This is by far the biggest neglect of both the FDA and drug/medical device and over the counter healthcare products!!  Have you ever tried to return a product to a retail drug store and be told “no” because it’s not on their authorized list!!  Now some of their products are used by healthcare professionals too and I looked all over the web site and as close as I could come was to find wipes or products that remove adhesive tape so I think this is what the product recall is all about that could be contaminated.  A cell phone to scan the box would soooooo simple. 

This is another good sized recall and granted the products are not expensive but for goodness sakes we have private label stuff in here now too.  If in fact the products are not sanitary we need to have an easier way to find them on the shelves.  Look what a mess they make for the retail stores too. 

CVS and Walgreens should join my cause here as this is just simply “tech denial” and nobody wanting to do a thing about it.  I have sent this to drug companies, the FDA, the DEA and several other deaf ears.  This is costing the retail stores money too!  Again, a good reason for them to join the cause here. 

Pharmacists love this idea too.

And yet, if I want to buy a Canon printer, I find bar codes all over the place at Best Buy!  What’s wrong with these tech denial folks!  Why can’t someone begin a pilot program to get this started.  The recall involves both sterile and non sterile products so I guess that’s takes in most of them.  Here’s the names below to look for.  Go bug your local drug store and hope you don’t get a hassle as they have their data to enter into their system so all the data matches as they want credit for the returns to the manufacturer, that’s the way business runs. 

Cardinal Health, PSS Select, VersaPro, Boca/Utilet, Moore Medical, Walgreens, CVS Conzellin

You can see the poll, folks want it and they work with RFID technology.

Tracking Medical Device Recalls – Sounds Like A Good Place for a Microsoft Tag Data Base at the FDA

Recalls of both medical devices and drugs are growing for a number of reasons.  First of all, we have a lot more information available today than what we have ever had and we need to capitalize on this opportunity quickly.   We read in the news every day it seems about quality control issues, devices needing software updates and so on.  How do we get the word out quickly and efficiently?  If one has times they can certainly search the web and put out a full on effort to find all of this every day, but healthcare workers have the same problems we all have and that is time.  When human lives are involved, time is everything. Look at the the recalls from a couple weeks ago on glucose testing strips!!

Abbott Diabetes Care Recalls Tons of Glucose Test Strips–The US Has the FDA Recall Blues-Solution Has Been Touted Here for a Year-It’s Time for a Fix–Readers Have Voted

This just really burns me to see articles come out about the lack of digital literacy in the US and yet we folks at the top that won’t help enhance this and save a few lives while they are at it and we get back to “it’s for those guys over there” once more.  In other words, the illiterate live amongst the top of the ladder in the US.  I think I’m up to post #63 now on recalls!  Would somebody wake up and do something as this very doable and almost everyone wants it.  BD

Healthcare professionals and consumers should stop using all alcohol prep pads, alcohol swabs and alcohol swabsticks manufactured by Triad Group and sold under private labels at the consumer level, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA and Triad Group announced a recall of the products Friday. The recall stems from concerns about possible contamination with Bacillus cereus. The FDA states that using contaminated products could lead to life-threatening infections, especially for surgical patients and those with compromised immune systems. The recall encompasses products marked as “STERILE,” as well as non-sterile products.

The recalled lots are available for purchase in retail pharmacies in boxes of 100 individually-packaged packets. The affected lots list either Triad Group as the manufacturer or the name of one of the following third parties on their packaging: Cardinal Health, PSS Select, VersaPro, Boca/Utilet, Moore Medical, Walgreens, CVS or Conzellin.

Full refunds are available to anyone who returns the recalled products. The FDA says healthcare professionals and patients should report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA’s MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm.

http://news.nurse.com/article/20110107/NATIONAL02/101170010/-1/frontpage

Technorati Tags: FDA,recalls,Triad Group,Bar Codes,Microsoft Tags,Cell phones,scanning,tech denial,luddites,non participants,Walgreens,CVS

Everything needs to talk and anymore you see fewer lines between brands, let’s just make it work is the plan.  Microsoft is the # 2 in line for producing software for Apple, behind Apple themselves.  According to the video a middle ware product is in use here to make the communication and information exchange work.  Microsoft Chameleon is the software from Microsoft used and this is the first hospital to try it out. 

Everyone worries about Microsoft and tablets, even though they created them, and love mine, but if someone creates a nice piece of hardware you can pretty much assume that Microsoft will have software that works on or with the unit shortly.  I have a feeling this post is going to draw a bunch curiosity here in the US soon as well.  BD 

Jan 6 - Doctors in an Israeli hospital are using iPads to help treat patients, provide consultations and study test results from afar. Stuart McDill reports.

iPad helps hospital treat patients | Video | Reuters.com

Technorati Tags: Ipad,Microsoft,Hospital,technology,software hospital,tablets,patients,doctors,communication,mobility

The company has also put itself on the block for sale with a couple of Private Equity firms showing interest with the auction.  According to this update they have cancelled due to a conflict of interest in scheduling.  I have a few items here at the Quack about the company to include re-organization of their data systems.

Business Intelligence Software Breakdown At Beckman Coulter – Algorithms gone Rogue and Data House Repair

In addition, Beckman as well as many other employers were caught up in trying to find an alternative employer health insurance carrier as were many in Orange County California were affected when United/Pacificare re-aligned and prices went up with new contracts and rebranding of Pacificare over to United. One hospital in Orange, California is no longer honoring patients under those employer contracts due to low compensation. 

Employers in Orange County Looking for New HMO Contracts as St. Josephs and Some Others Begin Cancelling Agreements with Pacificare (UnitedHeatlhCare) – Employer Capitation Contracts

This is an invitation only conference for clients and where everyone is putting their best foot forward for the financial world to include insurance companies, biotechs and anyone in the healthcare world today. There are a slew of press releases out and you can find them all over the web on who is presenting.  LinkedIn has a page with a few more details and groups who are communicating relative to the upcoming conference.  BD

* Pulls out conference due to scheduling conflict

* Company recently hired Goldman, according to sources (Adds background; updates share price)

CHICAGO Jan 6 (Reuters) - Beckman Coulter Inc (BEC.N), said to be on the auction block, has canceled its presentation at JPMorgan Healthcare conference, the industry's premier event for investors, the bank said.

Sources told Reuters earlier this week that private equity firms were pairing up in the bidding for the medical test maker as an auction progresses.

Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR.N) are joining up, sources said, while Apollo [APOLO.UL] and Carlyle [CYL.UL] also remain in the auction and are likely to team up. [ID:nN04245454]

UPDATE 2-Beckman cancels presentation at JPMorgan conference | Reuters

Technorati Tags: Business Intelligence,algorithms,Beckman Coulter,Biotech,technology,healthcare,software,code,data warehouse,biotech,JP Morgan,Private Equity

Who said electronic medical record weren’t expensive?  Partners hospitals include Brigham and Women and Massachusetts General Hospital in their network of hospitals and physicians.  about 6 months ago their long term CIO left to work for Siemens, who just announced this week that they have licensed Positive ID, the human chips so maybe his work will be getting a lot more interesting over there. 

John Glaser VP and CIO of Partners Healthcare Leaving - New Job: CEO Siemens Health Services Business Unit

What has also been in the news too is Blue Cross with offering cheaper insurance plans for employers who discourage patients from going to Brigham and Women and Mass General, due to higher costs so I don’t know if this has any effect but it could stand to represent a few less patients now or in the future. BD

Blue Cross Launching New Health Coverage Option in Massachusetts-Encourages Consumers Via Employer Plans to Avoid 15 Named High Cost Hospitals

$7.45 billion in debt is a pretty big sum in anyone’s book to be sold.   BD

Partners HealthCare System Inc., which runs Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, is borrowing $420 million for improvements including electronic medical records and to refinance debt, with average tax-exempt yields at close to a 16-month high.

Partners, a Boston-based nonprofit that has two hospitals affiliated with Harvard University, will complete the sale of about $270 million of fixed-rate securities today and is also offering $150 million of variable-rate debt this month, according to Debra Sloan, deputy treasurer. The tax-exempt securities are being sold through the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.

About $7.45 billion in debt is scheduled to be sold in the next 30 days, according to the Bloomberg visible supply index. The gauge’s daily reading averaged $11 billion during 2010.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is marketing the securities. The projects being financed with the debt include the Lunder Building at Massachusetts General, which will cost $686 million. It is expected to open this year, according to the offering documents.

Boston Hospitals Seek $420 Million With Cost at 16-Month High: Muni Credit - Bloomberg

Technorati Tags: Blue Cross,Boston,hospitals,contracts,Hospital Choice,cost,co-payments,procedures,surgery,premiums,bonds,loan,Partners Healthcare,refinance,electronic medical records

If I am reading correctly the check was issued 2 days after registration began, and that’s fast service.  The amount of the check as just over 42K for their use electronic medical records and the ability to show meaningful use. This is a small clinic with just two physicians who has been using e’MDs since 2005.  Additional information on registration can be found at the link below. 

Registration for EHR Incentive Program To Register for Stimulus Money Opens Jan 3rd

If you have not registered yet, this sends message to be sure and sign up.   e-MDs is also a valued sponsor/advertiser on the Medical Quack and you can always find a link under the resources column for more information.  The full press release can be read at the link at the end of the post.  BD   

AUSTIN, TX — e-MDs, a leading provider of electronic health records (EHRs), announced that their client, the Gastorf Family Clinic of Durant, OK, received the first physician-paid incentive checks in the country under The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. On January 5th, 2011, just two days after registration opened for the incentive programs, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority issued payments of $21,250 to two physicians at the Gastorf Family Clinic for their successful adoption and implementation of a certified EHR. The incentive payment is federally-funded under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The Gastorf Family Clinic worked closely with the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ), Oklahoma's Health Information Technology Regional Extension Center, to apply for the incentive program and ensure the appropriate steps were taken in order to receive the Medicaid payments. OFMQ, a leader in health care quality improvement, provides health information technology consulting to Oklahoma providers adopting and implementing EHRs.

e-MDs Client is Nation's First Physician Recipient of Electronic Health Records Incentive Payment

Technorati Tags: e-MDs,stimulus,medical records,HITECH,ARRA,EHR incentive,healthcare,technology,CMS,Medicare,doctors,patients,Health IT

How much is an algorithm worth?  Ask anyone on Wall Street these days and it’s these intangibles (aka Facebook) that seems to be making the news today.  Private Equity seems to believe the profits are there as well the banks.  In this case the company appears to be changing hands from one private equity firm to another. 

As a matter of fact, private equity investments in healthcare are getting so commonplace and the number is growing that they had to go out and created a NON PROFIT organization to discuss how to PROFIT, a bit of an oxymoron, but you can read more at this link below.  BD

How Big Are Private Equity Investments in Healthcare – Large Enough to Create a “Non-Profit” Trade Association To Talk About How to “Profit”

ATLANTA – January 7, 2011 – Surgical Information Systems (“SIS” or the “Company”), a leader in perioperative information systems, announced today that Norwest Equity Partners (“NEP”), a leading middle-market equity investment firm, has acquired the Company from Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”).  The current SIS executive team, led by Ed Daihl, Chief Executive Officer, will remain in place following this investment.  Clients and associates will benefit from the resulting accelerated delivery of new, innovative software solutions.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, SIS software solutions are uniquely designed to add value at every point in the perioperative process.  Developed specifically for the complex surgical environment, all SIS modules--including anesthesia--are built on a single database and integrate easily with other hospital systems.  Clients include leading academic and medical research centers, integrated delivery networks and hospitals of all sizes.

Surgical Information Systems Enters New Phase of Growth

Technorati Tags: Surgical Information Systems,Algorithms,healthcare,private equity,investments,mergers and acquisitions,software,Norwest Equity

MedApps is one of the devices/software services that has been cleared by the FDA.  Sometimes what does and does not need FDA approval gets a bit cloudy today.  MedApps combines several devices into one platform so you line up an army of devices and have them all respond and post data to one place.

FDA approves HealthPal – Bluetooth Device that Collects from Other Reporting Devices and Sends Information to PHR – HealthVault or Google Health

A few months ago I also touched on the their cloud application and now with the cellular connection with AT&T you can be connected all the time. 

Power of MedApps Moves to the Cloud -FDA Approved Mobile Device That Collects from Many and Aggregates Health Data

There’s a lot going on at CES this week with many devices and a lot of choices.  If you go to the web site you can see the company has testified in front of Congress, but don’t hold your breath there as I’m sure they understand all of this yet and even though these are consumer products they still seem to think “its for those guys over there”. 

Big problem with non participants today that keeps rearing it’s ugly head and now that the new head of the science committee is 90 years old, he’s certainly a candidate to use this product, but don’t expect him to get it anytime soon I am guessing after what I saw yesterday on the floor of the House with still using a paper 3 ring binder to read the Constitution.  BD

Meanwhile, AT&T will connect the MedApps suite to its 3G network and sell MedApps' remote-care monitoring hub and enterprise back-end products with AT&T's ForHealth applications.

MedApps Senate Testimony

"It will help AT&T offer m-health solutions that are user-agnostic and universally accessible, despite carrier, device type or operating system," Porter said.

When designing health-care IT applications that reach a diversity of demographics it is essential to get patients to comply with medical procedures, according to Kent Dicks, CEO of MedApps.

ATandT Adds MedApps Remote Monitoring to 3G for Health Platform - Health Care IT - News & Reviews - eWeek.com

Technorati Tags: MedApps,wireless remote monitoring,HealthPal,HealthVault,Google Health,medical devices,healthcare,Health IT,Bluetooth,Cloud Computing,Personal Health Records

I was reading my usual news feeds and people I follow in Twitter this morning as I was not quite ready for this, as I follow the blog, “Running a Hospital” to find a personal blog note from Paul Levy stating he is stepping down as CEO.  If you are out here in cyberspace, then you may be aware of his blog and how he has taken time to update and provide information that is perhaps not visible in other avenues on the internet and that’s what bloggers do best, we are dot connectors and make things personal with our own insights. 

He was also the first hospital CEO to open up to transparency and create a blog with regular updates and I haven’t quite seen any other blog that has kept up in that area.  He states in his letter to the hospital (copy included at his blog) that he has had a good nine years and has been part of a team that took the hospital from the verge of bankruptcy to where it is today.  He did not say when he’s leaving but I am maybe guessing there’s a transition period here as someone will need to be hired to take his place.  The blog will remain so thank goodness for social networks so we don’t get disconnected in this crazy world of mass communication that has evolved today too! 

Best of luck to Mr. Levy and we will all stay connected and keep in touch!  From 2009 I made a post with an interview video he did discussing why he blogs,  so you can use the link below to read up.  BD

Why Does a Hospital CEO Blog – Inquiring Minds Wanted to Know – Paul Levy Talks About It

I attach an email that I have sent to the BIDMC staff this morning. It is self-explanatory.
My loyal blog readers can expect continued posts over the coming months. The health care field needs a bit of stimulus every now and then, and this medium has turned out to be more powerful in that regard that I ever could have imagined.
Thank you for your readership and your perceptive comments. Knowing that thousands of people around the world have been watching and participating in this adventure has been more important than you can imagine. Please stay tuned for the coming chapters!

Running a hospital: Transitions

Technorati Tags: Paul Levy,Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital,Harvard Medical,Running a Hospital,CEO,healthcare,blogs,healthcare blogs

I watched the keynote last night from CES too and Surface is evolving.  Not everyone may want a table set, so with the new slim design, it goes on the wall now. The new Surface unit is from Samsung and runs Windows 7. After the key note too I easily made up my mind that I’ll be sticking with a Windows 7 phone too as having mobile  Xbox on the phone, which I have not really explored much with Xbox, will open up some new things for me to do with my phone other than my favorite game, PacMan <grin>.  If Surface has PacMan, I’m in trouble.

Notice the Microsoft Tag up in the corner of the top image, as Surface and Microsoft Tags work together and Tags can be an way of entering information into a HealthVault account and a secure log on.  In this case the medical information via Microsoft Tags goes right from surface to the patient’s phone.  A confirmation is shown that the the file has been added.  Here’s a post from last year that has a couple videos and the frog here is the key!  The frog is showing how information is transported to and from Surface with Microsoft Tags. 

Microsoft Tag and Surface Working Together (Video) – The Frog is the Future of Your EOB Getting to Your PHR

Back on track with surface Dr. Crounse wrote up a pretty detailed listing of what the new unit will be able to do and more details can be found here and a brief summary is below the video.  The keyboard as we know it is getting closer to being extinct.   BD 

Surface in Healthcare and Beyond

Last evening during his keynote at CES in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off some of our newest innovations.  One of those was the next iteration of Surface Computing.

From the very first time I saw early prototypes of Surface in Andy Wilson’s labs at Microsoft Research, I knew the technology would soon find its way into health and healthcare.  Indeed that happened and today we have dozens of partners and customers around the world who have developed very cool solutions on Surface for clinicians, medical educators, and consumers to help them teach, learn, communicate and collaborate. 

I fully expect to see a lot of  renewed interest in Surface from healthcare partners who have already been developing solutions on the device.  I also predict down the line that we’ll be seeing some “mashups” combining Surface with attributes of Kinect, Xbox, Xbox Live, Avatars, and possibly Microsoft Lync or Windows Live.  I’ve always maintained that the digital, flat-screen Internet connected device in our living rooms (our television) would one day become the gateway to all kinds of new services and entertainment.  Let the “games” begin!

Introducing Microsoft Surface 2.0—our vision for healthcare - HealthBlog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Technorati Tags: Windows Tags,healthcare,technology,EOB,2D Bar Code,FDA,recalls,PHR,personal health records,Surface,cell phone,medical records,Microsoft,HealthVaut

If you haven’t seen this yet, this is more entertaining than the actual reading with the discussion and one person wanting to ask a question. <grin>.  What amendments will be read and there were some pages that got stuck together and were missed in the reading as it was in a 3 ring binder.  The big decision was to read the amended document, whew!   By the way if you want to read the Constitution you can read it online, download it, etc. here at the government archives. Come to think of it, I’ll just turn on the Microsoft text to speech narrator and have it read to me on my computer.  This is on almost every version of Windows and you just need to access and enable it. 

ANYONE HEARD OF A KINDLE, IPAD OR ANY OTHER READER HERE THAT COULD HELPED IN NOT MISSING 3 PAGES?

Now in the meantime 2 House Republicans missed getting sworn in as they were at a fund raiser reports Rachel Maddow, and they voted later which was a violation of the Constitution. 

OK ANYONE FOR A LITTLE TECHNOLOGY WITH REMOTE SESSION OF CONGRESS?

We can do that today as businesses all over the world are having remote conferences and the virtualization is good.  These 2 were ok though as they watched the television from the Capitol visitors Center with their hands raised, huh?

Constitution Reading

There are luddites on both sides of the political parties but today was the day for the GOP and General Consumer literacy was certainly not showing and perhaps they may want to amend the Constitution to allow for those folks who can’t make get sworn in <grin>.  If you want to read a little more discussion the post below has that along with some pondering why the GOP embraced Facebook this week when there has not been much action before <grin> and did a lobbyist from Goldman suggest this?  In California we have a digital literacy initiative we could share with Washington.  BD 

The SEC, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Boehner and Those Algorithms For Profit-One Big Party and Learning Curve on Social Networks?

Members of the new Congress devoted a portion of their second day of the new term to reading the U.S. Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Members of Congress Read U.S. Constitution on House Floor | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Technorati Tags: Politics,Congress,Constitution,Bi-Partisan,Republicans,Democrats,language

I thought I would post this as a general interest article, but I don’t think bloggers are included, well maybe not yet.  At any rate this is information the NIH is making available is for reporters and journalists to get closer to scientific research and reports as in today’s world it certainly is getting complicated as that is just the times we live in.  BD   

For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 6, 2011

Contact:
Elizabeth Neilson
301-496-4999

News Advisory

Reporters and Editors are Invited to Apply for 2011 "Medicine in the Media" Course

Medicine in the Media:
The Challenge of Reporting on Medical Research

July 13-16, 2011
Hanover, New Hampshire

Apply online: http://medmediacourse.nih.gov
Deadline: February 28, 2011

About the Course

The National Institutes of Health, along with partners at Dartmouth College and the Department of Veterans Affairs, is pleased to present a free annual training opportunity to help develop journalists' ability to critically evaluate and report on medical research.

The course examines the challenges and opportunities inherent in communicating the results of medical research to the public. Stressing an evidence-based approach and re-examining intuitive beliefs about medicine, the course will prepare participants for the crucial task of evaluating research findings including statistics, selecting stories that hold meaningful messages for the public, and placing them in the appropriate context.

For an overview of the course, please visit http://medmediacourse.nih.gov.

There is no cost for the course, and meals and lodging are provided. Participants are responsible for their own travel to Hanover, New Hampshire.

Who Should Apply

We accept applications from journalists and editors whose primary target audience is the general public. Applicants may produce news stories about health or healthcare for newspapers, magazines, or newsletters; television or radio; or on-line media. Participants should be eager to develop skills and knowledge necessary for good medical science reporting, but need not have specific experience or background in medical journalism.

For Additional Information

Online: http://medmediacourse.nih.gov
E-mail: MedMedia@od.nih.gov
Telephone: 301-496-4999

The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for setting policy for NIH, which includes 27 Institutes and Centers. This involves planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also includes program offices which are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH. Additional information is available at http://www.nih.gov/icd/od.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Reporters and Editors are Invited to Apply for 2011 "Medicine in the Media" Course, January 6, 2011 News Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Technorati Tags: NIH,journalism in healthcare,reporting news,audience

Since all the recalls, there has not been much of this around to say the least so the new owner in Baltimore will be moving production to a new factory as the J and J facility is still closed down for repairs and upgrades.  Here was the announcement from July of 2010.

Johnson and Johnson (McNeil) Lays Off 300 Employees and Will Re-Tool the Tylenol Factory

Recalls of both medical devices and drugs are growing for a number of reasons.  First of all, we have a lot more information available today than what we have ever had and we need to capitalize on this opportunity quickly.   We read in the news every day it seems about quality control issues, devices needing software updates and so on.  How do we get the word out quickly and efficiently?  If one has times they can certainly search the web and put out a full on effort to find all of this every day, but healthcare workers have the same problems we all have and that is time.  When human lives are involved, time is everything.

The opportunity to turn a cell phone into a “scanner” with real time information is huge.  As mentioned above, this can be a daunting task at times and we have people at all different stages with using technology today and in my opinion, using a cell phone makes sense, when all one has to do is open a program on the phone and simply “shoot and aim” and relative information would be available instantly.  Back in October of 2009 I kept reading about all the recalls of devices and created my first opinion/idea post here.  It just made sense to me.  BD

Johnson & Johnson sold its St. Joseph's aspirin brand to a closely held Baltimore company for an undisclosed sum, the companies said Thursday.

St. Joseph's had been an iconic children's medicine before aspirin use in kids fell out of favor. J&J bought the brand from Schering-Plough Corp. in 2000, and tried to revive the medicine by appealing to baby boomers at risk of heart attack. Yet St. Joseph's couldn't top Bayer's market-leading aspirin, and sales didn't get big enough for J&J to reveal them in financial statements.

Ilex Consumer Products Group Inc. bought the U.S. rights to the brand. Ilex, which sells Calgon and other bath and beauty products, plans to move St. Joseph's production to another plant and expects shipments to retailers to start sometime this spring, according to a spokeswoman for the company, which is owned by Ilex Capital Group LLC, a private investment firm.

J&J Sells U.S. Rights to St. Joseph's - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: Johnson and Johnson,St. Joseph's Aspirin,healthcare,FDA,recalls,Bayer

You can read the entire article at the New York Times but in essence the President ran out of folks who could help him out with the technological war far that is occurring and thus has reached out and grabbed William M. Daley who works in the financial industry. They work worth with algorithms day in and out and while Mr. Daley may not be a hands on person, believe me he knows his “Algo Men” as all the banks have quite of them.  How in the world do you think they strategize and write their code.  Remember the case where Goldman put a former employee in jail over this?  Give some thought here, how valuable is that code?  You should be able to figure that out by now. 

The world has changed in 2 years, a lot.  In healthcare we have some hands on IT folks coming to the helm as well, and in reality that should have been done 2 years ago with the Director of HHS needing more Health IT background than negotiation skills as that’s just the world we live in today. Again too I will mention as I always do is that everyone needs to be a participant and I would love to know how many of the government folks in healthcare actually support he Surgeon General and take any initiative to establish a personal health record?  Probably very few from what I read in the news and hear as they never talk about it.  That’s really another topic for another time with one of my “its for those guys over there” themes. 

In recent months, look at who the president has been meeting with, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who are the ultimate kings of code and software, so I think he’s getting it on what he needs to do.  One thing that Bill Gates mentions a lot and spoke at Berkeley about are the “hybrids” of the world, and Mr. Daley from what I have read is one of those.  Bill Gates said those people are going to be the ones in demand.  I wish I were in demand like that as I do  talk (many years in sales) and chew code (used to write software) at the same time <grin>.

High Frequency Electronic Trading Methodologies And Algorithms Work Their Way Into Healthcare With Human Bodies Losing Liquidity With the “Data Game”

His expertise might really come in handy with having strong group of Algo Men to help on the battle ground with High Frequency Healthcare too. 

Medical claim processing is somewhat being modeled to mirror high frequency trading when you stop and think about and of course those insurers are traded on Wall Street so any algorithms generated that create profits and run in the shortest amount of time seems to be where the focus is at and the the loss of ethics in remembering this time we are focusing on human lives.

It’s not the need to save money as that is there anyway and cutting some of the high frequency methodologies in healthcare with machine guns might help and get some better design, but it’s rather the methodologies insurers use and that makes a case that sucks for everyone who becomes a patient.

With healthcare it’s time we should be able to stop feeling like a “commodity” laying in a hospital bed, which is the way finance looks at it when it comes to money and we need a balance between saving money and treating people like humans. 

This should be an interesting time to see how the change works and maybe Congress might get some Algo Men who are impartial and quit listening 100% to those lobbyists.  BD

More Congressional Testimonies About Health IT–Members of Congress Could Entertain Getting an “Algo Man” on Staff As Wall Street and Health Insurers Have Them–Don’t Leave Home Without One

WASHINGTON — He is a top executive at JPMorgan Chase, where he is paid as much as $5 million a year and supervises the Washington lobbying efforts for the nation’s second-largest bank. William M. Daley also serves on the board of directors at Boeing, the giant defense contractor, and Abbott Laboratories, the global drug company, which has billions of dollars at stake in the overhaul of the health care system.

Mr. Daley, 62, who is not close friends with Mr. Obama, even though both share a Chicago base, has a well-rounded résumé. It includes work as a lawyer in private practice , a bank president, a telecommunications company executive, a political strategist, fund-raiser and campaign chief, a lobbyist for foreign corporations (he advocated on tax matters for Nestle and a Canadian petroleum company) and a three-year stint as commerce secretary in the Clinton administration. His brother, Richard M. Daley, is departing after six terms as mayor of Chicago, where his family has an almost royal status.

William Daley Brings Management Experience as Chief of Staff - NYTimes.com

Technorati Tags: President Obama,healthcare,technology,JPMorgan,banks,business intelligence,Chief of Staff,formulas

In reading this some policy holders had contracts that guaranteed no raises for a year and those are going to be the ones hit with the highest increase all at one time.  Now compared to Blue Cross, Blue Shield is a non profit and quite a bit smaller but it’s still a lot of people.  The only way right now in California to block the increase is if the insurer pays less than 70% on claims. 

The scheduled increases for October were delayed while regulators examined their request so the time for that increase is here.  Now there's the January 1 increase rolled in here to pay for changes under healthcare reform, i.e. the new laws and perhaps some new data IT systems in the 30% allowed area.  March 1st is the next round of increases to come on line so in essence all this rolled in during a 5-6 month period.  If you are still confused you can go to the Ask Blue healthcare reform section of the website or call I presume.  BD

Anthem Blue Cross also said increases are coming up April 1st that would average just under 10% for the average policy holder. Ok so now we have the rules set on how much carriers can increase, but how often can they have rate increases?  I don’t know how well that was all lined out with our state insurance office.  BD 

Another big California health insurer has stunned individual policyholders with huge rate increases — this time it's Blue Shield of California seeking cumulative hikes of as much as 59% for tens of thousands of customers March 1.
Blue Shield's action comes less than a year after Anthem Blue Cross tried and failed to raise rates as much as 39% for about 700,000 California customers.

"We raise rates only when absolutely necessary to pay the accelerating cost of medical care for our members," the nonprofit insurer told customers last month.

Michael Fraser, a Blue Shield policyholder from San Diego, learned recently that his monthly bill would climb 59%, to $431 from $271.

At present, the commissioner can block increases only if insurers spend less than 70% of premium income on claims. Jones' office said Blue Shield's March 1 increase was under review.

Some policyholders have seen their bills rise gradually over the last five months, while others will see the charges lumped together March 1.
"It's unfortunate that they all came in a five-month period," Epstein said. "Rates are going to continue to rise unless the cost of medical care is brought under control. We need to reduce what we pay to hospitals, medical groups and pharmaceutical companies."

Blue Shield of California seeks rate hikes of as much as 59% for individuals - latimes.com

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One again I thank ScrubsGallery for their continued support of the Medical Quack Blog.  Each month they offer a discount for readers and you can use the link in the image above to take advantage of the discount offered this month.

Next time you need to order scrubs or other healthcare apparel, please check out their website and compare. 

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This patient lived in Tucson and was denied a transplant due to the October 1st budget cuts.  I have no idea what is wrong with Jan Brewer and how she can live with herself with doing this, but as I said before, when you have IT illiterate people who do not know how to work with numbers, this is what was handed down, death panels.  Here’s a prior post from the middle of December below of last year that spells it out with a lot of information and worth the read.  We need folks with algorithmic literacy to understand how current day budget work and not sentence sick people to die. 

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer-Rootin’ Tootin’ IT Illiteracy Riding High Lacking Digital Literacy With Budget Algorithmic Solutions to Find Funding for Transplant Patients

Keith Olbermann has the video coverage here. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

She’s not alone with being IT illiterate and using formulas to make decisions as we had this earlier this year too: With Gordon Brown talking, it was somewhat disturbing to hear his comment that he made saying “he had no idea on how connected the banks had become”

People that write code and the algorithmic formulas like to share and increase value and education, it is just a natural but the rest of the world and the Jan Brewer Society for the Digital Illiterate can endeavor to educate themselves up a notch to participate and continue to live with the values of the 70s and I think too are totally bliss, maybe time for a wake up call here?

A Democratic state representative is introducing a bill to offer a way to fund the transplants, which is small compared to other budget items at 1.4 million and again some of the numbers given for her decisions as reported previously were supplied with using the Algorithms of United Healthcare/Ingenix. The governor would not hold a special session. By the way, United has a new pilot program too of putting Oncologists on pay for performance, and yes you read that correctly, so keep this in mind when dealing with folks that only look at numbers and not lives and we could in time have a sub set of death panels in the works as last year they graded cancer doctors on whether or not they were following “the rules”.

Health Insurers Focusing on Cancer Treatments - Pilot Programs To Follow Standard Treatments & New Payment Structures

Also what was addressed was the “fake” death panels with advanced directives for people to be able to choose what happens at the end of life and give the doctor a little pay for their time, but again the illiterates struck again.  I also touched on the fact that if not regulated properly that it could get out of hand too with insurers trying to push this outside the borders of what it is, in the effort to save costs, as it’s all about those algorithms for profit and they do not belong in this area of human life.  They could  have a mother doing an advanced directive on a newborn baby before it gets out of the hospital as they already run algorithms to deny care for pre-existing conditions on those barely born and stop short of a big fight to fix it.  BD

End-of-life Counseling or Advanced Directives Are a Good Thing for Medicare But What Direction Would Health Insurers Drive It For Compliance To Reduce Exposure for Profit?

 

Technorati Tags: Jan Brewer,algorithms,Arizona,digital literacy,budgets,heatlhcare,death panels,politics,healthcare reform,Medicaid,non partcipants,edcuation,Gordon Brown,DUH

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#40935474

Upon further investigation it was found that there not only errors, but just numbers that were made up.  In May of 2010 he was struck from the the medical register in the UK and lucky us he lives here now.  I guess he ran here for some type of protection or just a getaway? 

Doctor Who Studied Autism and MMR Vaccinations Found Guilty of Misconduct in the UK – He Now Resides in the US

In healthcare we are seeing it all over the place and big reason I focus on those Algorithms as they can create fraud too.  Look what we had with numbers that were altered in the payment with Ingenix/United Healthcare underpaying on out of network charges on medical claims for around 15 years which was a case of technological war fare in taking advantage of the algorithm ignorance and lack of time to pursue from those without the technology.  There are many more lawsuits with Ingenix/United and people still giving the anti fraud contracts to audit and ensure their medical billing is correct-go figure.

AMA Announced Settlement of Class Action Suit of $350 Million with Ingenix (United Healthcare)

That will give you a good idea on how long this has been working behind the scenes and in this case the doctor made up algorithms to support his studies. Sometimes it is outright scary to see how people react and work when they find out how they can use formulas aka algorithms to either disrupt or completely lie in studies and reports.  We audits all over today.   

Ask questions and be aware that everyone is not nice and if there is a buck to made, code will be written and outcomes are either for accurate or desired results just as this case was fabricated.  BD 

(CNN) -- A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.

An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose. After years on controversy, the Lancet, the prestigious journal that originally published the research, retracted Wakefield's paper last February.

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds - CNN.com

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This is interesting and perhaps more in California, like me, will keep their phones secured with a password.  As the law reads, the police can’t force you to give out your PIN number or password to gain access.  So if you want to make sure you have security just in case put a password on that cell phone. 

This would especially be true if you are in healthcare and I would hope a password is already in place to protect any potential personal or patient data so one is HIPAA compliant.  BD 

The police in California can now search your cell phone or handheld device without a warrant for evidence for a case, according to a ruling issued today by the state's Supreme Court. The judges determined that police have the right to examine items they seize, which can range from text messages to app history to websites that you browsed. An appeal on the ruling could be sent up to the US Supreme Court according to California Deputy Attorney General Victoria Wilson, who The Daily Mail reported was the prosecutor on the case.

California Supreme Court Rules Cell Phone Searches Are Legal - Techland - TIME.com

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There are currently over 700 employees in India doing work for the UK and according to this article as budget cuts and considerations grow over the next couple of years, the money potential for India could stand to grow.  According to the article here, the workload handled is the “business” side of the NHS, not medical records per se and activities that  involve invoicing and other such functions outside of the direct patient care.  BD 

Indian call centers are poised to reap a massive windfall in extra earnings during the coming financial year as the UK government’s biggest spending department seeks new ways to save money.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS), which has an annual budget of £104 billion, is under orders to achieve 20 per cent savings by 2014.

Health service managers believe this will be best achieved by outsourcing more NHS administration to Indian call centers and data bases that are cheaper to run than their UK counterparts.

Currently, a UK government-backed company called NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) has some 700 Indian employees in Delhi and Pune that handle invoices, data entry and administration.

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News

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