News

Local doctors leading electronic records push

By Katie Curley
Staff Writer
Published: July 11, 2008

NEWBURYPORT — According to a recent survey in the New England Journal of Medicine, between 4 percent and 13 percent of physicians nationwide are using electronic medical records.

In Newburyport, 90 to 100 percent of doctors are using them.

The city was the first in the state to launch the electronic records program, called the e-Health Collaborative at the state level, or Wellport in Newburyport, as the state aims to become the first in the country to have a full electronic records system in place.

"We are the Daniel Boone of this technology, and a lot of this is doing case studies of what has worked so far and what hasn't," said Dr. Richard Mindess, an orthopedic surgeon with a local practice who is president and CEO of Wellport. "There is a steep learning curve."

The new records system will eliminate many of the paper files in doctors' offices, and already most local doctors are involved at some level. The final kinks are now being worked out in an effort to have the system in place by 2009.

"We are rolled out as far as information being exchanged, but we are still not where we eventually want to be yet," said Mindess. "We have a few thousand patients using the exchange, but we are still working on the technical aspect of getting the different software systems to speak the same language."

Over the past six months, Mindess has been working to strengthen Wellport from the inside out. When it is complete, patients' medical records will be online in one database, allowing doctors to be able to see what kind of care a patient has received from other physicians, avoid duplication of medicines and prevent errors.

"Hopefully, when the whole system comes to bear, everyone will receive better care," Mindess said.

Another advantage: Patients will be more accountable for scheduling future blood tests, mammograms or other treatments.

"If I prescribe a blood test for six months from now and write it down on a piece of paper, you take it home and it gets lost and you don't schedule it," Mindess said. "In Wellport I will be able to send you reminders via the personal health portal and keep reminding you. It will also be able to pull up which women in a certain age group have not had a mammogram and make tracking those women down to schedule easier."

The Greater Newburyport eHealth initiative is collaborating with the Lower Merrimac Valley Physician Hospital Organization and the Whittier Independent Practices Association - Mindess is CEO and medical director of these groups - and Anna Jaques Hospital. Some 125 doctors in the region have been tabbed to be part of the pilot program, and in addition, 40 doctors who are indirectly part of practices, such as hospital-based physicians, are also involved.

So far nearly 80 doctors are participating. Mindess said that's almost full participation by local physicians.

Along with sites chosen in Brockton and North Adams, Anna Jaques will serve as a model for the state's overall eHealth Collaborative

"Newburyport was the first to launch, and we have learned from what we have encountered there," said Mickey Tripathi, president and CEO of Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative. "It's amazing how physicians have adopted the system and how rapidly they are moving toward full adoption of the system."

The eHealth initiative, financed with an infusion of $50 million from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts three years ago, will begin taking shape in the next three months. In addition, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has given Wellport a grant to research how the electronic health system will aid in the treatment of diabetes patients.

"All three communities are very different and done terrifically well in adoption," Tripathi said. "The benchmark I use is how we are doing compared to the rest of the country."

Mindess said much of his time over the past six months has been spent finding out how information is put into the system and under what names.

"There are so many variations," Mindess said. "If a doctor puts in an order for a complete blood scan and uses lower case versus upper case, it may not work. We are working on creating a common language."

If opting in, the patient's medical records, lab results and other selected information will be put online and made available to be shared among other physicians and specialists. With the high rate of patients opting in, Tripathi says it makes a statement about the trust of those in the city.

"I hope it shows patients' confidence in all the care taken to make this a secure system and a system which has taken consumer and patient input to give them control over whether they opt in or not," Tripathi said. "It shows they feel comfortable and they trust and their physicians trust. If one of those groups didn't trust, eHealth wouldn't work."