Fard Johnmar at Envision Solutions has another report out. This one is about the public’s view of disease specific non-profits, such as the American Diabetes, Heart, Cancer, et al Associations/Societies and their alliances with drug companies. Neither side looks too good. To learn more head over to the Spotlight on Pharma-Non-Profit Cause Alliances.
Above the Fold
THCB: Email problems
My hosting company’s site was hacked yesterday. While they fix it I can’t get email. If you need to find me try matthewseparate AT gmail.com
JOB POST: Policy Analyst/Organizer – Healthcare for All
Come help lead the fight for health care for all! The Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) and the Institute for America’s Future (IAF) seek a policy analyst/organizer to work on our campaign for universal healthcare. This person should have experience in developing and working with coalitions and should be a creative self-starter who can help drive progressive issues like universal healthcare into the national debate. This position will report to CAF’s co-director and will work closely with our online communications and press teams.
POLICY: Ezra Klein’s The Health of Nations
Now I’ve met Ezra I can stop calling him the young punk. He has written another excellent review of health care in universal coverage nations, including socialized medicine in the heart of America for our allegedly most treasured citizens.
It’s called The Health of Nations. Go read it.
It’s not entirely without flaws, almost all to do with the lack of good recent data that’s a problem with these comparisons and a need to conserve space. He skips over the UK’s private insurance system which enables the rich to trade up for elective surgery, and the recent increases in spending under Blair which have enable the Brits to buy spare capacity in private countries, (and ramped up GPs pay!). It would be nice to have Ezra do something similar on Japan and Holland (although Japan looks something like Germany plus a Canadian fee schedule, and Holland looks like an Enthoven-wet dream).
What’s also to some extent missing is the changes that have happened recently. Humphrey Taylor remarked to me on Sunday that Americans dont realize how much other systems are changing as ours essentially never does. The Brits have gone to 30% P4P in primary care; the Dutch to individually purchased insurance in a managed competition framework; the Danes and the New Zealanders have added rapid deployment of IT (100% EMR use in ambulatory care); whereas the Australians have added a private top up layer over their traditional socialized medicine system; the Swiss have their individual mandate.
Of course all of these systems have their problems and all are changing; we’re stuck in 1991. And in fact the VA system, although it works very well it about to be hit with a wave of Iraq war vets who have real problems–and is unlikely to get the resources it needs to deal with them.
And although it goes without saying to those in the know, we should keep repeating that this is the only system that visits not only ill health on the unlucky but often financial disaster too.
TECH/THCB: Health2.0 Conference, September 20th, San Francisco
I am delighted to tell you all about a brand new conference that THCB is putting on with Etude Scientific , in conjunction with the World Health Care Congress.
It’s a conference and report called Health2.0: User-Generated Healthcare. The conference will be held in San Francisco on September 20th, 2007.
This is going to be a different type of conference. We’ll have RAPID-FIRE DEMOS from innovative companies who are:
> connecting physicians to each other> fostering new online patient communities > designing health-focused search engines> providing health care tools for consumers
We already have a stellar list of speakers from new companies, patient groups, and established payers, providers and pharmaceutical companies. The list is long but it includes consumer aggregators like WebMD, Google*, Microsoft, and new players such as Sermo, Healthline and Organized Wisdom.
We are delighted to have charter sponsors Cisco, the HIMSS Community for Connected Health, and Sermo.
The key question is will HEALTH 2.0 grow into an independent industry sector, be subsumed into the current healthcare system, or create a new hybrid landscape? Be part of the conversation!
Please go to the web site Health2con.com for details and take a look! Indu Subaiya and I—and our supporting advisory board of Health2.0 innovators—really hope to see you there.
TECH: Justen Deal rehashed in the WSJ
In an article called The Email Kid Takes On HMO’s Corner Office the WSJ has a rehash in some decent historical perspective of the Justen Deal—Healthconnect issue. I get a minor billing as the venue for Andy Wiesenthal’s podcast. For those looking about more about this story search Healthconnect in the Google bar to your left.
PODCAST/TECH: Interview with Chris Hobson, Orion Health
Last week THCB picked up a new sponsor, as evidenced by the banner to the right. Orion Health provides messaging, interoperability and clinical work-flow solutions. So I thought that it might not be a bad idea to interview Orion to find out what they were all about! (John tells me I’m supposed to be nice to sponsors!) When I talked to Chief Medical Officer Chris Hobson, who like me also has one of those funny accents, I realized that they had quite a bit of experience with clinical messaging and interoperability in a place or two where physician EMR use is close to 100%. You might surmise that these places are not in North America!
So to find out a lot more about messaging, interoperability and just how New Zealand cracked the nut of physician EMR adoption, listen to the podcast. You can even hear his conclusions on whether it could happen here too!
Meanwhile I suspect that Orion’s business people would also like me to note this announcement that Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts just signed up as a customer. Look I’m getting good as this "being nice to sponsors" idea, too.
POLICY: Introducing CalHealthReform.org by Marian Mulkey
Marian Mulkey is a Senior Program Officer with the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF). CHCF is an independent, nonpartisan health care philanthropy whose work focuses on improving health care in California by promoting innovation in care and access to information, so that people can get the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford.
Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders from both parties have introduced proposals to expand care and coverage for many of California’s 6.5 million uninsured residents. The process as it unfolds may have important implications for the state and the nation as a whole.
This is an exciting and historic time for those of us committed to
improving access to high quality, affordable health care. Yet a host of
questions remain.
• Who should pay for health care coverage? • What is the definition of affordable coverage? • How can costs be contained? • How do we ensure high quality in our health care system?
POLICY: Is Michael Porter getting better?
Well he did mention incentives, even though me and one of the smartest guys I know (Kim Slocum) both agreed that the evidence that he was seeing of lots of activity moving to his models, was largely fictional. What am I talking about? Go read about the talk by Michael Porter, Ron Williams, & George Halvorson. at WHCC
TECH: Interview/Podcast with Peter Neupert, Microsoft
Next couple of days, lots of me over at the WHCC blog. For a start here’s the Interview/Podcast with Peter Neupert, Microsoft.
