HealthyConcerns.com

I'm off...

...to Los Angeles on a business trip.

Based on my experience I will return with:

1. Abrasion marks on my shoulder from carrying a heavy carry-on through airports (although I'm hoping my new bicycle-messenger-bag-style backpack may alleviate some of that.)

2. Dry, dry skin.

3. An upset stomach (either constipated or the opposite.)

4. But...well-rested because I sleep pretty well in hotel rooms without my whiny cat and nigh-owl S.O. to disturb me!

Have a great weekend!

Grand Rounds #53 (or Vol. II, #1) is up at Family Medicine Notes

Yes, Grand Rounds is one-year-old, and finally up at Family Medicine Notes. Jacob does us all a great service and reviews the history of MedBlogging, first reminding us who the old-timers are (old being a relative term, given the youth of the blogosphere in general) and then introducing us to the newcomers, like me.

He clearly did his homework...commenting on the posts, sometimes even nudging people to include a bit more personal commentary. I noticed this myself with some submissions I got a few weeks ago. I didn't really feel right pointing to posts that were 100% quoting something else.

He also clearly perused the submitted blogs beyond the posts each blogger proposed that he use. He pointed to three different posts on HealthyConcerns, not the just the one I submitted about my travails trying to figure out a $20 bill from Kaiser.

On this 1 year anniversary of Grand Rounds I doubt you'll find someone to give them more perspective than Dr. Jacob R. over at Family Medicine Notes.

Local MedBlogger off to help Katrina victims

Keep your eyes on local Palo Alto MedBlogger Dr. Enoch Choi as he heads down South to volunteer for a couple of weeks. I know at least one other blogger who did a stint volunteering down there, and getting their firs hand reports is eye-opening. You think because you see the same 10 clips of footage over and over that you have a picture of what's going on, but it's the tip of the iceberg.

Good luck Enoch! Keep us posted.

I'm like an addict...I needs me some Grand Rounds!

OK, we know where this week's Grand Rounds is supposed to be. And yet it is not there. I am jonesing for my weekly MedBlog fix...anyone else?

Where should donations go?

InsureBlog is another blogger who had been following the Haley Knutsen story, and now he is asking a sensitive, ethical question: after learning on this blog that the Knutsens plan to give the donations they received and will not need to another young patient suffering the same way Haley was. Is this proper, he wonders? Is this any different than some organizations and even government agencies that deferred funds from earmarked donations to other worthy efforts?

Well, there are clearly two issues: the legal issues and the moral issues. And I examine them both in the extended entry.

Medicine and Technology

I wrote a little while ago about the resistance some medical professionals have to upgrading to more technologically advanced ways of doing things...like getting away from paper charts for example.

And haven't you notices that once you write about a topic you suddenly find similar items everywhere? I do.

First I saw this NY Times piece on how practices exactly the same size as my colleague's wife's practice are banding together to acquire technology and software that otherwise would be way to highly priced for them.

On the same day the Health Business Blog covered the same issue. Apparently a recent issue of Health Affairs magazine was devoted to IT in the health sector. A report was done to calculate ROI (Return on Investment) for small practices investing in electronic health records software solutions.

If you ask me it looks completely ugly, from the practice and the patient and the carrier perspective.

-For the practice: there's a 2.5 year payback term. Sorry, but that's huge!
-For the patient: the report indicates that they're not even using the system to focus on a more proactive and streamlined approach to patient care.
-For the carrier: that's because they're mostly using it to add more codes for billing that they were likely not prompted for, and therefore forgetting about before.

And the report is based on practices provided by the vendor, so you're not even getting the ugliest stories.

If I was running a small practice it sounds like this article wouldn't convince me either.

Lastly, while doing work for another client, Browster, I discovered someone linking to Browster that specializes in helping dentists upgrade their technology. Meet The Digital Dentist.

If I put on my Worker Bees hat I would love to find out if this guy finds that his blog brings him new customers. It's pretty engaging, but I wonder if dentists are at the technology forefront reading blogs etc.? Just curious.

Recent disasters may be making medical professionals pay more attention to how to protect their data. Current solutions sound like they still have hit the affordable/user-friendly/stable trifecta yet.

Cool download for your mp3 player: first aid

You know mp3 players aren't just for music anymore.

I personally have downloaded the subway maps for NYC and DC into my iPod, since I'll be traveling to both places this fall.

And now Medgadget points us to a site where you can download basic first aid info to yours.

Oh, and just a another fun example, Lifehacker.com points us to a site to download cocktail recipes to your iPod.

But drink responsibly, or too much use of the latter mp3 player download may result in need for the former.

More on medical TV

Since I brought up House yesterday I might as well keep up the superficial focus on medicine a la your television and point to this column in Slate.

I don't watch Grey's Anatomy, but it sounds like it features both of the quibbles I have with House...but to a much more serious degree. Namely a) inappropriate behavior by the doctors and b) totally inaccurate portrayals of medical situations.

The article is a bit more interesting than the usual ramblings on the topic, including mine, because it covers the history of the medical profession as shown on TV. Turns out the AMA used to have significant control over how medicine was portrayed. Once they lost that all hell broke loose.

Interesting piece. Check it out.

Thew new season of House, so far anyway

Of course the S.O. and I have maintained our TiVO Season Pass to Fox medical drama House, and of course we continue to be completely enamored of Hugh Laurie and his performance. I think it might be time, though, to broaden or change the supporting cast. Some of them seem to have run their course.

My episode recaps and thoughts are in the extended post...

Joe Paduda on The Myth of Consumerism in Health Care

Over at my business blog I have a rather regular series, "The Myth of..." you name the myth. I've written about the myth of meritocracy, the myth of objectivity, and today, the myth of the "mainstream."

Joe Paduda writes about the Myth of Consumerism in health care, making the case that the free market will never be able to have its way with health care...and explaining why.

It always comes back to what a civilized society does with someone who is not rich, yet develops an expensive ailment. Some would surely say that it is without question a person's own responsibility that they are not rich, and that they are somehow getting back what they have contributed to society. You've seen the comments on this blog: the ones where people are basically SOL if the coverage they have acquired isn't good enough to cover their illness. The comments where children are just SOL if their parents haven't acquired that "good enough" coverage either. Just like those dehydrated babies in the Superdome were paying for the "sins" of their poverty-stricken parents I guess, huh?

I may not have the answers, but I know what I don't want the answer to be: that your life is worth exactly the same as your net worth. That the son of a rich man, no matter how unaccomplished, is more highly valued than a hardworking daughter of a poor man.

Crazy idealist? Or just ordering my priorities differently than some?