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An electronic cure for medical files

A Tampa firm wrestles with Silicon Valley for a grant to help broaden electronic record-keeping in the bay area.

By MADHUSMITA BORA, Times Staff Writer
Published September 13, 2007

As advanced as the medical world appears to patients, the industry's still a Neanderthal as record keepers.

Patients' records are often documented in reams of paper, bound in clunky, cumbersome files that can be easily destroyed or misplaced.

And unlike electronic records, they can't be shared between physicians with a click of a mouse.

Now, a Tampa Bay businessman says he wants to change that, at least in this region.

David Schlaifer, CEO of Tampa-based Doctors' Administrative Solutions, a practice management company, recently applied for a grant that would help an estimated 600 area physicians go paperless.

The award in the form of software is being doled out by the Mysis Center for Community Leadership in Raleigh, N.C. Launched by Mysis Healthcare Systems in June 2006, the center promotes the broader use of electronic medical records.

Tampa and San Jose, Calif., are finalists among 90 applicants for a Mysis grant. The grant, estimated at $3-million, will go toward purchasing software for the electronic medical records system.

"We want to find a community that has passion and a high-level excitement around the idea of health care," said Leigh Burchell, Mysis center director.

The award, expected to be announced in the next few weeks, would double the number of physicians equipped with technology for electronic medical records, Schlaifer said. His company promised to install the system at market cost.

"I am just passionate about taking health care into the 21st century and saw this as an opportunity to bring the Tampa Bay area to be at the top of the high-tech mountain," Schlaifer said.

It's not just a tech issue. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that at least 44,000 and as many as 98,000 die each year because of preventable medical errors.

Although the report doesn't single out paper charts and records as villains, it cites the decentralized and fragmented health care delivery system as a factor. A paperless system connecting physicians, hospitals and pharmacies through a secured network would save many lives, experts say.

A 2005 National Ambulatory Medical Care survey found 23.9 percent of office-based physicians are riding the electronic medical record wave. In 2001, 18.2 percent physicians had embraced the system. In the Tampa Bay area, about 600 physicians have adopted the system, Schlaifer said. The Mysis grant would double that number to 1,200.

Electronic records improve efficiencies and reduce errors. What's holding back physicians and caregivers from going paperless are costs and a skepticism about the lack of a unified, standardized network, said Dr. Jay Wolfson, professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida.

In 2004, President Bush outlined a plan to encourage electronic health records for Americans within 10 years. States like Florida acted on the initiative forming Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIO) to champion for a unified network.

Schlaifer said the cause became a passion when his father was struggling with cancer. His father spent more time physically transferring paperwork from doctor to doctor than on treatment.

"I looked and said, 'What a way to spend the last year of your life,' " he said. His company started dabbling in the technology four years ago.

If Tampa wins the grant, it would help the area reach a critical mass for a unified network exchange, said Laura Kolkman, president of Mosaica Partners, a consulting company for the RHIOs.

"We are at the point for a real sea change here," she said.

USF's role in transition to electronic records

Though many people have grown comfortable with online banking, they are nervous about the security of an electronic system that would house sensitive health information.

USF is working with the Regional Health Information Organization to address those fears and encourage faster adoption of the technology, says Dr. Jay Wolfson, professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida.

Many of the security systems and encryption protections used in the financial industry are being replicated for electronic medical records, Wolfson said.

But a standardized security network for sharing information between physicians and hospitals is lacking. So far, federal law mandates a "business association agreement" - a generic set of rules - that allows for secure data handling between two parties.

[Last modified September 12, 2007, 23:14:36]