Chinese Man Builds Homemade Dialysis Machine To Keep Himself Alive for 13 Years As He Could Not Afford Treatment

<p>He couldn’t afford going to the hospital either according to this <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="193" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-AveZtTaGMTM/UQtZt4EHucI/AAAAAAABEJc/NZYtuzGRuag/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="153" />article as they did find out about him and it was still off limits with insurance even as the basic insurance only covers about half the cost and then other insurance or the patient has to pay the other half..sound like the same expense issues we have here.  In addition the nearest hospital is too far away and over crowded for him to be cared for there.  His  money ran out after 6 years to be cared for at the hospital   The poorest in China struggle for pay medical bills for serious conditions.  At the link at the bottom you can read the entire article and see more pictures as it appears his entire set up is in his bathroom.  He makes his own solutions and the cost for him with his homemade machine is only 12 percent of what he would pay at the hospital.  I sure hope things don’t get to this point here with healthcare.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />Three times a week, Hu Songwen sits on a small toilet in his home in a rural east China town and fires up his homemade dialysis machine.</p> <p>Hu, who suffers from kidney disease, made it from kitchen utensils and old medical instruments after he could no long afford hospital fees.</p> <p>He was a college student when he was diagnosed in 1993 with kidney disease, which means waste  products cannot be removed from his blood.</p> <p>He underwent dialysis treatment in hospital but ran out of savings after six years. His solution was to create his own machine to slash his costs. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>'The cost for each home treatment is only 60 yuan (£6), which is 12 per cent of the hospital charge for dialysis,' Hu said.</p> <p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Hu makes the dialysis fluid by mixing potassium chloride, sodium chloride and sodium hydrogen carbonate (bicarbonate) into purified water.</p> <p>For the treatment, he inserts two tubes into his arm, which are connected to his dialysis machine. The blood is pumped out of his arm through one of the tubes, is filtered and then returned to his body via the other tube <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Hu's kidney disease means he has dangerously high levels of the minerals potassium and sodium in his blood. So he created a dialysis solution that has similar levels of potassium and sodium to healthy human blood.</p> <p>When the blood and dialysis fluid go through the machine, these excess minerals are encouraged to go from his blood and through the membrane to the fluid. This removes the waste products from his blood - and the fluid is later thrown away. </p> <p>This spontaneous movement of particles from a high to a low concentration through a membrane is known as diffusion.</p> <p>The 'clean' blood is then pumped back into his body. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Although a Communist country, <strong>China does not have a cradle-to-grave free-at-the-point of use healthcare system.  </strong></p> <p><strong>Instead around half of the population buy basic medical insurance which covers for half the costs of their healthcare. The remainder is paid either by patients or their health insurer</strong>.  </p> <p>However, this leaves the poorest in China struggling to meet medical bills for serious conditions. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2266412/Chinese-man-kept-alive-13-years-HOMEMADE-dialysis-machine.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2266412/Chinese-man-kept-alive-13-years-HOMEMADE-dialysis-machine.html</a></p> <p> <br clear="all" /></p>

Chinese Man Builds Homemade Dialysis Machine To Keep Himself Alive for 13 Years As He Could Not Afford Treatment

He couldn’t afford going to the hospital either according to this article as they did find out about him and it was still off limits with in...

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Aetna Payment of $120 Million To Settle 15 Year Ingenix/United HealthCare Out of Network Erroneous Payment Algorithms Cuts Income for 4th Quarter

<p>Here’s one more settlement and it’s affect on profits and I must say that for their time and what Ingenix was doing with their algorithms they had money from both<img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-fMJt549Ja2w/UMIlaGHhcuI/AAAAAAABA78/ufGZsD32Cn4/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> sides, first from the short payments and secondly from other companies like Aetna and Health Net for another licensing the use of the customary fees and charge software.  This is the AMA class action lawsuit that finally settled as United settled their own first and there’s most lawsuits out there floating around over this as well with tentacles everywhere as surgical centers and more filed their own cases.  <strong>Here’s the back link on the Aetna settlement and it certainly says one thing today, get to know and see your algorithms.</strong>  You have to admit the Ingenix algorithms had some profit making algos that ran for many years but of course it hurt the doctors, hospitals and consumers with flawed data.  </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/one-more-court-case-settles-for-120.html"><font size="2"> <br clear="all" />One More Court Case Settles for $120 Million With Aetna For Around To 13 to 15 Years of Short Paying Doctors Using Defunct United Healthcare (Ingenix) Data Base for Out of Network Reimbursements</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/08/ingenix-data-base-has-some-long.html"><font size="2">Ingenix Data Base Has Some Long Reaching Legal Tentacles with Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Humana</font></a></h4> <h4> </h4> <p>As a matter of fact, one state, New Jersey and their legislature has become smarter in that area too with asking to see the “algorithms” and not the song and dance that substantiates rate increases.  <strong>Here’s a clip of the wording use and they want the algos that create the development of the software, and <u>this is the same type of stuff the SEC needs to after for that matter if we can every get past the old paradigm that an attorney is the best occupational area to select an individual from to run the place.</u> </strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-jersey-legislature-getting-smart.html"><font size="2">New Jersey Legislature Getting Smart– Bill to Modify Claim Procedures to Include Asking For Insurance Company Algorithms-Bill A3334</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TLkpFhnrD4I/AAAAAAAAiK4/PA8g3D-XL2A/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" /> <br clear="all" />Some of the new areas in addition to buying up health payer technology companies include become a partner with Costco to sell their insurance in California and a few other states and you can find their software they are selling to consumers in Best Buy, mostly tracking and financial offerings there.  In addition they also bought Coventry Healthcare last year for $5.7 billion.  Doctors in California also have an active lawsuit in progress that goes back again to <img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TLkpHhiZecI/AAAAAAAAiLQ/LDSPKqq46kg/image_thumb%5B8%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />out of network payments and <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/04/aetna-states-letters-mailed-to.html">some of these doctors had patients receive letters</a> telling them their doctors were no longer in network and that was an error to be corrected and in Texas (video at link) about <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/04/aetna-notifies-130-texas-doctors-that.html">130 doctors were told they were no longer going to be on contract with Aetna</a>.  These are just a few examples and complexities are there with all insurers and is is any wonder the states are telling the Feds, '”go ahead and negotiate with the insurers and set up the exchange”….nobody wants to do the complex contract negotiations and have their head on the block if and when paying claims or some other function creates discrepancies with the algorithms that run the working formats of the IT infrastructure laid out in the contracts.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/costco-selling-aetna-health-insurance.html"><font size="2">Costco Selling Aetna Health Insurance Plan to Members–A Few Days Ago Costco Became a Pharmacy Benefit Manager</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/07/california-doctors-sue-aetna-for.html"><font size="2">California Doctors Sue Aetna For Routinely Denying Out of Network Patient Access–Grading on the Curve Algorithms Versus Individual Patient Assessments?</font></a><font size="2"> </font></h4> <h5> <br clear="all" /></h5> <p>Things also get interesting here with intellectual properties with a former software partner now suing them for patent violations, HealthTrio filed a suit that has to do with their personal health record offering technologies.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/healthtrio-files-suit-against-aetna.html"><font size="2">HealthTrio Files Suit Against Aetna Over PHR and HIT Technology Patent Violations</font></a><font size="2"> </font></h4> <h5> <br clear="all" /></h5> <p>Down where I am at the in the OC they are pretty involved with Health IT in the medical records business with <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/12/aetna-to-acquire-medcity-health-it.html">their purchase of Medicity</a> which was already <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/12/hoag-memorial-hospital-connects-250.html">being implemented at Hoag Hospital</a> at the time of purchase.  With United Healthcare buying up the big physician associations here in the OC and up in Long Beach, this gets interesting with putting all the IT infrastructures together.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />In case of something going really out of whack they do have a <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/01/aetna-takes-out-reinsurance-deal-in.html">reinsurance plan in the Cayman Islands in place</a> and I think it is still there to cover any Medical Loss Ratios that hit 104% or more.  In addition to keep up with the competition we have yet another <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/08/aetna-moves-into-health-it-management.html">purchase PayFlex</a> which is a health savings plan software platform.  They may have a ways to go their to compete with <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/07/unitedhealth-group-owns-bank-with.html">United/Optum Bank</a>  as they have their own bank with over a billion on deposit from Health Savings Accounts.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>So again today if you just look at health insurers being only that, look again as many have Health IT tentacles all over the place and they all have dueling algorithms for profit.</strong>  Doctors don’t care much for this as those algorithms always hit them in the pockets and the provisions <img align="right" height="155" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TLZdsFwnFqI/AAAAAAAAiIY/NIhj9oaZrLo/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="112" />of contract change so much some have a hard time figuring out exactly what they do want as more roll out pay for performance efforts substantiating the myth that this will save huge amount of money, small amounts possibly but not huge and<strong> of course insurers with their Health IT interests want to make sure their software for hospitals and doctors meets the current certification standards too through the government ONC office division of HHS. </strong>.  Again I think Aetna is playing catch up here to United as well as they have 3 that I can think of, EHR systems they sell.  BD </p> <hr /> <p> <br clear="all" />HARTFORD, CT – Aetna reported fourth quarter 2012 earnings today that were 49 percent lower than 2011, as the nation’s third largest insurer took one-time charges related to the settlement of a $120 million reimbursement settlement announced last month. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Fourth-quarter operating earnings were $317.0 million, or $0.94 per share, while full-year earnings totaled $1.77 billion, or $5.13 per share. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2012 was $190.1 million, or $0.56 per share, and includes $0.44 per share of charges for other items, primarily a litigation-related settlement, offset by $0.06 per share of net realized capital gains. Full-year net income was $1.66 billion, or $4.81 per share. <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Rohan will continue to lead Aetna’s integration efforts for its proposed acquisition of Coventry, which is expected to close in mid-2013.</p> <p>“The management changes we are making ensure that we have Aetna’s strongest leaders focused on driving our growth strategy across our core and emerging businesses,” said Bertolini. “We have a unique opportunity to drive positive change in the healthcare marketplace by fundamentally changing the relationship between health plans, providers and patients to one focused on improving the quality of care as a way to reduce costs.” <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/aetna-4q-earnings-drop-due-lawsuit-settlement-charges?topic=03">http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/aetna-4q-earnings-drop-due-lawsuit-settlement-charges?topic=03</a></p>

Aetna Payment of $120 Million To Settle 15 Year Ingenix/United HealthCare Out of Network Erroneous Payment Algorithms Cuts Income for 4th Quarter

Here’s one more settlement and it’s affect on profits and I must say that for their time and what Ingenix was doing with their algorithms th...

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Bill Gates Visits The Colbert Report–Talks About Data and Tracking Money To See Results With the Gates Foundation–Only 250 Cases World Wide of Polio

<p>This was a first for Bill Gates and Melinda Gates has been <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="161" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-HMwHt4XNOMM/UQqbzZLwqzI/AAAAAAABEHw/IaI-_2cAcv0/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="212" />on the Colbert Report a couple times.  All the Gates Foundation discussions revolve mostly around healthcare and education.  Bill Gates talks about polio and the results seen on eradicating the disease.  Colbert asks why are you helping other countries instead of the US and Gates explains the focus in the US is education.  Polio was down to 250 cases in the world last year and the next report will say zero. <strong> Bill Gates says passion is ahead of data but it is part of the passion.  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" />Colbert asks if other countries know if Bill Gates is an American.  He asks Bill Gates if he misses the intensity and coding at Microsoft.  Bill Gates says his approach to technology is a lot geekier than Steve Jobs was.  BD <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/melinda-gates-talks-about-family.html"><font size="2">Melinda Gates Talks About Family Planning– Steven & Melinda Foundation” Returns (Video)</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <div style="background-color: #000000; width: 420px"> <div style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px"><iframe height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:423362" frameborder="0" width="412"></iframe> <p style="text-align: left; padding-bottom: 4px; background-color: #ffffff; margin-top: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12px; padding-top: 4px"><b>The Colbert Report</b> <br />Get More: <a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/">Colbert Report Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.indecisionforever.com/">Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/video">Video Archive</a></p> </div> </div> <p><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423362/january-30-2013/bill-gates"> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423362/january-30-2013/bill-gates</a></p>

Bill Gates Visits The Colbert Report–Talks About Data and Tracking Money To See Results With the Gates Foundation–Only 250 Cases World Wide of Polio

This was a first for Bill Gates and Melinda Gates has been on the Colbert Report a couple times.  All the Gates Foundation discussions revol...

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Preventive Medicine Saving Money, Not Quite Says New Study So Your Body Is Not Sinking A Big Hole in the Economy But A Huge Increase of Additional Stats, Reports With Media Stir Sets the Stage For Corporations To Acquire More Data to Sell For Profit

<p>I’m glad this report came out and it’s common sense.  Sure there are routine items we have checked when we visit the doctor and education and awareness are key for sure and endeavoring to live healthier<img align="right" height="73" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-XSSLon2Rt_0/UO0St1j8WRI/AAAAAAABCoA/A6rrR1eFOFY/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="152" /> life styles.  This should make many feel good and I have said for quite a while that the messages sent even to making people feel like evil twins has been horrible.  I am not saying disregard your health at all here either as we do need to listen to our bodies as well as follow some basic common sense with seeing a doctor when we should.   With the onset of big data there’s this big rush to get all the data we can get our hands on as we might be missing something. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>Sure some of it is good when analyzed in clinical areas to help find which drugs work better and genomics is helping that a lot with sequencing and defining specific targeted genes.</strong>  We will always have studies but take a look around you and use common sense and with so many devices, apps, etc. they all want your data, and some is de-identified.  The real reasons insurers put so much of this out is that they want the data to determine risk and that’s the bottom line. <strong> Some of us have more risk than others, yes, but the mass media we have had with stories over and over and over about consumers being fat or sedentary or owning cats that kill birds, etc. have been way out there. <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" /><strong>Some of this I call Algo Duping and our economy didn’t get this way because you are 30 pounds overweight,</strong> it was created on Wall Street, but that doesn’t mean not thinking about and finding<img align="right" height="239" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-KuhSzq6izWo/UDEQbXLJXDI/AAAAAAAA86w/Sn6gdvvwX7k/image%25255B30%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="192" /> a method to lose it.  Some how the folks that want to make a buck come out with these reports that say we can save trillions and billions and it’s a farce.  There are savings with technology too that can be realized but nobody including me knows what new disruption will appear in healthcare tomorrow, but there will be one, that I know:)  As I have always said education is the key and this crazy merry go round with insurers wanting immediate behavior change or the US financial ship is going to sink is crazy.  <strong>As the one comment says below if you start giving extensive preventive care to more who do not need it, it will become very expensive; however <u>it does create a lot data to sell and some insurers are into that hot and heavy as big profits in the millions and billions exist.</u>  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/media-and-press-releases-in-healthcare.html"><font size="2">Media and Press Releases In Healthcare That Go Nowhere–Marketing to Sell You Analytics With Using Fear and Misplaced Guilt Overtones As a Theme</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><strong>Getting into a wellness program is good as long as your data doesn’t have to be sold for profit when you participate</strong> but you don’t know as privacy laws are too ignorant to protect or advise you through any kind of regulation.  Big data can be helpful and especially with genomics as that’s all you have with working with huge data bases. <strong> A lot of the risk with predictive scoring can be absolutely wrong too and with money making algorithms today, that is yet another area we have to watch out for.</strong>  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/hiding-falsifying-and-accelerating-risk.html"><font size="2">Hiding, Falsifying, And Accelerating Risk Has Become the Achilles Heel of the US Economy As the “Real” World” Clashes With the Values Created From a World of “Fictional Values” Of Formulas and Math</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Senior care requires more follow up as we get older and that’s a fact that won’t change and again according to this report 75% of healthcare spending is not going towards preventable chronic disease, again they want the data for predictive analytics to combine and score you with all kinds of other data that may or may not be credible, but it will sell the analytics software like hotcakes.  We do need to excise tax the data sellers as when nobody regulates we get all kinds of additional analytics coming our way, accurate and designed for profit.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><strong><em><font color="#c0504d" size="2">”Hey dude let’s crunch some numbers and see if we can come up with some analytics to sell and make millions”</font></em></strong></p> <p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />A few years ago, and ahead of my time I did an interview with Proto magazine from UMass and the woman interviewing me was a very bright young journalist and pushed me a bit about rogue algorithms and this was when nobody knew what an algorithm was in the general public.<img align="right" height="76" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TJcGp1oHKzI/AAAAAAAAhfM/jyY8xKNrAKY/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="191" />  <strong>At that time about 4 years ago I said “there algorithms and formulas created for accuracy and algorithms and formulas created just to to make money and they should be the same in outcome, but they don’t” and this was before the crash of the stock market too.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />One last thought here on the data selling here since it makes billions in profit as that we should license and <u>excise tax the data sellers.</u></strong>  Consumers would win here as finally there would be a federal website to look up who sells data and what kind of data and who do they sell it too…transparency at last if we can break a little digital literacy into some lawmakers.  There’s so much profit in selling data and the web site could become quite large in content since so many are making money this way but that’s ok, I can deal with that:)  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>Look at what else we can do here with taxing the data sellers, fund the NIH and the FDA.</strong>  The money it sitting out there to give the agencies huge relief if someone opens their eyes and we can all win and the greedy data sellers can contribute back.   <strong>Taxing data sellers would mean everyone, banks, companies, social networks, device companies you name it and it would be modeled just similar to a sales tax so no big model to create just a few modifications to make it work.  </strong> <u>So hopefully we will be seeing less of these absolute “exaggerated reports” on the trillions and billions that companies promise to save</u> as it just won’t happen in those amounts at all.  Watch the top vide on the left hand side of my blog and see how these reports suck you in and how they can play games and market formulas, a good education.  BD <br clear="all" /></p> <p> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-more-good-reason-to-tax-data.html"><font style="style" size="2">One More Good Reason to Tax the Data Sellers– Create Additional Funding for the NIH and FDA From Sources That Otherwise Are Too Greedy to Share & Contribute</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /> <hr />Since about 75 percent of healthcare spending in the United States is for largely preventable chronic illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, providing more preventive care should cut costs. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>.</p> <p>In a report released on Tuesday, the non-profit Trust for America's Health outlined a plan "to move from sick care to health care" by putting more resources into preventing chronic disease rather than treating it, as the current system does. There is a strong humanitarian justification for prevention, argued Trust Executive Director Jeffrey Levi in an interview, since it reduces human suffering. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>"Preventive care is more about the right thing to do" because it spares people the misery of illness, said economist Austin Frakt of Boston University.</strong> "But it's not plausible to think you can cut healthcare spending through preventive care. This is widely misunderstood." <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />One big reason why preventive care does not save money, say health economists, is that some of the best-known forms don't actually improve someone's health. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>For instance, 217 high-risk smokers would have to undergo a CT lung scan for one to be spared death from lung cancer, according to a database of studies maintained by Dr. David Newman, an emergency physician at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. One hundred post-menopausal women who have had a bone fracture would have to take drugs called bisphosphonates in order for one to avoid a hip fracture.  </p> <p>By comparison, only 50 people with heart disease must be treated with aspirin for one to avoid a heart attack or stroke, making this a good buy. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong><font style="background-color: #cccccc">"If you start giving preventive care to more people, many of whom won't benefit from it, it's going to be very, very expensive," said Tufts' Neumann.</font></strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/29/us-preventive-economics-idUSBRE90S05M20130129">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/29/us-preventive-economics-idUSBRE90S05M20130129</a></p>

Preventive Medicine Saving Money, Not Quite Says New Study So Your Body Is Not Sinking A Big Hole in the Economy But A Huge Increase of Additional Stats, Reports With Media Stir Sets the Stage For Corporations To Acquire More Data to Sell For Profit

I’m glad this report came out and it’s common sense.  Sure there are routine items we have checked when we visit the doctor and education an...

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Woman Wakes Up at Hospital in Brooklyn With Man Groping Her in the ER

<p>How about finding out you have a level 2 sex offender in the<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="119" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-l-jyDLJk_6o/UQnMbColTVI/AAAAAAABEGE/r2F-fg83Dcw/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="114" /> bed next to you, not what I would want.  He crawled into her bed in the ER room.  He just got out of prison a couple weeks ago.  The hospital has security and she got a hold of them immediately and the police came out and took him away.  She screamed and nurses came running.  She had been medicated and was sleeping.  We hear occasionally of staff at hospitals getting out of line but this is the first I had heard of one like this.  The security staff  says though that more security is needed at hospitals.  BD  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><object height="268" id="otvPlayer" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=wabc&section=&mediaId=8973972&parentId=8972647&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed id="otvPlayer" width="400" height="268" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=wabc&section=&mediaId=8973972&parentId=8972647&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="></embed></object> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><object height="268" id="otvPlayer" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=wabc&section=&mediaId=8973167&parentId=8972647&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed id="otvPlayer" width="400" height="268" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=wabc&section=&mediaId=8973167&parentId=8972647&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="></embed></object> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8972647" title="http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8972647">http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8972647</a></p>

Woman Wakes Up at Hospital in Brooklyn With Man Groping Her in the ER

How about finding out you have a level 2 sex offender in the bed next to you, not what I would want.  He crawled into her bed in the ER roo...

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MMRGlobal (MyMedicalRecords.Com) Files Complaint In California Against Walgreen For Technology Patent Violations

<p> <p> Walgreen has also been on a pretty expansive acquisition route with their European investment/purchase of Boots Drugs Stores in the UK so I am not sure if they fall into this filing or not but<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="81" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-p6Rn0nHyTtg/UQmooYJjxPI/AAAAAAABEEY/PyVQoyY1eGw/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="212" /> domestically they have made some large drug store purchases in the last few years such as Longs, Duane Reade and more.  Walgreen also operates their own branded retail clinics and recently satisfied their differences with Express Scripts in addition to doing a business swap with Omnicare a couple years ago to acquire Apothercary RX pharmacies.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/07/walgreens-is-making-another-purchase.html"><font size="2">Walgreens is Making Another Purchase From LaFrance Holdings To Include USA Drug, Super D Drug and May’s Drug Stores Located in the US Southeast</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> </p> <p> <p> Being the patent violations involve medical records, Walgreens does have their chain of Take Care Retail Clinics which I guess could be involved somewhere along the line as they use a medical records system from Greenway to enter patient information and connect to a PHR.  I wrote about this a short while back as anyone in the store pharmacies would have access as well as in the actual clinics to medical records, so there could be a lot of activity with sending/receiving information that violates current filings without licenses.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/walgreens-expands-take-care-ehr-medical.html"><font size="2">Walgreens Expands Take Care EHR Medical Records to be Available at All Drug Store Locations for Reference–Not For Me I’d Rather Use My PHR And Choose What I Want To Share…</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>I had included a document on another post that lists all the patents so I’m sure this one is on the list to reference for additional IP information on the filing and you can use the link below to find it.  BD</p> <h4> </h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/mmrglobal-provides-listing-of-health-it.html"><font size="2">MMRGlobal Provides Listing of Health IT Patents As They Pertain to Personal Health Record Technologies</font></a> <hr /></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />Sources now tell us that, MyMedicalRecords, Inc. has just filed a complaint for patent infringement against Walgreen Company (NYSE:WAG),  in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  </p> <p>The complaint, case number CV 13-00631, should be available on the court’s website <a href="http://www.pacer.gov/">http://www.pacer.gov/</a> starting Wednesday.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>As detailed in the complaint, MMR alleges that Walgreens infringes on MMR’s personal health records patent, specifically its US Patent No. 8,301,466.  The complaint seeks damages as well as a permanent injunction.</p> <p>In an earlier press release, MMR announced that it has been investigating potential infringements by various groups including, but not limited to, retail pharmacies and laboratory systems as well as hospitals, physicians and other healthcare professionals, using email, facsimile, file upload and voice. It appears that MMR is making good on its statements that it will protect its patent portfolio and any other IP it holds. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.biomedreports.com/20130130120928/mmr-alleges-that-drug-store-giant-walgreens-infringes-on-health-records-patent.html">http://www.biomedreports.com/20130130120928/mmr-alleges-that-drug-store-giant-walgreens-infringes-on-health-records-patent.html</a></p></p>

MMRGlobal (MyMedicalRecords.Com) Files Complaint In California Against Walgreen For Technology Patent Violations

Walgreen has also been on a pretty expansive acquisition route with their European investment/purchase of Boots Drugs Stores in the UK s...

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Readmission Analytics Not Much Better Than Flipping A Coin, Large and Poorest Hospitals At Risk Of Facing Larger Fines, CMS Needs Some New Math Models and Algorithms

<p>Well this appears to have been a straight linear calculation that went south and even it if were to be done in a linear basis, oh my gosh, trying to find relationships with such varied data would require some real stretching of a formulas for sure.  Everyone was looking for that “magical algorithm” to allow this predictive analytics calculating to take place and it has a fail.  You can’t relate everything in data.  We have folks still chomping over at the Heritage Group sponsoring that $3 million carrot and it<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tIhMfiOOAic/TlgzXUttP1I/AAAAAAAA3p8/uuPnFdijJng/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> looks more like a “gaming site” and<strong> I though the project was nuts to begin with but former HHS director Leavitt got sucked in to this one too</strong> thinking the magical algorithms would some how just nail all this information.  I wrote back in August of 2011 about it really not going anywhere other than a few code modules that might be produced of some use.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/08/so-whats-going-on-over-at-heritage.html"><font size="2">So What’s Going on Over at the Heritage Health Prize Competition to Predict Who Ends Up Being Re-Admitted to the Hospital–A Lot of Mathematical Algorithms For One…</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><strong>There have been others like the WellPoint publicity stunt for the $10 million dollar prize for solving healthcare and here we are still not solved at anyone who works with data knew that was a farce, even back then.</strong>  With the way the formula is set up and in a research letter published by the Journal of the AMA, the teaching hospitals and safety nets are the ones at big risk who need the money are the ones to be hit, so what are we doing here? <strong> It was also quite entertaining to see HHS put on that Facebook contest which went nowhere but when you have the markets on Wall Street putting out press on the value of the stock to drive it up, it rolls over into other places</strong> with inflated value which we all know after the IPO, showed its face along with rogue algorithms that cost investors some money.  Folks that are not into the mechanics of data just kind of grab on to this stuff in the media not knowing if is matters or not.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />To quote Charlie Siefe in one of his lectures you get something along this line<strong>, <em><font color="#c0504d">“well the formula has a square root in it, and the story has been all over the news in the last few weeks, so it must be good”…</font></em>yup seen that a lot and it still happens out there.</strong>  You can watch that video on the left hand side of my blog in the education area and <strong>he will tell you about real math and formulas and how it’s marketed and skewed</strong>.  My favorite one he mentions is the clinical study about the fish and neurological abstract with measuring the brain in the fish with responses…<strong>the fish was dead (grin).</strong>  <br clear="all" /></p> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong>Hospital leaders have called for a redo of this and I don’t blame them and I wonder myself if they will even be able to come up with one unless they do one that is personalized for each hospital with goals as that’s the only way it would come close.</strong>  I spent many years in sales and I didn’t have the same quotas as my co-workers, shoot mine were always very high but I was a bit of an over achiever too.  Here of late too I have also called the ratings sites bunk on giving grades to hospitals, same reason applies with not comparing apples to oranges.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>How can UCLA that does procedures that maybe only 2-3 hospitals do in the country and see some of the sickest patients<img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TdallqdLIiI/AAAAAAAAxmY/c5g4qvGMG7A/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> get a “C” and frankly I don’t blame the Harvard hospitals for disputing those ratings either as some of them are in the same boat.</strong>  As things in technology change some things don’t work and go by the way side and those are one that nobody would miss.  Sure keeping a listing like a Yellow Pages is fine and allow comments but cut out the high school grading and get more accurate information out there with fewer dead doctors for one.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/physician-rating-sites-are-seeing-fewer.html"><font size="2">Physician Rating Sites Are Seeing Fewer Reviews These Days–Flawed Data Catching Up Along With Loss of Value As Consumers and Doctors Lose Interest?</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Well time will tell on what happens here with this flawed system as it’s not going to make any friends and when anyone gets judged on<img align="right" height="79" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TJcGp1oHKzI/AAAAAAAAhfM/jyY8xKNrAKY/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="199" /> flawed analytics that are not accurate, nobody will be happy.  <strong>We just need some hybrids in running some executive departments today, some with a little computer science or IT backgrounds as attorneys running everything is going to sink us and you can see where we are today as they duped, and see that same square root there making it look good:)  We really need executives who can walk and chew a little code or IT as to have to rely on staff for everything and not be able to make sense out of data mechanics is like working with one hand tied behind your back.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></strong>On the same topic, I have had analysts ask me questions about code.  They are the experts on doing their spreadsheets, not me,  and drill down and use the software that developers and code makers create.  When I wrote my medical records system, the doctor knew it better than me as far as using it and that’s the way it goes as I was writing code and not seeing patients:)  <strong>Point made here is that having some kind of hybrid in these executive jobs would really be nice and save time and offer a new look at leadership with not ignoring technology’s impact and that means more than just having an executive who can use an IPad.</strong>  The people who use the software are better at using it than most developers by a long shot.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><img height="135" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-kBA-dLfLLGU/UIepz3XA3GI/AAAAAAAA_Kk/8WllR3a7ChM/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="422" /> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />If you feel you have been duped or want to learn more about it, watch the 5 videos on the left and it will give you a new point of view here on how this really works, it’s all code and IT infrastructure running on servers 24/7 handling the the results, and humans put in the parameters.  Here’s the same videos as featured on my <a href="http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/"><u>Algo Duped page</u></a><u>.</u>   One more comment here and a link is to a post and video about the value of data.  This is a good video on how companies represented like Ford, NASA are all in a forum talking about big data and how to work with it and their hopes to find the “miracle data scientist) which is an Oxymoron as this is not splitting atoms, to help them find the answer.   <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>When people guess and the need for greed with flat out creating analytics one can pitch and sell, it gets out of context and this is the biggest issue facing consumers today.  </strong> The gal from T-Mobile in the video is not proud in when she comments on their analytic and says some of what we are doing is “silly”.  So her issue is getting rid of silly <img align="right" height="175" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-LQPKyFnlsio/ULQzOqE3hwI/AAAAAAABAYg/QF7IenJM9AE/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="260" />and you will hear them talk about company quants the folks who create the mathematical business models) and about half way through it gets rolling. <strong> We can’t use nonsense queries and models created to make money</strong> (we learned this from the banks) <strong>only  that will end up hurting consumers and too much is already happening and we come back to the formula with the square root that dupes everyone to think it has value when it does not.   <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></strong>CMS is not trying to make money but they get duped too on what works and what does not with math and formulas.   All formulas are not created equal and if you watch the Quant video documentary at the left some former quants explain it to you and how you get sucked in. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html"><font size="2">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /> <hr />In April, doctors Karen Joynt and Ashish Jha <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1201598">wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine </a>that the federal policy of penalizing hospitals where patients are more often rehospitalized within 30 days was misguided, unfairly targeting those in poor areas with large minority populations. </p> <p>In <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1558273#qundefined">a research letter published Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association</a>, the researchers, who are from the Harvard School of Public Health, added some heft to their argument. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />They looked <u>at penalties assessed against 2,189 hospitals and found that the largest hospitals and those that are teaching hospitals or safety net hospitals, meaning they care for the highest portion of poor patients, were most likely to have their payments docked.</u> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />The likelihood of a person returning to the hospital after a heart attack depends a lot on housing, financial stability, and other socioeconomic factors, she said. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/01/28/imperfect-measure-harvard-researchers-weigh-problems-with-hospital-readmission-rates/WMUxuJp0r9yKPDwX6CTefL/story.html">http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/01/28/imperfect-measure-harvard-researchers-weigh-problems-with-hospital-readmission-rates/WMUxuJp0r9yKPDwX6CTefL/story.html</a></p>

Readmission Analytics Not Much Better Than Flipping A Coin, Large and Poorest Hospitals At Risk Of Facing Larger Fines, CMS Needs Some New Math Models and Algorithms

Well this appears to have been a straight linear calculation that went south and even it if were to be done in a linear basis, oh my gosh, t...

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New York-Presbyterian Hospital To Take Over Debt of New York Downtown Hospital Located Near the Financial District

<p>We are still seeing hospitals without enough money and<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="157" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-lmhVrcpo9N8/UQi4yyghJVI/AAAAAAABECs/IaAZ4_Pe3wQ/image%25255B12%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="136" /> here’s yet one more that has already been affiliated with NY Presbyterian and this cements it.  The state has not been interested in bailing out hospitals for the most part and due to it’s location it responds to many emergencies, like the 911 attacks and a few more.  This is hospital with a high percentage of Medicaid patients as well as uninsured.  This is right in the Wall Street district but you don’t see any banks helping out here at all.  Greed is still alive.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />Manhattan’s only remaining hospital south of 14th Street, New York Downtown, has found a white knight willing to take over its debt and return it to good health, hospital officials said Monday. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, one of New York City’s largest academic medical centers, has proposed to take over New York Downtown in a “certificate of need” filed with the State Health Department. The three-page proposal argues that though New York Downtown is projected to have a significant operating loss in 2013, it is vital to Lower Manhattan, including Wall Street, Chinatown and the Lower East Side, especially since the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital after it declared bankruptcy in 2010. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/nyregion/rescuer-appears-for-new-york-downtown-hospital.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/nyregion/rescuer-appears-for-new-york-downtown-hospital.html?_r=0</a> <br clear="all" /></p>

New York-Presbyterian Hospital To Take Over Debt of New York Downtown Hospital Located Near the Financial District

We are still seeing hospitals without enough money and here’s yet one more that has already been affiliated with NY Presbyterian and this c...

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Johns Hopkins Performs Double Arm Transplant Little Over A Month Ago and Has Movement in One Arm So Far

<p>This is great as he lost all four limbs and served the country and was hurt in Iraq.  It was just done a little over a month ago and he already has some movement with the one arm.  Poor guy doesn’t have legs either so this is big for him.  BD  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><iframe height="325" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/video/videoEmbed.html?uuid=dc2ba791-5c21-432b-b861-679d4ddb8afc&noheadline=0" frameborder="0" width="424" scrolling="no"></iframe> <br clear="all" />Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, and doctors revealed Monday that he received a double-arm transplant on Dec. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/double-arm-transplant-recipient-waiting-for-this-for-a-long-time/2013/01/29/dc2ba791-5c21-432b-b861-679d4ddb8afc_video.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/double-arm-transplant-recipient-waiting-for-this-for-a-long-time/2013/01/29/dc2ba791-5c21-432b-b861-679d4ddb8afc_video.html</a></p>

Johns Hopkins Performs Double Arm Transplant Little Over A Month Ago and Has Movement in One Arm So Far

This is great as he lost all four limbs and served the country and was hurt in Iraq.  It was just done a little over a month ago and he alre...

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Patrick Soon-Shiong, LA’s Wealthiest Resident Forms A New Company NantOmics For Cancer Research With A Social Twist to Compare Data

<p>This is about a more targeted treatment for cancer with <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="129" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-L_iEX1J7iDU/UQiITbsQ2GI/AAAAAAABEBA/gnb9h9YWkBo/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="144" /><strong>NantOmics</strong> the sister company of NantWorks which you can read more about at the link below.  You can read some of his history in the original article on the cancer drug company he sold to amass his wealth.  He sent software out to 8,000 oncologists and now is talking about the “social network” and they are collecting around 2000 samples a week.  He is talking about going right to the molecular level to treat patients now.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/los-angeles-wealthiest-man-dr-patrick.html"><font size="2">Los Angeles's Wealthiest Man. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Announced ACO to Partner With Blue Shield and St. Johns Health Center Using Technology and Genomic Research - Gene Screens</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Cancer care for life is also part of what he is proposing and this is just one of his investments and endeavors.  He also speaks of using big data to handle all of the data obtained and this is good, a focus on clinical and something away from insurance.  St. Johns Hospital, are you listening?  BD  <br clear="all" /></p> <br clear="all" /> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/st-johns-hospital-fires-ceo-and-several.html"><font size="2">St. Johns Hospital Fires CEO And Several Board Members Fired By Email - Chan Soon-Shiong Puts Some of His Projects for the Hospital on Hold</font></a> <hr /></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /><script src="http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=BzMm50ODqg3D4Lkqe66kaJKSPqo9z4ro&playerBrandingId=8a7a9c84ac2f4e8398ebe50c07eb2f9d&width=400&deepLinkEmbedCode=BzMm50ODqg3D4Lkqe66kaJKSPqo9z4ro&height=360&thruParam_bloomberg-ui[popOutButtonVisible]=FALSE"></script> <br clear="all" />Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Patrick Soon-Shiong, the physician who founded and sold two drug companies to become Los Angeles’s wealthiest resident, is starting a new company with the goal of changing the way cancer is attacked.</p> <p>Called NantOmics, the company will build on the knowledge Soon-Shiong, 60, said he gained from Abraxane, the cancer treatment he developed and sold to Celgene Corp. in 2010 for $2.9 billion. The medicine wraps a chemotherapy in a human protein called albumin that aims to more efficiently ferry cancer-killing agents to their target. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Since selling his company, Abraxis BioScience, to Summit, New Jersey-based Celgene in 2010, Soon-Shiong has branched into other endeavors. He bought a stake in the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=business%2Fbloomberg&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22National+Basketball+Association%22">National Basketball Association</a>’s <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=business%2Fbloomberg&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Los+Angeles+Lakers%22">Los Angeles Lakers</a> from star player Earvin “Magic” Johnson, and is pursuing the purchase of <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=business%2Fbloomberg&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Anschutz+Entertainment+Group%22">Anschutz Entertainment Group</a>, owner of the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=business%2Fbloomberg&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Staples+Center%22">Staples Center</a> in Los Angeles. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>NantOmics will join another of Soon-Shiong’s companies, called NantHealth, under the umbrella of a larger organization called NantWorks that brings together supercomputing, semiconductor technology, and advancements in voice and object recognition. The “Nant” name has its roots in Native American culture, in which “Nantan” means “he who speaks for the people,” Soon-Shiong said. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Cancer-Researcher-Turned-Billionaire-Forms-New-4229847.php">http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Cancer-Researcher-Turned-Billionaire-Forms-New-4229847.php</a></p>

Patrick Soon-Shiong, LA’s Wealthiest Resident Forms A New Company NantOmics For Cancer Research With A Social Twist to Compare Data

This is about a more targeted treatment for cancer with NantOmics the sister company of NantWorks which you can read more about at the link...

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Doctor in Newport Beach, California Gunned Down and Killed in Examining Room by 75 Year Old Patient

<p>This is not too far from me, next beach city south.  The man <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="153" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-lpUwW2Bz4P0/UQgVeL7HB4I/AAAAAAABD_M/h-EzjF87eic/image%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="132" />doing the shooting was a senior at 75 years old.  The doctor was a urologist.  The patient did the shooting right in the exam room.  He lived in Lake Elsinore so he had a bit of a drive to Newport Beach to see the doctor.  Police have no motive yet and are searching his home.  From what I see here in the video this appears to be the new Hoag facility outpatient area on Superior.    <br clear="all" />Other news accounts said the patient who shot the doctor may not have had a long time to live and again that has not been verified.  You know we keep hearing today about people being dissatisfied with medical care and even the AMA reminding doctors just a month ago  that the patient comes first and I truly hope none of that was the case here at all.  I know in Newport hearing from MDs I know that their turmoil with all the insurance interests owning doctors groups and management companies has made it difficult to administratively function at times with their practices, with not knowing what is coming next and from where with complex contracts, billing and so forth as the algorithms come and rip payments away when someone does an audit, etc.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />I guess we will hear more as the story develops as far as what the motive could have been and with the patient age I would guess he was either Medicare or Medicare Part D and hopefully it’s not a case of frustration with not being able to get care he may have needed due to money.  BD  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/ama-reaches-out-to-doctors-to-remind.html"><font size="2">AMA Reaches Out to Doctors To Remind Them Patient Welfare Must Come First As Rising Pressures From Insurers and Hospitals Can Surmount At Times</font></a> <p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><object height="268" id="otvPlayer" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=kabc&section=&mediaId=8972956&parentId=8972137&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed id="otvPlayer" width="400" height="268" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=kabc&section=&mediaId=8972956&parentId=8972137&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site="></embed></object> <br clear="all" />January 29, 2013 |  8:56 am</p> <p>A 75-year-old Lake Elsinore man was named Tuesday as the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Newport Beach <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="146" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-E0GKHDlFuOU/UQgVeZRbw5I/AAAAAAABD_U/8-71BwJeOQk/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="172" />doctor in his exam room.  </p> <p>Stanwood Fred Elkus was arrested Monday on suspicion of homicide after authorities were called to the doctor's office on a shooting report, Newport Beach Police Department officials said in a statement. </p> <p>The victim, Ronald Franklin Gilbert, 52, of Huntington Beach was shot multiple times in the upper body and was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was injured. </p> <p>Elkus was arrested at the scene. Residents in his Lake Elsinore neighborhood were shocked by the news. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/newport-beach-police-identify-suspect-in-shooting-of-doctor.html">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/newport-beach-police-identify-suspect-in-shooting-of-doctor.html</a></p></h4>

Doctor in Newport Beach, California Gunned Down and Killed in Examining Room by 75 Year Old Patient

This is not too far from me, next beach city south.  The man doing the shooting was a senior at 75 years old.  The doctor was a urologist.  ...

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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical System To Buy Jordon Hospital, Severing Ties With Tufts

<p>Jordan hospital in Plymouth dropped to turning a loss<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="58" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Wn9XF2Cx4Vk/UQdUVM_nZbI/AAAAAAABD8A/MEDysd9BgLo/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="215" /> in July and that just could have something to do with being owned by Beth Israel.  Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham are two other hospitals already under the system.  Looks like Dr. Halamka has one more community hospital under his CIO IT to look after. BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />In a deal that insiders say is a game-changer for the Massachusetts hospital landscape, Jordan Hospital in Plymouth is set to become part of the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/ma/boston/beth_israel_deaconess_medical_center/923808">Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center</a> system. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The BBJ broke the news this morning. BIDMC and Jordan later issued a joint news release on the merger. Under the deal Jordan will join Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham as part of the system’s march further and further outside of Boston. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />The move is a hit to <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/ma/boston/tufts_medical_center___/3320541">Tufts Medical Center</a>, which has had a longstanding affiliation with Jordan, including placing specialists in Plymouth, and receiving patients too complex to be cared for at the community hospital. Tufts Medical had also bid to acquire or merge with Jordan. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2013/01/24/jordan-hospital-to-become-part-of-beth.html?page=all">http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2013/01/24/jordan-hospital-to-become-part-of-beth.html?page=all</a></p>

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical System To Buy Jordon Hospital, Severing Ties With Tufts

Jordan hospital in Plymouth dropped to turning a loss in July and that just could have something to do with being owned by Beth Israel.  Be...

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Dragon Medical With NoteSwift Software Needs No Mouse At all With an EHR-Amazing Charts & Other Systems

<p>This was just too cool not to mention.  If you have used speech recognition from Dragon with an EHR/EMR then<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="85" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-rPAiWa84SVg/UQc6O86TNbI/AAAAAAABD6U/AKBHrSYsY8I/image%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="150"> you will probably find this of interest.  Sure this is the founder of the product and he’s got it down to a science here and in the video he’s using it with Amazing Charts.  There’s also a version for AllScripts and one coming for Practice Fusion.  When having to stop and do check marks and other small data fields this seems to move it right along.  BD <hr> <iframe style="width: 433px; height: 260px" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Vith_uzxoCU?list=PLmrScOKfXFpw924ytN2A_HstCQfeaFFzk" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen></iframe><br clear="all"><br clear="all">What does NoteSwift do for you?  Have you ever wanted to enter all your data using speech recognition without having to stop and capture a check mark or other areas of your medical record?  <br clear="all"><br clear="all"><a href="http://www.speechrecognition.com/speech-recognition-software/dragon-medical-with-noteswift-can-maximize-ehr-productivitytotal-freedom-from-the-mouse">http://www.speechrecognition.com/speech-recognition-software/dragon-medical-with-noteswift-can-maximize-ehr-productivitytotal-freedom-from-the-mouse</a>

Dragon Medical With NoteSwift Software Needs No Mouse At all With an EHR-Amazing Charts & Other Systems

This was just too cool not to mention.  If you have used speech recognition from Dragon with an EHR/EMR then you will probably find this of...

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Time to Take HIPAA Out of the Healthcare Silo–Needs to Be Integrated In Overall Privacy Laws Healthcare Information Is All Over The Place And Privacy Efforts Will Fail Without Real Algorithmic Levels of Regulation

<p> <p> How do we know who’s marketing us and who sells data?  Consumer need a place on the web to look this up and so far all we get <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="96" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_JckpaLDWHA/UQct1qfzu8I/AAAAAAABD4o/f6pIXXCwuDM/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="168" />are the privacy statements that are written by attorneys that hardly anyone can understand and they done that way on purpose.  We can reference all kind of other information on the web but can we find a nice drill down query to see what company, bank or other entity sells data and what kind..nope.  Keep the the consumer in the dark here as transparency here would make patients more aware of what’s going on.  You want patients to be involved, give them the information and especially as relates to privacy.  </p> </p> <p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />I know this is not an easy project the HIPAA rules are better than what we had but still a lot lacking as the rules seem to still be living in their own silo and <strong>just take a look around you, you see healthcare everywhere, in places it’s never been before, same applies for healthcare data, it is in places where it has not existed before and some of those were not around until the last couple of years.</strong>  If HIPAA is going to ensure any ability to be honored then it needs a path of regulation and <strong>consumers need to be able to look up some of the basic simple information, like who is selling data and are they profiting.  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" />There’s tons of profits out there when you look at <strong>Walgreen in 2020 making short of $800 million selling data only, so did that perk any ears on how much money data selling makes, billions, <img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TWIVynbAGVI/AAAAAAAAr9E/zewiugyQmSI/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />HIPAA data and financial</strong>.  There’s a good video at the link below about a former quant who worked for a Hedge Fund and she’ll tell you how “intelligence” is used against the “dumb” investors and thus so the same happens with “dumb” patients.  Let me clarify “dumb” as this is not an attack of any means but “dumb” traders are those who have a 401k who are not actively trading in the market but own some stock and the same thing with patients, they are not actively tracking their own health data but have some of it and like stock it gets sold for profit. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/privacy-relative-to-tracking-apps-and.html"><font size="2">Privacy Relative to Tracking Apps and Data Mining Legislation Will Fail If There is No Regulation Path Created–License and Excise Tax Data Miners & Sellers Otherwise It’s “Laws With No Balls”</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong>Some companies get away with not even letting you know they sell data and this example is in the financial area.  How does that work?</strong>  It goes by loopholes in the law on how they describe their business and so thus if the description is stretched a little or just false, then they do not fall under any laws that require them to even tell the people who’s data they have and sell that they have it to begin with. <strong>Read the link below about the guy making millions selling you and I, we have no access have no clue and he get by doing this due to how he classifies his business with not claiming his business as a credit bureau.</strong>  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/e-scoring-credit-algorithms-invisible.html"><font size="2">E-Scoring Credit Algorithms Invisible To Consumers Used to Market and Evaluate, Does Not Fall Under Federal Law And Such Are Used by Insurance Companies - How Will This Work With Exchanges –Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 42</font></a></h4> <p> <p> </p> </p> <p> <p> </p> <p> <br clear="all" />Medical bills, one more area to where items cross and let’s take a look back to <strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/01/accretive-health-debt-collector.html"><u>Accretive..they didn’t care about HIPAA until they lost a notebook with patient records</u></a></strong> on them that they were sharing with a Wall Street investor, see what I mean about having an overall conclusive privacy law.  I had some Congressional assistant ask me my opinion about that and he thought they did it on purpose to get out of some current contracts with insurers and what could be farther from the truth.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>We also have GINA in the privacy laws, one more good reason to bring HIPAA and full on privacy laws together as it relates to someone not being able to discriminate against you, like insurance companies</strong> who use the MIB to create studies already about your mortality a<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TAaq8yjJahI/AAAAAAAAeiw/9jBBqQsqhsY/image_thumb%5B16%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />nd when you will die, to use anything genetic as a way to not pay claims or underwrite you. They tell you they are out to market you so anyone spending any money on your care knows how long they have projected you will live.  <strong>Nothing like feeling like an old used car when they get done with you.</strong>  These folks now are collecting other insurance data too as I had my case when I sold my home and my car insurer made a bad data match and out of the blue put the new owners on my car insurance policy on there as secondary drivers, and I had been moved and out the house for 6 months, so how flawed this gets.  Someone though I didn’t give complete enough information and added the flawed data.  Read what the MIB pitches as that’s one of their areas where the sell, to find information omitted, but they screw up with their flawed data on a simple address match. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> </p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/06/mib-solutions-and-hooper-holmes-working.html"><font size="2">MIB Solutions and Hooper Holmes Working Together to Assess Morality Risk – Analytics and Consumer Files Used for Underwriting And To Estimate How Long You May Live And What Your Body Will Cost Over Time</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />Are these new HIPAA laws in place for them and is anyone going to check, probably not as nobody looks at business models and we don’t have anywhere to look to see who sells data and what kind…<strong>CONSUMERS NEED THIS ON A FEDERAL WEBSITE AND EVERY ENTITIY SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR A LICENSE TO SELL.  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" />I understand data going for research to non profits and that’s what this is not about but they still should be required to have a license to distribute data, again so we know who they are.  Insurance companies make huge profits selling data and I think United almost invented it, they sell tons of data with Optima, which used to be the old Ingenix prescription profiling under a new name.  I hear about the NIH and FDA going to lose fund, excise those billions being made on selling data and fund them.  We don’t want to lose science by all means.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>Again if you really only understood this invisible world of data selling your mouth would hit the floor on the billions companies and banks make.</strong>  Read this link below as it makes sense and I sent the idea of to Francis Collins so I do try.  Device companies with such a huge tax revenue pool this would create could get out from under their excise tax too as they are just passing it along to us or the hospital, or yet selling their data.  The Wall Street Journal asked Medtronic if they were going to start selling data with the tax and they were not sure, yet.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-more-good-reason-to-tax-data.html"><font size="2">One More Good Reason to Tax the Data Sellers– Create Additional Funding for the NIH and FDA From Sources That Otherwise Are Too Greedy to Share & Contribute</font></a> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>What happens to when the cloud goes down<img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TbR01r45uLI/AAAAAAAAvyc/t_G6mdy19xs/image_thumb%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />, read this one about a home monitoring service and yes everyone learned from this event including Amazon.  Clouds have to be secure under HIPAA and again we have privacy crossing here as you have genomic information (under GINA) on clouds too</p> <h4> </h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-happens-when-cloud-server-goes.html"><font size="2">What Happens When The Cloud Server Goes Down When Monitoring Patient ECGs At Home With No Fail Over - Disturbing Thread From Amazon Web Services Forum</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong><u>The practice of no transparency with consumers not knowing who has and sells their data contributes to the big inequality problem we have.</u></strong>  The video below end with a great key point, who’s in control of the data and gets to create the algorithms that make life impacting decisions about all of us, and will there be any privacy or any chance to stop inequality from growing.  <strong><u>If you don’t license, what leg does a consumer or law enforcement agency of any kind have to help you…answer….none.</u></strong>  Please watch “Are Algorithms Taking Over the World” and we better get some good ones to help with privacy issues.   He says exactly what I have been writing about for a few years not, algorithms are not only able to do harm on Wall Street, they are all over and are dangerous when used out of proper context.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>When you think about all of this it comes back to “Laws With No Balls”…it’s all math folks you need algorithms to protect your privacy and thus so HIPAA should be able to move outside of it’s silo where it is stuck and work to protect in all areas, new and old,</strong> where healthcare information is concerned.  If HIPAA does not protect all the health data then the other data should be protected under an over all umbrella privacy law.  BD  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><iframe style="width: 434px; height: 250px" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H_aLU-NOdHM" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <p><strong> <hr />New Rule Highlights <br clear="all" /></strong></p> <p>Over the coming weeks, CDT will be publishing in-depth analyses of selected topics in the regulations, but here are highlights of the more noteworthy changes:</p> </p> </p> <ul> <li>Under the old rules, if your medical records were lost or stolen or somehow compromised, those responsible for the security of your records didn't have to notify you unless there was a “significant risk” you would be “harmed” by the incident. Under the new rule, individuals will have the right to be notified of security breaches of unencrypted health information unless there is a low probability that the information was “compromised.” Subjective judgments are no longer part of the calculation when deciding whether or not to notify patients.</li> <li>Under existing HIPAA regulations, health data can be used without patient consent for marketing communications urging them to use a particular product or service.<font style="background-color: #ffff00"> Under the new regulations, patients must first approve the use of their data for marketing communications if the maker of the product or service pays for that sales pitch.</font> This is an important privacy protection, aimed specifically at addressing patient concerns about their personal health information being used for marketing without their consent.<a href="https://www.cdt.org/blogs/deven-mcgraw/2501feds-boost-privacy-protections-medical-records#footnote1_wimdo22">1</a><font style="background-color: #ffff00"> However, information gleaned from health records about any medication a patient is using can be used for subsidized marketing purposes as long as the payment for the communication is reasonable and does not generate a profit for the sender</font>. In addition, face-to-face communications to patients about products and services are not considered marketing under long-standing HIPAA provisions.</li> <li><font style="background-color: #ffff00">HIPAA doesn’t protect all health data,</font> but its scope of coverage was expanded by HITECH – and the final rules put that expansion into effect. Individuals or persons who handle patient health information in order to perform services for an entity covered by HIPAA (doctors, hospitals, health plans) are also now accountable for complying with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules – and this accountability extends to any subcontractors that access data to help perform those services.</li> <li><font style="background-color: #ffff00">The final rule clarified patients’ rights to receive an electronic copy of their health data, and to have that copy sent, at their request, somewhere else, for example, to a doctor, a caregiver, or a personal health record or mobile health app.</font> The rule also clarified that patients have the right to receive electronic copies by insecure e-mail. Unfortunately, the final rule still allows entities covered by HIPAA to take up to 60 days to provide patients with requested records; however, the rule does encourage faster response when feasible.</li> </ul> <p>The final rules are effective March 26, 2013; entities covered by the rule have another 180 days to comply with most provisions.</p> <p>This final rule implements most of the HITECH provisions related to privacy and security; however, there are further rulemakings on the horizon. The final rule to implement changes to rules giving patients <a href="https://www.cdt.org/blogs/harley-geiger/128cdt-files-comments-proposed-accounting-disclosures-rule">greater transparency</a> about disclosures from electronic medical records is still in process. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />In addition, HHS has yet to propose rules to implement the HITECH requirement that patients have the ability to receive a percentage of penalties or monetary settlements due to violations of HIPAA rules.</p> <p>HHS has two other important privacy reports in the pipeline. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />One looks at the privacy protections for personal health records not covered by HIPAA. The second report mandates guidance on how medical record holders can ensure they are collecting, using, and disclosing only the minimum necessary amount of health data appropriate to the task at hand. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="https://www.cdt.org/blogs/deven-mcgraw/2501feds-boost-privacy-protections-medical-records">https://www.cdt.org/blogs/deven-mcgraw/2501feds-boost-privacy-protections-medical-records</a></p>

Time to Take HIPAA Out of the Healthcare Silo–Needs to Be Integrated In Overall Privacy Laws Healthcare Information Is All Over The Place And Privacy Efforts Will Fail Without Real Algorithmic Levels of Regulation

How do we know who’s marketing us and who sells data?  Consumer need a place on the web to look this up and so far all we get are the pr...

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EMR Trade Group Asking the ONC When Are You Going to Have the Certification Software Up and Working Again-Can’t Get Systems Approved for Stage Two Meaningful Use–”Killer Algorithms Chapter 52”

<p>Who doesn’t have software bugs today, stock exchanges, Medical Quack, ONC and the list goes on and on and it’s part of life today and when things come to a screeching halt everyone screams. <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="75" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3YK0eJdWKe4/UQbuqWLIbOI/AAAAAAABD20/7X7QNJ4qjDw/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="208" /> We have this happen in all parts of our lives but when it means can’t get money from somewhere or meet deadlines, all you know what breaks loose.  That is what we have here with the EMR Trade Group asking.  Nobody but your programmers knows for sure and it may take them a while to give you an answer.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Darn queries sometimes just don’t work right or for some reason they go crazy and develop a bug one day and don’t work like they used to.  The ONC sent a letter to the certification bodies stating there are problems.  The customers (hospitals and doctors) who want to get certified are crawling up the backside of the certification entities because they want to get certified for Stage 2 and that can’t happen as the 2014  criteria can’t be certified.   I don’t know who wrote the proprietary software for them but you can bet there’s a little heat there too.  You can read a few more details from last week on what is occurring at EHRScope below.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://www.ehrscope.com/blog/enter-your-zip-code-here/"><font size="2">ONC Has a Problem With the EHR Attesting Testing Tool–Web Based Version in the Making</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />I keep telling everyone the short order code kitchen burned down a few years ago and now with more and more events occurring with<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="81" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-mICpfh_oaPM/UQbuqx4chSI/AAAAAAABD28/NAZtwxY7N0o/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="220" /> complexities some might believe me.  There was even the case of GE Centricity needing to fix their algorithms before it could be certified back in 2011.   Just think a little though as we are talking software and on markets you have stuff like this happening every day with charts to prove it. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/10/ge-centricity-ehrs-need-to-fix-their.html"><font size="2">GE Centricity EHRs Need To Fix Their Algorithms (Math)-Some Customers May Not Be Able to Attest Until The End of November After the Software Update</font></a> <br clear="all" /> </h4> <p>Allscripts had their problems but their issue was trying to push a deadline on developers and you just can’t do that as they can’t go any faster, so better to take your lumps honestly and early as stuff like this happens. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />I laughed like crazy with my own personal experience with Google Plus and I can laugh at this as it is only social network stuff and not critical, but all of a sudden one day the machines said I didn’t meet Google’s Name policy any more…and I did laugh as Barbara should be fine but the machines didn’t like Ducks and I don’t know how Beavers and Crows faired here, but remember rogue algos do happen.  This is just funny to read though. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-sorry-your-google-plus-name-does-not.html"><font size="2">“I’m Sorry Your Google Plus Name Does Not Comply With Google “Names Policies”…Barbara “Duck Algorithm” & Was Using My Real Name All Along…Killer Algorithms Chapter 52</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />The choices are to fix this portion of the code for certification or to drop it all together as we certainly don’t have time to write a new module from ground up,<strong> so today the ONC is Chapter 52 of my ongoing series</strong> “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”.  Stay tuned for the next chapter as those in charge will probably have more than one options and maybe a couple new ones before this is all fixed.  <strong>Unfortunately in the data business sometimes bugs love company.  BD</strong> <hr /></p> <p> <br clear="all" />On Jan. 22, the trade group sent the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology an eight-page letter detailing technical problems with the ONC-led EHR testing and certification regime. To press the urgency, the association asked ONC to reply in five days. <br clear="all" /> <br />The letter said software developers can't get their systems approved for use in Stage 2. That's because the EHRs can't be tested and certified against the 2014 Edition Certification Criteria. Compliance with the 2014 Edition criteria indicates that an EHR has the right stuff to enable providers to meet their meaningful use targets under Stage 2. But the five ONC-approved independent testing and certification bodies can't do their jobs because several essential testing “tools”—custom-made software programs government contractors developed for the ONC—have not been completely debugged. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The EHRA letter focuses on a tool called Cypress, for use in testing EHRs on the accuracy of their calculations of Stage 2 clinical quality measures. The letter also touches on some buggy, faux patient data used in the testing process. The EHRA letter called Cypress “insufficient,” saying the data, if used, “would lead to inaccurate test results.” <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>On Jan. 23, Carol Bean, director of the ONC's certification office, sent a memo to the testing and certification bodies, acknowledging problems with a different tool, the program's Transport Test Tool. That tool, developed for ONC with help from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is designed to test EHRs on Stage 2 requirements for exchange of patient-care summaries and other secure messages, important first steps under the program in a long march toward EHR interoperability. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130126/MAGAZINE/301269973?AllowView=VW8xUmo5Q21TcWJOb1gzb0tNN3RLZ0h0MWg5SVgra3NZRzROR3l0WWRMWGJWZjhIRWxYOU9qTENvK25lK0g4UkxiNm5lMDVvbEE9PQ==">http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130126/MAGAZINE/301269973?AllowView=VW8xUmo5Q21TcWJOb1gzb0tNN3RLZ0h0MWg5SVgra3NZRzROR3l0WWRMWGJWZjhIRWxYOU9qTENvK25lK0g4UkxiNm5lMDVvbEE9PQ==</a></p>

EMR Trade Group Asking the ONC When Are You Going to Have the Certification Software Up and Working Again-Can’t Get Systems Approved for Stage Two Meaningful Use–”Killer Algorithms Chapter 52”

Who doesn’t have software bugs today, stock exchanges, Medical Quack, ONC and the list goes on and on and it’s part of life today and when t...

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FDA Approves Merck Over The Counter Version of Oxytrol to Treat Over Active Bladders

<p>Oxybutynin is the drug that is in the patch used to help patients with over active bladders and relaxes the organ.    A patch can be applied every 4 days.  It is the first drug in it’s class to be approved for over the counter use.  BD  <hr />  <br clear="all" />(Reuters) - Health regulators approved Merck & Co's nonprescription version of Oxytrol to treat overactive bladder in women<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="144" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-3cnXd6TUt9g/UQYrLliHSZI/AAAAAAABD1I/xXwexhVqPog/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="150" /> ages 18 and older, the agency said on Friday.</p> <p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the over-the-counter version of Oxytrol would be available for women only and that the drug remained available to men by prescription.  </p> <p>Overactive bladder, which affects an estimated 33 million Americans, is a condition in which the bladder squeezes too often or without warning. Symptoms include leaking urine, feeling a sudden and urgent need to urinate, and frequent urination. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/fda-oks-over-counter-version-merck-overactive-bladder-163613723--finance.html">http://news.yahoo.com/fda-oks-over-counter-version-merck-overactive-bladder-163613723--finance.html</a></p>

FDA Approves Merck Over The Counter Version of Oxytrol to Treat Over Active Bladders

Oxybutynin is the drug that is in the patch used to help patients with over active bladders and relaxes the organ.    A patch can be applied...

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FDA Approves Three New Drugs To Treat Diabetes Type 2 from Takeda Pharma

<p>Oseni is the branded name under which the drugs will be sold <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="47" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Lrw-sToKavI/UQYYCV340OI/AAAAAAABDzc/CLZ9TpNIdmw/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="97" />and there is a black box warning relative to cardiovascular disease.  The standalone drug, Alogliptin, has been studied in clinical trials which involved and has been considered safe so it appears when the combinations are prescribed, this is where the black box warnings come in to play.  Takeda along with the approval is also required to submit a number of studies.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />On January 25, <a href="http://www.fda.gov">The United States Food and Drug Administration</a> announced the approval of three new drugs to treat <a href="http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/type-2/">Type 2 diabetes</a>. All produced by <a href="http://www.takeda.com">Takeda Pharmaceutical Company</a>, Alogliptin will be used as a standalone medication and sold under the brand name Nesina. The other two will be used in combination with other, currently used diabetes medications.</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alogliptin">Alogliptin</a> will also be used in combination with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metformin">Metformin</a>; one of the most common and widely prescribed oral treatments of the disease. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> The brand name for this combination will be Kazano. Additionally, Alogliptin will be used in combination with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioglitazone">Pioglitazone</a>, the scientific name for Takeda's Actos brand of diabetes medication. The new combination will be sold under the brand name Oseni. There will warnings on the labels of these newly approved drugs. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/fda-announces-approval-of-three-new-drugs-to-treat-type-2-diabetes" title="http://www.examiner.com/article/fda-announces-approval-of-three-new-drugs-to-treat-type-2-diabetes">http://www.examiner.com/article/fda-announces-approval-of-three-new-drugs-to-treat-type-2-diabetes</a></p>

FDA Approves Three New Drugs To Treat Diabetes Type 2 from Takeda Pharma

Oseni is the branded name under which the drugs will be sold and there is a black box warning relative to cardiovascular disease.  The stand...

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United Healthcare Buys Humedica and Gets More Data to Analyze and Sell To Medical Device and Drug Companies–More Big Profits From Health Data

<p>Yes United probably makes more money selling data out <img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TXCfvYCDCBI/AAAAAAAAsv0/8biVjC7dBI0/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />there than most do as it started years ago with Ingenix and they have a a full set of analytics where they sell data.  It started out selling prescription data and has grown big time since then.  Managing care and selling data are two big profit areas for the company.  United is so very large they have so many subsidiaries from a company in China that promotes Chinese drugs and devices to low income housing investments and cheap hearing aids that are sometimes used to entice seniors to sign up for their Secure Horizons plans in areas such as Florida.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/united-healthcare-issues-another-study.html"><font size="2">United HealthCare Issues Another Study, This One Telling Government To Aggressively Manage Medical Care For Seniors-An Area Where A Large Chunk of Their Revenue Comes From Today, Managing Care</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/01/united-healthcare-wants-to-expand.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare Wants to Expand Predictive Modeling for Medicare and Medicaid–Billions in Savings Predicted in Report Only As Good as the Day It Is Published</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />The company looks for savings in many areas such as <u>cutting compensation for doctors</u> and perhaps that goes towards some of the money for some of these very large purchases and this one is said to be worth several millions.  See why I keep saying “excise tax the data sellers” here’s a huge one here.  Recently United also told Medicare they know how to manage and <strong>propose aggressive senior care management as <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-unitedhealthcare-sues-department.html">they have already sued the DOD and won the Tri-Care contract (military Medicare) in the west with using their stance of their “superior” algorithms</a>.  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-aafp-confronts-united-healthcare-on.html"><font size="2">The AAFP Confronts United Healthcare On Reimbursements, Some Are Below Medicare Rates In Parts of the US–Payment Algorithms/Formulas Calculated Deep Within IT Infrastructures Do the Job</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/unitedhealthcare-looks-at-doctors-pay.html"><font size="2">UnitedHealthCare Looks at Doctor’s Pay for Savings, Nothing New There Been Doing It for Years But Keep In Mind We Have the Annual Medicare Cut Fix on the Floor Again with Congress–Timing?</font></a></h4> <h4> </h4> <p>We also have another big organization called the MIB that collects and sells data and all the major insurers participate and exchange <img align="right" height="57" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRJsy5_-1cPjzaPKJ1bNbOsyA0E5vLocojVTXPwC_UMW1X2avqTmg" style="display: inline; float: right" width="113" />data here too.  They <strong>tell insurers when you are expected to die.</strong>  Managing and fiddling with risk has been the Achilles heal of healthcare as people use numbers and stats to form opinions and decisions and some are accurate and others only have a profit mode.  So what will United do here?  The managed risk and cost by short paying doctors for 15 years, where they were fined but it was still analytics.  So when shareholders are the prime interest at times we don’t know what the model is and can’t check the math.  That’s a big problem today and I look good solutions that are accurate but I have seen too many that are marketed as good and have them be flawed for profits only.  You can watch insurers with claims adjust the parameters of what gets paid if the public screams too loud and when it dies down they roll the parameters of what gets paid right back up, it’s a numbers game.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/hiding-falsifying-and-accelerating-risk.html"><font size="2">Hiding, Falsifying, And Accelerating Risk Has Become the Achilles Heel of the US Economy As the “Real” World” Clashes With the Values Created From a World of “Fictional Values” Of Formulas and Math</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />We might stand a good chance here with the information staying pure as we have Dr. Halamka at Harvard on the Scientific Advisory board.  With the recent <strong>announcement with Mayo, I guess Humedica will be able to package up the non identified data and sell it to pharmaceutical, device  companies and others.  Bain Capital is in here so looks like Romney made some more money.</strong>  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/big-dataanalytics-if-used-out-of.html"><font size="2">Big Data/Analytics If Used Out of Context and Without True Values Stand To Be A Huge Discriminatory Practice Against Consumers–More Honest Data Scientists Needed to Formulate Accuracy/Value To Keep Algo Duping For Profit Out of the Game</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Humedica uses a portal service for the hospital analytics and the information sold from EMR records can show which products are doing better, worse, etc.  <strong>The intelligence will be there but not big savings like everyone thinks as you get a new left curve every day that takes what you saved yesterday and spends it today.</strong> <u> What hospitals save here may be eaten up with Medicare  re-admission fines or other such items</u>.  With complex algorithms and analytics we get smarter but the huge savings they all look for are illusional.  Pharma and device companies now have another area to spend more of their money in buying the data to see the results.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Lo1sxmEMM0A/UO0SuZYPg6I/AAAAAAABCoI/DbIqgpRRtVo/image%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" /> <br clear="all" />So what in healthcare do they not have an interest?  How much longer I wonder before the word divest might enter the picture?  Even the VA pays United for the anesthesia analytics from Picis as they company was in there before United bought them.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong><u>If you are using an Epic medical records system, United wants some of that money too</u> with creating a brand new subsidiary in 2011 to integrate with the EHR and this will put smaller clearinghouses out of business.</strong>  Of course they still have their original “Ingenix” clearinghouse services too. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/11/so-what-part-of-health-it-has-united.html"><font size="2">OptumInsight (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of United HealthCare Optum Division) Creates Medical Clearinghouse Integrated With Epic Practice Management Software-Subsidiary Watch</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>The company can help and consult with a drug or device company to get it sent through the FDA with their Canreg subsidiary.  How does this work now with selling information to the same types of industries?  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/09/united-healthcare-optum-owns-consulting.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare (Optum) Owns A Consulting Firm for FDA Drug and Device Approvals, Clinical Trials–CanReg - Subsidiary Watch</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong>Anyway one more point to be made here again, license and tax all data sellers in the US soon as they make billions selling data as Walgreen in 2010 made short of $800 million selling data<img align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TdYNiO2NHwI/AAAAAAAAxko/n3hlhI_0Z9M/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" /> to get a grip on how much will be made with Humedica selling the non identified data from the EMRs, a lot.</strong>  Money has to come from somewhere to pay the pharmacists in certain parts of the US who work for Walgreen the pay for performance money United dishes out for those who enroll patients in one of United’s service to include the YMCA.  <strong>Would you buy an EHR from them?</strong>  They have about three to include a couple they acquired in a couple other company purchases:) <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/08/ingenix-subsidiary-of-united-health.html">Ingenix (Subsidiary of United Health Group) Marketing Care Tracker EHR To Community Health Centers–Subsidiary Watch <br clear="all" /></a></h5> <p> <br clear="all" /><strong>Some of their affiliations or companies they own have access to data from consumer devices that</strong> will “push’ compliance and I think education instead of the route this company goes is better.  Remember they are bought and sold on Wall Street and are part of that entire game and some things are good while others get marketed and sugar coated to get consumers to buy in.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/10/united-healthcare-to-begin-using.html"><font size="2">United Healthcare To Begin Using CareSpeak Text Messaging for CareGiver Alerts and to Push Compliance With Requested Responses</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><em>Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of UnitedHealth, <strong>"Leading companies take advantage of disruptive change in the marketplace,"</strong> he told reporters recently. <strong>"Our shareholders will prosper." <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></strong></em>Last but not least the man who worked for HHS and is accredited with writing most of Obamacare now sits at United so when you want to pick on Obamacare look to United I guess. <em><strong> Think they control a big chunk of healthcare and ram their analytics every direction they can.. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></strong></em></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-health-insurance-regulator-leaving.html"><font size="2">US Health Insurance Regulator Leaving to Take a Job at UnitedHealth Care As Vice President of the Optum Division – Moving to the “For Profit Side” With Business Intelligence Algorithm Dollars To Review</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Humedica also lists Allscripts as one of their partners…if they get their code done and new aggregated product out there and hopefully won’t be suing anyone else over sour grapes over not getting a contract:)  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Anceta, the <u>subsidiary of the AMA</u> is<img align="right" height="145" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-BH31y18LacI/TqISal25GyI/AAAAAAAA4D8/JmeS0YHiWv0/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="195" /> in there too as a <strong>partner, so if you read this far you know the AMA has subsidiaries in the data business too and they sell data and that’s partially how they stay alive as Humedica might be buying data from them too or vice versa. <br clear="all" /></strong> <u>Humedica also has a banker in there too</u> with Leerink Swann so this is posed to make money and now they have United analytics and data if they want to add more, as subdiaries of big corporations certainly share an sell tons of data.  So if you have read this far, take a look at this post, part of the Attack of the Killer Algorithm series… <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/04/devaluate-algorithm-and-tax-data.html"><font size="2">“Devaluate the Algorithm” And “Tax the Data Sellers”–A Cure for Both Healthcare and an Economy Based Heavily on Intangibles–We’ve Lost Our Balance</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <h4><font size="2"><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/02/attack-of-killer-algorithmsdigest-links.html">Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for All Chapters–How Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You</a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></font></h4> <p>We like data to make us smarter but publicly trading companies as the CEO of United said above, shareholders will prosper. <strong> Personally myself I like the Kaiser Permanente registry efforts a lot better</strong> than this and they are non profit.  BD <hr /></p> <p> <br clear="all" />The deal is valued in the hundreds of millions, according to one source, and represents a significant payday for a large consortium of local<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="80" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-DvrGbeEFbMY/UQM-9AFgKnI/AAAAAAABDxw/g5MaSH4vWQc/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="203" /> venture investors including <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/ca/palo_alto/bain_capital_ventures/3329291">Bain Capital Ventures</a>, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/ca/foster_city/north_bridge_venture_partners/3307781">North Bridge Venture Partners</a> and <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/ma/cambridge/general_catalyst_partners/926935">General Catalyst Partners</a>. Boston investment bank Leerink Swann and the Kraft Group, a consortium of businesses including a private equity arm as well as the New England Patriots, also are investors in Humedica. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The company, which has raised at least $63 million and was incubated at Leerink Swann before its 2009 launch, <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2010/06/humedica-poised-for-success-in-health-data.html?page=all">produces health analytics tools </a>for hospitals, physician practices and life sciences companies that aggregate raw health data. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />The company has not publicly disclosed its number of employees.</p> <p>Humedica's products include Humedica MinedShare, a platform that enables clinical, operational, and financial benchmarking across the continuum of care and Humedica MinedStream, a real-time predictive clinical surveillance system that identifies high-risk and high-cost patients.</p> <p> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/bioflash/2013/01/exclusive-humedica-acquired-by.html?ana=twt&page=all">http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/bioflash/2013/01/exclusive-humedica-acquired-by.html?ana=twt&page=all</a></p>

United Healthcare Buys Humedica and Gets More Data to Analyze and Sell To Medical Device and Drug Companies–More Big Profits From Health Data

Yes United probably makes more money selling data out there than most do as it started years ago with Ingenix and they have a a full set of ...

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