The Insider's Guide - Tech - The Business of Health Care - Physicians - Subscribe The Power of Small
By DAVID C. KIBBE, MD & VINCE KURAITIS
Everywhere we turn these days it seems “Big Data” is being touted as a solution for physicians and physician groups who want to participate in Accountable Care Organizations, (ACOs) and/or accountable care-like contracts with payers.
We disagree, and think the accumulated experience about what works and what doesn’t work for care management suggests that a “Small Data” approach might be good enough for many medical groups, while being more immediately implementable and a lot less costly. We’re not convinced, in other words, that the problem for ACOs is a scarcity of data or second rate analytics. Rather, the problem is that we are not taking advantage of, and using more intelligently, the data and analytics already in place, or nearly in place. Read more.
How to Replace the AMA
By GEORGE LUNDBERG, MD
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. There is nothing less powerful than an idea whose time has come and gone. In 1846, and for more than 100 years after that, the American Medical Association as a nationwide organization for all physicians was a powerful idea whose time had come. It worked well for many things and OK for many more.
Then, in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, it came apart and now has the least representation of actual members of a widely diverse base than ever and shows few signs of recuperation. Recently, I advocated that ALL American physicians should become members of the AMA for their entire time in medicine. Responses, both published and unpublished, were vigorous. Read more.
Doctors Really Do Die Differently
By KEN MURRAY, MD
In late 2011, I wrote an essay called “How Doctors Die.” Drawing on my observations and experiences as a doctor, I reported that doctors tend to seek less end-of-life care than ordinary patients do. They know when further treatment is likely to be futile and when life would cease to be worth living. The point I wanted to make was that all of us should have the choice to die that way if we wish—at home, with family, without dramatic hospital interventions, without pain. Read more.
Health Care Innovations Hiding in Plain Sight
By MAUREEN BISOGNANO AND CHARLES KENNEY
While the nation has been focused on the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, innovations in hospitals and physician practices far from Capitol Hill have been triggering an historic transformation of our health care system. Propelled by a mix of urgency and vision, innovators at hospitals, physician groups and companies are remaking American health care by demonstrating that more effective and affordable care is achievable quite apart from statutory changes in Washington. Read more.
Health Care: An Alternate Economic Universe
By JEFF GOLDSMITH
In July, 2012, the US economy produced roughly the same volume of goods and services as it did five years earlier with five million fewer workers. Yet, during the first four years of the recession (May 2007 to May 2011), the US health system, despite slowing or declining utilization, added 1.149 million workers. Key sectors, specifically hospitals and physician offices, grew their workforces despite declining admissions and office visit volume.
Compared to the rest of the economy, health care seems to exist in an alternate economic universe. This would be good news, rather than a problem, if we were not borrowing roughly half of every dollar of general revenue the federal government is spending on health care and if employers were not robbing their workers of wage increases to fund their health benefits. Read more.
Fools' Gold Rush: Obamacare And The Medicaid "Opportunity"
By J.D. KLEINKE
You know we’ve gone through the looking glass when the hottest health care money on Wall Street is chasing Medicaid. No, I didn’t mean Medicare, the $560 billion per year federal program for insuring the elderly that has launched a thousand IPOs. The current darling of health care investors is Medicaid, the hybrid federal-state program for insuring the poor that now dominates, and often overwhelms, state government budgets. Read more.
Electronic Health Records In the Classroom?
By ISHANI GANGULI, MD
As the Electronic Health Record (EHR) slowly but inexorably assumes its rightful place in modern health care, obviating the ridiculous cultural norm of physicians with illegible handwriting, reducing medical errors, and making care (usually) more efficient, educators are asking the question: are we teaching this in medical school? Not consistently, it turns out. Read more.
THCB Marketplace: Reach a focused audience of thousands of health care professionals. Post a classified in the THCB marketplace. Email ad_sales@thehealthcareblog.com.
NEW RELEASES
The Health Care Handbook The American health care system is vast, complex and confusing. Books about it shouldn’t be. The Health Care Handbook is your one-stop guide to the people, organizations and industries that make up the U.S. health care system, and the major issues the system faces today.
How to Live Forever *Results May Vary. Nominee Palm Springs International Film Festival. Nominee Hamptons International Film Festival. How to Live Forever Director Mark Wexler embarks on a worldwide trek to investigate just what it means to grow old and what it could mean to really live forever. But whose advice should he take? Does 94-year-old exercise guru Jack LaLanne have all the answers, or does Buster, a 101-year-old chain-smoking, beer-drinking marathoner?
Why Nobody Believes the Numbers Ever wonder if those wellness, disease management, medical home and other programs imposed on your medical practices really work? Answer that question for yourself by reading Why Nobody Believes the Numbers, the first population health outcomes measurement book not infused with THC.
The Great Experiment is about much more than a single state experiment, or the immediate questions the presidential primary may raise regarding Mr. Romney’s term as governor of Massachusetts. Rather, Pioneer assembled some of the best thinkers to outline the options before state and federal officials. The Great Experiment aims to lay out a market-oriented blueprint for the next decade. Download free chapters, including an introduction by Dr. Jeffrey Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School, or purchase a copy at greatexperiment.org.
CONFERENCES
AARP Health Innovation@50+ LivePitch
Sept. 21, New Orleans Convention Center
Please join us for AARP Health Innovation@50+ LivePitch, Friday, September 21 at the New Orleans Convention Center. Health Innovation@50+ is the premier showcase featuring the most exciting companies in the “50 and over” health technology and innovation sector. The pitch event offers the venture capital and angel investor community as well as the media, the opportunity to connect with outstanding startups in the field of health technology and innovation.
Health Innovation@50+ takes place at the annual Life@50+ AARP National Event & Expo, which is attended by 20,000+ members and guests from across the U.S. and the globe. This is the best opportunity of the year for entrepreneurs and investors to capitalize on the world’s largest and fastest-growing consumer market. Register now at http://Health50.org
Health 2.0 San Francisco
October 7-10, Hilton San Francisco
The groundbreaking conference series returns to San Francisco. Keynotes by Joe Flower and Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini. Speakers from Qualcomm, AT&T, Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute, ZocDoc, OptumHealth and RedBrick Health, along with presentations from top health care startups changing the field and many more.
The First Annual Open Source EHR Summit and Workshop
October 17-18, Gaylord National, National Harbor, MD
It is projected that more than 200 hospitals and 1000 clinics, within the federal sector alone, will be managing and maintaining their EHRs using open source codes within the next few years. An increasing number of state agencies are deploying open source solutions as well. In recent months, many private sector health care communities facing the unsustainable high costs of health IT have started calling for alternate approaches to maintain and manage traditional proprietary electronic health records. These open source activities create a huge market opportunity for both private and public sectors.
REAL ESTATE 61,000 Square-Foot Building Available For Lease Near Boston
Ideal for Medical Offices, Back Office Uses
A 61,000 SF building that can be easily converted to medical use is available for lease just 17 miles from downtown Boston. Located in Hingham Technology Park 3 on a 9-acre parcel in Hingham, Mass., and there is close proximity to numerous hotels and conference centers, and easy access to Rtes. 3, 93, 128 and 95. The site is a quick drive to Plymouth and Cape Cod.
For more information, contact Richard McKinnon at 617-472-2000, or email richmck@grossmanco.com. To learn more about the additional development potential of this site, visit www.HT3park.com.
COURSES
UPenn Online Course: Health Policy
Health Care and the Affordable Care Act, Ezekiel Emanuel, MD PhD "This course will explore the history and structure of the current American health care system, including the history of and problems with employment-based health insurance, the challenges surrounding access, cost and quality, and the medical malpractice conundrum. The course will then explore the history of health care reform and the challenges that were overcome to achieve health reform in America. Finally, we will delineate the specific ways that the Affordable Care Act improves access and quality, and will control costs. Throughout lessons regarding health economics, health policy, and medical practice will be elucidated." For more information, click here.
THE FINE PRINT
Reach a focused audience of thousands of health care professionals. Post a classified in the THCB marketplace. Email ad_sales@thehealthcareblog.com 
No comments:
Post a Comment