August 2010 - The Health Care Blog

The Federal Reserve Wants to Rebuild Main Street

By DAVID ERICKSON, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and JAMES S. MARKS, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation We all have a vision of the “Main Street” we would like to live near – tree-lined, friendly and safe. But our “Main... Read More...

Published Mon, Aug 16 2010 2:22 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health Disparities, David Erickson, James S. Marks

One Day in the Life of a Meaningful User

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE All the laws have been passed and all the final rulings have been published. In the spirit of the times, you went out and got yourself an EHR. You did your due diligence and sat through many... Read More...

Published Tue, Aug 17 2010 11:47 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: EHR, Meaningful Use, Margalit Gur-Arie

How to save $40 billion in health care costs

By JANE SARASOHN-KAHN Electronic health records (EHRs) broaden access to patient data and provide the platform for pushing evidence-based decision support to clinicians at the point-of-care. This promotes optimal care for patients, reduces medical errors...

Published Wed, Aug 18 2010 10:42 AM by The Health Care Blog

Three Wishes

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD So I was walking down the hallway in my office, mildly distracted, when I kicked something. It was a USB “thumb drive.” I picked it up and inspected it, trying to figure out who had dropped... Read More...

Published Thu, Aug 19 2010 6:30 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, Rob Lamberts, David Blumenthal

Facepalming Our Way into the Future

By JOE FLOWER The reform isn’t perfect, but maybe it’ll help us avoid disaster. The rapidly ramifying crisis in health care may (we can pray) end all delusions. It may at least begin to weaken them by exposing them to... Read More...

Published Sun, Aug 01 2010 12:08 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Joe Flower, health care reform

CarePass Demonstration

By Bianca Grogan Onstage at the Health 2.0 In the Doctor's Office Conference held in Jacksonville, Florida on April 24, 2010, Tom McHale gave a brief demonstration about CarePass and its services. He explained that CarePass is all about simplifying...

Published Mon, Aug 02 2010 5:25 PM by The Health Care Blog

“I Like (Political) Science and I Want to Help People”

By BOB WACHTER, MD I thought I was an oddball in college. I've only recently learned that I was avant-garde. Right before beginning college in 1975, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. Being the first-born son – with... Read More...

Published Wed, Aug 04 2010 8:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Bob Wachter, Medical Students

Health 2.0 Europe Conference Videos

By Matthew Holt On April 6-7, 2010, Health 2.0, in collaboration with Basil Strategies, held the Health 2.0 Europe Conference in Paris, France. At long last Health 2.0 has posted the videos from this conference ( translating geek speak about... Read More...

Published Mon, Aug 23 2010 4:29 PM by The Health Care Blog

The Topography of Ignorance

By PAUL LEVY Here is a statement* that Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., as dean of Harvard Medical School, gave in an introductory lecture to the medical class on November 6, 1861: Science is the topography of ignorance. From a few... Read More...

Published Thu, Aug 26 2010 5:51 AM by The Health Care Blog

First Day at Health 2.0 Europe Conference

By Bianca Grogan Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya of Health 2.0 and Denise Silber of Basil Strategies give the introduction to the Health 2.0 Europe Conference, April 6-7, 2010, in Paris, France. In their presentation they give a complete overview... Read...

Published Fri, Aug 27 2010 2:21 PM by The Health Care Blog

A Meaningful Use and Standards Rule FAQ Part II

By JOHN HALAMKA As a followup to the HIMSS Webinar I gave last week, here's an FAQ in the spirit of last month's Meaningful Use and Standards Rule FAQ. 1. The Emergency Department is mentioned in 9 Core Measures and... Read More...

Published Mon, Aug 30 2010 1:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Meaningful Use, John Halamka

HIT Trends Summary for July 2010

By MICHAEL LAKE This is a summary of the HIT Trends Report for June 2010. You can get the current issue here. E-prescribing. Two surveys re-confirm that while e-prescribing adoption is rapidly increasing, utilization continues to lag, particularly with...

Published Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:14 AM by The Health Care Blog

MinuteClinic’s hour may be at hand

By DAVID WILLIAMS Mark Perry draws an interesting inference from two news stories: a WSJ article that suggests consumers are using less health care and another that reports a big jump in MinuteClinic volumes. Consumers aren’t necessarily consuming less...

Published Thu, Aug 05 2010 7:18 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Patients, David E. Williams, Walk-in clinics

A Bizarre Report

By JOHN GOODMAN I have been watching the release of the Medicare Trustees reports for many years and I have never seen anything as strange as what happened last week. Although these reports are normally carefully embargoed, Health and Human... Read More...

Published Tue, Aug 10 2010 9:03 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Medicare, John Goodman

Difficulties With Diagnosis

By DAVID E. WILLIAMS I’m impressed that the Boston Globe printed a number of insightful letters in response to its Mistakes that matter article, which discussed the case of two patients whose prostate cancer biopsies got mixed up. (One had... Read More...

Published Wed, Aug 11 2010 7:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Patients, David Williams, Patient Safety