Podcast: TEPR Cell Phone Project

The just-completed Towards an Electronic Patient Record (TEPR) conference featured the unveiling of the TEPR Cell Phone Project, an eight-month effort to study and prove the efficacy of the mobile phone as a hub of interoperability in healthcare. (You can read my Digital HealthCare & Productivity story about the project here.)

The Medical Records Institute, which puts on TEPR, is partnering with AllOne Health Group, a Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based health and wellness services provider, to conduct this test of bottom-up, consumer-controlled health information exchange. The study begins June 1, and results will be released at TEPR 2009 next February.

During Monday’s TEPR Cell Phone Project press conference, I peppered AllOne executives with some tough questions about their plans, and was not shy about voicing my skepticism about personal health records. In a rare show of tact on my part, I did so without offending anyone. In fact, Frank Avignone, director of business and sales development for AllOne Health subsidiary AllOne Mobile, agreed to join me the following day to record this podcast.

Podcast details: Interview with Frank Avignone, director of business and sales development, AllOne Mobile Health, about the TEPR Cell Phone Interoperability Project. Recorded May 20, 2008. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 10.8 MB. Running time 23:37.

0:54 Background on the company and its technology
2:00 Interoperability study
3:30 Metrics being measured
4:00 Convergence of Dossia, Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault, and the subtle differences
5:50 Technology behind AllOne Mobile Health
6:49 Phone requirements and registration process
8:25 Continuity of Care Record
8:50 Why consumers might accept this technology
10:25 Data input options
11:50 Provider access to data
12:37 Workflow considerations
14:10 Pragmatic approach to uptake
14:35 Logistics of the study
16:25 Study participants
17:30 Mobile phone carriers
19:30 ROI for end users
21:00 Marketing strategy
22:18 Study goals