The Health Care Blog

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)

On Stage at Health 2.0: The Cats and Dogs of Health IT

By Matthew Holt Here's the first in a series of videos from the Health 2.0 Conference a couple of weeks back that we're going to feature on THCB. This was the last panel of the day and it featured three...
October 20, 2009 in Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

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)

Two east coast conferences worth a look

By Matthew Holt Two conferences I won’t be at (because I’ve been on enough aeroplanes this year already and have to do a bunch more traveling in November) are later this month. One is GelHealth in NYC which is the...
October 15, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (3)

Why Standards Matter 2: Health IT Enters a New Era of Regulatory Control

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER The recent history of electronic medical records in ambulatory care, or what we now call EHR (electronic health record) technology, can be divided roughly into three phases. Phase I, which lasted approximately 20...
October 14, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, EHR, HIT, HITECH, Technology | Permalink | Comments (10)

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)

Health 2.0 Accelerator Demonstrates Integration of Consumer Web Apps and EHRs

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – October 7, 2009 – Health 2.0 Accelerator member companies today joined together at the Fall 2009 Health 2.0 Conference to demonstrate a streamlined, consumer-centric integration among nine separate technologies creating a more streamlined user experience. During...
October 7, 2009 in EHR, Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

JSK (national treasure) on data liquidity, and how it fits into Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt Given that she taught me most of what I know about health IT I don’t know why I ever need reminding about how great Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is at keeping her finger on the pulse of health care,...
October 3, 2009 in Health 2.0, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Matthew Holt, Policy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Two big deals in Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt John Halamka writes about the small but important meeting this week at Harvard Medical School hosted by Zak Kohane and Ken Mandl. Because of the impending arrival of about 1,000 of my best friends next week at...
October 2, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can Social Media Save Healthcare Reform?

By Daniel Palestrant Daniel Palestrant is the Founder & CEO of Sermo, the largest online physician community, and a friend of THCB’s from the Health 2.0 world. Lately Dan has been seen on cable TV representing the 110K+ Sermo members...
October 1, 2009 in Physicians, Policy/Politics, Reform, Sermo, Technology | Permalink | Comments (40)

The Health 2.0 Accelerator is really gunning it...

By Matthew Holt The Health 2.0 Accelerator was a glimmer in the eye of Commerce.net’s Marty Tenenbaum late in 2007. But under the dedicated leadership of Julie Murchinson and Aaron Apodaca, something quite remarkable is happening. The Accelerator is an...
October 1, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

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)

Washington DC conference and party!

By Matthew Holt Wednesday morning I'll be at the AHRQ annual conference in Rockville, Maryland. I’m moderating a panel looking at “Experiences in Patient-Centered Care: Improving Coordination and Communication among Patients and Providers”. Given this is an AHRQ meeting there’ll...
September 14, 2009 in Conferences, Consumers, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

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)

Social Media: Disruptive Force in Medicine

By GLENN LAFFEL Before the Obama administration set aside billions to accelerate the dissemination of EHRs, providers were slow to adopt them. As recently as 2 years ago for example, a study published in the NEJM revealed that only 4%...
September 4, 2009 in Education, EHR, Social Media, Technology, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (9)

Cool Technology of the Week

By JOHN HALAMKA Before my trip to Japan, I attended the New England Healthcare Institute Medication Adherence Expert Roundtable on Thursday July 23rd, 2009. The purpose of the roundtable was to prioritize activities that would encourage patients to be more...
August 24, 2009 in Technology | Permalink | Comments (7)

Interview with Al Waxman, Psilos Group

Al Waxman is a healthcare entrepreneur who these days runs the Psilos Group, a venture firm that invests in health care services, health care IT and device and instrumentation companies. Among their better known investments are Active Health Management, Health...
August 24, 2009 in Health 2.0, Marketplace, PHRs, Physicians, Podcasts, Policy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Finally, A Reasonable Plan for Certification of EHR Technologies

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER A caution to readers: This post is about methods for certifying Electronic Health Record (EHR) technologies used by physicians, medical practices, and hospitals who hope to qualify for federal incentive payments under the...
August 4, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, HHS, Marketplace, Meaningful Use, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform, Technology, The Industry, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (28)

Online behavioral health on American Well's platform, and a hint at Cisco/UHG

By Matthew Holt As usual I am way behind on tech and Health 2.0 news but here's one that was "thrown out with the trash" late last week because the service went live on Saturday. American Well has has added...
August 3, 2009 in Health 2.0, Health Plans, Technology | Permalink | Comments (6)

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)

Interview with Jonathan Bush, AthenaHealth CEO

By Matthew Holt In this interview Jonathan Bush explains the nation’s major problem: a severe shortage of MUMPS programmers. Well not exactly, but as always the AthenaHealth CEO is well worth watching. And of course he’ll be at Health 2.0...
July 26, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (3)

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)

Eliza gets a nice write up in BusinessWeek

BY MATTHEW HOLT Indeed, it’s so nice that methinks Lucas & Alex were quite seductive! Speaking as a friend and one who’s been indoctrinated into the cult of Alexandra Drane, its interesting to see the mainstream press picking up the...
July 13, 2009 in Health 2.0, Health Plans, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

Announcement: 14,000 People With Diabetes Test Their Blood Sugar at the Same Time

July 14 at 4 pm ET, 14,000 people with diabetes are going to test their blood sugar simultaneously and share their results online to help raise diabetes awareness. People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar as part of...
July 10, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (2)

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)

The other Michael Jackson mega-mix

By Matthew Holt Never ones to be shy with an interesting view into celebrity pharmacology (and truth be told responding to a little tickle from me) the inventive folks at PharmaSurveyor have added Michael Jackson to their celebrity drug cocktail...
July 6, 2009 in Health 2.0, Pharma, pharmaceuticals, Technology, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1)

Implementing a Modern Hospital Website

By JOHN HALAMKA Over the past two years, I've witnessed a transition in modern website design from plain text and static information to multimedia centric and interactive. I've written about the new BIDMC website we implemented to meet patient expectations...
June 30, 2009 in Health 2.0, Hospitals, Technology, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (7)

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)

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)

The Journal of Participatory Medicine

By Matthew Holt ePatientDave and Giles Frydman have been working on the Society of Participatory Medicine for a while and Alan Greene MD will be the first President. Now there’s a editorial board for the Journal of Participatory Medicine. The...
June 17, 2009 in Annals of Journalism, Consumers, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (3)

Decoding “The Social Life of Health Information”

By SUSANNAH FOX The Pew Internet/California HealthCare Foundation report, The Social Life of Health Information, is packed with new findings from a survey of 2,253 adults, including 502 cell-phone interviews, conducted in either English or Spanish. We spent a bundle...
June 16, 2009 in Online Communities, Susannah Fox, Technology | Permalink | Comments (7)

Video: Matthew went to Redmond, Part 3: Mike Raymer, Amalga

Continuing my series of interviews from my trip to Microsoft the week before last (before their conference) I met with Michael Raymer. Mike is a long time health IT veteran who's been at Microsoft for about six months and is...
June 15, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Matthew went to Redmond, 2--Bert van Hoof, HealthVault & devices

By Matthew Holt Continuing my tour around Microsoft’s HealthVault team I met with Bert van Hoof. Bert is the devices guy who showed me lots of ways to get data into HealthVault. If you’re interested in how a power user...
June 10, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matthew went to Redmond, part 1-- Bill Reid, Healthvault

By Matthew Holt Last week I went to a search summit in Seattle where Microsoft told us all about Bing, their latest attempt to do something about Google’s Windows-like market share in search. After a quick chat with Health search...
June 10, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

American Well gets busy with guidelines, Optum

By Matthew Holt Our friends over at American Well have two announcements today. First, they’re releasing what they call Online Care Insight, which is essentially the integration of care guidelines into their online care system. We saw a glimpse into...
June 3, 2009 in Health 2.0, Health Plans, Technology | Permalink | Comments (3)

Launch! Healogica--Clinical Trials Recrutiment service

By Matthew Holt Healogica was one of the companies that presented at Launch! at the Health 2.0 Meets Ix conference in Boston in April. I felt that the quality of the Launch! companies as so strong that they all deserved...
June 2, 2009 in Health 2.0, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cool Technology of the Week

By JOHN HALAMKA In my recent blog about the Red Flags rule, GreenLeaves commented that biometric checking would help reduce errors by establishing identity and uncovering fraud. Using biometrics to verify identity seems like a good idea, so I met...
May 31, 2009 in Technology | Permalink | Comments (6)

Certifying Health IT: Let’s Set the (Electronic Health) Record Straight

By MARK LEAVITT The Stimulus bill catapulted health IT – previously the domain of clinicians with a passion for applying technology to improve healthcare – onto the national stage. When you inject billions of taxpayer dollars, politics inevitably comes with...
May 26, 2009 in Technology | Permalink | Comments (85)

Beyond Wikipedia

By NAOMI FREUNDLICH No surprise, these days more and more doctors are searching online for medical information. What is surprising, however, is that in a recent study, nearly 50% of physicians indicated that they use Wikipedia—the open-access encyclopedia that allows...
May 23, 2009 in Physicians, Technology | Permalink | Comments (19)

More on HITECH , Microsoft mea culpas, Google, et al

By Matthew Holt I draw your attention to a troika of articles, all of which show how things can be slightly misinterpreted. First, who knew that Blackford Middleton was either the most influential health policy wonk out there, or single-handedly...
May 19, 2009 in Google, Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

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)

Op-Ed: Patients first. Doctors second.

By Arun Mohan, MD, MBA and Gordon Moore, MD As part of the recently enacted stimulus bill the federal government is spending $19 billion to promote the adoption of electronic medical records by physicians. Yet, with all the focus on...
April 30, 2009 in Technology | Permalink | Comments (10)