18)30788-2/fulltext#appsec1 There are several online supplements: additional specifics about how we conducted the program (30-60-90 day planning meetings, agendas for the 2 weeks of activity, etc), … Continue reading “Video: Dr. Sieja discusses EHR Optimization Sprints”
Optimization Sprints: Improving Clinician Satisfaction and Teamwork by Rapidly Reducing Electronic Health Record Burden (published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings Feb 2019)
Congratulations to Amber Sieja, Katie Markley, Jon Pell, Christine Gonzalez, Brian Redig, Patrick Kneeland, co-authors on our published article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings this week. I’ve spoken of some of the details on this blog, so I’ll let the paper speak for itself. Nice to be recognized! Coming soon: a video by Dr. Sieja explaining … Continue reading “Optimization Sprints: Improving Clinician Satisfaction and Teamwork by Rapidly Reducing Electronic Health Record Burden (published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings Feb 2019)”
How Do You Balance Patient Care and Research with Online Patients? Our Proposed Protocol
What would you do with the following research requests? The CEO of the health system would like for all patients using the EHR patient portal to be asked to sign a consent form to participate in our system-wide strategic BioBank. In this strategic project, we aim to capture an “extra tube of blood” when a … Continue reading “How Do You Balance Patient Care and Research with Online Patients? Our Proposed Protocol”
Large PIG Annual Summary FY-2017-18: our successes, challenges, and plans for the coming year
How do you give thanks and acknowledge your teams each year? I know WE don’t do it nearly enough. Here’s a partial list of our PIG achievements from 2017-18, now that we’re into 2019 (I know, I know, I can’t blog fast enough to keep up with smart amazing colleagues, a great problem to have). … Continue reading “Large PIG Annual Summary FY-2017-18: our successes, challenges, and plans for the coming year”
Willy Wonka and the Epic EHR: behind the scenes at the behemoth of Wisconsin (NYTimes)
This article speaks for itself. Having visited the Verona, Wisconsin campus of Epic’s Intergalactic Headquarters, with its dozens of campus buildings, its massive Voyager Training Hall, and its equally massive 11,000+ seat auditorium (the largest in the state), it is an impressive site. Equally impressive is the young talent that this company recruits out of … Continue reading “Willy Wonka and the Epic EHR: behind the scenes at the behemoth of Wisconsin (NYTimes)”
“E in EHR does not stand for Fax” — Steve Hess, CIO
I constantly enjoy the creativity of my colleagues. In this case, Steve Hess, our CIO at UCHealth, made this statement during a discussion about our fax-server software linked to our EHR. As our organization has grown, we have added hundreds of clinics, and now we’re approaching a dozen hospitals in our network, all on a … Continue reading ““E in EHR does not stand for Fax” — Steve Hess, CIO”
Letting patients file their Advance Care Planning (Advance Directives) online via Patient Portal (Hillary Lum et al)
Dr. Hillary Lum https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885392418310479 Thanks to Dr. Lum for her persistence and clarity of purpose. She led a team of physician leaders and IT staffers through a complex process, resulting in a first-of-its-kind online tool: The ability for patients to complete their Advance Care Planning and upload the results using an EHR (electronic health record) … Continue reading “Letting patients file their Advance Care Planning (Advance Directives) online via Patient Portal (Hillary Lum et al)”