Charitable Largesse

Bill Gates (former Microsoft CEO) announced a 10 billion dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the development and distribution of vaccines to combat malaria. Vaccines against diarrhea, pneumonia and tuberculosis would save millions of children in developing world countries. Mr Gates will go down in history as another Carnegie, Robert Woods Johnson, or Howard Hughes, Warren Buffet, George Soros, Li Ka- Shing....

Read more »

Out of Office

I did not realize it's been ten days since I last posted here. Had to take an emergency trip to the 'left coast', but should be back in several days. Wouldn't you know it, I return to California not to sunshine but a big El Nino...5 days of pouring rain, mud watches and high win...

Read more »

A Cents of Humor

One of my favorite bloggers is Placebo Journal. This is borrowed from Dr. Douglas Farrago. Laugh on Dougie......Doug can be found on his own web site @  http://www.placebojournal.com/    I laugh so hard my liver starts to ache !!  Doug is from Maine, so that explains much of his 'common cents". Sound Familiar? by Michael Gorback MD By noreply@blogger.com (Placebo Journal Blog: Medical Humor with a Purpose!) I don't know how many of you have heard the new buzz about ACO's - accountable cost organizations. If you have been following discussions about Massachusetts health care you have seen this suggested. ACOs are groups of doctors that receive a fixed amount of money and then provide all of a patient's...

Read more »

Back to the Future??

(figure 1):  Short list of small ambulatory practices EHR.   I thought I would take a step back in time to when I was writing about EMRs, RHIOs and interoperability.  The roots of this blog were in the Riverside Health Information Organization.  Time has evolved EMRs from a primitive form of data collection and storage to a more sophisticated form of data storage and collection. EHRs now have had the benefit of time, and some longevity to develop and critique their short comings.  The results thus far show the front runners in the great race to automate and interoperate.  The above figure is from an "independent study" of Group One Health Source, sent to me in a private emailing by Andrea Biddle.  ...

Read more »

What's in a Number??

Health Train Express January 5 2009 In which direction are we headed?  The WSJ reported that health care spending growth had diminished to 4.2%  in 2008.  the slowest rate of growth over the past forty-eight years. Despite the slowdown, national health spending reached $2.3 trillion, or $7,681 per person, and the health care portion of gross domestic product (GDP) grew from 15.9 percent in 2007 to 16.2 percent in 2008. These developments reflect the general pattern that larger increases in the health spending share of GDP generally occur during or just after periods of economic recession. This makes logical sense, since health needs never go into a recession….they continue no matter what the economy is. If the general economy outside of medicine contracts then health...

Read more »

2010 + 5

It was a very nice quiet  New Years on the Health Train Express. Fill in anchors on the networks and cable 24 hour media events, and less about healthcare. Congress will be back in  session very shortly and the fires will be stoked up. A colleague of mine sent this to me. Common sense, common values, and a real friend to physicians.  Mike Huckabee (click to go to media) If this doesn't warm  your heart in this cold January week perhaps a raise in our reimbursements would.  We are in a world of negative reward.  We feel good if we stop the cuts, we think we have won a battle. We all need to take the Mayo Clinic route.  Give up  Medicare. Tomorrow I return to what I like most about medicine, Patient care.  The rest of it is there supposedly...

Read more »

WELCOME 2010

A place where no man has gone before. This might be a timely metaphor from Star Trek. A 'crack in the wall' as a result of proposed  health reform has already begun to form.  As reported in the Arizona Republic, Bloomberg News, and  The Health Care Blog, The well known and venerated name "MAYO CLINIC' in Glendale Arizona has announced that effective today, Januray 1, 2010 they will no longer accept Medicare for Primary care (formerly known as your family doctor).  While this only affects five physicians at that facility, Medicare reimbursement  for specialty care and hospitalization will continue to be accepted. The amount patients will now have to pay for primary care will be about 1500 dollars/year. Whether...

Read more »