A Possible Turning Point In The Power Of The Patient Voice In Policy

This began to feel like a turning point in the power of the patient voice in federal health policy related to patient safety, medical AI and patient empowerment.

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Convention Invisibility Teaches A Crucial Health Policy Lesson

The health policy issues that were largely invisible at the Republican and Democratic conventions taught a crucial lesson about politics.

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ChatGPT Vs. Magic 8 Ball: Who Can Solve “The HealthCare Crisis”?

ChatGPT’s question-answering choices remain somewhat of a black box. Magic 8 Ball is a black ball.. I asked both how to solve the healthcare crisis.

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Everyday Use Of AI-Aided Diagnosis Shows Promise And Perils

Artificial intelligence-aided diagnosis may seem futuristic, but a recent National Academy of Medicine workshop heard compelling examples of promise and perils right now.

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Can The Research That Drives Health Reform Be Reformed?

Health services research, the basis of health reform, needs to focus on real-world impact and communicate its benefits says Aaron Carroll, the new president of AcademyHealth.

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Cincinnati Children’s Is A Unicorn, But It Should Be A Role Model

Cincinnati Children’s is a patient safety unicorn, a place where achieving zero patient harm is a genuine cornerstone of the corporate culture.

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Artificial Intelligence Plus Data Democratization Requires New Health Care Framework

The latest draft government strategic plan for health information technology pledges to support health information sharing among individuals, health care providers and others “so that they can make informed decisions and create better health outcomes.”

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Hospitals Merge For Power, While ‘Price Transparency’ Fantasy Persists

A new study highlights a pervasive government failure to prevent hospital mergers that give providers excess pricing power. Price transparency is unlikely to compensate.

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Shared Decision Surprises: Ineffectual AI And A ‘Flea Market’ Ending

Researchers examining how patients make medical decisions are turning up some unexpected results.

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The Coalition For Health AI Is A ‘Goo-Goo,’ Not Yet A Revolutionary

The Coalition for Health AI wants to be the “curator of best practices of AI in health,” but it’s unclear if that will involve enabling true patient empowerment.

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AI Chatbots Speak No Evil About Questionable Doctors, Hospitals

When it comes to warning the public about potentially harmful health care, ChatGPT and Gemini clam up, even if the misdeeds were widely publicized..

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Will Wearable Health Device Data Bring Woe Or Wealth To Providers?

Researchers applied game theory to find out whether incorporating patient-generated health data into the clinical work flow will boost or bring down providers’ profits.

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Overuse Of Health Care ‘Crisis’ Label Blocks Facing Policy Reality

The phrase “health care crisis” long ago evolved into an incantation, but even well-intentioned crisis-mongering can hurt the crucial task of facing political reality.

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Austin’s Post-Op Infection Highlights Lag In CDC’s Overall Prevention Effort

The effectiveness of the effort to reduce healthcare-associated infections is obscured as much as revealed in the latest data from the CDC.

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Sorry, Santa: AbbVie Shows ‘Naughty’ Can Be Profitably Nice (For Some)

AbbVie’s “patent thicket” strategy and aggressive drug pricing tactics have made it a prominent example of pharma finagling. But the company isn’t the only beneficiary.

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Israeli Health Tech In Wartime: Resilience And “Biblical Quality Hackathon”

It was an unexpected message: invest in Israeli health technology today in order to reap the benefits tomorrow of innovations spurred by the Israel-Gaza conflict.

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AI Algorithm Exposé Shows Journalists Retain Health Care Change Clout

A lawsuit spurred by a series of STAT stories accuses UnitedHealth of deploying an algorithm with a known high error rate, as investigative journalism flourishes.

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How Health Plan Star Ratings May Mislead – And How To Fix The Problem

It’s open enrollment season for Medicare, but star ratings for Medicare Advantage plans, meant to promote consumerism and value, can contain misleading information.

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“Excited” And “Scared” As Experts Seek To Tame ChatGPT And Medical AI

Grappling with what ChatGPT and generative AI will mean for health and medicine? The president of the National Academy of Medicine is both “excited” and “scared.”

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Patient Safety Proposals Reach President, But Action Still A Question

The patient safety movement has succeeded in getting the president to consider their policy proposals, but if hospitals are hesitant, implementation will be difficulty

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ACOs Vs. MA Shows ‘Grab Them By The Wallet’ Central To Health Reform

It’s hard to read the latest report on Medicare ACOs without feeling a tinge of sadness about what could ave been.

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Not Just A Penn Problem: If Hospitals Really Want To Disclose Care Quality, Here’s A Roadmap

Hospital performance measures need to get beyond the failed report card format and present information in a way that resonates with the public.

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Amputated Feet, Mangled ‘Manhood’ And Which Body Part Will Be Next

Lives ruined by questionable artery clearing surgery and penis enlargement surgery both are connected to one controversial FDA rule.

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Data Democracy! ‘Dr. Google’ (2023) Vs. ‘Every Man His Own Physician’ (1767)

“Every Man His Own Physician,” by Dr. John Theobald, bore an impressive subtitle: ” Being a complete collection of efficacious and approved remedies for every disease”

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Medicare’s “Value” Pay Doesn’t Sync With What Patients Value: Study

Medicare’s value-based payments to hospitals don’t reflect what its beneficiaries value most, which is clinical outcomes.

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New Study On Preemie Care Shows Why I’m Lucky To Be Alive – And The Importance Of Evidence

This study of the impact of “kangaroo mother care” on premature babies could save countless children’s lives.

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Eschewing Ideology, A Health Policy Group Celebrates Storytelling That Sparks Change

The National Institute for Health Care Management annual awards aim to spotlight important research combined with great storytelling.

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Asking Bard And ChatGPT To Find The Best Medical Care, I Got Truth And Truthiness

Ask ChatGPT about a surgeon or hospital’s care and it declines to give details. But Google’s Bard will even recommend a “consultation” with particular clinicians.

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ChatGPT Is Michael Jordan, But In Medicine The “Supporting Cast” Will Be Key

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the chatbot’s solo brilliance will need the right “supporting cast” – as Jordan famously referred to teammates – to achieve its transformational potential in medicine.

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Your Doctor Consulting ChatGPT Isn’t An Intelligent Choice (Yet): Study

Stanford researchers bombarded the bot with 64 clinical scenarios meant to assess its safety and usefulness after first instructing GPT-4, “You are assisting doctors with their questions.”

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Good News For Guys: ‘The Finger,’ Your Sex Life And Prostate Cancer

It may be time for some men to wave farewell to “the finger.” And in other good news, new evidence supports therapy for localized prostate cancer that avoids the risks of incontinence and impotence that have long haunted more aggressive treatments.

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In Cancer, Patient-Empowering AI Begins To Change Care, Relationships

Artificial intelligence is quietly giving patients the ability to find, create and act upon an unprecedented breadth and depth of authoritative information.

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AI-Driven Medical Care? A Health Data Reality Check

“The reality is that we have a disaggregated, fragmented system with a lack of organization around common, transparent, high-quality information.”

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Despite Retro Name, Health Datapalooza Looks Ahead To Patient-Centered Digital Future

“The purpose of Datapalooza is getting beyond the hype to show what’s going to work in the real world, what’s the value to patient care.”

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Would A “patient-Centered” Sepsis Measure Have Saved This Man’s Arms And Legs?

A recent JAMA article proposing a different way of measuring hospitals’ sepsis care contained for me a powerful “between the lines” message. “Could this have saved Brad from having parts of both arms and legs amputated?”

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At CES, A Tractor And A Patient Stethoscope Point To Digital Health Future

Deere’s “smart machines” incorporate computer vision, soil moisture sensing, GPS with precise signal correction, machine learning and cloud computing…In health care terms, that adds up to personalized, evidence-based farming.

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Address ‘Plane-Crash Level’ Patient Harm, HHS Tells Hospitals, As Political Currents Swirl

The Department of Health and Human Services is launching an Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety that aims to recruit the nation’s largest health systems as participants.

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When Medical Error Becomes Personal, Activism Becomes Painful

Though I’d never myself experienced a medical error, I became an activist. Recently, however, a relative was a victim, and the frustrating persistence of error became personally painful. [So I examined] more closely what the profession euphemistically …

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Digital Health Firms Reverse Dollar-Bill Motto In Bid To Make Big Bucks

Digital health firms are increasingly betting that the key to success is offering “one to many” technologies that addresses workforce shortages by expanding the reach of clinicians.

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‘No Weekend Surgery’ Dooming Many Awaiting Life-Saving Transplants, Says A New Report

Large numbers of Americans awaiting life-saving organ transplants are dying because many transplant centers don’t do surgery on the weekend. The overall rejection rate for available kidneys could be slashed…by measures such as ensuring centers perfor…

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Leana Wen’s “Lifelines” Combines “ER,” PBS and “Oprah” In a Compelling Read

Wen is a public health expert and emergency room (ER) physician who’s become widely known during the Covid pandemic for her regular appearances on CNN, in major newspapers and testifying before Congress.

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Will Trump, Congressional Infections Boost Innovations For Covid-19 Survivors?

The recent burst of coronavirus infections could accelerate three significant innovations affecting every Covid-19 survivor.

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Why Covid May Not Be Causing Your Doctor To Wash His Hands

Surprisingly, the Covid crisis may not be enough to boost hand hygiene compliance at hospitals. What’s urgently needed is leadership that embraces effective tactics and technology.

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Bipartisan Bliss? DC Health Confab Shows Three Slightly Cynical Secrets Are Key

While political conflict grabs headlines, bipartisan harmony reigned at a recent D.C. health policy. Three slightly cynical secrets plus a carefully crafted agenda, explain why.

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Bipartisan Bliss? DC Health Confab Shows Three Slightly Cynical Secrets Are Key

While political conflict grabs headlines, bipartisan harmony reigned at a recent D.C. health policy. Three slightly cynical secrets plus a carefully crafted agenda, explain why.

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Will Your Health Plan Tell You That It Can Save Your Life?

When it comes to choosing a health insurance plan, critical information that could literally spell the difference between life and death is conspicuously absent. Powerful national employer groups demanding transparency could change that.

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Concrete Problems: Experts Caution on Construction of Digital Health Superhighway

Speakers repeatedly pointed to portions of the digital health superhighway that sorely need more concrete – in this case, concrete knowledge.

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A Sweet Life Insurance Deal: “Buy, Don’t Die”

Call it the “delay death discount.” Engage with the Hancock’s diabetes wellness program on a continuing basis, and the insurer will cut your life insurance premium by up to 25 percent.

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Can Rah-Rah, Blah-Blah and Meh Accelerate Digital Health Innovation?

Can combining tech start-up “rah-rah,” health policy “blah-blah” and the “meh” of academic research accelerate the uptake of digital health innovation? To get better digital health interventions to market faster, we need a Partnership for Innovators, Policymakers and Evidence-generators (PIPE).

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Off the Couch, Onto the Stage: My First, Only and Not-So-Great Presidential Debate

In September, 2008, the campaign asked me to serve as a surrogate in a debate with John McCain’s health care adviser when one of Obama’s close advisers – as opposed to me, who’d met the candidate once at a campaign event – couldn’t make it.

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The Secret to Health Tech Startups Reaping Riches? Realism

Though a record $8.1 billion poured into digital health firms in 2018, the marketplace is far from welcoming to every new entrant. A parade of entrepreneurs, investors and health tech purchasers at a recent MedCity INVEST conference described the reali…

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Big Data Big News: Largest Health Data Org on Planet Promises “Actionable” Info Release

The largest health data steward “on the planet,” the Department of Health and Human Services, plans to make its data releases actionable for entrepreneurs and patients. The clinical and economic impact of this connected health information could be enor…

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Not Fake News! A Trump Administration Rule Models Government Civility

A little-unnoticed Trump administration regulation offers quiet evidence that bipartisan civility in government is possible. Despite involving Obamacare, millions of Medicare beneficiaries and $100 billion in federal spending, ideological fireworks wer…

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The Internet of Medical Things Gold Rush (And My Grandfather’s Wooden Leg)

The recent Connected Health Conference featured an eclectic mix of corporations claiming cutting-edge expertise in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). But to me personally, the most intriguing pivot towards the IoMT future was AT&T’s prominent positioning of a prosthetic foot.

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Will Apple Track Your Mind, Not Just Your Heart?

Apple watching over your health could involve more than its new Series 4 watch. The latest iPhone can be used to analyze facial expressions, voice and other information for signs of depression or other mental health issues. Winning hearts and minds isn…

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Despite Youth On Farm, Abbott Ventures Chief Avoids Spreading Manure

Abbott Ventures chief Evan Norton may have spent part of his youth on a farm, but there’s no manure in his manner when speaking of the medical device and diagnostics market landscape. The key, he says, is to avoid being blindsided by the transformational power of digital data. Others agree.

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Not Fake News! Trumpians, Dems, Health Data Nerds Harmonize In DC

Trump appointees cheered by both GOPers and Dems. VCs warning about too much VC cash. Tech nerds modest about AI. At Health Datapalooza, the goals of better health care, better health and making lots of money led to surprising harmony

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Will Azar Practice ‘Art Of The Deal’ Capitalism At Trump’s HHS?

The Gospel of the Great Dealmaker created expectations that Donald Trump’s HHS would strongly support paying providers based on “value.” It didn’t. Now it’s up to Alex Azar to bring capitalism, where deal making demands performance, back to health care policy.

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Ben Franklin Blitz: To Keep Profits Healthy, Insurers Want You Wealthy And Wise

Your health plan is on a Ben Franklin blitz. They want to make you healthy and wise — and, as payment incentives change, themselves wealthy. So get ready for help in living a purpose-driven life…and getting enough sleep.

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When The American Medical Association Cheered Hillary

What I remember most was how quickly she won over a crowd that had good reason to be suspicious; how fluently she spoke…and, most of all, the standing ovation some 2,000 doctors and their spouses gave her….Let’s hope the hard lessons Hillary Clinton learned in the 1990s-era health reform debacle imprint themselves in her actions as well as in her words.

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Echoes Of Trump, Sanders At ‘Right Care’ Meeting

If Lown wants to change the “culture” that prompts those [unnecessary CT] scan orders….I suggest finding some moms willing to publicly agree that not treating their child’s “intracranial bleeds and skull fractures” (as the research phrased it) was perfectly fine.

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The Profitability (Or Not) Of Harming Patients

A quiet effort has been going on for years to persuade hospitals they can make more money preventing patient harm than by allowing it to occur. When the government announced last week that a patient safety partnership with hospitals had saved 87,000 li…

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Key for Health IT Entrepreneurs: Don’t Disrupt the Wrong Thing

The crucial advice from two of the savviest digerati doctors in Silicon Valley can be summed up this way: disrupt medicine without disrupting the lives of those who practice it.

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Health Datapalooza: A Shot of Whiskey, a “Data Hippie” and Capitalism

Health Datapalooza is dedicated to transforming American medicine. But despite talk of “data liberation” and “health data hippies,” the success of the open data movement is a direct result of a synergistic relationship between government and capitalism…

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Health Datapalooza: A Shot of Whiskey, A “Data Hippie” And Capitalism

Health Datapalooza is dedicated to transforming American medicine. But despite talk of “data liberation” and “health data hippies,” the success of the open data movement is a direct result of a synergistic relationship between government and capitalism…

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Parsing Patient Engagement: Better Compliance or Better Decisions?

“Better compliance” and “better patient decisions” can certainly co-exist in health IT, but there’s also an implicit tension: What happens if the shared decision making bucks what the doctor thinks best?

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Parsing Patient Engagement: Better Compliance Or Better Decisions?

“Better compliance” and “better patient decisions” can certainly co-exist in health IT, but there’s also an implicit tension: What happens if the shared decision making bucks what the doctor thinks best?

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Profits, a Prophet and World Peace through Health IT (Maybe)

The makers of missiles and of farm products, of attack planes and baby strollers all want a part of the health IT action. Profits, not a prophet, as motivation — but maybe “world peace,” anyway.

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Profits, A Prophet And World Peace Through Health IT (Maybe)

The makers of missiles and of farm products, of attack planes and baby strollers all want a part of the health IT action. Profits, not a prophet, as motivation — but maybe “world peace,” anyway.

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The Fate Of The MD In The $12 Million Patient Safety Scandal

Dr. Charles Denham, a physician-turned-entrepreneur-and-activist, has agreed to pay $1 million to settle government charges of taking a $12 million kickback to influence a national patient safety standard in favor of one company’s product. Though the l…

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The Fate Of The MD In The $12 Million Patient Safety Scandal

Dr. Charles Denham, a physician-turned-entrepreneur-and-activist, has agreed to pay $1 million to settle government charges of taking a $12 million kickback to influence a national patient safety standard in favor of one company’s product. Though the l…

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How Mayo’s “Dr. Google” Deal Disrupts Medicine

The deal to produce clinical summaries under the Mayo Clinic name for Google searches symbolizes the medical priesthood’s acceptance that information technology has reshaped the doctor-patient relationship. More disruptions are already on the way.

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How Mayo’s “Dr. Google” Deal Disrupts Medicine

The deal to produce clinical summaries under the Mayo Clinic name for Google searches symbolizes the medical priesthood’s acceptance that information technology has reshaped the doctor-patient relationship. More disruptions are already on the way.

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A PR Pro’s “How To” on Earning Trust, Helping Earnings

After 15 years of asking consumers around the world about who they trust and why, Edelman CEO Richard Edelman offers advice on boosting trust and why it helps earnings and innovation.

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A PR Pro’s “How To” on Earning Trust, Helping Earnings

After 15 years of asking consumers around the world about who they trust and why, Edelman CEO Richard Edelman offers advice on boosting trust and why it helps earnings and innovation.

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Breast Cancer Tests Betray ‘Precision Medicine’ Branding

The biotech industry cheered President Obama’s proposed $215 million Precision Medicine Initiative, but the varying results and genetic basis of three DNA-based tests to predict breast cancer recurrence show the gap remaining between branding and real …

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Breast Cancer Tests Betray ‘Precision Medicine’ Branding

The biotech industry cheered President Obama’s proposed $215 million Precision Medicine Initiative, but the varying results and genetic basis of three DNA-based tests to predict breast cancer recurrence show the gap remaining between branding and real …

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Can Business Savvy, Clout & Charisma Supercharge Patient Safety?

Joe Kiani, the Iranian-born entrepreneur who built Masimo Corp., is behind a Patient Safety Movement that hopes to use the clout and charisma model of the Clinton Foundation to eliminate preventable medical errors by the year 2020.

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Can Business Savvy, Clout And Charisma Supercharge Patient Safety?

Joe Kiani, the Iranian-born entrepreneur who built Masimo Corp., is behind a Patient Safety Movement that hopes to use the clout and charisma model of the Clinton Foundation to eliminate preventable medical errors by the year 2020.

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Safe Doctors, Unsafe Patients: A Tale of Two Infections

Hospitals have zealously followed the rules that protect doctors and others from being infected by patients with the HIV virus. But many are much more lax about protecting patients from a hospital-caused infection called CLABSI that is deadlier than ma…

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Safe Doctors, Unsafe Patients: A Tale of Two Infections

Hospitals have zealously followed the rules that protect doctors and others from being infected by patients with the HIV virus. But many are much more lax about protecting patients from a hospital-caused infection called CLABSI that is deadlier than ma…

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The Supremes Rule: Why You Have to Love Lawyers and Politicians

What this ruling really gives Obama the opportunity to do is rediscover the benefits of politics, democracy and leading the American people.

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In a Footnote, GOP Gives Up Total Obamacare Repeal

Buried in a footnote to the recently unveiled GOP alternative to Obamacare is the admission that Republicans are not going to try to repeal the parts of the law related to Medicare reform. Oddly, neither press nor pundits seem to have bothered to ask w…

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Did CDC Laxity on One Infection Help Spread Another?

Did laxity by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in eliminating an often deadly infection caused by hospitals leave the way open for infection control lapses that hinder the Ebola fight?

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Did CDC Laxity on One Infection Help Spread Another?

Did laxity by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in eliminating an often deadly infection caused by hospitals leave the way open for infection control lapses that hinder the Ebola fight?

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“Rudolph” Sings of Santa as Savvy Manager, Marketer

Like everyone else, I’ve cheerfully hummed, whistled and sung along to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for as long as I can remember. But when I listened carefully to the lyrics this holiday season, I realized I’d missed the underlying message of a song that teaches invaluable lessons about the challenge […]

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GOP’s Oddest Obamacare Objection

Hard-right Republicans said they shut down the government to stop Obamacare and “restore patient-centered healthcare in America.” Huh? “Patient-centered healthcare.” Really? The ACA can be accused of many failures, but it’s the most patient-centered law ever.

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Big Government Brings Big Profits To Texas Health Plans

Image via Wikipedia While Texas Governor Rick Perry rails against the evils of  federal involvement in health care on the GOP presidential campaign trail, businesses back home are busy raking in record profits from government dollars. “By largely exiting the employer market and focusing on Medicare and Medicaid, Texas HMOs have enjoyed […]

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If You Want to Stop Hospital Harm, Don’t Call a Capitalist

A patient in an intensive care unit (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Leapfrog Group has just released its latest report grading the safety of hundreds of individual hospitals, but the real news isn’t the “incremental progress.” It’s how a group started by some of the most powerful corporations in America has quietly […]

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Can Downton Abbey “Health Plan” Replace Obamacare?

In modern terms, Downton Abbey seems to offer long-time employees comprehensive and generous health and disability coverage. But how does it compare to Obamacare?

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Medical Mistakes…and My Minute With Andy Rooney

Andy Rooney died of complications from “minor surgery.” What do you think he’d have to say about that?

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Obamacare Hater, Lover Harmonize on “Clinical Nuance”

The phrase “clinical nuance” conjures images of a surgeon who spends his spare time restoring antique Swiss watches, but it’s a term some Obamacare haters and lovers alike are uniting around as a desired change to the traditional Medicare benefit. The less-sexy description is “value-based insurance design.”

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Obamacare Hater, Lover Harmonize on “Clinical Nuance”

The phrase “clinical nuance” conjures images of a surgeon who spends his spare time restoring antique Swiss watches, but it’s a term some Obamacare haters and lovers alike are uniting around as a desired change to the traditional Medicare benefit. The less-sexy description is “value-based insurance design.”

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The Money, the MD and a $12 Million Patient Safety Scandal

Dr. Charles Denham rattles off names like the Clinton Global Health Initiative, the Discovery Channel, the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School when discussing those he’s worked with. Now, the Justice Department has named him as taking a nearly $12 m…

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It’s Paternity Test Time for Newt, Mitt & Obamacare

It’s paternity test time for Obamacare. Beneath the bogeyman label that the GOP leadership has attached to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the truth is that health reform has almost as many Republican as Democratic fathers. If you care about the country as much as political hand-to-hand combat, that […]

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The Man Who Brought Computers Into Medicine

When Homer Warner first started using computers in a hospital, the computers were analog and the house call was state-of-the-art. Warner, who died recently at age 90, did more than anyone else to translate research into innovations that continue to hav…

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Medicare’s ACO Regs Recall MAD’s Squamish Rulebook

After sitting through a 90-minute webinar by a Washington law firm on Medicare’s new draft regulations for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), I realized why they sounded familiar. In their complexity and utter failure to accomplish their purpose – give doctors and hospitals a clear financial incentive to reorganize care delivery […]

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Burying a Life in My Mother’s Obit

When my mother died back in 1993, the best way to alert the community was to get the local newspaper to run a news item people would see when they scanned the morning headlines. Unfortunately, our hometown paper was The Washington Post. The Post obitua…

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The Money, the MD and a $12 Million Patient Safety Scandal

Dr. Charles Denham rattles off names like the Clinton Global Health Initiative, the Discovery Channel, the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School when discussing those he’s worked with. Now, the Justice Department has named him as taking a nearly $12 m…

Read more

In a Footnote, GOP Gives Up Total Obamacare Repeal

Buried in a footnote to the recently unveiled GOP alternative to Obamacare is the admission that Republicans are not going to try to repeal the parts of the law related to Medicare reform. Oddly, neither press nor pundits seem to have bothered to ask w…

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10 Sex Tips for Better Looking Health Insurance

OK, maybe I misread the cover of the dog-eared copy of Glamour perched in a magazine rack at the gym. Perhaps I was confused by the multi-colored headlines promising an improved physical appearance (“101 One Minute Makeover Tricks”), a more organized daily routine (“12 Ways to Get Your Sh*T Together”) […]

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WTF? Israeli General Warns of Officers Texting Orders, Being Ignored

Ceremony of receiving berets. IDF Nahal brigad…
Image via Wikipedia

When an Israeli Army officer says, “Follow me!”, the soldiers under his command may be confused whether he means Facebook or a firefight.

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Bin Laden, Patriotism And Our Health Care Crisis

In the near-decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the “War on Terror” has cost the United States about $1.3 trillion, according to the National Center on Defense Information. By comparison, it took just six months for the U.S. to spend that…

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GOP’s Oddest Obamacare Objection

Hard-right Republicans said they shut down the government to stop Obamacare and “restore patient-centered healthcare in America.” Huh? “Patient-centered healthcare.” Really? The ACA can be accused of many failures, but it’s the most patient-centered law ever.

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Health IT: A Tale of Three Watsons

If you want to see the future of health information technology, take a look at the dueling visions of two Thomas Watsons that are on display this month in a game show and a trade show. The  juxtaposition unintentionally demonstrates what doctors and patients will be doing together and also separately .

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Doctors, Plumber Envy and a 1969 Ode to Obamacare

If you wanted to know what doctors thought about money and medical practice you’d read American Medical News. That’s the American Medical Association newspaper where you could read about plumber envy, protesters burning their AMA membership card and, today, what sounds suspiciously like an ode to Obamacare.

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Doctors, Plumber Envy and a 1969 Ode to Obamacare

If you wanted to know what doctors thought about money and medical practice you’d read American Medical News. That’s the American Medical Association newspaper where you could read about plumber envy, protesters burning their AMA membership card and, today, what sounds suspiciously like an ode to Obamacare.

Read more

If You Want to Stop Hospital Harm, Don’t Call a Capitalist

A patient in an intensive care unit (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Leapfrog Group has just released its latest report grading the safety of hundreds of individual hospitals, but the real news isn’t the “incremental progress.” It’s how a group started by some of the most powerful corporations in America has quietly […]

Read more

Money and Power Embrace Patient Engagement

Money and power are embracing the patient engagement movement because of the bottom-line connection to better outcomes in chronic disease and higher payments to providers meeting new government benchmarks.

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Money and Power Embrace Patient Engagement

Money and power are embracing the patient engagement movement because of the bottom-line connection to better outcomes in chronic disease and higher payments to providers meeting new government benchmarks.

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Can Downton Abbey “Health Plan” Replace Obamacare?

In modern terms, Downton Abbey seems to offer long-time employees comprehensive and generous health and disability coverage. But how does it compare to Obamacare?

Read more

The Man Who Brought Computers Into Medicine

When Homer Warner first started using computers in a hospital, the computers were analog and the house call was state-of-the-art. Warner, who died recently at age 90, did more than anyone else to translate research into innovations that continue to hav…

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Left Behind: Will Cutting Medicare Hurt Seniors?

Forget finances and the fiscal cliff: raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 is likely to kill some of those left behind ­– even if they already have private insurance. And cutting provider reimbursement too deeply? Ditto. Most of the criticism of a proposed two-year age hike has focused […]

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Left Behind: Will Cutting Medicare Hurt Seniors?

Forget finances and the fiscal cliff: raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 is likely to kill some of those left behind – even if they already have private insurance. And cutting provider reimbursement too deeply? Ditto. Most of the criticism of a proposed two-year age hike has focused […]

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Can Big Bird Save Patient Safety Agency?

The flap greeting Mitt Romney’s cheerful admission that as president he’d defund Big Bird’s nesting place on public television could turn out to be good news for a federal agency promoting safe medical care that faces a similar extinction threat. But we won’t know till after the election whether the […]

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Can Big Bird Save Patient Safety Agency?

The flap greeting Mitt Romney’s cheerful admission that as president he’d defund Big Bird’s nesting place on public television could turn out to be good news for a federal agency promoting safe medical care that faces a similar extinction threat. But we won’t know till after the election whether the […]

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The Supremes Rule: Why You Have to Love Lawyers and Politicians

What this ruling really gives Obama the opportunity to do is rediscover the benefits of politics, democracy and leading the American people.

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Supremes Can Overturn Obamacare with “All Deliberate Speed”

If conservatives on the Supreme Court overturn the ACA, they should do it with the “all deliberate speed” they applied to segregation (another federal vs. states rights conflict). That should let health reform continue until at least the mid-century

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Supremes Can Overturn Obamacare with “All Deliberate Speed”

If conservatives on the Supreme Court overturn the ACA, they should do it with the “all deliberate speed” they applied to segregation (another federal vs. states rights conflict). That should let health reform continue until at least the mid-century

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Can hospital execs walk the tightrope over the cost-quality chasm?

Hospital execs are walking a tightrope over a cost-quality chasm to bring their organizations safely from a world of pay-for-volume to pay-for-value health care.

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Can hospital execs walk the tightrope over the cost-quality chasm?

Hospital execs are walking a tightrope over a cost-quality chasm to bring their organizations safely from a world of pay-for-volume to pay-for-value health care.

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Burying a Life in My Mother’s Obit

When my mother died back in 1993, the best way to alert the community was to get the local newspaper to run a news item people would see when they scanned the morning headlines. Unfortunately, our hometown paper was The Washington Post. The Post obitua…

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Will Regina Holliday Become Health Care’s Rosa Parks?

The protest organized by Regina Holliday over a patient’s right to access their medical information has intriguing similarities to the crusade Rosa Parks launched against segregated buses back in the 1950s. Both involve a refusal to accept second-class status and a resolve to push back against entrenched institutions.

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Will Regina Holliday Become Health Care’s Rosa Parks?

The protest organized by Regina Holliday over a patient’s right to access their medical information has intriguing similarities to the crusade Rosa Parks launched against segregated buses back in the 1950s. Both involve a refusal to accept second-class status and a resolve to push back against entrenched institutions.

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What the Supreme Court (and You) Won’t Hear About Health Reform

What the partisan obloquy about “Obamacare” too often obscures is that the ACA transforms utterly non-political and critical aspects of care, like patient-centeredness.

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What the Supreme Court (and You) Won’t Hear About Health Reform

What the partisan obloquy about “Obamacare” too often obscures is that the ACA transforms utterly non-political and critical aspects of care, like patient-centeredness.

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Can Strong Prayer Bend the Medical Cost Curve?

Putting aside the spiritual benefits of supplication, can strong prayer bend the medical cost curve? Here’s how you would try to find out.

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Can Strong Prayer Bend the Medical Cost Curve?

Putting aside the spiritual benefits of supplication, can strong prayer bend the medical cost curve? Here’s how you would try to find out.

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HealthTap: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” of Social Sites

You can’t get much cooler than HealthTap: slick Silicon Valley start-up, social media darling, savvy and successful backers. But when you closely examine the service HealthTap actually provides, the money and good looks fall away. Like in the fable about “the emperor’s new clothes,” behind the buzz, there’s nothing there. OK, […]

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HealthTap: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” of Social Sites

You can’t get much cooler than HealthTap: slick Silicon Valley start-up, social media darling, savvy and successful backers. But when you closely examine the service HealthTap actually provides, the money and good looks fall away. Like in the fable about “the emperor’s new clothes,” behind the buzz, there’s nothing there. OK, […]

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Super Bowl Sanitation: “Washed Up” Giants Outpoint Docs

Is the New York Giants bathroom more sanitary than your hospital room? Could be. And that player cleanliness may even have helped send the team to the Super Bowl. Freakonomics co-author and self-confessed germophobe Stephen Dubner, working on a Footbal…

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Super Bowl Sanitation: “Washed Up” Giants Outpoint Docs

Is the New York Giants bathroom more sanitary than your hospital room? Could be. And that player cleanliness may even have helped send the team to the Super Bowl. Freakonomics co-author and self-confessed germophobe Stephen Dubner, working on a Footbal…

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10 Sex Tips for Better Looking Health Insurance

OK, maybe I misread the cover of the dog-eared copy of Glamour perched in a magazine rack at the gym. Perhaps I was confused by the multi-colored headlines promising an improved physical appearance (“101 One Minute Makeover Tricks”), a more organized daily routine (“12 Ways to Get Your Sh*T Together”) […]

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“Rudolph” Sings of Santa as Savvy Manager, Marketer

Like everyone else, I’ve cheerfully hummed, whistled and sung along to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for as long as I can remember. But when I listened carefully to the lyrics this holiday season, I realized I’d missed the underlying message of a song that teaches invaluable lessons about the challenge […]

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Big Government Brings Big Profits To Texas Health Plans

Image via Wikipedia While Texas Governor Rick Perry rails against the evils of federal involvement in health care on the GOP presidential campaign trail, businesses back home are busy raking in record profits from government dollars. “By largely exiti…

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Why 3 Hospitals Didn’t Hurt My Wife (And What That Means)

My wife was lying in the back of an ambulance, dazed and bloody, while I sat in the front, distraught and distracted. We had been bicycling in a quiet neighborhood in southern Maine when she hit the handbrakes too hard and catapulted over the handlebar…

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Why 3 Hospitals Didn’t Hurt My Wife (And What That Means)

My wife was lying in the back of an ambulance, dazed and bloody, while I sat in the front, distraught and distracted. We had been bicycling in a quiet neighborhood in southern Maine when she hit the handbrakes too hard and catapulted over the handlebar…

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Medical Mistakes…and My Minute With Andy Rooney

Andy Rooney died of complications from “minor surgery.” What do you think he’d have to say about that?

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The Fine Line Between Shared and Manipulated Medical Decisions

Spend some time with the Society for Medical Decision Making, and “shared decisions” starts to seem less a clinical ideal and more an offshoot of picking a monthly cell phone plan. The fine line between “motivating” and “manipulating” behavior (albeit sometimes unintentionally) starts to blur. At the group’s recent annual meeting […]

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The Fine Line Between Shared and Manipulated Medical Decisions

Spend some time with the Society for Medical Decision Making, and “shared decisions” starts to seem less a clinical ideal and more an offshoot of picking a monthly cell phone plan. The fine line between “motivating” and “manipulating” behavior (albeit sometimes unintentionally) starts to blur. At the group’s recent annual meeting […]

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CMS Wants Docs to Ante Up to ACO Poker Game

To get doctors and hospitals to participate in the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) experiment, the government has simplified the rules, sweetened the pot and pulled up a few more chairs

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CMS Wants Docs to Ante Up to ACO Poker Game

To get doctors and hospitals to participate in the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) experiment, the government has simplified the rules, sweetened the pot and pulled up a few more chairs

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WTF? Israeli General Warns of Officers Texting Orders, Being Ignored

Ceremony of receiving berets. IDF Nahal brigad…
Image via Wikipedia

When an Israeli Army officer says, “Follow me!”, the soldiers under his command may be confused whether he means Facebook or a firefight.

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It’s Paternity Test Time for Newt, Mitt & Obamacare

It’s paternity test time for Obamacare. Beneath the bogeyman label that the GOP leadership has attached to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the truth is that health reform has almost as many Republican as Democratic fathers. If you care about the country as much as political hand-to-hand combat, that […]

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Bin Laden, Patriotism And Our Health Care Crisis

In the near-decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the “War on Terror” has cost the United States about $1.3 trillion, according to the National Center on Defense Information. By comparison, it took just six months for the U.S. to spend that…

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Medicare’s ACO Regs Recall MAD’s Squamish Rulebook

After sitting through a 90-minute webinar by a Washington law firm on Medicare’s new draft regulations for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), I realized why they sounded familiar. In their complexity and utter failure to accomplish their purpose – give doctors and hospitals a clear financial incentive to reorganize care delivery […]

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Watson: A Computer So Smart It Can Say, “Yes, Doctor”

Game Show Watson wants to be a doctor. Well, almost.

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Watson: A Computer So Smart It Can Say, “Yes, Doctor”

Physician Assistant Watson? Forget the sound of of a world champion Jeopardy star. Watson, can you say, “Yes, Doctor”?

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Health IT: A Tale of Three Watsons

The future of medicine lies somewhere between the mainframe and the telephone.

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Why Aren’t The Uninsured Protesting In The Streets Like The Egyptians?

Maybe the uninsured could learn something from Egyptians and the Arab street. At a time when landmark health reform granting most of the uninsured access to medical care for the first time in their lives is being seriously threatened, protests by the u…

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Why Aren’t The Uninsured Protesting In The Streets Like The Egyptians?

Maybe the uninsured could learn something from Egyptians and the Arab street. At a time when landmark health reform granting most of the uninsured access to medical care for the first time in their lives is being seriously threatened, protests by the u…

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Fixing Medicare’s Failed “Physician Compare” Website

The launch of Medicare’s Physician Compare website at year-end should have been a watershed event in the long campaign for health care transparency and patient empowerment. Instead – and it pains me to write this – Physician Compare is a case study in how the interests of the average citizen can be shunted by indifferent government, lazy journalists and solipsistic special interests. That remains true despite all of those involved being Good People Trying To Do The Right Thing.

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Fixing Medicare’s Failed “Physician Compare” Website

The launch of Medicare’s Physician Compare website at year-end should have been a watershed event in the long campaign for health care transparency and patient empowerment. Instead – and it pains me to write this – Physician Compare is a case study in how the interests of the average citizen […]

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