UConn Health Video Vouches for Value of Meducation

The winner of the 2011 SMART Apps for Health Challenge is in the spotlight once again.

Polyglot Systems’ medication instruction app, Meducation, was implemented at UConn Health Center in March 2013. By August the software had significantly improved patient satisfaction scores on certain HCAHPS measures, according to a report in BioPortfolio.

Now UConn’s own news site, UConn Today, features a video of hospitalist Dr. Wendy Miller describing in further detail how valuable the app has been to patients and caregivers at the center.

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The Power of Shared Data

SMART, i2b2, and other open-source technologies made possible by the federal $48B investment in health IT will soon be used as the foundation of SCILHS: the Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for a Learning Health System. Read the full report from the Harvard Medical School news office.

Based at Harvard Medical School and operating out of 10 health care sites from Massachusetts to Texas, SCILHS will be one of 29 networks in the national Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet). Pictured below are members of the network who made it through the snow to attend the official kickoff meeting held January 22–23 in Washington, D.C.

PCORnet Kickoff Attendees

PCORI Award Will Support SMART/i2b2 Efforts Toward a Learning Health System

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced today that it will fund an exciting new venture for SMART and collaborators. The Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for a Learning Health System—SCILHS (pronounced “Skills”)—will use SMART-enabled i2b2 at the following ten sites to help build a National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network:

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Our First Foray into Health Foo

josh-ken-healthfoo-DSC02925Josh Mandel (left) and Ken Mandl took the opportunity at this past weekend’s Health Foo (friends of O’Reilly) 2013 to exchange ideas about SMART, APIs, health data, and more. Like many of the unconference-style breakout sessions, theirs attracted a small group geared up for a more intimate and spontaneous discussion than the average healthcare/HIT conference. The talk also got a boost from the participation of thought leaders such as Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and host of the original Foo Camps from which Health Foo evolved; and John Lumpkin, Director of the Health Care Group at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the event.

It may be held indoors at the NERD Center, but as the bare feet in this photo’s background suggest, Health Foo still manages to retain the campground flair of its predecessors—complete with drummingdancingmicrobiome sharing, and Smart Bell-ing. For more highlights, see Wen Dombrowski’s whole Storify recap.

Mandl and Mandel to Attend 2013 Health Foo Unconference

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This weekend promises to be an exciting one for SMART trailblazers Ken Mandl and Josh Mandel, who have been invited to Health Foo 2013, December 6–8 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. Health Foo (friends of O’Reilly) is an invitation-only “unconference focused on innovation in health and healthcare, sponsored by O’Reilly Media and the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation” (RWJF).

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A Quick Payoff for SMART-Enabling an EHR System

Over the summer, a European EHR vendor took quick advantage of SMART-enabling its EHR system, adding in the SMART API to enable it to offer both the SMART Pediatric Growth Chart and SMART Blood Pressure Centiles apps. Marand, provider of the Think!Med Clinical™ EHR system, adopted SMART, incorporating it into their openEHR-based system along with these initial apps, which were promptly made available for users at the 200-bed Children’s Hospital of Ljubljana University Medical Centre in Slovenia.
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Kohane Commentary on Grande et al Findings

JAMA Int Med: Secondary Use of Health Information: Are We Asking the Right Question?A report on “Public Preferences About Secondary Uses of Electronic Health Information” has just been published by a group of researchers led by Dr. David Grande at UPenn’s medical school. The publishing journal, JAMA Internal Medicine, also invited SMART Co-Director Zak Kohane to comment. His remarks appear in Secondary Use of Health Information: Are We Asking the Right Question? and may be read in their entirety by enlarging the image on the right. (A subscription is required to access the articles’ full texts.)

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SMART Medication Adherence App in i-JMR

Just published in interactive Journal of Medical Research: “Scalable Decision Support at the Point of Care: A Substitutable Electronic Health Record App for Monitoring Medication Adherence”

Democratizing Data: Two New SMART iOS Apps

The Harvard Medical School (HMS) news office reports on DB EMR and Genomics Advisor, soon to be released on iTunes.

SMART’s Ramoni on Panel at Fjord Kitchen NYC (Video)

While collaborating with Fjord on our award-winning growth chart app, SMART Executive Director Rachel Ramoni spoke at a Fjord Kitchen Event, which they host to “dish out inspiration” on digital technology from creative minds across industries. Looking back on the experience, Rachel said, Continue reading “SMART’s Ramoni on Panel at Fjord Kitchen NYC (Video)”