Category: Uncategorized

Beyond Wikipedia

May 23, 2009• 23

By NAOMI FREUNDLICH

No surprise, these days more and more doctors are searching online for medical information. What is surprising, however, is that in a recent study, nearly 50% of physicians indicated that they use Wikipedia—the open-access encyclopedia that allows anyone to edit articles—as their source for medical information.

The study, conducted by Manhattan Research, and reported on here found that although physicians were visiting Wikipedia for medical conditions and other health information, only about 10% of the 1,900 physicians surveyed created new posts or edited existing posts on the encyclopedia.

“The number of physicians turning to Wikipedia for medical information has doubled in the past year alone,’ said Meredith Abreu Ressi, vice president of research at Manhattan Research. ‘Physicians, just like consumers, are heavily search engine reliant, and often Wikipedia results are what come up in the top of the organic results.’

Abreu Ressi noted the concern about accuracy regarding Wikipedia, which allows its users to create content for the site essentially without restriction. Articles are subject to perpetual editing by Wikipedia’s readers. Inevitably, false information sometimes slips through the cracks.”

Wikipedia is not a reliable source of medical information for doctors.

How to Waste a Boatload of ARRA Money

May 22, 2009• 70

By CINDY THROOP

Cindy on Bus I want to take a moment to make sure we are all on the same page here with the business of health care reform. This is inanely simple. When it comes to health care, keep doing things the same way. It’s a proven business model. Here are a few specific pointers.1) Don’t Involve ConsumersThis is really critical. Do *not* ask consumers what they want. Whatever you do, don’t ask consumers to define “meaningful use.” These kinds of rhetorical debates are best left to academics and bureaucrats inside the beltway. Every time a consumer mentions anything resembling meaningful use or a “personal” health record, change the subject immediately.2) Act Like Privacy Issues are InsurmountableThe possibilities here are endless. The more you can distract consumers with potential privacy issues, the less they will pay attention to the ways in which they would benefit from having true ownership of their health care data.

3) Don’t Learn from Other IndustriesDon’t bother reading that book by Clay Christenson. He has spent a decade studying the inefficiencies of the health care system. Inefficient by whose standards? Let the academics put their two cents in when it comes to meaningful use, but don’t listen to any of that Harvard B-school innovation nonsense.4) Act Like Open Source Doesn’t ExistFortunately, most people have long forgotten that once upon a time, software was free and/or inexpensive. They continue to blindly support proprietary software, even during a prolonged recession. They even purchase new computers to run this bulky, expensive software!This ties into the next point. 5) Think Short TermThe time to think through any major conceptual problems is not now. Come up with brilliant, yet strangely expensive health care solutions (remember, they must be proprietary). Don’t worry about long term sustainability or stupid things like sharing your source code. Having proprietary solutions is exactly the leverage you need to maintain your involvement in perpetuating, I mean solving, the problem. This is advice you can (both literally and figuratively) take to the bank.Oh, yeah, speaking of the bank, by the time tax payers realize what you’ve done, you will have already deposited your bonus check and had a fabulous spa treatment.

Cindy Throop is a University of Michigan-trained social science researcher specializing in social policy and evaluation. She is one of the few social workers who can program in SAS, SPSS, SQL, VBA, and Perl. She provides research, data, and project management expertise to projects on various topics, including social welfare, education, and health. www.cindythroop.com

Bringing Patients into the Health IT Conversation About “Meaningful Use”

May 21, 2009• 37

6a00d8341c909d53ef01157025976b970b-pi By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER

The Obama health team at HHS and ONC are gradually establishing the rules that will determine how approximately $34 billion in ARRA/HITECH funds are spent on health IT over the next several years. But there is a “missing link” in these deliberations that, so far, has not been addressed by Congress or the Administration: how the patient’s voice can be “meaningfully used” in health IT. After all, we, the taxpayers, will pay for all this hardware, software, and associated training. There are many more consumers of health care than doctors or health care professionals. Shouldn’t we have a say in what matters – in what is meaningful – to us?

It may have been an oversight, but patients and consumers have been left very much on HITECH’s sidelines. The attention and the money is squarely aimed at the health care providers – doctors, clinics, and hospitals. The Act’s intention is to create “interoperable” electronic health records that, in the future, will be more accessible to them: doctors, clinics, and hospitals. This is a policy that is tied unnecessarily to an outdated vision. It is provider-centered, paternalistic and top-down. But it could be re-imagined to take advantage of the new ways millions of consumers, patients, and care giving families are using information and communications technologies to solve problems, form online communities, and share information and knowledge.

Healthcare IT Checkup

May 21, 2009

Web-based Tool Equips Healthcare IT Professionals with a National Benchmark on Clinical Application and IT Infrastructure Investment

CDW Healthcare, part of the public sector subsidiary of CDW Corporation and a leading provider of technology products and services to healthcare organizations, today announced the release of the IT Checkup Self-Assessment Tool, a Web-based program which enables hospital IT managers to evaluate their clinical application and IT infrastructure investment and receive an instant score indicating how their healthcare organization compares to averages from across the U.S. The tool is based upon the results of the CDWHealthcare IT Checkup, a national survey of healthcare IT professionals, which CDW Healthcare reported in March.

Using the self-assessment tool, hospital IT managers, CIOs and senior leadership answer 19 questions about the sophistication and capacity of their clinical applications and IT infrastructure. The questions highlight indicators of relative strength or weakness in both areas and provide results that are meant to guide discussions between IT managers and senior leadership about the importance of pursuing a balanced approach to clinical IT implementations. No findings based upon individual usage of the Self-Assessment Tool will be made publicly available. The CDWHealthcare IT Checkup Self-Assessment Tool is online at http://www.healthitcheckup.com.

AMA Manual of Style is Now Online

May 21, 2009

Oxford University Press is proud to present the launch of the online version of AMA Manual of Style (launching June 2009), an essential tool for everyone involved in medical or scientific publishing. The online version is written and updated by a committee of editors from JAMA and the Archives Journals, making researching quick and convenient. And as many in the scientific and medical communities know, being able to find information quicker via browsing and searching a website instead of flipping through a manual saves a lot of time, however users are also offered numerous other online features, including:

Style policy changes highlighted and explained
Learning and training resources
An SI conversion calculator
Commentary from editors of JAMA and the Archives Journals
Open URL bibliographic references

http://www.amamanualofstyle.com/home

THCB is Sponsored by:

May 20, 2009

Directus – Create your own CME with the sources you trust

May 20, 2009• 1

Whether you spend a few minutes or an hour
researching online, Directus is the most straight forward way earn AMA/PRA Category 1 Credits™ for your efforts. Wherever your
research is focused – from drug protocols to patient symptoms to medical journals – Directus lets you quickly state
your objectives and expectations, measure your success and submit your time for CME credit.

https://www.directus.cme.edu/

5th Annual Games for Health Conference 2009 in Boston, June 11-12

May 20, 2009

The 5th Annual Games for Health Conference 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts on June 11-12 is closing in.

You can still register for $499.00 for the core conference and $599.00 for the conference+pre-conference events.

You can receive 15% off the normal registration rate by entering the discount code of bos09 during registration.

MAIN SCHEDULE NOW ONLINE

You can find the core schedule for the conference now online at:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p9ekyWGoKP7oLryMizeugTw

Games Accessibility Day (June 10)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p9ekyWGoKP7oJbqar0v4zAg

Pre-conference schedule for Virtual Worlds in Health Day is still forthcoming

TOUR GAMES FOR HEALTH
Dr. Ernie Medina takes you on a 2 minute tour of Games for Health 2008
http://www.gamesforhealth.org/video.html

TRAVEL & HOTEL
Games for Health 2009 is located at the Boston Hyatt Harborside hotel.
To reserve a room please contact:

Hyatt Harborside Hotel
617.568.1234

A Games for Health Conference rate may still be available while supplies last

The Games for Health 2009 conference will be hosted in partnership with
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio, which has
served as the leading sponsor of the Games for Health Project since
2004. The Pioneer Portfolio supports innovative ideas that may lead to
significant breakthroughs in the future of health and health care;
having recognized the transformative potential of games, its support
has helped Games for Health to become the leading professional
community in the growing health games arena.

The Cost of Health Reform – $1.5 Trillion or … ?

May 20, 2009• 3

By ROGER COLLIER

Putting the political cart firmly before the horse, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony last week on how to pay for reform—before they had reliable estimates of how much it is likely to cost.

It’s not that there aren’t plenty of estimates to choose from. A recent Associated Press report offered ten-year forecasts ranging from “the president’s $634 billion…is likely to be the majority of the cost” (White House budget director Peter Orszag) to “$125 billion to $150 billion a year” (New America Foundation economist Len Nichols) to “$1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion would be a credible estimate” (Lewin Group consultant John Sheils). Take your pick.

What’s really the number that Senate Finance members must find a way to fund? Leaving aside mythical savings like the $2 trillion sort-of promised by health care industry bigwigs, and the almost as questionable cost reductions for delivery system tweaks offered at previous Senate Finance sessions, the question becomes: how much new spending will universal coverage add?

PHR Evolution

May 20, 2009• 5

By JOSH SEIDMAN

I participated in a personal health record (PHR) workshop yesterday hosted by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). CDT’s goal was to gain input from a wide array of stakeholders (an impressive collection of about 40 health care leaders with different types of expertise in PHRs) to help inform CDT’s recommendations to federal agencies — HHS and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — and try to build some degree of consensus among key stakeholders.

[NOTE: All comments at the meeting were not for attribution, but I confirmed with the organizers that there was no problem in sharing my own impressions following up from the meeting.]

There’s no doubt that current federal statutes and regulation (and there are potentially many that apply to PHRs) create considerable uncertainty regarding how to balance promotion of consumer engagement with concerns over privacy and security. Existing regulations from HIPAA, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and others coupled with the new provision from the American Recovery & Reinvesment Act (ARRA) — not to mention the complexity of layering state laws on top of that — provide a lot of work for privacy attorneys. But with all the different (potentially) applicable federal and state laws/regulation, there is very little practical guidance on what has to go into privacy policies. PHR implementers can find some guidance from FTC consent decrees, which can represent an expansion of the law.