Archive for the ‘Health care’ Category

Big Day in Genomics Angelina Jolie’s very open revelation, “My Medical Choice” in the The New York Times, was brave, and a “big day for genomics”, according to Leslie Ziegler of Rock Health. Jolie, in a powerful and personal narrative, explains why she chose a preventative double mastectomy after genetic testing found the BRCA1 gene. She was estimated to have [...]

Last week in a bold and historic move (and a bitter pill indeed for many healthcare executives finding themselves explaining the obscure financial inner workings of a hospital) the HHS/CMS released the national charge master data. The release seems to be a response to Steven Brill’s epic TIME magazine article on medical billing: Bitter Pill: [...]

A few weeks before we published Dave Chase’s first article for this blog, 5 Survival Strategies for Small to Medium-Sized EHRs, I reached out to him on LinkedIn and asked if he was interested in participating in a new column I was starting where I ask interesting, inspiring and even controversial health IT professionals five questions. [...]

“In the past man has been first. In the future the System will be first.” –Frederick Winslow Taylor “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” There was a time when engagement was the one-on-one relationship between a patient and physician and you could call your doctor on the phone. Do you remember that time? [...]

I learned a new word last week – slacktivism. It’s fitting I learned this word through Twitter since it, and other social media networks, are said to play a role in the phenomenon. So, what exactly is slacktivism? The word itself is a combination of the terms slacker and activism. If those words sound like they’re [...]

In Part 1, “Technology Driving New Models for Concierge Medicine and Direct Primary Care“, we looked at the growing movement in primary care to new retainer-based practice models. Concierge medicine and Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices are attracting doctors, patients, investors, and developers as they eliminate or minimize the role of insurance. In Part 2, we [...]

One of my favorite inspirational videos is “How to start a movement” by Derek Sivers. In 1998, Sivers created a movement with CD Baby, a way for independent musicians to sell “direct” to fans. CD Baby made around $70 million for independent artists before Sivers sold the business in 2008 for $22 million (most of [...]

Much has been written about the demise of small and medium-sized EHR vendors. The conventional wisdom is that Stage 2 of Meaningful Use is the dagger to the heart of all but the largest vendors. However, the smart small and medium-sized vendors are pursuing a strategy I’ll outline below that will position them to thrive [...]

Athenahealth was right in the middle of the biggest industry news stories to come out of HIMSS13. While the CommonWell Health Alliance announcement sucked the air out of every other announcement at the conference, athenahealth’s Healthcare Information Technology Code of Conduct proposed a set of five principles they hope can “move the industry foward,” including [...]

This is the third in a series (Part 1, Part 2) on on how patient engagement is more analogous to marketing and customer relations than to any specific off-the-shelf tool. It’s a strategy. Human relationships are complicated, dynamic, and also extremely powerful when it comes to influencing both behavior and health outcomes. Books have been [...]