HealthContentAdvisors

a division of InfoCommerce Group

Headline Commentary Jan 23-Jan 31

  • Posted February 1st 2010
  • by Janice
  • » Endeca founders steering search firm toward ‘business intelligence’ market - The Boston Globe

    Good article on Endeca, a widely used search engine on shopping sites. Endeca’s “guided navigation” (also referred to as “faceted search”) works very well on structured information. Could it be adapted for less-formally structured info?

  • » McKesson and HP to Help Physician Practices Speed Electronic Health Record Adoption for Better, Safer Patient Care

    McKesson & HP partner to provide EHR s/w and hardware for physician practices.

  • » Workplace Wellness Programs

    Article questions the role of employers in sponsoring wellness programs that tie participation to financial incentives such as reduced premiums.

  • » New Smartphone Application Rewards Physicians with CME Credit for Online Medical Research

    Interesting. Wolters Kluwer has set up a system whereby doctors will receive CME credit for clinical research done via their mobile phone.

  • » Patients 2.0 - Time on e-Patient Movement

    Time covers e-Patient Dave’s story and writes about e-patient movement under the moniker “patient 2.0″. Provides a somewhat jaded view of non-medical specialist patients’ ability to understand medical info and make judgements. Suggests “rapid-learning” program for e-patients.

  • » Update: Siemens Brings HealthVault to Europe « Chilmark Research

    Very thorough review of MSFT-Siemens deal to introduce MS HealthVault to German market and make it the system through which patients are provided medical info. HL7 is more widely used in Europe and Infobutton apps will likely catch on more quickly.

  • » Elsevier incorporates additional citation metrics into Scopus

    Els adds SNIP and SJR to Scopus to provide more complete citation metrics.

  • » Doctors Question Ads on Health Web Site

    Julie Deardorff of Chicago Tribune writes about my recent blog on the AAFP’s FamilyDoctor.org site’s advertising high salt foods. Quotes me, AAFP VP Publishing, and Dr. John Spangler.

  • » Learning to Love Healthcare Spending?

    Prof. Robert Fogel, U. Chicago, contends that healthcare costs are high because consumers demand the high-cost extras and innovation.

  • » ONC Reconsiders National Health Data Exchange

    Good interview with David Blumenthal, Director, ONC, on meaningful use of EHRs and plans for national health data exchange.

  • » Breakout of Grant Programs from ONC

    John Halamka’s brief description of the breakout of grant funding plans by ONC.

  • » Whole Foods Employees to Get Deeper Discount If They Meet Health Incentives

    Whole Foods to offer up to an additional 10% discount for employees who meet wellness measures that include nicotine use, cholesteral, and BMI targets.

  • » Healthcare System: Biggest Market for Apple’s Tablet?

    good piece on why healthcare sector could be big market for Apple’s forthcoming tablet. The fact that iPhones are popular among MDs is one big reason.

  • » Publishers Flirt With Amazon Kindle Despite Business Model …

    Good short piece on why publishers are distributing content via Kindles even though there are business considerations.

  • » Elsevier submission to Office of Science and Technology Policy public …

    Filing to Office of Science and Technology Policy from Elsevier regarding proposed regulations to offer more open access to scholarly publishing that is funded by US tax dollars.

  • » Checklists and Decision Trees Vs. Spontaneity and Imagination

    Kent Bottles brings together topics from current books by Atul Gawande, Timothy Goetz, and an article by Jerome Groopman to consider the merits of checklists and use of decision trees in medicine. He also covers behavioral economics and choice and mentions the Thaler-Sunstein approach to offering nudges (libertarian paternalism) to guide healthful behavior. Conclusion: medicine and health are complicated. Seems to me that since computers are useful for dealing with complex calculations (even under stress) that it makes sense to use automated checklists and decision support systems to guide complex processes. Provided we can avoid GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) situations.

  • » Thomson Reuters Acquires ProfSoft

    Thomson Healthcare acquires ProfSoft-Health, a Needham, MA-based healthcare data analytics company. ““ProfSoft’s solutions will enhance the clinical performance measurement capabilities we provide to our healthcare payer customers,” said Jon Newpol, executive vice president of the Healthcare & Science business of Thomson Reuters.”

  • » Conde Nast looks for new ways to leverage its brands

    Interesting article on how Conde Nast is seeking to leverage brand value of Gourmet, Domino, and Cookie (defunct magazines) as well as current titles Wired and Lucky. Compares CN to Meredith, whose Better Homes & Gardens has used its brand to provide quality seals to products. CN-selected content (tested by Gourmet kitchens?) is one idea they should consider, IMO.

  • » Health Business Blog ” Blog Archive ” Podcast interview with Dr. Robert …

    David Williams interviews Bob Wachter of UCSF. Haven’t listened to it yet, but I have no doubt that it is a worthwhile use of time.

  • » DTC Device Marketing Meets Social Media

    IUD manufacturer, Mirena (part of Bayer Pharmaceutical) has been using home parties, a la Tupperware, to spread word about benefits of Mirena IUD. FDC has sent warning letter to Bayer.

  • » Felix Salmon on NYTimes paywall plans

    Good analysis of what the implications are of NY Times stated plans to allow inbound links to have access for free, but to charge metered access to direct users after an initial allotment of free pageviews.

  • » Everyday Health files for $100M IPO

    Everyday Health, the consumer health portal owned by Waterfront Media, files for $100M IPO. Positive sign for consumer health publishers. Everyday is one of the largest consumer health portals that relies on online advertising for most of its revenue.

  • » Doctor Quits Brigham to Speak for Pay

    Brigham and Women’s and Harvard Med School Professor Lawrence DeBuske decides to keep paid speaking role and gives up practicing & teaching. New limitations on accepting pay for for delivering canned presentations played role. Dr. DeBuske apparently gives several talks on behalf of multiple pharma companies each week.

  • » Feature: The Power and Potential of Personal Health Records - RWJF

    Home page of Jan 2010 report from RWJF on PHRs.

  • » eHealth ” John W. Sharp on eHealth and Health IT ” Major Robert Wood …

    John Sharp’s overview of Robt Wood Johnson Foundation’s new report on PHRs.

  • » ZocDoc Launches in San Francisco

    ZocDoc, a online directory of doctors that has focused on NY and DC, is expanding to cover SF. Note, a key differentiator of ZocDoc (from the slew of other doctor ratings sites) is its integration with practice management systems for scheduling appointments so that users can find doctors with available appts. ZocDoc says they have integrated with close to 1400 PMS companies. Note, ZocDoc also encourages patient reviews of doctors, but only from ZocDoc users. Reviews of doctors remains a sticky wicket for all of the doc review sites.

  • » Why Dr. Vanier’s Appointment as CEO of Navigenics is Good Thing

    Commentary on why it is a positive sign that an MD is now leading Navigenics, a personalized genomics company.

  • » Health Sites - Some Are More Equal Than Others

    Susannah Fox from Pew Internet started the conversation with her post about Google Health OneBox that lists results from Mayo Clinic, WebMD, ADAM, and MedlinePlus in a special position at top of search results. Great discussion in the comments ensued, including a couple from me.

  • » Twitter awareness/engagement ratio: a pillory or a pedestal for pharma …

    Andrew Spong’s analysis of Twitter followers/followings of pharma companies.

  • » Maryland Hospital Adopts MedeAnalytics Performace Improvement Solution

    Brief article describing MedeAnalytics revenue cycle management solution being adopted by St. Joseph’s Hospital in Maryland.

  • » Obama Admin posting new sources of gov data including Medicare data

    Great news for data geeks and data content enthusiasts! Following up on their promise to add transparency to the federal government, Obama admin posts new data sources from all cabinet departments. I’m going to go download the Medicare data set now.

  • » BBC News - Tim Berners-Lee unveils government data project

    Info on work Tim Berners-Lee is doing for UK govenment to make sources of gov’t data more available and meaningful.

  • » Quantros Hires International Bus Dev VP

    “Syed Tirmizi, MD, a longtime clinician and medical informatics leader at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, joined Quantros today as Vice President of International Business Development and Government Relations. Tirmizi helped lead the VA into its position as a pioneer in the use of electronic medical records (EMR) for point of care service delivery, enabling meaningful use of data to further patient safety and quality initiatives.”

  • » Pfizer nearly doubles amount spent on e-detailing

    “Pfizer increased its spending on online professional promotion by more than 90% last year, according to a study, a sign the drugmaker is emphasizing alternatives to live sales reps for detailing certain products.” Study by SDI.

  • » NEJM article on benefits of salt reduction in cardiovascular disease

    TOC and abstract of just published study on significant benefits of reducing sodium intake for improving cardiovascular disease. See my notes in item below (third item) on same subject.

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