February 2011 - The Health Care Blog

The Cusp of Consumer Engagement

By JOHN MOORE When Chilmark Research was founded, the primary area of focus was healthcare IT that was consumer facing, consumer enabling – tools that would help consumers better manage their health and the health of loved ones. This led to our first...

Published Sun, Feb 20 2011 3:54 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Front Page

The Individual Mandate: Another Look at the Penalty Trade-Off

By ROGER COLLIER Most of the recent attention on the 2010 health care reform legislation has focused on the individual mandate. After two federal court rulings upholding the mandate, a third federal judge—in Virginia—ruled that the Constitution does not...

Published Fri, Feb 18 2011 12:00 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health Plans, Roger Collier, Penalties, Individual mandate

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

HIMSS11 Live: Meaningful Use

By NEIL VERSEL What can be said about “meaningful use” of electronic health records that hasn’t already been said? Actually, plenty, if the events leading up to Monday morning’s official opening of HIMSS11 are any indication. Last week, HIMSS honcho Steve...

Published Mon, Feb 21 2011 8:53 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: HIT, Front Page, HiMMS 11, Neil Versel

A Normal Pregnancy is a Retrospective Diagnosis

By J.D. KLEINKE If every medical specialty has its homily for indoctrinating new members, “a normal pregnancy is a retrospective diagnosis” is the cynical soundbite for obstetrics. It is a patronizing and alarmist statement, meant to distance weary practitioners...

Published Tue, Feb 01 2011 4:55 AM 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

The Greater Fool

By PAUL LEVY In the last four decades, we have witnessed a series of investment "bubbles" that have all collapsed. It seems that there is no end to the number of people with cash who will be intoxicated by a... Read More...

Published Mon, Feb 07 2011 7:13 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

Third Place Health Care

By EVAN FALCHUK Media reports on misdiagnosis continue to mount. A recent study on patients with Alzheimer’s found that half had been misdiagnosed. Half. Another headline blared “4 out of 10 patients being misdiagnosed.” The article encouraged patients...

Published Mon, Feb 28 2011 12:18 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Patients, Front Page, Evan Falchuk, Starbucks

Deciding What Works

Steven Goldberg Is probably best known for the controversial "Billions of Drops in Millions of Buckets: Why Philanthropy Doesn't Advance Social Progress." In this post he looks at the ways in which success and failure are measured in his...

Published Tue, Feb 08 2011 8:38 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

Cruel Shoes

By JOHN HENNING SCHUMANN, MD A thirtysomething friend of mine, let's call her Sally, started running last year in an effort to get in better shape. As often happens in these scenarios, Sally developed some foot pain. So she went... Read More...

Published Wed, Feb 09 2011 12:26 PM by The Health Care Blog

Exploitations of Immortality

By FRANK PASQUALE, JD Rebecca Skloot’s remarkable book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has quite a following among health lawyers. As an excerpt from the book explains, Henrietta Lacks was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same... Read...

Published Thu, Feb 10 2011 9:15 AM by The Health Care Blog

NIH and Drug Innovation

By MERRILL GOOZNER For most of the past decade, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have competed over who could pour more money into the National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. But the party is over. The...

Published Mon, Feb 14 2011 4:51 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Merrill Goozner, Op-Ed, NIH, NEJM, Drug development

What Venture Capital Can Learn from Emerging Markets

By VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN and JUSTIN CHAKMA Venture capitalists are increasingly interested in emerging markets, and in working with local funds based in those markets (despite the fact that reverse innovation in venture capital seems counterintuitive). The...

Published Sun, Feb 20 2011 1:22 PM by The Health Care Blog