Fight Health Worries|Healthy Living Techniques

I have done my share as have most bloggers about what has happened at the FDA, but long and short of it, is we had a little bit of a lack of keeping up with technology.  Last year they were blasted by Congress for not even asking for more money over the past 2 years, so again its a bit of the old mind set here with not wanting or maybe accepting change all the way around.  In the post below, I somewhat made some observations in my travels all over healthcare. 

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Documents produced on discovery and recently unsealed during litigation suggested how AstraZeneca handled clinical research data in the marketing of its atypical anti-psychotic drug Seroquel (quetiapine). As reported by Bloomberg,

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The California HealthCare Foundation donated open source software components for master patient index and records locator applications to Open Health Tools.  This is another go at the project.  I have been posting quite a bit about hospital connectivity, and the vendors listed here are working on another end of the integration process, the records in the doctors offices having connectivity.  When you look at the listing below, you will find most of the larger EHR/EMR Vendors participating, we all want to be connected and share data, good for our health.  Once completed, other vendors can also incorporate the code into their software as well and brings us closer to more standardization.  BD 

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Let me guess… Someone just told your family that (1) nursing home is $6000 a month; (2) you have to spend your own money before you can qualify for Medicaid; (3) if you spend your Money incorerctly, you may not qualify for Medicaid.

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(Note: part 1 is here, part 2 is here and part 3 is here, and part 4 is here)

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This week, I spoke with Steve Shihadeh, vice president, Microsoft Health Solutions Group, about the software solutions offered to help hospitals view information and communicate for better patient medical care.  This is a good opportunity to take a look at what can be accomplished and what the Amalga software systems from Microsoft have to offer, particularly with the economic stimulus bill recently being signed into law by President Obama. 

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Dan wrote an article yesterday on the last minute Bush Administration change that made nursing home federal investigators “employees” such that they cannot testify in civil suits.

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(Note: part 1 is here, part 2 is here and part 3 is here.)

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No…the title of this post is not an over statement! The Bush administration shut off a source of information last fall about abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities that people suing nursing homes consider crucial to their cases. The change, which affects the $144 billion nursing-home industry, was enacted with no public notice or attention.

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My early medical mentor, cardiothoracic surgery pioneer Victor P. Satinsky, MD, believed in public embarrassment as a tool to fight bureaucracy and discrimination. I quote him on that. He wanted his NSF summer science training progam (SSTP) 10th grade students at Hahnemann Hospital to actually picket a clothing distributor, for example, when that distributor did not deliver our white coats nor a refund in a timely manner. He also was highly politically incorrect, for example having gay activists speak to our group of 200 high school students about bias and discrimination, at a time in the early 1970’s when such talks were frowned upon. He took grief for that. Yet fairness and “critical thinking always, or your patient’s dead” were his mantras.

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