Data storage & backup for healthcare: electronic health records designed to improve the quality of care and reduce costs.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Healthcare

Recently, the Alaska Center for Pediatrics began an innovative pilot project that remotely links school nurses to health information for students with complex healthcare needs. Now, nurses at five Anchorage elementary schools-- Creekside, Fairview, Lake Otis, Tudor, and Tyson--can access the medical records of select students online. So far, the center has identified twenty-four students with complex healthcare needs at these schools. Eight of these students are enrolled in the pilot project.

All of the students in the pilot project are established patients of the Alaska Center for Pediatrics, a practice of Pinnacle Integrated Medicine, which is managing the pilot with the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS). So far, the project has generated quite a bit of excitement among the participating parents and school nurses, according to Dr. Thad Woodard of the Alaska Center for Pediatrics. "It's pretty early, but were already having some interaction and interest by the nurses," Woodard says. "So I would say it is off to a good start."

The federally-funded project allows nurses to access a care-management platform called Lightbeam through Pinnacle Integrated Medicine. Lightbeam lets them view "real-time" medical records data, including the students' medicines, vaccines, specialists, and even follow-up appointments. "Overall, through this electronic medical records technology, it is a better way to interact and stay up to date," says Woodard, a pediatrician with more than thirty years of practice experience.

The project is among a variety of national initiatives designed to demonstrate better quality, cost, and outcomes in healthcare through the improved coordination of care. "This is just another of any number of efforts that physicians and healthcare providers are trying to make to improve communications with the idea this will help us control costs and improve quality," Woodard says.

Pinnacle is also working with the Breast and Cervical Health Check program on a pilot project to improve women's breast and cervical cancer screening rates, according to a DHSS press release dated September 16. Primary care and OB/GYN practices will use Pinnacle's technology to identify Pinnacle patients whose age and health status suggest they should be screened for breast or cervical cancer. The women who are identified will be mailed a reminder to get screened, and those who fail to make an appointment will be sent additional health information.

"The Breast and Cervical Health Check program is excited to partner with Pinnacle to engage multiple providers in this innovative quality improvement and outreach model," Cheley Grigsby, Breast and Cervical Health Check Program Manager for DHSS, states in the press release. "This gives us the opportunity to identify rarely or never...