December 2010 - The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 Announces its Starting Five for the 2011 Developer Challenge

Following the success of the 2010 Health 2.0 Developer Challenge, we are excited to get the ball rolling again for 2011. Within the short time the Developer Challenge has been live, we have had six winners, who were able to... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 11:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

High Stakes Health Reform – Employers: In or Out?

By MICHAEL TURPIN It’s high noon for private healthcare. Over the last decade, large, medium and small employers that procure and manage over $1T of private healthcare spend for an estimated 180M Americans have been engaged in an expensive game... Read...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 7:52 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: health care reform, Michael Turpin

To Die Well

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD Everyone liked him. Though his later years (the only ones in which I knew him) took away his ability to do most things, and though he was in great pain every day, it was easy to... Read More...

Published Wed, Dec 15 2010 8:25 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Rob Lamberts, Op-Ed

What's Surprising About the Virginia Ruling

By MARK W. HALL Most everyone expected district Judge Hudson in Richmond VA to strike the individual mandate as unconstitutional, so the outcome of today’s decision is hardly surprising. What was uncertain is: 1) what remedy he would grant; and... Read...

Published Mon, Dec 13 2010 3:51 PM by The Health Care Blog

Health 2.0 NYC Chapter Angel "shark tank" on Jan 19

If you don't know what an Angel VC shark tank matchmaking event is, you can find out when the wildly successful Health 2.0 NYC Chapter has one on January 19.(It might have something to do with Health 2.0 start-ups being... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 16 2010 3:23 PM by The Health Care Blog

Why We Still Kill Patients

By MICHAEL MILLENSON A recent front-page article [1] in the New York Times conveyed grim news about patient safety. The first large-scale study [2] of hospital safety in a decade concluded that care has not gotten significantly safer since the... Read...

Published Wed, Dec 08 2010 5:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

More Can Also Be Less: We need a more complete public discussion about comparative effectiveness research

By JESSIE GRUMAN, PhD Media coverage of the government’s new investment in comparative effectiveness research leans heavily toward the effects of such research on new drugs and technologies: Will such evaluations lead to restricted access to the latest...

Published Thu, Dec 09 2010 3:39 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Comparative Effectiveness Research, Jessie Gruman

Great Ideas: Improving Healthcare Infrastructure

By GEORGE HALVORSON Sepsis is the number one cause of death in American hospitals--higher than cancer or stroke. Your chance of dying from a sepsis infection can triple if you choose a hospital that doesn’t have a good sepsis response... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 13 2010 11:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Blood Test Surprise

BY BRAD WHITE In the spring of 2005, the sinus infection returned. I awoke severely congested with a pounding forehead and pain around my eyes that grew worse when I bent to tie my shoes. The feeling was familiar. Two... Read More...

Published Fri, Dec 03 2010 3:55 AM by The Health Care Blog

Why Medical Testing Is Never a Simple Decision

By MARYA ZILBERBERG A couple of days ago, Archives of Internal Medicine published a case report online. Now, it is rather unusual for a high impact journal to publish even a case series, let alone a case report. Yet this... Read More...

Published Sun, Dec 19 2010 4:40 PM by The Health Care Blog

Spent

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD “I need you to do me a favor,” my nurse asked me at the end of our day on Friday. “Sure,” I answered, “what do you want?” “Please have a better week next week,” she said... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 09 2010 6:54 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Patients, Rob Lamberts

Sticker Shock

By GRAYSON WHEATLEY It was supposed to be a routine office visit for my patient. Unexpectedly, it turned into a real-world health economics lesson for me, the treating physician. The old adage “listen to your patients; they will always give... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 13 2010 8:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Problem with Free Market Healthcare

By JOE FLOWER The right payment structure keeps patients healthy while saving money. We want healthcare to be abundant, effective, easy, and cheap; for too many of us too much of the time it is scarce, ineffective, and maddeningly difficult.... Read More...

Published Mon, Dec 06 2010 7:32 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health Plans, Joe Flower, Health care costs

The Next Generation of Communities Part 2: Integration Within the Delivery System

By Bianca Grogan The notion that an online community could be embedded in a health care delivery system is still mostly foreign, but at the Health 2.0 Fall Conference in San Francisco, October 7-8, 2010, there were two examples presented... Read More...

Published Thu, Dec 09 2010 7:02 AM by The Health Care Blog