Emergency on The Health Train Express???

The  H1N1 viral particle Okay, what constitutes an emergency??  Our public health authorities now are linked to the Department of Homeland Security.  "Pandemic" is now being used to describe what is not even an epidemic in terms of numbers or morbidity or mortality. Apparently our bureaucracy of federal and state administration requires the declaration of an 'emergency' to release funding for events such as this.  Let's be clear and scientific about all of this "political posturing' and bad science. We are not in the midst of, nor even approaching a 'pandemic' let alone an epidemic. On a daily basis we are given figures as to how many deaths and/or reported cases of H1N1 Infuenza have been diagnosed. What we are not...

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Rob and Kevin on the Health Train Express

Kevin MD will be hosting Rob Lambert on a live Q&A at 10 PM EDT  Wednesday, April 29, 2009.  Join us....

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Roxana Saberi on the Health Train Express

From THCB, Bloggers across the web are holding a blog rally in support of Roxana Saberi, who is spending her birthday on a hunger strike in Tehran's Evin Prison, where she has been incarcerated for espionage. According to NPR, "The Iranian Political Prisoners Association lists hundreds of people whose names you would be even less likely to recognize: students, bloggers, dissidents, and others who, in a society that lacks a free press, dare to practice free expression."   We here at Health Train Express have decided to join the Blue Ribbon campaign (Blue is for blogging) to honor and show support for those journalists, bloggers, students and writers imprisoned in Evin Prison, nicknamed "Evin University," and other prisons around the...

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Cystic Fibrosis on the Health Train Express

CURE CYSTIC FIBROSIS.....HONOR YOUR MOM BY SENDING A CF CARD TO HER ON MOTHER'S DAY....MAKE A DONATION, SAVE THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN'S LIVES...

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Pitfalls of PHR

from: THCB Should You Keep Your Own Medical Records? By RAHUL PARIKH, MD as written on "The Health Care Blog" Personal Electronic health records raise doubt Google service's inaccuracies may hold wide lesson Dave deBronkart's records had wrong data. When Dave deBronkart, a tech-savvy kidney cancer survivor, tried to transfer his medical records from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to Google Health, a new free service that lets patients keep all their health records in one place and easily share them with new doctors, he was stunned at what he found. Personal health records, such as those offered by Google Health, are a promising tool for patients' empowerment - but inaccuracies could be "a huge problem," said Dr. Paul...

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11 Classic blog posts on EMR adoption

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail." ~ Confucius ########################################### KevinMD posts a summary 11 classic posts since 2004 on electronic medical records.  Some of these are still valid. However, there seems to be a gradual but definite shift towards HIT adoption. 1. The low adoption rate of electronic records 2. Will physicians sacrifice for the future of health IT? 3. How to fund electronic medical records wisely 4. Medical students who are used to electronic records 5. Funding electronic medical records and bailing out the Big Three automakers 6. Do electronic medical records really reduce malpractice risk? 7. Do electronic medical records lead to fraudulent documentation? 8. Are hospitals...

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Health Train's New Track

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. Albert Einstein   Are they Listening? Apparently so. Providers now have an eager, and respected voice at one of the ‘decision making’ levels in the bureaucracy of those inside the “beltway”. David Blumenthal the new head of ONCHIT has made some public statements in regard to ‘haste makes waste’. In his recent statements in the April 9, 2009 edition of the NEJM Dr Blumenthal reiterates what most all providers already know. “Keep it simple”. Dr. Blumenthal, most recently director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston, states in the NEJM article that one challenge for...

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HIMMS REPORT from iHealthbeat

Federal Stimulus Package Hot Topic of This Month's Annual HIMSS Conference This Audiocast  Special Report from iHealthbeat discusses the overall view of new funding of health IT. New Stimulus package incentive payment estimates Newly Named Health IT Chief Addresses Federal Stimulus Funding And it just keeps getting better and better. "I'm from the government and I am here to help you."...

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Recovery

Recovery Dialogue: IT Solutions For one week beginning April 27th, The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the Office of Management and Budget in partnership with the National Academy of Public Administration, will host a national online dialogue to engage leading information technology (IT) vendors, thinkers, and consumers in answering a key question: What ideas, tools, and approaches can make Recovery.gov a place where all citizens can transparently monitor the expenditure and use of recovery funds? Participants from across the IT community will be able to recommend, discuss, and vote on the best ideas, tools, and approaches. Your ideas can directly impact how Recovery.gov operates and ensure that our economic recovery...

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Health 2.0

For you afficionados of SAS, and asp solutions,stay tuned to the imminent meeting of the new improved merger of Health 2.0  and Ix . Much  more information is available by clicking here or on the logo below. ...

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AMA joins the Health Train Express

  Who said the American Medical Association is out of touch with today's rising provider stars under the age of 55? Not relevant? Does not represent the vast majority of physicians in regard to government regulations?  A group of Medical Politicians? Not so! The AMA now has a place on Twitter, and  "Twits" about all things medical.  Actually the correct term is   "Tweet". Tweetie Pie is a 1947 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, depicting the first pairing of Tweety and Sylvester. I hope that my dues to the AMA are not being spent on this 'ridiculous' means of marketing and communications. The twits are limited to somewhere around 140 characters. Twit is...

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Misdirected Heat IT Funding Chapter II

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough. Albert Einstein     ....There are other ways to utilize HIT in direct patient care that would create enormous dividends and decrease medicare and private payments to hospitals. The Silver Bullet Approach A recent study revealed that a great number of medicare beneficiaries are re-admitted to hospital within 30 days of their discharge due to inadequate post discharge followup. The study published by the New England Journal of Medicine   states,  "Twenty-two per cent of Medicare hospitalizations were followed by a readmission within 60 days of discharge. Medicare spent over $2.5 billion per year (24 per cent of Medicare...

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Misdirected Health IT Funding

Let it be said that the Federal Government knows how to spend money on the wrong things in the wrong way. THE SILVER BULLET APPROACH One of the hypothesis (and yet to be proven) is that EMRs, and Health Information Exchanges will lower costs for medicare and private insurers. The recent promises of using stimulus funds to promote health information technology while well intentioned has not been well thought out. The financial structuring of the incentives is to 'rush' to implementation.  This will actually encourage the adoption of immature and inadequate electronic medical record systems. Interoperability and certifications do not ensure an efficient or  useful EMR. Those providers who adopt this incentive thinking that the...

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Ask not what you can do for your Country, ask what your kids can do for you???

  What did we ‘baby boomers’ do right?? How come almost everything we attempt to do, turns out to harm us more than help us?? img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('f34701a3-03d5-44e9-be7e-98143c48b450'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "";" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-v33VJMuAC1Nqir9lqoVLn7CO1pNXEEPcXkUfq5Brc52TaukaRsTA34O-au4DEQ5u00DQ0Zx83kBcrAlF8izWQ8TnAWY4K5RLasd7tsHeeHUkxsvVZ19Q2iI-SIt2SvSWk8yytAFRdo/?imgmax=800" style="border-style: none">...

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Cover you A-s

I came across this on Matt Holt's ''The Health Care Blog" this AM during my usual scan of the health blogosphere. Blogging has surely tapped into sources that most physicians have neither the access, nor time to analyze. The health care situation" has now been posited for the iminent financial underpinning of the economy and it's rush toward doom. Numerous bean counters will bemoan the fact that the health care portion of the economy is increasing in relation to the GDP to the point where it is unsustainable.   Will a "Universal Payor" (socialized, or privatized) do anything to reverse this trend??  Most providers recognized the inherent inefficiencies and redundant bureaucratic organizations operating in the healthcare sphere. Health care has been labelled as 'the driving...

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