Gleeman's Daily Dozen-11/12

Gleeman's Daily Dozen-11/12

Who Really Owns Your Health Information?

Another concern I have about making the patient the owner of his/her records is how this will be implemented by people who may be homeless, incarcerated, unable to understand the disclosure process, or otherwise off the grid of being able to keep track of their own information.

The debate continues over who should own PHR data and who should maintain it.

Slide Presentation of How PHRs Work at Kaiser

Today I gave the first official presentation in my new skin as a physician with The Permanente Federation.

If you are really serious about learning how Kaiser looks at PHR, look at this presentation, it is brilliantly done.

Galen Consultant blogs about "A practice with no walls"

While the original implementations were split across two Organizations, each independent practice would constitute its own Organization within the Allscripts EHR and integrate its own Practice Management (PM) systems.

On the philosophy of EHR implementation, great blog from real experts.

Florida moves toward giving docs web access to Medicaid patients' EHRs

She thinks that the lessons learned from Leon County--mainly on usability issues, such as signing on and displaying records--can be utilized throughout the state. She also thinks that the expansion of the provider portal is particularly important.

An expansion of a pilot project in 2007, this is an ambitious move.

Medicare rates poorly in PQRI

Washington -- Even as Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative approaches the end of its 2008 run, many doctors are still trying to figure out what went wrong with the 2007 PQRI.

As we have discussed in the forum, there are many imperfections in this system, but it will move ahead next year.

Uninsured patients are not overcrowding ER says study

But the uninsured are generally not showing up in EDs for nonurgent care and they are not the primary reason EDs are becoming more crowded.

This is conflicting with what people think they know about the uninsured yet is WRONG.

Three large drug manufacturers will tell of payments to doctors

...the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, that would mandate such reporting. The bill is widely expected to pass in some form next year.

Yes lets spread some sunshine on this aspect of drug marketing.

FDA mandates drug safety Web site

The development of the Web site (www.fda.gov/cder/drugsafety.htm) is one of the many requirements of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007.

A new resource for all, FDA forced by law to establish this web site, so make use of it if you can.

Deaths of 8,000 blacks could be prevented by BP treatment

The lives of nearly 8,000 black Americans could be saved each year if doctors could figure out a way to bring their average blood pressure down to the average level of whites, a surprising new study found.

This was a popular CNN news feed Tuesday, on TV all day.

Texting while driving and trans fats both called unhealthy by AMA

At its semiannual policy meeting, the nation's largest physicians' group agreed to support any state and federal efforts to ban the use of artificial trans fats in U.S. restaurants and bakeries. And it agreed to lobby for more state legislation banning text-messaging while driving or operating machinery.

Your AMA at work, they are right about both being bad for the health.

Poor sleep and heart disease are linked in study

In a study of more than 1,200 Japanese adults with high blood pressure, the investigators found that those who slept for less than 7.5 hours each night were more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke or die of cardiac arrest over a 4-year period.

This has been hinted at for many years, good to see an actual study about it, done in Japan where hearts are healthy.

New test for heart disease could become routine part of physical exams

If the test detects a high level of a specific protein, patients could reduce their risk of heart disease by using popular statin drugs, the study found.

Here is another study that could be viewed as being pro-statin, per our debate in the Medical Forum.