Archive for January, 2007

Two PHR Offerings

January 20, 2007

Medic Alert announced that it will give free PHRs to families of deployed military service personnel. The project includes “a free MedicAlert membership that, includes a PHR maintained in a secure database, personalized stainless steel bracelet, pendant, or dog-tag, emergency member wallet card, and 24-hour emergency response and family notification services.”  Medic Alert offers both online and thumb-drive PHRs. This is a generous offer and to be commended. Hopefully, there will be more information on their website soon.

The second story involves myNDMA.com, National Digital Medical Archive’s (NDMA) Citizens Health Portal, which was featured on NBC Nightly News. Why should this product be featured in a broad field of new products?  It does have at least two unique features – the ability to store medical images (not sure how easy it is for patients to obtain these digitally from their provider or hospital) and the ability to have records faxed from the web application to a doctor or hospital. In addition, they offer a community forum for “for consumers to have a voice in the direction of personal health records.” It will be interesting to see if this concept of a forum gains traction.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

AMIA 2006 follow up

January 18, 2007

Photo with Enoch Choi and myself at AMIA 2006  in Washington, DC, in November and his poster on KatrinaHealth.org.

Also, photo of a poster on Academic Podcasting.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Palo Alto Medical Foundation blog

January 17, 2007

PAMF is a medical institution in bordered by Stanford University and Silicon Valley so it is no surprise that they are on the cutting edge of Web 2.0. The institution’s blog includes postings about once a week with a combination of health information (How often should I visit my doctor?) and institution news. It uses Google’s blogger and has a link to their Google Coop subscription page. There are also links to PAMF podcasts and Urgent Care wait time, the most interesting use of a blog for health care.  I have two friends who work there, Enoch Choi, a physician in Urgent Care and Haya R. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Research Institute and formerly of Cleveland, Ohio.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Fragmented Experience on eHealth Websites

January 16, 2007

Geocentric posted an editorial by Ben Dillon titled, “The Fragmented Consumer Experience”. In addition to giving some examples of frustration with a health care provider website, he lists his expectations of consumer websites from Google and Amazon, for instance,

  • I want you to remember who I am
  • I want you to get smarter about addressing my needs the more time that I spend working with you
  • I want my experience to be personalized around the tasks and concerns that I have right now
  • I want you to provide easy access to the information and tools that I need to make decisions
  • I want to interact with you through your website. Don’t send me off to other random sites, I can do that with Google. This includes passing me to some health system parent organization website. I came to you, not to them
  • I want to be able to complete with you online any interaction that does not require physician examination or phlebotomy
  • I want to be able to email with my physician or her office/clinic securely
  • I want to be able to see my bill online, I want to get explanations of my bill online, I want to be able to ask questions about my bill online and I want to be able to pay my bill online

All of these are reasonable expectations, but few providers/health systems have these features. Why – little incentive, costs, lack of vision? If the value of a patient portal with broad features can show some return on investment, even if it is simply a competitive advantage in a local or national market, more providers might join in providing a richer experience.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Meeting with editor from the Lancet

January 16, 2007

On Friday, I had the pleasant opportunity to meet with Faith McLellan, Ph. D., North American Senior Editor of The Lancet.  Her interest was in Web 2.0 in medicine and also how it might be utilized in medical journals such as her own. To their credit, The Lancet has been experimenting with their own blog, but only have a rare article on Web 2.0 or Healthcare IT in general. I hope we will see a change in that.

Also attend a presentation by the senior editor, Richard Horton, on fraud in medical research and how journals have to deal with it when discovered.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

AHIC Consumer Empowerment Workgroup meeting January 10, 2007

January 16, 2007

The workgroup heard testimony on security and PHRs. According to HITS, “While personal health records are still very much in the infancy stage, PHR vendor privacy and security policies are embryonic at best, at least according to a review of 30 publicly available policies presented Jan. 10 to the consumer empowerment work group of the American Health Information Community HHS advisory panel.” According to a powerpoint by Altarum,

  • Policies are highly variable and not particularly broad in scope
  • None had more than 18 of the 31 criteria
  • Remaining 29 (97%) covered less than half of criteria
  • Many emphasized security procedures or Internet privacy policies of the vendor’s web site, rather than protections of PHR data.

I am glad that AHIC is shining a light on security in PHRs. As I have said repeatedly, unless the consumer can trust that their data is secure, adoption will continue to lag, no matter what other benefits are promoted.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Patrick Kennedy Supports PHRs

January 13, 2007

In an article  on the Most Wired website, Congressman Patrick Kennedy supports incentives for consumers to adopt PHRs. Specifically he sees web -based PHRs which are controlled by the consumer as potentially reducing medical errors and enhancing medical decision making. The Personalized Health Information Act he proposes promotes PHRs which are free of advertising and are secure. He promotes the idea of online communication with provides through the PHR as well.

My only concern is that such a bill could be too prescriptive about PHR features while the technology is still young and being sorted out in the market place. However, the encouragement toward adoption is welcome.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Editorial by New Gingrich on Health IT Adoption

January 12, 2007

Newt Gingrich wrote an editorial for the Philadelpha Inquirer this week title: “Getting health-care field wired:

Few U.S. hospitals and doctors use information technology in delivery of care. This must change.” Some quotes are informative:

  • The technological gulf in health care isn’t just inefficient and costly; it may also be involved in costly inefficiency and the persistence of a high error rate in medicine.
  • Only a quarter of all hospitals and less than 15 percent of all physicians use information technology in the delivery of care.
  • Payment models should not be changed for the sake of technology itself, but for the better-quality care it would help deliver.
  • He cites the Stark reforms but states, “From Medicaid regulations to antiquated statutes from decades ago, all
    of them should be broken down to expedite the adoption of IT.”
  • he encourages the use of Health IT in medical schools as a long term strategy
  • and finally contrast the high use of the web by physicians as a reference and education tool while still using paper to manage clinical care.

It’s good  to have a  political savvy advocate like Gingrich on the site of Health  IT.  Let’s hope more people listen to him.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Healthcare 2015 – IBM White Paper

January 10, 2007

The full title of this report is: “Healthcare 2015: Win-win or lose-lose? A portrait and a path to successful transformation” from the IBM Institute for Business Value. While the report begins with the usual saga of crisis in healthcare, it summarizes some action steps better than most by focusing on action and accountability. Specifically, the authors talk about Focus on Value, Develop Better Consumers, Create better options for promoting health and providing care. It is interesting that while discussing value, they don’t cite Michael Porter’s Redefining Health Care. But then this is the executive summary and citations are slim but do have an international perspective. The chart Summary of Healthcare 2015 recommendations by stakeholder is worth some examination.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

The Future of Health Savings Accounts – 2007

January 9, 2007

Will HSAs grow or wither in 2007? According to a new study by Vimo, there are some black clouds on the horizon (sorry for the mixed metaphors). “The report also shows that funds on deposit in the average HSA are roughly half
of what is required to cover the typical health plan deductible for these consumers.  Both findings hint at disturbing trends that may jeopardize the “Consumer-Driven Health” movement.” Park of the issue may be employee awareness that HSAs could actually decrease their total compensation. This is a trend to watch.

Share this:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Pinterest
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS