Fight Health Worries|Healthy Living Techniques

The National Health Information Network already exists and to date has never been tested for the public to use, but the move to shift all of healthcare to its own network is a big one, so I would guess you could think of a separate entire entity here, used for healthcare information only.  The government has had several Code-A_Thons for developers to write code and create new algorithms.  I wrote about this a short while back.  Doctors from the military currently use the network as well as Social Security to exchange medical record information. 

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The sit ins this week were at Human, Blue Cross and United Healthcare and apparently with the help of cancer patient Robert Darling who was inquiring about his bone marrow transplant where hes been waiting with no communication for 5 years from anyone other than assistants who could not make or relay a decision.  They were able to get the attention of a employee of United who relayed the message that the CEO of United Healthcare would meet with the group within a week.  The peaceful sit ins this week in San Francisco put the building under lockdown.  More arrests were made this week with people refusing to leave and peacefully arrested for being on the premises. 

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Here is the latest in the parade of legal settlements of cases of alleged wrong-doing by health care organizations.  As reported by Duff Wilson in the New York Times,
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You cant bill for the immunization as the government is paying for it, but the injection process/service is billable.  Also, many insurance companies are picking up the deductible for many patients in their plans, so one of those where you might want to check and find out.  The video also discussed the ICD-9 code and a few other details.  BD

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This week I spent a day at the World Medical Tourism Conference in Los Angeles and had a few minutes for an informal quick interview with Curtis Schroeder CEO Bumrungrad International Hospital and Nate McLemore, Senior Director  Bus. Development Health Solutions at Microsoft.  In the news this week, HealthVault began its first steps in going international and Bumrungrad International Hospital is the beginning partner to bring US personal health records together to provide an exchange with patient permission between the US and the hospital in Thailand by using Microsoft HealthVault. 
One item we discussed as well is the power of the patient to make the decisions to share, with HealthVault, it is totally up to the patient to decide on what information gets shared, and we discussed the explanation to physicians who perhaps were asking for more information, the fact that it needs to be shared by the patient, as the PHR belongs to the them.  Mr. Schroeder from Bumrungrad made one very good point in how the entire Amalga HIS records system works at the hospital, its all under one roof, in other words, everything comes together well and theres no having to search different applications for the information the physicians may need, it is fast and efficient and contributes genuinely to better patient care. 
For one example, tests are not duplicated needlessly and that not only saves money, but time and inconvenience for the patients in not having to redo a diagnostic medical test that already contains the information required to review to diagnose and/or treat a condition. 
Curtis Schroeder is from here in the US, in California with roots right in the same areas of Orange County where I am presently located.  He has been in Thailand over 17 years.  Nate McLemore also brought up the use of data reporting devices and their use with HealthVault and the focus on moving heavier into this area, as again, it makes it easy and simple for data to be added without the manual typing we all thrive upon (not).  This is one further move into the area of enabling and engaging patients in their own healthcare and along with this comes knowledge at the same time.  In one example, Nate references the Walk Me program, which integrates with a pedometer and connect so HealthVault, so individuals  can track and see how much walking they are actually doing in a day, or perhaps track over a longer length of time, so we can really see how much walking we really are doing. 

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Don’t believe me….a lawyer who represents patients and their families in claims of medical negligence. I don’t blame you…but would you believe a doctor?

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Praxis is one of the more mature systems on the market, I say this because they were one of the first innovators to enter the market, and recently with so many new vendors and others I almost forgot about them. 

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We have frequently advocated the evidence-based medicine (EBM) approach to improve the care of individual patients, and to improve health care quality at a reasonable cost for populations. Evidence-based medicine is not just medicine based on some sort of evidence. As Dr David Sackett, and colleagues wrote [Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Muir Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence-based medicine; what it is and what it isn't. BMJ 1996; 312: 71-72. Link here. ]

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The robots keep getting better all the time, and this one appears to burp, pass gas, and release all kinds of other body type secretions, well kind of like we do and hes wireless too, so hey lets put him on the network.   IStan is not alone, he has some relatives over at the company website and hes not cheap either.  We are seeing more and more simulation to day in healthcare, hopefully with good results. 

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I know you have read the stories in your local newspaper. Medical malpractice lawsuits are driving doctors away as the result of outrageous jury awards in frivolous lawsuits. The doctors, and their insurance carriers, tell their state and national representatives that laws must be passed to stop this outrageous tragedy.

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