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Author Archives: Hal Amens
About Hal Amens
Hal Amens is the President of Lyon, Popanz & Forester and a senior management consultant specializing in systems development and process improvement. He is a Certified Consultant with Practice Fusion. He has been blogging about electronic medical records for three and a half years at emrnet.wordpress.com and is a frequent contributor to EHRbloggers. Hal published The HIPAA Implementation Newsletter and developed HIPAA privacy and security programs for two mental healthcare providers with services ranging from acute care through out-patient. He managed the redesign of the user interface for an SaaS EMR system. He brings a fresh approach to healthcare and data based on experience in service industries in the US and overseas. Follow Hal: 
EMR Research for the 21st Century
Two recent news stories about the FDA, manufacturers, and patient safety raise a frightening picture about the limitations of using 20th Century solutions to deal with 21st Century problems. In the first story the FDA approved silicone gel-filled breast implants sold by Allergan and Johnson & Johnson’s Mentor unit in 2006, on condition that both companies follow 40,000 women (a total of 80,000 for the two companies) for 10 years to look at safety issues. Three years into a ten… read more >
Posted in EMR Research, Health Research, Patient Safety, Public Health
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Devices, Applications and EHRs
Almost every day there is news of a new device or smartphone application that can be used to collect and transmit health related data. The Internet provides the means to move the data, cloud computing provides the means to store and analyze it, and the devices and apps provide the means to collect and transmit it. Data, data, data! But where is the information doctors and patients need to provide better and less costly health care? In this blog we… read more >
Posted in Uncategorized
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EHRs and the Search for Foodborne Illnesses
In a blog in January, I outlined how EHRs including Practice Fusion could provide quicker notification to health authorities about foodborne illnesses. A recent news story about Government efforts to find the source of a salmonella outbreak that has affected 76 people and killed a California resident suggests the need for a second look. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates that each year roughly one in six Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick; 128,000 are… read more >
Posted in Health Policy, Health Research, Patient Safety, Public Health
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Expanding the Scope of EMRs
The use and scope of electronic medical records (EMRs) is being changed by evolving technology and the way it is being used by doctors, patients and people who are sometimes referred to as the Quantified Self (QS). This latter category includes people who are using a growing number of devices to record data about their physical well being, data that can be harnessed for better healthcare and healthcare research. Traditionally, healthcare has taken one of two paths: Patient problem e.g.,… read more >
Posted in EHR Adoption, EHR Vendor Comparison, EMR Research
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EHRs Support FDA Accelerated Approval
There are provisions for accelerated approval by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) of new drugs for patients with serious illnesses. As an example, Genentech’s Avastin for metastatic breast cancer received accelerated approval on February 22, 2008. On June 29, 2011, the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee recommended 6 to 0 that the approval be withdrawn. As of this posting, the FDA has not announced a decision. The approval was based on standard research for this type of medicine and showed… read more >
Posted in EMR Research, Patient Safety, Public Health, Understanding EMR
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