February 2010 - The Health Care Blog

EHR Redux

By by DAVID C. KIBBE It's time to revive the discussion of electronic health record software in light of the new federal regulations that define criteria for meaningful use and also set criteria for the EHR technologies that must be... Read More....

Published Sun, Feb 07 2010 7:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Electronic Medical Records

How to Get Enough Votes in the Senate

By PAUL LEVY When Hillary Clinton was running for President, she set forth a more modest agenda for health care reform than her competitor, Barack Obama. Maybe she understood better, based on her experience, how difficult it is to get... Read More...

Published Sun, Feb 07 2010 6:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Government to Account For More Than Half of Healthcare Spending

By MERRILL GOOZNER Amid all the gloomy numbers in the latest government projections for health care spending, one statistic stands out: Public sector involvement in health care this year will surpass private sector spending for the first time in U.S....

Published Sun, Feb 07 2010 4:45 AM by The Health Care Blog

Wellpoint's wasted opportunity

By Matthew Holt Sometimes with something so egregious gets written that, even if it’s in the Wall Street Journal, you have to notice it. Angela Braly, the CEO of Wellpoint—compensation a hair under $10m in 2009—ought to be happy, even... Read More...

Published Sun, Feb 07 2010 1:49 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy, Health Plans

The point of Health 2.0. Yes there is one

By Matthew Holt The (not huge) world of Health 2.0, participatory medicine and ePatients has been fretting itself about a comment Susannah Fox (all hail) elevated into a post called “What’s the Point of Health 2.0”. Here’s an excerpt from... Read More...

Published Sat, Feb 06 2010 1:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Consumers, Meaningful Use, Susannah Fox

Plan B

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI With word that the House is likely to take up the repeal of the health insurance industry anti-trust exemption it is now clear the Democratic leadership has begun Plan B. It is also clear that this is... Read More...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 6:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

Autism and the MMR: Finally a Retraction

By NAOMI FREUNDLICH Are we finally ready to close the door on the much-disputed link between the MMR vaccine and autism? On January 30, Britain’s General Medical Council ruled that Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 6:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

Why Calculators Are the Future of Healthcare

By THOMAS GOETZ Want to know the future of medicine and healthcare in one sentence? For my money, it goes like this: The real opportunity in healthcare is to combine our personal data with the huge amount of general biomedical... Read More...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 5:35 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Thomas Goetz

Coming Short with Thinking

By ROB LAMBERTS I am mad at congress. I don’t care if they are Democrats or Republicans, I am sick of healthcare being treated as a political football. How much more of a crisis do we need before we actually... Read More...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 12:30 PM by The Health Care Blog

Todd Park speaks: Free the data!

By Matthew Holt Todd Park is definitely one of health care IT’s good guys. Todd was the brains (but not the mouth!) behind athenahealth. Since he left athenahealth, he spent a year back in California doing angel investing (Ventana among... Read More....

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 4:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Health 2.0, Policy/Politics, Matthew Holt, Policy

The Health Assurance – Disease Insurance Plan

By NORTIN M HADLER, MD The American health care delivery system is reprehensible for the degree to which it tolerates the under-treatment of those in need and supports the over-treatment of those who are entitled. It invests vast wealth in... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 8:31 AM by The Health Care Blog

Simple Steps to Meaningful Health Reform

By KIM BELLARD Now that health reform at the federal level seems to have hit an impasse, Congress and the Administration are scrambling to see if anything can be salvaged this year. Although both the House and Senate bills are... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 6:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

10 Insights on the iPad

By Doug Goldstein The iPad got it right and will set the standard for a new and improved way to enjoy our connected lifestyle. The iPhone blazed the way as it shifted mobile phones from something to talk on…to powerful... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 6:40 AM by The Health Care Blog

Collecting Patient Info in Haiti Using the iPhone

Dr. Elizabeth Cote, from Harvard Humane Initiative collects patient data at Fond Parisien, Haiti using iPhone and iCharts from www.CareTools.com. The developers were kind enough to customize the form in less than a week to support fields and info required...

Published Tue, Feb 02 2010 5:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Medical Experts Say Haitians Will Need Health Care Help for Years to Come

By POOJA AWATRAMANI The BBC recently reported that medical organizations with members serving the Haitian communities affected by the earthquake on January 12th warn that one of the larger issues for Haitians will likely be the need for increased medical...

Published Tue, Feb 02 2010 4:50 AM by The Health Care Blog