Category: Uncategorized

The Big Day for Health 2.0

Oct 6, 2009• 2

By Matthew Holt

Yes, today is the big day for Health 2.0 or rather the first of two huge days. In less than 7 hours Indu and I will be stepping onto the stage and six months of work, rehearsals and excitement come to a climax. Many thanks in advance to all the speakers, sponsors, staff, exhibitors, volunteers and members of the Health 2.0 community for coming. We’re ready (or close as we’ll ever be!)

I can’t hope to capture all that’s happening, but here’s two big pieces of news. Myca just received an investment from Sandbox, the Blues venture fund. You can hear an interview I did with Nat Findlay, Myca CEO from a few days back here. You can see Myca both on the Clinical Groupware panel on Day 1 (today!) and in a sponsored Deep Dive on day 2.

And Keas, Adam Bosworth’s company, is formally launching on Day 2 and gets its own article in the NY Times today. You’ll be hearing more about this, and platforms and unplatforms throughout the conference!

Finally, THCB & Health 2.0 has its own little news. JD Kleinke (the Arriana Huffington of health care!) is emerging from a long period of seclusion and both pens his first article as a a THCB contributor today, but is also a very late addition to the “Can Health 2.0 Make Health Care More Affordable” panel at Health 2.0 today!

Let’s Not Lose Sight of the Goals

Oct 4, 2009• 10

By BILL KRAMER

I love Daniel Schorr. I’ve never met him in person, but I love his voice and his insights about politics on NPR’s Weekend Edition. But this morning I was disappointed. After listening to his comments on the Olympics and Iran, I looked forward with anticipation to his thoughts about the Senate Finance Committee’s accomplishments earlier this week on health reform legislation. When asked whether a “real health care bill” is likely to pass later this year, he said, “Well, it begins to look more [likely] . . . that there will be a bill. The question is not whether there will be a bill . . . but what will be left in the bill, because so many things have been taken out.” I could almost hear him sigh. He went on to talk about the fact that the public option is not a part of the Senate Finance bill, although it might be restored in full or part (through a trigger mechanism or health cooperatives) as the bill moves through Congress. Let’s step back for a minute. (This is what I usually rely on Schorr to do for us.) Where were we a year ago? Although advocates of health reform were encouraged that the health care crisis was getting a lot of attention in the Presidential election campaign, the outlook was not rosy. Obama and McCain were neck and neck, and McCain’s reform proposal was so weak as to be laughable. The pundits and pollsters were predicting that the Democrats would get about 56 seats in the Senate – not enough to overcome a filibuster. And there was serious concern that even if Obama were elected, health reform would be crowded out by other major crises – the threat of a serious economic depression, the banking collapse, Iraq/Afghanistan/Iran, energy and global climate change, and who knows what else. In October 2008, the likelihood of serious comprehensive health reform was probably about 25%.

Two big deals in Health 2.0

Oct 2, 2009

By Matthew Holt

John Halamka writes about the small but important meeting this week at Harvard Medical School hosted by Zak Kohane and Ken Mandl. Because of the impending arrival of about 1,000 of my best friends next week at Health 2.0, I couldn’t go to that meeting. But it may be very important in putting the “cats and dogs” together to think about ways for new platforms with players like Halamka and David Kibbe (who have not been on the same side of these issues) both taking part.

Meanwhile, yesterday Microsoft released My Health Info. I got a quick preview and it’s essentially a layer over HealthVault that allows both Microsoft and others to build widgets that can be arranged on sites like MSN Health (and presumably many more to come) which directly connect with the individual’s data in HealthVault. It essentially is the cool user interface that HealthVault has been missing and it’s more evidence of Microsoft’s serious intentions in consumer health care.

If you’re at Health 2.0 next week you’ll see Microsoft’s My Health Info and hear much, much more about what David Kibbe is calling Clinical Groupware, and also many demonstrations about we’re starting to call “unplatforms”.

While health reform is arguing about multiple amendments in Baucus’ committee and making some of us despair, the tech world is showing some real promise.

Money-Driven Medicine film now downloadable

Oct 1, 2009• 3

By Matthew Holt

If you want to watch the documentary Money Driven Medicine based on Maggie Mahar’s book, it’s now available for free download at moneydrivenmedicine.org (the DVD is also available for purchase). The free download is part of an ongoing “Watch-In! For America’s Health” — a national viewing party organized in conjunction with the Consumers Union.

Carrot or Stick? Should Patient Decision Aids Be Rewarded or Required?

Oct 1, 2009• 6

By DON KEMPER

Don kemper

Should we incent or require providers to prescribe patient decision aids?
Should we incent or require consumers to use patient decision aids?

Over-treatment is the most celebrated cause of runaway health care costs, but we shouldn’t blame the doctors. The fee-for-service system sets them up for over-treatment. First, they have been taught that offering all possible cures to every patient is good medicine. Second, malpractice law pushes them toward offering more testing and services, not less. And third, they generally get paid more when they do more. It’s hard to buck a triple-threat system like that without a little help from the patient. Fortunately, it’s not that hard for patients to provide that difference.Continue reading…

Can Social Media Save Healthcare Reform?

Oct 1, 2009• 2

By DANIEL PALESTRANT, MD

Daniel Palestrant is the Founder & CEO of Sermo, the largest online physician community, and a friend of THCB’s from the Health 2.0 world. Lately Dan has been seen on cable TV representing the 110K+ Sermo members in the health reform debate—including a very public break-up with Sermo’s former partners at the AMA, which has endorsed the House 3200 bill. I’ve been asking Dan, if his members’ don’t want the House bill, what do they want? This is the piece he sent me in reply—Matthew Holt

Speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm Technology Conference last month, longtime healthcare reform advocate, Howard Dean pointed out that the “dirty secret” of social media is that it can put a whole lot of politicians out of business because it allows the truth to bubble up. For the sake of healthcare reform, let’s hope he is right.

True healthcare reform has no chance of occurring with the current political topography. As the general public tries to make sense of the 1,000+ page version of the bill and President Obama distances himself from Howard Dean’s raison d’etre, the public option, two things are becoming increasingly clear:

1. There is very little actual healthcare reform going on.

2 The insurance companies look like they will win, no matter what, especially if you believe the cover of the most recent Business Week “The Health Insurers Have Already Won”.

At Sermo.com we seem to be seeing Governor Dean’s prediction come true.

The Health 2.0 Accelerator is really gunning it…

Oct 1, 2009• 2

By MATTHEW HOLT

The Health 2.0 Accelerator was a glimmer in the eye of Commerce.net’s Marty Tenenbaum late in 2007. But under the dedicated leadership of Julie Murchinson and Aaron Apodaca, something quite remarkable is happening. The Accelerator is an industry consortium, mostly made up of very small Health 2.0 companies who are just getting started in their own young lives. But working together they’re integrating data and services in a way that’s going to make consumers’ use of online health tools very different from the patchwork we see today.

And the effort is getting attention. Today Kaiser Permanente announced that it was joining the Accelerator, moving alongside Sage and Catholic Healthcare West as corporate members. And in the wings is a major health care data player, who’s going to be adding their seal of approval next week.

What’s happening here is the evolution of an ecosystem—an ecosystem where innovation on the web and in mobile Health 2.0 is now finding ways to present itself to consumers and healthcare organizations in new ways.

I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag completely, but I think that anyone who’s interested in seeing the evolution of Health 2.0 and the evolution of health care consumer technology will be fascinated by what around a dozen Health 2.0 Accelerator members are going to show—together—at the tools panel at the Health 2.0 Conference next week.

In the meanwhile kudos to Julie and Aaron, to Erick & Linda von Schweber from PHARMASurveyor who’ve been founding board members and have driven the technical process, to the folks from Sage who were great early supporters and to the more than 100 people and companies who’ve been supporting the Accelerator.

They’ve all made a real difference. And it’s just beginning.

I was largely in favor of Swiss-style health care…

Oct 1, 2009• 2

By Matthew Holt

until I found out that the people who the NY Times says are really in favor of it are Bill O’Reilly and Regina Herzlinger…

Actually I’m kidding. I knew Regi says she likes it, and Maggie Mahar ripped her position—(Herzlinger’s position being that she espouses a version of the Swiss system for the US)—to shreds a while back. But would Herzlinger really want to live in a world where there was no easy money to be made trading in the stock of health insurers who are defrauding state governments? But I’ve got to say that Herzlinger and O’Reilly make a interesting couple.…pass the falafel.

To Change Health Care, Change Diabetes.

Sep 29, 2009• 14

By DANA HAZA

As we work to change health care in America, we must recognize the need to dramatically change diabetes. Twenty-four million Americans have diabetes at a cost to our nation of an estimated $218 billion for diabetes and pre-diabetes, according to a series of studies recently published in Population Health Management. Imagine the effects diabetes will have on our health and economy in the future if we don’t take action now. The prevalence and economic burden of undiagnosed and pre-diabetes make the case for the importance of policies that promote early diagnosis and prevention. About 25 percent of Americans with diabetes aren’t even aware they have the disease. And, those with undiagnosed diabetes result in $18 billion in health expenses, or $2,864 per person each year, according to one of the studies mentioned above.

Another Look: Incident Reporting Systems

Sep 28, 2009• 4

By BOB WACHTER, MD

When the patient safety field began a decade ago with the publication of the IOM report on medical errors, one of its first thrusts was to import lessons from “safer” industries, particularly aviation. Most of these lessons – a focus on bad systems more than bad people, the importance of teamwork, the use of checklists, the value of simulation training – have served us well.But one lesson from aviation has proved to be wrong, and we are continuing to suffer from this medical error. It was an unquestioning embrace of using incident reporting (IR) systems to learn about mistakes and near misses.

The Aviation Safety Reporting System, by all accounts, has been central to commercial aviation’s remarkable safety record. Near misses and unsafe conditions are reported (unlike healthcare, aviation doesn’t need a reporting system for “hits” – they appear on CNN). The reports go to an independent agency (run by NASA, as it happens), which analyses the cases looking for trends. When it finds them, it disseminates the information through widely read newsletters and websites; when it discovers a showstopper, ASRS personnel inform the FAA, which has the power to ground a whole fleet if necessary. Each year, the ASRS receives about 40,000 reports from the entire U.S. commercial aviation system.