Tag: Uncategorized

Consumer Reports on Health: Worse Than Average

Jun 4, 2008• 9

By MICHAEL MILLENSON

Maybe no one at Consumer Reports has a mother.

The first rule of effective consumer information is “tell it to Mom.” That is, explain why something is important in the kind of language you would use when speaking to your mother. Unfortunately, the folks at Consumers Union have now, for the second time, put out purportedly pro-consumer health care information that no one’s mother could love. Their latest offering is at best mildly helpful and at worst seriously misleading. The only explanation I can think of is that the CU folks believe so firmly in their own good intentions that they ignore the impact of what they are actually doing.

Obama’s health plan may promise less but accomplish more

Jun 4, 2008• 11

By Diana Dutton & Hal Holman

Hal Holman is a professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and Diana Dutton is a research fellow at the London School of Economics and a former director of health services research at Stanford. The married couple supports Obama.

Obama
Many people think Hillary Clinton has a better health plan than Barack Obama. She repeatedly tells voters her plan will cover everybody, while Obama’s will leave out 15 million people. Newly emerging data tell a different story.

Since 2006, Massachusetts has been running what amounts to a pilot test of Clinton’s universal mandate plan, requiring all uninsured residents to buy private insurance or be penalized. The state regulates participating insurers and subsidizes costs for lower-income people. Yet after two years, nearly half of the uninsured still aren’t covered, despite strenuous outreach. To boost enrollment, Massachusetts has stiffened fines – up to several thousand dollars. Nevertheless, many people remain uninsured, citing more pressing needs. Clinton insists her mandate wouldn’t force people to buy insurance they can’t afford, but that’s exactly what’s happening in Massachusetts. The state has had to exempt 20 percent of the uninsured because they couldn’t afford even subsidized premiums.

Clinton’s plan would also likely fall far short of universal coverage. She hasn’t said how her mandate would be enforced, but has mentioned the possibility of garnishing wages. Without affordable insurance, a universal mandate means little.

Diabetes Mine, revamped

Jun 4, 2008• 1

By Matthew Holt

No. 1 health care blogger Amy Tenderich has revamped Diabetes Mine and made it even better (as if that were possible!).

JOB POST: A.D.A.M. – Vice President of Healthcare Marketing

Jun 1, 2008

A.D.A.M., Inc. is a leading provider of health information and benefits technology solutions to healthcare organizations, employers, consumers, and educational institutions. A.D.A.M.’s portfolio of products includes its award-winning Health Illustrated Encyclopedia and Benergy™, the leading benefits communication and healthcare decision support platform for small and mid-sized employers. A.D.A.M. content and technology solutions equip consumers to better understand their health, wellness and benefits, while helping healthcare organizations and employers reduce the costs of healthcare and benefits administration.

The position of Vice President of Healthcare Marketing will be focused on the product marketing, pricing, positioning and sales lead generation for A.D.A.M.’s content and applications for the healthcare and consumer portal target markets. In collaboration with other key stakeholders, you will be responsible for defining differentiated product marketing strategies for each of A.D.A.M.’s target industry markets as well as for our major distribution partners. Our ideal candidate will be measured by the ability to create an enhanced value proposition and competitive differentiation for our products and services, ability to increase A.D.A.M.’s brand awareness, and increased revenue as a result of successful marketing programs to drive leads. This position will report to the Chief Executive Officer and is based in Atlanta, GA.

Defending the benefits of prevention

May 31, 2008• 7

By Merrill Goozner

Last February, the New England Journal of Medicine ran a potentially misleading review of the cost-effectiveness of illness prevention strategies that may have led many casual readers (such as the editors of the Washington Post Health section) to conclude that most health-improving measures — such as aggressive counseling for people who are either overweight or smoke — cost more in the long run than they are worth. This week’s Journal of the American Medical Association carried a proper antidote by Steven H. Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, who is fast becoming a leading expert on prevention techniques for improving the nation’s health.

Woolf admits that personal behavior is difficult to change, and many intervention strategies for preventing disease cost more money for the health care system than they save. But he takes direct aim at the NEJM article claim that "drew similarities between the cost-effectiveness ratios of prevention and disease treatments, all but ignoring the much lower cost-effectiveness ratios of the preventive services that guidelines advocate."

E-patients can and will revolutionize health care

May 30, 2008• 18

By Susannah Fox Epatients

By taking advantage of new online health tools, e-patients and health professionals
now have the ability to create equal partnerships that enable individuals to be equipped, enabled, empowered and engaged in their health and health care decisions.

That was the vision of Dr. Tom Ferguson, who coined the term e-patients and launched e-patients.net in 2006. Ferguson intended to upload his book-length overview of the online health revolution, “E-patients: How They Can Help Us Heal Health Care.” But unfortunately, he died a month later 2006, after losing a fifteen-year battle with multiple myeloma.

Following Ferguson’s death, a group of his friends and colleagues completed the paper and adopted the blog to carry on his work, as well as our own. Each blogger brings a different perspective when commenting on Health 2.0 developments.

We think the “E-patients” paper remains relevant in 2008 (PDF, wiki) and we hope to extend the findings into the future. To that end, we are also working on the creation of the peer-reviewed Journal of Participatory Medicine with the help of Sarah Greene of the New York Times; Bruce Shriver, PhD, of the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative; and George Lundberg, MD, of Medscape. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Analyzing the benefits of PatientsLikeMe social network site

May 30, 2008• 6

By John Grohol

Two research papers were published this month on the Health 2.0 Web site, PatientsLikeMe. PatientsLikeMe is arguably the only "real" health social network online today, because it allows patients to share actual data that matters with one another — their personal health data.

(Other supposed health social networks seem more focused on the "social" than the "health," allowing for little integrated data sharing.)

The two research papers provide some interesting data points and insights into the disease process itself and how e-patients are using Web-enabled tools, such as PatientsLikeMe, to improve their own care.

Real transparency in a socialist nirvana? UK releases hospital death rates

May 30, 2008• 1

By Michael Millenson

In yet more evidence that the transparency revolution is worldwide and not merely a product of American capitalism, comes news that in the UK death rates for specific types of surgery at NHS hospitals are to be revealed. Can this be happening in the single-payer government morass that we’ve been warned off for years? Michael Millenson, one of America’s leading experts in patient safety and quality, gives us his reaction.

This is mind-boggling, if, alas, short on some crucial detail: Is this based on claims data (high-school-graduate-coded administrative information) or clinical claims? If the former, it is impressive, if the latter, extraordinary. For those who believe in the superiority of American medicine, here are a few observations.

First, he who pays the piper calls the tune. If NHS decides to
collect this data, it’s done. One also presumes they don’t need an act
of Parliament to do so, thereby avoiding at least some degree of
political interference.Second, a leading physician, who
actually pioneered releasing clinical data to the public, went on to
serve in the Cabinet and continue leading this effort on behalf of the
broader public interest. By comparison, our equivalent of a cardiac
database, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database, has strict
confidentiality requirements that don’t even allow city-city or
state-state comparisons. The exception: a physician can release his own
information for marketing purposes.Third, and most interesting, are these seemingly innocuous sentences. “There were initially fears
raised that releasing the information would lead to surgeons avoiding
difficult cases which could impact their rates. But agreement was
reached on a method to take into account the difficulty of cases and
mortality rates are released against the number of deaths expected. Sir
Bruce has been working with hospital specialists on a way of rolling out
a similar scheme across all areas of surgery and medicine to help
patients choose where to be treated.”

Around the Web in 60 Seconds (Or Less)

May 29, 2008

By THCB Staff

The WSJ Health blog: Police shoot a man with a Taser gun and inadvertently correct his heart beat.

California proposed legislation would allow pharmacies to sell patient info to marketers.

NYT Well: Childhood obesity rates level off.

John McCain releases more than 1,000 pages of his medical records.

Health industry gives more to Democrats than Republicans.

Financial Times: Indian drugmakers threaten to stop production en masse.

Massachusetts docs sue state agency claiming it publishes faulty physician ratings.

Business Week asks if FDA regulations are preventing U.S. cancer patients from accessing advanced cancer drugs.

NYT: SEC allows shareholders to vote on proposals for universal health coverage.

CJR: Democrats waver on prospects of health reform.

Boston Globe: Former Harvard Med School dean discusses new doctors’ march away from primary care to lucrative sub-specialties.

AP: Half of all insured Americans take at least one daily prescription for a chronic ailment.

FDA proposes new drug labels for pregnant and breastfeeding women

The Innovation xChange

May 27, 2008• 1

THCB is proud to welcome our latest sponsor: Humana and ChangeNow4Health.com. This site would not be possible without the generous backing of corporate sponsors like Humana. So we’d like to thank them – as well as all of our other wonderful sponsors – for their very kind support.

When you have a moment pop over to Change Now 4 Health and have a look at the very clever innovation contest they’ve organized. You can send in your brilliant ideas in one of the following four areas: (1). Helping Consumers Make Smarter Health Care Decisions, (2) Simplifying the Business of Health Care, (3.) Preventing Sickness and Maintaining Health, (4.) General Innovations in Health Care.

You’ll also be able to read other people’s entries and comment on them. User-Generated Content at its finest! Top finalists will be eligible for three $10,000 prizes and possible additional support from the Humana Innovation Center. The official contest lingo:

Do you want to improve the U.S. health care system? Or at least be part of the much-needed dialogue? If you have ideas or solutions to improve the system, submit your ideas through ChangeNow4Health Innovation xChange and you can win up to $10,000 or have your ideas published in the e-book,
Tomorrow’s Health Care.

The Innovation xChange is looking for practical ideas and suggestions for improving the health care system. All participants in the system, from providers and health plans to consumers and government, are encouraged to join in the discussion.

All entries submitted on ChangeNow4Health will be open to comments and voting by the coalition’s communities. The top 20 entries will be published in ChangeNow4Health’s e-book, Tomorrow’s Health Care, and up to three finalists will be awarded $10,000 each.

In addition, Humana Inc., a founding member of the coalition, will consider the top
award-winners for a joint venture with the company’s Innovation Center, to incubate the winning idea and bring it to reality. Winners will be announced by August 31, 2008.

For more info: ChangeNow4Health.com