Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
GigaOM reports on some new Health 2.0 developments in Germany in its article “Health 2.0 Gaining Traction in Germany.” Websites such as Helpster and Imedo are among a number of website which are now rating German physicians. In order to take into account established medical institutions, Imedo is including the physician certification status as part…
Many people believe that better information technology (IT) can help improve the quality of medical care in the U.S. and around the world. For instance, if a doctor prescribes a drug which interacts harmfully with a drug the patient is already taking, a computer program could notify the doctor of this problem. If a patient…
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the introduction of the online medical records system titled Health Vault. Online medical records would greatly increase productivity in the health care industry since: Patients would be able to have all their health care information in one spot. Moving from one state or country to another would not entail losing your medical…
TechDirt has an interesting article (“The Doctr Is In“) about Dr. Jay Parkinson. Dr. Parkinson started a boutique clinic in which patients pay for services out of pocket. Unlike most boutique practices, patients can email or instant message the doctor about any medical questions from 8am to 5pm, or in the case of medical emergencies…
A new website is available to help patients and physicians find information regarding various diseases. The site is called CureHunter. The site not only has a ton of information on different diseases, therapies, drugs, and bio-agents, but shows the relationship between each of these in a very appealing visual interface. Since I am not a…
You walk into your doctors office hoping for a diagnosis to your most recent ailment. The doctor runs some tests and leaves the room telling you he will return. Ten minutes later, the doctor tells you that you have diabetes. What was the doctor doing during the ten minutes? Most likely, he was reviewing the…
Why is it taking so long for the medical industry to adopt information and communication technology? Is it a good thing that it is taking so long? This is the question addressed by an interesting and non-technical NBER working paper by Michael Christensen and Dahlia Remler (“ICT in Chronic Disease Care“) What is Information and…
Last month’s Wall Street Journal (“Faltering Family MDs get Technology Lifeline“) has an interesting article about how small-practice physicians are using technology as a weapon against the economies of scale which physicians working for large-scale practices enjoy. The article tells the story of Dr. Gordon Moore. When he worked at a large, hospital-owned medical practice,…
According to the Economist magazine (“Bit by bit“), firms such as Wal-Mart, Pitney Bowes, and Intel are announcing plans to launch an online patient-information service next year with the non-profit firm Omnimedix Institute. The consortium aims to develop Dossia, which—according to the institute—is “a secure, private, independent network for capturing medical information and delivering it…
The Health Care Blog has a very interesting post (“Healthcare and the Long Tail“) by Jim Walker. Mr. Walker is a lifelong Philadelphia resident who is the Director of Business Development for the social networking site called MyMedwork. He uses concepts developed in Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail and applies them to the healthcare field. …