March 2010 - The Health Care Blog

In ONC I Trust ...

By JOHN HALAMKA It's my nature to question authority. Whether it's religion, politics, or even my local administrative leadership, authority figures must earn my trust. Earning that trust is not easy. As folks who work closest with me know, I...

Published Mon, Mar 15 2010 8:21 AM by The Health Care Blog

Unstable Public Opinion

MERRILL GOOZNER Joseph White, a professor of politics at Case Western Reserve University, made this interesting observation in his weekend column in The Fiscal Times: "On most issues, there is no such thing as a stable "public opinion."...

Published Mon, Mar 15 2010 3:34 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Surprise

By BRIAN KLEPPER Check out this March 3rd article - click here - from the recent HIMSS conference, in which Dave Garets, President and CEO of HIMSS Analytics,"gazes into the future and predicts major trends for the next 12 months."... Read More...

Published Mon, Mar 15 2010 12:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Crowd Sourcing Comes Through Again

By PAUL LEVY I have written below about the incredible power of crowd sourcing, using the reach and scope of social networking on the Internet to solve a complex problem. Here's a play-by-play about a difficult question. It demonstrates how... Read...

Published Sun, Mar 14 2010 10:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

It's Not About Meaningful Use ...

By JOHN MOORE With the impending comment deadline for Meaningful Use (MU) fast approaching, many organizations, from CHIME to AHA to AAFP and others are asking for some form of relaxation of MU criteria in the final version. Now it... Read More...

Published Fri, Mar 12 2010 5:33 AM by The Health Care Blog

MedApps on TV

By Matthew Holt Kent Dicks from MedApps does a very nice job on Fox Business News. Kent explains what his company’s cell(phone)-based transmission solution does, why it’s not a privacy threat, who else is in the market, and what the... Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 8:19 PM by The Health Care Blog

Epocrates--reference present and EMR future

By Matthew Holt I met with Bob Quinn the CTO and Geoff Rutledge, the CMO, of Epocrates at HIMSS last week. The company has a big footprint in mobile (and web) reference content for physicians. The big news is that... Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 1:03 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt

Verb-alizing

By BOB WACHTER One of my interns was “running the list” with me last week (giving me a thumbnail update on the plans for each of our inpatients). It was standard stuff until he got to Ms. X, a 80ish-year-old... Read More...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 10:27 AM by The Health Care Blog

RememberItNow! and Prezi

By Matthew Holt RememberItNow! is a feisty little start-up that's aiming at the medication reminder/management space. I like the feature set and the approach, and I hope the Pam Swigley the engaging CEO gets some traction. It’s launching officially...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 1:31 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt

Glen Tullman, Allscripts

By Matthew Holt Allscirpts' CEO Glen Tullman has had a good year. Allscripts' stock is up four-fold, sales are going well and some people think that ARRA/HITECH's fillup to the healthcare IT industry is mostly his doing--he was an early.....

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 1:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt

Innovation, Not Legislation: Venture Capital is the Path to Improving Patient Safety and Reducing Waste and Error in the U.S. Healthcare System

By Lisa Suennen All eyes are on Toyota’s recall of 8.5 million vehicles due to faulty gas pedals and brakes. The recall has sparked congressional hearings, a probe by the U.S. Department of Transportation, possible criminal charges stemming from a......

Published Wed, Mar 10 2010 11:35 AM by The Health Care Blog

Program Director Healthcare IT

Since its inception, the New England Healthcare Institute has been committed to the identification, assessment and promotion of valuable health care technologies with the potential to improve the quality of care while reducing cost. The Fast Assessment...

Published Wed, Mar 10 2010 10:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Stressed Out System

By ROB LAMBERTS I saw a patient today and looked back at a previous note, which said the following: “stressed out due to insurance.” It didn’t surprise me, and I didn’t find it funny; I see a lot of this.... Read More...

Published Wed, Mar 10 2010 4:27 AM by The Health Care Blog

Octopus and other Fishes

By Matthew Holt One of the most fun times at HIMSS last week was the MEDecision party at the Georgia aquarium. I took a few videos of the Fish and the humans—so something a little different for you all The... Read More...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 12:28 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Matthew Holt

Hospital Quality Group Obscures Hospital Quality Reports, Journalists Charge

By MICHAEL MILLENSON The Joint Commission, which accredits four-fifths of the nation’s hospitals, is being accused of misleading consumers about the quality of care at those hospitals and then ignoring suggestions on how to correct the problem. “The organization...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 4:23 AM by The Health Care Blog