The Health Care Blog – Page 908 – Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.

Above the Fold

Commentology:

Apr 30, 2009

Microsoft's, Bill Crounse, said this about David Kibbe's article, "The Parable of the Wicked EMR."

"Excellent, well written piece, David. Thanks for sharing your insights. It is important to not only meet the regulatory and privacy requirements associated with health data, but also expectations around its intended use. EMR or PHR data is just data unless it contributes to user knowledge. EHRs and PHRs don't add value unless they improve our understanding of health status and direct us toward health improvement."

Harvard Pilgrim's, Charlie Baker had this to say about Anne Tumlinson's article, "Reforming Long-Term Care and Post-Acute Care Could Save Billions."

"I've
written about the extraordinary lack of connectivity between Medicaid
and Medicare when it comes to long term care for dual eligible seniors
many times at www.letstalkhealthcare.org. Medicare & Medicaid are
their own worst enemies – and do senior citizens a tremendous
disservice – when it comes to financing care for seniors who are
eligible for both programs. There's a problem here that needs to be
solved."

Community: Online Bone Marrow Drive

Apr 30, 2009• 5

By JOSH LEINWAND

I am a first-year medical student,
president of the Yale Medical Student Council, and a reader of the Health Care
Blog. I am writing to make you aware of an effort among members of my
class to increase registration for bone marrow donation. This was
inspired by a classmate, Natasha Collins, who has recurrent leukemia
and requires a bone marrow transplant. A major issue is that Natasha is
of mixed ethnic background, making it particularly difficult to find
her a match.Members of my class have been very active in trying to increase
awareness of the need for bone marrow donors – they have organized an
online bone marrow drive, and achieved some degree of publicity via
Facebook , YouTube, and local media coverage .I think this story may be of interest for your readers. For me and
many of my classmates, who are training to be future physicians,
Natasha provided a different perspective on disease and the ways we can
try to help a sick patient or friend – not only by medical
interventions, but by social networking and publicity. If I can provide
any further information, or if you'd like to contact anyone else
involved, please let me know.

Op-Ed: Patients first. Doctors second.

Apr 30, 2009• 13

By Arun Mohan, MD, MBA and Gordon Moore, MD

As part of the recently enacted stimulus bill the federal government is spending $19 billion to promote the adoption of electronic medical records by physicians. Yet, with all the focus on doctors, lawmakers have forgotten the most critical piece of the puzzle — patients.

Take the case of Joe (not his real name), a patient who came to see one of us recently. Joe is a thirty-something year-old with type 1 diabetes. After a rebellious few decades that included dozens of hospitalizations, he was finally re-engaged in his care. His most recent request — to access his electronic medical record. Joe wanted to track his hemoglobin A1c, an important marker of his diabetes, follow his blood pressure and take a closer look at his cholesterol. After all, it is his information in the clinic's commercially available electronic medical record. Sadly, his request couldn't be honored. Patient-access features simply hadn't been built in.

Health information technology offers great promise to patients. Patients can access their medical information online, communicate with doctors by email, schedule appointments through the web and take advantage of numerous tools to manage their own illnesses. They can become equal partners in their care.

Medicity, CEO Kip Lassetter and SVP Robert Connely

Apr 29, 2009• 1

By MATTHEW HOLT

Medicity, CEO Kip Lassetter & SVP Robert Connely talk about the
Medicity/Novo merger and what the combined company does. Interviewed by
Matthew Holt for The Health Care Blog, April 3, 2009 at HIMSS

Medicine’s Missing Foundation for Health Care Reform

Apr 28, 2009• 15

By LAWRENCE L. WEED & LINCOLN WEED

Preface by Michael Millenson: Lawrence L. Weed published a seminal article in the Archives of Internal Medicine on using the medical record to improve patient care back in January, 1971.

To give you an idea of how glacially the health care system changes, that same issue contained an article entitled, “Universal Health Insurance is the Wave of the Future,” by New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, and another, “What Possible Use Can Computers Be to Medicine?” by a Duke University physician that began this way: “The physician's attitude toward computing machinery has changed greatly in the last ten years. A bright future is predicted for its application within medicine.”

In an era when the autonomy of the individual physicians was nearly unchallenged, Weed boldly asserted that “modern data acquisition and retrieval systems” could help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and provide “proper care” more effectively. Weed has continued that same fight ever since, later joined by his son, attorney Lincoln Weed. In the process he has acquired neither fame, popularity or riches — merely become legendary to a small segment of us familiar with his work.

ABSTRACT: Medical practice lacks a foundation in scientific behavior corresponding to its foundation in scientific knowledge. The missing foundation involves standards of care to govern how practitioners manage clinical information. These standards of care, roughly analogous to accounting standards for managing financial information, are essential to exploit the enormous potential of health information technology. Moreover, without these standards and corresponding information tools, evidence-based medicine in its current form is unworkable. Medical practice has failed to adopt the necessary standards and tools, because its historical development has diverged from the paths taken in the domains of science and commerce. The culture of medicine tolerates unnecessary dependence on the personal intellects of practitioners. This dependence has blocked the use of potent information tools, and isolated medicine from forces of feedback and accountability, that operate in the domains of science and commerce. If the necessary standards and tools are adopted, health care cost and quality could become an arena of continuous improvement, rather than a quagmire of intractable dilemmas.

A.D.A.M., Inc Launches New iPhone Application, Medzio

Apr 28, 2009• 1

This past week at the Health 2.0 conference, A.D.A.M., Inc demoed their recently launched iphone application Medzio, which connects users with a network of healthcare services and free expert health advice. It's a very cool application and an exciting new
tool. Click the link below to be taken directly to Apple itunes Store, where you can check out the application for yourself.

Roni Zeiger on what Google Health is doing next

Apr 28, 2009• 10

By Matthew Holt

For those of you who weren’t at Health 2.0 Meets Ix to hear from the mouths of the four horsemen (Halamka, Sands, Zeiger & deBronkhart) here is Google’s Roni Zeiger’s version of what went wrong with the “incorrect data from BIDMC to Google Health” story and what they’re going to do to fix it.

Capstone conference, May 14: Fresh thinking on health care reform

Apr 28, 2009• 5

Matthew’s note: imagine that several of your intellectual health care policy wonk heroes were teaming up with at least one big time industry player that you sometimes love to hate, but who’s always a great source of thinking. Imagine that they were getting together in an intimate setting to spend a day focusing on health care reform. Imagine that two of them are behind the two ideas you consider the best for the future of health care in the US. And it’s all just down the street from you. Then imagine that because of a prior client commitment you can’t go. Now you know how I feel, but it doesn't have to be that way for you!

The Capstone Conference: Fresh Thinking on Health Care Reform will bring together influential health care reform professionals from academia, industry and government for a day of presentations and discussion. The Conference represents the culminating activity of the FRESH-Thinking Project, which has conducted eight workshops over three years on health care reform.

Thursday, May 14, 2009 at the Quadrus Conference Center, 2400 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA from 9:30 am – 5:30 pm

TOPICS of INTEREST:

* Prospects for National Health Care Reform* Funding and Access to Health Care* Organization And Delivery Of Medical Care* Fostering Innovation In a Value–Conscious Environment* What Health Care Reform Means to Physicians, Employers and the Public?

The panel is stellar: Alain Enthoven, Victor Fuchs, Alan Garber, Leonard Schaeffer, John Shoven, & Wallace R. Hawley. For more information, www.fresh-thinking.org.

Write and tell me how it was. Or if you can be there and can write for THCB, let me know

Op-Ed: Seven Strategies to Address the Nation’s Health Care Crisis

Apr 27, 2009

By SUSAN J. BLUMENTHAL M.D., M.P.A. and DENIS A. CORTESE, M.D

America's health crisis does not have either a single cause or a silver bullet solution. Yet previous attempts at reform have often focused too narrowly on the financing and delivery of health care. In a report released last week, a Commission of national health experts convened by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) emphasizes a wide spectrum of actions needed to become the healthiest nation in the world. The Commission on U.S. Federal Leadership in Health and Medicine: Charting Future Directions that we co-chair has identified seven strategies to mobilize all sectors of American society to help put "health" into our nation's health care system.

The report, New Horizons for a Healthy America: Recommendations to the New Administration, adopts a comprehensive perspective in framing its seven recommended strategies for a high-performance health care system and a healthier nation. These recommendations include:  

Issue a Presidential Call to Action for a "Healthy U.S." The
Administration, working with Congress, should set a bold framework for
action for improving health in the United States (Healthy U.S.),
mobilizing all sectors of society and emphasizing comprehensive health
promotion, disease prevention, and the delivery of high quality medical
care .  Establish "Health in All Policies." Marshal the leadership and
resources of the more than 40 federal agencies that address health into
a coordinated, synergistic effort.

Where’s THCB’s share of the money? Or does Stuart Browning feel left out?

Apr 27, 2009• 6

By Matthew Holt

My lefty friends at Moveon.org emailed me (and a few million others) appalled that Rick Scott’s group is going to be spending $1 million running ads attacking the as yet officially non-existent Baucus/Daschle/deParle/Obama health plan. Now that’s not exactly a surprise. Rick Scott has been on the offensive for a while now and in the spirit of inclusiveness (or the more cynical among you might say, to start a fight in an empty house) THCB ran his op-ed a while back. Frankly it was pretty tough to figure out what he was “for” but it’s clear what he’s against—the evils of Canada and the UK.

Yesterday I had a little fun teasing some Norwegians over here to learn about the US health care system. I asked them what they wanted to learn about, and one of them said “what about the 48 million uninsured”. I told her that Americans were a kind and generous people, and that there couldn’t possibly be anyone here uninsured or suffering because of it, and obviously the two Michael’s at Cato and the nutjob prof at Harvard prove me right about uninsurance being a) voluntary and b) the fault of three Medicaid clerks in New York state who forgot to print the enrollment forms in Spanish. OK, OK, I changed my tune a little a few seconds later.

But that remains basically the screed of the Canada bashers. They say that those evil Stalinists in the UK and Canada are the same (even though they’re not), and no one gets any care. Whereas here it’s all sweetness light, teddy bears, puppies and all the MRIs you can eat.

However, I am beginning to tentatively that the lack of mainstream industry support for Rick Scott signals a couple of things—besides the fact that the mainstream is somewhat nervous of being led by a~~n unconvicted fraudster~~ man whose company settled with the government for $1.7 billion after it fired him.