HealthContentAdvisors

Excellent article that emphasizes that providing information to stakeholders (esp. patients and doctors) is the best approach to assuring optimal decisionmaking.

Market forecast for medical device segment in France.

More examples of how Pharma is using social media.

New book forthcoming from Sage Publications, Encylopedia of Medical Decision Making. Seems like an obvious good online reference work.

Profile of Gawande from Harvard Magazine.

James Murdoch lambasts publishing industry for resisting change.

A little counterpoint to all of the pharma industry bashing that’s been in the news recently. IMO, some incentives should be shifted to encourage development of needed drugs & not just me-too drugs.

Deloitte’s whitepaper on how pharma could make use of data from EHRs to improve their research, clinical trials, and post-market surveillance processes.

Heart monitor that detects, analyzes & stores info about patient’s heart. AngelMed Guardian. Smart devices are a growth segment.

WSJ points to Business Week article on biggest R&D spenders. Merck led the pharma cos, but much of their R&D expenses went to licensing, not internal drug discovery.

Minnesota provides website with price info on primary care services, labs, etc for over 100 providers.

Interesting case where patient’s wife suggested experimental treatment that eventually was accepted. She wants $300M plus % of profits.

United Health promotes compliance with Rx drugs with discount off next Rx. Negotiated lower prices with pharma companies, which will also benefit from long-term compliance.

Experiment to charge minimal fee vs. free shows that far more will accept free than fee. But, isn’t segmenting the audience the right path?

Hope Leman reviews the book Internet Cool Tools for Physicians, which I have been planning to read since it came out. Thanks Hope, I’ll do my best to remember to order it the next time I’m on Amazon.

Free whitepaper from Manhattan Research on Pharma use of digital marketing.

Article includes comments from Susannah Fox of Pew & ePatient Dave (deBronkart) about finding experimental medicine and specialist doctors to combat fatal diagnoses.

U. Washington dept that studies global healthcare, funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Vince Kuraitis describes the foundations of a “network economy” and asks if healthcare industry fits the bill.

Study attempts to measure level of empathy (or lack of empathy) in medical students. Thesis and conclusions are rather scary.

Interesting & worthwhile read about the future of scholarly publishing. Author posits that old model of journals publishing will be replaced by open model with actual usage metrics replacing journal impact factors.

Program for AHRQ’s upcoming conference (Sept. 13-16). Registration is closed; it’s a sellout.

US Bank offers HSA with access to WebMD Coverage Advisor, which helps consumers manage out of pocket costs.

Hospitals are finding that reporting medical errors and making the info easily available helps reduce the number of malpractice lawsuits. Transparency helps!

Important issues about how doctors communicate to patients risks & tradeoffs using statistics described in this paper.

Suggested reading from RWJF.

Interesting comparative study of using 3 different medical search platforms: Dialog (ProQuest), OVID (WK) and EBSCOhost. Same search gave different results, with Dialog returning more than twice as many results as others.

Wired UK highlights how doctors & hospitals are using Twitter in UK & US.

Article provides good context for current activity in managing hospital supply chains. Several stories in past week about purchasing cooperatives to reduce cost of supplies.

Survey of medical students by Epocrates shows high usage of health IT, low confidence in info provided by pharma detailers.

AMA uses Impelsys’ iPublishCentral s/w to publish frequently updated versions of its books in ebook format.

Army & Navy doctors collaborate real-time with medical researchers on wound care for injured soldiers–bridging the time gap in tradtional “translational medicine”.

NaviNet, a Cambridge, MA claims clearinghouse vendor (RCM) (formerly known as NaviMedix), is promoting its clearninghouse services as preliminary health info exchange (HIE). Currently, EDI is limited to certain payment-related data types, but NaviNet suggests that scope could be increased. Their argument: Why recreate the EDI wheel if the basic network is already in place?

Informatics Corp. of America (ICA) partners with Mark Logic to offer OEM version of Mark Logic server to allow users to search across structured and unstructured data in EHR systems.

iMedX, a US-based EHR/ medical transcription outsourcing company, acquires Worldtech, Inc., a competing health IT/med transcription company that serves over 800 small physician practices in US and has global medical language specialists. Worldtech will become a division of iMedX.

P&G to sell prescription drug businesses to Warner Chilcott for $3.1 B. Warner Chilcott, an Irish company that specializes in drugs for women’s health, has annual rev. of $938M. Deal will increase size of WC by huge percentage. P&G’s strategy is to sell off slower-growing units to focus on growth.

Healthland, a health IT solutions provider to small rural hospitals, acquires American Healthnet, an Omaha based health IT company to expand its customer base. Last year, Healthland acquired Advanced Professional Software.

Scary to read that many doctors don’t know when they are prescribing for off-label uses. David Williams suggests pharma detailing/marketing is cause.

Good piece about using patient-generated data in medical research. Although not as controlled as clinical trials, certainly better reporting mechanisms can be created to increase the usefulness of real-world health conditions and outcomes data.

Excellent article that describes how iPhone and other wireless apps are being used by nurses in clinical settings.

AHRQ proposes expanding CAHPS surveys to include patient attitudes about health It. Harvard & Rand will conduct a field test in 2009.

ContentNext, the parent company of PaidContent.org, which is now owned by the Guardian, confirms recent layoffs and realignment.

Anas Younes, MD on why he Tweets.

Jay Parkinson’s Hello Health healthcare model is highlighted. Hello Health offers a model for providers of health care that utlizes technology to improve efficiency and communication between patients & doctors. For now, Hello Health requires direct payment from patients, although patients can seek reimbursement.

Glaxo’s CEO, Andrew Witty, discusses changes in R&D organization, which has moved from “industrial-scale drug discovery processes” of the past 15 years that relied on “an industrial process based on large-scale applications of technologies like genomics, proteomics and combinatorial chemistry” which didn’t deliver on their promise, to more focused research that is “more of an art than a science”.

Discussion draft of House’s health reform bill “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” 852 page pdf doc.

Nice to see that Els has iPhone apps for popular medical info products from Mosby/Saunders, including Mosby’s iTerms Flash Cards, Saunder’s Q&A Review for th NCLEX-RN Exam and many more.

Nice piece by Ellen Goodman on the importance of helping doctors focus on providing healthcare, not reimbursement rates and other business issues.

Good recap of Google Book Settlement, Book Rights Registry, and orphan works rights proferred to Google under the settlement. Interesting that Google, the company that champions free content, is now being feared for possibly planning to charge “exorbitant” rates once they get near-monopoly rights over orphan works.

Great post by Richard Scoville on how some community health centers are relying on registries of patient records & outcomes to improve overall care. Unfortunately, most EHR systems aren’t set up to interoperate with registries, which nixes the whole idea of meaningful use!

RWJF launches consumer health care confidence index in partnership with Survey Research Center at U. Michigan, which conducts the “Surveys of Consumers” monthly survey of 500 households.

Dan Clancy responds to Bezos’ comments about Google Books. All publishers–in all platforms & for all audiences–should be following Google Books Settlement and the G Books program!

Merger, which was called off last fall due to market conditions and lack of buyer for Porex, is back on. HLTH still seeking buyer for Porex. WebMD will be surviving company with Wygod as Chair and Gattinella as Pres/CEO. All stock transaction. WebMD has been a publicly traded sub. of HLTH.

Sponsored by CTIA (wireless ind assoc), Congress, administration officials, & experts to meet to discuss “mHealth solutions to America’s chronic care crisis”. Good quote from Obama at end of article. “We need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines”.

IBM bets on mobile tech to reach parts of pop that don’t use pcs–and of course those who use both.

The Healthcare Financial Mgmt Assoc will publish a detailed report this fall on how to implement best practices in revenue cycle mgmt (RCM). Preliminary results given at HFMA’s annual meeting in Seattle. Bullet point results listed in article.

Good article on recent research by TNS Healthcare on shifting relationships between Pharma and doctors. No major revelations, but some good data.

Round 1 research reports from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Project HealthDesign available via this link.

Obama administration says it can find $313 B in healthcare savings to help pay for reforms.

John Moore summarizes his thoughts on the recent Microsoft Connected Health conf. Key point: MSFT has shifted some focus from consumer apps to enterprise apps, in large part because of the faster uptake & more clear business models.

Allhealthcarejobs.com, which was launched in 2006 and is reported to have sales <$1M, is acquired by jobs site Dice Holdings for $2.8 million.

Sramana Mitra on some well-positioned health IT and health content companies. Mostly focused on IT companies that help to save costs.

AMA & Covisint are working together to build a portfolio of Web-bases services to physicians and on June 11, announced that the portal will be launched nationally in early 2010 and will provide a link to Microsoft’s HealthVault PHR platform.

Thomas H. Lee, MD writes about effect of IT on role of physician. Comparing what IT has done to publishing (and journalists), Dr. Lee posits that some basic functions of doctors can indeed be automated. This is an important theme and I will write more on this topic soon.

LifeShirt,a wearable remote patient monitoring system, completes prototype of next-gen shirt. Current version embeds sensors to collect respiratory, cardiopulmonary, & other data from patient. Can also connect to peripheral devices and transmit data to vendor’s db for analysis. New version will integrate all sensors, extend battery life, & make upgrades easier. Sounds cool, but what about washability?

Ed Felten’s suggestions for data.gov & general role of feds in serving as info provider. Great points: “Private actors….are better suited to deliver govt info to citizens and can constatnly create and reshape the tools individuals use to find and leverage public data.”

The government says sipping red wine improves the benefits. Glad to know I’m doing it right!

Steve Outing provides a list of suggestions for newspaper company executives. Food for thought for publishers in other segments, too!

Class action settlement against First DataBank (Hearst) that publishes benchmark drug prices and McKesson, a drug wholesaler, will result in some payments to consumers who bought these drugs, along with some price rollbacks, but not a significant change.

Healthcare Informatics’ June issue with HCI 100 list of top health IT vendors.

Drug interaction/adverse effects info tool added to MSFT’s HealthVault.

Thought-provoking article by CEO of Daylife, Upendra Shardanand. Addresses the need for content publishers/journalists to start thinking like data publishers so that pieces of the story can be reorganized in multiple ways with additional media included to enrichen the story, if desired. With XML-based CMS tools increasingly in use, we should be seeing more creative expositions of content. What’s holding back progress, I believe, is the economics of publishing. How will pieces of stories be monetized? With shopping sites, the content is advertising; with journalism, the content is the product. Does content only have value if it drives the purchase of something?

WebMD to launch Medscape iPhone app in May/June. Article also discusses the success of ReachMD’s recently launched CME app on the iPhone. More evidence of the popularity of the iPhone platform with doctors.

David Kibbe, MD, entry on CCR standard in Medpedia.

Shrinking library budgets and weakened pound are affecting the ability of academic & non-profit libraries in the UK to subscribe to scholarly journals & texts.

GE unveils “Healthymagination” initiative to produce “low cost products” for organizations with limited access to health IT. Early word is that the news release & Webcase was splashy but with very little substance.

Reponse from Elsevier about Merck-sponsored “fake journal”.

More on Kindle DX and how newspapers will subsidize for customers in areas that do not get home delivery currently. That will miss the group with greatest interest.

Print ad rev. down 18.4%. Online ad revenues down 2.6%. In line with other magazines; health sector no help in this case. E-Commerce revs up, book sales up for “Flat Belly Diet” and “Eat This, Not That” for which Rodale is planning a reality TV show.

Article describes how AmeriHealth implemented NaviNet, an info messaging service that alerts clinicians to unment healthcare services for a patient and the patient’s eligibility for coverage of the services. NaviMedix, Cambridge, MA, develops NaviNet.

New Kindle DX announced for pre-order at $489; available in Summer. Looks very cool, but price is high. Will newspapers or other publishers subsidize the cost to keep subscribers?

Pfizer agrees to cover publication costs for articles by its researchers on BioMed Central (now part of Springer). Is this the unintended consequence of “author pays” model: Big Pharma-backed research will be fully-supported b/c Pharma can cover the costs. But what about research that isn’t related to something that Pharma wants to promote? As with the Els/Merck “journal”, transparency is key.

Some explanation of the Elsevier-produced “complimentary” journal that consisted of reprints about Fosomax & Vioxx that was paid for by Merck. Journal issues in question were produced between 2003-2005.

Halamka’s summary of Micky Tripathi’s (Mass eHealth Collaborative) presentation on “Meaningful Use”. Lots of good material in the preso, but it all seems so hospital/current vendor-focused to me.

I’ve been lax in reporting on the Merck-sponsored journal that Elsevier produced without full disclosure. Here’s a perspective.

Good article that describes lessons from UK’s NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) that could be put to use by US for the comparative effectives research efforts.

Washington state’s governor has signed bills that will allow health regulators to conduct surprise inspections of hospitals beginning in August, which changes the current policy of 4-months of advance notice; second bill tightens standards for screening for MRSA.

Not health related–just to the health of newspaper companies…. Great, easy-to-follow post on how to use Calibre to download and organize newspaper content on a Kindle.

Governor John Baldacci of Maine unveils “Maine HealthCost”, which allows users to enter their insurance info and find estimated out-of-pocket costs by providers across the state.

Describes Caterpillar’s testing of a program with Wal-Mart where Wal-Mart essentially serves as the PBM for CAT.

Eric Schonfeld presents good trend data on online ads from Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. Q109 first qtr that showed decline since dotcom bust. Google only company that saw modest growth.

Dr. Val speaks with CEO of AllOne Health, which provides a mobile phone app for practitioners and patients.

Warburg has invested more than $65M in Archimedes Pharma, which is seeking approval for its nasal spray pain reliever for cancer sufferers.

ClearHealth creates a iPhone app that allows doctors to view patient records on their iPhones.

Rodale & Reveille, who brought us “The Biggest Loser” are teaming up for new reality TV program based on Rodale’s “Eat This, Not That”.

J&J achieves top ranking in Harris survey on company reputation. Pharma industry was only sector to “register a significan tpositive change from 2007″. Financial services now at bottom with Tobacco industry.

Statement by PhRMA on IOM’s report with recommendations to curb detailing/gift/etc to physicians & medical institutions. Includes some data on R&D spend v. marketing spend by Pharma.

DeepDyve (formerly Infovell) unveils a suite of tools for publishers that want to offer DeepDyve search and discovery tools for content via their own site. Tools include enhanced landing pages, customer search API, a “more like this” feature, and content highlight search capability. DeepDyve, a Health Content08 innovator, will provide these tools to publishers whose content is incorporated in the DeepDyve search index for a rev. share of advertising deal, or a fee that depends on volume. Note, DeepDyve’s current index is very strong in health content and other scholarly research information. PLoS is one of the first to implement the API.

Judge Chin issues a 4 month extension to the May 5 deadline for opting out of Google Book Search Settlement.

BW highlights concerns about suitability of largest entrenched health IT vendors to revitalize healthcare information systems and add efficiency to current manual processes, given their track record. Reaction to article is divided: some say BW is promoting the viewpoint that doctors dismiss the benefits of technology b/c they aren’t tech savvy *; others say the big vendors truly are not providing systems that add efficiency due to poor design. See our 4/16 blog on Google Health PHRs for a more balanced view: health IT vendors need to develop greater expertise about the data that will flow through their systems and the workflow of the clinicians who will be using the systems. With a dearth of standards for clinical data across health IT systems, interoperability and ease-of-use will continue to be curtailed. Information architects are desperately needed in healthcare.*NB, we don’t believe all doctors are luddites!

IOM proposes that pharma companies disclose payments to doctors, med schools, & professional groups in a centralized db, along with some other recommendations to curtail current practices.

Ken Doctor on continued decrease in print circulation for newspapers and Google’s plans to offer personalized online news. Ken lists reasons for print downturns and points out that the aggregator/distributor (Google) seems to be winning (or has already won) in the online news category. As he says, unless a “new, fairer, stable ecosystem emerge[s]”, “Who will pay journalists to create the news?”

NY Times writes about Johns Hopkins Drug Library, which maintains samples of largest collection of approved drug compounds. Researchers can order full set for about $5,000 and then carry out testing to find new applications. Article describes High Throughput Screening (HTS), which automates processes for testing and allows large-scale screening that wouldn’t have been economically feasible in past.

Roni Zeiger, MD, Google Health product manager, responds to flak over use of billing codes to exchange & interpret data from patient’s hospital medical records.

J&J’s McNeil Pediatrics launches new Facebook Page that provides online resources for adults with ADHD. Site aggregates info from group of ADHD experts and community leaders. This site follows other ADHD Facebook Pages from J&J, which is leading other pharma companies in experimenting with social media and web publishing.

New site from HHS that covers federal health IT programs and provides links to state-level initiatives and additional info.

NY-based Applied Informatics launches TrialX, a patient recruitment tool that facilitates recruitment for clinical trials via social networking sites. TrialX also allows subjects to upload data from PHR apps from Google Health and MSFT HealthVault for pre-screening. Recruitment for research studies is fast becoming the leading revenue model for social networking sites.

Good description of Mayo’s adaptation of MSFT’s HealthVault for their PHR application that is open to anyone.

Phase Forward, a leading provider of clinical trial management s/w acq. Waban Software,which provides platform solutions to automate clinical data analyis & reporting, for $14M in cash.

NY Times reports on spread of swine flu & public health emergency. Tracking usage of social media & Google Flu during this emergency will be interesting.