October 2009 - The Health Care Blog

State of Health Care Quality: Some States Better Than Others

By Margaret E. O'Keane, President National Committee For Quality Assurance Peggy O'Kane has been running the NCQA for longer than she might care to remember. NCQA is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality...

Published Fri, Oct 23 2009 7:46 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 Tools: The power of Twitter

By Matthew Holt The power of Twitter is real kids, and not for what you think. Used properly Twitter is an information filter. Exhibit A is what happened to the Von Schwebers who run PHARMASurveyor. They were a huge part... Read More...

Published Fri, Oct 23 2009 5:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, pharmaceuticals, evidenced-based medicine, Conferences, e-patients

Health 2.0 - The Consumer Aggregators

Featuring: Roni Zeiger MD, Product Manager, Google Health, Wayne Gattinella, CEO WebMD, David Cerino, Microsoft Health Solutions Moderator: Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Think-Health Overview: With consumers turning to online sources in record numbers, competition...

Published Thu, Oct 22 2009 5:06 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Affordability Model

Hiding In Plain Sight: Using Medicare To Solve The ‘Public Option’ Conundrum

By JEFF GOLDSMITH As Senate and House Committee versions of health reform move toward unified legislation and floor votes, the most complex political challenge is how to resolve the “public option” controversy. While one would have thought weightier issues...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 9:48 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform, Medicare, Public Option, Jeff Goldsmith

JSK & Joe DeLuca on KQED

By Matthew Holt One of the best local talk shows anywhere is Michael Krasny's Forum on 88.5 KQED, San Francisco's establishment NPR station (SF of course has a rebel NPR station KALW which has had me on a couple of... Read More...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 9:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Who should tell your MD what to do?

By PAUL LEVY In this Wall Street Journal op-ed, Norbert Gleicher suggests that expert panels won't improve health care because the the quality of the research on which they would base their physician practice guidelines is not reliable. Instead, he...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 6:40 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Paul Levy

Open Letter to Athena: Open Up the Afterburners!

By SCOTT SHREEVE Afterburner (af·tər′bər·nər) n. A device for augmenting the thrust of a jet engine by burning additional fuel in the uncombined oxygen in the gases from the turbine The augmentation of thrust obtained by afterburning may be well... Read...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 5:31 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Republican health care argument

By Matthew Holt Just in case you thought we’d gone soft by featuring Sarah Palin, here’s what Tom Toles thinks (from the WaPo) Read More...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 4:10 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Policy

Last Chance to Fix the Exchanges

By BILL KRAMER We all know that well-designed health insurance exchanges are a critical element for good health reform, right? And we also hear that exchanges are part of all five reform bills in Congress, so we should be satisfied,... Read More...

Published Tue, Oct 20 2009 7:16 PM by The Health Care Blog

Docs Wash Hands Like Guys In Gas Station Bathroom

By MICHAEL MILLENSON OK, a new study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine did not directly compare how often someone washes their hands after using a gas station bathroom and how often your doctor washes his hands... Read More...

Published Tue, Oct 20 2009 9:55 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Cat's and Dogs of Health IT

Silly Season: Monty Python Policy Making

By IAN MORRISON Editor's Note: Ian Morrison today makes his first contribution to THCB. Ian was President of Institute for the Future where I learned my health care consulting trade in the 1990s. A more amusing boss one couldn't have... Read More...

Published Mon, Oct 19 2009 7:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Reform

New: Become a fan of THCB on Facebook

Sign up for our Facebook Page! Read More...

Published Mon, Oct 19 2009 7:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Healthcare Fighting (Kung Fu Mix)

Change The Rules and Get Your Labs

By Phil Marshall In 1999 Caresoft developed a consumer web portal called the Daily Apple. The Daily Apple wasn’t all that unique or different than other health portals, until in May of 2000 they began helping consumers download their lab... Read More...

Published Mon, Oct 19 2009 1:04 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Policy/Politics, Policy, Consumers