HealthContentAdvisors

From Toronto Public Library Consumer Health Information Service, a list of top 10 health-related websites from 1999 and update on where they stand today, as well as some notable new sources.

Informa plans to cut its debt, which will likely require selling off some assets. In Healthcare (with heavy emphasis on Pharma BI), Informa owns Taylor & Francis publishing,PJB (Pharmaprojects, Scrip, and other pharma bi databases, publications and events),Citeline TrialTrove, and recently acquired Datamonitor (see: www.informa.com/divisions/academic_and_amp_scientific/informa_healthcare for full list. In other divisions, Informa is known as the owner of Lloyd’s list, finance and insurance publications, and global events producer IIR.

David Harlow takes the new Massachusetts’ online hospital database MyHealthCareOptions, for a spin. Reveals that cost data are only given in broad ranges and ratings in the form of star, which don’t provide sufficient data to make informed decisions.

Thomson Reuters to issue up to $3B in debt to use for general corporate purposes. Thomson Healthcare is a division of Thomson Reuters.

Wolters Kluwer Health’s ProVation medical coding product “has been designated Number One in the Clinical Procedure Documentation category of the 2008 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services report”.

CMPMedica to provide drug info content to iSOFT, one of the world’s largest providers of healthcare IT solutions. (iSOFT press release was distributed on 11/25/08)

“The Center for Improving Medication Management ( The Center ) today launched http://www.LearnAboutRxSafety.org, a new Web site where consumers can learn how to use medications safely. Developed in conjunction with the National Council on Patient Information and Education ( NCPIE ), the Web site is primarily intended as a resource for families and all individuals seeking information on medication safety. The Center will collaborate with consumer organizations, provider and payer organizations and other groups interested in promoting medication safety and adherence for consumers.”

Xconomy reports on how foundations are more carefully considering the investments they make in pharma and biotech companies due to the economy. Cites a CenterWatch study.

2009 edition of Scrip 100 - Informa Healthcare’s annual analysis of pharma industry is now available online: http://www.scripnews.com/supplements/download_today/Scrip-100

Blog about our conference, Health Content08, from OneClickMed, one of the companies selected to present at the Innovators Showcase.

Xconomy’s Wade Rousch interviews Amir Lewkowicz, co-founder of Inspire (fmly Clinica Health). Inspire is a patient/caregiver community site whose primary rev. model is clinical trial recruitment.

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on NRC’s latest Healthcare Market Guide survey results.

Steve Beller on HealthIT adoption.

ACP blog on value of physician ratings.

Vijay Goel concisely describes the emerging usage of health social networking sites for clinical trial recruitment and other research activities.

ThomsonReuters’ Clinical Xpert CareFocus suite adopted by Baptist Health. “CareFocus, a clinical surveillance solution, enables clinicians to build profiles that identify high-risk patients within the active hospital census based on their medications, laboratory and radiology results, vital signs, diagnoses, active orders, demographics, and other reports. Patients who meet a profile’s criteria are segmented into lists that are delivered to a clinician’s Palm, Windows Mobile, or BlackBerry® smartphone and to a Web portal for anytime access. By identifying these high-risk patients early, hospitals can significantly improve clinical outcomes while reducing mortality and length of stay and avoiding the increased costs associated with treating complications.”

Some well-known physicians and health experts headline new consumer health info portal produced by LLuminari.

Summary of some comments from HP, Siemens and Oracle at last month’s Personalized Medicine meeting at Harvard about the bright prospects for health analytics companies with the growth in personalized medicine. (Note, the Harvard meeting unfortunately coincided with our Health Content08 conference)

HealthDay partners with NewProNet, a producer of original syndicated news services for local broadcasters & online news sites, to launch HealthDay TV to supplement its news service.

SwiftMD announces launch of its Web and phone-based medical consultation & patient ed services. Focuses on providing urgent and non-critical consultation over the phone, internet, or bi-directional video. “There is a one-time registration fee for the set-up of a member’s secure and HIPAA compliant personal health record (PHR), a monthly membership fee and a consultation fee for each SwiftMD visit. SwiftMD doctors interact with members by phone or Internet, review members’ PHRs and diagnose non-critical illnesses or conditions.”

New module in GE Healthcare’s Centricity Business revenue cycle management, Patient Protocol Manager, enables scheduling appts and integrates with billing system to help determine financial responsibility for charges. Includes a single data repository for clinical trial subjects.

DC-based Medicaid provider implements MEDecision analytical software that helps assess patients’ risk for certain diseases and recommends preventive care.

CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts writes on need to base provider payments on quality of outcomes, not fee-for-service. His comment that “as much as 0 percent of all healthcare spending could be eliminated without reducing quality” [if we can eliminate unnecessary tests and services]reminds me of the truism in advertising: “I know half my advertising expenditure is wasted, I just don’t know which half.”

Harvard Medical resident, Brijesh P. Mehta and Nambi Nallasamy, a student at Harvard Medical School, have created MedicalPlexus “for the purpose of improving collaboration between colleagues, effectively disseminating medical knowledge, and, ultimately, improving patient care. We wanted a place where doctors are able to share valuable content easily.”

UnitedHealth launches myoptumhealth.com. “Run by UnitedHealth’s health-and-wellness services unit, OptumHealth, the site includes tools to check symptoms, a search engine for finding specific health or disease information and a repository where consumers can maintain their personal medical information.”

Hope Leman’s response to the question: “Is it a good idea or not to give Google your personal health information or data?”