Doctors got off lighter in UCLA snooping case

We all know there is a shortage of doctors...but on the other hand we need all the skilled physicians we can get...at least this brought privacy to the main light...and how important it is, as well as how easy it is for the hospital to track!  BD 

When penalties were handed out for snooping in UCLA's medical records, it paid to have an M.D. after your name.
As a group, doctors at UCLA hospitals who wrongly peeked at the records of pop star Britney Spears got off lighter than other staffers, according to reports released Friday by state health inspectors.  All told, at least 53 UCLA staffers -- including 14 physicians -- looked at Spears' medical records on the two occasions, even though they were not treating her, according to statistics from the state and UCLA officials. Eighteen non-doctors resigned, retired or were dismissed after their prying was discovered, according to data provided to The Times by UCLA. No physicians quit or were fired.

Doctors got off lighter in UCLA snooping case - Los Angeles Times

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Life: Have you ever been sick?

More stories from Orange County, CA...insurers still looking for the perfect patient..and no doubt there is some type of query that determines pay out amounts over premiums paid somewhere along the line since they refunded her premiums after the fact...State of California Managed Care Department is still investigating...as she stated in the story, it's as if she had no insurance at all....BD

When Karen Knee filled out an online application for health insurance four years ago, she scanned her address book and her memory. She wrote down the names and numbers of her doctors and listed her recent health history – anti-depressants after a death in the family, a normal Pap smear and a bladder infection. She never thought to mention that her back sometimes felt sore after playing soccer or that she'd once taken pain pills after a muscle spasm.

More than a year later, Knee had accumulated $30,000 in medical bills – the most expensive for removing benign cysts on her scalp. She then received a letter from Blue Cross informing her that the insurer had reviewed her medical records and found that she had not disclosed a preexisting back condition. As a result, Blue Cross dropped her coverage retroactively and refunded her monthly premiums.  Knee appealed unsuccessfully and then paid her doctors with proceeds from the earlier sale of her house, figuring she was powerless. But this New Year's Day, she decided to do something. She's in the process of joining a class-action lawsuit.  Denise Wheeler, 49, of Laguna Beach had her Nationwide insurance canceled in 2006 for failing to disclose a heavy menstrual period.

Life: Have you ever been sick? | health, insurance, blue, medical, knee - OCRegister.com

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Mobile health update: Devices and solutions for healthcare professionals

    2 great videos talking about Windows Mobile and use in health care...Hemang does a great job in describing some of the most popular and capable phones available today....I remember way back in the very early days of the Microsoft Mobile Users group in Los Angeles about 10 years ago, we were using devices called "Pocket PCs" which were not even connected with phones, my old  black and white screen unit is almost an antique at this point!  The units on the market today have far more features and memory and can do just about anything....including acting as a modem for a Tablet PC.  That is a feature today that I can't live without when I need a quick connection to the Internet by using blue tooth to tether the Tablet PC to the phone. 

The second video shows a Mobile solution from IQMax, whereby the cell phone now integrates with several EMR software solutions, to bring the information to the mobile unit, great for when a physician is mobile or away from the office and having access to the charts, labs, X-rays and more.  New features also add live dictation as well.  Maybe we'll see a unit hooked up to an EKG or blood pressure monitor next??  They can do that too....BD 

"Among the attributes of information technology solutions designed for  healthcare professionals, mobility is high on the list. Doctors, nurses, and other clinicians are always on the move, and the IT solutions they use must move with them. Fortunately, there is now a wide selection of very capable devices and applications to meet the needs of highly mobile medical professionals."

http://on10.net/blogs/laura/Crounse-Patel/

http://on10.net/blogs/laura/House-Calls-adkinson/

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Ozmosis vs Sermo - Physician's Web Community Sites

This article takes a good look at the difference between the 2 physician sites...Osmosis is not anonymous so they can react with known trusted colleagues...BD 

Ozmosis and Sermo are not mutually exclusive, however, physicians will be members of both communities for different reasons. Ozmosis provides a trusted environment where physicians are presented with the most relevant information as soon as they log in and benefit from a business model that is dedicated to aligning interests within the healthcare industry.

Instead of selling pharmaceutical companies access to peer over a physician’s shoulder, physicians on Ozmosis can choose to learn about healthcare products and services from other physicians in a trusted environment.

Ozmosis vs Sermo: Answers « ScienceRoll

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Paper free Healthcare

Nice Video from Allscripts...makes the point about paperless records...BD 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jAH9hdF0xk&feature=related

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Major surgery no longer needed for the removal of uterine fibroids

New procedure without general anesthesia...and a shorter recovery period...BD 

“Approximately 25% of women in the United States have clinically symptomatic fibroids, and treatment has most commonly been surgical with hysterectomy or myomectomy. However, in the past decade, new options have been developed in radiology, includingnon-invasive MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) and minimally invasive uterine artery embolization (UAE) to treat these patients,” said Elizabeth K. Arleo, MD, lead author of the study along with Robert J. Min, MD, MBA, chairman of radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Major surgery no longer needed for the removal of uterine fibroids

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Drug Companies to Reveal Grant Practices

A new level of transparency....contributions and gifts are good things if used properly, now it appears we will see the same transparency for the pharma business as what has been on the web relating to hospital  and physician information...BD 

AP) -- For years, the nation's largest drug and medical device manufacturers have courted doctors with consulting fees, free trips to exotic locales and by sponsoring the educational conferences that physicians attend.

Those financial ties don't have to be disclosed in most cases and can lead to arrangements that some say improperly influence medical care. Of particular interest to Grassley is the money that companies spend on continuing medical education. Physicians go to such conferences to fulfill their license requirements and to keep up to date with the latest treatment trends. Professional associations and companies frequently ask drug and device makers to help pay for the conferences. Recently, Grassley asked 15 companies whether they planned to follow the lead of Eli Lilly & Co., which now discloses its grants to such programs.

Drug Companies to Reveal Grant Practices

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Dangerous Animal Virus Lab on US Mainland?

Where will the new lab go...why not build a new lab on the island...why move such a lab to the mainland?  BD 

Plum Island Animal Disease Center Building 257, closed in 1995, sits fenced and boarded up on Plum Island off of the east coast of New York's Long Island, in this Feb. 16, 2004 file photo. The Bush administration plans to move its research on one of the most feared animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to a new facility on the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about the possibility of an economically catastrophic outbreak.

The White House says modern safety rules at labs are sufficient to avoid any outbreak. But incidents in Britain have demonstrated that the foot-and-mouth virus can cause remarkable economic havoc - and that the virus can escape from a facility.
An epidemic in 2001 devastated Britain's livestock industry, as the government slaughtered 6 million sheep, cows and pigs. Last year, in a less serious outbreak, Britain's health and safety agency concluded the virus probably escaped from a site shared by a government research center and a vaccine maker. Other outbreaks have occurred in Taiwan in 1997 and China last year and in 2006.

Dangerous Animal Virus on US Mainland?

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L.A. County health services director quits

Good point made by Supervisor Yaroslavsky....toughest job in the county...and who will want to take the position next?  With all the funding cuts, how do you make it work...BD 

Los Angeles County's profoundly troubled public healthcare system fell into further crisis Thursday when its embattled director abruptly quit, and negotiations with a private entity to reopen King-Harbor hospital fell apart.
Dr. Bruce A. Chernof, whose relationship with the Board of Supervisors had grown acrimonious, told officials his exit was unrelated to the failed negotiations over Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital."Look, there is never a good time to lose a health director," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, "and this is as bad as any. I think it's the toughest job in the county without a doubt -- perhaps the most difficult job in public service in California -- because he is asked to run a department that is constantly in the red. It has a lot of problems."

L.A. County health services director quits - Los Angeles Times

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Solana MedSpas, Inc.™ Offers New Opportunities To Expand Medical Practices

Need some additional revenue for the practice...add a spa to grow some business...BD 

IRVINE, Calif. - Doctors no longer have to rely on managed healthcare and insurance reimbursement to sustain their medical practices. Solana MedSpas, Inc.™ provides practical, realistic alternatives to the frustrations of the HMO and PPO systems. Expanding their highly successful medical spa consulting services, the nation's most widely acclaimed medical spa company, has created Solana MD™, an in-office aesthetic medical program designed to help doctors increase income and grow their practices.Solana MD™ enables doctors, dentists or other healthcare professionals to significantly increase their income by offering patients non-invasive cosmetic services in the privacy of their office.

Solana MedSpas, Inc.™ Offers New Opportunities To Expand Medical Practices

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100 Most Influential People in IT

EWeek.com puts out the top 100 most influential People Listing in IT every year...Number 31...John Halamka, CIO, CareGroup Health System, Harvard Medical School and Harvard, one step ahead of Number 32, the CEO that runs that "big chip" company...congrats!  BD  

 

Page 3 - 100 Most Influential People in IT

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Prioritize patients, not privatization - UK

From the UK a survey on workers for the NHS...overall not very happy with current working conditions...states the private sector is adding competition and damaging the current system in place, also increased physical violence and needle stick injuries are listed as concerns...BD 

UNISON is calling on NHS trusts across England to refocus on patients, after the government's health watchdog revealed the findings of its latest staff survey.The poll of 156,000 NHS staff shows that fewer than half think caring for patients is the top priority in their workplace.

Karen Jennings, UNISON head of health, said: "It seems obvious that patients must be the top priority for trusts, but the Healthcare Commission survey shows that less than half of NHS staff feel this is the case in their hospital.

Prioritise patients, not privatisation

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MokaFive Joins Desktop Virtualization Market

 Semi-Hard Hat Area:  I used their beta version a couple years ago and this indeed is an interesting approach to virtualization and it has come a long way since then.   For electronic records as an example the virtual could be on a USB stick and set up to connect to the server where the virtual is stored, as one of the case studies with the concept was a large HMO that allowed physicians to carry the USB stick when mobile.  There is also a MAC version.  The basic creator is free and you can easily download a player, so from the site it you wanted to try out a LivePC, all you would need is the player, since you would only be using a "public" LivePC.  For an IT department, the professional version would be required to be able to host on a server.  If you want to try one of the virtuals, download a player and the desired machine.  The pictures below have links to the virtual machines.  An administrator could easily load an EMR that is software ready to work with the system to connect to a designated server or even just have the virtual machine be a VPN for connecting to the network location with authentication....from the great minds of Stanford!  BD  (the same place that created the car that can drive itself, Junior)....BD 

Three-year-old start-up MokaFive entered the hosted desktop virtualization fray  Monday, joining a growing crowd of competitors out to make enterprise and eventually consumer computing more manageable and flexible by offering virtual desktops as a service or as compressed images that can fit on even a USB stick.

MokaFive, which like VMware emerged from Stanford, has about 20 pilot customers testing its software, including a large HMO using LivePC to allow doctors to carry their PC image and applications with them as they move around to different wings of a hospital.  SAP is also using LivePC to allow salespeople to demonstrate complicated applications that require a specific computing environment. When an admin installs new service packs on the server-based image, applications or hot fixes to the server-based image, the LivePC player downloads only the necessary changes.

MokaFive licenses LivePC as a hosted service where companies upload images to MokaFive servers in the cloud or as a server-based desktop virtualization offering for the same price. It supports Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and a custom Linux distribution known as Bare Metal as host machines.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/server_virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207100313

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Microsoft jumps into European health-care market

Health Technologies expanding to Europe...includes imaging, records and hospital information management...based on the .Net Framework with MS SQL server database.  BD

San Francisco - Microsoft is now offering its Amalga health-care software in Europe, the company announced at the CohnIT heath-care show on Wednesday in Berlin.

Amalga -- which represents one of Microsoft's new thrusts into other software fields -- has many components, covering everything from handling patient care records to tracking research projects and finance department tasks.   Microsoft has a version of Amalga for emerging markets, Amalga Hospital Information System, which has features such as bed management, human resources and picture archiving for radiology. The picture archiving feature is also offered as a stand-alone system called Amalga Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving and Communication System.

Amalga is being used by eight hospitals in MedStar Health's network, which covers the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore areas, as well as Johns Hopkins Hospital, among others.

Microsoft jumps into European health-care market - Yahoo! News

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FedEx Driver Stole Mail-Order Prescriptions

How safe are mail order pharmacies?  This was outside the norm as there are bad eggs anywhere, so the advice is to report if you do not receive your prescriptions in the allotted time...BD 

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A fired Federal Express employee is accused of stealing two dozen packages containing prescription drugs he was supposed to deliver to Union County residents. The company is working to deliver all the packages that were discovered at Leopard's home.

Dennis Leopard of Taylors is charged with theft of a controlled substance, but investigators said the crime appears to be part of a broader pattern of theft.

Deputies got complaints in mid-March from people who said their prescriptions didn't arrive even though they were told by Fed Ex that someone had signed for the package and accepted it.

Deputies: FedEx Driver Stole Mail-Order Drugs - Greenville News Story - WYFF Greenville

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Lawsuit traces transplant death to hamster

Liver infected by a pet hamster...more scrutiny on transplants?  BD 

A Massachusetts woman whose husband died after receiving an infected liver in a transplant has filed a lawsuit against PetSmart.

Nancy Magee's lawsuit claims the liver donor was infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis by a hamster she had purchased from PetSmart, WCVB-TV in Boston reported. When the donor died of a stroke, her organs were transplanted by medical teams unaware of the infection into three recipients, all of whom died.

Lawsuit traces transplant death to hamster

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Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative - Press Release

There are 34 members in the group, pooling efforts for creating an effective electronic medical records system...hopefully working toward a statewide adaptation of electronic records with not only technology, but vendor certification and selection to create a molded project that can serve to create a realistic solution for all.  BD 

Boston – The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC) announces the extension of their electronic health record (EHR) pilot program. Thanks to efficient project management, funds remain from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts grant originally intended to finance the pilot through June 2008. Using the surplus, MAeHC is offering the participating medical practices the option to continue with certain aspects of the pilot until the end of the year, most notably participation in the health information exchange (HIE).

The extension of the pilot benefits both the practices as well as the pilot initiative itself. “We are extending the program at a critical juncture for the pilot practices,” reports MAeHC President and CEO Micky Tripathi. “These technologies are difficult to get up and running, and it takes time for physicians to fully incorporate these new functions into their day-to-day care processes. With six additional months of support, we expect to see increased utilization and adoption of both the EHRs and the HIE which, in the end, will lead to higher-value care for the citizens of Brockton, Newburyport, and North Adams.”

130 medical practices in 3 communities (Brockton, Newburyport, and North Adams) are involved in the MAeHC pilot project. 417 of the 435 participating physicians are live on EHRs. HIEs are being rolled out in Brockton and Newburyport, while the North Adams HIE has been live for almost a year. In a recent survey conducted by MAeHC, 86 percent of clinicians reported that they expect to be able to provide higher quality care with the EHRs.

MAeHC hopes that all pilot practices will take advantage of the opportunity to extend their participation. “Those who do,” says Tripathi, “will continue to be part of a groundbreaking pilot program that is helping to pave the way for nationwide adoption of EHRs.”

The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative was formed in 2004 as an initiative of the physician community to bring together the state’s major health care stakeholders for the purpose of establishing an EHR system that would enhance the quality, efficiency, and safety of care in Massachusetts. MAeHC endeavors to transform the delivery of health care using electronic health records and health information exchange. In partnership with its three pilot communities and thirty-four member organizations, MAeHC is fostering rapid widespread adoption of these systems to enhance the quality, efficiency, and safety of health care in Massachusetts. To learn more about the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, please visit www.maehc.org.

Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative - Home

Membership:  http://www.maehc.org/aboutUs_memberOrganization.html

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Wrong question - Social Networks...

Paul Levy, when asked about using new social technologies...good information and opinions here...speaking transparency...BD 

...Wrong question. That's like asking how much time you spend talking with people. We should talk.
Here's a more complete answer:

....The big advantage of social media over traditional media is that the interactions can be asynchronous. You don't have to make an appointment, the way you do with a legislator. You do not have to respond in the moment, like when a reporter on deadline calls and needs a comment. You participate when you want to, and you can do so as a "fill-in", between your other tasks. In that sense, these are actually more time-efficient media than the traditional ones.

Running a hospital: Wrong question

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Congress to industry: 'We need your help'

" But a lack of information and expertise on the part of legislators can hamper effective legislation."...something I have been saying for a long time...we need geeks in Congress....I run in to this battle all the time with folks who make decisions lacking the overall ROI and effects of technology minded decisions...why...much of it is because they won't use any modern technology...you just haven't lived until you have experienced a virus or Trojan horse and then security comes right to the forefront.....“Some of our members don’t even use computers,” Olcott said. “They have some discomfort talking about technology.” ...so if this happens at the top levels...I do ask myself...where does this leave me?  They have staff that writes the legislation...so who's really in control here...do we need to lobby the staff instead?  What impact does this have on electronic medical records?  What does this do for HIPAA? ...some questions kicking around in my head..who is in charge?  BD  

SAN FRANCISCO—Making national cybersecurity policy is an always difficult and often thankless task, the director of a House subcommittee told an audience Wednesday at the RSA Security conference.

“One of the things that make cybersecurity difficult is that there are a lot of mixed messages out there,” said Jacob Olcott of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cyber Security, and Science and Technology. Some see the threat of cyberterrorism as a reality, and others think dire pronouncements are overblown. “There is a lot of disagreement about what, exactly, we’re dealing with.”

And there is a confusing amount of overlap in congressional oversight of the subject, Olcott said. Who is in charge of cybersecurity? “Everybody and nobody.”

“The 110th Congress is winding down,” he said. Industry would like to see a national data breach notification law replace the state laws now in place in addition to a cybercrime bill that would put some prosecutorial teeth into federal computer crime laws. “I don’t think there’s much chance of either of these bills getting out of committee, let alone being heard on the floor,” Olcott added.

Congress to industry: 'We need your help'

Related Story: 

Replacing NAC as the hottest topic might be virtualization. Now that the major information technology players are supporting virtual servers — that is, multiple operating systems running on a single piece of hardware rather than the traditional monogamous mating of one server and one operating system — security companies are working on ways to secure these configurations. It is becoming apparent that many of the tried and tested tools used to secure servers do not work and play well in a virtual environment. Administrator are faced with a conundrum: Hardware-based security appliances offer high performance and ease of use, but those appliances might no longer do the job they were bought to do after excess server hardware has been eliminated from the data center, and operating systems share physical resources. The vendors, of course, are coming up with answers for them.

Finally, there is the Web 2.0 umbrella, which refers to anything interactive that can be accessed over the Web. Some of these are germane to the enterprise, such as Web applications used for business. Others are consumer-focused playthings such as social networking sites, virtual worlds and peer-to-peer file sharing applications that are creeping into the enterprise by back doors. Managing and securing them is a big challenge, and hence a big topic.

http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/46071-1.html

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Hand-held lie detector

Hopefully not coming to a physician's office near you soon...gee...have you faithfully taken all your medications....hmmmm...lie detector says....hmmm...no, I don't want one of those in the doctor's office any time soon...good story though and interesting technology...not as reliable as a polygraph yet...BD 

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - The Pentagon will issue hand-held lie detectors this month to U.S. Army soldiers in Afghanistan, pushing to the battlefront a century-old debate over the accuracy of the polygraph.

The Defense Department says the portable device isn't perfect, but is accurate enough to save American lives by screening local police officers, interpreters and allied forces for access to U.S. military bases, and by helping narrow the list of suspects after a roadside bombing. The device has already been tried in Iraq and is expected to be deployed there as well. “We're not promising perfection — we've been very careful in that,” said Donald Krapohl, special assistant to the director at the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment, the midwife for the new device. “What we are promising is that, if it's properly used, it will improve over what they are currently doing.”

It also gauges cardiovascular activity, though with a pulse oximeter clipped to a fingertip, rather than a polygraph's arm cuff, which has the advantage of measuring both pulse rate and blood pressure. Unlike the polygraph, the PCASS does not measure changes in the rate of breathing, and it has no way to detect countermeasures, or efforts to fool the machine, such as by making unusual movements.

New U.S. weapon: Hand-held lie detector - Terrorism- msnbc.com

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Doctor Anonymous Show - April 10th

 Tonight's show...I participated last week for the first time and it was very informative..great format and the ability to either call in or text questions is great...BD

Tonight's Guest:  Bongi, who is a surgeon in South Africa, joins the show live. He is author of the blog called Other Things Amanzi. We will also have a special co-host on the show.

Date / Time: 4/10/2008 6:00 PM  Category: Health   Call-in Number: (646) 716-9514

Future Events: 

4/17/2008 6:00 PM - Dr. A Show 31: ScanMan

4/24/2008 6:00 PM - Dr. A Show 32

5/1/2008 6:00 PM - Dr. A Show 33: John Halamka

Doctor Anonymous Show|Grand Rounds, Dr. Val, Medgadget, Mexico Med Student, Mimi Lenox | BlogTalkRadio

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Microsoft Introduces Tool for Avoiding Traffic Jams

Nice...I have used Live Search already both on my computers and on my cell phone...right now you can see a map of local heavy traffic on the screen and it is helpful, but this appears to go a step beyond with even more information...I use Mobile Live Search all the time to locate restaurants, movies, etc. and I really enjoy the speech recognition portion as well!  BD 

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Thursday plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams.The new service’s software technology, called Clearflow, was developed over the last five years by a group of artificial-intelligence researchers at the company’s Microsoft Research laboratories. It is an ambitious attempt to apply machine-learning techniques to the problem of traffic congestion. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets.

The Clearflow system will be freely available as part of the company’s Live.com site (maps.live.com) for 72 cities in the United States. Microsoft says it will give drivers alternative route information that is more accurate and attuned to current traffic patterns on both freeways and side streets.

Microsoft Introduces Tool for Avoiding Traffic Jams - New York Times

http://www.switched.com/2008/04/10/microsoft-introduces-clearflow-live-traffic-routing-service/

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Researchers pilot electronic records system for infectious illness reporting

Nice....added to al electronic medical records system, the process of reporting to state and national government agencies on infectious diseases can be automated...easier by far for the physician in not having to fill out a battery of paperwork!....not to mention accuracy...BD 

Researchers at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Harvard Medical School, Atrius Health, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health have created and tested a set of computer programs that use electronic medical records to help clinicians detect contagious illness and automatically report them to public health departments.

The new system, called Electronic Medical Record Support for Public Health, or ESP, was described in the April 11 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The pilot version of ESP was installed in January 2007 at Atrius Health, a multi-specialty physician group with 30 practice sites in Eastern Massachusetts. Atrius Health is an alliance of five medical groups serving approximately 600,000 patients at outpatient clinical sites and hospitals.

Researchers pilot new electronic system for infectious illness

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Technique Developed At Stanford Enables Creation Of Cancer Stem Cells

Pretty interesting story how they can take good cells and turn them in to cancer cells...great for research to reverse the process...

With a bit of genetic trickery, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have turned normal skin cells into cancer stem cells, a step that will make these naturally rare cells easier to study.
Cancer stem cells are thought to be the ones that drive a cancer, and are therefore the targets of any cancer therapy that must kill them in order to be effective. Understanding these cells has been a challenge, however, because they are rare, difficult to isolate and don't grow well in the lab.  The finding was a surprise, given that once embryonic stem cells become committed to forming adult cells, such as skin, brain or blood, they were thought to forever deactivate those embryonic genes. Instead, Chang said this work suggests that when those adult cells become cancerous, they turn those embryonic genes back on.

Technique Developed At Stanford Enables Creation Of Cancer Stem Cells

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Facelifts Make A Comeback With Boomers In 2007

Botox and other injectables are not the long term answer...but not bad for short term..BD

"Facelifts have been on the decline since 2000," said ASPS President Richard D'Amico, MD. "With the advent of injectables like Botox and fillers such as Restylane and Juvederm, many baby boomers thought they would substitute for a facelift. However, our latest statistics show patients now know they get the best results when surgery and injectables are used together. Facelifts are critical to lift and reposition skin and underlying tissues, while injectables are vital for plumping and restoring volume." 

"If you have jowls the size of Kansas, you can't expect any injection on earth to move them back where they belong," said Dr. D'Amico. "The best approach is to have surgical repositioning and maintain it with fillers and injectables."

Facelifts Make A Comeback With Boomers In 2007

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Silverlight for Electronic Medical Records on the Horizon?

In my opinion, the answer is yes.  Yesterday I attended the SQL 2008 Server Launch in Anaheim, California.  The attendance at the event was a pretty big crowd.  I don't actively write much any longer, but attend to keep current on new technologies that also helps me advise with the integration processes and hardware suggestions today. 

Silverlight is progressing right along since the last event I had attended.  When you stop and think about what platform makes sense for medical records, a web based application makes sense in today's world.  SQL Server 2008 has many new features and advancements, including Intellisense (which will only make sense here to any coder reading this article), security, and the ability to utilize the new LINQ data binding language.  The demonstration yesterday was highlighted by one of the Silverlight team members doing some real time demonstrations to incorporate both Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation in to the process. 

There are some sample applications on the Silverlight web site that also incorporate inking and I can't help but think this is going to evolve sooner with being able to link to SQL Server.  Silverlight can work with all WPF applications.  Managing SQL Server 2008 by policies really looks to be one big enhancement not only for IT but security as well and it also has Powershell management, just as does Server 2008. Business Intelligence integration is also built right in, along with the ability to connect and unlock data from CRM software, not only MS Dynamics, but also Oracle and Siebel.

As a participant I received my copy of Visual Studio which has been installed so I can work around  a bit to get the feel for working with LINQ for data binding.  Lynn Langit, one of the presenters was fabulous and speaks down to earth "code talk".  I had a short opportunity to chat with her afterwards and found out she had even written a couple UMPC programs a while back, so her interest is right up there with mobility and tablets. 

You can find some case studies here, including the Vanderbilt University Project which I posted a couple weeks ago.  

Make sure you have Silverlight installed and try this link to ink a Google search with inking...or try this project and imagine these are portions of an electronic medical records that you can move around for research and reference and bring in images and create a simple stack of information by dragging and dropping.....and you can sign in with a Windows Live ID as well..

I don't think we are perhaps too far off from some serious inking with Silverlight...

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Sahara Tablet PC from TabletKiosk "Best In Show"

Nice that it was also related to use with Healthcare...for charting and entering patient data, screen size makes all the difference in being able to not only enter data, but to view and entire patient chart at a glance...also, Intel is joining forces with the Software as a Service move...with Microsoft technologies as well...hosted SharePoint and Exchange for Partners...would almost bet this is also on Server 2008...much better than having to email documents as attachments for sharing and collaborating...BD

TabletKiosk Wins "Best in Show" Innovation Award for Sahara Tablet PC used in Augmentative Healthcare Setting. 

Last night at the final banquet, awards were presently jointly by Intel and CRN to Channel Partners who exhibited sales volume growth, and created strategic enterprise solutions. The final awards of the evening were for "Best in Show" Innovative Solutions for Mobile and Desktop Applications.

Mobility Matters

Also announced, Intel is getting in to the software as a service market...

Intel's white-label hosted Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint for partners made up a piece of the chipmaker's SAAS and managed services announcements at its partner summit.

Intel's new white-label managed services offering, which includes hosted Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint, is ready for prime time, according to the company's channel chief, and is available for partners to start offering to their end customers today. Dallman said partners could expect more technology such as Intel's vPro solution, which leverages Intel hardware for remote management that can be used for managed services and allows partners to remotely monitor, manage, troubleshoot and repair customers' infrastructure.  Intel was investing millions in revamping its Web sites and was also investing heavily into reaching customers online. The company also was putting "hundreds of millions of dollars to drive eyeballs" to the newly revamped sites. 

http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Intel/Intel-Jumps-Into-Managed-Services-Market/

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Lack of health insurance takes toll on Tennessee and Delaware

Tennessee and Delaware check in with their numbers of people dying due to lack of health insurance...BD 

Nearly 13 Tennesseans die every week due to lack of health insurance, according to a report published this week by Families USA.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) A new study says one working-age Delawarean dies every week because he or she lacks health insurance.

Report: Lack of health insurance takes toll on Tenn. - Nashville Business Journal:

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HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE Confession: 'I ONLY LOOKED AT CELEBRITIES' FILES'

Even if you are just looking, software tracks everywhere you go through the system....detailed information in the National Enquirer lead Farrah to question after reading a story that contained way too much information...BD   

LATEST: The hospital employee who allegedly snooped into the medical records of 60 patients, including FARRAH FAWCETT and ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER's wife MARIA SHRIVER, insists she was "just being nosy".
UCLA Medical Center employee Lawanda J. Jackson, 49, who had worked at the Los Angeles hospital since she was 16, claims she never leaked the celebrities' personal information to the press, as has been suggested.
Jackson resigned from her job last July (07) after UCLA bosses learned she had been improperly accessing medical records, and now tells the Los Angeles Times newspaper, "Clearly I made a mistake, let's put it like that. I didn't leak anything or anything like that. It wasn't for money or anything. It was just looking."

FARRAH FAWCETT - HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE: 'I ONLY LOOKED AT CELEBRITIES' FILES'

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WellPoint Probing Data Breach for 130,000 Members

If I am reading this correctly, the information was exposed for 12 months...makes another case for good Internet security and knowing your system integrators....BD 

NEW YORK (Reuters) Apr 09 - Health insurer WellPoint Inc is investigating the cause of a breach involving protected health information for about 130,000 members, the company said on Wednesday. The problems stemmed from two Internet servers maintained by third-party vendors, the company said.

The largest U.S. health insurer by membership said it recently discovered data became publicly available over the Internet in the past 12 months. The information may have included member ID numbers, possibly including social security numbers, and pharmacy or medical data.

WellPoint Probing Data Breach for 130,000 Members

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How to Negotiate a Tooth Extraction

Funny....but painfully scary...BD 

The Guy Working for Your HMO « Treading Out Grain

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Study sheds new light on habits - roles of Blog Readers - Why do we do this - and thanks for being here too!

We already know the folks like myself are at risk of termination with excessive blogging (grin) after the story broke last week....however here' the study directed at the reader's role in all of this..."Previous studies about weblogs, or blogs, typically have centered on blog writers, largely overlooking those who go online to read, comment and participate."...I appreciate any and all readers here...even though I don't think we'll have the real answer as to why I blog, or why you are here, but the folks at UCI are trying to figure it out and let us know...(grin)...tI guess we are all still "pack animals" at heart...hanks for hanging in here...BD 

The research, led by Eric Baumer, doctoral candidate at UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences; Mark Sueyoshi, international studies and East Asian cultures undergraduate student; and Bill Tomlinson, informatics professor, is the first to focus primarily on blog reading. Previous studies about weblogs, or blogs, typically have centered on blog writers, largely overlooking those who go online to read, comment and participate.

Regular blog reading often becomes more habitual and less content oriented. Similar to e-mail checking, blog reading can become ingrained into users’ online routine. Sometimes, even the usefulness of the blog content itself can be less vital than the activity of reading or skimming the blog to fulfill a person’s particular routine.  “This study is really just the beginning,” said  Tomlinson, an ICS professor and affiliate of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. “With the rapid expansion of online social media such as Flickr and YouTube, understanding how people consume these media will be vital to understanding their broader social impacts.”

UCI study sheds new light on habits, roles of blog readers

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A Family Doctor Considers Double-Booking Patients

Many physicians have been doing this for a long time, actually scheduling software allows for 4 patients to be scheduled at the same time if needed....BD 

Benjamin Brewer, family doc and WSJ.com columnist, has a problem. The guy is up to his ears in patients, yet nearly every day he finds himself idled by patient no-shows.

Brewer writes in his latest column that a recent study found doctors increase the efficiency of their practice by double-booking appointments, in the same way that airlines oversell seats. Just as a commercial jet flies even when some passengers don’t check in, the “overhead meter for the office keeps running whether patients show up or not.”

Health Blog : A Family Doctor Considers Double-Booking Patients

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WellCare Flubs Data Privacy for 10,000 Georgians

Security breach story of the week....sad thing was a member reported on March 20th, yet nothing happened until April 2nd, when a supervisor was notified, so during that period it sound like it just all just hung out there on the web...and they will probably get the standard one year credit protection plan...BD 

As if WellCare Health Plans didn’t have enough to worry about, it turns out personal data for some 10,000 Georgia health-plan members was available online for more than a week recently before the company fixed the problem.

WellCare, which acts as a Medicaid or SCHIP managed-care plan to 450,000 Georgians, is already under criminal investigation in Florida over concerns that it may have lied to Medicaid officials about its behavioral-health spending, among other issues

Health Blog : WellCare Flubs Data Privacy for 10,000 Georgians

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Illinois physicians profiled on state’s new Web site

Information reported by physicians but the government is enhancing with additional information to include any malpractice convictions, etc....statement below says it all, how is the information interpreted....BD

The site also lists information the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation previously hadn’t made public, such as any felony convictions for the past five years, serious misdemeanor convictions, and the most controversial data — the most recent five years of malpractice judgments and settlements.  The Web site lists the settlement amount, the date and the county involved, with the data provided by courts and insurance companies.

The president of the Sangamon County Medical Society hopes that patients looking for doctors won’t rule out certain practitioners simply because of malpractice settlements listed.

“I don’t think that most physicians are opposed to people knowing about this information,” Dr. J. Eric Bleyer said Monday. “The problem is people interpreting this information.” “Unfortunately, there are bad circumstances and situations where patients have a bad outcome,” he said, “and it’s not always where the physician is the problem.”

SJ-R.COM - Illinois physicians profiled on state’s new Web site

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Surgery Centers Lack EHRs

Another area of health care that has not embraced electronic medical records...cost is cited as a big factor...BD 

A survey of ambulatory surgery centers commissioned by a software vendor shows that many have not embraced information technology.

Eighty-two percent of 175 centers surveyed by telephone in March do not use an electronic health record system. Further, 85% reported they use paper perioperative notes, and 74% use dictation/transcription for the generation of physician procedure notes. Barriers to automation, according to ambulatory surgery center administrators who participated in the survey, include lack of interfacing with scheduling software and other systems, and lack of capital investment. In addition, 49% worry about losing revenue during the implementation process.

Survey: Surgery Centers Lack EHRs

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Rich, Not Poor, Are Crowding Emergency Rooms

This points directly to the shortage and access to physicians by everyone..according to the results of this study....BD 

This is the conventional wisdom: Priced out of health insurance, ever more Americans are crowding into emergency rooms because they can’t afford a trip to the doctor. 

Yes, ERs are getting busier. But it’s not because of poor people or the uninsured, according to this analysis in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.  Instead, the the authors conclude, “increase in ED use may be attributable to lack of ready access to primary care and other structural problems in the health care system.” Trying to fix those will make the insurance issue look easy.

Health Blog : Rich, Not Poor, Are Crowding Emergency Rooms

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6 Kidneys Transplanted at Once

The surgeries used 6 operating rooms and 9 surgical teams...BD 

(AP) -- Johns Hopkins surgeons transplanted a half-dozen kidneys simultaneously, an operation believed to be the first of its kind, hospital officials announced Tuesday.

6 Kidneys Transplanted at Once in Md.

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Two die from mad cow disease in Spain

Mad cow disease is back in Europe...BD 

Authorities say two people have died from the human form of mad cow disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), in Castilla-Leon central Spain, a 41 year old three months ago and a 26 year old last week.

The disease was first discovered in humans in 1995 and is thought to be transmitted in infected meat and bone; the only other case of a death in the country from vCJD was in Madrid, in 2005. In Spain 700 heads of cattle became infected with mad cow disease by the end of 2007, compared to 1,500 in France.

Two die from mad cow disease in Spain

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Approved by Medicare....Sleep Apnea portable testing

Now you will not have to sleep in a lab environment to be tested....BD 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have approved at-home sleep testing for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Previous policy had mandated that suspected sleep apnea sufferers undergo facility-based polysomnography. The new policy allows continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for Medicare patients who are diagnosed via unattended home monitoring devices. This decision will likely prompt increased coverage from insurance companies around the country.

“SleepQuest is very excited about the change in coverage as it demonstrates that our portable sleep testing program, which we have successfully offered for the past 14 years, is a viable and effective alternative to sleep lab testing,” said Robert Koenigsberg, SleepQuest President. “Dr. William Dement, SleepQuest’s Chief Scientific Advisor and I applaud CMS’s in-depth analysis of this topic, providing greater access and allowing the many sufferers of OSA to benefit from treatment.”

SleepQuest - News/Events - Latest Press Releases

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Navigenics Proposes Standards for Personal Genomics Services, Coupled With Prospective Outcomes Studies, to Safeguard Consumers

A new website offering genetic counseling...find out how the testing works and how to handle the results....but at $2500.00 to enroll for all services, it's not inexpensive...with a $250.00 annual fee after initial enrollment...they do the scan, pick the conditions you can do something about and select markers based on strong science...done with a saliva sample...you get a personalized report...and a counselor...and will help you work with your doctor....BD 

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Navigenics, a personalized genetic health services company, today announced that it will develop a set of industry standards for consumer genomic testing services, and that it will seek broad, multi-stakeholder input and endorsement of these or similar criteria. Further, the company announced it will also support prospective health outcomes studies, involving leading medical centers and other partners, designed to examine the impact that consumer access to personal genetic information has on behaviors and health outcomes.

In addition to developing and adopting proposed standards, the company will be participating in research initiatives aimed at measuring the actual impact of genetic risk information on consumer behavior and related health outcomes over time. The first such study, announced this week, is a Mayo Clinic study examining how patients understand and utilize information provided by a Navigenics personalized genetic risk assessment. The research also addresses 1) physicians' understanding of predictive genetic risk assessment and 2) the impact of such information on preventive health decision making. Titled "A Proof of Principle Trial of Communication to Patients Receiving Predictive Genetic Risk Assessment," the study begins in April 2008 and runs through September 2009. The study is funded jointly by Navigenics and Mayo Clinic.

Navigenics Proposes Standards for Personal Genomics Services, Coupled With Prospective Outcomes Studies, to Safeguard Consumers

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Oncophage approved in Russia - Cancer Treatment

Russias trials on personalized medicine treatments for cancer....BD 

TUESDAY April 8, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Antigenics' Oncophage treatment for kidney cancer patients was approved for use in Russia, according to news media reports. 
The drug is intended for patients with medium risk of cancer relapse and the biotechnology company expects to put Oncophage on Russian market in the second half of 2008.  Oncophage is a personalized medicine.  It is made from each patient's tumor and contains the antigenic fingerprint of the patient's cancer. The drug is designed to reprogram the immune system to target cancer cells only.

Oncophage approved in Russia, what you need to know

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This Drug's for you - Opinion

Where are we today with personalized medicine?  This article takes a good look at where the delays lie, it's not lack of technology, but rather some other additional factors that come in to play...drug companies don't want to lose potential revenue or market share, insurers say this is experimental, and the patients in the long run don't want to be left holding the bag paying or worrying that this could lead to denial of insurance coverage...and then there's the training needed to get the physicians on board with all the tools and knowledge they need....BD 

Three years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines to encourage drug companies to pursue personalized medicine – genetic testing that would determine what course of treatment, exactly, was right for a given individual.

Sounds great, right? Instead of having to try this blood pressure medication or that, you could simply take a one-time test that would tell you which blood pressure drug would be most effective at controlling your hypertension while, at the same time, carrying the lowest risk of side effects.

Yet three major obstacles have prevented the widespread use of such testing: drug companies, insurers and patients.

The Journal Record - Article

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Providence Health buys stake in Lakeside Systems..California

Slated as the first agreement of it's type...no co-branding the article stated, but you can bet there will be some incorporation of technologies...to better serve patients...and of course to save some money along the way....a not for profit buying in to a for profit organization...BD 

BURBANK — In an unprecedented move they say will widen its circle of care, Burbank-based Providence Health & Services California has purchased a minority stake in Lakeside Systems Inc., based in Glendale.Multimillion-dollar deal by a Burbank-based organization could boost numbers at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.
The multimillion-dollar investment, which was announced Tuesday, will allow Providence to expand the “integration and coordination of healthcare services” in response to ballooning medical costs and increased patient waiting time, said Dr. Keith Richman, a former chairman of Lakeside and one of the architects of the deal.

Privately held Lakeside Systems Inc. is the parent company of Lakeside Healthcare, one of Southern California’s largest for-profit integrated comprehensive healthcare organizations, officials said. Lakeside Healthcare provides a network of services, including more than 300 primary care physicians and 1,500 specialists. Its medical groups serve patients with different types of health insurance, who are able to choose a physician affiliated with Lakeside, according to Lakeside Healthcare’s website.

The deal could boost the number of doctors at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and will increase case management services for patients, disease management and patient education services in the coming years, said Providence spokesman Dan Boyle. The deal could also result in new technology at both Providence hospitals, he said.

Burbank Leader

Related:  Is "non-profit business" an Oxymoron?

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Unnecessary Heart Surgery?

The opinions of the VA and Mayo Clinic in dispute on this lawsuit...BD 

A Marine Corps veteran is suing the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Iowa City for $12 million for allegedly performing unnecessary open heart surgery on him almost 10 years ago.

According to the lawsuit, filed in January in U.S. District Court, Anthony Lank, 44, of Iowa City underwent an angiography in April 1999, and a month later had open-heart surgery. Seven years later, Lank met with cardiologists at the Mayo Clinic and learned from the doctors that his surgery was based on an inaccurate diagnosis of his heart condition and the surgery was unnecessary, according to the lawsuit.

press-citizen.com | Local News

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BRAHMS Receives FDA Clearance To Market Automated Procalcitonin (PCT) Test

Used for the detection of Sepsis in the ER....I recently posted an article about Vanderbilt University's technology to facilitate defining the symptom as quickly as possible...technology on the move with data systems to handle....BD

BRAHMS USA, Inc announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its patented Procalcitonin (PCT) Kryptor® test. The automated test will be used in critically ill patients on the first day of ICU admission as an aid to assess their risk for progression to severe sepsis and septic shock.
Sepsis is a complex clinical syndrome that is defined as the systemic inflammatory response of the body to an infection. It is the most common underlying cause of death in non-coronary ICUs where the mortality rate can be as high as 32 percent or 54 percent in cases of severe sepsis or septic shock, respectively. Early recognition of sepsis and timely initiation of appropriate therapy is key for survival from this potentially devastating condition.

BRAHMS Receives FDA Clearance To Market Automated Procalcitonin (PCT) Test

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Government Raises Payments to Health Insurers

They get an increase and the public gets higher premiums and fragmentation of plans and care continues...and Bush has vowed to veto any efforts to trim payments to insurance companies...BD 

ASHINGTON — The government on Monday said it would raise payments next year to insurers that provide health care coverage to seniors by 3.6 percent, a slight increase from last year's boost.

The increase applies to companies in the Medicare Advantage program, the privately run wing of the government health care plan for seniors. Officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the increase is slightly lower than the estimated 3.7 percent expected growth increase for Medicare in 2009.

Gov't Raises Payments to Health Insurers | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

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Nuance to Buy eScription

Nuance is probably better known by their dictation software, Dragon Naturally Speaking which has been on the market for a number of years and has a medical version specifically for physicians.  BD  

Nuance Communications will acquire transcription/dictation/speech recognition vendor eScription Inc. for cash and other considerations totaling $400 million. 

The deal also includes private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC of New York making a $100 million investment in Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance.The acquisition will augment Nuance’s existing dictation and transcription services for hospitals and other provider organizations. Needham, Mass.-based eScription, with revenue of $40 million in 2007, sells a Web-based, on-demand dictation application that includes speech recognition software.While Nuance primarily serves physician practices and mid-sized hospitals, eScription has targeted large hospitals and delivery systems, and has about 100 clients. The acquisition will enable Nuance to cross-sell to these clients its radiology dictation/transcription system, front-end Dragon speech recognition software for physicians, and the Veriphy software to send alerts to physicians of important test results.

Nuance to Buy eScription

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Judge halts Medicare program designed to cut medical lab costs

One loss for Medicare with requiring labs to compete...they already compete commercially with insurance plans...so again, how would a provision like this benefit the patient with perhaps having additional travel time, appointments booked in advance, help generate better health care?  BD 

SAN DIEGO – A federal judge Tuesday blocked Medicare officials from launching a pilot program aimed at cutting costs in the San Diego area by forcing local medical laboratories to compete for business from the federal government.

The decision could delay the launch of the project, which had been set for this summer, by as much as six months, said Patrick Hooper with Hooper Lundy & Bookman in Los Angeles. He represents three lab operators who sued this year to halt the program.  He also noted that the plaintiffs in the case – Sharp HealthCare, Scripps Health and Internist Laboratory of Oceanside – could suffer “irreparable” harm in the form of lost business, layoffs or lab closures if their bids aren't selected.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Judge halts program designed to cut medical lab costs

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Microsoft Releases Preview of New Version of Its Robotics Platform

 Hard Hat Area:  We know that robotics undoubtedly has a role in healthcare, today and tomorrow...one interesting feature is the fact that the new LINQ language, now being used in creating Silverlight projects is also being used with the development of the Robotics platform...BD 

Today, at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition in Pittsburgh, Microsoft Corp. released the first community technology preview (CTP) of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008, the new version of its robotics programming platform. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 contains improvements in its runtime performance, distributed computational capabilities and tools.

Improved distributed computational capabilities. Support for distributed language integrated queries (LINQ), which reduces network utilization and simplifies service authoring. LINQ support enables advanced filtering and inline processing of sensor data at the source.

Bink.nu | Microsoft Releases Preview of New Version of Its Robotics Platform - Bink.nu

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Attacks against medical researchers: Time to take a stand

This article addresses attacks on biological researchers and scientists...these are the folks who are working to create cures; however, is the risk of attacks detouring progress...BD 

Primate mental health researchers are working diligently to alleviate human suffering, while carefully following stringent protocols designed to fully and ethically protect and care for these animals. At the same time, these so-called ‘activists’ are willingly harming humans in their misguided attempts to prevent animal research.
Attacks on these scientists are growing in number and intensity, with recent events having occurred at private residences and even against researchers’ family members, beyond the relative protection of university or institutional campuses. The authors of this Biological Psychiatry commentary unequivocally state their support for their colleagues in neuroscience research, and bring this issue into the forefront of public awareness.

We all rely on these medical scientists to produce new treatments for medical illnesses.” He adds, “We believe that strong public action is needed to end these attacks on medical researchers. We also applaud the effort taken on the part of universities like UCLA [The University of California, Los Angeles] to protect scientists and their work.”

Attacks against medical researchers: Time to take a stand

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New Player in Personal DNA Profiling Emphasizes Privacy

This one a little more costly than 2o other services...and according to the article has a better privacy policy, perhaps worth the extra $$...BD

Another company is jumping into the growing world of direct-to-consumer DNA testing today. For $2,500, Navigenics will tell you your genetic risk for 18 different diseases — at least according to the best available genetic studies. Another $250 a year gets you an ongoing subscription to the company’s services.

As the WSJ notes, the company has a pretty detailed privacy policy. That’s a nod to the fears of many that genetic testing might work against them, by alerting potential insurers or employers to a person’s health risks.

Health Blog : New Player in Personal DNA Profiling Emphasizes Privacy

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Before Code Blue: Who's minding the patient?

The article states that this is even more common...nothing happens until code blue is announced, in other words the monitoring of the patient before it gets to this point....BD 

High-profile medical errors such as operating on the wrong body part or receiving a mistaken dose of drugs should take a back seat to a far more common and insidious mistake, a new report reveals.

For the fifth straight year, an analysis of errors in the nation’s hospitals found that the most reported patient safety risk is a little-known but always-fatal problem called “failure to rescue.”

Before Code Blue: Who's minding the patient? - Health care- msnbc.com

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Never sneeze in a surgery

No comment required...BD

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5kJ-cFe0Cns

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Governor says his medical records were accessed, too

Nobody is safe...talk about transparency...where's the HIPAA folks...any recommendations?  Does HIPAA have any IT specialists available to consult?  BD

Schwarzenegger said this morning that the snooping into his wife's medical records by an unauthorized UCLA Medical Center employee follows a long history of such intrusions on California's first couple.
"I have been a victim of this in my own hospital visits," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference to promote volunteerism, "if it was for heart surgery or hip surgery, shoulder surgery, all of those things."
Every time he has left an operating room, the governor said, he has been told there were "people going through your file that had white coats on. Obviously, they snuck into the hospital. They had nothing to do with the hospital staff at all. So those things happen."

Governor says his medical records were accessed, too - Los Angeles Times

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DRE Medical lets loose compact, PC-based ECG system

The mobile devices are getting small for an EKG....small enough to carry in your pocket...BD 

We've seen ECG systems of all sorts (homemade included), but DRE Medical has now released what it claims to be the most compact system on the market today. Dubbed simply the Universal ECG, the system relies on a Windows-based desktop, laptop or Pocket PC for its computing component, which the company says offers a number of benefits over a standalone ECG system, not the least of which is a sizable cost savings.

DRE Medical lets loose compact, PC-based ECG system - Engadget

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Doctors' Sub-Inflation Pay Awards Are Extremely Disappointing, Says BMA, UK

Well at least they have one coming instead of the 10% looming Medicare cut doctors are looking at here in the US...BD 

Doctors are today (Monday 7 April, 2008) facing another year of below inflation pay awards, with effective cuts for many. Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, warns of anger and disappointment within the medical profession at what he describes as "unacceptable" pay rises.
The government has today (Monday 7 April, 2008) announced it will implement in full the recommendations of the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body. First year junior doctors will not be compensated for the loss of their entitlement to free accommodation*. The average increase in resources for GP practices is estimated to be 0.2%.** Hospital doctors will receive a below inflation pay rise of 2.2%.

Doctors' Sub-Inflation Pay Awards Are Extremely Disappointing, Says BMA, UK

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Bank Finds Revenue Cycle Partners - Medical claim clearinghouse

And the partner is in health care...a claim clearinghouse company...a little bit of outsourced business intelligence reporting if you will...also a little work for another firm in the EOB area..BD 

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank is reselling the services of a clearinghouse and software vendor to augment its lockbox banking services for health care providers. The data can be analyzed, for instance, to see how many claims for orthopedic procedures were generated in certain geographic areas.

The bank, with more than 1,200 offices in 11 states, is working with Dallas-based GHN-Online Inc., a claims clearinghouse, to process transactions and capture claims data. That data can be analyzed to better improve account receivables by comparing expected and actual insurer reimbursement, which helps improve revenue forecasting, says Nav Ranajee, vice president and director of health care solutions at Fifth Third.

Bank Finds Revenue Cycle Partners

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Human Computer Interaction In The Year 2020

Will we eventually lose control of the world around us...watch the video to see some actual instances being tested whereby we gather and leave a digital trail of everything we do...almost scary to see that this is not very far out there...the first part of the video may be a little intense, but the 2nd half of showing users is pretty clear...the RFID Ecosystem...and the dangerous portion of a lot of this is that there are not many laws that govern how some of the new technology is applied and used.  One thing that comes to mind here for me is that we need some "geek" politicians in office soon...as many of the current baby boomers in office either are not aware or just don't get it....and I don't think we will have to wait for the year 2020, as much of this technology is already alive and well...and sometimes behind the scenes...imagine a hospital set up like this university...has good points and points that are maybe not so good...BD 

Emerging computer technologies will change our lives for the better by 2020. But we need to retain control to ensure that these developments do not impact negatively on basic human values, according to a new report co-edited by a University of Nottingham academic.

Advances in interfaces - the physical way we react with computers - and other techniques of controlling computers will supplement the role of the traditional keyboard and mouse.

Technologies in development include surfaces that allow fingertip control of on-screen objects and devices that sense - and react to - movement.The report argues that without proper monitoring and assessment it is possible that we - both individually and collectively - may no longer be in control of ourselves or the world around us. This potentially places the computer on a collision course with basic human values and concepts such as personal space, society, identity, independence, perception, intelligence and privacy.

Human Computer Interaction In The Year 2020

Related Stories:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004316708_rfid31.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=883&tag=nl.e019

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10 Cosmetic Procedures You Should Avoid

With new procedures and treatments coming out, good idea to read up...BD 

A recent report suggests that despite worries over an economic downturn, Americans are still spending money on procedures intended to make them look better. The annual report, issued last week by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, showed that the number of cosmetic procedures performed continued its steady rise last year to a total of nearly 12 million.

ABC News: 10 Cosmetic Procedures You Should Avoid

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Alligator blood may put the bite on antibiotic-resistant infections

Somewhat gives a new meaning to Gator aide....BD 

Despite their reputation for deadly attacks on humans and pets, alligators are wiggling their way toward a new role as potential lifesavers in medicine, biochemists in Louisiana reported today at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. They described how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and “superbugs” that are resistant to conventional medication.

Alligator blood may put the bite on antibiotic-resistant infections

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