he Committee on Electronic Media and Information Technology (EMIT) continues to develop innovative programs that help ASA and its members. EMIT members were on hand at the ASA Resource Center at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Chicago last October. The theme of our exhibit was emergency communication, and we fielded many interesting questions about the best ways to talk when the power goes out. Using communication technology to improve clinical care is an ongoing theme for EMIT. Two years ago, EMIT published a landmark study showing that using cellular telephones may improve patient care, and several hospitals have used that study to decrease the restrictions on telephone use in critical care areas. Several committee members recently published the results of a study on how well information from preanesthesia testing clinics is sent to the operating room on the day of surgery. The results of this study can be used to develop communication strategies that make the preanesthesia visit more productive.¹

At its winter meeting in January 2007, EMIT discussed the archive of electronic ASA documents. For example the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology (WLM) stores books and letters, photographs, videotapes and 16 mm films that document the history of our specialty. All of these media are subject to degradation, and it is rapidly becoming impossible to find film projectors or certain kinds of videotape players. While books and letters on paper can always be read, paper eventually fades and disintegrates over time, and motion and skin oils accelerate decomposition even with careful handling. As a result, the WLM has asked EMIT to suggest ways to preserve ASA’s important collection of documents while making them available to members on the Web.

EMIT also has been working to speed payment of health insurance claims. EMIT represents ASA at meetings of Accredited Standards Committee X12, the group that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act charged with creating standards for electronic submission of health insurance claims. X12 sponsored a conference on real-time claims adjudication in Washington, D.C., last February. The goal of this meeting was to jump-start a process whereby health care insurance claims can be processed immediately, ideally before the patient leaves the hospital. This will have several clear benefits for all physicians: An all-electronic workflow may mean that fewer office staff are required to call patients or insurers. It also will be possible to submit a claim and get payment information immediately after the surgery has been completed.

Perhaps most importantly, EMIT members are developing innovative educational programs. EMIT presents an annual series of computing workshops at the Annual Meeting that are sold out nearly every year. The topics of the workshops reflect the interests of ASA members, and last year we added new presentations on digital photography and Photoshop, among others. EMIT has been working with the Committee on Outreach Education to develop electronic continuing medical education, including an Annual Meeting Highlights series in which selected lectures presented at ASA meetings are made available for viewing on the Web.

As always our most important source of new ideas is ASA’s membership. We look forward to helping you with your information technology needs.

Bibliography:
Holt NF, Silverman DG, Prasad R, Dziura J, Ruskin KJ. Preanesthesia clinics, information management, and operating room delays: Results of a survey of practicing anesthesiologists. Anesth Analg. 2007; 104(3):615-618.y.

Keith J. Ruskin, M.D., is Professor of Anesthesiology and Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.