One of the great mysteries of the recent healthcare reform movement is why “HIE” has been used as the acronym for both Health Insurance Exchanges and Health Information Exchanges. As the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges continue to garner media coverage, the original HIEs—health information exchanges—continue to struggle.
In recent years the range and availability of ambulatory care service providers has continued to grow. These include urgent care centers, mini clinics, and so-called “Doc in a box” providers. While the emergence of these services benefits consumers on many levels, it also creates a potentially serious “donut hole” in regional syndromic surveillance. A proliferation […]
In light of the recent Medicaid changes regarding hospital readmissions within a 30 day time period, HMS is working to create a tool which will allow facilities to track readmissions. Beginning on October 1, 2012, section 3025 of the Affordable Care Act added section 1886(q) to the Social Security Act establishing the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). The […]
This winter’s “polar vortex” has led to discussions about everything from the devastating effects sub-zero temperatures can have on homeless populations, to the difficulties it’s caused marathon runners in training, and the dangers extreme cold can pose to pets. Here at HMS, we saw several state public health departments use EpiCenter to implement a cold weather […]
With cruise ship norovirus making headlines, it’s easy to realize that an influx of people into a large venue can cause a potential health emergency. Tens of thousands of spectators will pack New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium for the Super Bowl this weekend—during one of the most frigid periods in the region’s history—and Health Monitoring Systems […]
The number of tick-borne illnesses reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is rising. Lyme disease accounts for the majority of reported cases, with about 35,000 cases reported annually. Black-legged ticks in the Northeast United States also infect people with other illnesses, including anaplasmosis and basesiosis.
A recent study published in the journal of Parasites and Vectors has confirmed an increase in the number of ticks carrying deer tick virus–the virus that causes Powassan encephalitis.
According to research published in Health Affairs this week, “there is a substantial risk that many current efforts to promote health information exchange will fail.”
The study was conducted by a group of researchers led by the University of Michigan’s Julia Adler-Milstein, an assistant professor in the U-M School of Information and School of Public Health. Their survey found that about 30 percent of hospitals and 10 percent of ambulatory practices are now participating in one of the 119 operational HIEs across the country, while 74 percent of HIEs surveyed report long-term funding challenges. Fewer than one in four HIEs responding reported that revenues from exchange participants covered their operating costs. Fewer than half were being financially supported by payers.
According to a recent study published in The Lancet, Middle East respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is less significantly less transmissible than SARS.
A team of researchers researchers from France’s Pasteur Institute analyzed clusters of infections involving 55 of the first 64 cases of MERS-CoV in order to calculate the average number of people each infected person passed the virus on to. This number is known as a “basic reproduction value.”
A high value would indicate that the number of cases could increase rapidly and potentially spread around the world, but a number lower than one would suggest that the virus was likely to fade away.
In the light of MERS coronavirus and concerns over H7N9 Influenza in South East Asia, researchers at the University of Warwick and University of Liverpool mapped the daily contact networks of thousands of individuals to shed light on which groups may be at highest risk of contracting and spreading respiratory diseases. The scientists used an anonymous web and mail survey of 5,027 UK residents to collect information on the types of social contact likely to lead to the transmission of respiratory infections.
According to a recent news article, some residents of Moore, Oklahoma are experiencing “tornado cough”–asthma-like symptoms resulting from tornado debris that remains in the air.
The article suggests that the particles of drywall, fiberglass, and mold thrown into the air during a tornado can result in allergic reactions in people who don’t normally suffer from asthma or allergies.