November 2010 - The Health Care Blog

Sharing the Buden

By RICHARD SLOAN Jessie has written about her perspective as the patient in an extremely stressful situation. I can add a different one: that of the husband of my seriously ill wife. As a public person, Jessie not only has... Read More...

Published Mon, Nov 08 2010 4:45 AM by The Health Care Blog

A Prevention Revolution

By SUSAN BLUMENTHAL, MD "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure." These are the words of the Hippocratic Oath, an ancient vow that has been recited by physicians for centuries. However, with seven out......

Published Mon, Nov 08 2010 2:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Swing to the Right: The Election and It's Effects On Health Reform

By DAVID HARLOW Like Tom Friedman, who lampooned some of this year's unreasonable campaign rhetoric in a recent column, I too would be in favor of reality-based political campaigns ... but that seemed to be too much to ask for... Read More...

Published Sat, Nov 06 2010 8:08 AM by The Health Care Blog

Money and Healthcare Reform: Sources, Sinks, and the Bottom Line

By JANE ORIENT, MD Congress handed the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) some assumptions, the computers came up with the mix of adjustments needed to give a magic number under $1 trillion in 10 years, and the “Affordable Care Act” (ACA)... Read More...

Published Fri, Nov 05 2010 6:33 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Medicare, ACA, Jane Orient

Swamp Creature

By JEFF GOLDSMITH Many people forget that before Washington DC was our nation’s capital, it was a pestilential swamp, whose few hardy residents regularly succumbed to tropical diseases like malaria. It was virtually uninhabitable in the summer (some say...

Published Fri, Nov 05 2010 5:06 AM by The Health Care Blog

From Progressive to Zombie Legislation after Midterms?

By RICHARD REECE, MD This is a guess as to what the midterms, a political setback for supporters of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), might mean for health reform. Exit polls indicate 58% of voters opposed the ACA, and cracks... Read More...

Published Thu, Nov 04 2010 2:41 PM by The Health Care Blog

Eric Dishman talks about Intel in health

By Matthew Holt Eric Dishman has been working with a big team at Intel on the use of technology to help seniors and patients age in place. It's been a long-ish road for Eric but in the last few years... Read More...

Published Thu, Nov 04 2010 11:59 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Policy, Consumers

Patient Engagement on the Med-Surg Floor

By JESSIE GRUMAN Three times a day, as though responding to some signal audible only to the generously medicated, we rise from our beds to join the slow procession around the perimeter of the unit. Like slumped, disheveled royalty, each... Read More....

Published Thu, Nov 04 2010 11:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

The EMR Cage Match Results

By JONATHAN BUSH It turns out, there was no cage at the experimental debate earlier in October between me and Girish Kumar Navani of eClinicalWorks. And Girish was wearing a shirt…and no mask. These, plus other anticlimaxes, sent our PR... Read More....

Published Thu, Nov 04 2010 9:31 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: EHR/EMR, Jonathan Bush

What Does “Meaningful Use” Mean for Doctors?

By JONATHAN BUSH Join the latest athenahealth discussion on Sermo! As part of our ongoing partnership with Sermo, the world’s largest online physician community, we periodically team up for surveys and other interactive projects. Our second in a series...

Published Thu, Nov 04 2010 7:39 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Meaningful Use, Jonathan Bush

The Electronic Medical Home

By JOHN HALAMKA In previous blog posts, I've mentioned an idea deserves its own dedicated post. Over the weekend, I keynoted the eClinicalWorks National User's Conference in Florida. One of the attendees emailed me the following question: "I...

Published Thu, Nov 04 2010 5:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: John Halamka, Electronic Medical Home

The Republican Landslide and the Affordable Care Act

By GLEN LAFFEL After their resounding triumph in yesterday’s midterm elections, House Republicans will likely act on their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the health reform bill President Obama signed into law last March. Their efforts could...

Published Wed, Nov 03 2010 3:15 PM by The Health Care Blog

Laying on of the Hands

By Herbert Mathewson It appears that except for physical therapists, masseuses, and priests no one lays on the hands anymore. Certainly contemporarily trained physicians do not. Recently I went to my local ER because a 2-day old pain in my... Read More...

Published Wed, Nov 03 2010 7:05 AM by The Health Care Blog

Can we get physicians to use modular apps?

By Matthew Holt Health 2.0 is best known for (and started with) consumers using online tools, search, communities and other services. But over the last year or two we've seen more and more SaaS-based and modular tools developed aimed at... Read More...

Published Wed, Nov 03 2010 12:41 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Physicians

HHS wants to hear from YOU about empowering consumers

By Matthew Holt HHS is developing a 5 year strategic plan for publication in early 2011. Part of that is more work on the role of HHS in encouraging consumer empowerment. Here are the current proposed objectives: Objective A. Engage... Read More...

Published Wed, Nov 03 2010 12:17 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Technology, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, HHS