The drive in the “watch” like device holds up to 2GB to 8GB of information and that’s a lot and connects via USB.  You can get either a leather or metal banded watch like device so you can look stylish.   It can also display the time, pictures, play movies, songs/lyrics, and tune in an FM radio so it has a function outside of just holding medical records. 

It also states you can “hear” your medical information as well so I guess it can read items back to you and the information can be transferred to a computer with a USB plug.  It does need to be re-charged to make sure you have enough power.  it has a web based template to upload your information and even suggests you add your advance directive to the files along with emergency contacts, insurance information, etc. 

In looking at the security for access it appears all you do is push the button in to see the information stored, unless I missed something here and the cost for the device is $125.00, leather or metal and operates in 9 languages.  I am guessing being that you wear this on your wrist that you are responsible for the content.  BD 

Press Release:

Honolulu, HI, November 30, 2010 – MEDICOM Technologies, Inc. (www.medicomtech.com), a purveyor of technically advanced medical identification solutions, today introduced its revolutionary multimedia-enabled interactive Medical I.D. Wristband that readily presents an individual’s complete medical history to emergency treatment personnel in critical situations. The first-of-its-kind, patent-pending MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristband is an industry game changer, boasting an extraordinary array of audio, video and voice-driven health and entertainment features unsurpassed in today’s marketplace in a stylish wristband design.

A boon for the 65 million Americans with chronic medical conditions requiring regular physicians’ care, the computerized MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristband is the first and only device with audio-visual capabilities that can store, display, edit, voice and transfer a patient’s complete medical history in up to 9 languages to first responders, EMT’s, and hospital personnel in any emergency medical situation. For non-emergency use in leisure time, consumers may also view photos or listen to songs, voice recordings, 20 FM radio stations, or watch movies via earphones that plug directly into the device.

With a touch of a button the wristband’s graphic 1.5” LCD screen with digital display presents, in a scrolling fashion, comprehensive health data automatically pre-parsed into 14 intuitive files that may be individually selected, scrolled in either direction, and paused for easy viewing. The information can also be uploaded from the wristband to an ambulance lap top or hospital computer via a standard USB 2.0 cable connection.

“The medication scheduling file, for example, will help an ER doctor avoid administering contra-indicated medications and the patient from spending any excessive time in the hospital going through unnecessary and expensive diagnostic treatment,” explains James Klink, founder and CEO of MEDICOM Technologies, Inc. “If the patient arrives at a hospital unconscious, the staff will have access to the individual’s insurance information in another file to authorize admittance, and can also quickly find the patient’s blood type, degree or class of medical disease, any special treatment requests the patient may have including process for resuscitation, organ donation, languages understood other than English, and basically any other data needed to effectively treat the specific patient.”

Available in two trendy wristband options – stainless steel or black leather – the attractive fashion accessory design removes the stigma often associated with medical I.D. devices, thus encouraging more self-conscious and style-savvy adolescents and adults with chronic pre-existing medical conditions to wear one and have it at-the-ready when an emergency presents.

Also more affordable than other medical identification solutions on the market that charge recurring annual fees, the MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristbands sell for an economical one-time charge of $125 for the stainless steel banded model or $115 for the leather banded model. In addition, other lower-tech medical I.D. products do provide patient information as readily, requiring emergency or hospital personnel to spend precious minutes calling an 800-number for basic medical history and instruction, with the secondary hope there are no problems with the I.D. number transfer, telephone connection, or the data access computer at that critical time.

“Our purpose with this medical I.D. innovation is to empower patients to be more aware of their personal health and better inform, alert, and facilitate the transfer of knowledge to EMTs and other first responders, physicians and hospital personnel,” Klink continues “Our device enables patients to receive the personalized emergency care that is needed relative to their specific chronic illness or advance directives. It also allows patients to get in and out of the hospital faster, safer, and less expensively. This results in fewer malpractice lawsuits, thereby reducing physician malpractice premiums and the expenses insurance companies pay out.”

“Only a small percentage - a paltry 4% - of those with chronic illnesses and who should be wearing a medical identification device currently owns one,” Klink notes. “With our solution being so feature rich, easy to use, and wearable as a bona-fide fashion accessory, we believe many more consumers will opt to safeguard their health and welfare in emergency medical situations.”

How it works

From any Internet-enabled computer consumers may enter from 2GB to 8GB of vital medical, personal, and entertainment information via an intuitive Web site template, and then transfer the data to the MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristband via a standard USB 2.0 cable/port connection.

The MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristband will store and, at the touch of a button, instantly display a user’s personal demographics; medical conditions; emergency contact information; all medications, dosages and times taken; advance directives and special treatment requests; x-ray disks and recent medical/lab results; medical/dental Insurance information; I.D. photo, allergies; physicians and pharmacy addresses and phone numbers; medical history including any diseases, surgeries, immunizations, etc.; as well as a miscellaneous folder to input medical appointments, notes, and virtually any additional medical information of note (charting & graphing, diet/exercise programs, Web favorites, etc).

Updates and edits to keep personal data current and accurate are also done at the push of a button. In addition, any medical data can be downloaded to the MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristband from any physician’s office, laboratory, medical or other relevant facility in the world via any Internet-enabled computer.

Klink concludes, “This device is critical to the millions of individuals in the United States alone with chronic medical conditions. Having such robust medical identification allows them to function with complete peace of mind in their everyday lives, providing immeasurable value.”

About MEDICOM Technologies, Inc.

Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, MEDICOM Technologies, Inc. is a purveyor of technically advanced medical identification solutions. Its flagship, patent pending MEDICOM Medical I.D. Wristband presents a patient’s complete medical history to emergency treatment personnel in critical situations. The company’s first-of-its-kind medical identification solution offers a comprehensive array of audio, video and voice-driven health and entertainment features unsurpassed in today’s marketplace in a stylish wristband design and at an affordable price point. Learn more online at www.medicomtech.com.

Operating in the luxury, high-tech, MedicAlert(R) industry, MEDICOM has developed a new, patent-pending, Audio/Visual, Digital, Medical Identification Wristband. This medical emergency Wristband is the type of device most accepted around the world and the one in which emergency medical treatment personnel and physicians are most accustomed to seeing. Other types of related devices including those hanging on key chains or hidden in purses or pockets, etc., just haven't succeeded in formulating much of a following or health-related interest.

http://www.medicomtech.com/index.php

Technorati Tags: MEDICOM,medical ID,PHR,personal health records,medical devices,USB,medical records,wristband,emergency,MedicAlert

When economic times get tough there’s always someone out there to take advantage and in this case fraud was taking place when patients would fill their prescriptions and sell them to a local drug dealer who was reselling their prescriptions on the street.  Medicaid pays and the crooks get the resell in this case in New York which was broken up by the DEA. 

Patients in their 50-60s were providing the drugs and the dealer was paying them for what Medicaid paid for, oxycodone and hydrocodone.  A 90-count bottle of pills where he paid  around$1,000 or less for was worth $7,200 on the street.  If one was paying retail on the street, that’s a lot of money and quite a racket they had going.  In one case the doctor requested a urine test from the patient and the crook even brought that over!  BD  

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Ethel Johnson couldn't get her prescription for pain medication filled fast enough. The 60-year-old Buffalo woman was hurting — but investigators say that wasn't the reason for the rush.

According to secretly recorded telephone conversations, the sooner Johnson could pick up her pills, the more quickly she could sell them to her dealer. Her pain pills were destined for the street.

Johnson is among 33 people charged so far in a large-scale investigation that has opened a window into an emerging class of suppliers in the illicit drug trade: medical patients, including many who rely on the publicly funded Medicaid program to pay for their appointments and prescriptions. She has pleaded not guilty.

Often at no charge, the patients see a doctor, or several doctors, and come away with prescriptions for narcotic OxyContin and other pills they then sell to a dealer for as much as $1,000. If they are on Medicaid, the program is billed about $1,060 for a typical 60-pill, 80-mg prescription, along with the $23-to-$39 cost of the doctor's visit.

NY bust: Medicaid patients' Rx drugs go to dealers - Yahoo! News

Technorati Tags: Medicaid,drugs,fraud,drug abuse,theft,crooks,New York,DEA

Also on tap in the regional area, New Jersey’s Meadowlands Hospital, is going live this week, and Hoboken University Medical Center, scheduled to go live in the first quarter of next year.  OpenVista is the commercialized version of the Department of Veterans Affairs VistA EHR.  Lutheran hospital has 476 beds and is a teaching hospital in Brooklyn.  Back in 2008 Medsphere took the VA system and created a commercial version that could be used outside of the VA.  Back in 2008 one hospital in Century City did a record time installation but about a year later this fine hospital on the outskirts of Beverly Hills, in the same area as Goldman Sachs, AIG, etc. in Century City had to go bankrupt and close, and it was a good hospital, but even when surrounded by the big corporate conglomerates next door, that had no effect on investors, sad.

Century City Doctors Hospital Implement Enterprise-wide Clinical Application in Record Time - Open Vista (VA EHR)

Back on track here I also read recently where there was a web based version of the VA Vista system in the works or in the planning stage.  With all the other EHR systems out there Vista holds steady and still uses MUMPS as the back end which is the same as what Epic Meditech and a few others are built around.  Medsphere is venture capital backed by several firms.  The system also has mobile applications and uses Java to connect to MUMPS.  The name is actually called the “M” network from MUMPS as it has been revised in name.  Barclays and Bank of England along with Ameritrade also use the “M” data base and their version on Wall Street is referred to as the GT.M open source data base and handles over 12 billion transactions over the web daily.  BD

Two weeks after implementation, physician CPOE adoption hits 93% for inpatient medication orders

BROOKLYN, N.Y., and SAN DIEGO—Lutheran Medical Center (LMC) and Medsphere Systems Corporation today announced the successful implementation of Medsphere’s OpenVista® electronic health record (EHR) solution throughout the hospital. The full service 476-bed teaching hospital is now on track to achieve meaningful use and qualify for millions of dollars made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Since implementing OpenVista only a few weeks ago, LMC has embraced the comprehensive open source health IT system throughout the facility. Clinician adoption of the system, the key to meeting meaningful use and true clinical transformation, is virtually universal. Now in its first stage toward a paperless environment, LMC physicians are entering 93 percent of medications through OpenVista’s Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) Module, far surpassing the 30 percent required by the federal government for meaningful use.

Managing over 627,000 outpatient and 66,000 emergency room visits annually, the 687 attending physicians, 200 residents and 600 nurses at LMC can now access a range of OpenVista features: CPOE, medication order management (pharmacy), laboratory, radiology, and nutrition and food service. Enhanced emergency room efficiency is also part of the solution through an ED Tracking Board that LMC developed and Medsphere will share with other clients through the Healthcare Open Source Ecosystem.

EHR Hospital | Meaningful Use of Health IT| Open Source VistA | Lutheran Medical Center Goes Live with OpenVista Electronic Health Record

Technorati Tags: Lutheran Medical Center,OpenVista,VA,Medsphere,hospital,medical records,open source,MUMPS,M,CPOE,EHR,meaningful use

This is a unique story here but patient information via HIPAA needs to be protected and instead of transferring patient data right into a MDVIP data base, he could have taken another route and that would have been to have the patients use a PHR.  Yes it is a little extra work but if patients would have had their own personal health record, and if they decided to follow the doctor to his new concierge practice, then the patient would have been in control to share the information.  As you can see below MDVIP is owned by Proctor and Gamble and is a company set up to help doctors with a boutique practice business model. 

Proctor and Gamble Buys MDVIP – Physician Boutique Practice Company

I am sure the doctor was not violating HIPAA on purpose but rather just wanted the demographic and perhaps other information to continue caring for his patients, but again the PHR is the way to do this.  The physician’s group has filed a lawsuit as well and now the doctor is not associated with MDVIP and the article states a phone call survey was taken to contact the patients. 

Who knows how this will all end up but a costly lesson for everyone it seems all the way around.  A PHR held by the patients I feel would have made all the difference in the world.  This also brings about some good questions too as it were only demographic information that was used, shoot this stuff is bought and sold all over the web today and beyond most consumers comprehension.  The data flow here was just outside the privacy laws. 

Consumer Watch Dog Group Files Complaint with the FTC Regarding Data Mining, Profiling Algorithms–Privacy With Health Information At Risk With Insurer and Employer Usage

Here’s another interesting link to read up on relative to privacy. 

Patients Like Me Experienced Data Mining Through a Data Mining Research Firm Break In –The Nielsen Company

Now there are marketing companies that flat out buy your prescription data and sell it to insurers or companies doing clinical trials too and this you have no control over if you are on record at a pharmacy or PBM and the second company notes below is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Health Care and this has been going on for years and they make big dollars doing it so again by comparison your medication records can be bought and sold all over the place, but let a doctor take some simple demographics, it seems the lobbyists have it in here as there’s profits to be made here. 

You can read the statement from Milliman about Intelliscript here.

“Does this process make it more difficult for consumers to get insurance?
No.  There is nothing new about consumers authorizing the release of their medical records, including prescriptions, to insurers.  This standard process has been in place for decades, helping insurers make good decisions about rates and insurability.”

You can read more about Ingenix MedPoint here.

There’s also a flash presentation where you can view the process here.

“By increasing understanding of potential disease conditions and relative risk, MedPoint enables underwriters to more accurately project future claims costs on a case-by-case basis.”

Data mining is just another series of algorithms out there functioning on the web to find data.  Writing queries to match is not that hard once one finds a common denominator and again read below to where the one company wants a patent on their automated query system to match up your personal information with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

Only your algorithm knows for sure.

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

Perhaps this doctor will look in other ways to create his concierge practice as it appears this is where this was headed and there’s nothing wrong with that if his geographic area has the support of the patients who see value, and many doctors have changed to a concierge practice, and it’s not a crime, but insurers generally will fight this as they lose the element of control with the data as it resides with the doctor, gee the battle for patient data can sure get ugly.  If this pursues in court I see this as a total waste of money and taxpayer time as the firing I feel is enough as Lehigh has made their point and we need doctors more than ever now so let him practice how he chooses.  BD 

Lehigh Valley Health Network has fired an internist after determining he delivered personal information, including names, addresses and health insurance information, on thousands of patients to another network to which he was applying.
LVHN released Dr. Mark Kender after he gave out the information on more than 2,200 patients to a "concierge" medical network called MDVIP, said LVHN spokesman Brian Downs. The network on Friday sent letters to Kender's patients explaining why he was dismissed, Downs said.

Lehigh Valley Health Network doctor fired HIPAA - mcall.com

Technorati Tags: heatlhcare,genomics,gentic testing,DNA,Genetic Counselors,personalized medicine,medical records,PHR,EHR,HIPAA,Lehigh Valley Health,Concierge

As we have read this last year, health insurance companies though subsidiaries they have purchased are seeing this as a viable area to do business. With grants comes the next phase of finding a vendor to set up and provide such services and not all HIE vendors are owned by insurance companies by any means but we certainly are seeing some mergers and acquisitions in this area. 

Aetna to Acquire Medcity-Health IT Connectivity Vendor-Former CEO Takes Position on Board at Boeing

Ingenix Acquires Health Information Exchange Services/EHR Provider Axolotl-United Health Group Behemoth Continues to Grow–Subsidiary Watch

The two listed above are acquisitions made by health insurance companies this year and with healthcare reform I am guessing that no stone will be left unturned when opportunities for profits present themselves.  BD   

WASHINGTON – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is providing grants to states in order to fund health information exchange breakthroughs in five challenging areas that will promote sharing of patient records nationwide.

The grants will fund pilots in 10 states and supplement what they have already received for creation of their statewide health information exchanges.

The Health Information Exchange Challenge Program will help states make progress in areas that are considered critical but difficult to advance interoperability, according to an announcement ONC published Dec. 3.

The awards will fund the development of technology and mechanisms in pilot sites. The states will then share them with other states and communities to increase their ability to exchange information nationwide.

ONC to fund state HIE breakthrough pilots | Healthcare IT News

Technorati Tags: ONC,grants,HIE,contracts,health insurance,Heatlh IT,United,Aetna,technology,EHR,PHR,medical records,mergers and acquisitions

We have here one more effort with health insurance companies seeing the technology end of healthcare as being a profitable move.  Again I look and see the tremendous amount of money being spent in this area and wonder eventually how it will all be affordable at some point in time.  Other carriers such as United have a slew of of technology services that run algorithmic formulas in an effort to keep cost down and in turn find higher yields for investors and they too purchased a company in a similar business.

In addition, they are offering a software solution for those physicians who do not have an electronic medical records system to download and use their own internal EHR system to be able t achieve meaningful use, so yet one more item for the selection process for medical records available.  We have so many systems out there today and not enough collaboration as we are almost drowning with innovation but for the long term future that won’t cut it as costs will enter the picture and at some point there will be some days of reckoning.  Innovation is fine for entrepreneurs alone, but in healthcare it can’t stand on its own.  With so many different data systems it could stand to be the next bubble to burst as technology is changing every day and somewhat makes it difficult to predict so again collaboration on new technologies instead of 100 different directions would really help, as doctors too are getting worn down with having to learn so many different sets of software too. 

Health IT The Next Bubble and How Long Will It Take to Pop–Probably When The Money Runs Out

In other news with Aetna, the former CEO, Ron Williams has accepted a seat on the board of Boeing with the audit and finance committee, and where else would one expect him to be in that circle.  BD 

Aetna Inc. agreed to acquire Medicity for about $500 million, boosting its presence in the electronic health-records sector.

Medicity's products and services enable health systems, hospitals, physicians and others to securely access and exchange health-care information. Such technology has received political support as advocates say it would improve the quality and efficiency of care and reduce costs.

Aetna to Pay $500 Million for Electronic Health-Records Firm Medicity - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: Aetna,Medcity,mergers and acquisitions,healthcare,health insurance,Heatlh IT,technology,medical records,EHR

This is slated to be the largest telehealth network in the world and Ideal Life is working with a major Chinese drug company to set up the program.

The company also has contracts here n the US such as the one below with blue tooth and wireless devices that collect and report data. The Blue Cross program mentioned below is set up to work with independent physician associations, IPAs to collect wireless weight information from patients. 

Anthem Blue Cross Contracts with IDEAL LIFE Biometrics – Blue Tooth Wireless Body Weight Scales for Home Monitoring With Algorithms of Care Relating to Early Detection of Congestive Heart Failure (C.A.R.E.)

Clinical algorithms of care can be tailored to an individual member’s specific needs.Initially they plan to use the kiosks to allow patient to connect before expanding with individual devices.  BD

Ideal Life

Ideal Life Inc. inks agreement with Shandong NovaTech Biological Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to launch a network of kiosks and remote health monitoring devices in China.

Toronto-based Ideal Life Inc. launched a telehealth network in China with the Chinese drug manufacturer NovaTech Biological Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

More than 100,000 patients are slated to participate in the program that will employ Ideal Life's interactive kiosks and remote health monitoring devices, according to the company.

The companies plan to install the first kiosks, which "allow unlimited users to connect with providers at reduced connectivity charges," in community hospitals in the Shandong province, where NovaTech Biological Pharmaceutical is based, according to Ideal Life. The companies said that the network will be the world's largest telehealth program.

Ideal Life launches telehealth project in China | MassDevice - Medical Device Industry News

Technorati Tags: heatlhcare,health insurance,telemedicine,Ideal Life,Blue tooth,Wireless,devices that report data,medical devices,algorithms,scale,congestive heart failure,China,NovaTech

This is just a neat video showing what we be doing with Windows 7 from the Media Center to Bing Maps and a few other things in between to include browsing the web.  I like they way the right hand/left hand works as the right and left click too and once you get the hang of it, I think it would go pretty easy and again I think of seeing medical records being moved around, from images to reports.  BD

Kinect Windows &

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HkKcFKzorQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Technorati Tags: Kinect,Microsoft,gestures,Windows 7,graphics,Maps

NovoLog users can avoid a price spike by switching to another insulin, Humalog per United Healthcare and this is all a shake up of a bidding/contract situation, so who ever comes in at the lower bid moves to the cheap spot at tier 1 and the other ends up at the top level at tier 3, but no tier 2 in the middle.

Now just wait until they get some of their subsidiaries involved in more action, and again I say this time after time pay attention as subsidiaries put money to the bottom line.  We have this subsidiary about 3 petals down the daisy chain here in China working to get more Chinese drugs and devices into the US and globally so will one of their products make the tier one some day?  Better think about is as that is how they do business with contracts and the company already has an open line of communication with the FDA.

UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globally

From the website:

“We are familiar with the Chinese regulatory system and are well connected with most of the top urban class A  hospitals and clinical trial centers that are GCP certified by the China State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Moreover, since we worked many years in multi-national pharmaceutical companies ,we are well versed in ICH, European and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements on Good Clinical Practice (GCP). “

It all about those cost algorithms once again.  Next time you see a press release watch for the following descriptive words, “ robust formulary program”, I crack up every time I see that template used in press releases but I guess they need to be robust to handle the ever changing data. 

"This isn't about medicine," said Dr. Anne Peters, director of USC's Clinical Diabetes Program. "It's about finance."

How does this effect keeping diabetics healthy and stable?  Even United itself says it can be disruptive to the patients, but catch the bottom line here is that they don’t care as it’s all about price. 

You have to ask yourself, what’s going to be the catch on the next contract and will this require once more another shift?  You can also see what their algorithms created in Arizona where Keith Olbermann states in his coverage it was the formulas used by Arizona from United Healthcare (and we can probably all guess that was Ingenix, their data folks that do all of this work) at the bottom of it.  In Arizona, people without medical backgrounds made their decisions and look what the inability to decipher and use data ethically created.  This is a big problem and they don’t care and the shareholders don’t seem to mind what compensation is paid and it’s all out expenditures on lobbyist efforts too.  BD

Arizona’s Medicaid Cuts On Transplants Is A Classic Example of Decisions Not Based on Medical Needs But Rather Budget Only

The health insurer is raising the price of NovoLog by 250% while lowering the price of a similar drug, Humalog. The shift will force those on NovoLog to make difficult choices. It also shows how out of whack the healthcare system is.

People with diabetes were notified the other day by insurance giant UnitedHealthcare that one of the most widely prescribed insulins, NovoLog, is switching from the company's Tier 1 drug list to Tier 3.

That means it's moving from the cheapest category of drugs to the most expensive.

Tim Heady, who runs UnitedHealthcare's pharmaceutical operations, insisted the company is acting in patients' best interest by offering at least one insulin in Tier 1. To do this, he said UnitedHealthcare creates "a competitive situation" among drug companies.

In other words, the company engineers a bidding war. The company that bids lowest gets to be in Tier 1. The losing bidder moves all the way to Tier 3.

UnitedHealthcare's Heady declined to discuss details of how different drugs end up in different pricing tiers. But he acknowledged that changes every few years can be disruptive to patients.

Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare hits some insulin users in the wallet - latimes.com

Technorati Tags: UnitedHealthcare,Ingenix,I3,ChinaGate,FDA,China,medical devices,drugs,heatlhcare,mergers and acquisitions,insulin,tiers,formularies,diabetes

The article states that Beth Martino felt uncomfortable around those who know more than she does and wanted to be surrounded by more people closer to her age.  Was it going to also cost more to keep those employees on the government health plan too?  That was worth throwing in there as that is alive and well in private industry as when one is “scored” for potential health problems, the older you are the greater your risk, no matter what your knowledge is, so at times the body counts more than brains.  Not knowing the specialists I cant comment any further other than the above speculations. 

All were over 50 that were given the opportunity to resign or a choice of being terminated  as probationary status and were incompetent.  The article below says similar motions are being carried through at other HHS agencies too, so how about Sebelius, is she too old to run the place? <grin>.  I do always talk about role models and their use of technology and between her and Joe Biden I can’t even find one picture on the internet with either one so much as sitting with a computer or holding a cell phone in times when images are so important on the web.  I feel uncomfortable with all those folks in Washington displaying a lack of digital consumer literacy,as you know I write about that fact all the time and it shows up in the news as a new OMG story.  BD

FDA Webview (paid) reports that the new Food & Drug Administration associate commissioner for external affairs, Beth Martino, 31, a former Kansas aide to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has conducted a purge of senior specialists, all aged over 50, in her office and in the press office.

The abrupt removals were made to make room for younger people closer to Martino’s own age, the trade journal reports. ’She’s uncomfortable with people who know more than she does,’ a source told FDA Webview.

FDA purges senior PR staff | MassDevice - Medical Device Industry News

Technorati Tags: FDA,Layoffs,age,incompetence,Sebelius,specialists,journalists,50

Actually this is a good thing for the government to try and enter the analytics picture that is hugely dominated by insurance companies and of course those added in private equity firms.  The key here again is privacy and from what we are seeing out there on the web today it is a total crap shoot so why now allow the government an opportunity to learn up and figure out their own cost savings formulas as we will hopefully end up with algorithms for accurate results and not those of “desired’ results as seen through the carriers.  We don’t get to see those anyway and it’s like Forest Gump insurance and claims today in the fact that you never know what you are going to get. 

The only way to get a feel for what is going on in private industry is to work and develop your own set of algorithms and we all know there are companies out there that will re-match anonymized data. 

US Gov Office of Personnel Management To Create a Health Claims Data Base for Analytics and To Track Trends and Costs

Former HHS Director Leavitt is ready to cash in on some of this activity so why not let the government get smarter and take some of the profits off Wall Street?   This is actually very cool as the government can analyze around 230 private health care plans and see it from the bottom up.  Fat chance on getting the insurance companies to analyze their own data for accurate results as they all tend to lean more toward the “desired” results category as they have stock holders to report to and every claim filed is seen as a loss.  The Office of Personnel Management might as well forget that request and go about their work with being impartial for a somewhat accurate prospective reporting system.  It’s a joke to ask for profit health insurers to contribute information that is not in their best benefit to profit. 

They already dig through Tri-Care and other government healthcare plans that make a profit as they are run by either direct insurance companies or their subsidiaries.  This organization put out a notice today to pay $3 Million for similar analytics relating to behavior. 

Heritage Provider Network In California Announces $3 Million Prize-Behavioral Analytics For Predictive Algorithmic Formulas On Who Will be Admitted to the Hospital

ONCE MORE IT’S ALL ABOUT THOSE ALGORITHMS FOR DECISION MAKING PROCESSES AND WE DO WANT ACCURATE ALGOS VERSUS THE ALGOS CREATED FOR DESIRED RESULTS OR WHAT COULD BE CALLED ROGUE ALGOS.  BD

An Office of Personnel Management plan to launch a comprehensive database of federal workers' health care records has raised the ire of some privacy advocates, employee unions and consumer groups.

OPM is organizing a research database of insurance claims filed by the eight million workers and dependents enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, as well as participants in two other federally administered programs. The claims data, which will be supplied by the private insurers that participate in the FEHBP, will help OPM figure out ways to lower costs, improve quality and fight fraud, the agency has said.

In addition, the OPM official said asking insurance companies to independently analyze their own data would defeat a key purpose of the database - which is to compare health plans. For example, one health plan might charge more than another for prescription drug programs and the data might help OPM decide whether to drop one pharmacy benefits manager in favor of another. About 30 percent of FEHBP's spending goes for prescription drugs.

Concerns raised over federal workers' health care database

Technorati Tags: Office of Personnel Management,data,healthcare,analytics,claims,data bases,healthcare reform,US Government

This is interesting as those who wish to participate will be given anonymized records of 100,000 patients who are current members of Heritage.  With using analytic algorithms the goal is to predict a percentage of members who have been to the hospital and a percentage of those who will return.

It’s all about those algorithms and formulas to project cost.  This kind of reminds me of the Blue Cross failed X-Prize of a $10 Million offer of a couple years ago that quietly went away and as you can see by today’s technology $10 Million was not near enough nor was it possible.  One other thing to keep in mind too is that even though the data is anonymized, there are a couple of firms who have produced an algorithm to re-match this stuff and have applied for US patents so the availability of such software/algorithms in time may just completely knock the socks off of the advertised non identified data bases.  Of course it can be done manually with writing SQL statements as when I was writing code I did that stuff all the time when presented with a problem and needing to combine data bases with a unique identifier code, it’s part of the business of writing software and all programmers do that, but perhaps not for the same reasons.  Here’s an example of a company that has applied for the patent to match via social networks as an example. 

Consumer Watch Dog Group Files Complaint with the FTC Regarding Data Mining, Profiling Algorithms–Privacy With Health Information At Risk With Insurer and Employer Usage

New York-based PeekYou LLC has applied for a patent for a method that, among other things, matches people's real names to the pseudonyms they use on blogs, Twitter and other social networks. PeekYou's people-search website offers records of about 250 million people, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.  Granted this article states that the parties will be given this information but if email addresses or other such items are used, well then through the use of additional software it could go out and search and mine the social networks to add even more information.  Here’s a related story on how one site was mined and how the data was sold. 

Patients Like Me Experienced Data Mining Through a Data Mining Research Firm Break In –The Nielsen Company

This is where all the real big spending comes in health care, the pursuit of the analytic algorithms to find those “earmarked” patients who are going to end up costing money with those illnesses we all have as humans and as you can see with the offering here of $3 Million the data and research numbers hold value to insurance companies so they can cut costs and payouts, as Wendell Potter stated that on Wall Street and in other investment areas claims paid are seen as a loss.

It’s too bad that all the focus is on the patient/doctor side and not enough effort is made to reduce the cost of drugs and devices as those are fixed costs that certainly are up for negotiation and the doctors are only the vehicles to provide that care for patients who need it and with further private equity investments this is where the dollar seems to be rising above patient care, a sad reality.  This announcement was made according to the press release in conjunction with former HHS Director, Mike Leavitt who is on the board of a healthcare financial services company. 

Former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt Joins Board of Healthcare Financial Services Company

Again, it’s all about those financial algorithms and cutting cost in healthcare and if you read the news, it’s all over the place so again be careful on what web based services you use and what information you place out there as data mining and predictive behavioral health analytics is all over the place.  In recent posts here I have also blogged about how the pharmacists at Walgreens are on pay for performance to use the United/Ingenix algorithms to predict behaviors as well, so again everywhere you turn today someone wants to analyze you and your data and whether or not these predictive business models produce the algorithmic desired results remains yet to be seen.  BD

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Heritage Provider Network (HPN), an award-winning managed care organization with a focus on the physician-patient relationship, today announced a $3 million competition designed to develop a more accurate way to predict the likelihood of an individual’s future hospitalization, thus allowing physicians to target care and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations.

“Ultimately, this prize will help solve a critical issue facing our country: health care spending,” said HPN President and CEO Richard Merkin, M.D. “It will help make health care more affordable and help to achieve the goals of health care reform. We spend more than $30 billion a year in unnecessary hospital admissions. If private industry can help solve that part of the problem, we can begin to move from a sick care system to a true health care system.”

Dr. Merkin announced the prize at a news conference today in Washington, D.C., joined by former Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt. “We need innovative thinking to solve one of the biggest dilemmas of our time – ever-rising health care costs. The Health Prize is an example of what the private sector is willing to do to encourage that type of thinking,” Leavitt said.

Heritage Provider Network’s $3 Million Health Prize Challenges Innovators to Improve Health Through Analytics | Business Wire

Technorati Tags: Data mining,healthcare,privacy,social networks,websites,patents,queries for money,algoirthims,Heritage

Mr Kindler says he’s looking forward to some time with his family and it was just shortly back Merck announced their CEO change, but that move was expected.  Ian Read will be the new CEO who is their global head of pharmaceuticals.  Earlier this year he was a patient in a hospital for a minor procedure and added his 2 cents, not where liked being at all. 

Who Wants To Be A Patient In the Hospital - Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler Says He Didn’t Care for the Experience

Ian Read, the new CEO has been with Pfizer since 1978.  Prior to coming to Pfizer, Jeffrey Kindler had little exposure to the pharmaceutical world and surprised many when he was named CEO in 2006.  We are starting to see this retirement move in many businesses as well as in Congress with a large number earlier this year announcing their retirement as well.  We need those folks with some technology experience at the helm for sure.  BD 

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

Jeffrey Kindler, who became chairman and chief executive of Pfizer suddenly and unexpectedly a little more than four years ago, is now retiring suddenly and unexpectedly.

Pfizer’s board named the company’s head of global pharmaceuticals, Ian Read, to succeed Kindler. The board will select a new chairman from its membership at its regularly scheduled meeting, to occur in a few weeks.

Pfizer CEO Retires Suddenly - Matthew Herper - The Medicine Show - Forbes

Technorati Tags: Pfizer,Jeffrey Kindler,pharma,CEO,drugs,healthcare,Wyeth

During the week of December 5th to December 9ths is my time frame for the give-a-way and below you will be able to see list of other participating sites. 

YOU NEED TO VOTE AND FIND YOUR TAG ON THE MAP TO ENTER

Method #1 (vote from the Medical Quack website)

First of all in the right hand top side of the Medical Quack I have a poll running on whether or not you would like to be able to use your cell phone as a scanner to find FDA recalls via Microsoft Bar Codes.  I’m not going to ask that you say yes, just vote however your feel but a yes is ok.  If you want to read up on this topic, use the BAR CODE CAMPAIGN link at the top of the Medical Quack to read up, it’s neat and we all could use it to find recalled products in the stores!  Everyone is coming up with all kinds of mobile applications and this one is universal with all the FDA recalls coming out and everyone with a smart phone could use it, plus clinics and hospitals could scan their stents and other devices before using them as well to ensure it has not been recalled! 

After you have voted the poll with update and show you the results.  At the bottom is a link that says “comment” – click on it and go to the website where you can see some additional details.  This is how the poll will look showing results after you vote (the “comment” link is now visible). 

Method #2 (go directly to the poll)

You can go straight to the poll location and vote and if you have already voted you will need to do this anyway so you can vote again. 

CLICK HERE TO VIOTE AND GO DIRECTLY TO THE POLL.

After you vote you will get a map.  The next step is to find your vote on the map and it’s not that hard with Google Maps provided here as you will know somewhat where to look, based on where you are in the US and Canada.  At the same time you can see where everyone else is with their votes.  Whether you used method #1 or #2 this is where you want to end up after voting.

I am in California and now I am going to find myself.  I will zoom in on the map and find my vote.   The poll will only let me vote once so my original date will show and not during the contest period.  When you click on the pins the pop up window will show the time and location of your vote.  Use the plus and minus buttons on the left to zoom in and out.  If you have done any map searching on the web, you will know what this is all about.

Copy and paste this information from the bubble into an email sent to me.  I will do a drawing from a hat to make sure everyone has a full chance at winning.  Under the map there’s a link to email me as well and a form will pop up to fill in asking for your name, email address and it will have a comment section, this is where you paste your vote information or you can type it in.  To enter the contest here, all I am doing is making sure you voted.

This is what you will see (image below to email me) and you can use the “email the Medical Quack” link at the bottom of the poll or click here.   Put the information from the map in the comment section, hit submit and you are done and entered. This only goes to me so there’s no selling of your information to any advertising and why I chose to do it this way; however if you are the winner Lenovo will be contacting you of course for some additional information as well. 

That is it, you are done and entered. 

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER HEALTHCARE BLOGS LISTED BELOW, AS THEY ARE ALSO GIVING AWAY A LENOVO TOUCH SCREEN COMPUTER AND LOOK FOR THE DATES TO ENTER.  THEIR CONTESTS WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN MINE SO READ THE RULES AS TO HOW TO ENTER FROM THEIR BLOGS.

Participating Healthcare blogs are giving away 20 computers in 20 days.

---

Dec 1 - Dec 5: Medicine and Technology

Dec 2 - Dec 6: Geeks Room

Dec 3 - Dec 7: Neowin

Dec 4 - Dec 8: Gear Diary

Dec 5 - Dec 9: The Medical Quack

Dec 6 - Dec 10: Digital Home Thoughts

Dec 7 - Dec 11: Chip Chick

Dec 8 - Dec 12: Teach 42

Dec 9 - Dec 13: Slash Gear

Dec 10 - Dec 14: Medgadget

Dec 11 - Dec 15: Absolutely Windows

Dec 12 - Dec 16: Small Business Trends

Dec 13 - Dec 17: Cool Cat Teacher

Dec 14 - Dec 18: Web 2.0 Classroom

Dec 15 - Dec 19: The Healthcare IT Guy

Dec 16 - Dec 20: Gear Live

Dec 17 - Dec 21: Healthcare IT Strategy

Dec 18 - Dec 22: Active Win

Dec 19 - Dec 23: The Healthcare Blog

Dec 20 - Dec 24: Practical Theory

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Under a separate post I will outline the contest for the non profit give-away again for companies to submit to win a set of 5 Lenovo touch screen computers – that is a separate contest from the individual give-a-way here. 

Technorati Tags: Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z,technology,computer,evaluation,Windows 7,speech recognition,Medical Quack

DO YOU KNOW OF A NON PROFIT OR OTHER ORGANIZATION PROVIDING CHARITY OR OTHER SOCIAL SERVICES THAT COULD USE A SET OF 5 M90Z COMPUTERS?  IF SO, READ ON!

Lenovo is also giving away three packages of 5 M90z units each, destined for worthy social/non-profit causes such hospitals, clinics, schools, community centers , and the like, a process in which all participating site owners will be invited to assist soliciting entries for consideration.

3 packages of five (5) M90z units will be awarded to a worthy medical or educational institution such as a clinic, hospital, school, community center, adult education facility, etc located in US/CA will be given away.  If you are an institution yourself or know of one who could use a set of five M90z touch screen computers, write me an email explaining why and how the healthcare organization would benefit, in other words how would having touchscreen computers work into their organization. As an example, this could be a clinic providing free care and who are perhaps short on resources, or a need to provide patients an easy way to check in and doctors to enter healthcare data. 

The healthcare facility must be located in the US or in Canada. 

Preference will be given to non-profits and those who provide services that promote healthcare services to all.

The organization will need to have a software application in mind where the use of the M90Z would help.  This could be an electronic medical records system, an imaging center working with patient x-rays or other images, or again a software system that helps patients check in for a few examples.  

Each week a winner will be announced, and the schedule goes as follows:

December 1st through the 6th – first submittal period

December 7th  through 13th – second submittal period

December 14 through 20th third submittal period

This contest runs for 3 weeks and all that is required is an email sent to me along with comments on what software applications used or are planned to be used to where a touch screen computer would really help.

If you miss the first time frame, don’t worry as you can submit an email to me anytime during the 3 time frames.  Common sense though will tell you to not wait though until the last couple days to be considered.  This is separate from the Lenovo promotion to give away individual Lenovo touch screen computers. 

All that is required is an email which will ask for your name, email address and in the comment section be sure to name your company or non profit, the address and contact information if different from the sender’s information.

Technorati Tags: # Lenovo ThinkCentre M90z,technology,computer,evaluation,Windows 7,speech recognition,Medical

The Sanofi plant in Kansas City is now closed as they failed to find a buyer for the plant but prior to the closure, an employee of the waste company contracted to take care of the waste product made from the manufacturing sold the pharmaceutical grade of pseudoephedrine powder sold it to criminals who were making crystal meth.  The article states there was enough sold to create over $40 million dollar’s worth of the illegal drug.

What lead to the discovery of this scheme was when the thieves became greedy and decided to step from just selling the powder and were plotting to flat out steal the pseudoephedrine supply beyond just selling the throw away powder that was not up to tolerance levels for the manufacturing of the drug.  All men in the case pleaded guilty  So the next question, who do you trust? 

This case could in fact stand to open yet more inquiries I might guess on how pharmaceutical companies do in fact dispose of their waste and perhaps take a look at how their contractors are taking care of business.  This somewhat leads to the old saying that someone else’s garbage is another man’s gold in a sense. 

Heritage Environmental Services, and stole hundreds of kilos of the pseudoephedrine powder over a 10-year period and the drug manufactured at the now closed facility was Allegra-D for allergies.  This is why I think we now have the extra controls at the drug store when we just want to purchase some allergy medications as we have all seen in the last couple of years to make sure we do in fact have allergies and are not making crystal meth.  BD 

One of the men behind a multimillion-dollar racket in which pharmaceutical waste from a Sanofi-Aventis manufacturing facility in the USA was diverted to make narcotics was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week.
Garland Duane Hankins of Oak Grove, who worked for an environmental waste disposal company contracted by Sanofi-Aventis, was one of a group of men who pleaded guilty in January to protracted theft of a pharmaceutical grade of pseudoephedrine powder that was unsuitable for use in finished products.

In 2004, the US Drug Enforcement Administration tightened up the requirements for companies making, distributing, importing or exporting pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and propanolamine with measures designed to prevent the theft and diversion of the substances.

SecuringPharma - Kansas man gets 15 years in jail for pharmaceutical diversion

Technorati Tags: Sanofi-Aventis,drugs,allergies pharmaceuticals,DEA,waste,contractors,narcotics,Allegra-D,Heritage Environmental Services

What is also interesting about this story too is the fact the the Arizona Governor has isolated herself from comments and the press on this situation as it is dead wrong to be making life and death decisions based strictly on a budget.  I have several doctors write to me over this situation that were outraged as they stated transplants can and do work for those who have other chronic conditions.  It’s a total lack of ethics and for saving a life. 

Arizona seems to have created their own “death panels” and certainly there are times to look at the big picture but not at this level.  The algorithm folks were wrong and anger from this is not going to diminish anytime soon.  One man who was waiting for a transplant has since died.  How do people making such decisions sleep at night I ask?  There are other areas of a budget that could be considered to be cut without these measures. 

Phoenix Man Denied a Liver Transplant Due to Arizona Budget Cuts-Patient Who Had Insurance Coverage Received the Organ

What also gets to me is the fact that Health IT spending is at an all time high and there’s a lot of areas where private industry makes millions by using data base information from government agencies too, all they do is write and publish some algorithms and make millions.  Read this book if you are in the dark as those algorithms are used for decision making processes for budgets and it’s the interpretation and use of the data that is the problem.  What we have here is the “dark side” of mathematical formulas interpreted wrong, ethically wrong.

“Proofiness–The Dark Side of Mathematical Deception”–Created by Those Algorithms–New Book Coming Out Soon

MSNBC did a full video and story on this topic as well. 

Keith Olbermann Updates Arizona Transplant Denials–Death Panel Algorithms Provided by Subsidiary of United HealthCare (Video)

The governor will not call a special session and there are 98 others in the same situation as the people shown in this video.  Below is the post from earlier this week. Arizona Access had 2 companies provide them with statistics to make these decision on transplants.  See how powerful these algorithms are that compile data are and they don’t contain ethics issues.

Arizona has also cut Medicaid compensation to doctors and if it is anything like here in California, it will be hard to find doctors who will take Medicaid patients.  I hear that from doctors here all the time with the difficulty of finding doctors who will accept that level of payment.   Arizona has also eliminated coverage for emergency dental procedures, insulin pumps and orthotics.

The Kaiser Commission of Medicaid and Uninsured was the association that brought up the fact that decisions made only by budgetary considerations is resulting in denial of care.  It is sad to say, but many private insurers are right in here too with creating new algorithms for coverage, and some have been in the news big time where people have died. On the other side of the coin we have mismanaged data to where the City of Buffalo paid over 2 Million dollars in health insurance premiums for “dead” employees too, so how good are these folks at budgeting?  Those patients in Arizona could have used some of this money and funny that in 2 years that the health insurers were not asking for mammograms or other preventive information on the “dead employees” as they are usually all over everyone's back on those issues, so this was 2 Million dollars of easy money for the insurer and now the City does not know if they can get it back. 

City of Buffalo Has Paid Over $2 Million to Provide Health Insurance for Hundreds of Dead People-Some as Many as 4 Years

The financial part of healthcare is what really needs to be streamlined with cuts made there on price and they should be working closer with device and drug companies to help keep costs down as we have almost hit the bottom of the barrel with hospitals (as around 55% are in the red today in the US) and many doctors are considering leaving their practices, especially if Medicare rates are dropped any lower, and we have our illustrious Congress to thank for that issue which needs news laws to be changed. 

Here’s one big perfect example of big business making millions with running web data services that rank doctors and it is not even accurate as you can read how I found my former MD, who had been dead for over 7 years still listed.  They take state medical board data with insurance company data, query it and put up a website for consumers to find information and they rank hospitals.  Just recently the company was sold to a private equity firm, Vestar after a long roll on Wall Street.  The only work they did was with running some algorithms and creating a web site and they made millions. 

HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor

Subsidiary Watch – The private equity firm of Vestar has over 7 billion in assets and under management.  There are several healthcare companies already included in their portfolio and the combination of information data bases and business structures could be right around the corner.  We are seeing business models connecting industries and companies that in the past would have never worked together but the big change today is that they all have “data” to work with, exchange and query for business intelligence type decisions that will lead to bigger profits by using algorithms to calculate.

This is where so much of the expense is today in healthcare in supporting the Health IT systems that keep feeding itself.  We need Health IT, but not at the cost and sake of running profits on Wall Street like they do for some flimsy algorithmic data work.  This is behind the scenes and a big reason why we pay so much and why so many get denied care as the algorithms can be rogue and skewed, and then like in Arizona, we have those that are “non participants” with little or no digital IT literacy making decisions that kill people when they need care. Someone told me that the Governor in Arizona was lacking a high school diploma and I don’t know if that is all truthful, but that is what the word is being circulated as it can’t be found on the internet. 

Those are the wrong kind of people without the proper intellect to be making such decisions and I have also heard that her staff is pretty much a big group of former lobbyists as well.  That part is nothing new with staff as Rachel Maddow informed us all about the GOP Pledge for America was written by former lobbyists of AIG, Pfizer and more.  You can see the video from a few months back and she has it in black and white as they didn’t know how or forgot how to remove personal information from a pdf before releasing it, a sad state of affairs and scary as to that is what is at the top of the helm.

The Properties of an Adobe pdf Document -Rachel Maddow Rips the GOP on Lack of General Consumer IT Knowledge And Exposes the Input and Authors of the Content–Lobbyists

This sadly all comes back around that word that is center stage on my blog, “algorithms” and earlier this year I did an short interview with a Mass General Hospital magazine about “rogue algorithms” and we touched on that subject lightly, but again you need to get to the intelligence of any circle that controls the programmers that create these things, as well as the folks who use them to make decisions to get anything done. 

In the case of Arizona, in my opinion, it is largely due to those making decisions outside of healthcare, and they don’t even have enough digital consumer literacy to properly interpret, that is responsible for creating these “death panels”, again I had doctors outraged writing to me that the transplants do work and there no 100% with anything but the numbers are good and many have been very successful. 

How do those people sleep at night?  Are they that illiterate to not understand that with all these algorithmic formulas used for budgets that there are names and lives attached to those numbers.  Last year during the Senate hearings, Senator Rockefeller asked the CEO of United Health Care the same question.  BD 

Is This a Case for a New Law – Illegal Algorithms? How Do You Sleep at Night Rockefeller asked the CEO of United Health Care

The Arizona case, said Diane Rowland, director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, “is a classic example of making decisions based not on medical need but based on a budget.” And, she added, “it results, potentially, in denial of care to individuals in a life-or-death situation.”

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services do not monitor which states use Medicaid money for transplants. But health experts said no other state had withdrawn coverage for patients pursuing transplants.

Arizona’s decision, by Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, and the Republican-controlled Legislature, was made after state officials assessed success and survival rates for a number of transplant procedures. National transplant groups call the figures misleading.

Jennifer Carusetta, the legislative liaison for Arizona’s Medicaid agency, said the transplant cuts would save a mere $800,000 in the current fiscal year, and only $1.4 million for a full year.

Arizona’s Medicaid Cuts for Transplants Is Seen as Sign of Financial Times - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: Arizona,hospital,liver,transplant,Banner Good Samaritan Hospital,Hepatitus C,Cancer,AHCCC,Medicaid