Archive for 2007
Web 2.0 Values vs. Health Care Values
June 12, 2007
Some have commented on a slide in my presentation about this topic contrasting disruptive Web 2.0 values such as risk taking opposing health care values, risk adverse. The interesting thing is that good medical practice by nature is collaborative and should embrace Web 2.0. But the conservative side of medicine will continue to hold back some of the potential of Web 2.0. Ves Dimov of Clinical Cases and Images has his “own theory about the 6 axes of medical education in Web 2.0 style.”
Share this:
Patient as Driver
June 7, 2007
Wayne A. Sensor is CEO of Alegent Health, Omaha, Neb. has written an article on the Most Wired website on “Taking the Wheel: Empowering Users to Make Informed Health Care Choices.” He utilizes the concept of patient as driver to draw attention to what he calls the last frontier for consumers, healthcare. “We must surround consumers with the information they need to complete the value equation: price plus quality equals value.” Adam Bosworth could not have said it better. Alegent has on their homepage two key tools which he would describe as patient empowerment tools
- MyCost – to help consumers understand their deductable and other out-of-pocket costs
- Quality Reports – detailed scorecard by disease
Every health system and hospital will be following leads like this to survive in this more transparent healthcare market where cost and quality will drive business.
Share this:Interest in Web 2.0 in Health Care
June 6, 2007
Posting my slides on Web 2.0 in health care generated some interest:
Thanks for the postings – I hope it stimulates some new thinking.
Share this:My Presentation on Web 2.0 in Healthcare to the Northern Ohio HIMSS
June 5, 2007
On Friday I presented at the conference of Northern Ohio Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society in Cleveland. The powerpoint is posted here. There was a positive response with lots of interest in hearing more. There is also an initiative to do more with SecondLife as the activity on the Cleveland Island grows. I am not a member yet, but probably will sign on soon.
The other presentations from the conference are worth checking out:
- Erica Drazen from FCG on Emerging Trends in Healthcare Information Technology
- Brad Chilton of University Hospitals of Cleveland on Infrastructure and Sourcing Strategies
- and two speakers on biotech innovation in Cleveland (presentations forthcoming) - a current hotbed for investment.
AMA Partners with Sermo.com for Physician Community
May 31, 2007
The American Medical Association is teaming up with Sermo, a Web 2.0 social networking site for physicians only to provide a new service for their 250,000 members. This new partnership will allow participation in discussions on Sermo but also allow members to discuss content from the AMA website using Sermo tools. The AMA also plans to use the interactive tools to discuss health policy issues. Sermo also allows users to post cases securely discuss them. Sermo verifies credentials after a user creates an account using physician databases.
Share this:Google Health Again
May 25, 2007
On the Official Google Blog, Adam Bosworth gives us a summary and the full text of his presentation to AMIA on “Putting Health Into Patient’s Hands – Consumerism in Health Care.” He structured the talk around discovery (search), action (personalize services – Health URL), and community (groups organized around conditions). He refers to PHW, Personal Health and Wellness Data, as something patients should own and share with providers selectively. He also refers to how “Consumers can organize into communities which are protected from inappropriate commercial exploitation” while rating their providers and retaining some anonymity.
He concludes with how to make this a reality – more on this later.
Does this mean that his vision is solidifying and will be released as a beta soon?
Share this:Concerns about PHRs at the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Connectathon
May 22, 2007
According to an article in Modern Healthcare, these concerns expressed at the IHE include “the accuracy, completeness, usefulness and volume of the records physicians receive from patients; the hours of uncompensated work it will take to slog through them; and the potential for a misdiagnosis if something important was overlooked.” The concern is data quality and organization coming from patients. Free text is difficult to interpret and analyze in a useful way. Electronic data from patients needs to fit into an organization within an EMR to be meaningful in a clinical setting.
Because of the early stage of PHR technology, this is rarely feasible. Going forward, the PHR products which will work for both physicians and patients need organizational tools which build on disease management.
Share this:State of the Live Web
May 17, 2007
This report by Technorati is a survey of social networking on the web in 2007. They are tracking 70 million blogs with 120,000 created every day. Some of the growth in the US is slowing down but elsewhere it is booming. Japan equals the US in the number of blogs. Volume – 1.4 million posts per day and traffic enough to challenge the main stream media.
How about health care? Not really mentioned. I would guess a slower growth rate in blogs and social networking. However, more health IT and physician blogs appear daily. Will try to feature some in the future.
Share this:Web 2.0 in the Student British Medical Journal
May 16, 2007
The StudentBMJ has an interesting take on Web 2.0 in Healthcare titled, “Trust Me, Trust Me Not”. He cites some familiar blogs including Clinical Cases and Images and other resources like the visible human project and Elsevier’s
Student Consult (www.studentconsult.com). In addition, he discusses the pros and cons of blogs and medical wikis.
“Because of the scope for error offered by the wiki format, many people involved in medical education remain suspicious. However, room for compromise exists between different models of editorial authority.” In pointing out the need to have a critical eye toward any knowledge base, he concludes, “Perhaps it is comforting to reflect that when working in these exciting new fields of knowledge creation and synthesis, traditional skills of knowledge evaluation and appraisal will be as important as ever-if not more so.”
Share this:Physician Blogging – What does it Look Like?
May 15, 2007
In an article in USA Today titled, “Paging Dr. Blog: Online Discourse Raises Questions,” notes that physician blogs include everything from venting about difficult patients to medical education to issues which border on violating privacy. How realistic is this concern – it is difficult to tell. There is also a concern if they are presenting medical information but in an anonymous fashion, can they be trusted? Is this a licensed physician or a pretender?
The article notes that only 1% of blogs relate to health topics. One potential benefit is noted – patients may better understand the way physicians think, although recent books may do a more thorough job on this.
Share this: