Primary care, everywhere: how the shortage of PCPs is driving innovation – especially for patient participation in their own care
The signs of the primary care crisis in America are visible: A growing number of visits to the emergency room for treating commonplace ailments Waiting lists for signing up with and queuing lines to see primary care doctors Fewer med students entering primary care disciplines Maldistribution of primary care practitioners (PCPs) in underserved areas, rural, exurban and urban. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act will (try to) enroll at least 30 million newly-insured health citizens into the U.S. health system. That’s the objective: whether being insured will actually provide people access to needed primary care is a big question given the current supply of
Consumer electronics comes to health care — but don’t overestimate consumer demand just yet
More people with higher levels of concern about their health feel they are in good health, see their doctors regularly for check-ups, take prescription meds “exactly” as instructed, feel they eat right, and prefer lifestyle changes over using medicines. And 40% of these highly-health-concerned people have also used a health technology in the past year. At the other end of the spectrum are people with low levels of health concern: few see the doctor regularly for check-ups, less than one-half take their meds as prescribed by their doctors, only 31% feel they eat right, and only 36% feel they’re in
More U.S. health citizens embrace digital personal health information: the topline of Manhattan Research’s Cybercitizen Health survey
“56 million U.S. Consumers Access Medical Information from Electronic Health Records,” asserted Manhattan Research’s press release of October 12, 2011. This statistic, fresh out of the firm’s 2011 Cybercitizen Health survey, is among several stunning numbers that demonstrate a growing trend: U.S. health citizens’ embrace of their personal health information in digital formats, via electronic channels. To kick the tires on the survey a bit, I spent time on the phone with the “3 M’s” of Manhattan Research — Meredith Ressi, President; Monique Levy, VP of Research; and, Maureen Malloy, Senior Healthcare Analyst who can recite the survey data backwards and forwards. Together,
Prospecting for gold: the role of data in the health economy
3 in 4 of the Fortune 50 companies are part of the U.S. health economy in some way. Only 1 in 3 of these is in traditional health industries like pharmaceutical and life science companies, insurance, and businesses in the Old School Health Care value chain. 2 in 3 of the Fortune 50 companies involved in health are in new-new segments. In their report, The New Gold Rush, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) identifies four roles for “prospectors” in the new health economy which will represent 20% of the GDP by 2019: Fixers Connectors Retailers, and Implementers. These are the disruptive roles that will
Telemedicine is an enabler of health reform
Globally, in developed economies, the challenges of increasing health care costs, access to quality health care, aging citizens and the supply of clinicians are universal. CSC says telemedicine can address these challenges as part of reforming health care delivery and financing throughout the world. In Telemedicine: An Essential Technology for Reformed Healthcare, CSC sees telemedicine as an enabler for health reforms’ goals the world over. In the U.S., telemedicine is explicitly mentioned in the Affordable Care Act. In April 2011, the Federal Register included language about health financing reform that said, “The ACO shall define processes to promote evidence-based medicine and patient engagement, report
Doctors using tablet-based EMRs like portability, productivity and patient communication
The past year has seen a huge jump in the number of hours that physicians spend online; at the margin, the increase is due to physicians’ use of online via mobile platforms. Meredith Abreu-Ressi, President of Manhattan Research, shared her insights into the firm’s study, Taking the Pulse (v. 11), with me today. The top-line finding of the annual survey is that health professionals have quickly adopted mobile platforms in health — with special attention paid to Apple products, the iPhone and the iPad. Manhattan Research has tracked physicians’ use of online health resources for over a decade. They’ve found
ePrescribing continues to challenge physicians – but can be a link for patient engagement
About 1.3 million people in the U.S. experience a medication error each year, which are preventable events that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or harm a patient, any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Two very common causes of medication errors are illegible handwriting by prescribers and misplaced decimal points on prescription forms. Twenty percent of adverse drug events lead to life-threatening circumstances, according to The Leapfrog Group. The costs of medication errors has been
The new health reform is online and mobile; talking at J. Boye 2011 in Philadelphia
With non-communicable diseases (NCDs) killing two-third’s of the Earth’s residents — not malaria, HIV or other infectious diseases — the World Health Organization calls lifestyle-borne chronic conditions a “slow-motion catastrophe.” The solution for addressing this global challenge isn’t just about deploying more doctors and medical technology in hospitals and bricks-and-mortar institutions. The real health reform is about infrastructure-independent care and feeding that bolsters peoples’ health where they live, work, play and pray, as characterized by the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin in the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 2011. Today I’ll be participating on the eHealth track at the J.
Consumer engagement with health IT isn’t about technology
Today’s kickoff of the National eHealth Collaborative‘s Consumer Consortium on eHealth convened the most diverse workgroup of over 70 stakeholders with various lenses on consumers and health, rarely seen at similar meetings, as Lygeia Ricciardi (@lygeia) of the Office of the National Coordiantor for Health IT (ONC) in the Department of Health and Human Services, observed. However, although representing every conceivable segment of health consumer stakeholders, from seniors (AARP) and physicians (MGMA) to people with disabilities (AAPD), women (National Partnership for Women and Families) and people who fall through the health safety net (the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved), there was concurrence
There’s hard ROI for physician groups that fully implement electronic health records
About one-half of physician practices used an electronic health record (EHR) as of late 2010, with 36% of groups still storing health records in paper charts. While 1 in 2 physician groups in the U.S. have implemented electronic health records, they confess that they haven’t yet optimized their use. Only 16% of medical groups have implemented EHRs and believe their practices have optimized their EHRs. But optimization has its rewards: over 1 in 3 groups that have had sufficient time to fully implement their EHRs report decreased practice operating costs. Furthermore, 41% of these fully-operational EHR environments have seen physician productivity increase. With the subtitle, “snapshot of
Health consumers like integrated health plans – and medical homes, based on J.D. Power’s latest survey
J.D. Power and Associates, known for its insights into consumers’ opinions on cars, insurance and telecomms, published its latest poll on consumers’ favorite health plans. The verdict: health citizens like integrated health insurance plans where providers and insurance are part of the same organization like Kaiser Foundation Health Plans (rated in the top 3 in virtually every market where they operate polled by J.D. Power), Health Alliance Plan of Michigan, Geisinger in Pennsylvania, Dean Health Plan of Minnesota, and Group Health Cooperative of the northwest. Each of these integrated plans grew up based on local medical, economic and political cultures.
How an EHR can help manage population health
There’s a lot of chatter about Meaningful Use in the context of electronic health records adoption; if you Googled the term today you’d find millions of references to the concept. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)’s website offers three main components of Meaningful Use as specified in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: – The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, such as e-prescribing – The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care – The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other
Patients like health IT and digital data, balancing privacy concerns
Patients like the idea of advanced health IT, while continuing to be concerned about the safety and security of their personal health data. Dell polled patients and hospital executives on their opinions of health reform, technology, and other health care topics, reported out in The Dell Executive & Patient Survey. Overwhelming majorities of consumers are inerested in: Electronic access to information about a hospital to help determine which hospital to visit (81%) Electronic prescription processing (76%) Making it possible for EHRs to be shared between physicians, hospitals, and ancillary providers (74%) Providing more information electronically such as follow-up care post-discharge (73%)
Will providers be ready for patient-centricity in health IT?
In October 2012, Stage 2 of the HITECH Act’s meaningful use begins. That means that providers, both hospitals and physicians, who adopt electronic medical records systems and are looking to receive a financial incentive from the ARRA stimulus funds, must meet criteria defined as “meaningful use” (MU). Stage 2 will feature standards for providers to communicate health information to patients, based on the draft set of criteria issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Will providers be ready to put patients in the center of the EMR? PricewaterhouseCoopers assesses the complex answer to this question in their report,
The Connected Patient: some forces converging in the market, but barriers remain
Remote health monitoring, which enables people to track health and daily living metrics when they are in one place and communicate those measures to another node via some communications platform, is not a new concept. Telehealth, telemedicine, consumer-facing health electronics like USB-ported blood pressure monitors, and some mobile apps can all fall under the broad umbrella of remote health monitoring. There are strong market forces converging to enable health citizens to connect to their providers, institutions, payors, health coaches, caregivers, and each other. Still, a balanced look under the remote health monitoring hood reminds us that old saw taught to me by colleagues
Robert Reich connects the dots between the macroeconomy, angst, politics and health care costs
“I’m not a class warrior. I’m a class worrier,” Robert Reich told a standing-room only crowd of thousands of health IT geeks as he delivered the first keynote address of the annual meeting of HIMSS, the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society. This year’s crowd will have reached about 31,000 people interested in health information technology’s transformative role in health care. The 31K represents an 18% increase in attendance from last year’s crowd. The HIMSS economy is strong. Robert Reich warns, however, that the U.S. macroeconomy is far from healthy…and health care costs will be a long-term threat to the
Personal health records: will doctors connect?
What doctors are most likely to use patients’ personal electronic health records? Fewer than 1 in 2 are willing to. Those who most likely would include Hispanic physicians, doctors who practice in rural areas, those employed in hospitals, and surgeons. As part of the HITECH Act included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 0f 2009, U.S. physicians have the opportunity to receive a portion of the $20.8 billion carved out as incentive payments to those who adopt and “meaningfully use” electronic health records (EHRs). Many EHRs include portals which allow patients to access a slice of their personal health information.
Doctors and the public support health IT in America, the Markle survey confirms
The majority of both doctors and people in the U.S. support sharing information to improve health care in the U.S. by reducing medical errors, cutting avoidable costs, better coordinating patient care, measuring progress on improving quality and safety, and improving public health priorities such as heart disease and obesity. What’s also clear is that both the public isn’t very familiar with the details of the HITECH Act which provides incentives for their doctors to adopt electronic health records. While 64% of doctors are familiar with the incentive program, only 14% of the public is. The Markle Foundation conducted parallel surveys to measure the public’s and doctors’ views
Don’t underestimate the costs of adopting health IT
Mature users of electronic health records bear many scars and learnings, having been through the first several rungs of the health information technology (HIT) adoption ladder. A few of these lessons for HIT adoption success… Implementing EMRs is a strategic and not just an IT-department initiative. HIT adoption requires top-down commitment and engagement. It takes longer and costs more than the planners of systems expect. During transition to an EMR, hospitals see an 80% “spike” (increase) in IT operating expenses — directly impacting the hospital’s overall operating budget as much as 200 basis points or more. There is evidence that those spikes
What health care IT holds for 2011: politics vs. market realities
The one issue in health politics that’s got bipartisan support is health care IT. While Republicans in the House may try to pick away parts of the Affordable Care Act, the HITECH Act — part of the 2009 stimulus package formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — will stay intact, according to most industry analysts (including me). However, political agreement doesn’t equal market adoption. So forecasting what 2011 will mean for health information technology requires some deeper analysis of additional issues. For today’s Health Populi, take a look at my annual health IT forecast in California HealthCare Foundation‘s
Patients want more informational support from their physicians
At least one-half of U.S. patients do not believe they have the information they need to manage their conditions once they leave the doctor’s office. Furthermore, most people feel their physicians don’t communicate with them enough about specific kinds of information, including online resources, information about prescription drugs and side effects, and diet. These insights come out of a survey conducted by MedTera, a patient education and marketing firm that serves the life sciences and health care industry. Key findings from the study illustrate the chasm between patients and their doctors when it comes to people feeling equipped to manage disease
A longer road to EMR adoption? CDC and CHIME surveys hint
1 in 2 office-based physicians in the U.S. use any sort of electronic medical record (EMR) or electronic health record (EHR). However, only 10% of doctors have a fully functional EMR or EHR system. This means that the great majority of doctors currently using electronic records are not yet meeting meaningful use criteria as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Physicians reported the computerized functions of their electronic records systems as part of the annual Centers for Disease Control‘s (CDC) National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). The chart illustrates the good news: that every year since 2003, U.S. physicians are
Dis-connected health – interest in remote health monitoring falls with age
The majority of Americans generally like the idea of remote home monitoring for health. 3 in 5 adults (62%) across all age groups say communication with doctors via home monitoring devices would improve their health. However, only 35% of people age 65 and over are interested in home health monitoring. Interest in remote home health monitoring decreases with age. The disconnect is that 90% of Americans age 65 and older have at least one chronic health condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Practice Fusion commissioned a survey from GfK Roper in November 2010 through the GfK Omnibus survey among 1,008 adults
Walgreens’ Wellness Wisdom – what it means for pharmacy’s role in health
Two weeks ago at the company’s AnalystDay conference, Greg Wasson, the CEO of Walgreens, told the audience that the pharmacy chain was on a mission to “own well.” In the New York Times magazine dated November 12, 2010, an article titled Fresh Approach talks about Walgreens work in low-income Chicago neighborhoods coupling with greengrocers to bring “food oases” to inner cities. Two weeks ago, I learned that Walgreens is teaming with Orbitz to provide travelers’ health services. Married to an international banker who travels globally, I am pleased to know he can get his esoteric inoculations in local, convenient retail mode. Walgreens’ data found that 25% of
Another bullish forecast for mobile health
In the wake of last week’s mHealth Summit in Washington, DC, there’s yet another bullish forecast on mobile health to consider. The Promise of Mobile Health asks the tagline question: “Bigger than DTC?” Euro RSCG’s Life 4D group, published the paper in November 2010. Survey data in the report followed up its October 2009 digital health survey in September 2010 among 502 American adults. Euro RSCG rightly points out that consumers’ health needs are 24×7: “they take their healthcare needs with them.” The firm believes that the biggest barrier to wider consumer adoption of mobile health is the low penetration of “suitable mobile devices among consumers.” The report’s survey
EMRs are the sixth thing on doctors’ minds
Improving patient care, reducing practice costs, growing revenues and attracting new patients are top-of-mind for a majority of doctors in the U.S. What about electronic medical records (EMRs)? Not so high on physicians’ priority lists, according to the second annual health IT survey conducted in July 2010 by CompTIA. When it comes to spending on health information technology, group practices told CompTIA they plan to spend more in 2011, whereas solo practices will keep IT spending flat. Among doctors who have already implemented EMRs, they’re looking for faster systems that are easier to use, cost less, and have greater interoperability. While cloud computing
Talk to me healthy, baby – Health 2.0 gets personal
Sex, drugs, rock and roll, Victoria’s secret bras manufactured with formaldehyde, motivating kids to move about more, and texting potential sex partners your latest STD test results: the 2010 Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco was more about real, whole health and the person-patient than about cool new tech. Furthermore, the Health 2.0 Conference turned a lot of preconceptions on their head on October 7 and 8, 2010, in a standing-room–only ballroom at the Hilton Union Square. Who could have predicted that government employees would light the room up with high energy and innovative thinking more than a panel of illustrious
The story of Kaiser Permanente’s EHR
“To call health care’s information management for the most part ‘twentieth century’ is as wrong as calling it ‘twenty-first century;’ it’s nineteenth century,” begins Dr. Donald Berwick, Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, in the foreword to a new book that tells the story about how the world’s largest health IT project was successfully implemented. Connected for Health was edited by Dr. Louise L. Liang who was senior vice president, Quality and Clinical Systems Support, for the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals between 2002 and 2009. It was during that time that Kaiser envisioned and implemented KP
Can health IT transform the U.S. economy? The White House thinks so
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, aka ‘stimulus funds’) is investing $100 billion worth of U.S. taxpayer dollars in projects meant to transform the American economy. $20-some billion of these funds are being earmarked for health information technology, which the White House sees as part of a “platform for private sector innovation” in a report published August 24 2010, The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy Through Innovation. Health IT (HIT) is bucketed with broadband and smart grid technology as planks in this economic-transformational platform. Among these three pillars, compare the $20 billion going to health IT with the $6.9 billion being
The role of retail health clinics post-health reform
Retail health clinics have served American health consumers for about a decade. What have we learned over these ten years? As retail clinics proliferate the U.S. health care ecosystem, what is their impact on the health system, health consumers, and the health economy? The RAND report, Policy Implications of the Use of Retail Clinics, responds to these issues. The key implications of RAND’s study are that: – Health programs should be designed and paid-for to incorporate the adoption of retail clinics and reduce fragmentation and dis-continuity of care. – Learn from the best practices and patient outcomes gained from
People worry about access to their health data…and they should
When it comes to their paper medical records, people are most concerned about their ability to access them when they need them. 28% of Americans are more concerned about access than inaccuracies, fraudulent use of the record, loss, or portability to a new doctor. Practice Fusion commissioned this survey of American adults and how they feel about various aspects of paper-based medical records. Overall, 1 in 5 people worry about inaccuracies or outdated information in their records; 1 in 6 are concerned that records will be stolen or used fraudulently, and 1 in 10 fret that records will be lost, won’t be
How to save $40 billion in health care: implement health IT in hospitals
Electronic health records (EHRs) broaden access to patient data and provide the platform for pushing evidence-based decision support to clinicians at the point-of-care. This promotes optimal care for patients, reduces medical errors, optimizes the use of labor, reduces duplication of tests, and by the way, improves patient outcomes. When done in aggregate across all health providers, a team from McKinsey estimates that $40 billion of costs could be saved in the U.S. health system. Reforming hospitals with IT investment in the McKinsey Quarterly talks about the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act’s (ARRA) $20+ billion worth of stimulus funding under the HITECH Act
That’s Dr. Geek Squad to you
Best Buy is teaming up with Cardiac Science, targeting potential purchasers of electronic health records (EHRs) and noninvasive cardiac devices. The venture looks to take advantage of economic stimulus funding available through the HITECH Act aimed at motivating physicians to adopt EHRs. Cardiac Science is a medical device company focused on the noninvasive management of heart disease. Their products include defibrillators, ECG/EKG devices, stress testing equipment, Holter and vital sign monitors. These heart-hardware products are designed to connect with electronic health records systems in hospitals and physician offices. and are used in many settings outside of health institutions including schools, emergency
Health reform = meaningful use among health executives
Meeting meaningful use for inpatient EHRs is the top priority among the many challenges health executives face when considering how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will impact their organizations. Overall, 2 in 3 health execs place MU for inpatient EHRs as the “highest priority;” among health IT executives, the proportion citing this as the highest priority is 84%. The second-most pressing PPACA priority for health executives is preparing for new models of payment, cited by 17% of health execs overall, and 31% of non-IT executives. CSC surveyed health executives in July to gauge their temperatures on several PPACA line-items including
Open notes: opens conversations and builds trust between people and their doctors
People foresee that, in the future, the most trusted ‘channel’ for their engaging in their health will be…conversations with my doctor. This was found in the 2008 Edelman Health Engagement Barometer survey of health citizens polled in five countries — China, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Those health citizens favoring the physician-conversation channel will welcome OpenNotes into their doctor-encounters behind the exam room door. The July 20, 2010, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine talks about an initiative to, literally, open up doctors’ notes to their patients. As Dr.Tom DelBanco, et. al., attest in the article, “‘open notes’
Doctors and smartphones: implications for the mobile EHR
6 in 10 doctors in the U.S. have a smartphone, and most of them use the devices for email and accessing the mobile Internet. These findings come from a survey conducted among members in The Physicians Consulting Network. “Smartphones are quickly becoming a way of life for medical professionals,” PCN observes. PCN explored physicians’ views on various digital technologies, especially concerning digital health information which is top-of-mind for providers given the window of opportunity to exploit ARRA HITECH incentives for adopting electronic health records (EHRs). This survey found that 50% of PCPs and 52% of specialists keep patient records in an
The road to meaningful use has many bumps along the way, CIOs say
While 1 in 2 health CIOs say they’ll be prepared to apply for stimulus funding to adopt electronic health records in 2011, 80% are concerned about their ability to meet the requirements of meaningful use (MU). This lack of confidence on the road to MU is based on a host of challenges, from reporting requirements and lack of clarity of MU criteria to availability of IT talent and worries about access to capital. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute (PwC) surveyed 120 health care CIOs and IT executives and published the detailed findings in the report, Ready or not: On the road to
On the Tiger Team and the insecurity of health information
Millions of health records for patients in the U.S. have been breached or compromised in the first half of 2010. Here’s a list derived from an ongoing search via Google News Alerts I monitor using the keywords, “health information and breach:” FedEx lost seven CDs of personal health information (PHI) from the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in Bronx, NY, enroute to Siemens Medical Solutions, in March. This information affected 130,495 patients. The FAA believes that PHI for over 3 million U.S. pilots may be at-risk of breaching, according to a report published in June by the US Transportation Department. The FAA’s
Economics and health information technology are top challenges for physicians in 2010
While practice economics have always been the lifeblood for doctors’ businesses, this year, 7 of their top 10 challenges have to do with some aspect of finance: rising costs, uncertainty of Medicare reimbursement, managing compensation, negotiating payer contracts, and collecting payments from patients themselves. The other key hassle in 2010 for physicians is selecting and implementing an electronic health records system, #3 in the top-of-mind challenges for American doctors. The Medical Group Management Association, the advocacy group for physicians working in groups, published a survey this week conducted among its members in February and March 2010. Notice all the yellow shading in the chart?
Fiscal unfitness: U.S. hospitals still suffer negative impacts from the recession in 2010
Bad debt and charity care as a proportion of hospitals’ total gross revenue increased for 9 in 10 hospitals in the U.S. according to the American Hospital Association’s press release, Hospitals Continue to Feel Lingering Effects of the Economic Recession. Today’s macroeconomic news that U.S. economic growth slowed in the first quarter of 2010 doesn’t bode well for hospitals or for patients, for whom the so-called “jobless recovery” in the nation creates financial insecurity and, more specifically, health care insecurity. Hospitals’ other negative economic impacts include depressed numbers of elective procedures (suffered by 72% of U.S. hospitals), depressed overall patient volumes
Health consumers like the idea of digital records, but few embracing them
While 8 in 10 Americans say that their physicians should have access to information contained in their electronic medical record, only 8% of people said an EMR is available to them but they don’t use it. Fully 37% of American adults are not sure their physicians even have an EMR, according to a HarrisInteractive/HealthDay survey on e-health records conducted in June 2010. As the chart indicates, health consumers aren’t very engaged with other aspects of information applications that may be available to them, from scheduling a doctor’s visit over the Internet to accessing the results of lab trests via email. As Humphrey
Clueless: Americans and electronic health records
Notwithstanding the inclusion of $20 billion (and counting) being allocated to incentives for providers to adopt electronic health records in the U.S. as part of the HITECH Act of 2009, the American public lacks an understanding about what EHRs really are. 26% of Americans ranked patients as the last among groups that would benefit from digital records, with the least to gain. This stunning datapoint comes from a survey conducted for Xerox, illustrated in the chart. 79% of adults with concerns about EHRs report stolen records as their top concern, followed by misuse of information (69%) and loss, damage, or corrupted records
Patient Power Through Data Liberación, and Private Sector to the Rescue – Health 2.0 DC Takeaways
The Health 2.0 Conference convened its first meeting in Washington, DC, today, with public sector health leaders and private sector innovators coming together in a Great Big Kumbayah. This conference featured two prominent and key players absent from previous Health 2.0 Conferences: patients on every panel, and the Federal government punctuating the start, the middle, and the end of the day’s agenda. The over-arching message: Data Liberación! says Todd Park, the DHHS Technology Officer. This follows last week’s launch by DHHS of the Community Health Data Initiative (which Park wants to rename with your help here). [More about the CHDI herefrom Health Populi]
Websites first, then doctors, support peoples' health care decisions
1 in 2 global health citizens looks first to the Internet for advice to make health decisions; then, they look to doctors. This virtual tie for ‘first place’ in health information that supports health decision making is the New Second Opinion for at least one-half of the population, according to data gleaned through PricewaterhouseCoopers‘s Health Research Institute’s Global Consumer Survey. Traditional media, including print (newspapers and magazines) and broadcast (TV, radio) are go-to health information sources for about 1 in 4 health consumers. Social networking websites were found to be useful health information decision-support sources by 17% (say, nearly 1 in 5 people). Health
Physicians Cite Cost and "Not Being Ready" As Key Barriers to EMR Adoption
Two news stories this week highlight the fact that, even with a health reform bill signed and sealed by the President of the United States, and with $20 billion of ARRA stimulus funding on the books, electronic health records adoption will probably be slower than the go-go forecasts of one year ago. The head of Accenture’s clinical transformation practice was interviewed by Information Week this week. Dr. Kip Webb explained the results of an Accenture survey of small practices that found a “substantial number” of physicians in practices smaller than 10 doctors would not begin the process of EMR adoption. On the upside, Accenture
Rent, Buy or Wait? A post-mortem of HIMSS ’10
It’s been a year since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the HITECH Act got the president’s signature. Since then, there have been countless meetings of standards-setters, CIO experts and medical informatics pros, all opining on the meaning of “meaningful use,” the criteria for certifying electronic health records and the vision for a Nationwide Health Information Network. As they asked in “Seasons of Love” from Rent, “525,600 minutes…how do you measure a year?” The chorus’s response: “In cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.” And 525,000 journeys to plan. That’s about the number of physicians
Designing for meaningful use
In the crush of crowds on the vendor floor at the HIMSS10 exhibition this week in Atlanta, booths are strategically designed with Pantone-matched colors and icons and clever taglines. Sales teams are festooned in corporate logo-emblazoned polo shirts (orange is popular this year). Colorful banners exclaim this year’s HIT mantras: lots of “HIE spoken here!” and “We are connectivity.” With all the thought and dollars allocated to health information technology sales and marketing, I wonder how much the line item known as “design” gets? As I spend a lot of time with pharmaceutical companies in the past two decades, I’m
Can GE, Intel and Mayo bring good things to home monitoring?
Three major consumer and health industry brand names are coming together to launch a telehealth home monitoring project: GE, Intel and the Mayo Clinic. Each organization has a deep bench and history in the health vertical, covering different segments of the market. With this project, 3 industry leaders partner to learn about home health monitoring’s challenges and opportunities in real-life, with real people. The project goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of daily in-home monitoring technology measured in 2 ways: reduced hospital admissions and reduced visits to the emergency room. For the project, Intel brings its Health Guide into the
HITECH Funding Is More Stick Than Carrot, Says PwC
Economic challenges have forced 8 in 10 hospital CIOs to cut IT spending by about 10%. At the same time, these CIOs realize that penalties are looking in 2011 if they fail to implement “meaningful use” of EHRs. This is the Rock and a Hard Place PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) describes in the report of the same name. PwC believes that the “stick” of Medicare payment penalties will be more compelling than the “carrot” of HIT incentives provided by the HITECH funding: based on the firm’s calculations on modeling the funding for providers, the report asserts that, “the stimulus funding for health
A Tale of Two HIMSS – the dynamic of urgency vs. pragmatism
It was the best of times, and the worst of times. Well, perhaps not the worst, but a time to pause and reflect on the power and the money. Thus I turn to a Tale of Two Cities. As I depart Chicago and the 47th annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, I recall two different meeting-experiences: the convention floor, with its mood of upbeat urgency, brightly colored booths and activity; and the education sessions and hallway conversations that featured pragmatic, real-world challenges. ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, with its $19+
Can Wal-Mart Mass Merchandise Electronic Health Records?
“We believe America can have high quality, affordable and accessible health care by 2012.” Who said that? If you guessed President Obama, Senator Edward Kennedy, or Hillary Clinton, you’re wrong. It’s Wal-Mart, on its Health and Wellness webpage. Wal-Mart’s got a new direct-to-physician strategy: selling electronic health records (EHRs). The world’s largest retailer, #1 on the Fortune 100, expands on the company’s experience with retail health clinics. The chain now has 30 clinics sprinkled throughout the south, and in each clinic, there’s an EHR system. The EHRs will be offered through Wal-Mart’s subsidiary, Sam’s Club, jointly with Dell and eClinicalWorks,
How to find $150 billion for health care: get rid of paper
Paper, Benjamin, Paper. The lowest-hanging fruit opportunity in reforming health care today is paper. Getting rid of it, that is. In their Recommndations to the Obama Administration and 111th Congress, Ingenix says that, “Administrative cost savings are win-win propositions, benefiting all stakeholders.” Health Populi’s Hot Points: As Congress continues to wrestle with what $20 billion can do for electronic medical data in the U.S., addressing administrative waste is in health is an opportunity to mine some found money which won’t require a 10-year wait for an ROI. The point here is to move toward administrative efficiency in parallel with migrating
Affordable care and better information: what Americans want from a new-and-improved US health system
Anxiety about health care costs tops American citizens’ concerns about health care in the U.S. Rich, poor, insured or un-, 2 in 3 Americans worry about the affordability of health care in America. So it follows, then, that among those without health insurance, 57% blame their uninsured state on the fact that they simply cannot afford it, as shown in the table on the right. Beyond this group, 30% of the uninsured cite the employer’s role in health insurance: 14% aren’t employed, 9% have employers who don’t offer coverage, and 7% are “between jobs.” These findings come from
Prelude to HIMSS — follow the money, especially Medicare
On this eve of the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Orlando, I’m meditating and getting myself prepared for the next three days at the Orange County Convention Center. Why? Medicare. Last week, President Bush has already announced a budget cutting hospital funding for fiscal year 2008. The President proposes cuts in Medicare and Medicaid spending by $196 billion over five years, with hospitals in the bulls’-eye of the reductions. Hospitals are a primary target audience attending HIMSS. HIMSS is akin to a shopping mall with stores featuring every conceivable aspect of health IT:
Health Populi’s Tea Leaves for 2008
I “leave” you for the year with some great, good, and less-than-sanguine expectations for health care in 2008. These are views filtered through my lens on the health care world: the new consumer, health information technology, globalization, politics, and health economics. Health politics shares the stage with Iraq. Health care is second only to Iraq as the issue that Americans most want the 2008 presidential candidates to talk about, according to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Several candidates have responded to the public’s interest with significant health care reform proposals. But major health reform – such as universal access
Health Care IT by way of Hollywood and Hip-Hop
The double-barreled news of Dennis Quaids’ twins receiving heparin doses 1,000x the prescribed dose while receiving medical treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, coupled with the tragic death of Kanye West’s mother following cosmetic surgery, focuses this health care paparazzi’s lens squarely on the role of information technology in health care. The Cedars-Sinai Chief Medical Officer has termed the Quaid event a “preventable error.” Donda West’s doctor has been described by the likes of People magazine and the Los Angeles Times as a clinician with at least 2 DUI’s and an assortment of malpractice suits — as well as a recommendation
The Health Data Vault, circa 1999
Today, October 4, Microsoft unveiled its long-awaited electronic health records system, Health Vault. In a white paper called Concepts of the Health Data Vault, the author discusses the value of an individual’s “health data bitstream.” The author goes on to say that, “The value of this bitstream is based on its organization and communication within an individual’s context. This value is not necessarily reflected in specific dollars and cents savings, but rather in the individual’s health, trust in the healthcare system, and community. It has the potential to radically shift the balance of power in today’s health care system.” This
I was invited to be a Judge for the upcoming CES 2025 Innovation Awards in the category of digital health and connected fitness. So grateful to be part of this annual effort to identify the best in consumer-facing health solutions for self-care, condition management, and family well-being. Thank you, CTA!
Thank you Team Roche for inviting me to brainstorm patients as health citizens, consumers, payers, and voters in the Healthcare Transformers series.
For the past 15 years, the annual CES conference in Las Vegas has been my go-to meeting for updating my research and network in digital health and consumer-facing electronics that people find meaningful for their well-being, families, and home lives. I'll be back in Vegas in January for a full week of Media Days, one-on-one meetings, and speaking about my perspectives on health consumers.