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4 Reasons Why Health Plans Struggle with PHRs
Aetna recently made another big announcement relating to their PHR. While the concept of what they’re doing is very appealing, it strikes me that health plans in general face an uphill battle in getting consumers to adopt and use personal health records (PHRs).
I’ll describe 4 factors behind my thinking:
Lack of Trust
Lack of Access to Clinical Data
Lack of Permission
Lack of Convenience in Consumer Workflow
How Will the HMO Stock Meltdown Affect Chronic Disease Management?
About three weeks ago Cain Brothers Investment Bankers released a report that foreshadowed the collapse of HMO stock prices that has occurred over the past few days. The report was entitled: FAREWELL TO A TIME OF PLENTY? Health Plan Strategies for Growth in a More Challenging Market.Â
Here are a few highlights from the report:
Eight Reflections From One Year of Blogging
Blogging started as an exercise in business development. It’s turned into an adventure in personal development.
Blogging is more work than I ever imagined.
Blogging is also more rewarding than I ever imagined.
Think book, not diary  (with gratitude to Guy Kawasaki, How to Change the World blog).
Putting up 1/2 baked ideas is a great way to have a dialogue; putting up 1/4 baked ideas is a great way to look stupid.
Blogging is addicting. I think of Jim Fixs’s book on running where he describes monks that ran for […]
Going to the Mat for Dorothy
by Jill KuraitisÂ
Vince gave me Dorothy’s story to read, and here’s what I said: GO DOROTHY!  ::::goofy little happy dance:::  Dorothy is my new hero. I love people who are willing to go to the mat for a cause, especially one having to do with the elderly, children, the disabled and less fortunate than we.
Since Vince and I have been overwhelmed by the swamp of details of taking care of our family elderly for about, oh, 13 years – my […]
Birth Announcement: the Personal Health Information Network (PHIN)
Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD MBAÂ
The Internet and digital technologies have transformed many aspects of our lives over the past twenty years. We can get cash at ATMs all over the world; we can book our own airline reservations; we can shop and get best prices over the Internet.
Why hasn’t this happened in health care? Something is missing.
Recently, major global information and communication companies have announced their intention to bring their technologies and business models to health care. […]
“Give me Auntie’s medical records or put me in the slammer!”
We underestimate how much people REALLY want medical infomation about themselves and their loved ones.Â
Dorothy Tillman wanted it so badly that she was arrested! Read more at Jaz-Michael King’s blog, A Scanner Brightly.
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Hat tip to Jen McCabe Gorman for spotting this amazing story.
A First Comparison of Google Health and MS HealthVault
While details are thin, here’s a first pass at comparing and contrasting Google Health (GH) and Microsoft HealthVault (HV). Overall, there are many common features, some differences, and many common challenges between these two platforms.Â
A High Level Comparison
Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault Personal Health Information (PHI) Platforms
There’s still not much information available about the specifics of GH, although they did release sketchy information on the Official Google Blog.  I’ll comment on a few of the particulars.
Are HIEs a Dead Horse?
Do local Health Information Exchange (HIE) participants have the right economic motivations to make them work? Â
A report released this week raises strong doubts. The study — Creating Sustainable Local Health Information Exchanges: Can Barriers to Stakeholder Participation be Overcome? — was  funded by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change (CSHSC). The term HIE is often used interchangeably with RHIO (Regional Health Information Exchange).
What’s different about this study? The CSHSC report goes a step further than other recent reports […]
21 Surprising Ways Wal-Mart Clinics Will Affect US Healthcare
Jessica Hupp at RN Central writes a thought provoking article titled 20 Surprising Ways Wal-Mart Clinics Will Affect US Healthcare.
#20 is “Decreased Continuity of Care”. I think this one is debatable, and I’ll offer as #21 “Increased Continuity of Care”. Â
Jessica writes:
With traditional doctors, patients have charts and medical records, but at in-store clinics, diagnosis is a one-off deal. Problems that could be caught over multiple visits and diagnosis could go unearthed unless the patient works to inform practitioners.
I’m picking up […]
Podcast Part Deux: Medicare Health Support in Jeopardy
Here’s the link to Part II of the podcast in which Tom Wilson and I are interviewed by Les Masterson of HealthLeaders Media. If you want to start at the beginning, Part I is available here.