Gleeman’s Daily Dozen—11/11

Gleeman's Daily Dozen-11/11

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Medical Record Blackmail Attempted

CNN reports on what may be a harbinger of trends to come: Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit management companies (PBM's), received an anonymous threat that, unless it paid an extortionate demand, millions of its patient records would be released.

New crimes have always followed new technology, EMR is no exception.

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Remote patient monitoring tested in Cleveland

The Clinic is partnering with Microsoft HealthVault to help certain patients monitor chronic conditions -- high blood pressure, diabetes and heart failure -- at home.

Actual testing of the tech, appears to be a future for remote watching of patient health, could save lots of money for the system.

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Young girls carry the most risk of catching an STD

The sexually active adolescent girl is most at risk for getting an STD. Adolescents are at a much higher risk of developing STDs. In my blog on the HPV vaccine, I noted that 74 percent of HPV occurs between the ages of 15 and 24.

I suppose this is another "common sense" issue, but it opened my eyes.

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Vitamins C and E do not help men avoid heart disease

Besides questioning whether vitamins help, "we have to worry about potential harm," said Barbara Howard, a nutrition scientist at MedStar Research Institute of Hyattsville, Md.

I take vitamin C to avoid scurvy and a multiple vitamin just for the heck of it.

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New report on "what health workers should know when working with EMRs"

The tool is available free of charge, and breaks down core competencies necessary into five major areas: health information literacy, informatics skills, privacy and confidentiality, data technical security and basic computer literacy skills.

Any reports on this? Any opinions of the concept? With information, is more always better?

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New Intel remote monitor could reduce costs

"Health care is an area where getting and gathering the right information, and getting decisions made in a timely matter can make an enormous difference in patient care. We hope this technology helps with that," Mariah Scott, head sales and marketing for Intel's Digital Health Group, said.

Two stories in one day regarding remote monitoring of patients....

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Stem Cells, Children's Health at the top of Obama's list

Sunday's political TV shows provided more hints that a reversal of the current executive order banning federal funding of research involving new lines embryonic stem cells could happen quickly.

Any doubts out there that Obama at least got the message that the people are demanding a health care system for themselves?

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At risk youth are not getting flu shots
Influenza vaccination rates are still far too low for adolescents who suffer from asthma and other illnesses that predispose them to complications from the flu.

I am hearing more and more good things in the news about flu shots.

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Asthma-Causing Immune Cells Revealed

The team, led by Mikael Pittet and Ralph Weissleder, visualized eosinophils at single-cell resolution using various noninvasive real-time molecular imaging technologies...

They are getting at the cause of asthma by this new imaging technique.

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Patient alerts seem to boost compliance

That's the message in a new study conducted by ActiveHealth Management and published in the November issue of The American Journal of Managed Care.

This is a topic we think of as related to EMR, but here is a good study that shows these alerts help patients.

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IT vendors in the news

Nuance Communications, Inc. of Burlington, Mass. has announced that its PowerScribe for Radiology software suite has been rolled out at 10 of the 15 hospitals that collectively form the Baptist Memorial Health Care network.

Many other vendors featured in this 4-page story, a vendor roundup for sure.

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Headphones can mess up a pacemaker

Tucking the headphones for your iPod into your coat pocket might not be exactly heart-stopping, but it could interfere with the normal functioning of your implanted cardiac device.

By far, this was the main health story of the day, making it to TV, radio, and the Internet.

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