Physician Group To Provide Southeast Louisiana Patients Online Medication Information in the Event of Disaster, Developing National Model NEW ORLEANS, June 12
NEW ORLEANS, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Louisiana State University (LSU)
Healthcare Network today announced it has been selected as a recipient of the
Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund. Be Well Fund recipients were chosen from
nearly 200 proposals and announced at the second annual Microsoft HealthVault
Solutions Conference on June 10 in Bellevue, Wash.
LSU Healthcare Network, the multi-specialty physician practice comprised
of more than 500 faculty members of the LSU Health Sciences Center and LSU
School of Medicine, will use the Microsoft grant to implement a system
enabling tens of thousands of New Orleans-area patients and their doctors to
go online and download their active medications, medication history and
allergies. In the event of another disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which
devastated New Orleans in August 2005, patients who are evacuated from the
region without their medical records could log onto their Microsoft
HealthVault account to access their medication information and ensure they
receive appropriate short-term care. This vital medical information would
then be available to the patient wherever treatment is provided, dramatically
improving the quality of care and saving millions of dollars wasted on
redundant care that might be necessary if their records were lost.
Participating patients need not have a LSU Healthcare Network physician
but must have a Microsoft HealthVault account and their physicians must use
free, web-based electronic prescribing, or "e-prescribing," technology from
Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) to transfer information into their personal health
records. LSU Healthcare Network, Microsoft and Allscripts hope that the
program will establish a model that other cities threatened by natural
disaster can implement to protect their citizens' health in an emergency.
"We are honored to be chosen as a recipient of the Be Well Fund to
establish a model that cities across the United States can use to help
mitigate the health impacts of natural disasters," said Frank Opelka, MD,
Chief Executive Officer of LSU Health Network. "With an accurate personal
health record populated with clinically relevant data derived from Allscripts
ePrescribe and using an enabling technology like Microsoft HealthVault,
patients can take their medical records with them wherever they go, no matter
what potentially catastrophic conditions occur."
As the physician staff of the primary "safety net" clinics in New Orleans,
Baton Rouge and Lafayette, LSU Health Network serves the neediest patients in
Southeast Louisiana, the region hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. In a
broad-ranging response to the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, which
destroyed over 250,000 of LSU Health Network's paper medical charts and
displaced thousands of its patients and providers, LSU Health Network is
deploying an Electronic Health Record from Allscripts in their own clinics
across Southeast Louisiana. The physician group also is leading the
deployment of free, web-based electronic prescribing -- Allscripts
ePrescribe(TM) (formerly known as eRx NOW) -- to all physicians in the state
as the regional sponsor of the National ePrescribing Patient Safety
Initiative(TM) (NEPSI(TM)), a coalition of technology and healthcare companies
led by Allscripts and Dell, and co-sponsored by Microsoft and others.
"Microsoft is pleased to provide LSU Healthcare Network with seed funding
to help ensure the people of New Orleans have online access to their vital
health information whenever they need it, even in the event of a natural
disaster like Hurricane Katrina," said Peter Neupert, corporate vice
president, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. "Innovative provider
organizations like LSU and companies such as Allscripts are playing a
significant role in delivering on the promise of connecting health information
and bringing healthcare into the Internet Age."
Allscripts Chief Executive Officer Glen Tullman commented: "Our vision has
always been to provide physicians with the right information at the right
time, improving quality and reducing costs, while at the same time connecting
physicians to all of the most important healthcare stakeholders. With
Microsoft's new HealthVault technology, we can now realize that vision and
connect physicians with the most important stakeholder in healthcare, the
patient! We applaud the continued leadership of Dr. Frank Opelka and his team
and are proud of our strong partnership with Microsoft."
Mr. Tullman and Dr. Opelka are the co-chairs of NEPSI
(http://www.nationaleRx.com), whose other sponsors are Aetna, Cisco Systems,
Fujitsu, Google -- the coalition's Search Sponsor -- Horizon BCBS of New
Jersey, NaviMedix, Quest Diagnostics, Sprint Nextel, SureScripts, Wellpoint,
and Wolters Kluwer Health. The coalition supports the delivery of Allscripts
ePrescribe free of charge to any licensed prescriber in America.
The Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund is designed to stimulate
not-for-profit research and development across a broad range of health
disciplines that have the potential to significantly improve health and
wellness outcomes.
About LSU Healthcare Network
The LSU Healthcare Network is a team of over 500 physicians and 130
employees that has provided leading edge health services throughout Southeast
Louisiana since its founding in 1995. LSUHN's mission is to provide patients
with the highest quality, comprehensive medical care through a compassionate,
professional and patient-focused healthcare team that is committed to academic
excellence. LSUHN faculty have distinguished themselves through research and
innovation in Ophthalmology with LASIK surgery, Neurosciences, Level I Trauma
Care, Oncology with the Neuroendocrine Tumor Program, and Pediatric
Excellence. LSUHN's physicians were among the first to return to New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina and they continue to play an integral role in
rebuilding the healthcare delivery system in the region.
SOURCE Louisiana State University (LSU) Healthcare Network
