Archive for August, 2009
Upcoming Conferences On Medicine 2.0 and Health 2.0
August 31, 2009
I have two presentations in the next two months at conferences full of great content.
- Medicine 2.0 Congress in Toronto, September 17 and 18 – will be presenting on “Hospital Adoption of Medicine 2.0 – a Culture Shift” Twitter hashtag: #med2
- Reshape 09 - Second Health 2.0 Conference: Healthcare Communication is Changing in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, October 12 & 13. Presenting as a keynote on Health 2.0 trends. Twitter account @Reshape09
Cloud Computing Tops Gartner’s list
August 26, 2009
Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies includes an evaluation of cloud computing. They view cloud computing as being at the Peak of Inflated Expectations. While companies look to the cloud for cost effective solutions, “The levels of hype around cloud computing in the IT industry are deafening, with every vendor expounding its cloud strategy…”
Another post on the Emerge Blog, sees cloud computing as a promise without hype noting three cloud based models:
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
This is a helpful formulation especially since so many platforms are becoming available in the Cloud and specifically in health care: Google Health and Healthvault to mention just two. While there is still concern about security in cloud computing limiting its adoption in health care, these three models should be considered when talking about private and hybrid clouds more common in the future of health care.
Also of note is the expansion of cloud offerings from Amazon. Adoption of Amazon Web Services faces some barriers: “The single biggest barrier to enterprise adoption that exists today is the
reluctance to live with one foot in each of two worlds, the on-premise IT
infrastructure and the world of the cloud. What Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
aims to do is bridge those two worlds.”
Hype Cycle for Web 2.0
August 19, 2009
Gartner Research has produced its latest white paper on their hype cycle for Web 2.0 technologies. The technology is moving beyond hype into maturity and real value, even transformational. Specifically they note: “we see a number of potentially transformational technologies that will hit the
mainstream in less than five years, including Web 2.0, cloud computing, Internet
TV, virtual worlds and service-oriented architecture (SOA).”
Surprisingly, they see Twitter and Microblogging have peaked in the hype and will move toward some disillusionment. ReadWriteWeb is of the opinion that “Gartner may be underestimating the impact of microblogging.”
They note on cloud computing that the hype from vendors has increased (“Deafening”) which may “cloud” the real potential benefit of this transformation. Social Software Suites are also mentioned: “The movement from point tools to integrated suites has brought broader adoption
but also high expectations” which could lead to disillusionment. I wonder if Google Wave will meet or disappoint these expectations.
Health 2.0 is not mentioned. Will Gartner produce a hype cycle for Health 2.0?
Public and Private Clouds – Health Information Exchange (HIE)
August 13, 2009
In healthcare, there has been hesitancy to consider cloud computing in spite of the promise of funding for electronic medical records and perhaps HIE. The main issues in cloud computing and EMRs are security and availability. Security is governed by HIPAA including the upcoming regulations on data breaches. Security of EMRs and PHRs is also key in maintaining public trust in EMRs and by implication, medical practices. Availability is key as well as medical practices become dependent on real-time data from EMRs for medical decision making.
- Can the cloud provide the security and availability/reliabity for EMRs?
- Alternatively, are EMRs now becoming private clouds which can potentially interact with the public cloud, such as in the case of disease registries and public health initiatives?
- Are Health Information Exchanges at type of private cloud or would it be helpful to redefine them as such?
Several recent articles give some insight into this issue:
- The New Sentinel Network — Improving the Evidence of Medical-Product Safety – NEJM, 8/13
- Einstein, Sharks and Clouds: IT Security In The Cloud – .NET Developer’s Journal
- Cloud computing for the enterprise: Part 1: Capturing the cloud – IBM Developer Works
- 1 In 3 Developers Working On Private Cloud Apps- Information Week
Simplifying the Complex: Healthcare Reform
August 11, 2009
As the debate heats up on healthcare reform, the Obama administration has now put out a Reality Check to counter the negative campaign against reform addressing both rational concerns like the benefits and burdens to small businesses and some irrational ones. Perhaps what is needed is a way to simplify the message of this complex reform without diluting it or dumbing it down. How about 10-12 areas of reform put into one document (aka, talking points), which summarize the key areas that the reform will take, such as,
- access to insurance including removing exclusions for preexisting illness
- consumer protection
- healthcare IT including PHRs and Health 2.0 and meaningful use
- cost controls
- quality outcomes including comparative effectiveness
- how it helps business and the economy
Such a document should include no buzz words or government 3 or 4 letter abbreviations, such as, ARRA. Some of this is already on the HealthReform.gov website but the President should try to break this down more consistently.
Finally, keep the patient at the center of healthcare reform – see this Health Populi post on the challenges.
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