January 2015 - The Health Care Blog

HIT Newser: An Epic Loss for Cerner & GE + Google Glass Confusion

By MICHELLE RONAN NOTEBOOM An Epic Loss for Cerner and GE Mayo Clinic announces it will replace its existing Cerner and GE systems with Epic’s EHR and RCM system. The prestigious Mayo Clinic name and clinical reputation make the win especially sweet for...

Published Mon, Jan 26 2015 6:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, AMA, Meaningful Use, ONC, GE Healthcare, AAFP, Epic, Cerner, Pristine, NextGen, Augmedix, HITNewser, Orion Health, eClnicalWorks, EHR certification, Google Glass

Computers Replacing Doctors, Innovation and the Quantified Self: An Interview with Atul Gawande

By ROBERT WACHTER, MD Atul Gawande is the preeminent physician-writer of this generation. His new book, Being Mortal, is a runaway bestseller, as have been his three prior books, Complications, Better, and The Checklist Manifesto. One of the joys of my...

Published Wed, Jan 07 2015 7:02 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

HIT Newser: The Flex-IT Bill, Take 2G + Dr. Google In EHR Bid

By MICHELLE RONAN NOTEBOOM Flex-IT Bill, Take 2G Lawmakers re-introduce the Flexibility in Health IT Reporting Act of 2015, which would shorten the 2015 MU reporting period from one year to 90 days. The bi-partisan-supported bill earned quick support...

Published Tue, Jan 20 2015 2:44 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Meaningful Use, ONC, athenahealth, Telehealth, Google, InterSystems, eClinicalWorks, Etransmedia, Acupera, ECRI

How the Advent of Propofol Changed the Meaning of the term “Sedation”

By KAREN SIBERT, MD “Twilight! She has to have twilight,” insisted the adult daughter of my frail, 85-year-old patient. “She can’t have general anesthesia. She hasn’t been cleared for general anesthesia!” We were in the preoperative area of my hospital...

Published Sat, Jan 31 2015 5:52 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Propofol, Twilight, Anesthesia, General anesthesia

(Big) Garbage In. (Big) Garbage Out.

FROM THE TECH DESK In December, THCB asked industry insiders and pundits across health care to give us their armchair quarterback predictions for 2015. What tectonic trends do they see looming on the horizon? What’s overrated? What nasty little surprises...

Published Wed, Jan 07 2015 5:50 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, information exchange, Big Data, Voalte, Android, Giannulli, Lauderdale, DeSantis, Kareo, Big Garbage, BYOD, Patient Portals

A Courageous First Step

By BOB KOCHER, MD AND FARZAD MOSTASHARI, MD Earlier today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced that HHS is doubling down on the historic shift taking place across the health care industry towards value-based care...

Published Mon, Jan 26 2015 10:09 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, HHS, ACO, Farzad Mostashari, Bob Kocher, Value-Based Medicine

An Open Letter to the People Who Brought Us HIPAA

By Paul Fletcher-Hill Over the last five years, the United States has undergone more significant changes to its health care system perhaps since Medicare and Medicaid were introduced in the 1960s. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical...

Published Tue, Jan 13 2015 1:46 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB

Trends that Translate into Investment: Examining Consumer Health with Norwest Ventures

By HANNAH RAPP With JP Morgan week and Health 2.0 WinterTech converging this week in San Francisco, the digital health space will dive deep into what will characterize investment in 2015 and identify who the major players are. Health 2.0 sat down with...

Published Wed, Jan 14 2015 12:03 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0

The Little Exchange that Could…Transform the U.S. Health Care System

By ROBERT S. RUDIN and JAYME FUGLESTEN What do the classic children’s’ book “The Little Engine that Could” and federal investment in health information exchanges have in common? More than you’d think. Much has been said about the fragmentation of the...

Published Wed, Jan 28 2015 3:32 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, HIEs, Rand

Safe Doctors, Unsafe Patients: A Tale of Two Infections

By MICHAEL MILLENSON Call it a tale of two infections. It’s the story of how hospitals have blocked transmission of a dangerous infection that patients can give doctors, while a hospital-caused infection that can kill patients continues to be widely tolerated...

Published Sun, Jan 25 2015 2:26 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, AHRQ, CDC, CLABSI

2015: The Year Well-Designed Interfaces Will Transform Health IT?

By THCBist What else could lie in store? We talked with Nuance’s Nick Van Terheyden, who remains optimistic. Nick van Terheyden, MD, CMIO, Nuance Communications 2015 will be the year well-designed interfaces will transform health IT legacy systems...

Published Fri, Jan 02 2015 3:00 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Design, Usability, Nick Van Terheyden, Wearables

A Tale of Two Sore Throats: On Retail Clinics and Urgent Care

By LESLIE KERNISAN, MD Six years ago, just after arriving in Baltimore for a winter conference, I fell sick with fever and a bad sore throat. After a night of feeling awful, I went looking for help. I found it at a Minute Clinic in a CVS near the hotel...

Published Wed, Jan 28 2015 9:11 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, urgent care, Retail Clinics, Strep throat, Leslie Kernisan, Longform, Practice Models

Three Recommendations for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative

By SPENCER NAM One of the pleasantly surprising announcements President Obama made during his 2015 State of the Union address was “a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes.” Given precision medicine...

Published Mon, Jan 26 2015 9:30 AM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Clayton Christensen Institute, Precision Medicine

Rock Health and the Search for ‘Home Screen Health App’

By KIM KRUEGER & MATTHEW HOLT Rock Health has one of the most interesting views of the digital health market having been around since 2011 first as an accelerator and now as an early stage venture fund. Matthew Holt had a chance to sit down with Rock...

Published Wed, Jan 14 2015 6:46 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, Health 2.0

2015: The Year We Finally Meet The Triple A

By CYNDY NAYER Since 2002, and possibly before, there have been moments of clarity and innovation in the health care sphere, from patient-centered to consumer-driven to value-based to outcomes design, from iPhone texts to wellness to electronic medical...

Published Thu, Jan 15 2015 10:15 PM by The Health Care Blog

Filed under: THCB, The Triple A, Activation, Awareness, Accountability, Triple Aim