The Laszlo Letter

Patient (Self)Recruitment

Notes from the 23^rd DIA CDM conference

Sometimes we tend to forget that everything we do is for the patient.

I was reminded of this when listening to a talk by Laura Esserman of the University of California Medical Center at San Francisco. Dr. Esserman described her clinical work in the area of breast cancer and the recognition that patients themselves could be the source for electronic health records (EHR). Once collected, these records could be used to match patients to clinical trials. In other words, the EHR becomes the source of data for patient recruitment.

DIA Euromeeting: Impressions and Recommendations

I’m writing this on the plane to New York from Barcelona having just attended the 2008 DIA Euromeeting. As a veteran of many DIA annual meetings in the USA, I must admit that this year’s Euromeeting was like a breath of fresh air. A key reason for this may be the calculated risk that the meeting planners took by redesigning the program around themes and sessions.

Suggestion: Click here to see a phenomenal set of Barcelona photos!

Bedside Portable Computer

Motion Computing has announced the availability of their Motion C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) tablet computer. This flash demo gives a good overview of the device.

The device was created in collaboration with Intel Digital Health Group. While currently intended for hopital use, the tablet could be used for other purposes such as EDC.

It should be noted that the device is primarily a hardware solution and does not come with healthcare application software. A good example of the way the device can be adapted for bedside use is described in this field study by Intel. In this case, the tablet was integrated with the Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager platform.

The unit uses the Intel Centrino processor, runs on either MS Vista or XP and includes a bar code reader, RFID reader and digital camera. It also supports wireless and bluetooth connectivity.

Healthcare Standards and Healthcare IT

The (re)use of patient data in the form of the electronic medical/health record (EMR/EHR) will be discussed in three separate sessions at the annual DIA meeting and is an emerging topic within our industry.

Two key uses within clinical research are 1. patient recruitment and 2. encounter based clinical data collection. There is also great potential for using EMR/EHR data for signal detection in pharmacovigilance. These examples only begin to scratch the surface of potential uses.

From my point of view, our industry is still in the learning phase when it comes to the potential impact of EHR/EMR on the way we conduct R&D or deliver better care. So, what better way to learn than read what our colleagues in the healthcare provider world have written about EMR/EHR and related issues.

To that end, I'd like to recommend that you look at a multi-part essay written by Steve Beller Ph.D. on the Trusted.MD web site. Since that site makes getting to all the parts a bit mysterious, I am giving you the link to each part below:

• Part 1 - Better care delivery through knowledge reuse
• Part 2 - Types of standards
• Part 3 - Issues related to healthcare standards
• Part 4 - HL7 messaging
• Part 5 - Problems with healthcare standards
• Part 6 - Use of innovative technologies