Bronx Medical Records Network Set
Six hospitals and health care organizations in the Bronx are set to launch a regional network next month for sharing electronic medical records.
The "regional health information system," a partnership that includes 28 health care providers throughout the borough, will enable physicians to see a patient's medical records wherever the patient is treated. The Bronx RHIO, as the partnership is known, is seeking to enroll 1.36 million Bronx residents in the network. It will be rolled out at Montefiore Medical Center and Bronx Lebanon Hospital this month, and at four or more other facilities soon after that, organizers said.
"We cover the whole Bronx region in a way that no one else is doing, at this point, for any other region of the city," the Bronx RHIO's executive director, Barbara Radin, said. "You can see their lab results, their medications, and it will all be integrated into one screen."
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FORMER LT. GOV. CANDIDATE NAMED PATERSON'S COUNSEL
A former hospital executive and onetime candidate for lieutenant governor, Dr. Jon Cohen, has been hired by the Paterson administration as a senior adviser.
Dr. Cohen "thoroughly understands the state's hospital network, its specific challenges and the investments that must be made to support the future of quality health care," Governor Paterson said in a statement announcing the appointment.
A vascular surgeon, Dr. Cohen previously served as chief medical officer and senior vice president of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. In 2006, he ran for lieutenant governor on a platform that advocated health care reform. In the fall, he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as managing director of health industries advisory services.
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SLOAN-KETTERING RECEIVES $5 MILLION FOR BLADDER CANCER RESEARCH
The founder of Infinity Broadcasting Corp., Michael Wiener, has donated $5 million to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for bladder cancer research.
The gift will create the Michael A. and Zena Wiener Research and Therapeutics Program in Bladder Cancer, the hospital announced. Researchers plan to focus on "biomarkers," a measure of a disease or condition's progress. They will also "zero in" on the genetic changes of the disease, hospital officials said.
About 69,000 people nationwide are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year. "We are in a position to greatly expand our knowledge in this area and to begin designing even more accurate and effective approaches to early detection," a urologic surgeon at Sloan-Kettering, Dr. Bernard Bochner, said in a statement.
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$105 MILLION WILL FUND HEALTH IT PROJECTS STATEWIDE
More than a dozen health information technology projects statewide have received a new infusion of state funding, with $105 million in grants announced last week.
The grants, to 19 organizations statewide, will fund projects seeking to implement electronic medical records. The projects will connect Medicaid information to electronic health records. Records also will be linked to the New York State Immunization Registry.
Several of the award recipients are based in New York City. The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene received $7.7 million; the Bronx RHIO $9.9 million, and the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange received two grants, one for $9.9 million, and another for $2.8 million. The state also awarded $7.7 million to the Interboro RHIO in New York City and $4.6 million to the Sunset Park Health Council in New York City.
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TWO REPORTS DETAIL NEW YORK'S UNINSURED
The United Hospital Fund released two reports yesterday containing health and economic information on New York's 2.2 million uninsured adults and children.
One report, which focused on individuals who are uninsured but eligible for public health insurance, found that eligible individuals tend to be in better health than those enrolled in public health insurance programs. The other report, which examined uninsured people in the workforce, found that three-quarters of uninsured workers are not offered employer-sponsored health care. The report also found that 80% of high-income workers were offered health insurance by their employer, compared to 50% of low-income workers.
In a statement, UHF officials said the reports were meant to offer insight into the state's efforts to increase health insurance enrollment.
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AHA: HANDS-ONLY CPR WORKS AS WELL AS STANDARD CPR
The American Heart Association announced yesterday that hands-only CPR is as effective as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults, the Associated Press reported.
"You only have to do two things. Call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person's chest," an emergency medicine professor at Ohio State University who led the committee that made the recommendation, Dr. Michael Sayre, told the AP.
One hundred uninterrupted chest presses a minute are recommended during hands-only CPR, the AP reported, until paramedics take over or an automated external defibrillator can be applied.
esolomont@nysun.com
