Web 2.0 for Patients in the UK
March 9, 2007
A comment from ICTconsequences, I was pointed to a website in the UK which proposes to improve the National Health Service there through allowing users to give their opinions about their care at local hospitals. Patient Opinion includes search options as well as sorting responses by hospital and key words, like “food”, procedure (hip replacement), nursing care, disabled parking, etc. It is good to see positives and negatives as well as mixed reviews. What could be one long complaint posting board really gives the spectrum of experiences. Given the recent revelations at Walter Reed Hospital here in the US, we could use similar tools to start an earlier groundswell about patterns of problems in our hospitals. However, in the legal environment of US healthcare, would such a site be misused?
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Liberation from Health Insurance Companies?
March 8, 2007
Although this article from VentureBeat is from January, it is still timely. In addition to focusing on Revolution Health, he cites other players such as, MedBillManager and also an article from Business Week in Nov. 2006 which gives a good summary of the PHR business. TauMed which is a medical advise site and the startups in the health search field are also mentioned (Kosmix and Healthline). He notes that “Revolution Health will offer telephone-consulting and digital-record services free for a year, to those who sign up within 90 days. The company says it eventually will charge $100 or so a year for a subscription to premium services.” WebMD’s plan for a PHR are also noted.
Sounds like a crowded field which will need to sort itself out. Like the many players in the dot-com boom, not all will make it. The question as always is, who has the best business model that consumers are ready for?
Share this:How Private are Proprietary PHRs?
March 7, 2007
According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, not very private. The article title tells it all, “Why Marketers want to see inside your medical cabinet.” They specifically cite WebMD which has just released a PHR supported by an advertising model. Such sites may protect your privacy until you click on a targeted ad (based on drug and diagnostic information you have entered) and then once you have clicked through and request a coupon, you have given someone your identity tied to a diagnosis or a drug, the goldmine for advertisers. The conclusion of the authors, which I agree with, is that PHRs should be free of advertising or that consumers should be advised against using PHRs with targeted advertising. Government certification of PHRs should include such protections.
Authors are: Joseph Turow is a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age.” Robert Gellman is a privacy and information policy consultant in Washington, D.C. Judith Turow is an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson
University Hospital.
Measuring the benefits of online health management
March 6, 2007
A new study done by Illumina for Cisco reports that 33% of Americans say that the Internet has changed the way they manage their healthcare. 62% report using online health tools and 56% reported an improvement in their health management due to personal technology. 45% want to be able to email their doctors, and a third want to access lab results and make appointments. However, few have the option to do so now.
Does this imply a greater demand for patient portals, PHRs and online tools than previous studies? Of this group studied, about a third either had a serious chronic condition themselves or have a family member who does. Half considered themselves informed healthcare consumers.
I don’t think this is a skewed sample of America. More people are online for themselves or family members than every. Providers and hospitals should work to meet this demand for online interaction.
Share this:Web 2.0 in Health Care – Where’s the Value
March 6, 2007
Today I was interviewed by Government HealthIT regarding Web 2.0 adoption in Healthcare. If you have been reading my blog, you know my answer is – gradual adoption, wait and see. Some of the reasons for this is that Web 2.0 is a disruptive technology and especially so toward healthcare. Specifically, health care organizations, especially hospitals and medical practices are risk adverse (read liability crisis). Healthcare typically view information as authoritative and works hard at controlling that authority through clinical trials and the peer review process. This way health care information is owned by authoritative sources which maintain the public’s trust. Web 2.0 promotes that content is owned by all and that truth is achieved through social networking (e.g., Wikipedia). At the same time, healthcare has always been a collaborative science and for decades, patient advocacy movements, such as, cancer survivors, have interacted online in social networks.
Conclusion: Web 2.0 concepts have been present in healthcare for a long time but at the same time the technology is perceived as a threat. A contradiction? No, just a social trend which will take time to sort out.
Share this:HIMSS 2007 – best coverage
March 4, 2007
Neil Versel’s Healthcare IT Blog has some interesting coverage of HIMSS because of his podcasts of interviews with the CEO of Athena Health and HIMSS Analytics. Quick Blog: Blog Administration HIMSS 07 Online Daily has some major stories including coverage of the keynote speakers.
The Healtcare IT Guy has a nice review of Tolven PHR open source running on a smart phone (more on this later).
And Medical Connectivity Consulting has some product reviews including COW, computers on wheels and the buzz about connectivity.
Also, check out Flickr for photos and YouTube/Google Video.
Share this:HIMSS – A Limited Showing for Web 2.0
March 4, 2007
Looking at educational sessions and vendor presentations, Web 2.0 made a relatively minor appearance. There was one session on Wikis, my eSession with Jack Mason (Healthnex blog) and maybe one other. Perhaps this should not be surprising in that the large vendors representing proprietary applications rather than open source. Open source was represented by the VA’s VistA EMR. Revolution Health was mentioned by Colin Powell who in on their board. While Web 2.0 does not offer core functionality to healthcare yet, blogs, wikis, social networking and tagging have future capabilities yet to be discovered. Maybe Steve Case should keynote next year and stir things up.
Share this:Report from HIMSS – Microsoft’s New Commitment to Healthcare
February 27, 2007
In addition to Steve Ballmer keynoting at HIMSS ’07, two announcements from Microsoft demonstrate this new commitment.
- Microsoft announced its planned purchase of the Medstory health search engine
- Their strategy is outlined in a Q&A for journalists
In addition, there is a lot of interest in Azyxxi.
The text of Ballmer’s speech is now available.
Share this:Report from HIMSS – Government Initiatives in Health IT – simplify
February 27, 2007
The keynote at HIMSS ’07 this morning, Phil Bredesen, Governor of Tennessee, had 3 recommendations for moving ahead with interoperability. At the risk of being accused of oversimplifying, he boldly suggested that we 1) simplify our goals for information exchange, such as, just focusing on eprescribing using simplified standards, 2) establish a beachhead instead of trying to do everything, and find solutions which are acceptable to everyone, not just early adopters or large academic medical centers. I was impressed with his understanding of IT, his willingness to research current IT standards and his knowledge of the business.
By the way, check out Tim Gee’s coverage of HIMSS ’07 including photos.
Share this:Report from HIMSS – eHealth Business Portal
February 27, 2007
At the eHealth Special Interest Group which I chair, one discussion point came up yesterday – the lack of one place to go to view all or even most eHealth products. This is certainly true in the PHR space although AHIMA has created a patient-centric listing of available tools at www.MyPHR.org. The eHealth Developers Summit has provided a venue for some of these entrepreneurs. With many small companies doing the innovation in this field, it would make sense to have a clearinghouse for new products or even products under development. If anyone knows of of such a resource, please comment.
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