Category: Uncategorized

Trusera, out of beta & different enough to be interesting

Jun 17, 2008• 1

By Matthew Holt Trusera_copy

Keith Schorsch is a busy boy. Not only did he write a much commented piece about
Google Health and PHRs on this very station last week, but he also popped by last week to tell me about the new look for Trusera. Several of you saw Trusera launch at the Health 2.0 Conference last March. As of today they’ve removed the Beta tag, and have introduced a new look and new features.

The way Trusera is going about things is by collecting stories and journal entries, and then essentially parsing the keywords and text in those stories to connect people with others with similar situations. The distinction between this and most other social networking sites is that Trusera doesn’t have “forums
” or “channels” per se, but uses its search technology (somewhat inspired by Amazon where several of the founding team came from) to match lurkers and contributers with content and people relevant to them. There’s also some neat tools to help people build their stories with helpful suggestions appearing to the side as they’re being written — think of the Microsoft paper clip but done well! (At this stage it doesn’t take detailed self-reported patient clinical information a la PatientsLikeMe or PHRs).

So far there’s sizable activity on Trusera in autism, breast cancer and infertility, among other conditions. And of course Keith’s aim is to develop hundreds of thousands of members and millions of stories.

Trusera’s approach is different enough to be interesting as another option for community online. The technology is arguably better than others in the space, but as we know from other markets “better” technology doesn’t always mean most successful — as I tell many of my Mac using colleagues. But as was also pointed out to me this weekend, the vast majority of patients are not yet online in these communities. So it’ll be interesting as these numbers grow to see who will remain standing. Trusera clearly has a shot.

I always thought art galleries were a waste of space…

Jun 17, 2008

By Matthew Holt

until I saw this. Scroll down to the polka version of “A long way to the top.” Talk about a highway to hell!

JOB POST: PRODUCT MANAGER / Mayo Clinic

Jun 16, 2008• 1

Mayo

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, has immediate openings for seasoned Product
Managers to support product development for Web and digital products aimed at consumers and employees.The product manager plays a key role in ensuring the strategic direction, design and on-time delivery of Mayo Clinic Health Solution’s online products including, MayoClinic.com, Mayo Clinic Health Assessment, Symptom Checker, Expert Blogs and other social/new media, and mobile applications.

Stats Can’t Explain Everything; The Anecdote Remains Relevant

Jun 16, 2008• 3

By MAGGIE MAHAR

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the difference between stories and stats — those hard and fast numbers that give us “objective” information about everything from the body politic to the human body.

Social scientists like data, perhaps because it makes social science seem more “scientific.” They like to square things off and measure them. They like to count: How many? How much? What do the polls say? Percentages are impressive.

Try to tell a story, however, and a purist will remind you that “the plural of data is not anecdote.”

But what some social scientists (and some physicians) forget is that statistics measure only what can be counted. Many of the things that are most important, in medicine as in life, are immeasurable. Stories are valuable because they can capture some of the messiness of reality, including the ambiguities and contradictions that make both human experience and the human mind/body just beyond comprehension. (Since we have only the mind with which to understand the mind, ultimately investigation must end in a stand-off.)

What do Johnny Cash and employer-based health care have in common?

Jun 16, 2008• 2

By Robert Laszewski

OK, maybe it’s a stretch but bear with me.

I heard a senior exec from a big health plan say the other day that it’s hard to believe we will ever see the end of health insurance distributed primarily through the workplace in favor of an individual-based health insurance system. In fact, much of the health insurance industry is lining up behind staying with the system we know best and the one who has been our customer all these years–the employer.

That is understandable. As someone who came up through the ranks looking at the employer as the customer and individual health insurance as a minor product subset I have the same reaction.

But I will tell you that this idea of moving away from third-party employer pay and to a system of individual responsibility — or moving from defined benefit health insurance to defined contribution health insurance — has been coming on us for some time now.

Health costs are small businesses’ No. 1 problem

Jun 15, 2008• 3

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

The cost of health insurance is the No. 1 problem cited by small business owners. Health costs beat gas prices — the No. 2 most severe problem cited by small business, in a March 2008 survey.

This week, small business leaders convened at the annual National Small Business Summit conference of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

The report notes the downturn in the economy during the second half of 2007 when the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index dropped to 94.6 in December, the lowest since 2001.

Obama’s Rx for Change

Jun 13, 2008• 4

By Matthew Holt

Clinton has quit, Obama has three times McCain’s resources, and the country is fed up with the Republicans’ war, corruption and toadying to corporations. Democrats have won three "safe" Republican house seats
in recent months. It’s their election to lose, and assuming that the
fences between rivals really are mended, it might be a landslide.

I’ve written previously that I don’t think Obama is serious about pursuing health care reform. But this week he changed his tune and said categorically that by the end of his first term, there would be universal healthcare.

In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums
by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. And we’ll do it by
….covering every single American and making sure that they can take
their health care with them if they lose their job…..We’ll do it by
the end of my first term as President of the United States……

Read the rest at Spot-On and return here to comment.

And the Voters Demand. . . Electronic Medical Records?

Jun 13, 2008• 3

By CRAIG STOLTZ

Over half of Americans think the next U.S. President should support. . .access to electronic medical records.

Compared to gas prices, the economy and the war in Iraq, this is, needless to say, a fairly minor issue. Even within the issue of healthcare reform, access to EMRs, as digital medical records are known, it’s small potatoes.

Yet a survey released by Kaiser-Permanente at the Information Therapy Conference in Washington shows that a majority of Americans agreed that providing people with online access to their own medical records should be a "top priority" for the next US President.

It’s tough to say what this data point really might mean. But my guess is it suggests people are frustrated by the mess of papers and records that make patienthood so difficult these days. Whether federal support for a nationwide program is the only or wisest solution to this problem is another question, of course.

It’s a Greene world at Ix!

Jun 13, 2008• 1

Here are three Greenes. Left to right Jeff (MedEncentive), Sarah (NY Times), Alan (DrGreene.com)

Kaiser, Blues of Mass….health plans & consumers online

Jun 13, 2008• 1

Kaiser Permanente put out a new survey updating one they did last year which says that more and more people are going online, and now a sizable minority had a preference for doctors using an EMR. (It’s not clear whether they’ll yet change a doctor based on that). It does seem that they’re more likely to expect it and want it from their health plan — 61% wanted EHR’s to come from their health plan. (Here’s the PDF of of the survey, which has lots of extra information for you nerds). But here’s probably the key results

Q. If two doctors had exactly the same qualifications, but one used an electronic record system and the other did not, which ONE would you choose? (ROTATE) The doctor using an electronic record system 47%The doctor NOT using an electronic record system 29%Don’t know/Unsure (Volunteered) 22% Q If two health insurance companies had exactly the same qualifications, but one provided their members with access to an electronic record system and the other did not, which ONE would you choose? (ROTATE)

The one using an electronic record system 60%The one NOT using an electronic record system 25% Don’t know/Unsure (Volunteered) 14%

So Kaiser Permanente has not only created its own health record via its big Epic project, but it’s decided to at least pilot with Microsoft HealthVault. (See a little more and some controversy about that here). And some other health plans are starting to notice.

Today, the big news is that BCBS Massachusetts has decided that it too needs to dive into this. They’ve decided to make their consumers records interoperable with Google Health by the end of the year.

So are Kaiser and BCBS Mass outliers, or are they first trickle of a torrent?