Google Integrating “Google Health” Information Into Search Engine Results

I tried this out a few times and it’s true, when you search for an item, “Google Health” results are at the top of the heap.  This is one example and I did a few more. 

What I saw next didn’t necessarily make me happy but it allows you to get an alert if they discover any security breaches, here’s the screenshot.

So from here on, it appears that when you use Google to search, their own links will be first on the list.  BD 

Thanks to a tip from Stuart we learned Google Health is now being integrated into health search results. For instance, if you Google search "hay fever," the top search result is Google Health. The health content is provided by A.D.A.M., an online provider of health content that is physician reviewed for consumers.
Taking the number one spot for themselves, Google is making their move to be the source where consumers get their online health information and potentially dominate health search. I guess if you're Google, organic search results are whatever you want them to be.

Google now integrating its own Google Health service into your search results

Technorati Tags: Google Health, Google, search, medical, healthcare, medical records, PHR, personal health records, internet

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Medical Waste Being Recycled Into Building Materials and More – Pella-DRX Pellets

Pella-DRX is the name of the product once it has been recycled which is a pellet.  That needle used today to give your injection may end up being part of a building wall in the future.  Disposal by mail makes it convenient to send to the facility. 

They also manage medical waste such as unused vaccines too.  The H1N1 and Tamiflu are slated as a couple examples of what they can handle. 

For big jobs there’s the 18 gallon container and just think of how much less will go to landfills.  If you are a consumer needing to dispose of needles they have you covered there too. 

From the website:

“PELLA-DRX™ represents an evolution in the field of medical waste management which includes the repurposing of materials once destined for a landfill into a useful resource. This first-of-its-kind Waste Conversion Process™ ("WCP") transforms discarded needles, syringes, lancets and other medical waste into a new product called PELLA-DRX™ – which is used in the manufacture of many types of resources including cement, vital to everything from homes to highways to high-rise buildings. This process renders the origin of the product indistinguishable and removes all hazards from the medical waste. WCP eliminates Sharps' landfill use by 100%.
For the first time, medical waste is converted into a safe and useful material as sterile as sterile surgical instruments. PELLA-DRX™ and the Waste Conversion process renders materials once considered waste, a new and useful life.”

Just last week I posted on pharmacies that can help you get rid of your unwanted drugs and Sharps is part of that program as well.

Don’t Flush Unused Medications – We Don’t Want Your Prozac in the Water – Dispose My Meds Website Can Help

The big amazing part here though to me is the pellets that the company makes and where they get used, like in cement. I guess if China can make bricks out of melamine, what’s to say this is not a good solution.  Remember melamine was the ingredient that was added to milk to give a false sense of nutritional value last year.   They may have melamine pellets over there.

China wants to make bricks from toxic milk - melamine

Here’s the video that explains more of the process, and again if this patent pending process keeps stuff out of landfills and removes pathogens at the same time, we might have a real winner.  BD 

Back in the 70’s, Mad Magazine ran a satirical article proposing crazy new methods of dealing with garbage. One of them involved taking the trash, compressing it into cubes, then building things out of those. Flash forward to 2010, and a Houston company is doing almost that very thing, and with medical waste, no less. Sharps Compliance takes items like needles, syringes and lancets, and presses them into a pelletized building material called PELLA-DRX.

To make the product, the waste is first sent through an autoclave, which kills any pathogens. Next, it goes through a shredder, which reduces its volume by over 90%. Finally, it gets compressed into pellets, which bear no visual clues as to their origins.

Medical waste no longer being wasted

Technorati Tags: healthcare, medical, prescriptions, medical waste, pharmaceutical waste, recycling, Sharps, Pella-Drx, medications, needles, syringe

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Johnson and Johnson McNeil Healthcare Group Recalls Children’s Over the Counter Liquid Medications

The company stated that the chances of any harm are pretty remote, and the problem relates to the inactive ingredients that do not meet normal standards.  You can read the official announcement at the FDA website here.  Below is a sample of what you need to read to find the lot and NDC numbers for the products affected.

I have had this little campaign going on here relative to recalls and I’ll just add this, it would certainly be easier to have the availability to just use a cell phone to scan bottles.  The list of products recalled is a bit longer than what I have included above so be sure to look at the links listed below to search out and find those numbers and you may need to make a print out of the list instead of going back and forth to the computer.  Again, the cell phone with Tags would really make this quick and easy I think. 

 

Microsoft Tags on CBS Early Show – Wake Up FDA, Pharma and Medical Device Companies –Scan Those Drugs, Medical Devices and Synchronize with an FDA Tag Data Base – Recalls, Theft Tracking and More….

The video below shows how this works and the Tags will be seen in TV Guide as well starting this month, so a good place to practice, although it is very simple.  Watch the video and create your own opinion if you think this would be much simpler and easier to do.

Here’s a sample tag above to practice with and I also have my 2 tags on the blog at all times too, one is a simple text document and the other tag takes you to the Medical Quack blog on your phone’s browser.  BD

The McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit of Johnson & Johnson has voluntarily begun a recall of certain children’s over-the-counter liquid medicines because of manufacturing deficiencies, the Food and Drug Administration said Saturday.

The deficiencies may affect the potency, purity or quality of the products, the agency said in a statement.

Consumers should stop using certain lots of infants’ and children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl products because some of them may contain too much of the active ingredient, McNeil said in a statement late Friday. Other products may contain tiny particles or inactive ingredients that may not meet testing requirements, the company said.

The recalled products include lots of Tylenol Infants’ Drops, Children’s Tylenol Suspensions, Infants’ Motrin Drops, Children’s Zyrtec liquid in bottles and Children’s Benadryl Allergy liquids in bottles.

McNeil advised consumers who bought the products to stop using them.

For more information about the recall from McNeil, consumers may go to the company’s Web site, mcneilproductrecall.com. Consumers may also reach McNeil at (888) 222-6036 from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday and on the weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time.

Children’s Tylenol and Other Drugs Recalled - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: recalls, FDA, Windows Tags, safely, medical devices. heatlhcare, technology, scanning, drugs, cell phones, Tags, information, Johnson and Johnson, McNeil Consumer Healthcare

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Remember the Billionaire’s Summit in May 2009 – Oprah Did a Lot of Listening It Was Reported and She’s on Fire Today With Technology

The meeting was held almost a year ago, but stop and take a look at what Oprah has going on these days.  Have you noticed the use of Skype regularly on her show.   She could choose to use something more expensive and exotic for her shows, but by using something that everybody can use, like Skype, the message comes across.  She also has an app and you can read more over at MacWorld and it only costs 99 cents and you don’t even have to go to the 99 Cent store to get it.  The link below talks about the meeting from last year that was spear headed by Bill Gates. 

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah, Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, Jr. and more – Billionaire’s Summit Meeting Held in New York

Did you know the White House has an app too? 

Not To Be Left Out, White House Has an IPhone App Now Too – It’s Free Of Course

I have mentioned before “if we could only get Oprah to show the world how to use a “PHR” we would be styling a bit here in healthcare, link below from last year when CMS started pilot PHR program with little or no support.  I mentioned Dr. Oz chiming in and he has done so quite since my original comment below. 

Where Are the PHR Mentors – Education Required as the Arizona Senior Project is Finding Out with Little Participation

“One other big part of the problem is the fact that we have very few role models, you don’t see anyone in Congress getting behind this either or anyone who is large in the public eye, maybe we need Oprah to sign up to make some impact or Dr. Oz to chime in to break some important ground here.”

If you have not taken notice in the last year see how much technology talk Oprah is doing these days.  Recently she started a campaign with cell phone safety too, don’t get distracted when driving, no texting.   Your car should be a “no phone” zone.

As a matter of fact this Friday, today was the first “National No Phone Zone Day.”  This means no texting and driving.  Speaking of such do you know how hard that is to do that come to think of it?  It’s not easy and even with holding the phone to your ear and talking accidents happen.  In some states it is against the law.  I found this nice little portable hands free Blue tooth device for $40.00 that works for me.  Once you pair your phone, the minute the lighter plug has power it automatically connects and you are hands free.  I was impressed and it’s in the car all the time now and what is nice is that if you travel and rent cars, take it with you in rental cars too.

Black Series™ by Shift3® Bluetooth® Hands-Free Auto Speaker – It Works!

We have a lot of new medical devices that report data that require some interaction and some talk with your phone too, so this is another area to keep in mind as well in the distraction area, as if we can’t handle cell phones now with call sand texting and be safe, what’s the future when we pile more on to the phone that require responses.  If you have a wellness coach chasing you down over exercise or medications for follow up, this has to be done correctly as well with room for slack before people get penalized for not responding within a certain time limit, especially if driving. 

The Wireless Future of Medicine – The Forgotten Element of Meaningful Use -Eric Topol –TED 2010 (Video)

Anyway as this article points out how her use of mobile technology is really important with drawing an interest the continued use and visuals used on television hopefully will bring more into the fold.  Oprah Twitters a little bit but that’s ok I didn’t like it much at first either, but boy has that changed.  Oprah is one of the few role models we have that does not subscribe to the idea that technology “is for those guys over there” and does her best to be “hands on” to try and experience herself.  BD   

Oprah Winfrey announced the launch of Oprah Mobile this week, a smartphone app that includes content from the talk show host’s TV and radio shows, O Magazine and affiliated websites. Oprah Mobile is a $1.99 app that offers “helpful advice” on a variety of topics including “spirit, health, beauty, cooking” and more.

As Jason Ankeny writes over at Fierce Mobile Content, the importance of Oprah Mobile could be tremendous:

“Oprah is unique–more a spiritual leader than a media magnate, her influence on her fan base is incalculable, and if she tells her audience to download her app, they will listen. For viewers who’ve previously relied on their handsets exclusively to make calls and send text messages, Oprah Mobile could be the application that redefines their user experience.”

Sure, Oprah Mobile could be the first mobile app Oprah’s audience adopts, and it could drive interest within her fan base to make the jump from feature phones to smartphones. Whatever the case may be, Oprah Mobile is sure to move the needle on sales of health-related mobile content. Its advent is a good thing for the budding mobile health industry.

Why Oprah’s app is important for mHealth | mobihealthnews

Technorati Tags: Oprah, healthcare, technology, role model, PHR, cell phones, safety, texting, app, IPhone, blue tooth, Skype, mobility

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The FDA Wants A Price Increase Too – User Fees for Medical Device Companies

Small businesses are still given a break for first time applications .  Their fiscal year begins in October so if passed, the new rates could be in effect within months for the fiscal year 2011.  By comparison what companies spend to get to this point to file may not look that substantial. 

Now with all the devices that report data, there’s a lot more to the processes and even an attempt to possibly have less reliance on outside agencies help perform some of their evaluations, especially in the area of radiation treatment.  They might just need to get some in house code heads around to help out here as devices and their software are very specific in nature and are getting more diverse as they are produced in the “brain” department, in other words, the software an algorithms that make them work.  

Medical Device Analysis Outsourcing to Third Parties Under Review at the FDA – Are Some Potentially Lethal Algorithms Being Missed In the Process

One other little note from a couple months ago, the top medical device regulator left the FDA and went to work at Microsoft, which might be a very good thing as she learns the other side of the fence to create collaborative efforts in the software needed at the FDA.  BD

FDA Medical-Device Regulator Leaves to Take Position at Microsoft Health Solutions Group – Director of Regulations and Policy

The Food & Drug Administration proposes to raise user fees paid by medical device makers to determine how they should apply for clearance or approval from the federal watchdog.

The Food & Drug Administration is proposing to raise the user fees it charges medical device makers seeking to have their devices approved for market.

The FDA's 513(g) request for classification process allows device makers to ask the federal watchdog agency how their devices should be classified and what protocol they should use to seek clearance or approval. The agency sets two tiers, one for businesses with more than $100 million in sales and another, lower fee rate for smaller businesses.

The fee for fiscal year 2010 is $2,941 for large businesses; the agency is proposing to raise that by 17.7 percent to $3,191 for fiscal year 2011, which begins in October. The small business fee, currently $1,470, is slated to rise to $1,595 during FY2010, an 8.5 percent increase.

FDA aims to raise user fees | MassDevice - Medical Device Industry News

Technorati Tags: FDA, government, budget, user fees, medical devices, heatlhcare, reform

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Insurer Refuses to Pay for Credit Monitoring Services Given to University of Utah Patients Who’s Records Were Stolen – The Expensive Credit Monitoring Service Provided Bill of $2.5 Million

Ok this is not a small physician’s office who incurred the breach, which was solved and records returned, but in the meantime protection had to be offered to the tune of $2.5 million dollars in fees.  The University of Utah is now tied up in court trying to get the carrier of the courier company to cover it. 

The courier service who has a contract for storing records made the error in leaving the magnetic tapes in a box where it was stolen from the car.  Perpetual, the company providing the storage service for the sensitive records of course no longer a contractor had insurance to cover this and their insurers are the parties who are not paying.  Colorado Casualty Insurance is the one refusing to pay to cover the vendor.   In the meantime, recovering cost by the University is at a loss.  

This is an ugly battle by all means, but if you don’t get anything else from reading this, look at the big cost involved with security breaches and do all you can to avoid them.  Prevention is a lot cheaper than the bill in question here.  BD

A Colorado insurance company contends it is not obligated to cover astronomical costs incurred by the University of Utah in 2008 after car burglars stole medical billings records filed with sensitive personal information on 1.7 million patients.

U. officials want Perpetual Storage to reimburse the university more than $3.3 million. That's how much the school spent notifying patients of the theft and providing credit monitoring to any who asked, according to a suit filed by the firm's insurer, Colorado Casualty Insurance Co., in U.S. District Court.

The insurer insists the claim is not covered by Perpetual's policy and is seeking a judicial ruling to support its position.

In violation of company policies, a Perpetual courier left electronic U. patient records, stored on magnetic tapes and secured in a metal box, in his personal vehicle overnight in June 2008, police reported. Thieves broke into the car, parked outside a Kearns residence, and made off with the box, whose contents covered 16 years worth of hospital and clinic billings. The records were filled with Social Security numbers, dates of birth and procedure codes that tech-savvy criminals could use to steal patients' identities.

The heist earned the two culprits jail sentences and restitution limited to the $500 value of the metal box. But the crime was not solved in time to spare the U. the obligation of contacting thousands of patients.

According to the insurer's suit, the U. claims it generated 6,232 in personnel hours responding to "the Incident" and spent $646,149 on printing and mailing costs and another $81,389 on a phone bank to field more than 11,000 calls over two weeks. But the big hit was nearly $2.5 million for credit-monitoring services for those whose Social Security numbers could have been poached.

Insurer rejects claims related to stolen U. medical records - Salt Lake Tribune

Technorati Tags: Security breach, credit monitoring services, stolen records, medical records, identify theft, courier service, storage, social security numbers, lawsuit

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Sleep Farting – There’s a Solution, The Better Marriage Blanket (Video)

Now what is it in our DNA that causes this (grin).  This look like a real product but I’m not sure here, but who am I to say.  Makes a great wedding gift (funny).

Gee I wonder if this problem is discovered in some of those sleep apnea studies, never thought about this before (grin). 

It is charcoal filtered, like like a comforter, same fabric the military used to protect against chemical weapons. 

Is your spouse stinky enough to be considered a “chemical weapon”. 

A couple years ago I did a post about a real product for this purpose charcoal filtered underwear, Under Ease, so if the blanket does not do the trick, you may need additional reinforcements here.

Here’s the video for the reinforcements (this is real product).  BD

Kiss your marital woes goodbye. Just don't kiss the blanket. Why, you ask? Because it's not only absorbed not only your troubles, but also your partner's nighttime bonanza of flatulence. The "Better Marriage Blanket" (obviously the number one cause of mediocre marriages is sleep-farting) not only exists, but it may be the first device created solely to fight farting.

The Better Marriage Blanket Eliminates Flatulence, Saves Relationships (VIDEO)

Technorati Tags: flutulance, sleeping, humor, sleep apnea, medical humor, charcoal underwear, charcoal blanket, healthcare, chemical warfare, farts, odor, blanket

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“Is This All There is” One Senator Announced His Retirement at Age 54 – A Culture of Nonparticipation (Opinion)

The article here addresses much of the political feelings and goings on in Congress, but for my little post here, I’m going use a simple analogy here, lack of participation and growing with the times.  I think visuals speak much stronger than words and being a “geek” here I have found that I can save a lot of time and words with the use of visuals.  We have an emerging world of technology that can’t be overlooked and to be successful, everyone needs to read up and participate at some levels, at least the basics.  This week I watched and listened to part of the Senate hearings with Goldman Sachs and speaking of visuals, what did I see, a whole bunch of non participants in technology, broadcast on national TV. 

Take a look at the CEO from Goldman Sachs below, look at those huge binders of paper and not once, but many times throughout the hearing we had to stop and wait and watch him stumbled through the mounds of paper to get on course to answer questions being posed on specific matters being questioned.  I’m not going to comment there with this post and that’s better left to another separate post and I have a few of those here on this blog too. 

In looking at the visuals I saw by watching this week, the message to me anyway was loud and clear, “it’s ok to keep those 8 track tapes around, we still use them” (grin), but the reality of the matter is how many others still use them and what is the future with having devices that can work with them?  I am making an analogy here with the lack of technology and participation at all levels of our society.  We want and are pushing for digital health records so what’s wrong with the rest of the world buying in here and creating some real role models, as we have very few.  It’s always the attitude of “its for those guys over there” that seems to prevail. 

You would have to be “living under a rock” today to not know that digital content is everywhere and this includes saving trees and using devices such as IPads, Tablet PCs, IPhones, Kindles, and so on to read digital material.  Why is this so popular, it is technology that makes the process easier for us and saves time when one can simple put in a keyword and find what you are looking for almost instantly.  Based on sales of such devices, I don’t I’m wrong here (grin). 

I had a few doctors too that use tablet pcs and mobile devices that “liked” the idea of seeing our leaders using the technology too that took time to add some positives comments!

(I use tablets and have since they came out, so just for the record I have a section on this blog about tablets and use mine all the time, so just wanted to take a minute and clarify this so as not to be confused with someone just repeating what they read in the news and on the web.)

So I ask the question of why can’t “they” do this?  In my small estimation seeing the visual on national TV says it’s ok to keep those “8’tracks” around and we are certainly going to keep ours?  There’s a whole new brave world outside of the “8’track” era and it could certainly help to have some role models move over into the area of participation to show citizens that this is the way the world has and is changing.  If you want to maintain and grow constituent confidence, this is certainly not the visual I feel is what is going to do the trick.   

These are the same folks that vote on healthcare reform which is all about technology and furthering both the care and budgeting side of the issues.  Sometimes I wonder what Medicare and other agencies who have invested in upgrading their technology think about some of this too. What gives here?  If we don’t participate and become role models at some point in time we come back to “is that all there is”.  I think the one comment made in this article kind of sums it up a bit:

“So why doesn't Congress work? The simplest answer is that the country has changed, and Congress has not changed alongside it.”

One More Member of Congress Announces Retirement – I Think We are Up to 35 Now – It’s Complicated!

There are more retiring as I wrote in the post above so Senator Bayh is not alone.  We have a lot of data and material to read and absorb today in order to hopefully make the right educated and information based decisions and that is not found on an 8 track tape.  Congress is not the only area experiencing those hanging on to their 8 track tapes, it’s happening in the lobbying effort areas and with private companies. 

What Happens When Transparency Makes Lobbying Too Difficult – They Retire Just Like Many Executives Do

The pharmaceutical companies can’t keep up with the amount of anti-depressants needed to help us all out either, as this is flat out depressing (grin).   It can certainly stand to increase their sales, but all kidding aside here with the above comment this is not the answer we need.  Shoot their lobbyists are retiring too.

Everyday we see new breakthroughs with healthcare and technology and this is “new normal” like it or not.  By writing this blog I am cognizant of that fact alone.  Aside from the political arena here, I just see this lack of clinging to old methodologies as one of the biggest stumbling blocks that greatly hinders progress and again when I have the visual in my face, I feel I need to perhaps bring this to light for an awareness so maybe others might comprehend what we have going on here.  How important is technology here, well Citigroup put out a press release on their new “algorithms” to compete with Goldman, it’s all about those algos if you will, and algorithms are what is used with digital and internet technology today, so again if you use this stuff, you kind of get the picture here.  Let me ask this question, what if all the brokers had big binders of stock information to fish through to advice their investors?  Yeah, fat chance as that’s not the system that works today and that comment in itself should have brought a few chuckles here (grin). 

Citigroup Releases New Trading Algorithms In Hopes to Capture Business From Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse Groupe – It’s all About Those “Algos”

Anyway, in closing, my feelings are that it would certainly be a welcome experience to see our leaders embrace and use new technology as that’s what happening all around us and be good role models to show the rest of the world that we are participating and not hanging on to 8-tracks, healthcare certainly isn’t and needs funding and leadership backing to create successful healthcare reform.  As I say all the time at this blog, “there’s nothing like first hand experience to enhance your curiosity and education processes”. 

Bill Gates  mentioned the effect of the “hybrid” individuals at his address at Berkeley with having the brightest minds working on the most important problems , those are hopefully the ones that will end up in leadership roles as they have and practice knowledge and experience in more than one area, and that’s the world we live in today.  Mr. Gates too is more than just a smart man, he calls himself an “optimist” and is constantly looking forward to what technology can do, and the link below is a good example, a company that can use technology to generate and create new drugs that can either serve as vaccines or cures with virtual technology with research and development.  In a virtual environment this can create safer work spaces too for scientists with not having to deal with some of the actual “live” created viruses and bacteria needed to study to create new drugs, a virtual virus or bacteria let’s face it could offer some real advantages here with development.  The recent case with the Pfizer scientist comes to mind here with being exposed to certain biotech bacteria and substances.

Bill Gates Invests In Software Company That Predicts and Helps Generate Creating New Drugs

If there is not a consensus, even the individuals trying to make a difference will give up eventually and throw in the towel out of frustration with the inability to make progress.  BD 

So why doesn't Congress work? The simplest answer is that the country has changed, and Congress has not changed alongside it. Congress used to function despite its extraordinary minority protections because the two parties were ideologically diverse. Democrats used to provide a home to the Southern conservatives known as the Dixiecrats. The GOP used to include a bloc of liberals from the Northeast. With the parties internally divided and different blocs arising in shifting coalitions, it wasn't possible for one party to pursue a strategy of perpetual obstruction. But the parties have become ideologically coherent, leaving little room for cooperation and creating new incentives for minority obstruction.

There was no scandal. Bayh wasn't plagued by poor fundraising or low poll numbers. Nor is fatigue a likely explanation: at 54, Bayh is fairly young, at least when you're grading on the curve that is the United States Senate.

What drove Bayh from office, rather, was that he'd grown to hate his job. Congress, he wrote in a New York Times op-ed, is "stuck in an endless cycle of recrimination and revenge. The minority seeks to frustrate the majority, and when the majority is displaced it returns the favor. Power is constantly sought through the use of means which render its effective use, once acquired, impossible."

Congress has managed to pass a lot of legislation, and some of it has been historic. But our financial system is not fixed and our health-care problems are not solved. Indeed, when it comes to the toughest decisions Congress must make, our representatives have passed them off to some other body or some future generation.

As for foreign policy and national security, Congress has so abdicated its role over war and diplomacy that Garry Wills, in his new book, Bomb Power, says that we've been left with an "American monarch," which is only slightly scarier-sounding than the "unitary executive" theory that the Bush administration advocated and implemented.

So why doesn't Congress work? The simplest answer is that the country has changed, and Congress has not changed alongside it. Congress used to function despite its extraordinary minority protections because the two parties were ideologically diverse. Democrats used to provide a home to the Southern conservatives known as the Dixiecrats. The GOP used to include a bloc of liberals from the Northeast. With the parties internally divided and different blocs arising in shifting coalitions, it wasn't possible for one party to pursue a strategy of perpetual obstruction. But the parties have become ideologically coherent, leaving little room for cooperation and creating new incentives for minority obstruction.

What Happens When Congress Fails to Do Its Job? - Newsweek.com

Technorati Tags: Senate, Goldman, technology, healthcare reform, opinion, Wall Street, IPad, Tablet PCs, Microsoft, IPhone, Congress, Goldman Sachs, parties, doctors, medical records, Bill Gates, Senator Bayh

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Blue Cross Premium Increases To Be Resubmitted in California – Algorithms for “Desired Results”?

This is certainly a welcome sign here to have the reports substantiated to ensure that the grounds for any increases are indeed correct.  I talk about this quite a bit and just because a great looking report with tons of statistics generated by mathematical algorithms look convincing and we assume they are accurate doesn’t always mean they are.  This has been going on for a long time and on Wall Street too, sometimes maybe a big game of “Liar’s Poker” if you will.  Sure, there’s marketing and sales that comes into play here too, but we need honest representation and not “desired” numbers presented.  Blue Cross said anything submitted erroneously was not done on purpose and said errors were not made intentionally.  Ok, so now we have to figure out how to show that the report had errors. 

With technology today and risk management formulas everywhere we turn, sure there’s a lot of room for “desired” results as there is for errors too, both happen.  We are at the point in time today where we really need algorithms on both sides for accurate reporting as consumers are getting wiser simply due to the fact that ethics are getting in the way here and people want to know why.  We gain a ton of of knowledge with formulas too, but it’s now to the point to where technology is required to tell the difference between those perhaps for profit and those that lead to better lifestyles, jobs, better health and those that are there to put humans into groups for making dollars.  Certainly it bothers me and many others to see hedge funds created to “bet” against how long certain disease groups will live as what is happening on Wall Street too, this is just plain sickening. There’s no shortage by any means to create hedge funds for betting, so why do we have to bet on disease and people that are afflicted? 

'Dead Peasant' Life Insurance Policies - Human Hedge Funds The Next Bond Issues

It is not rocket science to see that bigger than ever profits and bigger than ever rate increases don’t mix, at least for consumers, and on the other hand the insurers are also not a bottomless pit either, but somewhere in all of this there needs to be balance and accurate reporting done.  Even the biggest scams, like the Madoff case had programmers with “dirty algorithms” that helped keep it going with creating “desired” results. 

A Case of “Dirty” Algorithms – 2 Madoff Computer Administrators are Indicted – Illegal Coding and Networking for Big Profits

It’s time to remove that “8-track” tape player and go “digital” as we are finding the 8-track methodologies don’t apply and don’t work anymore.  The executive branch of the government has a huge task upgrading infrastructure all over the place after years of neglect with those who continued to play the music with their 8-track tapes, like our former administration pretty much did;  in other words in order to audit and keep everyone on the honest side here, the same technologies are needed on both sides. 

“Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?

This is a good sign that the reports were questioned and something that needs to be done on a constant basis to make sure that profit is not exceeding realistic numbers needed to provide care.  When desired results fail to meet with current “real”assets, well we know what happens then, the bottom falls out, like what we experienced on Wall Street when consumer and investor confidence falls to a ground zero.  The longer we “fool” ourselves with desired results, the worse it gets and it all will eventually shuffle out and the results are not pretty.  BD   

LOS ANGELES — Insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross drew public outrage and criticism by President Barack Obama as a poster child for out-of-control health care costs when it proposed raising rates for Californians by as much as 39 percent.

On Thursday, Los Angeles-based Anthem withdrew plans for the increase.

Anthem made the decision after an independent audit determined the company's justification for raising premiums was based on flawed data, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said.

The decision also came one day after Anthem's parent, Wellpoint, Inc. of Indianapolis, announced its first-quarter profit soared by 51 percent

He added that state officials immediately suspected Anthem's original proposal was inaccurate, but company officials insisted it was not. However, the company agreed to the independent evaluation by outside experts that subsequently uncovered the errors.

The study, more than 100 pages in length, will be released in the next few days, Poizner said. He said the cost of the study, which was not disclosed, is being billed to Anthem.

The Associated Press: No big rate hike for Anthem policyholders

Technorati Tags: Algorithms, fraud, Madoff, technology, audit trails, software, programming, securities fraud, Congress, non participants, igonorance, SEC, Blue Cross

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Dennis Quaid files Lawsuit Against Baxter for Not Recalling Heparin

A bit of history, this was addressed before and settlements were made but obviously the attention never went further to recall the heparin with the similar labels.  One item I read here that I had not seen before was that the twins had staph, hospital acquired infections.  Maybe I missed it but again now we know why the heparin treatment were given.  No hospital is safe from infections that are acquired and this was Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles. 

In addition to the errors, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have Mr. Quaid talk a bit about cleanliness too and the battle against infections such as MRSA and others that people get and die from in the hospital.  BD 

Los Angeles, CA—Actor Dennis Quaid is going after Baxter Healthcare Corp., after his twins were given near fatal doses of a blood thinner called Heparin. The lawsuit was filed on May 21, 2010 in Los Angles Superior Court on behalf of his children, as reported by the Contra Costa Times.

Quaid’s twins, Zoe Grace and Thomas Boone, were born in November 2007, when they were given multiple near-fatal doses of Heparin, to treat staph infections. The twins were supposed to get 10 units of Hep-Lock, but instead they were given 10,000 units of Heparin. The low-dose drug, Hep-Lock, and Heparin are packaged in similar vials with blue backgrounds and very small print.

The lawsuit contends that Baxter Healthcare should have recalled Heparin 10,000 unit vials, because the drug maker as received reports that infants had died due to similar dosage errors. Baxter is also obligated to alert healthcare providers of prior medication mistakes.

Los Angeles Drug Injury: Dennis Quaid files lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare | Justice News Flash | JusticeNewsFlash Release

Related Reading:

Dennis Quaid receives settlement from Cedars-Sinai – Medical Errors

Quaid's Twins Got 2,000X Dosage: Probe

Technorati Tags: Dennis Quaid, safety, healthcare, technology, Microsoft Tags, hospital, Journal, Discover Channel, Tags, Cedar Sinai, Baxter

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US Doctors Traveling Abroad to Perform Surgery Outside the the Country – New Meaning for Locum Tenens?

Medical tourism keeps adding more innovations as the concept moves along.  Now through this company in California you can have your surgery done outside the US by a US doctor.  Not too long ago I posted about surgeons who travel from facility to facility and it appears if signed up here they can travel from country to country now.  About 25% of general surgeons don’t maintain offices and travel between facilities. 

Surgeon Shortage Pushes Hospitals to Hire Temps – Scalpel Services

The press release below indicates GME is in the process of signing up doctors and surgeons; “have scalpel will travel”?

Medical migrants - “locum tenens” Healthcare on Temporary Assignment

Not too long ago someone did a spoof about a cruise ship for surgical procedures and I do start to wonder if this is next?  Will we start seeing a fleet of “floating hospitals in the LA harbor one day with people waiting to get in, while the hospitals on dry land sit at less than capacity?  Doctors are normally pretty busy folks these days too so for those who may not be able to take the time to travel very far is this next? 

“What’s wrong with those people there, why do they have this need to have their surgery performed on a boat”, words that could be echoed from someone perhaps not familiar with the US healthcare system (grin).  Here’s the video with the “spoof”, or at least I think it is still a spoof. 

There’s even an app for Medical Tourism, yikes!

Medical Tourism Will Have An Application Soon – HealthTraveler for Medical Resources

Back to earth here, I attended the World Conference on Medical Tourism last year and at the link below you can read up on what I learned and what other countries are doing to attract patients, they are building big hospitals in anticipation.  If the boats win out though that could throw a monkey wrench in the entire plan. 

World Medical Tourism Conference 2009 – A Learning Awareness

As always I am posting this information as an awareness to hopefully share some of the knowledge I have gained by being curious and hopefully it will be of use along the way here to see what is in the works for medical tourism.  We want no surprises here when it comes to our healthcare as some of this may be living beneath the surface without enough visibility.  We all know everyone is cutting costs every which way and today nothing surprises me with new business ventures and ideas that once we may not have winked an eye at, but they are in fact being built and/or entertained. 

Mexico’s President is motivated to capture some revenue.

Mexico President is Motivated With US Healthcare Reform to Attract Residents and Medical Tourism With Joint Commission Accredited Hospitals

Canada is trying to figure out how to squeeze all their own citizens in for care and yet make room for some tourists to gain some revenue.

Former President of the Canadian Medical Association Thinks British Columbia Should Start Thinking About Medical Tourism

One more thing to keep in mind is that tourism is also trying to lure the health insurance industry into the loop as well and with a few employers this is an option with surgical procedures.  BD 

California based Global Medical Excellence (GME) sets a new benchmark. Innovative arrangement with U.S. doctors to treat U.S. patients in International Hospitals of U.S. quality standards. GME's patients to pay less than 25% of the U.S. cost of surgery.

LOS ANGELES, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- In what can potentially be a ground-breaking development, the California based medical tourism company Global Medical Excellence LLC has developed an innovative arrangement to tackle the increasing cost of healthcare in the U.S. GME has entered into contracts with U.S. Board Certified surgeons who agree to travel to India or Lebanon (and soon other countries) to perform surgeries on GME's patients. Contrary to the existing phenomenon wherein U.S. patients traveling abroad are operated upon by foreign doctors, patients can now visit GME's website and choose to have either a U.S. doctor or a foreign doctor for various elective surgeries such as Joint Replacement, Spinal Disc Fusion, Lap Band, Plastic Surgery, etc. Moreover, GME will be providing a comprehensive insurance coverage to the patients to mitigate all risks.

According to Dr. Khoury, an expert in International Finance, this is a sensible option for the safety-conscious medical tourism patient, especially those with limited insurance coverage or high co-payments. The patients will be typically saving about 70-75% of the U.S. cost by choosing this option. This new arrangement will surely ease the concerns that patients may have about surgeries in a foreign location. GME is in various stages of negotiation with doctors and will have around 400 doctors in 7 major specialties by June-end.

Now U.S. Doctors Traveling Abroad to Treat American Medical Tourists -- LOS ANGELES, April 29 /PRNewswire/ --

Technorati Tags: heatlhcare, temporary doctor, nurses, healthcare, surgery, hospitals, medical tourism, locum tenens, patients, budgets, healthcare reform

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Press Conference Today – California Supports Healthcare Reform

I happened to watch this today live and one of the best things I have heard in a while was said, “I’m not a party servant, I’m a public servant”.   I am guessing this comment relates to the fact that he’s not following what the rest of the GOP seems to be doing relative to reform. 

I actually like the service he uses for press conferences with Twitter and tune in when I can.  This one today was rather important and was presented at UC Davis.  He was right to the point today. 

Mrs. Schwarzenegger (Maria Shriver) was also busy this week announcing the free clinic Remote Area Medical with Stan Brock.  This is the second appearance by RAM in Los Angeles. 

Remote Area Medical Los Angeles Kicks Off First Day – Press Conference With Maria Shriver and Stan Brock

 

4/29/2010 - Governor Schwarzenegger held a press conference to discuss federal health care reform implementation.  BD

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - Breaking News, Webcasts, Blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter @Schwarzenegger

Technorati Tags: Schwarzenegger, healthcare reform, California, GOP, press conference, UC Davis, Risk pools, medical care, physicians, doctors, hospitals

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Kaiser Permanente Testing 2 IPads at the Garfield Healthcare Innovation Center

This is an update from an article that ran in the SF Gate not too long ago relative to what Kaiser Permanente was going to do with the potential of bringing in some new hardware – the Ipads.  As you can read below they have 2 of them and it is work in progress.  If you are not familiar with the “Garfield Technology Center” use the link below where I spoke with their leader Chris McCarthy and find out.

Innovation and Learning at Kaiser Permanente – Interview With Chris McCarthy

Many of the ideas that originate from the Innovation Center also move up the ladder to other healthcare organizations for review and potential implementation outside of Kaiser Permanente.  The link below explains what the ILN is all about and about the areas of discussion they have with Chris as the leader and primary organizer. 

The Innovation Learning Network – Major Healthcare Organizations Working Together with “Design Thinking”

As you can read below, the evaluation process may take a while here as they want ensure that all bases are covered, such as disinfecting the devices if needed too which goes a little outside and beyond just normal personal and office use.  One thing we all agree on though, it’s a great looking device by all means.  BD

"Kaiser Permanente's Innovation & Advanced Technology Group has acquired two iPads with the hope of testing the iPad's ability to deliver mobile health care. We want to see how feasible is it for our clinicians to use the device to connect to our electronic health care systems and collaborate more efficiently with staff and patients. The idea is for our clinicians to be able to use the iPad to spend more time with the patient at the bedside so we can keep improving patient care and improve staff satisfaction. Kaiser Permanente is focused on providing technology-enabled, real-time connected health care. That's why we have KP HealthConnect, the world's largest civilian electronic health record, and we are always looking for new and innovative mobile health care solutions to help us leverage it. 

"The iPad shows significant potential and promise in that regard. The value of the Kaiser Permanente Garfield Health Care Innovation Center is it allows us to transfer the technology to a simulated care delivery environment. Where other companies learn about the iPad from Apple commercials and their beautiful brochures, we bring the technology to the Garfield Center to assess its impact on our clinical workflow and our infrastructures.  

"For example, it's a wireless device, so what are the ramifications of that? This is going to be a tool that is used in clinics so we need to see how rugged is it. It has a beautiful design but what about ergonomics (nurses would have to walk around the hospital with it), and can it be disinfected?  We have to sift through the hype to provide a more objective recommendation to our leaders because the iPad certainly looks great on commercials"

"The iPad evaluation could take several months as it may include technology testing, clinical workflow simulation (compare iPad with other mobile devices), ergonomics assessment...etc. The clinicians could potentially use the iPad to wirelessly connect to KP's electronic medical record systems to enter or access critical patient information or have the patients using it as a conduit to patient education/training information or stay connected with the outside world."

Sean Chai

Senior IT Manager of Innovation & Advanced Technology Group at the Kaiser Permanente Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center in San Leandro, CA

www.kp.org/innovationcenter

Technorati Tags: Kaiser Permanente, IPad, healthcare, wireless, technology, medical records, tablet computer, Apple, devices that report data, Garfield Center, ILN, Innovation, Health IT

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First GINA Violation Appears To Be In the Works – She Has BRCA2 Gene And Was Released From Her Job

There’s still some additional information needed here so we can learn more about this case.  It comes back around to “breast cancer” and a woman losing her job as they found out she tested positive for the BRCA2 gene.  Now it states “she told them” of the results so I think that’s the part we need to hear more about as to the when’s and who’s here. 

Could this have been a casual conversation that lead to this, we don’t know yet, but it appears the woman who had the test and double mastectomy is not desiring to hide much on what he had done.  With the new interpretations health risk assessments cannot include family medical history.  This is amazing how this filed out as that is helpful for doctors to diagnose and treat; however we have to be protected from those who will use the information against us with health insurance primarily.  If you have a bad gene you’re going to have to pay is the issue this is supposed to eradicate.  Incentives are also under scrutiny here with wellness programs.  

Wellness Programs Get Thrown a Left Hook From GINA – No Family Medical History Allowed on a Health Risk Assessment

It just comes down to being monetarily penalized for either self created or inherited conditions that we as humans have, which is sad, but current business models that focus so heavily on risk management rather than education send us to this point with the data intense analytics that we use today.  That being said, it will be interesting to hear more as this case moves forward.  ABC news added a video since the I first posted and here’s the update.  BD

 

In what appears to be the first publicly identified case of its kind, a Connecticut woman has accused her employer of violating the recently enacted federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). According to a story in the Boston Herald (discovered thanks to a tip from Matt Mealiffe), 39-year-old Pamela Fink received an elective double mastectomy last year after testing positive for mutations in her BRCA2 gene associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Fink alleges that, despite giving her “glowing evaluations for years,” her employer, MXenergy, “targeted, demoted and eventually dismissed her when she told them of the genetic tests results.”

GINA, which was passed by Congress in 2008 and took effect last year, represents the most comprehensive effort to date to regulate the use of genetic information by employers (Title II) and health care insurers (Title I). Under Section 201(a)(i) of GINA, employers with more than 15 employees may not “discriminate against any employee with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment…because of genetic information.”

GINA in Action: Woman alleges genetic test led to firing

Technorati Tags: GINA, HHS, pharmacogenomics, genomics, healthcare, healthcare reform, health insurance, DNA, Lab tests., algorithms, MXenergy

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Donald Trump Talks About Financial Reform, Arizona and A Few Other Topics – Larry King

With both healthcare reform and financial reform on everyone’s mind, Larry King talks to “The Donald” to get his views and some discussion about Arizona.  He sees China as a threat to our financial security.  He says Goldman was just part of the problem and they are “one of many” in the ointment.

He compared the banks to casinos with all side of the table represented.  He talks about the fine lines and he said Senate wanted “face time” on television and thought they were not getting it.  He’s afraid of driving business out of the country.  He says his friends in China think our politicians are not too smart.  He’s out there speaking his mind.  We heard that last year at the HIMMS convention as far as healthcare is concerned.  As in anywhere, those who don’t participate and learn a few new tricks are a bit lost. 

U.S. Congress has an inadequate understanding Value of Health IT – HIMMS Opening Session

 

I will add my 2 cents worth here on participating with the technology side of things.  I saw all these big “paper” books and the thing that went through my mind is why are they still having meetings and discussions using no technology.  We have digital methodologies now and we are pushing healthcare to move that way, what’s wrong with everyone else doing it?  We are lucky here in California as Gov. Arnold uses it. 

“Where’s page 55B?”  That was the question if you watched some of the hearings.  BD

Donald Trump Defends Arizona's Immigration Law

Technorati Tags: financial reform, Donald Trump, Arizona, China, Wall Street, regulation, Larry King, technology, healthcare reform

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Provenge from Dendreon Gets FDA Approval and Prostvac Gets Fast Track from FDA – Prostate Cancer

There’s a lot prostate cancer news today from the FDA.  Provenge from Dendreon is a process to where blood is taken, send to Dendreon and injected back to the patient, using their own immune system to battle and extend life.  In a prior post I went into detail about the process and how it works.

Dendreon “Intellivenge” Algorithmic Software Supporting Administration of Provenge – Seeking FDA Approval by May 1st

Also in the news today was the FDA fast track approval for Prostvac, which is a somewhat similar drug created outside the US and also extends life.  Prostvac is what is defined as “off the shelf”, in other words it is a series of injections that doesn’t require the use of the patient’s cells to administer.

Prostvac Receives Fast Track Status From the FDA – Prostate Cancer Vaccine

Let’s hope we see research and development as such in other areas of cancer too, we can sure use it.  BD 

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind prostate cancer treatment that uses the body's immune system to fight the disease, offering an important alternative to decades-old approaches.

The drug is intended to treat cancer that has spread elsewhere in the body and is not responding to hormone therapy. Provenge is made by taking immune cells from a patient's blood and exposing them to a protein found in most prostate cancers. That encourages the cells to attack the cancer.

Provenge is given intravenously, with a total of three doses given approximately once every two weeks. The agency said 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in 2009, and 27,000 men died of the disease. Prostate cancer most often affects older men.

FDA approves Dendreon's cancer drug Provenge - Forbes.com

now and if you haven’t followed this company as far as development, politics, the FDA and more, it has a little bit of everything.  Even with biotech drugs getting approved today, it’s all about the software that combines the efforts of the drug to bring reporting and other significant data together.  The biotech drug from Dendreon, Provenge is used to extend life for those suffering with terminal prostate cancer and is the the first of it’s kind treatment to stimulate the pa

Technorati Tags: Prostate cancer, FDA, fast track, healthcare, vaccine, poxviral, drugs, biotech, Prostvac, Bavarian Nordic, research and developement, clinical trials, Dendreon, Provenge

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