Monday, December 07, 2009
Bellagio follow-up in 'Health Affairs'
There's been a lot of work done in the field of global e-health since the Rockefeller Foundation's series of conferences in Bellagio, Italy, in July and August 2008. I had the distinct honor of attending for the third of four weeks, which focused on electronic health records and on mobile healthcare, two subjects that even more up my alley now then they were a year and a half ago.
I've had intermittent contact with some of the participants in those conferences since then, most recently at the AMIA annual symposium last month, and I've tried to report on progress from those meetings toward applying information technology to addressing health issues in developing countries. A wider audience will get a chance to read more about some of the projects in an upcoming issue of Health Affairs.
From what I understand, in mid-February, Health Affairs will publish nine papers on global e-health issues related to the work done at and as a result of Bellagio. I'm not privy to any further details, though.
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I've had intermittent contact with some of the participants in those conferences since then, most recently at the AMIA annual symposium last month, and I've tried to report on progress from those meetings toward applying information technology to addressing health issues in developing countries. A wider audience will get a chance to read more about some of the projects in an upcoming issue of Health Affairs.
From what I understand, in mid-February, Health Affairs will publish nine papers on global e-health issues related to the work done at and as a result of Bellagio. I'm not privy to any further details, though.
Labels: AMIA, Health Affairs, international, Rockefeller Foundation
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Friday, November 13, 2009
Breaking: Leavitt to leave CCHIT in March
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology said today that Dr. Mark Leavitt will retire as commission chairman in March. He's been with CCHIT since its founding nearly five years ago.
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Labels: CCHIT
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
'Meaningful use' explained
Halloween may be over, but the quest for meaningful use goes on.
I'm told that the source of this is Pat Wise of HIMSS.
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I'm told that the source of this is Pat Wise of HIMSS.
Labels: meaningful use
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Monday, October 19, 2009
EHRs in the public eye
I saw this ad in Terminal 3 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport last week:
It's a simple and powerful message, but I wonder how many people truly understand it?
I don't know when this ad went up, but it could be something left over from HIMSS in April. I see a lot of healthcare ads at O'Hare since there are so many health and medical conventions here, but many are out of date, such as from last year's Radiological Society of North America event, generally held in late November. Few are this large or have such visibility, right between a gate and an in-terminal restaurant in the heart of a major hub for American Airlines. Perhaps Siemens is trying to influence people in town to meet with Allscripts downtown or GE Healthcare in the northwest suburbs, or maybe it's targeted at the many Obama-ites who shuttle between Chicago and Washington? Rahm Emanuel, please give me a call.
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It's a simple and powerful message, but I wonder how many people truly understand it?
I don't know when this ad went up, but it could be something left over from HIMSS in April. I see a lot of healthcare ads at O'Hare since there are so many health and medical conventions here, but many are out of date, such as from last year's Radiological Society of North America event, generally held in late November. Few are this large or have such visibility, right between a gate and an in-terminal restaurant in the heart of a major hub for American Airlines. Perhaps Siemens is trying to influence people in town to meet with Allscripts downtown or GE Healthcare in the northwest suburbs, or maybe it's targeted at the many Obama-ites who shuttle between Chicago and Washington? Rahm Emanuel, please give me a call.
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Telehealth at the VA
If you only follow me via this blog, I've been incommunicado for some time. But I've been extraordinarily busy the last few weeks, churning out issues of FierceHealthIT, FierceMobileHealthcare and FierceEMR each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. I've just returned from covering the Medical Group Management Association's annual conference in Denver and, just for good measure, did a piece for my favourite British health IT publication, E-Health Insider.
The E-Health Insider piece is an in-depth interview with Dr. Adam Darkins, chief consultant for care coordination and telehealth at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about the vast telehealth infrastructure and programs at the VA. Darkins is scheduled to speak remotely to an EHI conference in Birmingham, England, next month, which explains EHI's interest in the story. I also happen to think it's an article people here in the States will find worthwhile.
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The E-Health Insider piece is an in-depth interview with Dr. Adam Darkins, chief consultant for care coordination and telehealth at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about the vast telehealth infrastructure and programs at the VA. Darkins is scheduled to speak remotely to an EHI conference in Birmingham, England, next month, which explains EHI's interest in the story. I also happen to think it's an article people here in the States will find worthwhile.
Labels: Department of Veterans Affairs, media, UK
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009
New 'Fierce' stories
For readers of FierceHealthcare, FierceEMR and FierceMobileHealthcare, there's some good conference coverage up there right now. I submitted a story from last week's Healthcare Facilities Symposium to FierceHealthcare and in today's FierceMobileHealthcare, commented kind of tangentally on the Health 2.0 Conference going on now. Plus, publisher Wendy Johnson has submitted stories for FierceEMR from the annual AHIMA meeting down in Grapevine, Texas. The more someone else writes, the less I have to do!
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Labels: AHIMA, Health 2.0, media
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Sunday, October 04, 2009
Top healthcare bloggers
FierceHealthcare last week published a list of nine interesting healthcare bloggers. I didn't make the list, but I guess it would have raised some suspicion if I had, because I of course write the weekly FierceHealthIT, FierceMobileHealthcare and FierceEMR newsletters, published by the same company. As it turns out, I also contributed a story to last Friday's FierceHealthcare from the Healthcare Facilities Symposium in Chicago.
A couple of IT blogs made the list: HIStalk (of course) and Will Weider's Candid CIO blog.
By the way, this week's FierceMobileHealthcare week will have a list of interesting free apps for the BlackBerry. I'm in a good mood right now because the Bears and Redskins won and the Cowboys lost. That always makes for a good Sunday.
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A couple of IT blogs made the list: HIStalk (of course) and Will Weider's Candid CIO blog.
By the way, this week's FierceMobileHealthcare week will have a list of interesting free apps for the BlackBerry. I'm in a good mood right now because the Bears and Redskins won and the Cowboys lost. That always makes for a good Sunday.
Labels: BlackBerry, blogging, media
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Thursday, September 24, 2009
New 'CMIO' stories
The long-awaited second issue of CMIO is out, and now it's going to a regular, bimonthly publishing schedule. I tell you this because I have two feature stories in this issue, including the cover story on health information exchange.
I also wrote a feature on "meaningful use" of health IT. That, of course, is the standard for qualifying for federal EHR subsidies starting in 2011.
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I also wrote a feature on "meaningful use" of health IT. That, of course, is the standard for qualifying for federal EHR subsidies starting in 2011.
Labels: CMIO, meaningful use, media, National Health Information Network, RHIO
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Kolodner retires from federal government
Former national health IT coordinator and longtime Department of Veterans Affairs informatics leader Robert Kolodner, M.D., is retiring from the federal government today.
Here's an excerpt of a note he sent out today:
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Here's an excerpt of a note he sent out today:
I am writing to let you know that today is my last day as a federal employee, after 31 gratifying years in public service.
What started out for me as a one year transition from residency into private practice took an unexpected turned into the opportunity of a lifetime. Notwithstanding the occasional challenges along the way, there is no other career path I would rather have pursued.
I am humbled by the superb quality of the people with whom I have had the good fortune to know and work with in the federal government. And I have been very impressed that we have a “deep bench” in federal service, with excellent people stepping up again and again to carry on, and even surpass, the work and the vision of the previous wave of leaders and key staff.
I am delighted to not only to have had the honor to serve our nation’s veterans for almost three decades, and be able to help them in their time of need after so many of them put themselves in harm’s way on our behalf, but also to have had the privilege of participating in VA-wide and nationwide activities to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient-centered health care. Hopefully, this time we will finally succeed in achieving sufficient health reform to trigger the transformations in health and care that we so desperately need in the U.S.
Over the years, I’ve done my best to reinforce and contribute to the understanding that the advances we have been pursuing in health IT have not been about technology, nor even primarily about health care, but instead have been – and are still – about improving the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Thank you for your friendship and collegial contributions over these past years. It has been a pleasure to know and work with all of you over the years, and I hope that our paths cross again in the not too distant future. I wish all the best to you in your noble pursuits – especially those of you who are doing so as federal employees.
--Rob--
Labels: Robert Kolodner
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Sunday, September 20, 2009
MedInfo paper deadline extended
The deadline for submitting papers for the 13th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics, also known as MedInfo 2010, has been extended to Oct. 15. MedInfo 2010, the triennial meeting of the International Medical Informatics Association, is scheduled for Sept. 12-15, 2010, in Cape Town, South Africa.
This will mark the first time a global health IT conference has been held in Africa, and it comes just a few months after South Africa also becomes the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup next June and July (you know, winter in the Southern Hemisphere).
I covered the last two MedInfos, in Brisbane, Australia, in 2007, and in San Francisco in 2004. I had stories to write for months after the fact. I also was the only professional journalist from either North America or Europe to make the long trip to Brisbane, and, if all goes as planned, I expect to be in Cape Town a year from now for all your coverage needs. (Subtle hint.)
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This will mark the first time a global health IT conference has been held in Africa, and it comes just a few months after South Africa also becomes the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup next June and July (you know, winter in the Southern Hemisphere).
I covered the last two MedInfos, in Brisbane, Australia, in 2007, and in San Francisco in 2004. I had stories to write for months after the fact. I also was the only professional journalist from either North America or Europe to make the long trip to Brisbane, and, if all goes as planned, I expect to be in Cape Town a year from now for all your coverage needs. (Subtle hint.)
Labels: Africa, conferences, IMIA, MedInfo, South Africa
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