January 2011 - The Health Care Blog

Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba Boom!

By RICHARD REECE, MD January 1, 2011 -Yes, yes, it’s true. Today 79 million baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, start turning 65. Yes, yes, it’s true. Boomers begin qualifying for Medicare. Yes, yes, it’s true. If my math... Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 03 2011 4:58 AM by The Health Care Blog

What Would A Truly Patient-Centered Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Look Like?

By KENT BOTTLES Health care leaders are busy talking to attorneys and consultants about how to set up Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). A recent Advisory Board survey found that 73 per cent of hospital finance executives said that creating such....

Published Mon, Jan 03 2011 6:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

Rip Van Doctor

By BOB WACHTER, MD Cindy Fenton is one of the best doctors I know, a superb clinician-educator who was directing the UCSF Department of Medicine's educational programs when, in 2001, she stepped off the academic treadmill to raise her three... Read...

Published Wed, Jan 26 2011 6:57 AM by The Health Care Blog

What People Living With Disability Can Teach Us

By SUSANNAH FOX The Pew Internet Project recently issued a short report noting that people living with disability are less likely than other adults in the U.S. to use the internet: 54%, compared with 81%. The first question many people... Read More.....

Published Thu, Jan 27 2011 5:32 AM by The Health Care Blog

San Diego Agenda Is Coming Together Nicely

We are so excited about the way that the Health 2.0 Spring Fling Conference, in San Diego on March 21-22, 2011, is shaping up. Even though the spring conference is quickly approaching, we are always keeping our eyes out for... Read More...

Published Thu, Jan 27 2011 11:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

Can Good Care Produce Bad Health?

By AMY BERMAN For those of you who haven’t yet heard, I have recently been diagnosed with Stage IV inflammatory *** cancer. This rare form of *** cancer is known for its rapid spread. True to form, it has metastasized... Read More...

Published Fri, Jan 28 2011 5:35 PM by The Health Care Blog

A Medical Student's Dilemma

By LIBERTAD FLORES I remember joking with Dad about how he'd outlive us all. He had gone vegetarian 10 years before I was born, never smoked, took vitamins, and asked for a designated driver after his annual Heineken at the... Read More...

Published Mon, Jan 31 2011 7:01 AM by The Health Care Blog

Insurers Flat Foot Their Way Into the Social Media Era

By DAVID WILLIAMS A couple of related pieces caught my attention today: @HealthPlan: How insurers use social media and Insurers are scouring social media for evidence of fraud. Slowly but surely health plans and other insurers are stepping into the.....

Published Mon, Jan 31 2011 5:00 PM by The Health Care Blog

Wanted: A PCAST Patient Portal

By Adrian Gropper, MD What do the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report and the New England Journal of Medicine article on value in health care by Porter have in... Read More....

Published Tue, Jan 04 2011 5:20 AM by The Health Care Blog

The Needle In the Haystack

By J. LEONARD LICHTENFELD, MD Well, it didn't take long to get into the New Year, did it? There I was this earlier this week, starting my New Year right by getting exercise on my elliptical when I heard the... Read More...

Published Thu, Jan 06 2011 9:01 AM by The Health Care Blog

That Which We Call a Rose

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE What’s in a name? Sometimes nothing much. Sometimes a shift in paradigm. The Medical Record in its current format was created over a century ago by Dr. Henry Stanley Plummer at the Mayo Clinic. When in the... Read More...

Published Sat, Jan 08 2011 6:19 AM by The Health Care Blog

Physician Executives Should Not Ignore How Smartphones Will Transform Healthcare

By KENT BOTTLES Physician executives who ignore smartphones and their healthcare applications will miss the most important disruptive technology trend in the next five years. Physician executives who understand how smartphones will transform the industry...

Published Mon, Jan 31 2011 10:11 PM by The Health Care Blog

So, Are EHRs a Waste of Time and Money?

By ROGER COLLIER The 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) authorized incentive payments, potentially totaling some $27 billion over ten years, to clinicians and hospitals when they implement electronic health...

Published Mon, Jan 17 2011 6:07 AM by The Health Care Blog

Putting the Patient First, Literally

By ADRIAN GROPPER, MD Interoperability is front and center, again. Stage 1 of HITECH was about health records for doctors. Stage 2 is about interoperability. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report is all about interoperability...

Published Tue, Jan 18 2011 5:00 AM by The Health Care Blog

Insurance Exchange Budgets: How Much is Needed?

By ROGER COLLIER It’s coming up to four months since the Department of Health and Human Services awarded more than $50 million in grants to states and US possessions for health insurance exchange planning and development, and the money is... Read More...

Published Wed, Jan 19 2011 4:09 AM by The Health Care Blog