Washington Report- November 16, 2011

November 16, 2011 “Successful use of health IT means that we have to understand safety as part of the systematic approach.” Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, discussing the Health and Human Services Department’s plans to develop a surveillance and action plan to improve patient safety through health IT.This week’s edition of the Dell weekly Washington Report:  Fighting Pediatric Cancer with Personalized Medicine – by Jamie Coffin, vice president and general manager, Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences  A Note from Dr. Litt – Dell’s chief medical officer, Dr. Andy Litt, responds to a New York Times op-ed  Are you prepared to adopt technology innovations in medical imaging? – by Dan Trott, WW Strategy and Business Development Executive  HealthWatch – A weekly digest of the latest news in the healthcare industry  #TopTweets – A few tweets worth noting this weekFighting Pediatric Cancer with Personalized Medicineby Jamie Coffin, vice president and general manager, Dell Healthcare and Life SciencesLate last week, Dell announced a major commitment of funding, employee engagement andcloud computing technology to support pediatric cancer research programs globally,including the world’s first personalized medicine trial for pediatric cancer conducted by theNeuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC) andsupported by The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).Dell is expanding its Powering the Possible program to focus on neuroblastoma and otherpediatric cancers because of the devastating nature of the disease and to address the void ofnew and innovative treatments available for children. Dell believes that better information willlead to better care for patients and for cancer patients in particular.Today, cancer treatment often relies on the “trial and error” approach to see what works bestfor a given disease. With advances in genomic-based therapies made possible by affordable,scalable high-performance computing, we now have the ability to target and personalizecancer treatment based on the genetic composition and vulnerabilities of each pediatriccancer patient’s tumor. This enhances the effectiveness of the treatment while reducing sideeffects for the patient. And with the right technology, we can make it happen even faster andextend the benefits to even more patients.TGen’s new cloud-based IT infrastructure will help scientists and physicians investigate newtechnologies that accelerate genetic analysis and identification of targeted treatment for

each pediatric cancer patient participating in the personalized medicine clinical trial. Thecloud will reduce tumor mapping and analysis time from months to days. And it will provide asecure, cloud-based framework for the pediatric oncology community to store, move andanalyze genomic data effectively and efficiently.This is the future of medicine, and I’m proud that Dell is able to help expand access topersonalized treatments for children fighting cancer, as well as support collaboration anddevelopment of best practices in treating these devastating diseases.I want to thank Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), founder and co-chair of theCongressional Childhood Cancer Caucus for supporting this endeavor. “I applaud Dellscommitment toward filling a great void in the development of specialized treatments forchildhood cancers. Childhood cancer is the leading disease killer of American children.Because of the orphan nature of these diseases and the high cost of drug development forthem, it’s been difficult for the pharmaceutical industry to develop treatments,” he said. “Thisis the kind of private endeavor that is needed to save and improve the lives of so manychildren.”Recently, Congressman McCaul introduced legislation to incentivize the pharmaceuticalindustry to develop new treatments for pediatric cancer.The future holds new promise for cancer patients, thanks to dedicated researchers andphysicians, and ongoing public and private efforts to support their work. Eventually, cloudcomputing platforms like the one Dell is creating for TGen could become a model formanaging complex knowledge exchanges between those interested in participating inpersonalized medicine. Return to topA Note from Dr. LittDell’s chief medical officer, Dr. Andy Litt, responds to a New York Times op-edLast week, in a New York Times op-ed, “Our High-Tech Health-Care Future”, Frank Mossdescribed a future of American healthcare that truly is transformative. Imagine a healthcareworld founded on the principle that we should all be responsible for our own care, but giventhe tools to manage it effectively. Measuring our personal health data, analyzing that dataand providing predictive modeling to suggest future healthcare interventions is no moreradical than what is currently standard practice in manufacturing, retail and science – whynot in healthcare?A key requirement for this transformation will be a secure and connected healthcareenterprise. Without the IT backbone (probably using the cloud) and real interoperabilityamong healthcare IT systems, none of this is possible. Our collective goal should be todevelop that connectivity and transparency as quickly as possible. We have the tools to bothimprove quality and reduce cost and they all rely on real-time, complete and relevant dataavailability. Return to top

Are you prepared to adopt technology innovations in medical imaging?by Dan Trott, WW Strategy and Business Development ExecutiveInnovations in medical imaging directly impact the quality and cost of healthcare. Every newgeneration of medical imaging device offers improved capabilities for better diagnosis andmore efficient clinical workflow. As such, it is critical to keep pace with the technologicaladvancements and not let existing IT infrastructure and resources become a barrier toadoption. A case in point is the three to five year technology refresh cycle of Picture Archiveand Communication Systems (PACS) applications and the associated burden of migratinghistorical imaging data over to a newer and better PACS.Today, over 80 percent of all hospitals use PACS, and close to a third of all hospitals have 10or more different PACS in place. The proprietary nature of these platforms has built up silosof imaging data within clinical departments. Healthcare providers today are struggling togrow, manage, back-up and archive these application-specific data repositories.Consequently, the acquisition and management of storage takes over 20 percent of thehealthcare provider’s IT capital budget. Moreover, adoption of newer PACS technologyrequires migration of this historical data into a format that is compatible with the new system.The cost of such a migration depends directly on the volume and type of data beingmigrated, and could easily add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in incremental cost.These challenges can present an insurmountable hurdle for providers trying to adopt newertechnology to improve clinical workflow and patient care.A consolidated and application-neutral storage platform can help providers overcome thathurdle by giving them greater control over their imaging data and the flexibility to upgradePACS without the costly overheads of data migration. Better known as a Vendor NeutralArchive (VNA), this technology has the potential to consolidate images across multipleimaging modalities into a patient-centric data repository and better manage storageutilization. However, a true end-to-end solution needs to do much more than just eliminatedata silos. It needs to provide customers with a range of configuration options for datamanagement and deployment, a set of collaboration toolsets that meet their initial and futureneeds and a single point of contact to facilitate the integration, deployment and back-endsupport for the overall solution. Needless to say, the solution should comply with healthcareregulations, and offer a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in the long run. InSite One is now part of Dell’s Unified Clinical Archive solution. Visit us at RSNA booth #8713.Join us to explore what an ideal VNA solution looks like, and the key considerations behindselecting an implementation partner at this upcoming webinar with medical imagemanagement consultant Michael Gray on 17th November 2pm ET. Click here to register.You can also read Michael Gray’s blog on this topic here.As WW Strategy and Business Development Executive for the Unified Clinical Archive Solution, Dan is responsiblefor guiding the development and implementation of Dell’s solution for enterprise archiving of clinical informationin the Healthcare and Life Sciences organization. Return to top

HealthWatchA weekly digest of the latest news in the healthcare industryObama’s Healthcare Law Heads to Supreme Court- On Monday, the Supreme Courtgranted a hearing of the healthcare law’s individual mandate. This mandate requires that allpeople (with few exceptions) purchase health insurance in the United States. The hearing willtake place during the peak of election season in 2012 and should heavily impact Obama’s re-election campaign. The high court will focus on how the mandate affects other parts of thehealthcare law, and if found unconstitutional, it will be decided whether to strike down themandate or the entire law. Supreme Court Justices must also determine if a separate lawrestricts their ability to make a decision on the healthcare mandate before it actually takeseffect. Stay tuned for updates as we hear more on this story.Senators Hold Hearing on Protections against Health Data Breaches- Last Wednesday,privacy experts pushed for stronger enforcement from the federal government to curbhealthcare data breaches. According to a Reuters report, the Senate Judiciary Committeesprivacy, technology and law subcommittee heard testimony that many EHRs are rarelyencrypted and breaches are too frequently occurring due to misplacement of storagedevices and theft. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.), chair of the subcommittee, said currentfederal enforcement is “simply not satisfactory,” and that more crucial protections will beneeded to reduce potential data breaches. Others, like Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.),wondered whether or not EHRs are even worth the risk. Coburn, a physician himself, isconcerned that hackers may always have the potential to invade sensitive medicalinformation if it is stored electronically.Over Half of Office-Based Physicians e-Prescribe- According to new data from Surescripts,more than 52 percent of U.S. office-based physicians use electronic prescribing in theirpractices. Over 357,000 active e-prescribers are listed on the Surescripts network thatincludes office-based physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Notably, 94percent of pharmacies nationwide can now receive e-prescriptions. Surescripts Presidentand CEO, Harry Totonis, stated, "In three short years, the nation has moved from less than 10percent to more than 50 percent of physicians e-prescribing. This represents one of themost significant milestones achieved to date in the nationwide effort to adopt and achievemeaningful use of health information technology."A Billion Dollar Investment: Obama’s Healthcare Jobs Plan- A just-announced $1 billion proposal totrain and hire healthcare employees will be included in President Obama’s "We Cant Wait"campaign. The jobs plan aims to provide grants to healthcare professionals, organizations andgovernments that focus on programs to reduce healthcare costs, can be completed in a timelymanner (6 months) and most importantly, provide jobs in healthcare. “We’re seeking innovators,organizations, and leaders that have an idea to bring into further testing," said oneadministrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The healthcare industry,already one of the few promising components of the U.S. economy, is on track to add over3.2 million more jobs by 2018, but there is expected to be a shortage of doctors beginning in2015. Return to top

#TopTweetsA few tweets worth noting this week @CompasstoCare Compass to Care @Dell Powering the Possible Targets Kids Cancer starting with #neuroblastoma. Thanks for helping #kidswithcancer! http://bit.ly/rI8e9W @Cascadia Sherry Reynolds More then 21 000 iphone medical, health and wellness apps predicted by next summer bit.ly/tIZqz1^How many do you use? @DonFluckinger Don Fluckinger Healthcare sector urged to avoid further data leak gaffes #Healthcare #DPC #data http://www.siliconrepublic.com/strategy/item... #EHR #EMR #HIPAA @DellServices Dell Services Michael Dell speaks about how to distill #BigData into something more meaningful for customers. bit.ly/tjkneI @DellHealth Dell Healthcare Running out of #storage capacity? #Dell can help. Visit us at #RSNA beginning 11/27 at our booth in 8713 Hall B to learn more! #Radiology #UCA Return to topFor previous editions of The Washington Report, click here. To contact us, direct message us@DellHealth or send an email to Ask_Dell@Dell.com.

Washington Report- November 16, 2011

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Washington Report- November 16, 2011 Document Transcript