February 2011 - The Health Care Blog

Patient Privacy and PCAST

By JEAN STANFORD, PETER MORK, PhD, and ARNON ROSENTHAL, PhD The President’s Council of Scientific Advisors (PCAST) report on health care IT points out that “A patient cannot make meaningful privacy choices unless he or she understands the flows and.....

Published Tue, Feb 08 2011 6:36 AM by The Health Care Blog

Where Doctors Locate

By JOHN GOODMAN, PhD Pop quiz. How many doctors are at the top of Mt. Everest? None, actually. Yet, think about how many people get sick up there. Think about how many die. Do you think extra bonus payments could... Read More...

Published Tue, Feb 08 2011 8:01 PM by The Health Care Blog

Watson: A Computer So Smart, It Can Say, “Yes, Doctor”

By MICHAEL MILLENSON Game Show Watson wants to be a doctor. Well, almost. Fresh off a commanding victory on Jeopardy, IBM will try to demonstrate that the combination of advanced natural language processing and sophisticated algorithmic decision-making...

Published Thu, Feb 17 2011 7:32 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Physicians, Michael Millenson, Watson, IBM, Tech, Front Page, Medicine

NIH’s New Drug Discovery Center: Heading Into the Swamp?

By DEREK LOWE, PHD I’ve been meaning to comment on the NIH’s new venture into drug discovery, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Curious Wavefunction already has some thoughts here, and I share his concerns. We’re...

Published Tue, Feb 15 2011 8:43 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: pharmaceuticals, Op-Ed, NIH, Francis Collins, Derek Lowe, NCATS

New Cures! Faster! Faster!

By DEREK LOWE, PHD I wrote here the other day about the NIH’s new translational medicine plans. The New York Times article that brought this to wide attention didn’t go over well with director Francis Collins, who ended up trying to disabuse...

Published Fri, Feb 18 2011 3:35 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Op-Ed, NIH, Drug development, Front Page, Derek Lowe

Personal health records: will doctors connect?

BY JANE SARASOHN-KAHN What doctors are most likely to use patients’ personal electronic health records? Fewer than 1 in 2 are willing to. Those who most likely would include Hispanic physicians, doctors who practice in rural areas, those employed in hospitals...

Published Sun, Feb 20 2011 9:34 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HITECH, Physicians, PHRs, Front Page

Let’s Face(book) the Hard Truth About Healthcare

By PETER KRUGER ‘In the time when new media. Was the big idea.’ These two lines at the end of the album track ‘Kite’ earned U2 a place in a recent list of suspect popular song lyrics. Some Health 2.0 vendors are also struggling to get ‘social media...

Published Mon, Feb 21 2011 8:04 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Front Page

The Direct Project Pilots Announced

By MATTHEW HOLT Today David Blumenthal, Aneesh Chopra and other government and private sector worthies somehow held a press conference in DC despite the big freeze. It was to announce the first successful use of The Direct Project. Formerly called......

Published Wed, Feb 02 2011 2:19 PM by The Health Care Blog

HIT Trends Summary for January 2011

By MICHAEL LAKE EHR vendor performance and project ROI. KLAS, a health IT product and vendor rating service based on client satisfaction, reported its annual Best in KLAS awards. For ambulatory EHR systems Epic, eClinicalWorks, Greenway and e-MDs lead...

Published Thu, Feb 03 2011 5:37 AM by The Health Care Blog

ACOs and Antitrust

By MERRILL GOOZNER Beyond the legal challenges, a major new hurdle is emerging for the health care reform law. Recent studies show that the major players in the health care marketplace – insurers, hospitals and physician practices – are consolidating...

Published Thu, Feb 03 2011 12:23 PM by The Health Care Blog

It Hurts To A Point

By STEVE SANDERS, DO She sat straight up, gripping the arms of her chair as if by releasing them she might tumble forward on to the floor. “I’m tired of hurting,” were her first words to me as I entered... Read More...

Published Sat, Feb 05 2011 9:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

When Patients Go Home, Safety Must Follow

By MIKE GENAU Every day, U.S. health care becomes less institutional and more domestic. According to the National Home and Hospice Care Survey, approximately 1,355,300 patients received home health care services in 2000. Just four years later, the National...

Published Mon, Feb 07 2011 10:45 AM by The Health Care Blog

Things Are About to Get Ugly

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI Word is that House Republicans will attach an amendment to the latest federal spending bill that will cut-off funding for the health care bill. The last Congress never finalized a budget for the current fiscal year—the feds... Read...

Published Wed, Feb 09 2011 3:02 PM by The Health Care Blog

How to Meaningfully Shop for an EHR

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE So you’ve been hearing all about the recent EHR buzz and decided to give it a try. Whether you are convinced that electronic records are the way to go, or you have reached a point where you... Read More...

Published Thu, Feb 10 2011 10:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Health IT Future: A Tale of Three Watsons

By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON If you want to see the future of health information technology, take a look at the dueling visions of two Thomas Watsons that are on display this month in a game show and a trade show. The juxtaposition unintentionally demonstrates...

Published Mon, Feb 14 2011 6:48 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Michael Millenson, Watson, IBM, Tech, Mobile health apps