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Information & Communication Technologies (ICT)
An Open Letter to the Obama Health Team on Health IT Spending
By David C. Kibbe, MD MBA and Brian Klepper, PhD
It seems likely that the Obama administration and Congress will spend a significant amount on health IT by attaching it as a first-order priority to the fiscal stimulus package. We take the President-elect at his word when he recently said:
"…we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help […]
LifeCOMM: Will the Newest Personal Health Information Platform Play Nicely with Google and Microsoft?
Please read my guest post over at the Center for Connected Health .
What’s the Best Way to Get Hospitals Involved in Care Coordination?
Pay them to do it, take money away when they don’t — make hospitals accountable for their role in avoiding unnecessary readmissions.
Mark E. Miller, Ph.D., Executive Director, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission testified recently in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. He opened his remarks by stating:
The health care delivery system we see today is not a true system: care coordination is rare, specialist care is favored over primary care, quality of care is often poor, and costs are high […]
From PHRs to PHRSs
Personal health records (PHRs)Â are evolving toward becoming Personal Health Record Systems (PHRSs).
…that’s my key takeaway from attending the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Project Health Design (PHD) conference in Washington D.C. on September 17. The conference was entitled A ‘Report Out’ from Project HealthDesign and Forum on Next-Generation PHRs .
A PHD Fact Sheet capsulizes the evolution from PHRs to PHRSs:
Heartburn Relief: UnitedHealth Joining Google Health and MSFT HealthVault?
From the August 6 edition of HISTalk — Healthcare IT News and Opinion:
"Re: UHG. Was at the Healthcare Quality Conference yesterday in Boston. Got to talking to a United Health exec who informed me that they have signed an agreement with Google Health and have a pending agreement with HealthVault. This backs up UHG’s previous statement that member records would be made portable. Individual made mention that the Google Health relationship extends beyond just claims records transfer and includes a […]
Goldilocks: “Markle’s Framework for Networked Personal Health Information is Just Right”
By Vince Kuraitis and David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. Like most Americans, Goldilocks had concerns about achieving just the right amount of data liquidity for her personal health information (PHI).
Until today Goldilocks felt between a rock and a hard place:
"I want my PHI to be appropriately liquid — just the right viscosity. My PHI should be viscous enough to flow to my trusted […]
Untangling the Electronic Health Data Exchange
by David C. Kibbe MD, MBA
The purpose of this post is to help a non-technical audience untangle some of the confusion regarding health data exchange standards, and particularly come to a better understanding of the similarities and differences between the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) standard and the CDA Continuity of Care Document (CCD). But what I’m most interested in is getting beyond the technical, political, or economic positions and interests of the proponents of any particular standard to arrive […]
Perspectives on the Upcoming 5th Annual Healthcare Unbound Conference
 The Healthcare Unbound Conference is a highlight of my year and I always look forward to it!
What’s so special about this conference?
First, the caliber of the people attending.  It’s a stimulating mix of high-level clinical, technical and business types. The energy is flowing and many people have told me how much they like to go just for the networking.
Second, the caliber of the conference organizer. I’ve worked with many conference planners, and Satish Kavirajan is not your ordinary conference organizer.
Satish […]
Next Generation Disease Management, ala Google
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Google Wants to Index Your DNA, Too Business Week; April 18, 2008
A few years ago I remember reading a vivid description of how much information is contained in one person’s genetic code: a stack of phone books high enough to reach the top of the Washington Monument.
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Is the Medical Establishment the Best Guardian of Your Medical Data?
David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA and Vince Kuraitis
Drs. Mandl and Kohane begin their recent article in NEJM with the statement that “large corporations are seeking an integral and transformative role in the management of health care information,” and then warn that this “will profoundly affect the biomedical research enterprise.”  Â
At issue for the authors is who controls the information about you and me, our health and healthcare data. Without coming right out and saying it directly, they worry that data in […]