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Matthew Holt

JOB POST: Help Wanted, Intrepid Physician Needed

Who would like to join a Norman Rockwell inspired, old-fashioned New Hampshire General Practice, and put some grace in their life?   

The Last privately owned and operated General Practice in all of Strafford County New Hampshire seeks a young(er) associate physician. The good news: I am a Harvard educated MD MPH with 42 years experience, working this practice since 1989. I run an old fashioned General Practice/Walkin Practice and am on call 24/7 via pager and cellphone.  This generally means that all calls are handled before 9PM, and then we see those who called, the very next day, on immediate followup.

This “bygone era” immediate care approach gives me the lowest admission rate of any physician on the local hospital staff, and extraordinary acceptance by local and distant patients. (We see patients from New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, and further) Approximately 10,000 people in the Rochester catchment area, and beyond, believe that I am their family doctor, and have been fiercely loyal.

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PHYSICIANS: A “black box” for docs by John Irvine

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OB-GYN Dr. Gil Mileikowsky was forced from his position at Encino Medical Center in Los Angeles after he testified in a 2003 case involving a medical mistake at the hospital. A day after confirming in court that doctors in his department mistakenly removed both of a woman’s fallopian tubes in error, he found himself being escorted from the building by security on the orders of administrators. Tenet Health Systems, the company that operates the hospital, likely rues that day.

Enraged by his treatment,  Dr. Mileikowsky went to war, becoming an outspoken advocate of changes to the federal whistle blower laws
protecting doctors, arguing that administrators use dirty tricks to destroy
the reputations of doctors who speak out when mistakes are made — labeling them as "disruptive" and organizing "sham peer review" proceedings.  His passionate arguments won the support of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. He would be represented in court  by star attorney Alan Derschowitz. A California court threw out Mileikowsky’s subsequent case against Tenet.  Earlier this month, however, that decision was reversed, in a ruling that likely foreshadows serious problems ahead for hospital operators who want to avoid scrutiny of safety conditions at their facilities.  Last week, Dr. Mileikowsky testified to a hearing held by the Small Business Administration on the need for added protections in the system. His solution: a metaphorical "black box" at hospitals and an "FAA" to monitor safety conditions in the healthcare system. In this YouTube segment he talks about the issues involved and the current state of safety reporting. — John Irvine

UPDATE: You can learn more about Dr. Mileikowsky’s campaign against medical errors at the web site of the organization he founded, the Alliance for Patient Safety.

BLOGS: Healthcare blog 100

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So a couple of people have pointed me to the Healthcare 100. I was amused elated to find that I am #8. Actually it’s not really a health care blog list, it’s a health care and medical blog list. And the #1 is London Ambulance man who writes Random Acts of Reality. But then I was crushed to find on davidrothman.net that only a few days ago I was in the top 5. Now THCB is in free fall!

More seriously, it’s a fun list, but probably the leading blog in all of health care (certainly in term of revenue generation), HISTalk, isn’t on it

JOB POST: Data analyst – IPRO

IPRO,
one of the leading health care quality improvement organizations in the
United States, is seeking a talented, motivated individual to bolster
our health informatics analysis in the production of Web-based health
care report cards. The position is part-time (22.5 hrs. per week), and
the work week is flexible.

IPRO’s clients include federal and
state agencies, health care providers, managed care organizations,
commercial insurers, corporations, business coalitions and unions.

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HEALTH2.0/TECH: Another Health2.0 aquisition–Healia snapped up by magazine & publishing giant

Healia, one of the leading new health care vertical search engines, despite being an early stage start-up, has already attracted the attention of the big boys. And one of them, Meredith the publisher of lots of female-aimed magazines, decided that it liked it so much it bought the company yesterday. It’s going to use the technology at home, and then try to sell it on.

In addition, Meredith and Healia will expand the functionality of Healia.com and will offer the technology through licensing and distribution agreements with select health organizations, consumer Web sites, employers and other premier partners.

Hopefully they’ll let it alone enough to let Tom Eng and his team keep building it out.

POLICY: Eye-candy, Channel swimming and care for the uninsured.

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This kid (young man’s name is John Heineman) is swimming the English channel to raise money for a free clinic in Iowa. His aunt wrote to me pointing it out, and he certainly sounds like a very interesting and incredibly determined guy. He’s combining an interest in health policy with charity work and incredible sporting fortitude/insanity. Even thought he went to Oxford, I wish him lots of luck.

Of course the picture is for enjoyment of the female/gay readers of THCB!

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PHYSICIANS/HEALTH2.0: Sermo AMA interview

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This is the transcript of my interview last month with Sermo’s Daniel Palestrant on the announcement of the deal between Sermo and the AMA

Matthew Holt:  This is Matthew Holt with The Health Care Blog and a quick impromptu podcast today, because I have on the line with me Daniel Palestrant. Daniel’s the CEO of Sermo, and we’ve had Daniel on the blog before a couple of times. Those of you reading the blog know that Sermo is one of the leading online physician communities, and Daniel of course will be at the Health 2.0 Conference coming up in September. Daniel, how are you today? And after you’re done with that, you have some interesting news. So tell us.

Daniel Palestrant:  That’s right, Matthew. Thank you for having me. I really always appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and the many readers of the Health Care Blog. As you mentioned, we’re very much looking forward to the conference later in the year; it sounds like it’s going to be quite a show. As far as the news that we’re talking about on this particular interview, it’s a strategic announcement being announced between Sermo and the American Medical Association.

Matthew:  So tell us a little bit about what that’s going to mean for Sermo, for the AMA, and for the future of doctors in communities online.

Daniel:  Well, this is a relationship that’s actually been in the works for several months now; I’d almost say going on a year. There’s many different ways to look at the relationship. Sermo, of course, is the largest online physician community. Now, with almost 16,000 physicians, growing at anywhere between 500 and 1000 physicians a week. The AMA, as I’m sure most of your readers know, is the premier physician advocacy organization in this country. Indeed, it probably has the exclusive franchise as being the voice to represent all physicians in the United States. So, as Sermo gained more and more momentum, it became more and more logical for us to look to have some sort of a partnership with the American Medical Association. Indeed, it was the members of the Sermo community who started putting more and more clarity around what that relationship would look like.

So it is multi-faceted, but to touch on some of the key points, I’d say first off that this is a powerful way for the American Medical Association to tap into the voice of Sermo. If you think about it, there’s an interesting dynamic: You have the American Medical Association, which is among the oldest of the associations in this country, well over 150 years old and the essence of establishment institutions. Then you have Sermo, which is this grassroots – what some people might describe as Web 2.0 – phenomenon. Physicians in all walks of life and all phases of their career coming together and having a voice. So what Sermo does very effectively is create a place for those people to come together and for those voices to be heard – and then, within the unique Sermo architecture, for specific messages to come out. What the AMA does very well is to advocate for the messages of the physicians. That was the first cornerstone of this relationship: Sermo being a mechanism of allowing physicians to have their voices heard, and the AMA being an organization that’s uniquely suited to act on that voice.The second aspect of the relationship is a new paradigm in information and publishing. As many people might know, the American Medical Association is a publisher of several of the top medical journals, including the "Journal of the American Medical Association," or "JAMA." And then the "Archive" series, including the "Archives of General Medicine" and the "Archives of Surgery." Through the Sermo relationship, for the first time ever, Sermo members will be able to gain free full-text access of those journal articles, both current and archived versions, through Sermo. This will be free of charge; it will be part of being a Sermo member.The hope is that this will herald a new era in physicians’ being able to contribute to the academic literature and being able to comment in real time on the academic literature.The third component of the relationship is what you might call a co-development, where Sermo and the American Medical Association will be endeavoring to develop certain technologies for facilitating group discussion and group communication among AMA groups and AMA subgroups.

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