Minnesota e-Health Update for the Week of March 18, 2013

Minnesota
Reminder: UP-HI Hosting Career Fair, Offering Free Exhibit Space to Health Organizations Recruiting Informatics Professionals
The University Partnership for Health Informatics (UP-HI) will host an HIT Career Fair on Friday, April 12, 2013 at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Campus, McNamara Alumni Center. The event is free for health organizations to exhibit/recruit health informatics professionals and free for students to attend. The deadline to request free exhibit space is April 3, 2013. Additional details are forthcoming. For more information, contact Daniel Chan by email at chan0876@umn.edu.  

Reminder: REACH Boot Camp: Understanding the Changes in the EHR Incentive Program
The Regional Extension Assistance Center for HIT for Minnesota and North Dakota (REACH) will offer a half-day boot camp to help staff from clinics and hospitals understand Stage 2 Meaningful Use and its implications. Objectives include:

  • Understand the new EHR Incentive program requirements
  • Know what to do to prepare your facility to meet the new requirements
  • Understand what impact this will have on your EHR technology, your staff and your workflow 

When: March 27, 2013
Where: Grand Forks, ND, School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Cost: $20 for hospitals and clinics with signed agreements with REACH, $185 for non-REACH facilities
Register 

Reminder: Omaha System Conferences
Pre-Conference: The Basics of the Omaha System is a pre-conference designed to introduce, describe and practice the terms and definitions of the Omaha System. The workshop is designed for practitioners, managers, administrators, educators, students, and programmers/IT staff who have not attended a basic Omaha System orientation workshop, are assuming the responsibility of teaching others in their agency, organization, or school, or want to attend a refresher session. See the brochure for more details.
When: April 4, 2013, 8:30a.m. - 4:00p.m.
Where: Eagan, MN

Pre-Conference: First International Conference on Research Methods for Standardized Terminologies
Registration is now open for the First International Conference on Research Methods for Standardized Terminologies. This pre-conference for the Omaha System International Conference is an exciting opportunity to learn about methods in current research using standardized nursing and health.
When:Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 7:30a.m. – 4:30p.m.
Where:Dakota County Northern Service Center, 1 Mendota Road, West St. Paul, MN 55118 
Register: http://tinyurl.com/1stResearch 

If you are interested in attending the research conference by webinar, please contact Karen Monsen at mons0122@umn.edu.

The Omaha System Conference: A Key to Practice, Documentation, and Information Management offers opportunities to gain knowledge about using electronic health records, exchanging health information, and sharing data among diverse practice, education, and research settings. See the brochure for more details.
When: April 5-6, 2013, 8:30a.m. - 5:30p.m. (Friday), and 8:30a.m. - 1:00p.m. (Saturday)
Where: Eagan, MN

Did you know…
In Minnesota, 84% of clinics with EHRs routinely used medication guides/alerts in their EHR while other clinical decision support (CDS) tools routinely used include guidelines based on patient characteristics, patient-or condition-specific reminders and chronic care plans.
Source: Minnesota Department of Health, Office of Health Information Technology, MN HIT Ambulatory Clinic Survey, 2012.

National
Free Webinar: “Using CDS in Safety Net Provider Settings”
Join the Health Resources and Services Administration for a free Webinar on how clinical decision support (CDS) systems can be used in safety net settings Issues to be discussed include how CDS can be integrated into existing workflows, how to use CDS to ensure quality care across various health care providers, and how to leverage data to track compliance.
When: Friday March 22, 2013, 1:00 – 2:00p.m. CST
Register  

New AHRQ Health IT Studies
One AHRQ-funded study evaluated an internet and telephone-based telemedicine system for reducing blood pressure in underserved subjects with hypertension. The study found that nearly all patients were able to lower their systolic blood pressure, and many reach normal or prehypertensive levels. The article, “Managing hypertension in urban underserved subjects using telemedicine—A clinical trial,” appeared in the  American Heart Journal.

Another AHRQ-supported study suggests that diabetes patients who were provided with a web-based intervention that supported case management and dietary counseling were more likely to improve blood sugar levels over time. “Online disease management of diabetes: Engaging and Motivating Patients Online With Enhanced Resources-Diabetes (EMPOWER-D), a randomized controlled trial” appeared in the November 2012 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 

Updated Friday, 12-Apr-2013 15:35:55 CDT