HealthContentAdvisors

Robert Fogel, prof. of economics at University Chicago Booth School of Business, writes that demand for healthcare is driven by increases in income. In short, people with high incomes have more disposable income and are willing to pay both a higher absolute and higher relative amount of their income on health care. So, as income increases, a household wants to spend a greater % of income on healthcare. Conclusions written in the AEI piece center on the positives of this phenemenon: demand drives innovation in healthcare and other related industries benefit, too. Problem is that with the current level of income disparity in the US, only the wealthy can afford the healthcare innovations and the steadily increases in overall healthcare costs that accompany them.

Security specialist in UK writes about NHS plans to manage their Healthspace program(me), which offers summary medical record info to patients. Google Health & Msft HealthVault are under consideration to replace HS.

Excellent presentation that provides into to Twitter and overview of how hospitals and other healthcare providers are using Twitter.

Nice example of how one MD uses a white board to explain his diagnoses to patients (and their parents) and then suggests they capture via camera-phone.

Rodale includes articles & some covers on Obamas in all of their health magazines: Prevention, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and use cover w/ Michelle Obama & children to launch Children’s Health.

Short (3:32min) video that describes Mark Twain St. Joseph’s Hospital’s award from Avatar International for exceeding patient satisfaction. Avatar Int’l is a research firm that carries out satisfaction surveys for healthcare providers, including HCAHPS.

Google custom search that searches over 2,800 US hospital websites. Tools are there, but it still takes effort to aggregate good content. Thanks Ed!

Pfizer to pay $1.3B in criminal penalty related to marketing practices for Bextra and another $1B in civil fines related to other drugs. HHS held a news conference with Secy Sebelius to reinforce the seriousness of their intent to enforce penalties against pharma companies that violate regulations.

Great title that drew me in! Good post, too. Big issue with hashtags on Twitter is that there is no standardization and no easy tools for deciding what tag to use. Plus, longer hashtags take up too many of the precious 140 characters. I hardly ever use them. Best use at this point: conferences.

WaPo writes about how social media use will change public health communications. Describes “infodemiology”, where analysis of online messages can provide data about such things as spread of flu.

Practice Fusion EHR can now integrate lab results data from Quest Diagnostics. Another small step in integration & interoperability.

Dr. Abraham Verghese offers his thoughts on importance of listening to patients and the power of framing information about our current health system in stories that people can relate to.

Article questions why CVS’ stock price hasn’t benefited more from its position as PBM, pharmacy and MinuteClinic provider.

Suit filed on Aug 21 says merger of Pfizer & Wyeth should be stopped because it will drive up drug prices and b/c it depends on gov’t bailout funds to finance the deal.

NYTimes offers some background on how Forest Labs used paid consultants to push Lexapro to extend life of Celexa whose patent had expired.

Report on recent seminar at UC Berkeley on Google Books Settlement. To read.

Article cites some evidence that taxes on sugary drinks & junk food would help reduce obesity. Bottom line: incentives work.

According to latest Pew study, 47% of internet users seek info abt doctors, and 1/3 of that 47% looked for rating or ranking info. However, very few posted ratings or reviews.

CDC plans to dismantle the National Center for Health Marketing, which promoting health information via social media. Role will continue but not as centralized group.

Article reviews methodology used to project costs of chronic disease/conditions.

Wow! Raytheon to acq. BBN, which is best known for having developed ARPAnet.

Good article that posits that solution to slowdown in productivity in pharma industry will require an open-access approach to chemical research that focuses on biological processes and the biological role of the drug target (usually a protein) under investigation. In essence open access chemical biology will allow cross-discipline research.

Don’t know if I tagged this yet. Bweek offers case study of 6 sigma implementation at Moffitt Cancer Center to improve efficiency.

CareFusion, a spinoff of Cardinal Health launches on S&P 500.

Very thoughtful post on what model is optimal for doctor/patient interaction. Dr. Bottles raises the concern that focus on EBM and patient choice de-personalizes care. Post also reminds me of my frequent comment that buying healthcare is not like buying a car (as some like to say); however, healthcare consumption is somewhat similar to maintaining a car–finding a good mechanic, doing reg. maintenance, etc. Choices are more complex for lifetime care than for single transaction. Bottles comments about target marketing are important, too. It’s difficult to pre-identify and serve groups of similar healthcare consumers as consumer product companies try to do in their marketing. Biggest issue in the US healthcare system IMO: providers typically don’t work as a team which hampers collaboration and makes it difficult to promote styles of care to consumers/patients.

Greenway, a EHR vendor, partners with McKesson’s RelayHealth to provide access to RelayHealth’s Virtual Information Exchange platform. This is an extension of partnership between the companies to further access to lab results, radiology reports & transcribed documents to Greenway customers via VIE platform.

Good case study of how one provider org. analyzed workflow and broke down the implementation of EHRs into manageable pieces.

Westborough, MA-based eClinicalWorks partners with Correctional Medical Services (CMS) to provide its EMR solution to correctional facilities affiliated with CMS.

More initiatives to improve hospital quality performance, which I see as the major focus of health care industry change in 2010-2011.

Link to CBO report that analyzes effects of health reform plans on Medicare Part D.

Good list of online health info sources for patients/consumers to consult.

New paper describes better methods for disclosing potential conflicts of interest to participants in clinical trials.