February 2019 - The Health Care Blog

The Business Case for Social Determinants of Health

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH How can understanding the underlying social risks impacting patient populations improve health outcomes AND save health plans some serious per-member-per-month costs? You’re probably familiar with the concept of ‘Social...

Published Thu, Feb 28 2019 7:58 AM by THCB

Filed under: Social Determinants of Health, Health IT, The Business of Health Care, Jessica DaMassa, WTF Health, Trenor Williams

Interoperability and Data Blocking | Part 1: Fostering Innovation

By DAVE LEVIN MD The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have published proposed final rules on interoperability and data blocking as part of implementing the 21st Century Cures act. In this series...

Published Wed, Feb 27 2019 7:34 AM by THCB

Filed under: ONC, CMS, Tech, Health policy, Interoperability, Health IT, The Business of Health Care, health technology, Health Tech, Health Data, Dave Levin, Sansoro Health

Our Dead on Every Shore

By MAYURA DESHPANDE I once made a serious error. The patient had taken an overdose of paracetamol, but because I was single-handedly covering three inpatient acute psychiatric wards due to sickness of two other trainees which medical HR had been unable...

Published Tue, Feb 26 2019 7:14 AM by THCB

Filed under: Physicians, Patients, NHS, Mayura Deshpande, Adverse Events

Advance Practice vs Primary Care

By SAURABH JHA MD In this episode of Radiology Firing Line Podcast, Danny Huges and I discuss a JAMA paper: A comparison of diagnostic imaging ordering patterns between advanced practice clinicians and primary care physicians following office-based evaluation...

Published Mon, Feb 25 2019 7:34 AM by THCB

Filed under: Physicians, primary care, Radiology, Saurabh Jha, Radiology Firing Line Podcasts, Radiology Firing Line Podcast, RogueRad, JACR, advanced practice

ONC’s Proposed Rule is a Breakthrough in Patient Empowerment

By ADRIAN GROPPER Imagine solving wicked problems of patient matching, consent, and a patient-centered longitudinal health record while also enabling a world of new healthcare services for patients and physicians to use. The long-awaited Notice of Proposed...

Published Fri, Feb 22 2019 7:30 AM by THCB

Filed under: Patients, Data, Health policy, Patient data, HIPAA, health technology, ONC Rules, Arian Gropper, patient empowerment

Running an RCT – A Conversation With the Investigators of the REGAIN Trial

By SAURABH JHA MD It is easy for armchair activists to bash randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with clever methodological critiques. However, it takes a lot of effort and coordination to pull off an RCT successfully. In this episode of Radiology Firing...

Published Thu, Feb 21 2019 6:51 AM by THCB

Filed under: Research, Saurabh Jha, Radiology Firing Line Podcasts, Radiology Firing Line Podcast, RogueRad, clinical research, hip surgery, randomized controlled trial, RCTs

For Your Radar — Huge Implications for Healthcare in Pending Privacy Legislation

By VINCE KURAITIS and DEVEN McGRAW Two years ago we wouldn’t have believed it — the U.S. Congress is considering broad privacy and data protection legislation in 2019. There is some bipartisan support and a strong possibility that legislation will...

Published Wed, Feb 20 2019 8:15 AM by THCB

Filed under: Policy, Privacy, Vince Kuraitis, Data, Health policy, Artificial intelligence, Facebook, analytics, AI, Tech platforms, machine learning, GDPR, techlash, legislation, data protection, Deven McGraw, ML, Patient rights

THCB Spotlights: EyeforPharma

By ZOYA KHAN Jessica DaMassa interviews Paul Simms, the Chairman of Eyepharma. Eyeforpharma are the “media moguls” when it comes to the Pharma industry. In order to innovate the industry, they are holding two different conferences this year to bring pharma...

Published Wed, Feb 20 2019 12:00 AM by THCB

Filed under: THCB, pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceutical industry, health technology, jessica da massa, THCB Spotlights, health tech startups, paul simms, pharma innovation, eyeforpharma

Failing Healthcare’s ‘Free Market’ Experiment in US: Single Payer to the Rescue?

By KHURRAM NASIR MD, MPH, MSc In the industrialized world and especially in United States, health care expenditures per capita has has significantly outgrown per capita income in the last few decades. The projected national expenditures growth at 6.2...

Published Tue, Feb 19 2019 7:34 AM by THCB

Filed under: Politics, ACA, Health insurance, Health policy, Single payer, Khurram Nasir

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 70 | HIMSS Recap

We almost forgot to do Health in 2 Point 00 at HIMSS—but don’t worry, here it is. On Episode 70, Jess and I give you a rundown of everything that happened at HIMSS. Jess asks me about the biggest gossip at HIMSS (anyone notice Atul Gawande wasn’t there...

Published Mon, Feb 18 2019 6:54 AM by THCB

Filed under: Matthew Holt, HIMSS, HIMSS 2011, Health in 2 Point 00, Jessica DaMassa, ONC Rules, Nuance

Radiology in Africa

By SAURABH JHA MD What are the challenges of getting imaging to Africa? In this episode of Radiology Firing Line, I convene a panel of experts in Africa. We discuss the challenges of bringing new technology to Africa, the new need for imaging driven by...

Published Fri, Feb 15 2019 7:20 AM by THCB

Filed under: Radiology, Saurabh Jha, Radiology Firing Line Podcasts, Radiology Firing Line Podcast, RogueRad, Global Health, equipment dumping, Africa, JACR

Medicine is Not Like Math

By HANS DUVEFELT MD We do a lot of things in our head in this business. Once a patient reports a symptom, we mentally run down lists of related followup questions, possible diagnoses, similar cases we have seen. All this happens faster than we could ever...

Published Thu, Feb 14 2019 7:45 AM by THCB

Filed under: Physicians, value-based care, Hans Duvefelt, Quantification

Obsessive Measurement Disorder: Etiology of an Epidemic

By KIP SULLIVAN JD Review of The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Z. Muller, Princeton University Press, 2018 In the introduction to The Tyranny of Metrics, Jerry Muller urges readers to type “metrics” into Google’s Ngram, a program that searches through books...

Published Wed, Feb 13 2019 8:07 AM by THCB

Filed under: Data, Kip Sullivan, Metrics, Book Review, Benchmarks, The Tyranny of Metrics, performance indicators, Jerry Z. Muller

Everyone Has a Part to Play in Ending Vaccine Hesitancy

By FELICIA D. GOODRUM STERLING, PhD and HEIDI L. POTTINGER, DrPH, MPH, MA The measles outbreak in Washington state this week has brought new attention to the anti-vaccine movement. In fact, the World Health Organization recently identified “vaccine hesitancy...

Published Tue, Feb 12 2019 6:34 AM by THCB

Filed under: Patients, public health, vaccines, Felicia Goodrum Sterling, Global Health, Heidi L. Pottinger, The OpEd Project

HIPAA RFI Comments: Patient Privacy Rights

By ADRIAN GROPPER and DEBORAH C. PEEL Among other rich nations, US healthcare stands out as both exceptionally privatized and exceptionally expensive. And taken overall, we have the worst health outcomes among the Western Democracies. On one hand, regulators...

Published Mon, Feb 11 2019 5:32 AM by THCB

Filed under: Patients, Adrian Gropper, HIPAA, value-based care, Health Data, Deborah C Peel, federal regulations