This is an update on a post from a short while back about a woman in New York that was sent home, only to have Sepsis set in and had both her hands and feet amputated.  The video shows how she is working to get back to a somewhat normal type of life with prosthetics to help her walk.  After watching the video, it seems to make some of the problems and issues I have look minimal by comparison.

I included a small portion of what technology can do in an ICU with the immediate detection of Sepsis, created at Vanderbilt Medical Center, and well worth watching, as they have offered to share this technology with any other hospital that is interested.  Visuals are important in healthcare and by using Silverlight on the screens, it proves to be an immediate visual and help for those caring for the patients, and in some cases it could have the potential of perhaps avoiding amputations, etc. as in this story. 

Again, the video shows a woman with a lot of courage and working to have a life beyond what has happened to her.  Sepsis is the 10th leading cause of death in the world.  BD 

From a prior post:

Also Vanderbilt Medical Center created a Microsoft technology solution to quickly identify Sepsis and you can read more here, which entails a solution with Server 2008, SQL server and the use of Silverlight to give clinicians a clear and active visual to detect immediately before the condition would progress any further without immediate attention. 

Healthcare jumping out with Server 2008 and all the updated components for the application to track Sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response to infection which can progress to circulatory system dysfunction, multiple organ failure, and eventually death.

The Vanderbilt story above is somewhat relative to where technology and medical records come in to play. By using the dynamic imaging in Silverlight, it gives a quick and definitive picture immediately to the clinical staff in the ICU to determine the onset of Sepsis as it starts, something that can be helpful anywhere.  We have the technology available and needs to have some if this implemented quickly to save lives.  The story of the model is so sad in the fact that perhaps by the time she returned for help, the infection of the blood had gone too far.  

A woman who lost her limbs and eyesight to a near-fatal medical error has returned home after months of rehabilitation.

Tabitha Mullings has been through more in the last five months than most people will go through in a lifetime.

Her ordeal started in September when the 32-year-old was discharged from Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City. Staff diagnosed her with kidney stones and sent her home with painkillers – but that's when things took a terrible turn, Mullings claims.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489467,00.html

Related Reading:

Model in Brazil loses hands and feet - Sepsis

NYC Mom Sues Hospital After Losing Both Hands and Feet – Infection lead to Sepsis

Leadership Strategy for the Prevention of Line Sepsis – 10th Leading Cause of Death Worldwide

Vanderbilt University Medical Center - Server 2008, Silverlight, SharePoint, Windows Activation Services and more....

Patient Safety Screening Tool for Sepsis: New Video

Docs trained with IT say without it they feel vulnerable when using a paper based system

Technorati Tags: Sepsis,healthcare,kidney infection,amputation,hospital,acquired diseases,Vanderbilt University,Microsoft,Server 2008,technology,medical error

The devices have previously been cleared for other treatments so this adds more functionality to the device.  This is the first minimally invasive tool approved to actually kill the cells that contribute to causing heart failure.  One thing for certain here, writing this blog is giving me quite an extensive education in areas of cardiology and endovascular surgery by all means and I can now understand the detailed procedures that are followed with the devices as well.  The areas of treatment for the heart just like anywhere else in our body are getting to be very specific and appear to require a much more detailed diagnosis than let’s say what was done 10 years ago.  BD 

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson won U.S. approval to sell the first devices to burn away rogue cells that cause the most common form of irregular heartbeat.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared NaviStar ThermoCool and EZ Steer ThermoCool Nav as the first minimally invasive tools to ablate, or kill, the cells that trigger atrial fibrillation, the agency said today in an e-mailed statement. 

Atrial fibrillation affects more than 2 million Americans, causing debilitating fatigue for some and raising the risks of strokes, heart attacks and death, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The heart-ablation market may reach $2 billion in annual sales by 2011, said Rick Wise, a Leerink Swan & Co. analyst in New York, in a note to clients last year.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Technorati Tags: endovascular surgery,cardiology,heart surgery,heart failure,catheters,minimally invasive surgery,Johnson and Johnson

Yes you read that correctly and it’s starting to show more and more.  When you watch the 2nd video, the SEC folks have no real answer.  It comes back around to intelligence with technology that wasn’t used, but perhaps they didn’t understand the type of documentation provided by the whistle blower here.  People do that a lot, if they don’t understand something, it goes on ignore.  FDA has their issues too along the same lines as at the beginning of last year articles were out that some clinical information was still being written out in long hand on paper and that all FDA employees did not have a computer! 

Daschle Out of the Race – Now Let’s Shop for a New Candidate at the “Smart” Store

Ignorance is no longer bliss, it will expose your lack of accountability instead.  It certainly would be nice if we began shopping for key figures in the “smart store” instead of the “politics” store.  This is not saying they are not intelligent people by any means, but where did the leave off with hanging on to old technologies and not exploring new avenues.  It’s the old word called “change” again and when pressed as to why an awareness was not there, it’s the same old answer all the time of “I don’t have time”.  There are smart people who do find the time, especially when such large amounts of money are at stake. 

Sometimes by taking the time out to learn something new, you also end up saving yourself a ton of time down the road with learning new methodologies too. There are some parts of the government that are pretty advanced, like DARPA for example who works with private firms and really has helped develop some neat technology in healthcare, but what happened to them? 

Last year DARPA was brought to the carpet for not spending all their money, when in essence they may have been pretty smart with having a lot of private industry backing the R and D.  So what gives here?  Check out the link below for a glucose monitoring system being backed by DARPA, good stuff and that’s only one example as I have several technology posts on here that relate to DARPA. 

New Glucose Sensor Technology Connects To Mobile Phones

Back on the subject, once more I hope we go after the “smart” people for key positions, we need them more than ever right now.  Wall Street used the best until the assets didn’t match their “expressions” in computer code anymore and the wall came down.  Healthcare insurance companies use technology to the highest degree to calculate some very complicated formulas and one company just had their subsidiary shut down as they went too far with denying healthcare benefits based on the formulas that were used and made 1.3 billion doing it, so I wonder why we don’t devote as much time to certifying insurance algorithms as we do for software and algorithms used for EHR systems.

What if Microsoft decided one day to stop focusing on hackers and turned a deaf ear, well it might just resemble what we have had going on here.  Watch the videos and see what your opinion might be.  BD

 

Related Reading:

Senator Whitehouse says to Remove IT from the Stimulus Bill would be the Dumbest Mistake of all

Daschle Out of the Race – Now Let’s Shop for a New Candidate at the “Smart” Store

Non-Profit Cancer Center Closes In Newton Massachusetts – Madoff Fall Out

Quick Books – Securities and Exchange Version?

The 2 New Hot Words in Healthcare: Algorithms and Whistleblowers

Lawmakers Consider Adding Health IT to Stimulus Package – We Need some Congressional Algorithms

“Beware of Geeks Bearing Formulas”…Warren Buffett

How Wall Street Lied to Its Computers – Software and Programming

Madoff Scam Hits Harvard Medical School Grants and affiliate Beth Israel Medical Center

White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology – Big Job ahead

ZietGeist – a movie that discusses the future

Hat Tip:  Pharmagossip

Technorati Tags: Obama Healthcare Plan,healthcare,algorithms,"Hands On Technology",Congressional Algorithms,Technology,medical records,White House,SEC,FDA,Madoff,charities

The ever changing directions of big pharma, both are looking for somewhat the same result, business and profit, just 2 different ways to hopefully attain it.  BD

Procter & Gamble Eyes Exit From Prescription Drugs

Procter & Gamble sells about $2 billion worth of prescription drugs every year, but you probably don’t think of P&G as a pharma company. As it turns out, neither does P&G.

The company has hired Goldman Sachs to look for potential buyers for its prescription drugs business the FT reports.

P&G sells the osteoporosis drug Actonel, and comarkets the overactive bladder drug Enablex with Novartis.

The company’s CEO recently told analysts that P&G invested in pharma in the ’90s, when drug companies were riding high, the FT notes. But in this era, when safe, stable consumer products are the place to be, the pharma sideline makes less sense.

 

AstraZeneca: One Pharma Giant Not Looking for a Big Deal

Pfizer made the big deal, Roche wants one and Merck and Sanofi-Aventis won’t rule it out. But AstraZeneca isn’t in the market.

As the Economist notes in a story this week, the company’s CEO David Brennan (pictured) recently said it doesn’t “need a merger or significant acquisition.”

Like the rest of the industry, AZN is cutting lots of jobs and gearing up for more generic competition.

The company has been among the most aggressive in the industry in shifting to production to China, and has recently set up a research center outside of Shanghai.

Technorati Tags: Pharma,Proctor and Gamble,AstraZenaca,prescriptions,healthcare

This sounds like it could be right up any hospital’s alley.  Oreck is a first class vacuum cleaner anyway, so the paired technology should be great, not cheap though, but a good vacuum that will kill 2 birds with one stone. 

As the reports state, there’s more bacterial on the floor than on a toilet seat.  The unit costs $599.00, so it is an investment.  BD 

February 6, 2008 Ultra violet light sterilization is a proven technology that has been with us for some time. Back in 1903 Niels Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in using UV to fight tuberculosis and these days it's a common sight in hospitals, food production facilities and science labs, as well as being used for water purification and disinfecting swimming pools. The technology is also increasingly making its way into domestic households with examples like ENPUTECH's UV sterilization wand and this innovation from Oreck - the world’s only UV equipped upright vacuum cleaner.

The Oreck Halo adds ultraviolet light to regular suction to kill germs, bacteria, viruses, allergens and mold and provide a dual-action clean for what is considered the dirtiest surface in the home - the carpet. Oreck cite independent tests by microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba from the University of Arizona to make this point: "carpets, tile and hardwood floors can have up to 4,000 times more germs and bacteria per square inch – even after vacuuming – than the toilet seat."

More pictures here

Germ-killing vacuum uses UV light

Technorati Tags: Vacuum Cleaner,UV Light,sterilization,healthcare,hospitals,germs,Oreck

Once again, the call for smart people to head key positions and the need to boost education.  He mentions that more money is spent on research for going bald than it is for malaria.  Pretty interesting on how he brought the mosquitoes with him.

When speaking of educations, teachers in particular are mentioned, and how we are lacking enough of them, and how our system is not set up to reward teachers.  He shows this chart below and what impacts a good teacher, the bottom line is the Masters degree.  He also talks about “team” teaching, funny how “teams” are the focus today to getting things done, healthcare too.  The statistics too on how only 30% of kids finish high school is a real eye opener too.  Healthcare and education go hand in hand.  BD 

 

Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world's biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.

A passionate techie and a shrewd businessman, Bill Gates changed the world once, while leading Microsoft to dizzying success. He plans to do it again with his very own style of philanthropy. Full bio and more links

 

Bill Gates unplugged | Video on TED.com

Related reading:

Former US NIH Director Joins the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill Gates - an optimist and a comedian – Fills the Room with Mosquitoes at TED

Bill Gates and Oliver Sacks to speak at Technology, Entertainment, Design conference (aka TED)

Bill Gates Testifies before Congress - more technology education needed before the US falls behind....

X PRIZE - Gates Foundation providing grant to explore prize for innovative breakthroughs in TB Diagnostics

Bill Gates granted first Einstein Award

Bill Gates – “I’m still pretty hardcore”

Bill Gates Leaving His Fortune to Charity

'Natural Interface' will Become Affordable - Bill Gates

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates,Microsoft,philanthropy,technology,Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,Healthcare,NIH,Malaria,education

FDA sure could use some help with technology here, bank of servers to log quality control of all consumables made not only here but all over the world.  I don’t understand how they are thinking, but there is no way to provide the manpower at the FDA to in person inspect all drug and food factories in the US and overseas.  Again, this might be fear of the “T” word, technology.

I have written this up in about 3 other posts that they factories need to be connected to a bank of servers to report in the quality control findings on each lot produced.  Easy enough done through the internet and most factories already have some type of reporting system internally anyway, so the bank of servers would not only take in the information, but also send out alerts to FDA inspectors, the factory itself, and perhaps some state health departments while we are at it.  This is the age of the internet so this information could simply fly out, once set up. 

As a matter of fact, this could be done globally too. Here’s something below from last April that I posted.  Congress is asking for the technology industry to help, but will they accept new ideas and understand how to implement technology? 

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? 

In short we need some technology help here asap to set up the automated reporting systems.  BD

The FDA also did not know the company was making peanut butter at the Georgia plant. The last time the FDA inspected the Blakely plant was 2001, when it was blanching and roasting peanuts but not making peanut butter, said Stephen Sundlof of the FDA. In 2006, the FDA contracted with the state of Georgia to perform annual inspections of the facility on its behalf.

The Georgia inspectors never reported any serious problems to the FDA.

When FDA officials went into the plant last month for the first time in five years, however, they found a leaky roof, water stains, poor ventilation, mold, dead roaches, unsanitary equipment as well as four types of salmonella.

Health Official Admits Faster Action Needed in Salmonella Outbreak - washingtonpost.com

Related Reading:

Obama Wants a complete review of the FDA – Add some Technology with Business Intelligence

Government Accuses Georgia Plant of Knowingly Shipping Bad Peanut Butter – How about some FDA electronic audit trails on consumables?

Kellogg takes peanut butter snacks off shelves

Twitter – Find FDA Recalls Quickly

PetSmart Recalls Dog biscuits that contain peanut butter

Peanut Corp. of America recalls peanut butter nationwide

Technorati Tags: Healthcare,FDA,technology,Congress,Pharma,food poisening,contaminated food,FDA audit trails,peanut butter

We keep hearing about the job cutbacks in Pharma, many sales and marketing, but are some of the others moving overseas?  Along with R and D cutbacks also comes a potential loss of clinical trials.  BD 

British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC said Thursday it would cut jobs and costs after fourth quarter net profit fell 10 percent because of higher research and sales spending as well as legal charges.

The company, which sells asthma treatment Advair and the Ribena range of soft drinks, booked a net profit of 1 billion pounds ($1.46 billion), down from 1.1 billion pounds in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Sales rose to 6.91 billion pounds from 5.97 billion pounds a year earlier, despite increasing competition from generic drug makers on brands such as epilepsy drug Lamictal and migraine treatment Imitrex. Sales of its diabetes drug Avandia remained weak.

Glaxo said profits were hurt by higher costs for research and development, expiring patents and a $400 million legal charge announced last month relating to an investigation by U.S. authorities into its marketing and promotion practices.

GlaxoSmithKline 4Q profit falls, confirms job cuts - BusinessWeek

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Looking For A Job? Pharma and India are Looking

GSK's Witty wants more funds for FDA – Why not step up to the plate with some grants and join the General Education process

US FDA to open office in New Delhi, Mumbai

Indian Pharma offshoring to be US $2.5bn opportunity by 2012

GlaxoSmithKline to axe 850 jobs in R & D

Indian Pharma offshoring to be US $2.5bn opportunity by 2012

The Changing Face of Research and Development with big Pharma

GSK's Emerging Markets strategy advances with acquisition in Egypt from Bristol Myers Squibb

Glaxo Consumer Healthcare to Expand – Working with Kemwell in India with Consumer Products

Technorati Tags: GlaxoSmithKline,India,GSK,Kemwell,pharma,drugs,R and D,outsourcing

Medicare benefits for those permanently disabled don’t kick in until 29 days after a cancer diagnosis.  This article talks about those with insurance so I’ll move the focus over there.  We have seen the stories about those having cancer denied treatments, or some treatment, even those with insurance, so is health insurance, really health insurance?

Just my own personal thought on the “rainy day” reserve funds they all keep, why do patients need to struggle and get knocked out over a very complicated algorithm.  Risk management continues to rule rather than better healthcare, as the insurance industry has made extensive use of technology to create complicated algorithms and business intelligence software.

One thing I do like is the Attorney General of New York bringing carriers to task and making the fact “known” that business intelligence is being used against policy holders and potential clients, with the dissolving of Ingenix, a business intelligence software company that made over 1 billion last year scrutinizing claims to find loopholes to deny.   Many of the other big carriers also used this service as well, so once again it comes down to creating and running algorithms to deny or allow claims.  Ingenix was not under any privacy rules such as HIPAA, so guess what happened? 

It’s a shame the healthcare world in the US has to function this way and those needing care have to battle the complicated world of health insurance formulas and algorithms and pray that claims are covered.  BD

Milliman Intelliscript, part of the Milliman Company, collects data from Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) that are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Then insurance companies pay a small fee to obtain the data, which they use to deny or approve claim requests.”

“Ingenix, a Minnesota-based health information services company that had $1.3 billion in sales last year -- and Wisconsin-based rival Milliman -- say the drug profiles are an accurate, less expensive alternative to seeking physician records, which can take months and hundreds of dollars to obtain.

"Two million cancer survivors today are forgoing care they need simply because that care is unavailable because they cannot afford it," Seffrin said, adding that lack of access to quality care is now a major case of cancer death in the United States.

"This issue is not only a serious public health issue; it is a moral imperative for change."

Christy Schmidt, one of the report's authors and a cancer survivor, told ABCNews.com that the report is even more frightening considering that all of those profiled had health insurance.

ABC News: Cancer Care Costs Squeeze Millions of Americans

Related Reading:

Prescriptions risk score used to deny health insurance

Health insurer accused of overcharging millions – United Health Care/Oxford Insurance 50 Million Fine

UnitedHealth settles misstating executive compensation allegation with the SEC – Use their PHR?

Health Insurance Reserves – How much is in the till, could it be 1 or 2 trillion nationwide?

Insurer's Reserves Criticized

Technorati Tags: algorithms,programming,Health insurance,healthcare,Cancer,cancer treatment,business intelligence

Well if you have noticed, not much posting today as I have the flu, like half of the rest of the US, but that’s not the real reason for this post.  I answered the phone today and it was a solicitor looking for contributions.  I don’t know about yourself, but there are days when your head is so thick you can’t even get near discussing anything that is not absolutely necessary.

I politely told the caller that today was not a good day and that I was sick, only to hear back “well, you answered the phone didn’t you”, with a very curt tone and anger!  So is the pressure on the callers that heavy to where they have to address you with anger?  The guy was actually mad that I answered the phone and didn’t care to listen to him. 

Poor Steve Jobs couldn’t even get sick without the SEC wanting to know whether he or his board may have held back on his official diagnosis?  Have we reached the point where we are almost intolerant of other peoples illnesses? 

Sure times are not the best, but it does make you wonder where some thought processes are originating these days, with many taking pot shots at the piano players of the world and not addressing the real core of their anger or fear. 

Sure that caller was not mad at me personally, he was probably behind on his goal of dollars to collect, thus with a little added stress, everybody who did not contribute became his enemy, but it sure left one negative taste in my mouth does not do anything to encourage me to contribute to their cause, maybe why online causes are so popular today too.  BD 

I have to say I agree here 100%.  Problem is we have people making decisions that I don’t believe completely understand technology and the value, not only in healthcare, but look at the shambles of the FDA and SEC, they need it too.  Other countries are supporting technology big time, so what’s wrong with us?  Are we going to sit here and stay in the 60s? 

Interesting fact that when Wall Street fell I seemed to be one of the few bloggers focusing on the software end of things and after a few months now, I am seeing more folks on the web also alluding to the same issue, you can run the code but when there’s no assets to tag to the expressions, well we know that tune, and by the way, Wall Street and the Health Insurance business invests heavily in IT and business intelligence too, just that greed got in the way and the expressions written were out of hand. Algorithms from data processes run about 90% of our lives today, it is what it is. 

Tom Daschle Withdraws – We Live in a World of Transparency

We need smart people in strategic places.  It’s almost embarrassing to hear Desmond Tutu talk about rolling out healthcare plans for undeveloped countries and alluding to not making the same mistakes made in the west. 

The entire report from Senator Whitehouse can be read here.  We have a doctor in the Senate who I have written about several times and included his video, but again what is this that Congress doesn’t get?  Watch the video at the link above. 

Can we just take the politics out of this and get the smart people in place to get the country back on it’s feet?  I’m beginning to really feel that we have too many folks in positions of authority that don’t want to accept the word “change” and read up.  BD 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Feb. 4 spoke on the Senate floor amid rumors of support for an amendment to strip health information technology funding from the economic stimulus bill.

"Of all the dumb mistakes that we could make in this bill, that would be the very dumbest of all," Whitehouse told colleagues. "It would harm the immediate element of job creation that is important to this infrastructure. It would slow down the development of a national health information infrastructure. And it would compromise our ability to deal with the health care crisis that is looming just behind the economic crisis we are dealing with now."

Senator: Don't Strip I.T. From Bill

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Obama's Healthcare Economic Plan – Leaders with “Hands On” Technology Experience and Algorithms Needed

Interoperability Advice for the New Administration – AHIC

Lawmakers Consider Adding Health IT to Stimulus Package – We Need some Congressional Algorithms

New federal study shows barriers to healthcare IT - All over the place

Senator Dr. Tom Coburn – Talks about Bloggers, Healthcare and Technology from the US Senate…

EHR Adoption Remains Off in the Distance – Getting way to complicated

Desmond Tutu Presents e-Health Call to Action – Learn from the mistakes of the US

The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative announces the rollout of WellportSM, the greater-Newburyport health information exchange

The MAeHC Blog: Blog Update and Press Release...

Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative - Press Release

Technorati Tags: Congress,Health IT,Healthcare funding,Algorithms,Technology,Health Records,EHR,PHR,personal health records

IBM’s part of the project is to supply the software. This will allow devices to connect via USB and as I have mentioned many times over, automatically input the data, not sitting down and typing it all in. Back in November I had written about Continua relative to making blue tooth devices easer to work with and getting certified. Continua is an organization that supports interoperable health care technology products.

Read about what’s going on at the Cleveland Clinic for a better idea here with the HealthVault as well and has a multitude of devices that already connect.

We do need to help educate everyone on how the programs work as they are free, for some strange reason everyone is still relating to having to type everything in and fails to look at the integrated side of things. I have permanent links on this site to go to both web pages.

Again, I do mention education and at least taking a look at what you can do. My 84 year old mother, who is blind in one eye has both a Google Health Account and a HealthVault account and has no problems with using either one, and yes I did teach her how to use it as well, but now she rolls right on her own, but again this comes back around to the education process once again. These are free consumer products, but as mentioned below do we look at PHRs being for those guys over there?

Personal Health Records (PHR), I don’t do technology said the CEO, “it’s for those guys over there”

A couple weeks ago I watched the testimonies in front of Congress and they didn’t seem to comprehend it either as it appeared nobody even hinted to knowing what a PHR is and it had to be explained, back to education once more for all of us. BD

IBM (NYSE: IBM), in collaboration with Google and the Continua Health Alliance, today announced new software that will enable personal medical devices used for patient monitoring, screening and routine evaluation to automatically stream data results into a patient's Google Health Account or other personal health record (PHR). This breakthrough extends the value of PHRs to consumers and also helps to ensure that such records are current and accurate at all times. Once stored in a PHR, the data can also be shared with physicians and other members of the extended care network at a user's discretion.

IBM Teams With Google and Continua Health Alliance to Move Data From Remote Personal Medical Devices Into Google Health and Other PHRs

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Education not Fear is Needed with Medical Health Records

Technology “It’s for Those Guys Over There” said the CEO – I Don’t Do Digital Notes

Bringing Providers, Health Care Executives and Administrators into the 21st Century

Personal Health Records – Who’s in the Know and Who has one?

Why Use a PHR – Because It is there and it stands to help decrease medical errors

Social Security likes PHRs too – wanting to work with EMR and PHR software with pilot program

TrialX.org – Clinical Investigator Sign up Now Available – Integrates with HealthVault and Google Health PHRs to locate available clinical trials based on health records

Harvard Physician Suggests Getting a Personal Health Record Account

Medicare Pilot Personal Health Care Pilot Program – Education and Awareness Needed

Technorati Tags: PHR,Personal Health Records,Education,Healthcare,Congress,Stimulis,healthcare,EHR,interoperability,Google Health,HealthVault

Well in this case, so much for a front row seat with mosquitoes potentially flying around.  This was done to get attention and focus on one of the projects a the Foundation, malaria.  The mosquitoes of course did not have malaria and I might guess they were special bread for this occasion to be sure, software can do a lot today and those little guys have DNA too.

We need smart folks around and Bill Gates is certainly one and it’s easier to give a coder a personality than it is to learn what he has upstairs by all means.  Also as I mention here on the blog, education, one more time.  I see it from the healthcare side of things and most of it stems back to an attitude of wanting to learn for a lot of it, and yes there are those who don’t have the access that others so and that’s what this is all about, access and education for all.  Funny it made mention of his appearance 10 years ago when it was not stylish to be a geek, boy have things changed and so has Mr. Gates, being able to take the knowledge and time spent with data and then turn that around and help use it in the interest of better healthcare for all.  Nice what smart people with generous hearts can do, when he passes on most of his money will be donated to charity as well, something you would almost never see a CEO from Wall Street consider.  BD 

We certainly saw a peak of activity on Twitter as Bill Gates gave his TED2009 presentation.

There were two main impressions of the talk, both not typical of the technological giant's image. People came away deeply inspired and amused. Take a look:

 

Gates is such an inspiring change agent. I wish that more people in the world took action 2 make change. What a world it would b! #TED

Bill Gates a comedian! Talking about malaria. Pretended to loose mosquitoes from jar. "Not only poor people shd have the experience" --

From the San Francisco Gate:

"I think it's good that the mood was bleak at Davos," said Gates, referring to the recent global economic summit in Switzerland. "People were saying things like, 'How's your economy falling apart? Oh, that's slightly different then mine.' "

That got a few laughs from the crowd, but the magnitude of the situation came back to the fore in short order. "I think we have three, four, five years here that will be very tough," said Gates.

In response to questions on the origin of our troubles, Gates was blunt: "There's no doubt the American consumer was overspending. But there's no government magic bullet to fix things. ... If you actually went back to overspending, you'd just go back to the same problems."

TED Blog: Twitter Snapshot: Bill Gates -- an optimist and a comedian?

Bill Gates and Oliver Sacks to speak at Technology, Entertainment, Design conference (aka TED)

Bill Gates Testifies before Congress - more technology education needed before the US falls behind....

X PRIZE - Gates Foundation providing grant to explore prize for innovative breakthroughs in TB Diagnostics

Bill Gates granted first Einstein Award

Bill Gates – “I’m still pretty hardcore”

Bill Gates Leaving His Fortune to Charity

'Natural Interface' will Become Affordable - Bill Gates

Daschle Out of the Race – Now Let’s Shop for a New Candidate at the “Smart” Store

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates,Microsoft,bg3LLC,philanthropy,technology,Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,Healthcare,NIH,Elias Zerhouni

Earlier this week I posted as did everyone else and had a couple other ideas today worth mentioning.  Many folks are coming from Harvard and the HHS position is going to revolve around 70% of Health IT, so why don’t we start shopping at the “Smart” store instead of the “Political” store. 

Getting the country back on it’s feet today is not so much about creating new laws as it is restructuring with technology and all of us coming to terms that we have to live with it, like it or not.  There are “smart” individuals in the country that can do the job, that are honest, transparent, and have a pretty clean background, so why don’t we try a different route here. 

I would much rather see all on a working educational path and see some good “smart” leaders at the top, rather than those who might not have any first hand working knowledge, and I say that from experience.  Having written code, I understand the over all technology and the interchange of information.  Technology is also moving so fast too that we can’t take months, weeks to create laws either or wait for another OMG story to hit the news.  The SEC and FDA need some “Smart” people too and not just figureheads. 

Bill Gates and his foundation just hired a “Smart” man this week too, something to think about by observing one of the smartest men in the world and how he functions. 

Former US NIH Director Joins the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

I somewhat think of myself as being a pretty straight shooter and call things as I see them, probably due to the fact that I have worked with so many queries in software programs that the correct and truthful analysis process is in my blood, ask any coder you will get pretty much the same answer. 

So for today, this is my 2 cents worth, stop shopping at the “political” store and see what the “smart” store has to offer and progress will be made.  Harvard is one good place to start that search.  BD 

Tom Daschle Withdraws – We Live in a World of Transparency

From the New York Times below, but this does drive home the fact that there’s not much room to hide anymore.  Interesting how we find audit and data trails back when we really want to be the “inquiring minds”, but in other areas that tend to be more related to just the every day tasks of running a business or government, we lag a bit. 

When it comes right down to the detailed facts about almost anyone today, if you dig far and hard enough, you will find something that you may not like or agree with.  After the last 8 years, ethics and transparency are on the minds of all, and the citizens of the US, along with our leaders really want to know what and what makes up the individuals who will serve.  It’s like trying to find a perfect mate, there is none, just one that you can trust and hopefully through finding out a bit about the past and what they are today along with what baggage they carry with them up front, it will lead to the ultimate healthy selection of our leaders.  Nobody wants to deal with the unknown, but if open and transparent from the start, people can actually be pretty forgiving if it of course is not something that would threaten our national security or something large along those lines. 

So by today’s standards, if you are going to be in the public eye anywhere, be ready for the “Electronic Spanish Inquisition”.  BD 

Technorati Tags: HHS,Bill Gates Foundation,Government,Health IT,Harvard,healthcare,technology,algorithms,FDA,SEC,coders,Daschle,Microsoft

This is an interesting article with new health cards, but leaves a few questions if you will.  It states no information is stored on the card, thus does the card to go the website to find the individual patient information?  Also it says the patient has to give permission, so how is that done, does the patient have to log on to their account first as they would with any PHR type of system? 

Any standard reader can use the card?  Again, a little more information might be helpful to understand what this card really does.  The announcement left out a few specifics so until there is more known on how it works, that’s about all I can add.  They also recently became part of Microsoft HealthVault, so in essence is this information not all available to bring to your own PHR account and allow access? 

One other item here that struck me a bit strange was still having Ingenix listed as part of the group in the “about” area.  if you remember a recent post the New York Attorney General shut down Ingenix as they made 1.3 billion last year on scrutinizing claims and paid a big fine too.  Maybe that was just an over sight on the publication here.  So what are these new algorithms programmed in to the cards going to do?  BD  

From a prior post: Prescription risk scores

“Did you know there's a market for your prescription data?  Insurance companies are buying prescription data collected from companies like Milliman Intelliscript and Ingenix to help them make insurance coverage determinations.
Right now lawmakers are trying to figure out how to oversee a health-industry shift to computerized records and insurers have started testing systems that tap into prescription drug information.

Milliman Intelliscript, part of the Milliman Company, collects data from Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) that are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Then insurance companies pay a small fee to obtain the data, which they use to deny or approve claim requests.”

“Ingenix, a Minnesota-based health information services company that had $1.3 billion in sales last year -- and Wisconsin-based rival Milliman -- say the drug profiles are an accurate, less expensive alternative to seeking physician records, which can take months and hundreds of dollars to obtain.

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Consistent with its ongoing commitment to make it easier for physicians to administer health care, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is the first to apply new industry standards to customer health care ID cards across all its businesses. This gives physicians and other care providers simpler access to more real-time information about their patients, while also advancing a single data platform for health care ID cards industry wide.

These advances will help simplify administrative processes for physician office staff, improve accuracy, and increase both customer and physician satisfaction. UnitedHealth Group collaborated with the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as physician and hospital associations to create the new health care ID card standards.

New national standards now require health care ID cards to include a magnetic stripe that can be read through a standard card-reader machine, and also be designed with a standard layout to increase readability and be compliant with the National Council for Prescription Programs. The new cards will enable this enhanced swiping capability by using what is referred to as the 'third track' of the magnetic stripe on the back of the card.

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making health care work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.

StreetInsider.com - UnitedHealth Group Makes It Simpler for Physicians to Administer Health Care with Updated Customer ID Cards

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Connecticut Attorney General also investigating UnitedHealthcare and Ingenix

Prescriptions risk score used to deny health insurance

Health insurer accused of overcharging millions – United Health Care/Oxford Insurance 50 Million Fine

Health insurer accused of overcharging millions – United Health Care/Oxford Insurance 50 Million Fine

UnitedHealth settles misstating executive compensation allegation with the SEC – Use their PHR?

UnitedHealth Will Sell You Insurance to guarantee that in the future you will be able to get insurance?

UnitedHealth Creates Personal Health Records With Online Health Venture

Algorithms, Formulas and Investigations leads to AARP suspending sales of some health plans

Technorati Tags: Health Insurance,Health Insurance Reserves,United HealthCare,fines,overcharges,Inginex,algorithms,formulas,ID Cards,PHR

Today is to bring about an awareness for the need for healthy life styles for the children and focus on prevention.  Studies are beginning to show relationships of obesity to cancer so the campaign here today is to remind us all about healthy life styles and eating habits.  You can also add your name as a supporter here as well.  BD 

The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising dramatically among adults and children around the world. According to the World Health Organization, 1 billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million of these are clinically obese.

On World Cancer Day, 4 February 2009, UICC will launch "I love my healthy active childhood", the second full-year theme in the "Today's children, tomorrow's world" cancer prevention campaign.

UICC aims to raise awareness of the link between overweight, obesity and cancer.
Because healthy habits start early, the campaign calls on families, health professionals, educators and policymakers to help children eat a healthy diet and be physically active, so that they can maintain a healthy body weight – setting them on the right path to reduce their risk of cancer later in life.

UICC | World Cancer Campaign - 'I love my healthy active childhood' overview

Technorati Tags: Cancer,obesity,healthcare,WHO

There are also plans to visit Google and Facebook.  Of course e-health was right up there being a topic of conversation relative to electronic medical records.  It appears the governor is taking technology seriously and understands what it means to the community as well.  BD 

Yesterday morning in Redmond, WA, Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts sat down with Ray Ozzie, the chief software architect of Microsoft. They talked about high-tech innovation in the Boston area, how Microsoft views its own global future, and how the company could work together with Massachusetts to help drive the local economy.

In their meeting with Ozzie, Gov. Patrick’s team spoke of Boston’s innovation strengths in e-health (including electronic medical records), Internet video, gaming, and mobile communications. Ozzie pointed out the strong high-tech talent pool in the Boston area, as well as the high quality of education in Massachusetts, from K-12 public schools to elite universities. They discussed Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, MA, which officially opened last September, as being part of the company’s efforts to tap the best local talent in computer science and mathematics.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Visits Microsoft to Build Ties With the Northwest | Xconomy

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Microsoft outlines the future of computing – MIT Emerging Technology

Microsoft's Mundie gives campuses peek at Tech's future – Tablet PC

Microsoft's Sphere display in action - Global Electronic Medical Records?

Technorati Tags: e-health,Microsoft,Massachusetts,Deval Patrick,technology,electronic medical records,EHR,PHR,heatlhcare,Boston,MIT,Microsoft Research

The fall out continues and sadly for the non profits, a center that was helping those with cancer.  Also, the Shapiro Foundation will not be creating any new grants for the year 2009.  

The SEC, just like the FDA needs to have the talent and technology to be able to monitor and hopefully our government is now painfully aware as are many citizens that lack of technology will get one “screwed”, as there is no bliss left.  I’m sure there will be more agencies added to the list as time moves on, and hopefully the SEC can leave poor sick Steve Jobs alone and go after some real culprits.  BD 

BOSTON - February 03, 2009 - The Greater Boston area has lost a free source of support and education for people with cancer.
The Wellness Community of Greater Boston in Newton, Mass., abruptly closed its doors Monday, citing the economic downturn and a drop-off in donations, stemming from Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme.
As a result, the Wellness Community has canceled free nutrition programs, yoga classes, meditation and networking groups

Non-Profit Cancer Center Closes In Wake Of Madoff Scandal (WBUR)

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How Wall Street Lied to Its Computers – Software and Programming

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Technorati Tags: Obama Healthcare Plan,healthcare,algorithms,"Hands On Technology",Congressional Algorithms,Technology,medical records,White House,SEC,FDA,Madoff,charities

This is very cool and with development, it could also have some real applications in healthcare too, taking a snapshot of let’s say a tumor or something else related to patient images, if the x-ray or other image needed to be viewed at another location for a simple example or the image was needed to make notations. 

This is wild how this functions to zero in and see the image in XRay form.  Don’t forget too there’s an even larger Surface in development that will be for healthcare too.  BD 

The basic premise is that the iPhone allows the user to see through the image on Microsoft Surface's screen into additional imagery or data - or allow the user to capture an image and take it with them. Not to be left out, this is also working on phones running Windows Mobile and Android. Hats off to Josh, Darrin and the rest of the crew at Simulant for always thinking outside the box.. literally.

Stimulant: XRay from Stimulant on Vimeo.

Microsoft Surface Blog : Stimulant labs mashup with XRay of an iPhone with Microsoft Surface

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Hospital Operator Demos Health Care Application For Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's SurfaceWare could get you drunk faster than drinks through a straw

Protein Folding on Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface Technology on MSNBC

Microsoft Surface to be used at the Super Bowl to Coordinate Security

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Surface,healthcare,technology,iPhone,XRay

A while back I wrote something similar, with the same theme and it’s about time for another discussion in the “it’s for those guys over there” category. It’s just my simple opinion, but this is part of the whole education process going on today, getting everyone to embrace and at least try a free PHR and see what it’s all about.

What’s with those big ugly yellow pads?

They talk about all their bright employees and staff and yet, the seem to conduct themselves and much of their business with methodologies from the past. Speaking here of healthcare, why do those CEOs still carry yellow pads? Have they not heard of digital notes, iPhones or Tablet PCs or PHRs?

Perhaps the CEO (or any other person of authority) might think, well the hospital will have my records, well maybe, and maybe not. Not all hospitals have electronic medical records and no amount of bellowing, screaming, pulling rank or what ever you might want to call it is going to help if you end up in an emergency room with paper charts that are not electronically connected. So, Mr. CEO is out on a camping trip in Wyoming and feels a potential heart attack coming on and is in a panic. Helicopter takes him to the closest hospital, but can he remember to quickly tell the clinicians about his medications, past procedures if needed, maybe and maybe not, but remember he said PHRs are for those guys over there.

To the ER doctor on duty, he’s not a CEO, he’s another patient who they are going to try their best to help and the physician would dearly love to have any credible information he/she could get their hands on, as many ER physicians have told me, they get a lot of “I take one blue pill, in the morning, 2 yellow ones during the day and one green one at night”….so what does the doctor have to work with? Good question, but remember “PHRs are for those guys over there.”

A quick log on to a PHR would make all this information possible. Maybe even his wife could do this too if he were in too much pain, meantime the wife is over there filling out reams of paperwork as the CEO is screaming, in pain, and still pondering his CEO status.

There are many types of PHRs on the market, some free and some you pay for.

Some PHRs require that you sit down and try to remember all your medications, procedures, histories, etc. and type them all in yourself, a task that takes time and relies on memory at some point.

Some PHRs are equipped with partners (Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault) that can make data entry from your drug stores, labs, medical devices, locate clinical trials,etc. automatic with a couple clicks. I like these the best as it makes data entry easier and it is credible data and formatted.

Many PHRs partner with Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, like the ones at the hospital and at the CVS Minute Clinics, so guess what, instant records without you having to type all the information in the record. Medicare is using them on a pilot program, and the military used both Google and HealthVault to write their PHR that integrates.

Pay very close attention here with Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault, they have partners, plain and simple, get set up and click in your information from CVS, Longs, Quest Labs, the American Heart Association and more, unless you want to spend all the time doing the work yourself. The buttons below will take you to Google Health and HealthVault, so go look around and take a tour if you have not used a PHR.

PHRs a comparison and opinions

I don’t know why everyone misses the big convenience point of these 2 PHRs and still think it all has to be typed in manually?

Time for some new PHR Paradigms? These 2 PHRs are for everyone, contrary to the CEO’s saying “it’s for those guys over there” in the time of needing credible information that could be lifesaving. You could look at this one other way as well, “yes they are for those guys over there, those guys over there trying to save your life”. BD

Related Reading:

Think tank details its ideas for use of health IT records – Do they use a PHR?

Education not Fear is Needed with Medical Health Records

Technology “It’s for Those Guys Over There” said the CEO – I Don’t Do Digital Notes

Bringing Providers, Health Care Executives and Administrators into the 21st Century

Personal Health Records – Who’s in the Know and Who has one?

Why Use a PHR – Because It is there and it stands to help decrease medical errors

Social Security likes PHRs too – wanting to work with EMR and PHR software with pilot program

TrialX.org – Clinical Investigator Sign up Now Available – Integrates with HealthVault and Google Health PHRs to locate available clinical trials based on health records

Harvard Physician Suggests Getting a Personal Health Record Account

Medicare Pilot Personal Health Care Pilot Program – Education and Awareness Needed

Technorati Tags: PHR,Personal Health Records,Education,Healthcare,Congress,Stimulis,healthcare,EHR,interoperability,Google Health,HealthVault