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Online communities helped psoriasis sufferers

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By Matthew Holt

In one of the first articles of this type I've seen published in a mainstream medical journal, in this case the Archives of Dermatology, there's some evidence that being in an online community helps patients. This study is from our friends at the Partners Center for Connected Health which is run by Joe Kvedar, himself a dermatologist. (No I haven't spoken to Joe about it and I don't know if his specialty is why they picked on psoriasis—other than it’s a very nasty condition).

Anyway, the key take-away from an attitudinal study of over 200 patients in five online communities is that:

Almost half (49.5 percent) of participants perceived improvements in their quality of life and 41 percent perceived improvements in psoriasis severity since joining an online support community.

And all this from a treatment with no costs and no side effects. Even Syd Wolfe — new head of committee member of drug safety at the FDA much to Forbes dismay— (Editor's note: That'll teach us to read Forbes! Goldstein got it right. and yes it is that Sydney Wolfe) would approve!

I expect that as Health 2.0 tactics go mainstream we’ll hear a lot more about these types of cases.

Johns Hopkins professor presents on improving patient-physician communications

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WHO: The Herschel S. Horowitz Center for Health Literacy at the University of Maryland School of Public Health hosts guest speaker Debra Roter, DrPH, as part of their ongoing Speaker Series.

WHAT: Dr. Roter, a Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will present a lecture entitled "Improving the Quality of Patient-Physician Communications: A Prescription for Health Literacy." She will discuss her research into how doctors and patients speak with each other and present strategies on how to improve both their interactions and the health outcome of patients.

WHEN: Friday, January 30, 2009 from 2:00

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The greatest health care IT generation

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By John HalamkaHalamka

In Washington, Healthcare Information Technology policy planning is
accelerating at a pace that is faster than at any time in history (at
least my 30 years in healthcare IT).

Over the past few days, the House Ways and Means Committee completed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), as part of the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

At the same time, the House Appropriations Committee has completed a bill
that is not meant to stand alone. It outlines $2 billion in funding for
the programs authorized by section 4301 of the Ways and Means Committee
bill.

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Op-Ed: Healthcare Reform Lessons From Mayo Clinic

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By LEONARD L. BERRY and KENT D. SELTMAN

Mayo_MN_Gonda_3884cp Three goals underscore our nation’s ongoing healthcare reform debate:1) insurance for the uninsured, 2) improved quality, and 3) reduced cost.  Mayo Clinic serves as a model for higher quality healthcare at a lower cost.President Obama, after referencing Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, advised, “We should learn from their successes and promote the best practices, not the most expensive ones.”

Atul Gawande writes in The New Yorker, “Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality, but its Medicare spending is in the lowest fifteen per cent of the country-$6,688 per enrollee in 2006.”Two pivotal lessons from our recent in-depth study of Mayo Clinic demonstrate cost efficiency and clinical effectiveness.

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Op-Ed: Jump-Starting Health IT – Best $20 Billion You’ll Ever Spend

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By MARK LEAVITT

An Open Letter to President Obama and the Congress

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations for recognizing health information technology (IT) as one of the most promising targets for public investment at this crucial moment.

As a (formerly practicing) doctor, I’d diagnose our economy on the verge of a Code Blue, and our healthcare system with a more chronic but equally threatening condition.  You’ve recognized how these two illnesses interrelate, with spiraling healthcare costs damaging business competitiveness and job losses threatening healthcare coverage.  If I may offer a second opinion, I concur 100% with your decision to apply the chest paddles now, charged with $20 billion of investment.

Now I would like to offer this promise: I and my fellow health IT leaders are passionately committed to ensuring that this treatment not only succeeds, but delivers a substantial positive return far exceeding the amount invested.  How can we be so confident?  Well, even a 1% improvement in the efficiency of our $2.2 trillion healthcare spend would put us in positive payback territory.  But we can do better than that, and here’s why:

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Health 2.0 Meets Ix–Earlybird pricing ends tonight at midnight

It’s possible that you were distracted by certain events happening yesterday. But it’s time to focus on the job at hand, and in the world of Health 2.0 that means the upcoming Health 2.0 Meets Ix Conference.

Today is the last day to get earlybird pricing at $1,299 for regular and $1,099 for academic/foundation/government—that earlybird pricing expires at midnight tonight.

Here’s the agenda, and here’s where to sign up.

A Buried Medical History — 20 Years to Adopt a Critical Prostate Cancer Tool

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By Michael MillensonDonald_Gleason

My father is in his late 80s, so it’s not surprising that he’s had a brush with prostate cancer. That’s why the 
Los Angeles Times’ obituary of Donald F. Gleason, the Minnesota pathologist who invented the “Gleason score” for characterizing cancerous growths in the prostate, caught my eye. Gleason died at the age of 88 from a heart attack.The Gleason score is now used almost universally to predict the likely outcome of prostate cancer. But the obituary provided unexpected insight into yet another instance of an agonizingly slow spread of evidence-based medicine for a common and deadly condition and unavoidably raised the question about diffusion of innovation today.Gleason had been an unknown, junior-grade pathologist in 1962 when he was approached by his hospital's chief of urology to develop a standardized rating system for determining the grade of prostate tumors; that is, a measure of how far they had progressed and their likely course. At the time, the obit noted, “each pathologist pretty much used his own system, which made comparing research results among different groups nearly impossible.”

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Job Post: Social/New Media Director

Chandler Chicco Companies is seeking a
Social/ New Media Director with a solid understanding of the
pharmaceutical/healthcare industry who will partner with the agency’s
senior staff to identify and execute on new/social media strategies. Chandler Chicco Companies represents six
companies including the world’s largest pure-play healthcare public
relations firm.  For
further information or to be considered for this opportunity please contact
Marc Heft at 212-229-8442 or mheft@chandlerchiccocompanies.

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Ceasefire reached in Boston

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By Paul Levy

A dramatic cease-fire was announced over the weekend. No, not the one
in the Mideast, but rather in the health care market in Massachusetts.
As documented in this Boston Globe story
by Scott Allen and Jeff Krasner, Tufts Medical Center and Blue Cross
Blue Shield of MA reached an agreement on a payment contract. What's
the big deal? Well, Tufts had threatened to pull out of the BCBS
network when it felt that it was not being offered sufficient
compensation for its medical services.

The context was important. The Globe had previously reported
that payments to Tufts and its doctors were substantially below those
received by, in particular, the hospitals and doctors in the Partners
Healthcare System, and often below those received by BIDMC and its
doctors. As I have noted below,
there is really no justification for these differentials, if one
considers the actual quality of care delivered by the major academic
medical centers.

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Health care wins in initial stimulus package

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By Sarah Arnquist

Responding to calls for Washington to take swift action in the face of the bleakest economy in decades, the House of Representatives released a $825 billion package last week designed to stimulate the economy. The early version of the plan targets nearly $150 billion for health care.

The Wall Street Journal has a reasonably thorough overview of the "winners" and "losers," as well as an explanation of the at times arcane budgetary process involved. "The plan’s final shape will depend not only on horse-trading among
lawmakers in the House and Senate, but also on the outcome of the
lobbying frenzy now under way," the Journal says.

Here’s an early breakdown of the health care package:

  • $39 billion in subsidies to health insurance for the unemployed; providing coverage through Medicaid
  • $90 billion to shore up state Medicaid programs
  • $20 billion for health-information technology systems
  • $4 billion for preventative care

It’s worth noting that those numbers don’t include the expansion of SCHIP the House approved earlier in the week.

Around the Web: If you want to track exactly where all the money is going – probably not a bad idea when you’re talking about $825 billion plus change- you’ll theoretically be able to follow spending on Recovery. gov. But for the time being you’ll have to wait. The site is not yet online – perhaps not the best sign.

John Irvine contributed to this report from Washington D.C.

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