The Health Care Blog – Page 967 – Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.

Above the Fold

Will tighter credit slow medical technology innovation?

Oct 1, 2008• 4

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Medical technology is one of the most innovative sectors in the U.S. economy. The market is fueled by aging populations, expanding chronic conditions, and a forecasted growth in demand for companion diagnostics to use in concert with personalized, targeted therapies.

In its detailed update, Pulse of the industry: US medical technology report 2008, Ernst & Young describes the industry, its opportunities and challenges.

In summary: U.S. med-tech still leads the world, but the larger economy could compromise both the U.S. lead in the sector as well as health innovations.

Do gamers make better surgeons?

Oct 1, 2008• 1

By Sean Neill Videogame

Something I had not seen before coming to the U.S. was robotic surgery, even though some UK centres do offer it.

Leonardo da Vinci has had many attributes associated with his name, but what would he think of being eponymously associated with prostate surgery?

da Vinci surgery uses advanced invasive robotics to perform procedures such as hysterectomies, prostatectomies and even mitral valve surgery. The manufacturers claim many advantages from decreased blood loss to the sparing of nerves. It is a shock to walk into a room where the patient appears to have been grasped by a giant mechanical spider, with the legs moving within the patient’s abdomen. The surgeon is nowhere to be seen and if you ask the nurse she will point to a figure hunched behind a box in the corner of the room. Peak behind and you will see a magnificently magnified view from within the patient abdomen from positions you would never see in an open procedure. The surgeon appears to be playing an advanced musical device as the instruments are directed from within.

If you watch a game junky play on their PC, PlayStation or Xbox, the manual dexterity and eye-hand co-ordination is something to behold. So will the next generation of gaming computer nerds be the da Vinci surgeons of the future. A study in 2007 suggests that this may be so. Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games.

Even though I am not a surgeon will this evidence be enough to convince my wife of our latest purchase?

Sean Neill is a South African-born, British-trained anesthesiologist, who
recently relocated to Midwestern USA. He blogs regularly at OnMedica about his cross-cultural experience, frequently pointing out oddities of American health care.

Matthew gets the kicker quote

Oct 1, 2008

By THCB Staff H20logo

A New York times special section today includes a story about going online for health information. John Schwartz quotes all of our favorites, including Susannah Fox, Clay Shirky, Benjamin Heywood of Patients Like Me, Trusera and ACOR.

The article mentions Matthew, Indu and the upcoming Health 2.0 conference. And ends with this kicker quote from Matthew, "In the end, the more people you have in the conversation,
the better information drives out the worse information."

Busines ties and MRIs — it’s not rocket science

Oct 1, 2008• 2

By Sarah Arnquist

The Health and Human Secretary Inspector General’s office concluded last week that doctors are likely to order more MRIs if they have business ties with the imaging provider.

Shocking, isn’t it?

Modern Healthcare reports that inspector general’s report was a follow-up to a previous finding that MRI claims paid under Medicare’s physician fee schedule increased fourfold from 1995 to 2005.

“The complexity and limited transparency with which these services are provided warrants continued attention to ensure that services are reasonable, necessary and compliant with Medicare statutes and regulations,” the report states.

Too much data but not enough information

Sep 30, 2008• 5

By John Halamka Halamka

During the decade I’ve been CIO, IT operating budgets have been 2 percent of my organization’s total budget, which is typical for the health care industry.

During the same period, IT budgets for the financial services industry have averaged 10 percent or higher.

Since 1998, I’ve often been told that Healthcare IT needs to take a lesson from the financial folks about doing IT right.

Judging personal health records by their usefulness

Sep 30, 2008• 6

Siedman By Josh Seidman

It appears that at least the first phase of personal health record (PHR) certification from CCHIT (Certification Commission on Health Information Technology) will focus on a narrow set of attributes. CCHIT Chairman Mark Leavitt told a group earlier this month that the first set of PHR standards will focus primarily on privacy, security and interoperability.

Leavitt indicated that functionality standards would initially only address what functions are needed to support privacy, security and interoperability. I asked him the following question: Given that what many consumers need to know is how useful would different PHRs be to helping them and their families manage their health, wouldn’t it make sense to include a broader assessment of functionality in CCHIT’s PHR certification?

Will We Need a Bailout of the Health Care System, Too?

Sep 29, 2008• 26

Kibbe By David Kibbe

A huge bailout is being planned in Washington to avert a calamity that was brought about, in large measure, by the financial system operating the way financial operators told us it was supposed to function. The money is needed, we are told, to bail out the financiers who assured us — up until just a couple of weeks ago — that the system they operated was sound and would need no rescue.

What is the likely spill over to health care from the misbehavior of the financial system’s owners, operators, and managers? I’m going to suggest there are likely to be both direct and indirect effects. One of the indirect effects is that we may lose faith in doctors, nurses, and hospitals, or at least come to suspect that the practice of their craft and trade is not aligned with their espoused principles of "doing no harm" and acting in our best interests.

Health 2.0 Update – Monday 9/29/08

Sep 29, 2008

A heads up for THCB readers – if you’re thinking of attending Health 2.0 and still haven’t signed up for
your pass, you may want to think about acting now. Our last two events
sold out well in advance and we are again closing in on a sellout. Only
about 100 passes remain. Reserve yours today.

AGENDA ADDS:

Vita Cassese, VP, Worldwide Business Innovation, Pfizer

Scott Heimes SVP, Consumer Solutions, OptumHealth

Adam Bosworth, CEO, Keas

The WALL STREET JOURNAL’S Chris Lawton will interview athenahealth CEO
Jonathan Bush for the three Health 2.0 CEO’s panel on Tuesday. Brought to you by Johnson + Johnson.

Michael Millenson will interview Healthgrades CEO Kerry Hicks

Ex-WSj’er David Hamilton will interview Sermo CEO Daniel Palestrant.

EDELMAN will unveil the Edelman Health Engagement Barometer — new
findings from a landmark global study defining New Health Info-entials,
what their health hot buttons are, and how and where they want
companies and brands to engage with them.

UPDATES: We welcome
our latest sponsors – Medical Marketing & Media, RelayHealth,
Navigenics, Silverlink Communications and OptumHealth.

MEANWHILE: Esther Dyson talked recently to the Organized
Wisdom Blog about why she’s an active investor in Health 2.0
companies, including PatientsLikeMe, Organized Wisdom and 23andMe.

"The
thing that excites me the most." Dyson told OWB "is all the research
and discoveries that are being made around genetic information. That’s
just part of something even broader, which is – there’s gonna be a lot
more information available. We’ll be able to understand the impact of
treatments, and the relation between treatments, conditions,
environment…We’re gonna know a ton more."

Dyson had this to
say about the evolution of health search, considered by many observers to be the key economic driver of the online healthcare business … "right now you’re reading a
lot about behavioral targeting of advertising; the notion is: You track
someone’s behavior online, you collect a lot of data and you can show
them more relevant ads. Imagine if, instead of tracking someone online
without them necessarily knowing, you could ask someone, "Will you give
us your health information?"

"Then, instead of showing you more
relevant ads, we can also show you more relevant content. And ideally,
there’s a difference between, "Oh, this guy goes to the travel site,
let’s show him an airline ad,"…. and the guy who, in some form, tells
the system, "Oh, I’m traveling to Paris next week," and you can show
him an offer for 20 percent off on a flight to Paris. That is not
targeting, that’s actual personalization of the message to the person’s
specific circumstances…."

The Chances of Reform Are Now – You guessed it – Zero

Sep 29, 2008• 17

By Robert Laszewski

A couple of weeks ago I did a post, The
Pretend Presidential Debate on Health Care–The Health Care
Press Needs
to Force the Presidential Candidates to Get Real on Health Care
"Change".In it I made the point that facing a $500 billion
budget deficit next year, the sunset of the Bush tax cuts in 2010,
fixing the alternative minimum tax problem once again, and the cost of
the Freddie and Fannie bailout, the presidential candidates needed to get real abouthealth care reform. Instead of giving us their rote health care talking points, I said they needed to start telling us how they were really going to deal with health care reform in the face of all of these challenges.Just when you think things can’t get any worse….Two
weeks later you can add the AIG bailout and as much as a $700 billion
bailout of the financial system now being considered by the Congress to
the reasons why the health care plans of both candidates are no longer relevant.

Big administrator is watching you

Sep 29, 2008• 4

Robert_wachter By Bob Wachter

Last week, came the announcement that Suzanne Delbanco, founding director of the Leapfrog Group, has assumed the presidency of a company that tracks compliance with safety and quality practices via remote video. Big Brother, meet the Joint Commission.

The report, in Modern Healthcare, describes the process this way:

Video auditing refers to a system in which cameras are mounted in targeted locations to continuously capture specific clinical processes, such as observing handwashing and hand-sanitizing stations. [Using video] fed through a Web-based link, independent, third-party observers audit the recordings and provider reports on safety incidents.

Did you ever doubt this was coming? Virtually every other industry with compliance standards has long used video to monitor compliance and to goose workers into following the rules. If video surveillance is good enough for Vegas croupiers and Kansas meat packers, why wouldn’t it be good enough for neonatal nurses and ER docs?