December 2014 - The Health Care Blog

I Am Not a Provider.

JORDAN SHLAIN, MD This is the fourth in a never ending series of screeds that attempts to crack open words that are misused, misguided misnomers in the healthcare arena. “Provider” is a substantial, material word that will require a medical sledgehammer...

Published Thu, Dec 04 2014 2:31 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Caregiver, Physician, Provider

The App Is the Outcome

By JAAN SIDOROV, MD Your correspondent is avidly learning about health apps for patients. As described here, half of U.S adults now own a smartphone, half of them use them to obtain health information and approximately a fifth have at least one health...

Published Wed, Dec 17 2014 6:12 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Outcomes, Apps, Provider Arms Race, Smart Device

HIT Newser: Massachusetts Modifies Meaningful Use Mandate

By MICHELLE NOTEBOOM New Life for ACOs CMS announces that 89 new organizations were selected to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings program, bringing the total number of participating ACOs to 424. The announcement comes on the heels of a recently...

Published Tue, Dec 30 2014 4:35 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Meaningful Use, Massachusetts, ACOs, Total Child Health

Secrets to Chosing the Right Medical School

RICHARD GUNDERMAN, MD The competition to get into medical school is fierce. The Association of American Medical Colleges just announced that this year, nearly 50,000 students applied for just over 20,000 positions at the nation’s 141 MD-granting schools...

Published Wed, Dec 03 2014 3:45 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Research, Medical School, Stanford, Harvard, US News and World Report, Med School Ranks

Zen and the Art of Antibiotics

By HANS DUVEFELT, MD Jacques Johndreau did not look like his usual self when I saw him in the office a few weeks ago. He looked part retired bank manager and part Disney cartoon chipmunk. He spoke with hardly any facial movements: “Holy Boys, my wife...

Published Mon, Dec 29 2014 8:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Ceftriaxone, Clindamycin, antibiotics

The Trouble with Home Health Care & Care Coordination

By LESLIE KERNISAN, MD Home health care is in many ways a fantastic service, especially for those Medicare beneficiaries who are essentially home bound due to frailty or illness. But it’s often feels surprisingly hard to synergize with home health...

Published Sun, Dec 28 2014 10:03 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

Sit. Stand. Stay. Good worker.

By VIK KHANNA Example A: The Fitbro Businesswoman Nilofer Merchant wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Review Blog, which has gone on to become one of the most read posts on the HBR site this year, in which she parrots the convention that sitting...

Published Tue, Dec 30 2014 8:58 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, fitness, Sitting is the New Smoking, Varidesk, HBR, Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Stories You Won’t Read In 2015

By PAUL KECKLEY The headlines and their storylines that you’re not likely to read in 2015: Physicians optimistic about their future. They’re wildly enthusiastic about the mandate to use electronic medical records to coordinate patient care more...

Published Mon, Dec 29 2014 10:46 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Affordable Care Act, Regulation, Crystal Ball, Prognistifications, Paul Keckley, 2015

Health is All Around Us : How Our Environment Informs Our Health

As Health 2.0 gears up for Health 2.0 WinterTech, January 15th in San Francisco, their reporters sat down with Environmental Working Group Executive Director, Heather White to discuss the many pathways consumer health advocacy takes and the barriers that...

Published Tue, Dec 23 2014 4:38 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: Health 2.0, WinterTech, EWG, Skin Deep

What has SurveyorHealth been up to?

By Matthew Holt Erick & Linda von Schweber started SurveyorHealth around the time Health 2.0 started back in 2007, with the BHAG of massively improving medication safety using some very complex technology. And it has taken them a long time to embed...

Published Mon, Dec 22 2014 4:51 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Patient Safety, Heritage ACO, SurveyorHealth, Erick von Schweber, medication

The Value of Workplace Health Promotion (Wellness) Programs

By RON GOETZEL The recent Health Affairs Blog post by Al Lewis, Vik Khanna, and Shana Montrose titled, “Workplace Wellness Produces No Savings” has triggered much interest and media attention. It highlights the controversy surrounding the value of workplace...

Published Mon, Dec 22 2014 11:05 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Wellness, Al Lewis, Incentives, Workplace Wellness, Vik Khanna, Biometric Screenings, Ron Goetzel

Reactive vs. Proactive Health Care: The Intersection of Payment Reform & Consumer Data Powering Clinical Insight

By JOSHUA SEIDMAN One of the greatest opportunities that exists in moving from “turnstile medicine” (or fee-for-service) to value-based payment models is the shift from reactive to proactive health care. The focus on accountability for population health...

Published Tue, Dec 23 2014 10:10 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0

Sony Hack Reveals Health Details on Employees and Their Children

By DEBORAH PEEL, MD On top of everything else, the Sony data breach revealed employees’ sensitive health information: Top Sony executives saw lists of named employees who had costly medical treatments and saw detailed psychiatric treatment records of...

Published Sun, Dec 14 2014 10:25 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Sony, health information, Patient Privacy Rights, Trusted Relationships

HIT Newser: The Doctor Will Facetime You Now

By MICHELLE RONAN NOTEBOOM ONC Plans for the Future The ONC releases an updated five-year strategic plan that stresses interoperability, patient engagement, and the expansion of IT across the care continuum. The document updates the previous strategic...

Published Sun, Dec 14 2014 11:43 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, ONC, McKesson, Meaningful Use Stage 2, Population Health, Happtique, Phytel, Klas

Health Data Outside the Doctor’s Office

DeSALVO, WHITE and PAINTER Health primarily happens outside the doctor’s office—playing out in the arenas where we live, learn, work and play. In fact, a minority of our overall health is the result of the health care we receive. If we’re to have an accurate...

Published Tue, Dec 02 2014 7:16 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, HHS, AHRQ, DeSalvo, Data For Individual Health, Open Notes, JASON, Blue Button, County Health Rankings