The Health Care Blog

Practice Fusion throws its hat in the consumer ring

By Matthew Holt Practice Fusion has been making a fair bit of noise recently with its investment from Salesforce and its trumpeting of 18,000 + physician users. If that number is true it probably makes it the most used EMR...
November 18, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Conspiracy theory Friday (FDA & CCHIT related)

By Matthew Holt Two fun things—First, Mark Leavitt says he’s quitting CCHIT in March. He says that he’ll be 60 then and wants to go do other stuff. Of course the cynics among you will say that he’s had enough...
November 13, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, HITECH, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (5)

Regina Holliday's mural for Fred

By Matthew Holt Regina’s story has been on THCB before—Fred’s Life & Death at 73 cents a page. But you may not have seen the mural. (From NPR)
November 12, 2009 in e-patients, Electronic Medical Records | Permalink | Comments (0)

Regina Holliday: Fred's life & death at 73 cents a page

By Matthew Holt If you ever wonder why the efforts to make it easier for patients and families to get information and be treated as equals in their care by the medical care system matter.... If you need convincing that...
October 24, 2009 in e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (6)

Health 2.0 Tools: The power of Twitter

By Matthew Holt The power of Twitter is real kids, and not for what you think. Used properly Twitter is an information filter. Exhibit A is what happened to the Von Schwebers who run PHARMASurveyor. They were a huge part...
October 23, 2009 in Conferences, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, evidenced-based medicine, Health 2.0, pharmaceuticals, Technology | Permalink | Comments (5)

JSK & Joe DeLuca on KQED

By Matthew Holt One of the best local talk shows anywhere is Michael Krasny's Forum on 88.5 KQED, San Francisco's establishment NPR station (SF of course has a rebel NPR station KALW which has had me on a couple of...
October 21, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Change The Rules and Get Your Labs

By Phil Marshall In 1999 Caresoft developed a consumer web portal called the Daily Apple. The Daily Apple wasn’t all that unique or different than other health portals, until in May of 2000 they began helping consumers download their lab...
October 19, 2009 in Consumers, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (4)

Health Internet - The New Consumer-Friendly NHIN

By Adrian Gropper Consumer directed HIE will become the most visible aspect of health IT stimulus and could lead a shift to consumer-directed health plans, increased interest in wellness programs and family-centered collaboration for the young, old and seriously ill....
October 9, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Information Therapy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (9)

The Long Tail of the EMR

By Margalit Gur-Arie In the fall of 2008 I had the opportunity to do some research on the, then dormant, EMR marketplace. The results came as no surprise. Most physicians did not have an EMR and were not interested in...
October 7, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, HITECH | Permalink | Comments (12)

Catalyzing the app store for EHRs

By STEVE DOWNS and JOHN LUMPKIN, SVP, Health Care Group, RWJ Foundation Dr. Lumpkin serves as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Group, where he is responsible for planning and program management. Prior to joining RWJ, Dr. Lumpkin...
September 27, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, HIT | Permalink | Comments (15)

Medical Students Want You to Know

By MICHELLE SNYDER How many of us can remember a world without cell phones? Today’s medical students would undoubtedly be among that group. So it is no wonder these future physicians rely heavily on technology as they embark on their...
September 20, 2009 in EHR, Electronic Medical Records, Physicians, Social Media, Technology | Permalink | Comments (12)

What if I Had to do HIT All Over Again?

By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE This post is aimed at serving as an interlude to the "public option/death panels" discussions. No matter what healthcare reform bill, if any, is passed this fall, HIT will be part of the program. Four short years...
September 20, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, HIT, Technology | Permalink | Comments (45)

Getting Rid of “Friction” in Health Care

By FLETCHER LANCE Friction occurs when an object moving through space encounters resistance, slows down and has its forward energy diverted. In the world of health care, friction is a term that has become synonymous with paperwork. Today, the U.S....
September 4, 2009 in Costs, Electronic Medical Records, Technology | Permalink | Comments (10)

Why Standards Matter (1): The True Meaning of Interoperability

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER Americans are generally skeptical of words that otherwise intelligent and articulate people can't pronounce. "Interoperability," like nu-cu-lar, is one of these. After a while, these words can take on a mystique all their...
August 22, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, e-patients, EHR, Electronic Medical Records, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is “Cloud Computing” Right for Health IT?

By ROBERT ROWLEY, MD The announcement of Salesforce.com investing and coordinating development efforts with Practice Fusion has brought talk of “cloud computing” to the fore. Salesforce has been known as a leader in cloud computing, and moving healthcare IT to...
August 12, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, HITECH, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

E-Health - It All Depends on How It's Used

By MERRILL GOOZNER Technology isn’t a quick fix. Just ask General Motors. In the 1980s, the auto giant spent $50 billion to automate and computerize its plants in an effort to compete with Toyota. Today, GM is emerging from bankruptcy...
July 29, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Merrill Goozner, Quality, Technology | Permalink | Comments (15)

Patient, Heal Thyself

By DON KEMPER If you want a better system, support a smarter patient . For weeks now Congress has been stymied by how to pay for extending coverage to the uninsured. While it may seem stupid to look to the...
July 23, 2009 in Costs, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (58)

Op-Ed: Forward thinking health plans? Look for the guys with the white hats

By RICHARD NOFFSINGER The public noise about health care reform has painted the parties involved in broad brush strokes that tell consumers which in the fray are the good guys and bad guys. News reports have for so long vilified...
July 13, 2009 in Data Analytics, Electronic Medical Records, Health Plans, Op-Ed | Permalink | Comments (10)

Meaningful Use vs. Meaningless Adoption of Electronic Health Records

By RICK WEINHAUS MD Dr. David Blumenthal, the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has stressed that the goal of the ARRA/HITECH initiative is to improve patient care, not to mindlessly adopt health information technology. In this regard, he...
July 7, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Meaningful Use, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Reform, Technology, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (9)

Is Wal-Mart Leading the Charge on Health Reform?

By RAHUL PARIKH Last Wednesday's headline in the Wall Street Journal may have surprised you. It read: "Wal-Mart Backs Drive to Make Companies Pay for Health Coverage." The article discussed Wal-Mart's open support for an employer mandate requiring all but...
July 6, 2009 in AMA, Electronic Medical Records, Rahul Parikh, Reform, Unions, Wal Mart | Permalink | Comments (26)

Commentology

Futurist Jeff Goldsmith's analysis of issues that could cause problems for any health reform effort that eventually emerges from the foodfight in Washington this summer provoked a wide range of reader replies. ("No Country For Old Men") Goldsmith wrote in...
July 2, 2009 in AMA, Commentology, Electronic Medical Records, Jeff Goldsmith, Malpractice, Physicians, Reader Mail, Robert Laszewski, Unions | Permalink | Comments (9)

The Myth of Prevention and EHR’s?

By SCOTT SHREEVE I was just referred this article which I found to be thoughtfully crafted. Abraham Verghese is a Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University. I found the article interesting,...
June 30, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, PHRs, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (10)

The EHR TimeBar: A New Visual Interface Design

By RICK WEINHAUS, MD The EHR TimeBar functions as a high-level overview of the patient record, as a query device, and as an intuitive navigation tool. Each EHR file (event) for the patient is represented by an icon. The set...
June 26, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, evidenced-based medicine, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology, The Industry, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (6)

A Declaration of Health Data Rights

By Matthew Holt THCB & Health 2.0 are happy to be a small part of a very important declaration, made today by a mix of patients, physicians, technologists and concerned citizens. It's a Declaration of Health Data Rights, and it's...
June 22, 2009 in Consumers, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (17)

A Dream of Reason

By BRIAN KLEPPER and DAVID KIBBE The dream of reason did not take power into account...Modern medicine is one of those extraordinary works of reason...But medicine is also a world of power. -Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine,...
June 22, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Consumers, David Kibbe, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (8)

Matthew went to Redmond, Pt 4: Nate McLemore

By Matthew Holt My final interview from my trip to Microsoft was with Nate McLemore, who is Director of Business Development for the Health Solutions Group and also involved in Microsoft’s policy & lobbying work. Nate talked about Microsoft’s role...
June 18, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Meaningful meaning? (with UPDATE)

By Matthew Holt The first draft of “meaningful use” came out early yesterday, and I was struck by two things. First, probably influenced by the NCVHS recommendations and the Consumer Partnership for e-Health (See Update), the work-group included a lot...
June 18, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Meaningful Use, Technology | Permalink | Comments (6)

Canadians? Not as good as us!

By Matthew Holt Several of my friends in the blogosphere are getting very excited because eHealth Ontario has pissed away a few million dollars and the now fired CEO got more bonus than was seemly. So she gave Accenture and...
June 10, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, International, Technology | Permalink | Comments (5)

Are Today's EMRs Up to the Job?

By RICHARD SCOVILLE This post is a bit different from most of the policy points, institutional cases and reports of technical innovations that I've been reading on THCB in the past months. I want to pose the above Question to...
June 6, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records | Permalink | Comments (22)

Bringing Patients into the Health IT Conversation About "Meaningful Use"

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER The Obama health team at HHS and ONC are gradually establishing the rules that will determine how approximately $34 billion in ARRA/HITECH funds are spent on health IT over the next several years....
May 21, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Consumers, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Google, Health 2.0, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Marketplace, Policy, Policy/Politics, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (35)

Vaccine refusal, or Jenny McCarthy, better with fewer clothes on

By Matthew Holt Kaiser Permanente has released a study from its EMR database looking at use of vaccines in its Colorado region. KP in Colorado has data on about 480,000 members dating back to the mid-1990s from when they started...
May 13, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Health Plans | Permalink | Comments (4)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT: Part 3 -- Certification As The Elephant in Health IT's Living Room

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER In the first and second parts of this series we talked about how and why there is no universal definition for the term "EHR." Instead there is a legitimate, growing debate about the...
May 8, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Obama administration, Online Communities, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (20)

RFID EMR Pioneer Says “RIP”

By MICHAEL MILLENSON When Harvard Medical School and CareGroup CIO Dr. John Halamka agreed to place his medical information on an RFID chip and have it implanted it in his arm, he triggered an instant global spotlight on this unusual...
May 8, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Michael Millenson, RFID | Permalink | Comments (19)

The Health IT Stimulus and FQHCs — Don’t Forget About Us!

By JAMES KAHN There is a critical element in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that targets funds for Federally-Qualified Community Health Centers (FQHCs). An FQHC is an organization defined by the Medicare and Medicaid statutes that receives funding...
May 7, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Obama administration, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

Roni Zeiger on what Google Health is doing next

By Matthew Holt For those of you who weren't at Health 2.0 Meets Ix to hear from the mouths of the four horsemen (Halamka, Sands, Zeiger & deBronkhart) here is Google's Roni Zeiger’s version of what went wrong with the...
April 28, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Technology, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (9)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT - Untying HITECH's Gordian Knot: Part 1

By DAVID C. KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER Congratulations to David Blumenthal on being named National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT). Dr. Blumenthal will be the person most responsible for the rules and distribution of the American Recovery and Reinvestment...
April 26, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (19)

Should You Keep Your Own Medical Records?

By RAHUL PARIKH, MD Over the past 18 months, technology companies are jumping into one the biggest untapped frontiers in the economy: Health care. Among the groups taking the leap are Microsoft and Google. Both have launched products called Personal...
April 26, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records | Permalink | Comments (41)

An Open Letter to the New National Coordinator for Health IT: Part 2 - Opening the Aperture of Innovation

By DAVID C. KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER One of the important decisions before Dr. Blumenthal and his colleagues at ONC and HHS is whether the national health information network will be one of closed appliances that bundle together proprietary hardware,...
April 22, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (21)

The Doctor Is In and Logged On.

By RAHUL PARIKH Wow. I've just taken care of three patients in 12 minutes, and I didn't do it by "churning" them through my office as if it's some sort of factory assembly line. Rather, those patients (their parents, more...
April 14, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Physicians, Rahul Parikh, Technology | Permalink | Comments (14)

Cats and dogs on film--Tullman, Leavitt, Bush

By Matthew Holt Anyone who’s been following along on THCB will realize that there’s a huge divide about whether the HITECH act should pay for and dictate a specified, certified type of EMR product use OR pay for data and...
April 13, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Continuity of Care Record Gains Ground As A Standard

By BRIAN KLEPPER We live in a time of such great progress in so many arenas that, too often and without a second thought, we take significant advances for granted. But, now and then, we should catalog the steps forward,...
April 10, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Consumers, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, Google, Health 2.0, Personalized Medicine, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (21)

Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson on reform and life after IT

By Matthew Holt George Halvorson is the CEO of Kaiser Permanente, and the driving force behind both the HealthConnect EMR implementation and a national player in the health reform debate. I got to talk to him at HIMSS where he’d...
April 8, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (14)

On Clinical Groupware, Interoperability and the HITECH Bill

By CHARLIE BIRMINGHAM Was it not Aristotle who once remarked “Nature abhors a front end that is not connected to its backend? ” In his recent, insightful blog here on Clinical Groupware as an alternative “meaningful use” of IT under...
April 1, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records | Permalink | Comments (6)

Health Affairs is all about IT

By Matthew Holt Most of the Health care geek squad is in DC as I write, at a press conference conducted by Health Affairs which has an entire issue out today about IT in health care. Here’s the table of...
March 10, 2009 in e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (6)

Five Recommendations for an ONC Head Who Understands Health IT Innovation

By David C. Kibbe, Brian Klepper and John Moore. Now that the legislative language of the HITECH Act -- the $20 billion health IT allocation within the economic stimulus package -- has been set, it's time to identify a National...
March 6, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Current Affairs, David Kibbe, Electronic Medical Records, evidenced-based medicine, Health 2.0, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, public health, Quality, Technology, The Industry, Transparency, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (14)

Google Health sharing--simple but potentially important

By Matthew Holt Today late afternoon PST Google flipped the switch on an important change/add to Google Health. Recently they’ve been adding more and more little features, such as printing & graphing, and in the last month getting CVS retail...
March 4, 2009 in Consumers, e-patients, Electronic Medical Records, Google, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Physicians, Technology | Permalink | Comments (11)

Frances Dare explains HITECH, really well

By Matthew Holt Frances Dare from Cisco is a buddy of mine who has more and more been their student of what's going on in Washington. Given that we just saw the biggest piece of health care IT legislation ever...
March 4, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Physicians, Podcasts, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Getting "the CCHIT question" wrong

By Matthew Holt There’s been a lot of blather from one commenter (who may or may not be a front for a group of malcontents) on the WSJ Health Blog and lots of other blogs about CCHIT and whether it...
February 24, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (8)

Betsy McCraker misses the point, again

By Matthew Holt Not content with being the catalyst for the unleashing of a torrent of vitriol in the direction of those Milquetoast individuals who are in favor of better information systems in health care, in the mild expectation that...
February 23, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, evidenced-based medicine, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Question For You Privacy Wonks Out There

By Matthew Holt When I read a headline like Privacy advocates hail stimulus bills I immediately wonder which privacy advocates. If it’s Deborah Peel I shudder, as her aim appears to be to shut down any system of electronic health...
February 3, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (5)