GE to test medical RFID

GE Healthcare has received the go-ahead from the Institutional Review Board at Bassett Medical Centre in New York to begin testing its Smart Patient Room health monitoring technology at the facility, writes e-Week.

Part of GE's Healthymagination initiative, the Smart Patient Room can determine, among other things, whether soap and sanitiser dispensers are used by medical personnel before and after seeing a patient.

According to Scott Gallagher, a senior consultant for GE Healthcare, radio-frequency identification sensors are installed in dispensers for soap or alcohol-based hand sanitisers to determine when medical personnel are using them and following hygiene protocol.

Just as the federal healthcare reforms are set to kick in this week, fresh evidence arrives from the Census Bureau that underscores the genuine need for fundamental change in the way Americans receive medical attention, says The Miami Herald.

The number of uninsured in America reached nearly 51 million people in 2009, compared to 46.3 million in 2008. That was an increase from 15.4% to 6.7% respectively.

Many of these newly vulnerable Americans don't fit the conventional stereotype of people who don't have, and can't get, insurance, says the report. They're middle class, and either recently unemployed or simply unable to access the health insurance market for one reason or another. According to the Census Bureau, of the 4.4 million newly uninsured, roughly half have incomes of $50 000 or more.

On Monday, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) released its certification programme for electronic health records (EHRs), IT Health Beat reports.

The office of the national co-ordinator for health IT announced that CCHIT was approved as an authorised testing and certification body under a temporary certification program for electronic health records.

The programme will allow vendors to receive certification for products designed to help health care providers meet stage one 'meaningful use' requirements. Healthcare providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments under the 2009 economic stimulus package.