gulf coast regional extension

Practicum for the UT Health Information Technology Summer

Certificate Program

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston - School of Biomedical

Informatics

Daniel Fritz, Lindsey LaRue, Louis Lee, Hari Mitra, Kelly Worden and Michael Yao             

Introduction

After completing the majority of our Health information technology coursework in Austin, six of us were sent to work at the UT School of Biomedical Informatics in the medical center in Houston. We were labeled as part of the NIH grant.

Key players

Dr. Kim Dunn, MD, PhD• The professor in charge of us• She looks over the Gulf Coast Regional Extension Centers in

the Health information science school.• founder of the "quality health record"• She knows too much about HIT

Key players cont.

Mrs. Sharyn Smalls• Masters student• A Research assistant for Dr. Dunn

o Acted as a host to the six of us, taking us from place to place and guiding us. 

Key Players cont.

Meaningful Use

• on July 13, 2010 the US Department of Health and Human Services announced the meaningful use criteria that will need to be met in order for physicians to qualify for federal incentives

Meaningful Use

Meaningful use cont.

Meaningful Use cont.

Your Doctor's Program

QHR - Quality Health Record SystemPart of the NIH Grant funding.

-The system is supposed to help accomplish:

• Medical home model• Coordination of care• Meet meaningful use criteria

- An integral part of the system to help accomplish these goals is through the use of telemedicine

Telemedicine

Communication between different providers and patients• Communication concerning:

o Diagnoseso Test resultso Follow ups

• Communication througho phone o e-mail

using CC and limiting options

o skype

Coordination and curbside consults

The 10,000 ft view of the purpose of this QHR program is to coordinate the care of the patient.

o The QHR can sit on top of the doctor's and their electronic health record but can also be a stand alone system

o This is allows for all of the doctors who are taking care of a patient to work together

o Allows for curbside consults between physicians and the patients.

How we helped

Assisted Meena Husein with:• The development of the line item specification of the YDP

QHR. o This involved the tedious work of typing out exactly

what we wanted the program to do and how they wanted it to work

• The user interface issueso For Physicians 

The sending of referrals The ability to create reports Telemedicine

o For Patients Patient Portal

The Deliverables

The Deliverables Cont.

In the end...

We appreciated the opportunity to be exposed to all sides of the HIT world.  We were able to participate and observe what goes on in the development of a health information technology software system. We were also able to visit clinics on two extremes of the HIT world - one that utilizes absolutely no technology and another that has a computer monitor in each exam room.  Overall, we really enjoyed this experience and felt like we learned a great deal.  

Thank You!!!