The Health Care Blog – Page 950 – Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.

Above the Fold

Electronic health records provide the foundation for clinical excellence

Nov 24, 2008• 5

By Scott Shreeve Scottshreeve

I have mentioned this many times but it bears repeating with three
recent news articles – the electronic health record itself is not a
game changer but it is a powerful information gathering tool.

However,
by gathering information in a single collaborative place, EHR
technology allows all clinical providers to measure, monitor, and begin
to improve the way they provide care. It is this later part, which is part of the overall organizational transformation enabled by the technology (not solely because of it), that allows an organization to achieve the promised high performance results of an often painful EHR implementation.

America’s CEOs set priorities for Obama Administration

Nov 21, 2008• 11

By Brian Klepper

This past Monday and Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal convened an extraordinary conference of about 100 CEOs to develop and recommend issue priorities for the new Administration. (See the participant list here.)

This meeting brought together the nation’s industry power players. Several Senators and Congressional representatives participated, as well as Rahm Emanuel, the President-elect’s new Chief of Staff, and others who advise Mr. Obama.

Based on their business’ core focus, the attendees were assigned into four major areas: 1) Finance and the US Economy, 2) Energy and the Environment, 3) American and the Global Economy, and 4) Health Care.

Then in the General Session that followed, the focus groups’ recommendations were incorporated into a final list and reranked by all the participants. Here’s the graph showing the relative ranking of all issues.

Consumer-Generated Clinical Trials? Research Minus Science = Gossip

Nov 21, 2008• 7

By Val Jones MD

Valjones My readers know how passionate I am about
protecting the public from misleading health information. I
have
witnessed first-hand
many well-meaning attempts to “empower consumers” with Web 2.0 tools.
Unfortunately, they were designed without a clear understanding of the
scientific method, basic statistics, or in some cases, common sense.

Let me first say that I desperately want my patients to be
knowledgeable about their disease or condition. The quality of their
self-care depends on that, and I regularly point each of my patients to
trusted sources of health information so that they can be fully
informed about all aspects of their health. Informed decisions are
founded upon good information. But when the foundation is corrupt –
consumer empowerment collapses like a house of cards.

In a recent lecture on Health 2.0, it was suggested that websites
that enable patients to “conduct their own clinical trials” are the
bold new frontier of research. This assertion betrays a lack of
understanding of basic scientific principles. In healthcare we often
say, “the plural of anecdote is not data” and I would translate that to
“research minus science equals gossip.” Let me give you some examples
of Health 2.0 gone wild:

Fighting Alzheimer’s one ribbon at a time

Nov 21, 2008• 2

Ribbon By THCB Staff

Caring.com and the Alzheimer’s Association have teamed up to spread awareness about the disease through an online
Purple
Ribbon campaign.

The official campaign ended earlier this year with 1,000 blogs and websites displaying the purple ribbon, but ribbons are still available for creating. For each ribbon created, Caring.com donates $10 to the Alzheimer’s Association for education programs.

Anyone who wants to help
raise awareness for Alzheimer’s disease can create a free web ribbon with just a few clicks. You can personalize the ribbon with a
loved one’s name and it comes in different shades and sizes to
match your website or blog.

Also, if you’re an adult child or caregiver caring for a parent or loved
one with Alzheimer’s, visit the Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias section
of Caring.com for helpful information and resources.

Could a larger investment in primary care cure the health care system?

Nov 21, 2008• 19

By Deron Schriver

I’m going to go out on a big ol’ limb here by saying that 90 percent of our health care problems could be solved by rebuilding and refocusing our primary care delivery system.

It’s the issue most discussed issue in reform circles (aside from single-payer) and it makes perfect sense. Toyota has succeeded because it goes to great lengths to find the true source of quality issues. They have recognized that addressing root causes significantly limits efforts needed because you avoid treating secondary level problems that occur further down the line.

A highly trained, appropriately paid primary care physician with a focus on prevention, coordination and patient education could solve so many other problems. There are many preventable chronic illnesses out there driving up our costs.

A Great American Smokeout, but where’s the coverage to help people quit?

Nov 20, 2008• 1

By Mitchell Katz Mitchkatz

Today is the Great American Smokeout, and while San Franciscans are doing their part to help people battle nicotine addiction, I became aware recently that not all the health insurance plans for our county workers in San Francisco — nor in many other counties around California – were covering all of the smoking cessation benefits recommended by the Center for Disease Control.

The City of San Francisco has embraced a multi-faceted approach to reduce tobacco use, while protecting individuals from insurance coverage barriers as they battle their addiction to nicotine:

We have endorsed a policy calling on the health plans that provide health insurance coverage for City and County employees to offer comprehensive smoking cessation benefits consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The City of San Francisco covers smoking cessation services and treatments for the uninsured.

According to the CDC, the most effective health insurance benefits are those that include patient reimbursements for smoking cessation counseling and FDA-approved pharmacotherapeutic treatments, and reimbursements to clinicians for providing tobacco dependence treatment, just as they are reimbursed for treating other chronic conditions.

This isn’t the early 1990s

Nov 20, 2008• 10

By Sarah Arnquist

Several stories in today’s papers make it clear that the atmosphere for health reform today truly is different than when the Clinton Administration took over in the 1990s.

Here’s the bullet points in support of that thesis:

Obama selected veteran policymaker Tom Daschle to head up the Department of Health and Human Services, signaling he wants the former South Dakota Senator to head up reform efforts.
The Washington Post quoted Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) saying, "Tom Daschle sees this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. On the premier domestic issue of our time, the
president-elect sees Tom Daschle with the skills and abilities to bring
people together and get this over the finish line."

Marking a clear deviation from the past, the Association of Health Insurance Plans announced
it would be willing to accept guarantee issue and community rating in
exchange for a mandate requiring all people to buy insurance.

Seven Senators promised to work together on health care to accomplish something next year. They are: Max Baucus of Montana, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, all Democrats, and Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, Republicans.

But Bob Laszewski provides WSJ readers with a reality check, "Talk is cheap on the front end of this thing," he told the Journal. "The
rubber hits the road when that 1,000-page document comes out with
specifics."

More on Health 2.0 & Ix Synergies

Nov 20, 2008• 1

By Josh Seidman
H20logo

Our IxAction Alliance focused our monthly IxInsights Webinar this week on the synergies between Health 2.0 and information therapy (Ix). This marks the first of a series of activities for the IxCenter on the H20-Ix intersection as we gear up for next spring’s “Health 2.0 Meets Ix” conference in Boston (April 22-23, 2009).

In today’s Webinar, Indu Subaiya, Matthew Holt, and I provided some context for the exploration of the intersection of these two movements. We focused on several key tensions and challenges including:

* Building Health 2.0 into the delivery system * Trust, personalization & participatory medicine * What is the future role of the doctor? * Info-mediaries: Human & automated navigation * Knowledge creation: expert vs. wiki * User-generated health care

We heard from five different innovative companies that have created Ix-oriented Health 2.0 applications.

* Enhanced Medical Decisions * Krames * Healthwise * Silverlink * bWell Informed

As we move forward, we’re going to tackle a variety of questions, such as:

What are the biggest needs in health care that Ix and Health 2.0 could solve?
What are the “home runs” at the intersection of Ix and Health 2.0?
What are the most important issues, tools and technologies that we should cover at our April conference?

This is a great time to help shape our agenda. What do you think?

Why the markets are in a panic over Obama

Nov 20, 2008• 11

By Donald E. Johnson Market1119

The stock market has plunged since late September when it became
pretty clear that President-elect Barack Obama would become our next
president in January.

Why?

Uncertainty.

While the mounting financial crisis certainly has had a major role
in sinking stocks some 40% year to date, speculators are worried that
Obama will follow through on his promises to raise income taxes on
dividends and capital gains, rescue General Motors (GM), Ford (F) and
Chrysler and make it virtually impossible for private employers to
resist unionizing drives.

Traders are hoping that Obama will realize that tax increases will
push the economy deeper into a recession or even a depression.

Daschle Tapped for HHS Secretary

Nov 19, 2008• 7

By Brian Klepper

The Caucus, the New York Times Political Blog, reports that senior Obama aides have said that Mr. Obama offered the nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services to Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the former Democratic Senate leader, and that Mr. Daschle has accepted.

Mr. Daschle was an early supporter of Senator Obama. Earlier this year, Mr. Daschle published a well-recieved book called Critical: What We Can Do About The Health Care Crisis.