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In the Public Interest

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By JOHN MOORE

John Moore  The Health Information Exchange (HIE) market is the Wild West right now.  Vendors are telling us that theyre seeing an unprecedented level of activity both for private and public HIEs.  Private HIEs are being set-up by large and small healthcare organizations to more tightly align affiliated physicians to a hospital or IDN to drive referrals and longer term, better manage transitions in care in anticipation of payment reform.  Public HIEs are those state driven initiatives that have blossomed with the $560M+ of federal funding via the HITECH Act.

But this mad rush is creating some problems.

While the private HIEs seem to have their act together in putting together their Request for Proposals (RFPs), such is not the case for the state-driven initiatives.  Rather then formulating a long-term strategy for the HIE by performing a needs assessment for their state, setting priorities and laying out a phased, multi-year strategy to get there, far too many states are trying to “boil the ocean” with RFPs that list every imaginable capability that will all magically go live within a couple of years of contract reward.  Now it is hard to say who is at fault for these RFPs, is it the state or the consultants they have contracted with that formulated these lofty, unreachable goals, but this is a very real problem and unfortunately, the feds are providing extremely little guidance to the states on best practices.

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Facepalming Our Way into the Future

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By JOE FLOWER
Joe Flower

The reform isn’t perfect, but maybe it’ll help us avoid disaster.

The rapidly ramifying crisis in health care may (we can pray) end all delusions. It may at least begin to weaken them by exposing them to the light, to the sobering effects of reality.

The reform act has not brought us to the Promised Land. By bringing us access without capacity, fierce restrictions coupled with vague language and loopholes, mandates coupled with fines low enough to become the cheap way out, strong new ideas that are only pilots, and tough commissions and task forces that have no teeth, the reform act delivers us into a period of maximum melee, in which the needs and desires of hospitals, doctors, citizens, politicians, insurers, drug companies, device manufacturers and hundreds to thousands of niche industries within the sector, get pitted nakedly against one another.

Everyone in this melee will increasingly be driven by the ratcheting drumbeat of cost, cost, cost—which is another word for over-use of resources.

It can seem at times like a kind of existential madness. But in fact we are engaged in a struggle over the very meaning and substance of who we are, what we do and why we do it. We can hope that at last and increasingly, we will be shedding our delusions and engaging in that struggle on the basis of some kind of reality.

Stupidity Everywhere

You know the facepalm moment. It’s that moment when you smack your hand on your forehead, accompanying the concussive thwap with the expletive of your choice, when confronted by a bit of numbskullery so dense as to tear the space-time continuum.

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Florida 2010: Practice Fusion Demonstration

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By Matthew Holt


Demonstration by Robert Rowley from Practice Fusion at the Health 2.0 In the Doctor’s Office Conference held in Jacksonville, Florida on April 24, 2010. Practice Fusion is one of a new generation of SaaS-based electronic medical records.

Interview with Aneesh Chopra

By Matthew Holt

At the Health 2.0 Washington DC Conference on June 7, 2010 we captured this interview with Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States.

Closing remarks from Health 2.0 Goes to Washington

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By Ida Strom Seljeseth

In this video from Health 2.0 Goes to Washingston on June 7, 2010, founders of Health 2.0 Indu Subaiya and Matthew Holt review the day. They talked about what really stood out for them and how they are optimistic about the conference. They also thanked the sponsors and the team that made Health 2.0 Goes to Washington Conference possible.

Technology Showcase: Health 2.0 Tools for Consumers

By Matthew Holt

This is the technology showcase of communities and consumer tools from Health 2.0 Goes to Washington on June 7, 2010, It includes Greg Fitzgerald from HealthCentral, Howard Steinberg from dLife, representing communities, with Ellen Badinelli from ScanAvert & Alexandra Drane from Eliza showing some wellness and adherence tools.

The showcase concludes with Julie Murchinson from the Health 2.0 Acclerator showing some tool interoperability from Mike Kirkwood (Polka), Erick Von Schweber (SurveyorHEALTH) and Matt Parker (DestinationRx).

Not All Ratings Are Equal

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By JOHN MORROWPicture 30

Earlier this month USNews and World Report released their annual list of America’s Best Hospitals. This list is terribly misleading and is a disservice to the readers of that magazine, in my opinion. The fine print is revealing:

“Central to understanding the rankings is that they were developed and the specialties chosen to help consumers determine which hospitals provide the best care for the most serious or complicated medical conditions and procedures—pancreatic cancer or replacement of a heart valve in an elderly patient with co- morbidities, for example. Medical centers that excel in relatively commonplace conditions and procedures, such as noninvasive breast cancer or uncomplicated knee replacement, are not the focus.”

Since when did breast cancer and knee replacements become so commonplace that they didn’t matter? On July 19, The New York Times published Doubt About Pathology Opinions for Early Breast Cancer, suggesting that diagnosing Stage 0 breast cancer was fairly difficult. And what is the bright-line test between “uncomplicated” and “complicated” knee surgery?Continue reading…

Closing remarks from Health 2.0 Goes to Washington

By Ida Strom Seljeseth

In this video from Health 2.0 Goes to Washingston on June 7, 2010, founders of Health 2.0 Indu Subaiya and Matthew Holt review the day. They talked about what really stood out for them and how they are optimistic about the conference. They also thanked the sponsors and the team that made Health 2.0 Goes to Washington Conference possible.

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