December 2010 Blog Posts (12)

NYT's Andrew Pollack wrote about the US Court backing patents for diagnostic testing.  This all relates to the goals health care is trying to achieve with personalized medicine.  The hope is that one day, a doctor could run a blood test to determine which type of medication and the dosage would work best for what ails you.     

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A recent article from Clinical Advisor analyzes the privacy issues that continue to arise as more and more health care institutions employee social media tactics. The article, of course, also examines the personal use of social media by health care professionals…

KLAS Research posted their annual top 20 best in class awards.  Of course all the usual HIT vedor suspects were there including Cerner, Epic and McKesson.

Read more about it on HISTalk. 

www.histalk2.com

Just when you thought it would never happen, FDA approved the diet pill from Orexigen Therapeutics.  The only problem, it might not be all that effective.  Four studies conducted by Orexigen demonstrated overweight patients lost, on average, 4.2 percent more weight than patients taking a placebo.  I think maybe its more effective to try the thermal diet - run around in the cold, forcing your body to burn more calories in an effort to stay warm. 

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Wow - crazy activities happening between the GAO (US Government Accountability Office) and the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigation.  Moles and whistleblowers and Sen. Chuck Grassley.  Weird happenings but maybe its just the nature of government.  

http://http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/12/gao-denies-problems-with-report-on-fdas-oci/

Have you ever considered how debilitating a long-term disease or condition could be? Not only the health aspect, but also because you need to find a way of managing the condition with your healthcare professional in such a way that you can still lead a relatively normal life.

Recent developments in Telehealth, the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technology, promise preventive, promotive and curative solutions to this difficult…

A recent article on Mashable looks at the benefits for healthcare professionals in adopting social media. These include keeping on top of trends, interacting with experts and building credibility.

In a speech to Racepoint Group this week…

The new feature on NHS Choices that allows patients to write reviews on their GPs has been met with a mixed response in the UK.

While I can see the value in such a scheme in terms of encouraging GPs to be competitive and receive honest feedback from patients, I do also worry it will hinder people in their GP choice.

I experienced…

http://http://histalk2.com/2010/12/07/aetna-to-acquire-medicity-for-500-million/

Very interesting to see how the insurance companies are buying up all the HIT vendors and EMR providers!

HealthcareRepublic, the UK’s dedicated primary care resource that encompasses a host of Haymarket publications including GP, Independent Nurse, MIMS and MIMS specialist titles, has rebranded as GPOnline. This means that GPs and primary care teams are now able to find more primary content to keep…