Healthcare Disparities Solutions Blog

As docs struggle do patients suffer?

2012-01-20T13:43:00.001-05:00

Maureen McKinney is reporting today in Modern Healthcare that physicians who own their practices may require more help to implement electronic health records than those who do not. Using survey data from more than 150 physicians, taken during a Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative pilot, researchers from Boston-based not-for-profit system Partners HealthCare assessed physicians' perceptions about

Next Gen PHR's that Zing!

2012-01-12T08:26:00.000-05:00

Personal Health Record (PHR) utilization in the US is dismal and not going anywhere fast. Many take this to mean that the concept has no value to consumers. I tend to believe the potential value is great but the currently available PHR tools and platforms are usability, functionality and interoperaboility nightmares that provide unfulfilling user experiences. (I will tell you how I really feel

EHR's help improve Healthcare Disparities

2012-01-11T10:11:00.000-05:00

iHealthbeat is reporting that Primary care physicians could help address health disparities between black and white patients if they implement electronic health records, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. For the study, researchers examined federal government survey data from 2007 and 2008 on 17,000 U.S. primary care visits where physicians recorded patients'

New Health IT Agency?

2011-11-08T10:11:00.001-05:00

iHealth News is reporting today that a new Institute of Medicine report due out on Thursday will say that an entirely new regulatory agency is needed to oversee this largely unregulated sector, which can also injure or kill patients if it’s not operating properly. In pushing for a new oversight body, the respected Institute of Medicine, an independent research and advisory organization, is

Designing better EHR's and PHR's

2011-11-04T06:18:00.001-04:00

InformationWeek is reporting (Nov 4) that the National Institute of Standards (NIST), in conjunction with public and private sector stakeholders, has called on the healthcare community to help evaluate electronic health records (EHRs), examine the human factors that are crucial to their design, and assist with guidance on the development of usability engineering practices. An October 27 webcast

Smartphones & Smart Hearts

2011-10-24T16:38:00.000-04:00

Response to Feds

2011-09-07T14:46:00.000-04:00

The following is my response to a request for comments on Federal Strategic Plan to Reduce Health IT Disparities. My response can also be found at http://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/from-the-onc-desk/federal-strategic-plan-disparities/#ixzz1XIGFDBt6 To the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT(ONC) I think it is commendable that ONC is working to address the issues of Healthcare

Music for my digital Stethescope!

2011-07-25T12:55:00.000-04:00

It seems like the vision of improving health, disparities and care through Consumer Health Informatics that we have been advocating here on this blog is finally beginning to catch on at the federal level. Deirdre Shesgreen at the Connecticut Mirror is reporting today that someone you probably have never heard of before, Lygeia Ricciardi, sits at the intersection of federal health care reform and

PHR on Steroids

2011-07-20T17:47:00.000-04:00

Dossia, a consortium of large employers, recently announced plans to add several new features to its personal health record (PHR) platform, InformationWeek reports. Dossia CEO Mike Critelli said the new Dossia Health Manager will be an "intelligent" system that incorporates gaming and social networking principles to facilitate "sustained user engagement and behavior change" (Kolbasuk McGee,

Leading on Healthcare Disparities

2011-07-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

David Burda of Modern Healthcare reports that five prominent healthcare organizations upped the stakes in the fight to end disparities in care for racial and ethnic minorities, issuing a three-pronged “national call for action” to address the problem. The groups issued the call in San Diego at the American Hospital Association's Leadership Summit. The groups are the AHA, Catholic Health

Healthcare (social media) Reform

2011-07-11T18:04:00.000-04:00

Karen M. Cheung at Fierce Healthcare noted today that last week, Mayo Clinic launched its own version of a free, open social networking community. The newest social networking site promises to be unlike other existing medical group or hospital online communities. With Mayo's 500,000 patients and 50,000 employees and students around the world, the social community is aimed at "connecting patients

Crowdsourcing Health

2011-07-08T11:54:00.000-04:00

On July 7th Mathew Ingram at GigaOM notes that the Internet is one of the first places many people go to research symptoms or illnesses they have (or think they might have), and social networks like Twitter have also become a hotbed of symptom-sharing and health advice. But can anyone discover useful knowledge from all of this information? Two researchers at Johns Hopkins University say they

Impact of Pay-for Performance on Disparities

2011-06-13T16:39:00.000-04:00

According to EurekAlert!, an online, global news service operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Massachusetts' innovative use of "pay-for-performance" bonuses to try to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the case of Medicaid patients has turned up no evidence of the problem at any of the state's 66 acute-care hospitals, according to a new study that raises

Can EHR's Make Disparities Disappear?

2011-06-13T12:44:00.001-04:00

According to Kendra Blackmon at FierceEMR.com and a new study published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST),the answer is maybe. Earlier this year, NIST published a report–Human Factors Guidance to Prevent Healthcare Disparities with the Adoption of EHRs–which declares that “wide adoption and Meaningful Use of EHR systems” by providers and patients could impact healthcare

Davos Healthcare

2011-03-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

According to American Medical News, the U.S. health system is demonstrating better performance on most measures of health care quality, but it's failing to improve access to care or cut racial and ethnic health disparities, according to two reports released in February by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. "Quality of care continues to improve, but at a slow rate," said Ernest Moy,

Meaningful Healthcare

2011-02-24T17:30:00.002-05:00

iHealthbeat is reporting that according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute report Health care providers might not meet Stage 2 meaningful use rules unless they more actively engage patients about their role in the use of health IT. For the report, PwC surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers and more than 300 health care executives in fall 2010. According to the report, 82% of the 300

Repeal and reducing disparities

2011-01-19T09:30:00.000-05:00

By Brian D. Smedley and John E. McDonough. Brian Smedley is vice president and director of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Health Policy Institute and John E. McDonough is a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote soon to repeal the health care reform law that was enacted last year. While that effort is unlikely to go

HIT resistant strains

2010-12-29T15:00:00.001-05:00

The recently released President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report entitled, “Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward,” calls upon the Federal government to facilitate the widespread adoption of a “universal exchange language” that allows for the transfer of relevant pieces of health data while

Clueless in Healthcare

2010-12-03T13:57:00.000-05:00

Mark Metherell is reporting that patient control over what goes into their electronic medical records faces resistance from some Australian medical leaders, who are calling for a delay, to what they call “the potentially hazardous patient control feature”. Steve Hambleton, the vice-president of the Australian Medical Association said, at an Australian Health Department summit conference on

Social Media Approach To Healthcare Disparities?

2010-11-16T11:10:00.001-05:00

Now or Later

2010-10-19T17:26:00.000-04:00

The October 19th edition of iHealthBeat is reporting that National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal and Garth Graham -- HHS deputy assistant secretary for minority health -- asked health IT vendors for their help in preventing a "digital divide" involving health care providers who serve minority communities. Blumenthal and Graham called on vendors to make sure they target such health

Direct to consumer healthcare

2010-10-18T11:31:00.002-04:00

On October 11, 2010 Baltimore Sun reporter Meredith Cohn reported that some US healthcare providers are experimenting with trying to reach patients through social media and reaping big rewards. Providers are not just using twitter and facebook but trying new social media tools like Groupon, Foresquare, Scoutmob and LivingSocial that all blend social media with market forces to bring customers

Is healthcare Killing Us

2010-10-07T11:53:00.001-04:00

Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor at Reuters is reporting that a recent study suggests that Americans die sooner than citizens of a dozen other developed nations and the usual suspects -- obesity, traffic accidents and a high murder rate -- are not to blame. Instead, poor healthcare may be to blame. A team of medical researchers at Columbia University in New York found that 15-year survival

Healthcare "outside the box"

2010-10-01T09:56:00.003-04:00

Advances in technology are changing almost every facet of US life including how Americans shop, bank and even elect their Presidents. This technology based transformation is now moving into the healthcare arena and has the potential to similarly transform Public Health. Recent research suggests that over 170 million people have used the internet to obtain health information, resources and

iPhone Healthcare

2010-09-21T08:56:00.000-04:00