Posts Tagged ‘Innovation’
Innovation Summit – Obesity, Diabetes & the Metabolic Crisis
November 2, 2010
This week I attended the Cleveland Clinic Innovation Summit and contributed to the live tweeting of the event. There was substantial discussion of devices in the pipeline and drugs for diabetes but a less optimistic outlook on drugs for obesity with some being shut down by the FDA. The most scientific yet controversial presenter was JefferyFriedman, who referred to his 2009 Newsweek article on “The Real Cause of Obesity” as a summary of his position that most of obesity is genetically determined. Many referred to the recent prediction posted by the CDC that the current incidence of diabetes being around 10% of the population with the potential of growing to 20 – 30% by 2050.
At the end of day two, the annual announcement of Top 10 Innovations. The final day will include health IT interventions for obesity and diabetes.
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IBM Initiative to Improve Healthcare Quality and Costs
August 6, 2010
Recently IBM announced a major initiative to address significant data problems in healthcare. Acknowledging the fact that data is in structured and unstructured format and from various sources, the task of integrating these data points into a individual dashboard format can enable better medical decision making. One tool to enable this kind of data integration is their text analytics tools LanguageWare™ (LW) and Cognos Content Analyzer (CCA). Both of these were acquisitions by IBM in the past few years and it appears that they are now integrated enough to be used with large data sets in health care. Analyzing unstructured information can benefit insurance companies as well. The tool looks like it combines natural language search and semantic technologies. The video illustrations the typical international approach of Big Blue.
Share this:What’s New with PHRs – evidence and interoperability
July 16, 2010
A new study from Kaiser documents some clear clinical benefits for the use of PHRs. The study, which was published in the July issue of Health Affairs, observed 35,423 patients with diabetes, hypertension, or both. Researchers found that the use of secure patient-physician messaging in any two-month period was associated with statistically significant improvements in HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) care measurements. Results included 2 to 6.5 percentage point improvements in glycemic, cholesterol and blood pressure screening and control.
Also, there is a good video on PHR/eHealth application interoperability which also promotes the Health 2.0 Accelerator. The future of patient centric care must be interoperable. Watch the video.
Part of the video is a demo of SurveyorHealth for managing medications which includes an interesting tool Simulate Alternatives. Check out one of the demo patients.
Share this:A History of Innovation in Medicine
May 17, 2010
Health 2.0 has pushed innovation in health care from its inception. From social networks for patients and providers to vertical search and mobile health tools, innovation continues. The Quantified Self represents the latest level of innovation for healthcare. The letters to the NY Times Sunday Magazine in response to the feature on The Data Driven Live, has this choice quote by Patricia Flatley Brennet of Project HealthDesign “Doctors are experts in clinical care; patients are experts in their daily experiences and how they make them feel. Both need to share more with each other.”
But some healthcare organizations have been innovative from the beginning. See the video on the Cleveland Clinic Model of Medicine and then read their latest Annual Report with President Obama on the cover. What a great place to work.
Share this:Leveraging EMR Data to Develop Disease-Based Registries
March 6, 2010
This is my other presentation at HIMSS 2010. One of the real values of EMRs is the secondary use of the data for research. While respecting patient privacy, this kind of research can be rapidly developed from EMR data. We recommend the following steps:
- define the cohort of patients you want to study/monitor
- define the data elements you want included
- review and verify data elements with subject matter experts
- set up a regular interval to extract the data
- generate some test queries to verify the process
- monitor to use of the data (ongoing governance)
Our initial experience with a Chronic Kidney Disease registry has been a success. We recommend that research issues be considered in any purchase and implementation of an EMR.
Share this:Medicine: Cottage Industry or Post-Industrial Care Process?
January 21, 2010
In the New England Journal of Medicine this week there is a health care reform piece titled, “Cottage Industry to Postindustrial Care — The Revolution in Health Care Delivery.” The article, by leaders in health care quality, raises significant questions about the problems in health care delivery and a path to a solution through “standardization of value-generating processes, performance measurement, and transparent reporting of quality.”
The authors address concerns about “cookbook medicine” but rightly describe medicine as a cottage industry: “Services are often highly variable, performance is largely unmeasured, care is customized to individual patients, and standardized processes are regarded skeptically. Autonomy is hardwired into the system, because most physicians practice in small groups with limited oversight or coordination.”
How do we move to post-industrial care or even better, 21st century, technology-enabled, patient-focused care. Does that mean that small practices should join large practices, academic medical centers? The authors don’t propose that solution, but do propose following clinical practice guidelines which are flexible enough to manage individual differences in presentation. If medicine is trending toward broad implementation of clinical practice guidelines and a stronger focus on outcomes (value-based medicine), technology-centered particularly around the electronic medical record and a focus on efficiency, can small practices survive? Are will moving toward industry consolidation much like what has been experienced in banking?
The cottage industry of medicine with fee-for-service as a funding model, continues to drive up cost without adding value. While I am no economist, I believe medicine is changing and models of practice which focus on efficiency, technology and patient experience are taking the lead.
One final quote from the article: the authors characterize this cottage industry as chaos – “Chaos confounds constructive action, whereas wise standardization is a foundation for effective variation, efficiency, reliability, and rapid innovation.” Let’s hope that wise standardization through guidelines can promote the kind of rapid innovation needed to transform healthcare and that policy and funding decisions follow this direction.
Share this:The US Chief Technology Office Promotes Innovation
July 22, 2009
A few weeks ago I heard Aneesh Chopra speak at the Cleveland City Club (podcast available). He could easily be called the Chief Innovation Officer – he is looking for opportunities to make changes using existing technology in short term projects. Specifically,
“-Using information technology to transform the way government does business
-Foster private sector innovation
-Reduce administrative costs and errors through utilization of health IT
-Change the way teachers teach and students learn”
Two projects of note are Defense Solutions, a site to submit solutions to be funded by small grants and hear in 30 days, unheard of for government grants.
The other is Data.gov, which exposes existing government data sources for use by developers including raw data, tools and geodata. Part of his approach is to encourage developers in an open source model, to create new tools and mashups which add value.
He spoke today at the Open Government and Innovations Conference. Twitter feed here.
Share this:Hot, Flat and Crowded – Ideas for Innovation
November 20, 2008
Tom Friedman’s latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, gives an excellent overview of some of the crises facing us – over consumption, energy poverty by many nations, and the wrong incentives for fixing the energy crisis. His suggested solutions are many including 10,000 innovations. Sounds like Health 2.0 and the health care system in crisis. I wonder if Health 2.0 is reaching the level of 10,000 innovations. However, Health 2.0 cannot solve the health care system problems alone. There need to be changes in government regulations and incentives just as there needs to be in energy.
Share this: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.
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