By Evan Falchuk
Some people may tell you that health care IT will solve many of the quality and cost problems in health care.
I don’t believe them.
Archive for the ‘Electronic Medical Records’ Category
A Patient is Not a Shunt
Friday, February 4th, 2011
Wikileaks!!
Monday, November 29th, 2010By Evan Falchuk
Dr. Wes connects the news of the Wikileaks document dump to the privacy of health care data:
While a single individual’s private health care information may not carry the gravitas of wartime communiqués, each of us deals with famous patients who might not want their diagnosis, HIV status, or drinking history spread far and wide. For them, this private information might be just as personally damaging as anything disclosed by WikiLeaks.
Wes raises a good point. To which I would add a bigger point.
All of the laws and security systems and everything else don’t mean your health information will remain private. No, the extent to which your health information stays private depends on the honor, reliability and trustworthiness of the people who have it.
Almost everyone who touches health information has those morals. But not everyone. And for them, there is no law, no security system that can stop dishonor. What we can do is call this kind of behavior what it is, and root it out. Leaking confidential health information is despicable.
Good on Wes for taking this opportunity to remind us of that.
Health Business Blog Podcast
Friday, August 13th, 2010By Evan Falchuk
David Williams, the Charlie Rose of the health care blogosphere, recently interviewed me.
You can listen to the audio of our wide-ranging talk on David’s always-interesting Health Business Blog.
We talked about health care reform, health IT, social media, health care quality, patient navigation, and the role of Best Doctors.
Give it a listen, and visit back to David’s blog regularly.
What’s your opinion on the subjects we talked about?
It’s Your Medical Record, But….
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010By Evan Falchuk
You have a right to your medical record.
It’s true – the record of every test and procedure you’ve had done, any films or studies, your doctors notes. It’s all yours if you ask for it.
But it’s not that simple.
How EMC Views Health Care and Employee Benefits
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009By Evan Falchuk
![EMC_logo_2004_color2[1]](http://www.seefirstblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/EMC_logo_2004_color21.jpg "EMC_logo_2004_color2[1]"){kind=logo}
Following my earlier webinar, I said I would be doing a series of Q&A’s with benefit executives from some of the country’s most innovative companies. The first one features the insights of Delia Vetter, Senior Director of Benefits of EMC Corporation. She shared her views on employee benefits, health care IT, and how an important company like EMC thinks about the hottest topics of the day.
I think you’ll find her thoughts very interesting.
I See You Have the Machine that Goes “Ping!”
Friday, June 5th, 2009By Evan Falchuk
New IT systems are impressive and give the appearance you are operating in a state-of-the-art environment. But do they really do any good if all they are doing is “computerizing the current set-up”? It’s pretty much what we’re doing in the government’s massive new health care IT program.
An Inconvenient Truth About Prevention
Thursday, May 28th, 2009By Evan Falchuk
Preventable disease is a terrible burden, made all the more tragic by the fact that it can be avoided.
Policymakers in Washington take this a step further, claiming that we can save huge amounts of money by systematic programs to prevent disease and encourage wellness. The document explaining the Republicans’ new “Patient Choice Act” says that wellness and disease prevention can save trillions of dollars (.pdf). President Obama seems to agree, saying these programs like these can create “serious savings” that represent “huge amounts of money in the long term.”
There’s one problem: study after study says it’s not true.
How Blogging Doctors Will Change Health Care
Monday, April 27th, 2009By Evan Falchuk
Doctors and patients complain all the time about how badly our health care system works. It shouldn’t be a surprise — neither doctors or patients designed it. But the internet, and especially blogs, have changed things. Once the little guy couldn’t possibly have a meaningful seat at the table in making policy, today bloggers are among the most influential political forces in America.
Doctors are the emerging political force on the web. Their blogs tell the stories of what it’s really like to practice medicine, and often give the most insightful prescriptions on how to make things better.
But the best doctor-bloggers aren’t political. They simply describe the world as it really is, from inside their offices, to the hallways of their hospitals, to their real-life experiences with patients. Like the best doctors, they aren’t afraid to just call it like it is, and do it with a sense of humor.
Doctors have a chance to transform health care in a way no other group can — and doctor-bloggers are in the vanguard.
Are Innovative Primary Care Practices Legal?
Thursday, March 26th, 2009By Evan Falchuk
Dr. Val blogs today about cash-only physician practices, as well as other concierge-style practices.
They’re both emerging models of primary care in which the doctor basically opts out of the traditional insurance system. By doing that, doctors typically see fewer patients, spend more time with each patient. They can even make more money per patient, by getting rid of the overhead otherwise tied up in doing medical billing. It sounds great, and it is, for patients fortunate enough to be in a practice like that. But it has its share of critics, who worry that these kinds of practices leave behind those who are less well-off.
But what if a doctor set up a low-cost concierge practice, catering to people without insurance? Wouldn’t that be a great idea?
Employee Health Care Conference, San Diego
Thursday, March 19th, 2009I’m speaking this afternoon at the Conference Board’s Employee Health Care Conference in San Diego. It looks like an interesting agenda today and tomorrow. My segment is titled, “The Real Path to Improving Quality and Costs.”
I’ll be sure to post updates and share my key learnings. Stay tuned.
LIVE UPDATE (12:27pm): First panel is about the Health Dividend, which seems to mean the savings available from healthier lifestyles and wellness. Hal Rosenbluth SVP Walgreens just presented and highlighted the very aggressive move they are making into clinics at their stores and related wellness services. He said that almost all Americans live within five miles of a Walgreens so this is a great platform for community wellness. He also talked about how proud he was of the very high rates of appropriate use of antibiotics, which he said was a major problem in the market.
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