Automated anesthesia system dubbed McSleepy -

 Robotic anesthesia...first successful surgery done in Canada..focus is software to monitor pain and a feedback scoring system to automate the process...the system can also communicate with a PDA so the anesthesiologist can be outside the OR while checking on post surgery patients...BD 

Scientists at McGill University in Montreal believe they are the first in the world to perform surgery using a totally automated system for administering the drugs needed for general anesthetic.

Dubbed McSleepy, the computerized system administers three standard drugs used for putting patients under for surgery and monitors their separate effects automatically, without the need for manual intervention.

So, could McSleepy or a similar system one day replace human anesthesiologists? The short answer is no," said Sheppard of Saskatoon, who's been practising for 20 years.

"Somebody has to start the intravenous, make sure it's in a vein and not interstitial (in the tissue). Somebody has to put the breathing tube in once they're asleep. Somebody has to watch for mechanical failure."

Canadian researchers develop automated anesthesia system dubbed McSleepy - Heart Health - AOL Health

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Night club drug could ease depression - Ketamine

According to the study it could give Prozac some competition in time...in just 24 hours it kicks in..Prozac now is also available as a generic as fluoxetine....BD 

LONDON, May. 2, 2008 (Reuters) — Scientists have unraveled how a horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic night club drug known as "Special K" can ease depression, researchers said on Friday.

Ketamine, which can also cause feelings of detachment, could pave the way for new treatments for people suffering from depression, the researchers added.Their study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found ketamine restores to normal the orbifrontal cortex, an area of the brain located above the eyes that is overactive in depressed people.

In their study, Deakin and his team gave intravenous ketamine to 33 healthy male volunteers and took minute-by-minute brain scans to see what was happening as the drug took effect.  Images from the scans showed that the drug -- also used as a battlefield anesthetic -- worked quickly, Deakin said.

The results were surprising because the researchers had expected that the ketamine would instead affect the part of the brain that controls psychosis, he added. "There was some activity there but more striking was the switching off of the depression center," Deakin said.

Night club drug could ease depression: scientists

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New Generation Of Radiation Therapy More Precise - TomoTherapy for Treatment of Prostate Cancer

New technology being used to treat prostate cancer...also effective with treatment of other cancers...the specific region of the body is determined and body tissue and organs in the surrounding areas are protected...as this article states, the patient relates the process to something from "Star Wars"...as far as his experience...BD 

"It was part of our physical therapy that we had a PSA blood test done. Without that, I may not have ever had it done," Dillman told 6News reporter Stacia Matthews. 

That test spots prostate cancer in its early stage. Dillman had surgery to remove his tumor, but during a recent check-up, the PSA levels were elevated again. "I've had nine treatments now and I have no side effects," Dillman said. "I played golf and went racing over the weekend. It's not slowing me down any at all." In addition to treating prostate cancer, the machine can be used to treat head, neck and central nervous system cancers, as well as cranial tumors.

The machine delivers tens of thousands of radiation beams continuously in a full circle around a patient.

Doctors: New Generation Of Radiation Therapy More Precise - Health News Story - WRTV Indianapolis

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St.Jude Collaborates With Microsoft HealthVault

The work in progress will allow an implanted chip to send information directly to the Microsoft HealthVault...the Merlin system is already set up to transmit to a hospital EHR...so in short it transmits cardiac information...the physician could access the patient device information at any time with an EHR and the same potential here is being examined on doing the same with sending the information to the HealthVault as well....BD   

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) today announced a partnership with the Microsoft Corp. Health Solutions Group to research the integration of data from implantable devices with patient-controlled, personal health records. St. Jude Medical and Microsoft will work with physicians to  determine the optimal level of integration (between the Merlin.net™ Patient Care Network and Microsoft® HealthVault) that will allow physicians to efficiently and confidentially share device information with their patients.

Merlin.net PCN is a secure Internet-based system that collects and displays information from implantable devices, such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). It stores data that is captured during implant procedures, in-office follow-up visits with physicians and remote follow-up transmissions in patients’ homes. Transmitted data includes reports of irregular heart rhythms and real-time electrograms (EGM) which show patients’ heartbeats at the time of transmission.

St.Jude Collaborates With Microsoft - Microsoft News Wire - Byte and Switch

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The NHS Health Rag Song

Good DuWap....BD 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RusYHRlDFhA

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Loma Linda University Medical Center buys hospital it tried to block - California

Not for profit hospital makes the offer the the physicians, for the new for profit medical center, and they sold...with the potential loss of the best insurance covered patients being lured to the facility, Loma Linda analysts could see a large potential loss of revenue once the facility opened...BD 

Just two years after mounting a major campaign to prevent a for-profit surgical center from breaking ground in its back yard, Loma Linda University Medical Center has bought the center in a deal valued at more than $80 million.  Officials at all of the hospitals said they feared the new facility would "cherry-pick" patients with the best insurance coverage to perform lucrative surgeries, leaving the region's other hospitals to serve the poor and the uninsured.

"Basically, what it boiled down to was Loma Linda made an unsolicited offer, and it was a big number," he said. "So doctors had to make a decision. Did they want to take Loma Linda's offer or suffer the consequences of paying more for capital?"

Loma Linda University Medical Center buys hospital it tried to block | San Bernardino County | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

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New congressional report says Wyden-Bennett health plan would pay for itself

Indeed employers, especially small and medium size would like the plan as it also costs money to administrate and negotiate with insurers...BD 

The so-called Healthy Americans Act would replace the current employer-based health insurance system with a system in which the government requires, subsidizes, and oversees a system of private health care plans that individuals select. The coverage would be guaranteed to be as good as that which federal employees receive, and the government would subsidize health care for people up to 400 percent of the poverty level.

The plan is paid for in part by changes to the tax code, including a new tax on employers of between 3 percent and 26 percent. Wyden labels the tax "employer-shared responsibility payments" and notes that they would replace money employers now spend to provide private health insurance for their workers. The employer payments are expected to generate up to $100 billion a year in federal revenue.

"Employers like this plan, and the reason they like it is because it cuts their current and future health care costs," Wyden said.

New congressional report says Wyden-Bennett health plan would pay for itself

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$100 Human Genome Sequencing Within Sight?

The article also addresses how we will think, will we choose different mates?  Will the selection of partners we choose involve looking at the DNA of a potential partner to influence one's choice...what type of children would a couple want to bring in to the world and what DNA will they have...could be an issue with emotional involvement with one's partner...gee I really love and care for this person, BUT, their DNA doesn't match up.."I'll be bringing a child in to the world that will have the potential of being bi-polar" for a simple example...so what do you do?  Does one bypass the emotional bond and make a decision to forego what they feel in their heart is a potential mate who will be a life time partner?  

One other scenario, will people lie about their DNA or simply go to a donor sperm bank to find what they are looking for with DNA so they can reproduce a sibling with the desired personality desired?  Will your lifetime potential mate be compared to sperms and eggs at the donor bank?  Is there something a little bit inhuman about this process...well if you are from the same generation as myself, I think you might tend to agree that this entire scenario is ripping apart the human culture as we   have known it for years, but yet we can't ignore what is taking place as the technology continues to grow...how will your siblings choose their mates and what choices do they have at hand...does this make sense?  I guess you could still choose a mate and then opt for the sperm and egg bank as well, but it sure sounds like a cold and calculating process...and in my opinion it further impacts the emotion bonds we have as humans and tends to overshadow the compassion and love that basically makes the world go around...do we need to elevate to this level and make the process of choosing a mate a complicated and calculated process? 

On a story posted last week, there is technology out there for sale for $150,000 to create the DNA process and if the product is successful and many purchase, the price of a DNA sequence could have the potential of reaching the $100.00 mark, along with the technology referenced in the article below...

My opinions only, but things are changing around us rapidly and we need to at least have an awareness and not count on being bliss in the future...bring on the counselors if we can find them...BD 

Long time readers know that I expect much more rapid advances in biotechnology because biological research is coming to resemble the computer industry with miniature lab devices designed for low cost mass manufacture and automated use. The devices operate on biological systems at the scale of individual cells and molecules. Here's another example of how much this trend cuts costs and speeds progress. Microfluidic devices will enable personal complete DNA sequencing for only $100.

It currently costs roughly $60,000 to sequence a human genome, and a handful of research groups are hoping to achieve a $1,000 genome within the next three years. But two companies, Complete Genomics and BioNanomatrix, are collaborating to create a novel approach that would sequence your genome for less than the price of a nice pair of jeans--and the technology could read the complete genome in a single workday. "It would have been absolutely impossible to think about this project 10 years ago," says Radoje Drmanac, chief scientific officer at Complete Genomics, which is based in Mountain View, CA.

FuturePundit: $100 Human Genome Sequencing Within Sight?

Source:  http://scienceroll.com/2008/04/26/personalized-genetics-towards-the-100-genome/

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Families sue undertakers in body parts scandal

Being a donator of organs is a good thing to do, to give life to someone after death, but this appears to be another area of profiteering for those wanting to cash in...and again what was the status of the body parts, yes I'm sure they gave life back to many, but according to the article, sanitary conditions and other areas of concern were just not there...but someone sure made a lot of money in the process...and what about the hospitals making the purchase, is there some accountability along this line?  BD 

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Families who claim the corpses of more than 1,000 relatives were dismembered and sold in an illegal body-parts scandal sued funeral directors and others on Tuesday.

The class action suit represents hundreds of people who claim their relatives' body parts were harvested for medical use without their consent.The seven were indicted by a grand jury last September and accused of harvesting bones, skin and tendons in unsanitary conditions, and selling them to hospitals with the risk that they could infect patients who received them.

The defendants allegedly made $3.8 million from sale of body parts obtained in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey between February 2004 and September 2005 in an operation that was "ghoulish, greedy, dangerous and criminal," the grand jury's report said.

Families sue undertakers in body parts scandal - Yahoo! News

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Microsoft Expands Management Capabilities to Linux and Unix

 Hard hat area:  Beta available for download...this will allow for better monitoring of systems outside of Windows to include Linux and Unix platforms.  For a number of years Microsoft has offered Microsoft Services for Unix...more information coming out soon and there is also the new Interop connector to share information with both IBM Tivoli and HP Open View for both Windows and Unix in the works...and the user interface is one of familiarity...looks just like the stack in Outlook...help to combine open source system with current or new Windows servers...in health care there's a lot of Unix out there as well as new emerging Linux systems, McKesson as one example announced a while back their support for Linux....BD 

“The No. 1 request [from customers] is to help leverage what they have with [Microsoft’s] system management to non-Windows environments,” Orecklin said.

Among the announcements Microsoft will make is the public beta for System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions, which will enable users to extend the management capabilities to Unix and Linux systems running HP-UX, Red hat Enterprise Linux, Sun Microsystem’s Solaris and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell.

Microsoft is using such technologies as Web Services for Management and OpenPegasus to enable customers to use the management software for Windows and non-Windows physical and virtual environments, Orecklin said.

Microsoft Expands Management Capabilities

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Coding Cues: Specifying place of service—satellite or outpatient facility?

Medical Economics has some answers for commonly asked questions in reference to proper coding for payment...check out the link for the appropriate answer...also see the additional links for answers to other coding questions below...BD 

Our surgery practice has a satellite office in a nearby hospital. We report place of service 11 (office) for the E&M services we provide at that location, but our Medicare carrier recently notified us that because we're located in an outpatient hospital facility, we should be specifying place of service 22 (outpatient) instead. Is this correct?

Reporting a patient's drug seeking behavior

Coding Cues: Avoiding "incident to" situations with ancillary personnel

Coding Cues: Specifying place of service—satellite or outpatient facility? - - Medical Economics

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National Pet Week Reminds Animal Lovers That 'Pets Jazz Up Our Lives'

Where would I be without my "best friend"...as someone wrote in a recent article "dogs are stuck in the 70s"...someplace occasionally nice to re-visit and give some thought to a simpler time..."Anyone who has ever shared their lives with a pet knows how much they enrich our lives. The human-animal bond has never been stronger."...they love you not matter what...here's a picture of what helps keep me sane at times, my dog...and with a face like this, he gets just about anything he wants!  BD   

National Pet Week, May 4-10, celebrates America's more than 172 million companion animals, and the remarkable role they play in improving the quality of our lives. All across the nation, veterinarians, veterinary technicians and others will use this opportunity to educate the public on how pets improve human health, and how pet owners can return the favor.

National Pet Week Reminds Animal Lovers That 'Pets Jazz Up Our Lives'

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55% Of Large Commercial Health Plan Members Do Not Understand 'Critical Details' Of Their Health Plans, Online Survey Finds

No surprise here...look at how many options each plan has...there's a lot of "ifs" and legal "mumble jumble" in all the plans....BD 

Fifty-five percent of members from 107 commercial health plans nationally said they do not understand "critical details" of their coverage, including prescription drug benefits, finding the proper physician and appealing coverage denials, according to the 2008 National Health Insurance Plan study released Wednesday by J.D. Power and Associates, Bloomberg/Arizona Daily Star reports.

55% Of Large Commercial Health Plan Members Do Not Understand 'Critical Details' Of Their Health Plans, Online Survey Finds

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Should Drugmakers Pay FDA to Inspect Foreign Factories?

This is probably a good idea in theory, but once every 2 years won't cut it...and how often and what portions are inspected should be formally addressed...and I would think the inspections should be on a non-notify basis, in other words no prior notification, or on the other hand, do you place an inspector on premise at all times?  We can't operate like we have in the past with overseas manufacturing and with today's technology changes in formularies, procedures, etc. can be changed rather quickly..retooling can be accomplished much faster than it has been done in the past.  Somebody along the line has to pay for our safety with pharmaceuticals and re-establish some type of "trust" system in light of current events....BD  

Three big trade groups (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization) yesterday told Congress they may be willing to pay new “user fees” so the FDA can beef up its overseas inspections, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.

The user fee model is already well established, with drug makers funding much of the FDA’s work reviewing applications for new drugs. Industry officials said yesterday they’d be open to adding new fees, as long as Congress also appropriates more money toward the same end and the fees go to inspect higher-risk overseas manufacturers, the article says.

Health Blog : Should Drugmakers Pay FDA to Inspect Foreign Factories?

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The Luckiest Guy In The Drug Business

 They closed the doors to the biotech operation...now has re-invested in Esperion...I remember the days of the purchase of Warner Lambert as I was doing business with the company at the time....BD 

How weird have things gotten in the drug industry? Ask Roger Newton, who led the development of Pfizer's Lipitor, the world's biggest drug. Then, 10 years ago, he left to found a biotech and sold it to Pfizer for more than a billion dollars. And now he's spinning the same biotech back out as a start-up backed with $22.75 million in venture capital to support its work to develop new heart disease drugs that work by boosting the good cholesterol, HDL.  Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert in 2000 for $116 billion to get full control of Lipitor.

"That was the heyday of biotech," says Newton. "You could go out and do an IPO without anything in the clinic. I know because we did it." One thing is for sure, though. When Roger Newton meets up with any of his buddies at drug industry cocktail parties, he better not complain--about absolutely anything. Right now, he's the luckiest guy in the pharmaceutical world.

The Luckiest Guy In The Drug Business - Forbes.com

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Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from Cyberscene of crime

Interesting device, let's hope it stays in the hands of the good guys and it is provided free of charge...BD 

Microsoft has developed a small plug-in device that investigators can use to quickly extract forensic data from computers that may have been used in crimes.

The COFEE, which stands for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is a USB "thumb drive" that was quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies last June. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith described its use to the 350 law-enforcement experts attending a company conference Monday.  The device contains 150 commands that can dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence, which is becoming more important in real-world crime, as well as cybercrime. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer.

More than 2,000 officers in 15 countries, including Poland, the Philippines, Germany, New Zealand and the United States, are using the device, which Microsoft provides free.

Microsoft | Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime | Seattle Times Newspaper

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Misys to Embed Content in EHR

Embedded reference material coming in a couple months...to enable the physician to have access to real time evidence based material...by integrating with the electronic record system, the finding and referencing the information from the same program or given window should be a much faster and simpler solution...BD 

Raleigh, N.C.-based Misys Healthcare Systems will embed in its Misys MyWay electronic health records software specialty-specific reference content from Wolters Kluwer Health, Conshohocken, Pa.

Misys is merging with Chicago-based Allscripts Inc. and will take the Allscripts name upon closing. MisysMyWay is private-labeled EHR software licensed from iMedica Corp., Carrollton, Texas.

"Clin-eguide is a point-of-care decision support system that can be integrated with electronic medical records or used on a stand-alone basis. It provides clinicians with immediate answers to detailed clinical questions at the point of care, leveraging the wealth of medical and drug information found in all Wolters Kluwer Health products."

Misys to Embed Content in EHR

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Doctor Anonymous: Dr. A Show - Dr. John Halamka

Be sure to put this one on your calendar for this evening...I'm sure there will be some very valuable Health IT topics covered from Dr. Halamka this evening!  He's one of the top in the country when it comes to the subject.  Being a health care geek myself, I'll be there!  BD 

Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for The Doctor Anonymous Show . Our guest will be Dr. John Halamka who is Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is author of the blog called Life as a Healthcare CIO. He is also an emergency physician, and apparently, a Blackberry guy.

Doctor Anonymous: Dr. A Show 33: Dr. John Halamka

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Easy to Swallow - The Tablet PC

I just love articles of this sort as it is something I have been saying for years...anybody who attends meetings and takes notes can benefit from a tablet, beside that you don't have it sit with an 'Open Pizza Box" notebook and it's a much more natural setting.  Write your notes just like you do on a Yellow Pad, but the difference here is that you have the history with you all in one place, no more digging through stacks of paper and wasting the time of others digging up information from past meeting notes.  Do I do this?  Of course and have done it for years with one 30 second search...piece of cake. 

Here's a recent article written on the same subject...

I still get the strange looks from folks when I show up with me electronic tablet, and have heard things to the effect of "here's Lucifer with that "thing" again...and it's just the fear and using some new technology for the most part.  It's a matter of incorporating something new in  to the way you do business and getting over the "fear" factor for the most part.  A couple months ago at the HIMMS convention, I saw lots on display, but when it came down to folks actually using one to take notes in an intelligent conversation, not much of that going on, but I chose to do the opposite, and hey, guess what, the folks I had discussions with liked it! 

Read about it here and see some visuals of a One Note Simple Intelligence File I used, neat stuff...it was a matter of making notes and at the same time showing a real interests in what was being discussed for future reference, which means on the next conversation I'm going to be update to date from the last conversation and not have to waste a potential client's time with the same items we discussed in the first encounter. 

  Sure I can type faster than I can write, but how many folks can stand and type on a keyboard, and how does that look....what does it do for eye contact during a discussion...pretty much nothing there.  It makes me wonder how in the world does one remember everything they discussed at a convention with over 900 booths?  It's better to have notes when you are in that type of atmosphere as you will not remember everything after the fact.  I use the tablet to dictate too...another somewhat "frightful" thought for many, but it's not hard at all.  When I am mobile, inking and dictation are the way to go!! 

The blog has an entire section related to Tablets PCs, which you can link to from here or use the Tablet PC section on the site.  I am always open to any questions as well, software, server applications, etc. and how they work with a Tablet PC...BD 

Not just for doctors and cops anymore, the new breed of tablet PCs could be the cure for your company’s mobile computing headaches. First, tablets can be useful for office workers who tote hardbound diaries and portfolios into meetings to keep track of commitments and to-do lists.

From hospital wards to police cruisers, tablet PCs have become a common sight among specialized users without offices and those who need to compute while standing. But as applications and support for tablets improve, even more sedentary office workers could benefit from these devices.The journal application is just one of many general-purpose applications that can record handwriting and allow fast text searches. Indeed, a key attraction of a tablet is that notes can be organized. Plus, meetings can be more social, since users can’t hide behind laptop screens, and no one has to listen to the sound of clacking keyboards.

It’s a very handy tool for engaging people and making your points more clearly,” he says, “and it’s a great way to capture what’s going on at a meeting in real time.”

Easy to Swallow

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Clearance For Blood Glucose Monitor from Medtronic

Information from the insulin pump including  BG results can be uploaded wirelessly to a PC with the USB upload device..the product adds the value of insulin delivery through the use of the pump...BD 

The OneTouch UltraLink Meter is the newest addition to the long-trusted OneTouch Meter Family - the number one prescribed meter brand - and uses OneTouch Ultra Test Strips, the number-one selling test strip in the United States. Data transmitted from the OneTouch UltraLink Meter can be viewed via Medtronic’s proprietary CareLink Therapy Management Software, the only software that integrates meter, logbook, insulin pump and real-time continuous glucose monitoring information to help patients and physicians more easily assess and manage diabetes.

Clearance For Blood Glucose Monitor

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Microchip Links To Electronic Patient Records - more about carrying a personalized chip

This process connects the patient to their health care record instead of all the information be stored on the implanted chip.  BD

Health Link requires implanting program participants with a tiny microchip (similar in size to a grain of rice) just under the skin in the rear upper portion of the right arm. The Health Link microchip contains a 16-digit identification number that, when scanned by a Health Link reader, provides a secure link to a private, online database that reveals the patient’s personal health records and emergency contact information. No other information is contained on the microchip.  No other information is contained on the microchip. Once the Health Link microchip is implanted, it cannot be lost or stolen.

Residents of the Greater Palm Beach area can now take more control of their personalized healthcare by enrolling in Health Link, a bio-medical technology that is currently being introduced by the VeriChip Corporation of Delray Beach, in cooperation with 16 regional hospitals, including Bethesda Healthcare System, Good Samaritan Medical Center, JFK Medical Center, Jupiter Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Microchip Links To Electronic Patient Records

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AirStrip Targets Mobile Healthcare

The technology is patent pending and FDA cleared and can work with many portable mobile devices...GE Health Care is one vendor working with this technology...it is making for better physician/nurse conversations on patient care as the physician has the visual right in front of his eyes.  Currently this is being used for OBGYN, but other technologies for other areas are being developed.  A VPN gateway is used to log in to the system....BD 

With a goal of setting a new standard of care for remote surveillance, AirStrip Technologies is attempting to expand availability and reach strategic relationships with mobile device manufacturers, cell phone carriers and vendor partners for its signature product. 

As part of its expansion plan, AirStrip Technologies is now establishing vendor neutrality after initially partnering exclusively with one vendor to market the FDA-cleared AirStrip OB. This software application provides obstetricians with virtual real-time, remote access to critical waveform data from hospital labor and delivery units (L&D) on their PDA or Smart Phone anywhere the physician has a cell phone connection. It will soon be available through a variety of perinatal vendors.

"This is accomplished through the AirStrip OB^TM software, which is installed onto a mobile handheld device and utilizes a wireless internet connection (cell, WiFi, Bluetooth) to receive the patient’s data. Physicians then use PDA’s, SmartPhones or PC's that are loaded with AirStrip OB^TM software to remotely and securely access real-time and historical waveform and numeric data via a wireless internet connection. The ability to view this critical data at will, and not rely on nursing interpretations over the phone, allows physicians to be proactive, troubleshoot problems before they arise and provide better overall, more comprehensive and more efficient medical care for their patients."

AirStrip Targets Mobile Healthcare

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Biomagic "pixie dust" regrows man's lopped-off finger

Biometric words of wonder once more...would like to know more about this process as well...BD 

A certain 69 year old Lee Spievak lost half an inch of finger to an aggressive model plane blade, and doctors had little hope for the appendage. Lucky for Lee, his brother Alan works in the field of regenerative medicine, and sent him some powder (which lee calls "pixie dust") to apply to the finger. Four weeks later Lee had grown back the entire finger, as good as new. The pixie dust is actually modified cells scraped from the lining of a pig's bladder cleaned into a general-purpose tissue generator -- the cells basically tell the body to grow instead of scar. Doctors have high hopes for the cells, for everything from amputees to burn victims to cancer patients.

Biomagic "pixie dust" regrows man's lopped-off finger - Engadget

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Medicare 'Drifting Towards Disaster': U.S. Official

Michael Leavitt and his predicted fate for Medicare...we all know the system is broken, so is it time for a new system?  The only source of funding I could think of that would reach everyone would be a national sales tax, yes, nothing that nobody in theory would like, but it's about the only pool that could be created to generate the income needed and everyone would be a contributor.  The national pool would in essence cover everyone for health care.  The insurance pools don't seem to be doing the trick, so it's time for another way to provide coverage and bring health care back to where the citizens have a say so in how and what is provided...right now there's very little citizens can do or say to make a difference.  BD 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Apr 30 - Medicare is lurching toward disaster and it is too late for the Bush Administration and Congress to do anything about it, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Tuesday.

He said the next administration will have to act to stop rising costs and get control of the $400 billion federal health insurance plan for the elderly, which now covers 44 million people.

Medicare 'Drifting Towards Disaster': U.S. Official

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More than Half of U.S. Hospitals are now technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency - study

Those who brought on technology earlier seemed to fair a bit better than those without or very little technology...BD 

Looming Crisis Takes on New Sense of Urgency as Dependence on Sources of Non-Patient Care Revenue Become More Vulnerable in Weakening Economy

New York, NY - More than half of short-term acute-care hospitals in the United States are technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency, according to a recent analysis conducted by Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group, part of the global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.  As states and municipalities begin to limit spending in the face of slumping tax revenues and a weakening economy, the financial health of many hospitals is likely to further deteriorate.  Many will encounter serious liquidity crises and face the prospect of radically restructuring or shutting their doors, the report notes.

More than 2,000 of the nation's 4,900 acute-care hospitals do not make a profit treating patients and must rely on alternate and generally unstable sources of funding, including government subsidies and philanthropic contributions. Of the hospitals classified as "profitable," approximately 1,000 do not generate sufficient cash flow to fund essential, non-discretionary capital expenses necessary to comply with regulations and/or remain competitive with increasingly dominant academic medical centers. The majority of potentially insolvent hospitals are located in urban areas.

"In many cases, the complexities of operating a hospital or hospital system overwhelm management and the boards that oversee them."

A&M In the News - Alvarez & Marsal

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'CSI' sleuths out Microsoft's latest technology - Tablet PCs, UMPCs and Surface....

CSI-NY may have the advantage here with Tablet PCs, as they have been featured on the show all the last season...more details from last year here...and now the Miami show looks to have some "Surface" features included...all shows are slated to be paperless very soon...BD 

The CSI franchise also plans to go all "paperless" as key characters are outfitted with Tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs.  CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker first saw Photosynth, which is due later this year, in July during a tour of Microsoft's  research labs in Redmond, Wash.Zuiker makes regular visits to Redmond as part of an ongoing creative relationship between CSI and Microsoft.

No money is exchanged in the Microsoft-CSI relationship, which goes well beyond traditional product placement. "We are moving to a role of technology adviser to a show," says Jay Kenny, a group product manager for lifestyle marketing and placement at Microsoft. "It's a unique collaboration we hope to see more of in the future."

CSI has put other Microsoft technology into its scripts. The audiovisual lab in CSI: Miami was rebuilt to include layout tables based on Microsoft's Surface tabletop computers. Transparent video "walls" have also been employed. "If the technology is real and it has been used or it could be used, we would champion that and put it on the air immediately," Zuiker says.

'CSI' sleuths out Microsoft's latest technology - USATODAY.com

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Time to Roll for SafeMed

The integrated software solution is in use by many major EMR software companies..."SafeMed is an analytical software company dedicated to transforming healthcare decision-making by providing information that is trusted, understandable, personalized, and useful by doctors and patients."..there are 4 modules to include Pharma, Imaging, Quality and Analytics....for a full compliment of clinical decision support products...BD 

Noffsinger, who joined San Diego-based SafeMed in December, formerly headed Microsoft Corp.’s health care division. He then served as president and COO of physician software vendor Amicore Inc., which Microsoft founded in 2001 with IBM Corp. and Pfizer Inc."

The company’s flagship product, introduced in 2007, is the SafeMed Analysis Engine. It combines reference content from multiple sources with patient-specific data from electronic health records, insurer information systems and PHRs to provide real-time decision support to clinicians and patients.

A drug prescription, for instance, can be checked for appropriateness against a patient’s weight, sex, age, allergies and interactions with other drugs the patient is taking. The software can even check for such details as whether the patient has only one functioning kidney. Prescriptions also can be checked against the patient’s drug formulary, co-pay and dosage guidelines.

One early SafeMed client, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, uses the decision support engine to help clinicians identify appropriate diagnostic imaging tests. Other clients include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and electronic health records vendors 4Medica, eClinicalWorks, MDTablet, Medi-EMR, Medsphere, Misys, NextGen and SSIMED.

Time to Roll for SafeMed

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Chilean town giving free Viagra to senior citizens

The article states "to improve the quality of life"...BD 

SANTIAGO, Chile - A working class suburb of Chile's capital began handing out free Viagra to senior citizens on Wednesday. Lo Prado Mayor Gonzalo Navarrete said he launched the program because "an active sexuality improves the overall quality of life."

"A doctor will have to certify that they suffer from erectile dysfunction and that their condition would not put them in danger of suffering cardio-respiratory side effects," Navarrete told The Associated Press by telephone.

Chilean town giving free Viagra to senior citizens - Yahoo! News

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Opening Doors To Information - Secrets of the Trade for any Physician

One of the items cited in this article is a "lousy workflow" which paper creates...tricks of the trade here include an EHR, using Nuance Dragon Dictation and emailing patients...and he notes how expensive it is to answer the phone...patients are happy with getting lab results via email too...and with the practice in order, he finds time to serve as a part time consultant...BD

Eight years in the restaurant business before medical school taught Tom Landholt, M.D. some valuable lessons that he now applies to his practice. A focus on excellence in customer service is essential to all businesses, including the practice of medicine, he stresses.

Without the technology, the practice would likely need at least three more support staff members and its margins would be much slimmer, Landholt contends.

“Most practices’ expenses are too high because they’ve never done cost accounting,” Hudson says. “Doctors need to go through the practice and identify ways to cut costs. There’s plenty of money to save by eliminating lousy workflows.”By relying on an electronic health record—Centricity from GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wis. — the practice can handle a higher patient load, the physician contends. “My staff spends more time with patients than the average clinic because we’re not dealing with chasing paper,” he says. “The average doctor could probably see five more patients a day if they had access to all the right information. ”For the 10% of notes that must be dictated because of the level of detail, Landholt uses speech recognition software—Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance Communications Inc., Burlington, Mass.

Opening Doors To Information

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FDA begins major hiring initiative

Could there be an FDA job fair in the near future?  Anyway, good news with the agency reacting to the needs of the times...BD  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is starting a major hiring initiative designed to fill more than 1,300 public health positions.

Biologists, chemists, medical officers, mathematical statisticians and investigators are among the experts with science or medical backgrounds the FDA is seeking. For general information and to apply for one of the positions people can submit their curriculum vitae with a cover letter via email to joinourteam@fda.gov.

FDA begins major hiring initiative

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Pet Gadgets - One for the Dog

A little off topic here, but I think this one has some real potential...for anybody that is walking the dog and getting their exercise....BD 

It's not pleasant to think about, but owning a pet means that you'll eventually have to clean up your companion's loose stools or diarrhea. With this gross task in mind, the people of POOP-FREEZE invented a spray that hardens the droppings so they can easily be picked up. It's available with or without aerosol and for an extra $2.95, you can even get a handy tote bag to carry it around. How fashionable.

12 Wacky Pet Gadgets 6 - Switched

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2nd Annual Diabetes Mine™ Design Challenge

Submissions for the contest begins on April 30th and runs through May26th...more details at the Medgadget website...a video needs to be created and sent to enter...should see some new and inventive concepts as well as some great potential aesthetics, after all it's the ease of use and appeal to the patient that will drive the products...BD 

Medgadget is proud to announce our co-sponsorship of the 2nd Annual DiabetesMine™ Design Challenge - "a competition designed to foster innovation in diabetes design and encourage creative new tools that will improve life with diabetes". The contest is looking for unique, practical, and novel design ideas that may one day be applied to real products. The winners of the design challenge will receive both prize money and consulting time with design firm IDEO.

"This competition is open to all individuals and organizations developing devices or supplies for people with diabetes (medications not included), or enterprising patients with unique prototype concepts. DiabetesMine™ will accept submissions in two categories: under age 18, and age 18 and older."

2nd Annual DiabetesMine™ Design Challenge - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com

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DARPA spotlighting the Cars that Drive themselves...

Department of Defense is busy with many areas of development, outside of medical care as well...here's a simple search of some of the stories from the past, including the cars that drive themselves from last years competition...videos from the Stanford Intel car named "Junior"...that came in 2nd...BD 

The biggest markets for remote-controlled vehicles today are farming and surface mining. But designers see the potential for such vehicles in military convoys and, eventually, even on our highways.

On April 11, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spotlighted six top performers from the agency’s Urban Challenge competition that took place in November (GCN.com, Quickfind 1031). The vehicles showcased at the Pentagon included the winner, a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe customized by a team of engineers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The Tahoe is loaded with radar- and laser-enabled sensors that collect data about the vehicle and its environment.

The data is processed by 10 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo blades, each running custom-written code capable of evaluating more than 1,000 objects per second. The computer bank sits in the rear of the vehicle and requires its own generator and cooling system.

GCN tech briefs

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Voice-recognition tool aids battlefield doctors - Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking

I use Dragon software on the Sahara tablet and have done a couple You Tube Videos as well on using dictation through the dual array microphones, which means no headset...nice to have this option when in a semi quiet area and not have to worry about a headset.  BD 

Surgeons, radiologists and other specialists practicing battlefield medicine in Iraq are being outfitted with voice-recognition software to help them record their notes on patient care more quickly.
The Military Health System says the technology is particularly useful in combat zones, where doctors carry heavy patient loads. The software, Nuance Communications’ Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 9.5, works with the Army’s Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) system, which runs on laptop PCs.

Voice-recognition tool aids battlefield doctors

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Hawaii Medical Center to cut 89 jobs - Perot Systems contract signed to replace in house administrative departments..

An attempt to save a hospital deep in financial debt....the state's only physician owned for profit hospitals...BD 

Eighty-nine employees at Hawaii Medical Center will lose their jobs at the end of June when the hospital outsources work in its administrative departments.

The head of HMC said the company took the steps to "help save the hospitals," which were financially troubled even before their sale by a Roman Catholic religious order to a for-profit company in 2007.  HMC officials said Tuesday that it will contract out its business office, call center, health information management and admissions departments to Perot Systems of Nashville, Tenn. effective June 28.

Hawaii Medical Center to cut 89 jobs - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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The Army’s health IT hothouse

Good article talking about what is going on with the DOD and healthcare...telemedicine is fueling some of the most sophisticated health IT developments in the world...BD 

Today, DOD produces a torrent of research that has put it years ahead of most private organizations when it comes to understanding how IT can improve health care. Work is under way on applications ranging from a digital dog tag loaded with personal health information, an electronic medical record (EMR) tool that supports triage on a global basis and a Web-based system that lets military doctors compare clinical data on eye surgeries.

But the center doesn’t spend all of its time on high-level architectural problems. Much of its work is focused on the more microscopic needs of health care specialists.
For instance, surgeons at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center wanted to measure the efficacy of the refractive eye surgeries they were performing. So they asked TATRC to adapt an existing medical information system called the Field Deployable Record (FDR) into something that could meet their specific needs.

RSIS, a Java-based client/server application, has since been enhanced with a Web interface to become Web-enabled RSIS (webRSIS), whose easy-to-use interface for recording information during surgery enables surgeons to manage and accurately report outcomes.
“The interface is modeled after the doctors’ workflow,” Jeffrey said. “It is designed for data capture with the doctors in mind. The software captures information in the same way they are used to so it doesn’t interfere with their current workflow.”

The Army’s health IT hothouse

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Medical Advances—Through Your Cell Phone

Update and Additional information on telemedicine... it will be a challenge in the future to be able to select the product and device that works for both the patient, physician and sometimes the hospital as well....when on the run, cell phones are a great asset for deriving and entering information....BD 

The University of California professor says that by reducing a complex electromagnetic imaging machine to a portable electromagnetic scanner that can work in tandem with a regular cell phone and a computer, he has essentially replicated a $10,000 piece of equipment for just hundreds of dollars. The mobile scanner plugs into the phone, which beams the data to the computer, generating an image that can be transmitted to a doctor or hospital far away.

Rubinsky is hardly the only medical researcher who sees this potential. Indeed, of some 30 health-care-related projects at various universities recently funded by Microsoft (MSFT) Research, 17 involve cell phones.

Cell phones can also play an integral role in remote care for patients with chronic illnesses. BeWell Mobile, based in San Francisco, has created an application that lets asthma or diabetes sufferers enter their home test results into their cell phones and send them to the doctor daily.

Medical Advances—Through Your iPhone?

Related Images from Businessweek.

Related Story from Businessweek

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Microsoft developing ad-funded, senior PCs in UK

This is a great idea as I actively work helping seniors with computers...and there are so many devices that relate to healthcare that need to work with a PC...BD 

The geriatric set most definitely has plenty of cellphones catered to them, but finding a computer that's equally simple to operate isn't nearly as easy. According to a BBC report stemming from a Digital Inclusion conference in London, Microsoft UK is aiming to develop a "senior PC" which will feature a simplistic interface and come tweaked to handle tasks such as managing prescriptions and photos. The outfit is teaming up with charities Age Concern and Help the Aged, and it's just one of the many projects meant to tackle the issue of "digitally excluding" millions of citizens. Additionally, Microsoft is working up an "ad-funded PC" that would come preloaded with a step-by-step guide to get online, remain safe, perform "simple computer tasks" .

Microsoft developing ad-funded, senior PCs in UK - Engadget

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World's first cardiac re-synchronization therapy defibrillator device

One patient yesterday became the first to have the implant...the hospital will be able to communicate and access information over phone lines...BD 

A doctor holds a mock-up of the world's first cardiac re-synchronization therapy defibrillator device "Consulta CRT-D", made by U.S. company Medtronic Inc., implanted to German patient Monique Pachalek at the German Heart Institute Berlin (DHZB) in Berlin, April 29, 2008. Pachalek is the first patient worldwide to have the device implanted on April 23. The product makes it possible to the hospital to communicate with the patient's pacemaker over a phone line. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

World's first cardiac re-synchronisation therapy defibrillator device_English_Xinhua

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Not So Vain: Carly Simon's Panicky Past

Nice when celebrity stories are brought to the forefront to discuss something that seems to affect all of us at one time or another...in one form or another...some use beta blockers before a performance, some alcohol, etc....something to just take the edge off...nobody wants to fail when in front of an audience of any kind...its enough to make anyone nervous...self included here...BD 

Pop queen Carly Simon, whose hit "You're So Vain" was No. 1 on the charts in 1973, still struggles when she talks about the panic attacks that nearly crippled her successful singing career. Simon was so paralyzed during a 1981 concert in Pittsburgh that audience members swarmed the stage to help her, rubbing the singer's arms and legs. She made it through that show, but during the second one, she collapsed in front of 10,000 fans.

Panic attacks are unlike the usual jitters that accompany speaking in public or a first date. Sufferers like Simon report a pounding heart, sweating and weakness. Some experience tingling hands, nausea or other smothering sensations. They usually produce a sense of unreality, a fear of impending doom or losing control.  Stage fright is one of the most common forms of anxiety disorder -- though some anxiety is shown to be helpful in performing. "One study showed fear of speaking in public was higher than fear of death," said Szymanski.

ABC News: Not So Vain: Carly Simon's Panicky Past

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Tibco backing Microsoft Silverlight

 Hard hat area:  Tibco has a healthcare market that works with HIPAA compliance solutions as well as an HL7 solution...BD 

San Francisco - Tibco Software is throwing its support behind Microsoft's new Silverlight browser plug-in technology for rich Internet applications and also is offering users of Microsoft Web services technology an alternative message platform.

The company will make these announcements Wednesday at its TUCON (Tibco User Conference) in San Francisco. Also on the agenda is the addition of predictive service level agreement management for SOA, via the company's ActiveMatrix platform.  While not contractually obligated to use Silverlight, Tibco plans to use it when AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is not sufficient for a planned Web-based user interface, said McNamara.

"TIBCO has been providing solutions to the healthcare industry since 1996. TIBCO understands the dramatic changes facing the industry and the IT challenges that these changes introduce. TIBCO's healthcare solutions are built on a comprehensive integration platform that ties together diverse healthcare resources for information sharing and business process management."

Tibco backing Microsoft Silverlight - Yahoo! News

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The Biniki – a bra for your butt

Well this one had to be I guess...we already have apparel that addresses the top portion of our bodies, but wait, this is good news for men too, there's one available for the male sector...models have been using items such as duct tape for years to enhance their appearance, so the technique here is nothing new, but this could be a "ready to go" solution to avoid all that tape....check out the picture from Gizmag below with a before and after...more pictures at the source...BD 

April 30, 2008 Heightening the ever-increasing pressures to conform to someone else’s ideals is this new invention known as the Biniki – put simply, it’s a bra for your butt. The patented Biniki is a US$30 series of straps you wear around the waist and under your bum cheeks to shape, tone, lift and support your derriere and the effect is significant and instant. There’s also a US$40 version for men (the Maniki) and a Throng, a US$30 device worn to achieve the same underwear-less look as a thong without having to floss in all the wrong places.

The Biniki – a bra for your butt

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