Archive for February, 2007
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.
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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.
Share this:Named as one of Twenty Blogs Thematically Related to Patient Destiny
February 23, 2007
On the Patient Destiny blog, The Path to Patient Empowerment, my blog was named of one of the top 20 blogs related to this theme. Kevin Leonard, of Toronto, has established this blog to bring into focus the empowerment issues and is citing some of the blogs which address this theme regularly. He is also promoting the Improve-IT Institute which includes conferences, books and other resources. A nice find.
Share this:Steve Case on Good Morning America
February 22, 2007
On his blog, Steve comments on his appearance on this mainstream morning show. He seems irritated with Tim Johnson’s old school approach. A video of the interview is posted on YouTube. He believes in a mix of standard medical information from trusted sources (Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic) and social networking. Some skepticism of the interviewers on personal health records brought him back to his consumer advocacy stance – he wants the consumer to be in charge of their health information. He really wants to jumpstart change in health care, and his is one of the strongest Web 2.0 approaches in health care yet.
Share this:More on Web 2.0 in Health Care
February 22, 2007
In a post from December on Connected For Health Discussion Forum, Sally Lakeman from Australia asks some provocative questions:
- “Using social networking tools, is it possible for us to deliver health solutions that encourage the patient to actively participate in an online environment?
- Can we create an online space where people can not only manage their conditions but are encouraged to create, participate and collaborate in driving online health applications?”
Some interesting comments follow including an emphasis on the need for secure data exchange (from Web 2.0 technologies?) and the fact that these technologies will consume us in the health care professions rather than us consuming them.
Still more questions and hypotheses than answers.
Share this:Wall Street Journal on Social Bookmarking
February 21, 2007
In a rare move, the WSJ posted a free article last week on this topic. It’s a good review of all the major sites – Digg, Del.icio.us, and others and their potential business models including being purchased by the big internet portals.
Some choice quotes on the debate about their future:
“Though these sites are undeniably popular, there’s ongoing debate about whether the model of filtering content through voting ultimately will pose a challenge to traditional media. Some say the voting-site approach can more quickly distill what’s important for busy readers.”
“But critics say it’s simply an aggregate of borrowed content and links to a relatively small pool of blogs. And while they sometimes drive traffic to Web sites that are spotlighted, the spike can be temporary. “Influence implies that I can change your mind and they’re not necessarily doing that,” says Duncan Watts, a professor of sociology at Columbia University.”
But the question remains, is even temporary influence in the Internet world a real event? Is the definition of influence shifting in Web 2.0? What does this mean for healthcare? As I have said before, social networking and tagging in health care is at the early stages and may sort out in the next 6-12 months.
Also, check out this comment by if:book
Share this:Just Got Published
February 20, 2007
In a project during flu season, I worked with our Infection Control Practitioners on this: “Novel use of the intranet to document health care personnel participation in a mandatory influenza vaccination reporting program” published in the February issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. With coauthors including our Chief Nursing Officer and one of our Infectious Disease physicians, this study shows how to measure if not encourage hospital employees to get a flu shot. In spite of some difficulties in analyzing the data, 89% of the health system employees participated in the Intranet questionnaire about their decision on the vaccine.
Share this:3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies Conference
February 19, 2007
This conference on June 28-30, 2007 in Lansing, Michigan, has posted a call for abstracts. The workshops will focus on communication between providers and patients including recent research as well as looking forward to future uses of communication in healthcare. Abstracts are due March 30. Communication themes are broadly defined which will stimulate discussion on current and future technologies. While not explicitly citing Web 2.0, it certainly sounds like they are interested in online communities including such topics as community informatics and communityware.
Share this:Public Reporting and Transparency
February 15, 2007
In a new report from the Commonwealth Group, the lack of transparency in health care is addressed in detail. They note that public reporting of outcomes will:
- inject competition in health care
- help providers benchmark against each other
- encourage insurors to reward quality and efficiency
- help consumers make informed choices.
They also note that public reporting adds value but must be designed carefully.
I might add that consumers need education on how to interpret health outcomes since there are currently many ways to report outcomes.
Overall, I recommend reading at least the executive summary.
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