Leaping into the IT Fray VISICU supports Leapfrog initiatives July 1st, 2002 By: Leigh Page Not all healthcare professionals are sold on computerized physician order entry-or the Leapfrog Group touting it. Delegates at the June AMA meeting in Chicago presented a resolution titled "Leapfrogging the medical staff" that warned the AMA to "exercise extreme caution with the Leapfrog Group and other business coalitions to avoid implied and unintended concurrence with the recommendations of such groups." A committee report labeled Leapfrog standards as "unsubstantiated by research . . . implemented without regard to the potential for disrupting clinical practice." Delegates appear to be wary of Leapfrog standards that affect clinical practice, such as hiring intensivists or requiring the use of CPOE. Intensive care unit specialists clearly have other ideas. Intensivist Brian Rosenfeld, M.D., CMO and co-founder of VISICU, a Baltimore-based telemedicine company that provides remote monitoring of ICUs, touts his company's eICU® concept as better alternative to CPOE. Data that Leapfrog relies on suggests that round-the-clock intensivist coverage can save at least 53,000 lives annually, vs. just 7,000 for CPOE, Rosenfeld says. An eICU® can be up and running within 120 days, compared to two years or more for CPOE, at one-third the cost, he says. "We're firm believers in CPOE," Rosenfeld emphasizes. But he advises hospital executives to ask, "With which one do I get the biggest bang for the buck?"