November 2008 - The Medical Quack .... by Barbara Duck

Are electronic and personal health records inevitable? – Sure they are but we need education and mentors to make it work!

ZDNet just wrote about Dr. Kolodner and his recent report which is good, but we need more than reports. I have been doing a whole lot here reporting on reports! Can we move forward as I think we have won the battle that PHRs are worth their...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 3:26 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Other Items of Interest, Microsoft/Windows News, My Commentaries, healthcare, microsoft, Medical Records, Health IT, PHR, Google Health, VA, personal heatlh records, Military Health Records, Department, mentors, education of Defense

Department of Defense and VA to migrate health records

This is interesting, which one will prevail? AHLTA has some nice dictation already built in with Dragon Naturally Speaking and this might be an area where the VISTA system will need some work a far as which one will prevail, but at any rate the...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 2:41 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, healthcare, microsoft, Medical Records, Health IT, PHR, Google Health, VA, Department of Defense, personal heatlh records, Military Health Records

FDA advisers recommend approval of new gout drug Uloric

Hopefully this one will make it, sounds good. The build up of uric acid combined with someone that also suffers with diabetes can really create on restrictive diet for what they can eat and this could stand to treat as well as perhaps bring a little...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 1:20 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, FDA, Gout, Uloric

Biotech may turn to Indian for clinical trials

Nothing new here in what has been posted, but this time the predictions are coming from within Ernst and Young from India. BD The Indian clinical trials market is predicted to continue its growth despite the current financial climate, according...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 1:11 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, healthcare, Pharma, clinical trials, R and D, India, Economics, Outsourcing, Employment, Clinic

14 Drugs Identified As Most Urgently Needing Study For Off-label Use

This is a great start in this direction and it is one big task to find all the relative data to get down to perhaps even more drugs that could have off label use, something the FDA wants to be aware of since they are the agency who is there to approve...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 12:38 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Pharma/FDA News, healthcare, FDA, HHS, Stanford, Data Mining, Drug Safety, Sentinel

Improved Bluetooth Modules For Medical Devices

With both consumer and commercial medical devices, Bluetooth has become a preferred connection. I remember back to the early days of Bluetooth and we all used to sit around and wonder in the Windows Mobile group where Bluetooth was going to somehow...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 11:58 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Windows Mobile, Medical Records, EHR, Medical Devices, Health IT, PHR, Google Health, personal health record, Healthcre, Bluetooth

Breast Cancer May Regress On Own, Controversial Report Says Up To 22 Percent Of Cases May Disappear Without Treatment

The study is suggesting that at times it is possible for our body to heal itself, which it does with colds, flu, etc. but now breast cancer could be in the group, but not to the same extent of a cold let’s say as we are talking about something completely...

Published Tue, Nov 25 2008 11:20 AM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Cancer, Radiation Oncology, Breast Cancer Awareness, Chemo, Nightline, Newscaster, Studies

ErecAid(R) Device Supplemental First Line Treatment for Erectile Dysfunction - Study

If Viagra(R) and Cialis(R) are not doing the trick, the study from Johns Hopkins is positive for the vacuum device, actually there were 4 studies to be sure. It states to be used as a supplement, but there’s nothing stating it could not be...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 11:44 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Other Items of Interest, ED, erectile dysfunction, Urology

Desmond Tutu Presents e-Health Call to Action – Learn from the mistakes of the US

One of the messages coming from the meeting is that they believe they can learn from the mistake made in the US, and there were representatives from the US at the meeting. Karl Brown believes it might be easier to achieve interoperability in developing...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 11:04 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Other Items of Interest, EMR, microsoft, Medical Records, EHR, Common User Interface, Interoperability, User Interface, Medical Software, Templates, ehealth, healthcare standards, Desmond Tutu

Social Security likes PHRs too – wanting to work with EMR and PHR software with pilot program

Some records are already online and will follow the Continuity of Care Document format. Back in June I had posted about the pilot program with Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston which has already been up and running for disability records , also the...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 7:22 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, healthcare, EHR, PHR, Health Records, VA, Kaiser Permanente, Social Security, Beth Israel Deaconess of Boston, Department of Defense

Scientists Build a Case for Banning Viagra From Sports

Viagra, almost the everything, anything drug! When you stop and think back about how the drug came to market and the entire story, it is pretty interesting in the fact that it was initially researched as a cardio drug and not what it used for today...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 1:30 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Insurance, Pharma/FDA News, healthcare, Viagra, Heart, ED, Blood Clots, Athletes

The FDA, Government and Unapproved Drugs

One more story on the lack of communication between data bases here. If queries were ran and matches were determined, this would certainly help keep a lid on some of this, but as we all know the FDA is working hard to play catch up in the technology...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 12:58 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, FDA, Business Intelligence, Congress Pharma, phamaceutical plant inspections, FDA funding

Johnson & Johnson Acquire Omrix Biopharmaceuticals

One more acquisition in the news, and a fairly large announcement at that. Just one more indication of the interest and investments from Pharma expanding beyond just drugs and pursuing biotech companies with state of the art technologies for healthcare...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 12:34 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Pharma/FDA News, healthcare, Biotech, Johnson and Johnson, Mergers and Acquisitions

Royal Phillips buys Meditronics of India – X Ray Systems

Pharma is not the only industry investing in technology and companies outside the US. In a related story, in Andover, Massachusetts the company is laying off 5 percent of their work force, from the Boston Globe. BD Dutch consumer electronics...

Published Mon, Nov 24 2008 12:05 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, Other Items of Interest, healthcare, India, XRay, Phliips

New federal study shows barriers to healthcare IT - All over the place

There’s a lot of truth to this study in more ways than one. Shoot I’m sitting around Twitter hoping to inspire some physicians, readers, PHDs, journalists, business leaders, business organizations, students, you name it, to just try a FREE PHR...

Published Sun, Nov 23 2008 4:07 PM by The Medical Quack

Filed under: Medically Related, Technology, healthcare, Medical Records, Medical Devices, PHR, Personal Health Records, software, Caregivers, monitoring devices, Intrusive Technology, attitude