MMR Vaccination and Autism, The Andrew Wakefield Story. ...
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Some Hospitals, Clinics at Risk of Not Qualifying for Federal EHR Funds
Just How far along are we on the tracks of the Health Train ?? Most clinics and some hospitals are behind in their efforts to switch to electronic health record systems to qualify for payments under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, according to a new report from HIMSS Analytics, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's research unit, Report Findings According to the HIMSS Analytics report, 30% to 40% of U.S. hospitals could be at risk financially and operationally for not meeting the meaningful use criteria. Meanwhile, more than 50% of independent clinics in the U.S. are at risk for not meeting meaningful use criteria. The survey also offered insight into where hospitals are on HIMMS' seven-stage...
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
I can save....what ??!!!
I serve as a non-paid consultant for a collaborative group attempting to initiate a regional health data exchange. I've been on the scene beginning in 2005 when ONCHIT was initiated by then President George Bush. Despite my enthusiasm and positive attitude I have seen relatively little progress, with few isolated successes on a limited basis. Lots of talk but little data exchange taking place. There are many reasons for this, however I digress. Today's post is about the illusion of savings and the disparity between gains among specialists vs. primary care practices. Technology can be a wonderful thing, if it truly serves you. How about a 70" flat screen in a small bedroom....get the idea, a bit of an overkill. ...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
What can one little car do on The Health Train Express?
It seems a bit overwhelming, doesn't it? All the pontificating, posturing, analysis and input from people who really know little about caring for people. Many are producing chaos, and dysfunctional behavior, much like the rest of our government. In an attempt to overcontrol our governments now compete with one another rather than caring for basic needs in the population. Imagine how ludicrous, the state of Arizona has to protect it's southern border by itself, when the federal government can't or won't....Imagine the state of Virginia telling the federal government that what they propose with health care is unconstitutional. The federal government suing a state government. Impossible, you say....no it is REAL. It...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Cystic Fibrosis Car on the Health Train
Edwin Leap's post today focused on the March of Dimes. It brought to mind my interest in Cystic Fibrosis. the CF Foundation sponsors an annual walk/run each year, GREAT STRIDES. Although less well known it is a significant event in the lives of those families who have a CF relative in their lives. The event(s) took place this year on May 13 2010. Although it is too late to participate this year.....plan on it for 2011. At any one time there are about 20,000 CF patients alive. CF is a recessive gene requiring a gene from each parent....one in 2,000 people (caucasians) carry the gene. Survival rates have improved to the mid 30s, largely due to the research support given by the CF Foundation in their sponsored trials. ...
Friday, May 21, 2010
The 'Breast' Health Care
Here is the problem when government begins mandating health care. The USPSTF said women in their 40s should balance the benefit of a mammogram with the potential harms. Those harms: false positives, radiation exposure and subsequent follow-up tests, but also the possibility of diagnosing and treating a cancer in a woman that never would have threatened her life. A special communication published last year in JAMA noted that increased screening for both breast and prostate cancer “may be increasing the burden of low-risk cancers without significantly reducing the burden of more aggressively growing cancers and therefore not resulting in the anticipated reduction in cancer mortality. Opposing opinions: These USPSTF recommendations run counter to the expert guidance...
Everyone's Got It
It seems to be all over the place, front pages, blogs, new media, old media, radio talk shows, TV talking heads, and politicians as well. Everyone and their brother has an opinion and is an expert on health care, policy and reform. Health is something everyone has, excellent, good, bad or indifferent. Despite our excellent technology good health is not guarranteed. It takes careful planning, exercise, good nutrition and an attempt at leading a non-toxic life physically, and emotionally and for most people, spiritually. Perhaps I should place spiritually first. Planning financially is now almost impossible for many people. The employer based funding is still a major issue one that the government...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Schizophrenia of the Feds
There is a lot of hype about healthcare stimulus funding, ARRA, HITECH and ONC. Surveys amongst the nations top hospital CIOs are not 'bullish' about any of these programs. HealthSystemCIO reports: In what makes for a disturbing combination, CIOs are both doubtful that the federal government (HHS/CMS/ONC) will have the HITECH program fully operational by the time incentives are to be paid out, and pessimistic about their chances of qualifying for those payments, according to the healthsystemCIO.com April SnapSurvey. more...... The takeaways are: 1. Disconnect between deadlines for payments, and finalization of Meaningful use criteria 2.Hospitals will judge and plan their HIT plans in line with improving qualityof care, efficiency...
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Vending Machine Medicine
I was reading Distractible MD this morning and came across this photo that Rob Lambert posted. I could not resist passing this along to my readers. It says a lot about what has and is happening to our domain as physicians. I wonder if it talks too....
Changes at CCHIT
Welcome to Karen Bell MD, the new Chair of CCHIT. Karen assumes the position as Mark Leavitt , former Head of CMS and HHS moves on to other responsibilities. As ONC and NHIN develop Karen's Commission is at a critical juncture regarding certification of EMRs and the NHIN participants. At the same time other certifying bodies, such as the Drummond Group also compete for this responsibility. The federal government has laid out the gauntlet and what appears to be an unreasonable rush to implementing electronic medical record keeping using a carrot and stick approach. This approach compromises a fine idea without regard for providers and those who will be paying for and using the systems. Is the Affordable Care and Patient Protection...
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Health Train Screw
Sorry guys, I could not pass this one up. Donated to the blog cause by none other than The Happy Hospitalist. Happy recently has had some very interesting and some controversial episodes that he reports. Haybayles, Hijacked Medical Practice, Medicaid Insurance or Insult? The ten year cycle for new drugs, Sex with a Fat Woman who is dying....
Monday, May 10, 2010
Health Train Makes the Rounds
Okay I was a bit syrup, and emotional yesterday, but we all have our days. Today we will feast upon a round of the health blogosphere. We will go where no man has gone before, and perhaps discover new forms of life and brave new worlds. Buckle up buddy, and prepare! I also issue a disclaimer that these opinions are not that of Blogger, Microsoft, Apple, no myself. I am not certain that Intel and AMD were not involved in this opinion. I' ll start today at Dr J's Housecalls, a physician who seems to be trapped in rural North Carolina. This blogger has a real fixation on events some years ago which terminated her dream of serving her birthplace; a bit like Don Quixote and his windmills. Although her enemies do seem real and the events quite probable,...
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mom's on the Health Train Express
This past month I turned 67 years old. Today is Mother’s day in America. Mother’s are the strongest and deepest bonds we experience in life. They are our first and lasting imprint on our minds, auditory, visual and sensory. Fathers are important, however Mothers are crucial to sons, and daughters. My mother passed away five years ago at age 89. Her last three years were spent in an assisted living facility and towards the end she knew not my brother or myself. She became less lucid as the end approached. My brother lived near her and made sure her needs were met as to where she lived and he became the executor for her personal financial affairs. I lived some distance from her and had many of my own responsibilities, a disabled wife and very ill son. I will never forgive myself for not making...
Friday, May 7, 2010
Today's Post on Health Train Express
I was up very early this AM and set off on my daily surfing of health blogs. There seems to be a division of those who focus on patient encounters and clincal care isssue, both humorous, commonplace and very sad stories. The other end of the axis are those blogs focusing on health IT, health policy and reform. Matthew Hold on the Health Care Blog always seems to have a reservoir of important health policy wonks emoting good stuff. I envy the guy for creating Health 2.0 meetings all over the world. What a gig!! Anyway today he has David Kibbe, ePatent Dave, and Vince Kuraitis all well known writers on a number of health blogs, discussing disruptive changes in health care. ePatient Dave brings...
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Healthcare in America
What do you think about healthcare in America? This question was poised by Deloitte in a recent survey Survey Highlights 76 percent of consumers grade the system as “C” or below. 48 percent believe that more than half of health care money is wasted. Less than a quarter (23 percent) of consumers believes they understand how the health care system works. 42 percent of consumers surveyed support government-required health insurance compared with 38 percent who say they are against it. However, 42 percent say they would choose an employer-sponsored plan over the government’s (25 percent), all other factors being equal. Among the uninsured, a government-sponsored plan is favored (38 percent vs. 28 percent). One in three consumers believes that the market needs...
Monday, May 3, 2010
HIMSS and HIE
The playing field in health information data exchanges amongst vendors is beginning to look a lot like EMR offerings several years ago. However, today there appears to be a de-facto standard set by CCHIT. It remains to be seen if the feds will mess this up, too in their quest for 'higher standards' such as NIST. The recent offerings were displayed and discussed at HIMSS 2010, which can be found here............... As the marketplace continues to gain calories, a number of vendors in EMR, and even mobile platforms are jumping into the fray You can take at some of these offerings here: Inter Systems Healthshare inFrame (Medecison) Axolotl Medical-Data-Exchange Verizon CONNECT (NHIN Open Source) KLAS is a...
State Run High Risk Insurance Pools
The date has passed for states to notify the Feds whether they will accept additional responsibilities for uninsured patients. The New York Times reported on Friday, "Friday is the deadline for states to tell the Obama administration whether they want to run the high-risk insurance pool for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, or whether they will leave the task to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services." Some states such as California already have a Major Risk Insurance Board, and some funding for the uninsured through the Major Risk Insurance Program. The coverage is not inexpensive, has a low cap, but does subsdize the plan using not Medi-cal, but programs such as Kaiser Permanente,...
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Primary Care....What is THE Problem?
Now that health care reform has been passed, attention is being given to the shortage of 'primary care'. What is the problem? 1. The new "politically correct term 'Primary Care' Provider,rather than family physician, or general practitioner. This lumps MDs in with NPs. PAs, MedicalCorpsmen, and who knows what else. (would you go through 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 3 or 4 years of serfdom as a resident to be 'lumped in ' 2. The enormous amount of non clinically related administrative tasks and secretarial work to be done each day. A recent article by Richard Baron MD in the NEJM chronicles the day in the life of an internist. This publication is a MUST READ for anyone in pre-med. It...