Category: The technical world

Brain 2013

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Several years ago, I stopped making New Year’s resolutions. I had always been pretty good at accomplishing goals I set, but I was starting to find it harder and harder to follow through on something like those annual resolutions. I was also finding it hard to locate particular words when I was looking for them; and I long ago decided that if something is not written down, it does not exist…at least not for me and my overburdened memory.

My proposed solution to the challenges facing my aging brain is something Seth and I named ‘Google Brain’. It is the chip that will be implanted into our brains to be augmented by Google’s outrageous computers and search capabilities. While I have no advance knowledge of Google working on such a project, I have hope that they are doing so…and that it will be available while I can still benefit from it. They are even welcome to the name I have chosen for their project!

Several things have popped into my awareness lately to make me hope my fantasy will one day be a reality.

At the beginning of January, some psychology colleagues on a technology listserv of which I am a member mentioned an episode of 60 Minutes in which a young man successfully participated in a stair-climbing event in a 103-story Chicago building. This man has a prosthetic leg that he controls by his thoughts.

Another colleague responded indicating that there are many projects in the works that extend that same technology. Neuroscience has become the ‘hot’ research field related to mental health and behavior. It has many practical applications, but can seem so complicated as to be off-putting to some. That is why a video explaining some of the technology and research tools being used is so delightful. This is a clear and visually appealing explanation of semantic mapping in the brain, something that has fascinated me since the very early brain research demonstrated the storing of memories in particular regions of the brain, and their recall through electrical stimulation during brain surgery. The use of fMRI to advance this purpose is very exciting. These are important arenas for behavioral health providers to be informed about. It might well be the future of this field.

We certainly are approaching what many of us thought might be the distant future. Verizon together with cellphone producer HTC has started to communicate the image of humans enhanced by technology with their Droid DNA phone and ads. Google released their new Google Glasses in 2012. These are glasses enhanced with computer, camera, and internet connectivity. When I wrote about two books that used these glasses and fMRI in 2011, I knew the technology was available somewhere but did not know it would soon be here for the rest of us to start to access.

I love finding out about technologies like this that may be available to all of us in my lifetime. Maybe I will even be able to make and carry out New Year’s resolutions again with the help of some of these tools-in-the-making. Are there things in your world that provide the same kind of  excitement and hope for you? New tools, new toys, new ideas? Please share your comments below.

 

 

Ongoing HIPAA Care: What is your plan?

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Here at SOS Software, we have been in an ongoing process to develop, maintain, and implement detailed policies and procedures to assure that we are doing everything possible to act as responsible Business Associates to our Covered Entity customers. We have been holding monthly training for our staff in which we all take a pre-test, watch an instructional video together, discuss what we have learned, take a post-test to measure how much we have learned, then discuss the results of our testing to be sure we all understand these important concepts.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) mandated that electronically stored protected health information (PHI) be handled in such a fashion as to assure the privacy of the patients to whom it belongs. The HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) sections of ARRA (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) also required additional security measures be utilized for all PHI. HITECH extended the same privacy and security requirements to Business Associates of Covered Entities as to the entities themselves.

We have been distressed to find that many of our customers have no idea what HIPAA actually requires. While it is true that the requirements are scalable (small organizations like solo psychiatric or psychological practices do not need to do as much as large ones), some customers seem to think that scalability means they need to do nothing since they are not a community mental health center or a hospital. This is far from accurate.

Every organization that handles PHI is responsible to assure that the privacy and security of that information is guaranteed. Not doing a security risk assessment, not having an incident response plan, not having a disaster plan, not having usable backups of your patient information off site . . . all of these things could easily be considered “willful neglect” by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the agency responsible for enforcing HIPAA. If an unhappy patient reports you to OCR as ignoring the requirements of HIPAA and you are found to be guilty of “willful neglect”, OCR must penalize you. Are you prepared to pay at least a $10,000 to $50,000 fine . . . or worse?

If the items I just mentioned above are not very familiar to you, that means you and your organization may not have done your HIPAA homework. You may not need to start at the beginning, but reviewing some of our old posts and links might help you get started. We have found that there are many resources available on the Internet free or at low cost. You might consider some of those. Seth plans to attend a free webinar he got notice of last week. He has started a workgroup of some of our customers who are trying to help themselves and one another move their security and privacy programs forward.

What do you need to do to become HIPAA compliant?

What do you or your organization already do to assure your compliance?

Do you know who your Privacy Officer is?

Please share some of the steps you and your organization have taken to assure that your organization is HIPAA compliant. Let us know what you do on an ongoing basis to be sure new employees are educated to the requirements. Just enter your comments below.

 

Favorite Technology Tools

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I know that most of you work in behavioral health organizations. You probably use the technology that is provided to you even if you know of better tools that would make your work life smoother and easier. After all, the goal is to serve consumers of substance abuse and mental health services, not to the be the coolest technology shop around.

But maybe that is not totally the case. . . . Do you have a favorite technology tool that you love to use in your practice or workplace or at home? Is there something that has become so indispensable that you cannot imagine getting along without it?

I am not a big searcher for new software programs or apps for my Android cell phone or Amazon Fire. I tend to try things that are offered by family or friends, choose the ones that work for me, and then leave well enough alone. If I have chosen well, the updates offered by the company from whom I have purchased the product almost always keep up with and even anticipate my needs. But that is not always the case.

A few years ago, I was considering creating a training video for our electronic claims module. I saw some information about a program named Camtasia Studio, by TechSmith. I liked the description so much that I tried the free demo.

I was in love! This program does everything I need a video-creation tool to do, and it does it simply. I started with Camtasia 4 and am now at version 7.1. Like I said, when I find a tool that works for me, I tend to stick with it.

This is the sort of video you can create with Camtasia.

When I first started doing these movies, I let our web server handle them and just gave the direct link to the file to the customers we wanted to see them. This got the training module into the right hands, but did not make the video available at large.

Now I want to go farther. I want to be able to create videos and to embed them here on my blog or on our web site. Even though I am not an expert video maker, I want to create more of them and get them out there. The more I do, the better I will get at them.

What cool tools do you have that you rely on every day? Is there some program or app that you cannot do without?

Please tell me what you think. Your feedback and comments are always appreciated.

Must-Read Novels for 2012: Daemon and FreedomTM

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Last month I told you about a novel I had read that fascinated me. Now I am here to tell you that both the first book, Daemon, and its sequel, FreedomTM , are must-read books for individuals who are concerned about the way the U.S. is moving . . . . or not moving.

When I say the U.S., I do not just mean the U.S. Government. I also mean U.S. and multinational corporations that are loyal only to their bottom line, private U.S. military contractors (otherwise known as mercenaries), the U.S. economy, U.S. buying/consuming habits, and the knowledge, involvement, and activism of the U.S. citizenry.

Daniel Suarez, the author of these books, is a systems consultant and programmer. He knows about the software and devices that run our lives. He has consulted extensively on data security to Fortune 1000 companies. The technology described in his books is all current and real . . . and very frightening. His stories successfully make the point that our identities are so tied into the computer systems that run modern life, that our civilization could not survive without them. As we move toward digitizing our medical and mental health records, we simultaneoulsy decrease errors and increase our vulnerability. Long-term loss of electrical systems in a dozen major cities globally could destroy our entire way of life, including our food distribution system. Even a short-term loss of electricity can throw us into major disarray. But not necessarily . . .

A key element of FreedomTM, is that sustainable communities that are not totally reliant on centralization of resources can survive even major disruption. Sustainability is defined on Wikipedia as “the capacity to endure.” It is the ability to survive based on a balanced and reasonable use of resources that does not deplete those resources.

Currently, the concept of sustainability is enjoying popularity in some government circles. The EPA, HUD, and DOT have developed a program for developing sustainable communities.  These programs focus on housing and business development in urban and rural areas and how to do it in a way that contributes to the well-being of everyone involved, including wildlife and the earth.

Not-for-profit organizations and think tanks focused on a sustainable future have been appearing over the last decade. Philosophical and spiritually grounded individuals have long taught of the need for changes in how we think and live that will result in our well-being. Even some businesses profess sustainability as part of their business mission.

But without action from concerned, educated, and involved individuals, none of these movements will gain the traction they need to affect how we live.

I have long believed that an informed community is also an activist community. When I take the time to educate myself about the events and issues of the day, I am also motivated to examine those events in light of my own beliefs and values. When the values I hold dear are threatened, I take action. At least, that is what I used to believe. I know a few people who do that, but not very many. I do not share the political values of the Tea Party. I do share their belief that it is the responsibility of citizens to express their opinions and to become involved in the political process . . . after educating themselves about the issues.

I know, I know…you don’t have time to breathe. You already work in healthcare, most of you in the mental health community. You take care of other people as part of how you make your living, you certainly cannot consider taking the time to learn more about what is happening in our country and worldwide so you can become even busier. Getting involved in your community or becoming activist about issues that concern you is just out of the question.

And yet . . . unless more of us take the time to become such activists, we may not have day-to-day activities to be concerned about.

I hope you will read these books when you can. They are very good reads . . . extremely entertaining and very informative. Just view them as a treat to yourself.

Then decide what you need to do.

 

Change in Healthcare is Upon Us…Law or not

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In 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States for the first time, I was a member of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP) of the American Psychological Association. CAPP is charged with general governance oversight of the Practice Directorate, the part of APA responsible for promoting “the practice of psychology and the availability and accessibility of psychological services, providing resources and services to practicing psychologists in all settings and to the public.”

Our first meeting immediately after the election was highly charged. Staff had been studying President Clinton’s healthcare proposals, and the notion of controlling cost through “managed care.”

President Clinton’s healthcare proposals did not fly, but the industry picked up the notion of controlling costs by managing the care provided to consumers, and psychological practice has never been the same. For private practitioners, “managed care” continues to be a primary obstacle to the practice of psychology. Costs might have been suppressed by managing care, but some would argue that the primary effect of the managed care revolution was the creation of a new industry that made money as the middle-men at the cost of providers. Indeed, after a few years of leveling of the costs of care, the rise has been renewed and expanded.

In mid-November, the Supreme Court of the U.S. agreed to hear an appeal of the Affordable Care Act, our nation’s most recent effort to reform our healthcare system.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals from the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, which is the only court to have struck down the individual mandate because it overstepped Congressional authority and wasn’t justified by the constitutional power “to regulate commerce” or “to lay and collect taxes.” FierceHealthPayer, November 18, 2011

According to editor Dina Overland of FierceHealthPayer newsletter, even a complete overturn of the law would have little significant impact. She believes that consumers like the changes the law is mandating and there is no stopping this train.

Mercom Capital Group, in their HIT Report of November 21, 2011, says the same thing about the massive changes in the healthcare arena at large. Basing their conclusions on a report by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC), Mercom reports that health organizations will continue to move forward with changes to their health technology and other innovations because the multiple drivers in the marketplace have finally come to a head. No matter the political or the financial uncertainties, PwC believes this movement will continue. These are changes consumers like, and the movement will continue no matter which market forces might change.

In their HIT Report of November 28, 2011, Mercom reports that Harvard and Aetna will ally to work to improve healthcare costs and quality. The two have formed a research collaborative focused on improving the quality and cost of healthcare. They will use bioinformatics, the interface of computer science and information technology with the fields of biology and medicine, to analyze healthcare data in innovative ways. They will focus on outcomes of various treatments considering quality and cost, factors that predict adherence to medical and drug treatments for chronic diseases, examining how claims and clinical data can be best used to predict disease and follow outcomes, as well as other treatments of data that will emerge over time.

Where is your organization in the midst of this dramatic change in how we manage healthcare? How do you see yourself participating in the sea change that is under way? Where does behavioral healthcare fit into this picture?

Just type in your thoughts below. Thanks for commenting.