MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'data'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:48:11 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5182320&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FscEadyD2R4s%2F As technology makes the world smaller, monitoring clinical trials no longer requires traveling to a destination to check up on the investigators. Much of this work can be done remotely and the FDA, in fact, wants to encourage sponsors to undertake more of what the agency calls risk-based monitoring in order to match international standards articulated by the International Conference on Harmonisation. And so the agency has just issued new guidance for drugmakers and contract research organizations, or CROs, to help sort out the variables that would determine when centralized monitoring would be preferable over on-site monitoring. The primary focus, the FDA notes, should be on steps that protect human subjects, while maintaining data integrity and compliance with regulations. Despite advance... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5182320 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:50:37 +0100 5182320 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5181974&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fhow-evaluate-hipaa-security-compliant-data-center If you host your healthcare data with a data center, certain administrative, physical and technical safeguards should be in place, as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule. Although all service providers tout their data centers as secure, how do you confirm it truly is HIPAA Security Rule compliant?  read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5181974 Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:57:30 +0100 5181974 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159669&cid=t_93693_136_f&fid=37846&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthinfoispower.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F08%2F24%2F30-day-mortality-associated-with-primary-cytoreductive-surgery-in-elderly-advanced-ovarian-cancer-patients-much-higher-than-previously-reported%2F Researchers affiliated with the University of Washington have determined that the 30-day mortality rate associated with primary cytoreductive surgery in elderly patients with advanced ovarian cancer is much higher than previously reported. Researchers affiliated with the University of Washington have determined that the 30-day mortality rate associated with primary cytoreductive surgery in elderly patients with [...] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*) Libby's H*O*P*E* blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159669 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:28:52 +0100 5159669 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159275&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FRTT7SAYwins%2F As long as there have been EMRs, there have been vendors selling aggregated, de-identified data. And there have been people worried about privacy. That issue came up last week AHIMA Legal EHR Summit right here in Chicago, during a session exploring issues related to data ownership and stewardship in the era of cloud computing. (I’ll have a more complete rundown of the session Monday in InformationWeek Healthcare.) Near the start of the panel, Daniel Orenstein, senior VP and general counsel of Athenahealth tried to put any lingering questions to rest right away. “I think data monetization is kind of a red herring,” Nussbaum said of people who criticize vendors for selling sensitive patient information. According to Nussbaum, de-identified data no longer includes any protec... Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159275 Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:52:18 +0100 5159275 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139952&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fdocuments-vs-data In "The XML Consensus is breaking down" Grahame Grieve distinguishes three camps, heavy engineering crowd, the internet mob, and the data dictionary crowd. He discusses how XML seems to be failing to bring these crowds together. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139952 Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:51:04 +0100 5139952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5125825&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FU55DsRRCd6E%2F I was hit by this comment made by Ciro on a LinkedIn group that I’m apart of (You can find the HealthcareScene.com blog network on LinkedIn if you want to join). My patients are discharged from hospitals and are seen in different offices. I have no clue what changes have been made when I open the patient’s record in my emr. We have to call to have notes faxed to us all the time. Then we scan the documents into the emr and attach it to the patient record as a tif file. If a patient has a reaction to a medication and is seen at urgent care facility, I will not know about it unless the patient tells me. There is no integrity in my emr data since changes are made all the time. Our hospital recently spent millions on a emr that does not integrate with any outpatient emr. Where is th... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5125825 Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:47:51 +0100 5125825 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118998&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fg-WZvl9XAuY%2F The new president of the American Medical Association is lashing out at critics who claim the AMA has not done enough to persuade physicians to join its five-year-old Physician Data Restriction Program, InformationWeek reports. So far, less than 28,000 doc have joined the PDRP, which enables them to opt out of prescription data mining used in pharmaceutical marketing campaigns. Last week, a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine commentary suggested the AMA had sabotaged the PDRP. As part of a discussion about the recent US Supreme Court decision to strike down a Vermont data mining law (read here), the authors pointed out that the AMA makes a great deal of money from selling its physician lists, which data miners combine with prescribing data. “To date, few physicians (... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118998 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:37:32 +0100 5118998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5078029&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FErKoEEBgvYc%2F A group of 40 members of the House of Representatives have written President Obama urging the Trans Pacific Partnership talks currently under way should include a requirement that countries offer 12 years of data exclusivity for new biologics. The missive is the latest move by the pharmaceutical industry to create what it calls parity with US law. “The US-led biopharmaceutical industry would be disadvantaged if the US does not ensure consistency with US law as part of the TPP, because foreign countries do not provide the same type of protection rules,” according to the July 27 letter, which PhRMA is circulating. The trade group has also distributed this document as part of its lobbying campaign. You may recall that brand-name drugmakers won a 12-year exclusivity period as part of a... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5078029 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:16:56 +0100 5078029 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5140259&cid=t_93693_147_f&fid=39273&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2Fql2N04t8GRU%2Fepharma-west-analytics-when-where-and.html Measuring Digital Marketing Toward Supporting Patient Adherence & Consumer Education Peter Frishauf, Non-executive Chairman of the Board, Crossix Solutions Inc Jeremy Mittler, Analytics Services Director, Crossix Solutions Inc Frishauf Crossix Solutions Inc helps match patient/consumer data to prescription data to help link effective medicine. This company innovates for Pharma in the digital space with patient adherence. Three out of four patients aren’t adherent which results in 125,000 deaths a year. Over $310 billion dollars a year is the cost of non-adherence. Digital is playing an increasing role in improving adherence. How can you measure that your adherence campaigns are successful? Reaching Existing Patients: Direct to Consumer efforts leads to 51% existing pati... ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5140259 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:05:00 +0100 5140259 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069596&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=39280&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FMarkHawker%2F%7E3%2FIC2Jkp7k4Bs%2F8095131439 Health InfoScape is a “disease network” that illustrates the relationships between various ailment conditions and how common those connections are. (Source: Mark My Words 2.1) Mark My Words 2.1 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069596 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:13:44 +0100 5069596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5036229&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fthe-real-world-of-medicine-today%2F2011.07.17 The old joke in medicine goes, ‘don’t get sick on July 1st.’ That’s because it’s the day when new resident physicians, freshly graduated from medical schools across the land, begin their training programs. Although they have spent four years in undergraduate school and four years in medical school, it’s residency where physicians are made from the raw material of knowledge-rich, experience poor high achievers. However, even in residency physicians are seldom told the entire story of how the practice of medicine, and their lives, will look and feel as their careers evolve and they enter the medical work-force. Since our profession changes from year to year and administration to administration, it seems a good time to mention some of the things upcoming young physicians will face... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5036229 Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:00:50 +0100 5036229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028454&cid=t_93693_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F07%2F13%2Fapproaches-to-knowledge-2-interview-with-nathaniel-b-jones%2F This is the second article of a two-part interview with Dr. Brian Jones.  Dr. Jones has a PhD in exercise science and is a full-time professor at the University of Louisville where he teaches both undergrad and graduate courses.  He approaches his classes from a scientific standpoint with an emphasis on critical thinking. In a nutshell, what is science?  Does science really prove anything? Science is a process. It is a system for evaluating information based on formulating a hypothesis, carefully testing that hypothesis through data collection and analysis, and revising the hypothesis. If the hypothesis withstands the researcher’s attempt to falsify it then it tentatively stands supported by the research. Nothing in science is ever truly “proven” correct. Scientific fa... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028454 Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:25:51 +0100 5028454 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028557&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2FeGWUB4gsJgQ%2F It’s understandable that a healthcare delivery system would have a mindset and business objective to keep referrals within its network of care providers. Businesses have a right and an obligation to try to hang on to their customers. It’s a different issue whether closed or walled garden HIT is an acceptable means toward that end. Outside of healthcare, we understand and can accept that businesses used closed, proprietary IT as part of their business model. Apple has designed their iPod with an eye toward incompatibility and high hassle factor in not being plug-and-play with other music players and systems. IMHO, however, healthcare is different. Keep your proprietary business model away from my body and gimme my damn data. Google+ v. Facebook on Data Portability We are witnessing an... e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028557 Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:32:34 +0100 5028557 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008660&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FoGHMXqJ1AYw%2F India has promised not to link a proposed trade deal with the European Union to any limits on making generic AIDS drugs, according to a joint statement from India’s Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The declaration came in response to growing criticism that pharma was pushing provisions in trade talks that would limit the availability of AIDS meds. The EU and India began talks in 2007 on a free-trade agreement that would be worth an estimated $134 billion in commerce. But a report last year in the Journal of the International AIDS Society suggested provisions could raise prices delay access to improved meds, and recommended that “inappropriate” trade deals should not be pursued unless new policies are created (see here). A key poin... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008660 Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:20:18 +0100 5008660 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008365&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FbrEuvSpFHdM%2F I think it’s quite easy to predict that 3-5 years from now, one of the top topics on this blog and in the EHR world as a whole is going to be around EHR data extraction or if you prefer EMR data conversion. I’ve previously predicted that by the end of the EHR stimulus money we’re be lucky to achieve 50% EHR adoption. So, you’d think that in 3-5 years we’d still be talking about EHR selection and implementation. Certainly, that will still be a topic of discussion. Not to mention, which EHR vendor they should go to for their second EHR. However, I am certain that 3-5 years from now we’re going to see a mass of doctors switching EHR vendors. As part of my EHR blog week challenge (if you’re a blogger, you should participate too), today I’m going ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008365 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:31:57 +0100 5008365 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4997645&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FcStNIo4rV5g%2F I hope that everyone is enjoying this wonderful Fourth of July. I know I’ve had a great day so far and we’re gearing up to head to KFC and enjoy some fireworks with friends. Should be a great evening if the kids don’t get too cranky along the way. It has been a great day for me to remember how lucky I am to live in this wonderful country. There are plenty of things that are messed up in this country, but over all the freedoms we enjoy and benefits of living in America far outweigh the down sides. As I typed in the title of this post, I wondered what other things do I wish had their freedom when it came to the EMR world. First thing that came to mind was data independence. How beautiful would it be if our healthcare data was independent. I’m sure the ePatients out t... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4997645 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 01:04:08 +0100 4997645 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4997503&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F07%2Fblogscan-forensic-statistics.html Several interesting points are raised in the newsletter of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) in a post entitled "Forensic Statistics" in their July 2011 newsletter headlined "Numbers." Healthcare Renewal is cited:Forensic StatisticsWhile claims from RCTs fail to replicate about 20% of the time, the problem with epidemiology is so bad as to constitute a crisis, writes S. Stanley Young (“Everything Is Dangerous: a Controversy,” National Institute of Statistical Sciences, June 2008, www.niss.org). Fewer than 20% of nonrandomized trials [e.g., observational studies - ed.] replicate; i.e. 80%-90% of epidemiologists’ claims are false.More than $1 billion in grant/tax money flows to institutions with reproducibility problems, Young states. A fundamental flaw in the... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4997503 Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:13:00 +0100 4997503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4992692&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fsupreme-court-data-mining-ok-even-when-physician-privacy-is-compromised%2F2011.07.01 The Supreme Court has sided with Big Pharma in their challenge to the Vermont Law limiting the pharmaceutical Industry’s access to physician prescribing information. The nation’s high court handed down a verdict Thursday in the Sorrell v. IMS Health case, striking down by a 6-3 vote a 2007 Vermont law that that bans the practice of data mining — the sale and use of prescriber-identifiable information for marketing or promoting a drug, including drug detailing — unless a physician specifically gives his or her permission to use the information. Apparently, Big Pharma’s right to “free speech” trumps my right to privacy. How getting access to my prescribing information has anything to do with free speech is beyond me.  In the twisted logic of the pro-business, anti-citizen Sup... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4992692 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:00:14 +0100 4992692 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4984691&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fr04LoWLwBgU%2F This is hardly surprising. After the US Supreme Court last week struck down a highly controversial Vermont law that restricts the sale of prescription drug info identifying prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes, a similar law in Maine is now being sent back to a federal appeals court for judicial review (see this). In pushing for its legislation, Vermont maintained such laws can protect doctor-patient relationships and consumer privacy, promote patient safety and contain health care costs. But market research firms successfully convinced the Supreme Court that the statute hurt public access to healthcare info and violated commercial speech (back story). Maine and New Hampshire are the only states to have passed similar bills, but these are now coming under pressure. I... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4984691 Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:38:41 +0100 4984691 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968631&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FvWWzxxstVzo%2F It’s official, Google is in fact walking away from Google Health, the way overhyped, way underused personal health record platform. In a posting on the Google Blog today, Aaron Brown, Google Health’s senior product manager, said the company would “retire” Google Health Jan. 1, 2012. (Data will be available to download until Jan. 1, 2013.) Google also decided to wind down another experiment, Google PowerMeter. From the post: When we launched Google Health, our goal was to create a service that would give people access to their personal health and wellness information. We wanted to translate our successful consumer-centered approach from other domains to healthcare and have a real impact on the day-to-day health experiences of millions of our users. Now, with a few ye... Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968631 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:59:23 +0100 4968631 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968464&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkY82WaVaaUo%2F By Jim HarperThe Supreme Court’s decision in Sorrell vs. IMS Health is being touted in many quarters as a privacy case, and a concerning one at that. Example: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released a statement saying “the Supreme Court has overturned a sensible Vermont law that sought to protect the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship.” That’s a stretch. The Vermont law at issue restricted the sale, disclosure, and use of pharmacy records that revealed the prescribing practices of doctors if that information was to be used in marketing by pharmaceutical manufacturers. Under the law, prescription drug salespeople—”detailers” in industry parlance—could not access information about doctors’ prescribing to use in focusing their effort... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968464 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:37:08 +0100 4968464 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968911&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FBc0iyAnR7mo%2F In a 6-to-3 ruling, the US Supreme Court has struck down a highly controversial Vermont law that restricts the sale of prescription drug info identifying prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes. The practice is known in the pharma world as data mining and has been growing for the past two decades, ever since data was gathered by market research firms. However, data mining has also sparked heated arguments over free speech, health care costs and information privacy. The decision is a setback for consumer advocates who maintained such laws can protect doctor-patient relationships and consumer privacy, promote patient safety and contain health care costs. Vermont, in fact, passed its law three years ago and then amended it in hopes of staving off court challenges. Similar b... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968911 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:58:18 +0100 4968911 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952737&cid=t_93693_86_f&fid=35599&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrlibrary.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F06%2Fcommunity-view-collaboration.html In collaboration with the City of Saskatoon, Saskatoon Public School Division, Saskatoon Greater Catholic Schools, and other Saskatoon Regional Intersectoral Committee agencies, Public Health Services of the Saskatoon Health Region have developed a regional comprehensive community information system, the CommunityView Collaboration (CVC). The main features of the system are:- The assembly of data from multiple sources, and; - A system supported by appropriate information technologies and tools for end-user analysis including the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS). CommunityView allows for inter-sectoral and inter-jurisdictional data sharing and access among human services organisations. According to the CVC site, its primary objective of this sharing is to "ensure consistent, tim... SHR Medical Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952737 Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:04:00 +0100 4952737 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934435&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FcaoEF1XUOg0%2F That’s the subject of my weekly post on EMR and HIPAA, based on two stories I’ve written in the last 24 hours and a conference I attended last week in Madison, Wis. Check it out.   Related posts:CDS commentary on EMR and HIPAA blog A business opportunity and a milestone Deborah Peel on Fox Business (Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog) Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934435 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:05:28 +0100 4934435 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4953046&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F3WSCeHECGNo%2F Two articles I’ve written in the last 24 hours have gotten me thinking that we’ve already entered the post-implementation era of EMRs, even as implementation remains in progress at so many healthcare organizations. While the vast majority of hospitals and physician practices in the U.S. still don’t have full-featured EMRs in place, many are already looking well into the future. As you may already know, HIMSS on Tuesday released its first-ever survey on “clinical transformation.” According to HIMSS and survey sponsor McKesson, “Clinical transformation involves assessing and continually improving the way patient care is delivered at all levels in a care delivery organization. It occurs when an organization rejects existing practice patterns that deliver in... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4953046 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:59:25 +0100 4953046 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4945130&cid=t_93693_147_f&fid=39273&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FB1BLvyfh6R0%2Ftwo-mobile-paths-for-pharma.html As pharmaceutical marketers look to integrate mobile into their marketing plans, they are evaluating two options: to build mobile apps themselves or to align with existing apps that already reach their target audience in a positive way. That decision lies in what the marketer is trying to achieve. For brands whose patient audience would benefit from information or data-capture on their cell phones, then building an app to meet those needs might be a wise investment. However, the value proposition being offered in exchange for that consumer data must be compelling enough to motivate data input. A great brand can and should be seen as presenting a positive solution for meeting a customer’s need; however, if that value-position is in the product itself and not in the mobile offering the p... ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4945130 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:15:00 +0100 4945130 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921731&cid=t_93693_147_f&fid=39273&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FePharmaSummit%2F%7E3%2FJaHatnEnfUE%2Fpfizer-looks-to-mobile-to-help-with.html Pfizer is one of the first companies to look to mobile tools to help recruit and run a clinical trial that will not need their participants to step foot in a clinic. In the new trial for Detrol, Pfizer will compare the data collection and value to the traditional methods of collecting clinical trail data. According to Mobi Health News, This allows any one in the nation to participate in the trial. Pfizer sees this as one way to potentially cut costs off of the rising price to bring drugs to market. Janet Woodcock, MD, director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA recently stated, “Modernization of clinical trials is a key initiative of FDA. We commend Pfizer’s progress on the REMOTE pilot and encourage all manufacturers considering other novel ideas in advancing clinical tr... ePharma Summit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921731 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:16:00 +0100 4921731 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4921752&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fvk3dB2JiRJE%2F Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us and we’ll share with it others. That’s right. Send us your announcements and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going, especially with all the layoffs. Despite the downsizing, there is movement. Here are some of the latest changes. Recognize anyone? And here is our regular feature. Send us a photo and we will spotlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Cerulean Pharma hired Edward Garmey as chief medical officer. Previously, he was vp for clinical development at ArQule, where he developed and oversaw overseas clinical trials of its lead product types. Before ArQule, Garmey was medical directo... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4921752 Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:02:49 +0100 4921752 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911571&cid=t_93693_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2F08%2Fhow-to-do-great-work-and-a-giveaway%2F When you’re on the job, you might feel like the last thing you’re doing is meaningful work. Like you’re stuck in a rut and just going through the motions. Email? Check. Phone calls? Check. Data entry? Check. Meeting? Check. Lunch? Check. More email. More calls. Home. Whether or not your days feel this mundane, you still might not be involved in exhilarating, engaging work that makes you happy. In Do More Great Work, Canadian coach Michael Bungay Stanier — founder of the company Box of Crayons — helps readers “stop the busywork, and start the work that matters.” Specifically, the book features a variety of exercises, which Stanier calls maps, and thought-provoking questions that help readers figure out what their own meaningful work is and how to do more of it. (It... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911571 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:15:12 +0100 4911571 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902616&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FUPd_4dJzp1g%2F Tweet I would suggest that all my friends in the world of bioinformatics read this fabulous article by Pat Helland. Pat’s on of the leading experts in distributed transactions and knows more about databases than most of us put together. His ACM article goes into some the tradeoffs and changes in mindset that need to me made when working with data that changes and comes from different sources, and all so o ften has ambiguity associated with it. It also tells you a little but about the differences in SQL and NoSQL systems when it comes to transaction semantics and in a way that meets complete sense. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article was the section on “Mulligan stew” where we also provides the example of building a heterogeneous catalog. A product catalog... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902616 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:16:36 +0100 4902616 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902522&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fmeaningful-delivery The objective of meaningful use is to improve patient outcomes, which requires much more than a certified IT system. To truly achieve meaningful use, operations need to be in place to deliver meaningful care. I would submit that workflow, dataflow, operations and processes need to come to the forefront during the preparation for meaningful use. No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902522 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:14:58 +0100 4902522 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893914&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FS1JlIDgJ9No%2F File this under failing the test. A doctor and a clinical research coordinator working for a contract research organization hired by the former Schering-Plough were indicted by the feds for falsifying study data. The clinical trial was designed to test a tablet the drugmaker was developing to treat allergies. Wayne Spencer, 73, a licensed physician and the principal investigator, and Lisa Sharp, 48, the clinical director of clinical trials at Lee Research Institute, were charged with one count of conspiracy, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of falsifying information required by the FDA. The crimes are alleged to have occurred from January 2010 to May 2010. The study was to have enrolled patients at least 50 years who suffer from ragweed-induced allergy symptoms. Employees at the C... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893914 Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:34:02 +0100 4893914 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4876473&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FNumKmYkZXMY%2F Tweet Steve O’Grady has written a blog post about a recent talk he gave at OSBC. In the post he welcomes the Age of Data. The talk covers two topics of great interest, software and data. In the context of the life sciences I have worked on both the “data as a product” side and on the packaged software side. He notes that none of the top “software” companies in the world are of recent vintage. These are companies making money from selling software (a really difficult business in the sciences). He argues that data driven products is where the market is. The success of Google and others is a testament to this, but in the sciences the entire model of data as product has never worked. I would argue that this is partly cause we’ve always sold the data itself ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4876473 Sun, 29 May 2011 00:38:14 +0100 4876473 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872475&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FQv7sASpsCEI%2F Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us and we’ll share with it others. That’s right. Send us your announcements and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going, especially with all the layoffs. Despite the downsizing, there is movement. Here are some of the latest changes. Recognize anyone? And here is our regular feature. Send us a photo and we will spotlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Pfizer named Craig Lipset as head of clinical innovation. Most recently , he was venture partner in Pfizer Venture Investments, which oversees a $50 million budget for private investments in diagnostics and health technology. Before that, he wa... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872475 Fri, 27 May 2011 12:09:20 +0100 4872475 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862677&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38494&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcuretogether.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F05%2F25%2Fannouncing-the-health-data-discovery-contest%2F What it is: Over the past 3 years, CureTogether has gathered millions of patient-reported data points on symptoms and treatments for over 500 conditions. Now it’s time to test on a larger scale how well CureTogether data represents the general population. Do they match up or not? So we’re running a contest to tap the most brilliant stats minds out there. Challenge our dataset! See whether or not it holds up to existing research studies. Why? You’ll be helping to demonstrate the effectiveness of online platforms for medical discovery, and ultimately helping to reduce global suffering. NOTE! The goal of the competition is not to reach any predetermined conclusion. It is to measure as well as we can how much our conclusions agree or disagree with the PubMed literature. Whether you fin... The Collective Well blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862677 Wed, 25 May 2011 19:07:54 +0100 4862677 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4852855&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwhy-cloud-computing-can-be-dangerous-in-healthcare%2F2011.05.23 A lot of people are intrigued with using “cloud” applications and storage for personal health data. This week we’re seeing what I think is the final nail in the coffin of “cloud only” for anything important. You gotta have offline backups: two huge cloud vendors – Amazon and now Google – have demonstrated that even they can go down, leaving their users absolutely powerless. Cloud computing (Wikipedia) is hugely attractive to software developers and businesses. As shown in this diagram from Wikipedia, the idea is that you do your computing using storage or tools that are on some computer somewhere out there “in the cloud.” You don’t know or care where, because somebody out there takes care of things. As your business or database grows, “they” take care of it. And it... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4852855 Mon, 23 May 2011 18:00:31 +0100 4852855 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841561&cid=t_93693_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fhow-heavy-is-your-data.html Russ Swan of Russ Swan fame, mentioned recently that he had taken part in NASA’s Face in Space program as he’d always dreamed of being an astronaut and this was probably as close to getting into space as he was ever likely to achieve. “A picture of my ugly mug is currently orbiting the Earth on board Endeavour,” he said. Of course, Swan’s near doppelgänger Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson might be looking for volunteers for the test flights of his “space ship”… Anyway, Swan is looking forward to downloading his certificate of flight, although he concedes that it’s all just a little misleading, as the picture in question is a massless digital file. Weightless perhaps, but massless? I wasn’t convinced by that assertion ... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841561 Thu, 19 May 2011 16:12:52 +0100 4841561 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841673&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fshould-we-abandon-cloud It's been a bad month for the cloud. First there was the major Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud) outage April 21-22 that brought down many business and websites. Some of the data was unrecoverable and transactions were lost. No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841673 Mon, 16 May 2011 13:40:07 +0100 4841673 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813262&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5w7FGpVVr_Y%2F By Jim HarperThis morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law had a hearing entitled: “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.” Among the witnesses was Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein from the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Weinstein made a gallingly Orwellian pitch: If you want privacy protection, increase government surveillance. From his written statement: ISPs may choose not to store IP records, may adopt a network architecture that frustrates their ability to track IP assignments and network transactions back to a specific account or device, or may store records for only a very short period of time. In many cases, these records are the only e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813262 Tue, 10 May 2011 17:22:27 +0100 4813262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4803141&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fdo-most-hospitals-have-similar-performance-scores%2F2011.05.09 Quality measures. Patient satisfaction surveys. With our new health care reform law, these “performance measures” are the new black in health care. Hospitals are currently spending, conservatively, tens of millions of dollars to bolster these “performance measures” in hopes of securing a refund of a mere 1% of payments that CMS will soon withhold from them in the name of “assuring” quality improvement. But what if, nationwide, there wasn’t a big difference in these measures between hospitals? What happens then? Might payments then be made on political grounds? Performance measures have been collected for some time now in anticipation of this new payment initiative by the government, so data exist to evaluate. In fact, Kaiser Health News was nice en... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4803141 Mon, 09 May 2011 13:00:00 +0100 4803141 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4794932&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fcloud-computing-or-data-center-how-hospitals-should-analyze-their-health-it-storage-needs No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4794932 Fri, 06 May 2011 17:28:19 +0100 4794932 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4775600&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F4q1xogmJvpw%2F The PhRMA trade group is urging the US Trade Representative to go beyond provisions contained in the Korea-US trade deal, known as KORUS, and include 12 years of data exclusivity for biologics in the Trans-Pacific Partnerships talks that are under way, according to Inside US Trade. The push contrasts with a White House proposal earlier this year to shrink exclusivity to seven years from 12 years, a move that would roll back a provision in health care reform. You may recall that brand-name drugmakers won a 12-year exclusivity period last year as part of an effort to create a so-called FDA approval pathway for biosimilars. Generic drugmakers, of course, wanted a shorter term. The issue is new, however, for US trade agreements. Drugmakers usually want the USTR to replicate patent provisions ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4775600 Mon, 02 May 2011 23:38:31 +0100 4775600 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4768248&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FGYUstGjx3OI%2F Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us and we’ll share with it others. That’s right. Send us your announcements and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going, especially with all the layoffs. Despite the downsizing, there is movement. Here are some of the latest changes. Recognize anyone? And here is our regular feature. Send us a photo and we will spotlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Alliance Life Sciences hired Animesh Gandhi as a director on aggregate spend, which refers to the state and federal reporting process for payments to healthcare professionals. Previously, Gandhi worked as a management consultant at Daiichi Sank... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4768248 Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:11:10 +0100 4768248 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4759043&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FF7d0dGHppWA%2F Top of the morning to you. Gray skies are hovering over the Pharmalot corporate campus, but our spirits remain sunny. And why not? This inspires us to trot out one of our favorite sayings, courtesy of the morning mayor: ‘Every brand new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift.’ So while you tug on the ribbon, here are a few items to get you started. Have a great day, everyone, and smile… Merck To Buy Back Up To $5 Billion In Stock (Reuters) Teva Resumes Manufacturing At California Site (Orange County Business Journal) J&J Agrees To Buy Synthes For $21.3 Billion (Bloomberg News) Supreme Court Skeptical About Vermont Data Mining Law (Bellingham Herald) Lupin May Wait To Sell Birth Control Pills In The US (Bloomberg News) Merck And Biogen Expand Facilities In North... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4759043 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:54:02 +0100 4759043 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4747882&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F9c4NOuPTQQ8%2F The US Supreme Court tomorrow will review a highly controversial issue - the constitutionality of a Vermont law that restricts the sale of prescription drug info identifying prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes. The practice is known in the pharma world as data mining and has been building for some two decades ever since data was gathered by market research firms, but has since sparked heated arguments over free speech, health care costs and information privacy. The information at issue includes the name of a prescribing physician, patient age and sex, the type and strength of each drug prescribed, and the date and location of prescription. Pharmacies, of course, are required by law to collect and maintain data about each prescription that is filled, and are allowed c... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4747882 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:16:39 +0100 4747882 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734260&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34631&url=http%3A%2F%2Fehealth.johnwsharp.com%2F2011%2F04%2F19%2Fbook-review-data-source-handbook%2F This new book from O’Reilly Media, written by a former Apple engineer, Pete Warden, is a catalog of code for connecting to publicly available APIs for all kinds of sites. It shows data sources by websites (whois, delicious), people by email (Amazon, FriendFeed), people by name (white pages, LinkedIn), search terms (Bing, Google), location (Google geocoding, US census), companies, IP addresses, books, films, music, products. The brief reviews and code for each source includes those which use REST/JSON, YQL and other languages. Overall the book is a very practical guide for programmers wanting to integrate public data into their websites or creating mashups. However, the book lacks any data sources related to health although many existing on the web from PubMed to ClinicalTrials.gov. ... eHealth blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734260 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:53:02 +0100 4734260 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4693447&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsaunders.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F04%2F08%2Ffixing-aberrant-files-using-r-and-the-shell%2F Once in a while, you embark on what looks like a simple computational procedure only to encounter frustration very early on. “I can’t even read my file into R!” you cry. Step back, take a deep breath and take note of what the software is trying to tell you. Most times, you’ve just missed something very straightforward. Here’s an example. Recently, I was trying to retrieve some data describing characteristics of microbial genomes from the NCBI FTP site. The file, lproks_0.txt (direct link), looked like a regular tab-delimited file with a couple of header lines: head lproks_0.txt ## Microbial Organism Information Page ## Columns: "RefSeq project ID" "Project ID" "Taxonomy ID" "Organism Name" "Super Kingdom" &qu... What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4693447 Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:41:37 +0100 4693447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684638&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FrSNtgf1kFnE%2F Tweet I have long channeled Jeff Jonas and his ideas around on data finds data. His recent blog post on the data being the query extends some of those thoughts. I find this trend fascinating, although I favor the just in time data approach, since not all information needs to be acted upon instantly, but the broader point holds. I had a similar discussion with Richard Durbin recently around data first science, where we discussed collecting data and then querying it to generate hypotheses and to see how the new data impacted existing knowledge. It’s going to be interesting how today’s life science data systems evolve. The data-driven approach which I talk about a lot is one that is essential for modern biological research (saw a great talk on this by Joel Dudley recently); usi... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684638 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:54:59 +0100 4684638 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676871&cid=t_93693_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2F04%2Funderstanding-research-methodology-2-systematic-empiricism%2F Scientific research relies on the use of empirical data for acquiring knowledge.  Empiricism means making use of observation and experience.  Science goes beyond the use of the empiricism normally used in everyday life, however.  Scientific research employs systematic empiricism. Observation itself is necessary in acquiring scientific knowledge, but unstructured observation of the natural world will not lead to an increased understanding of the world. “Write down every observation you make from the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed on a given day. When you finish, you will have a great number of facts, but you will not have a greater understanding of the world.” (Stanovich & Stanovich, 2003, p. 12) Empiricism becomes systematic empiricism when it is stru... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676871 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:54:10 +0100 4676871 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653601&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fd412WCNP6vY%2F An FDA chemist named Cheng Yi Liang was charged today by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading on confidential info about upcoming announcements of 27 different FDA approval decisions involving 19 publicly traded companies and generated more than $3.6 million in illegal profits for himself. And would you believe that he avoided incurring any losses? Some of the FDA announcements involved approval of new drugs while others concerned were negative decisions. In each instance, the SEC says he traded in the same direction as the announcement, but worked hard to disguise his work. Beginning in July 2006, Liang traded in seven brokerage accounts, including six listed in the names of other people, including his 25-year-old (who was also charged) and his 84-year-old mothe... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653601 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:46:19 +0100 4653601 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653491&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FX92wTUvET3w%2F Tweet The scale of modern life science research, where scale is not just about data volume, but also about rate of change, number of users, geographic scale, etc means that resources have to look at how they provide services differently and, more importantly, funding agencies and philanthropists have to decide where to draw the line. Is this an opportunity for commercial efforts? Is the market ready to do this, or are they willing to live with overall inefficiencies and limitations? Is there a tiered model that would be acceptable. Recent discussions and observations of what various companies and orgs are doing leads me to believe that we need to really think hard about overall efficiencies and consider the value of time. More later (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653491 Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:03:03 +0100 4653491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4642599&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwalgreens-sued-for-selling-patient-data%2F2011.03.26 Walgreens is being sued by customers who are not happy that their prescription information – even though it has been de-identified – is being sold by Walgreens to data-mining companies. The data privacy and security concerns surrounding the transfer of de-identified data are significant.  To “de-identify” what is otherwise protected health information under HIPAA, some outfits will simply strip data of 18 types of identifiers listed in federal regulations.  However, the relevant regulation (45 CFR 164.514(b)(2)(ii)) also provides that this only works if “the covered entity does not have actual knowledge that the information could be used alone or in combination with other information to identify an individual who is a subject of the information.” Thus, the problem with this a... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4642599 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:00:09 +0100 4642599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4622290&cid=t_93693_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2F21%2Fpsychologists-still-seek-prescription-privileges-no-new-news%2F This story caught my eye only because of its headline, Psychologists seek authority to prescribe psychotropic medications. Really? I thought… I never heard that before. Oh, wait a minute, I have. Because the last time I checked, psychologists have been seeking prescription privileges for something like 16 or 17 years, maybe longer. In all of that time, they’ve only gained them in two states. Was another state joining New Mexico and Louisiana? Was there a renewed push for this service because of a sudden demand for prescriptions from those who have a mental illness? In other words, for this new article that appeared in the Washington Post (but was actually written by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a healthcare policy organization) — what’s newsworthy about this story?... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4622290 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:39:31 +0100 4622290 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4605916&cid=t_93693_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hhs.gov%2Fabout%2FFY2012budget%2Focr_cj_fy2012.pdf HealthLeaders reports that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is seeking an additional $5.6 million in its Fiscal Year 2012 budget proposal to fund its HIPAA compliance and enforcement activities.The article also details the most current reported numbers on breaches reported to OCR. As of March 16 there have been 249 entities that have reported breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. To view the current data and details on reported breaches go to the OCR Breaches Affecting 500 or More Individuals. (Source: Health Care Law Blog) Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4605916 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:35:29 +0100 4605916 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4577954&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=39280&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FMarkHawker%2F%7E3%2Fj3rmOXLoPBQ%2F3807921896 (Source: Mark My Words 2.1) Mark My Words 2.1 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4577954 Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:00:08 +0100 4577954 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570532&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn6LNbfhzUOA%2F By Jim HarperYou have to wade through a lot to reach the good news at the end of Time reporter Joel Stein's article about "data mining"---or at least data collection and use---in the online world. There's some fog right there: what he calls "data mining" is actually ordinary one-to-one correlation of bits of information, not mining historical data to generate patterns that are predictive of present-day behavior. (See my data mining paper with Jeff Jonas to learn more.) There is some data mining in and among the online advertising industry's use of the data consumers emit online, of course. Next, get over Stein's introductory language about the "vast amount of data that's being collected both online and off by companies in stealth." That's some kind of stealth if a reporter can write a t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570532 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:19:15 +0100 4570532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4566342&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FojH331Zf3Vk%2F Good morning one and all. Nice to see you again. ‘Tis the middle of the week, which means we are in the thick of those meetings and deadlines. To cope - yes - we are brewing some cups of stimulation. Two-fisted drinking is possible even while manipulating a laptop. Feel free to join us. And we would also like to invite you to a webinar we are hosting next week on disclosing physician payments. Meanwhile, here are some interesting tidbits. Have a productive day and stay in touch… Novartis COPD Drug Gets Mixed FDA Panel Verdict (Wall Street Journal) J&J Misled South Carolina About Risperdal, Lawyer Says (Bloomberg News) Combo Diet Pills Making A Comeback (MSNBC) Human Genome Lupus Drug Expected To Be Approved (Reuters) Glaxo Withdraws Sports Drink Over Mold Growth (The Groce... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4566342 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:40:08 +0100 4566342 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4552124&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F3JkrNEoA2Ks%2F Tweet A couple of great posts on the Metamarkets blog recently that might be of relevance to the bioinformatics crowd. The first one, by Mike Driscoll, talks about lessons for building a petabyte data platform. Their four guiding principles Experiment often, fail fast Keep things simple to scale well Keep things modular to accommodate change Avoid undifferentiated heavy lifting I still feel that the data systems we have in the life science domain aren’t doing enough to learn good lessons from the web world, which is embracing change, complexity and scale, and even small teams, like the one at Metamarkets is able to do a lot with less, due to the kinds of principles mentioned in the post. One of the problems I see in informatics is a lack of appreciation for some of the skill... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4552124 Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:38:59 +0100 4552124 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4549802&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2Fif4wLMHT2oE%2F I recently read an article (which I can’t find now) that said, We don’t log in to check our health data as much as we do our financial data. This was a pretty interesting statement considering a few days back I posted this tweet about PHR and being an active patient: #bbpBox_41380840890048512 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4 !important; } #bbpBox_41380840890048512 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; } I want to spend some time thinking about the motivation for a healthy individual to become an active patient. #PHR #ePatient February 26, 2011 6:15 am via HootSuite @techguy John Lynn Figuring out the right motivation for someone to use a PHR has been something that’s been on my mind for quite a while. You may remember my post about requ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4549802 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:24:24 +0100 4549802 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4507583&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FV52maQaohbs%2F Hello, everyone, and nice to see you again. We hope you had a relaxing weekend and feel refreshed. Now, of course, the time has come to resume the routine of meetings and deadlines. To cope, we are reaching for the mandatory cup of stimulation and invite you to join us. Meanwhile, here are a few tidbits to get you started. Hope your day goes well and drop us a line if you hear something of interest… Forest Labs To Pay $1.2B For Clinical Data And An Antidepressant (Reuters) Gilead To Buy Calistoga Pharma For $375M (Silicon Valley Business Journal) Medtronic To Eliminate Up to 2,000 Jobs (Bloomberg News) Elan Reports 10 More PML Cases With Tysabri (Irish Examiner) Merck Vioxx Settlement Causes Money Fight Among Lawyers (Bloomberg News) Sanofi Looks For Generics And OTC Brands In India ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4507583 Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:59:38 +0100 4507583 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477981&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F61xj8hYcsnw%2F Tweet Lots of interesting discussion around the web on the rise of data-driven startups and product teams. Russell Jurney’s blog post on Analytic Product Teams has picked up a lot of press, and in general that is a topic that the LinkedIn SNA team talks about quite a bit. Bradford Cross has eloquently covered Research-driven startups and more recently, this comes up in a Dataspora article on mining big data What strikes me about this, especially light of Neil’s recent post on data scientists and my own past is that in some ways the social science space is going through a fascinating discovery about the value of data-driven products, something that some of the web giants have been doing for a long time. The difference now is that (a) there is an abundance of data, data sources ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477981 Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:32:43 +0100 4477981 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4473054&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsaunders.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2F13%2Fdumped-on-by-data-scientists%2F A story in The Chronicle of Higher Education reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about “data science” for some time. The headline to the story: “Dumped On by Data: Scientists Say a Deluge Is Drowning Research” Rather amusingly, this is abbreviated in the URL to “Dumped-On-by-Data-Scientists”; a nice example of how the same words, broken in the wrong place, can lead to a completely different meaning. Anyway, to the point. The term “data scientist” – a good thing, or not? I’m throwing this one out there because I spent much of 2010 (a) reading articles that used the term and (b) trying to decide whether I like it or not – and I still can’t decide. Arguments for: It’s an attention-grabber, designed t... What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4473054 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 05:43:21 +0100 4473054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455410&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35006&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsaunders.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2F09%2Falgorithms-running-day-and-night%2F Warning: contains murky, somewhat unstructured thoughts on large-scale biological data analysis Picture this. It’s based on a true story: names and details altered. Alice, a biomedical researcher, performs an experiment to determine how gene expression in cells from a particular tissue is altered when the cells are exposed to an organic compound, substance Y. She collates a list of the most differentially-expressed genes and notes, in passing, that the expression of Gene X is much lower in the presence of substance Y. Bob, a bioinformatician in the same organisation but in a different city to Alice, is analysing a public dataset. This experiment looks at gene expression in the same tissue but under different conditions: normal compared with a disease state, Z Syndrome. He also notes ... What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455410 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 03:41:21 +0100 4455410 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4450354&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F8CGEut-_62E%2F My last post on EMR companies holding practice data for ransom was very popular and had some very interesting discussion in the comments. Honestly, every EMR vendor should be considering the impact of the choice to not liberate the data in the EMR. No, I’m not talking about being loose with the data. HIPAA will come back to bite you if you do that. Plus, no doctor will want to use your system. What I’m talking about is making the data in the EMR available to the doctor. In fact, if your a doctor or practice manager reading this post, you should make this a requirement of the EMR vendor you select. If you already have an EMR vendor, you should work to have them incorporate this feature in their EMR ASAP. Lest you think that I’m just being pro doctor and not considering the... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4450354 Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:34:03 +0100 4450354 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4442078&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FfIV7JtZnFas%2F Tweet This talk from Jeff Hammerbacher is worth a listen. Gives you a good history of enterprise data challenges and some of the reasons why Hadoop became a big deal so quickly and a good sense of the evolving Hadoop ecosystem Jeff Hammerbacher on Evolving a New Analytical Platform – Orbitz IDEAS from Orbitz IDEAS on Vimeo (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4442078 Sun, 06 Feb 2011 05:35:47 +0100 4442078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4436886&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2011%2F02%2F04%2Flinked-electronic-medical-records-for-genomic-research%2F I’ve just come across an interesting study on BMC Medical Genomics. Authors aim at linking electronic medical records and genomic data which is I believe a very promising approach. The Personal Genome Project did something similar but only with 10 participants. The eMERGE (electronic MEdical Records and GEnomics) Network is an NHGRI-supported consortium of five institutions to explore the utility of DNA repositories coupled to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems for advancing discovery in genome science. eMERGE also includes a special emphasis on the ethical, legal and social issues related to these endeavors. Current progress: The primary site-specific phenotypes for which samples have undergone genome-wide association study (GWAS) genotyping are cataract and HDL, dementia, elec... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4436886 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:24:23 +0100 4436886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4433149&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FQYTLUG33_IE%2Fi-havent-done-much-with-my-youtube-page.html I haven't done much with my YouTube page since I launched it last month, but here's some new video of me, courtesy of Nuesoft Technologies. Nuesoft hosts a podcast series, and they recently invited me, along with Health Data Management Editor-in-Chief Greg Gillespie to discuss mobile healthcare technologies. We all had webcams, so the result is this YouTube video.In a bit of serendipity, Gillespie happened to be looking for freelance help with HDM's HIMSS Microsite, a collection of articles previewing HIMSS11. My first story should be up within the next hour. (Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog) Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4433149 Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:59:29 +0100 4433149 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4424379&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35016&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffgibson.com%2F2011%2F02%2F01%2Fdita-a-framework-for-scientific-publishing%2F There are two industry recognised standards for XML based documentation. These are Docbook and DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). Docbook is the older of the two specifications and created specifically for technical documentation. DITA, is a younger specification which grew out of IBM, and is referred to as having its own architecture and was designed to provide structure to more than just a book. Both specifications are OASIS standards.  As with XML schemas, both specifications can be extended to include bespoke features. However, Docbook is based more on a book structure with Sections and subsections, where as DITA is built around topics that can be built up in any arrangement based on a document map.  A DITA topic is open to specialisation itself, however, a topic has... peanutbutter blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4424379 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:30:03 +0100 4424379 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4419252&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=39280&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FMarkHawker%2F%7E3%2FdRbvDPkz6Zc%2F3014829061 How do you tell stories with data? And the original. Thanks, @Bonnycastle. (Source: Mark My Words 2.1) Mark My Words 2.1 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4419252 Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:58:00 +0100 4419252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4405718&cid=t_93693_86_f&fid=34445&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwomenshealthnews.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F01%2F27%2Fat-obos-breast-implants-cancer-early-births-breastfeeding-promotion-and-more%2F Some of my recent posts at Our Bodies Our Blog: Breast Implants and Possible Risk of Rare Cancer – links to FDA information on the possibility of a link between breast implants and a rare cancer. Leapfrog Group Releases Data on Early Elective Births – rates of early (37-39 weeks) induction and early cesarean without a medical indication from hospitals around the U.S. Surgeon General Releases Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding – link to the call to action and a brief overview of its contents, which include not only encouraging women to breastfeed, but a call for workplaces, fathers, grandmothers, and communities to work to reduce barriers to breastfeeding. Upcoming Event: EQUAL/OBOS House Party in Palo Alto – in three days, OBOS’s Judy Norsigian will be... Women's Health News blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4405718 Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:27:07 +0100 4405718 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4394393&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fexecutive-branch-putting-lipstick-on.html In another example of executive branch spin on healthcare - this time, the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) within HHS - data that gave an off-narrative message about healthcare IT was initially withheld according to Modern Healthcare's Joseph Conn.The data withholding is reminiscent of the data manipulation practiced in the pharmaceutical industry.Legislative branch, take note: Not-so-rosy rumorsBy Joseph ConnModern Healthcare.comLast week, Dr. David Blumenthal announced the results of two surveys funded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on hospital and physician participation in the federal electronic health-record incentive programs. But Dr. B left out a few numbers in going over the results of the survey of office-based phy... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4394393 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:08:00 +0100 4394393 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4372105&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FTQ5ADWHyE9c%2F JamesNT wrote a really interesting forum post recently about how a number of EMR vendors are holding doctor’s patient information “ransom” (his word) from them. Here’s his whole description and he even names a few EMR vendors and the challenges related to getting the EMR data out of their systems: To many EMR’s lock up the practice’s data and hold it for ransom. The data entered into an EMR belongs to the practice, not the EMR. It is not fair for EMR’s to not provide ways to interface or export data from the database. If a doctor wants to hire an IT person or developer such as myself to write custom reports or export data from the EMR, then it should be possible. Consider the following examples: Amazing Charts: They use SQL Server 2005 Express as t... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4372105 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:33:48 +0100 4372105 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4394516&cid=t_93693_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fsocial-networking-with-research-data.html I’d previously used the phrase “Napster for Research Papers” when thinking about Mendeley. Mendeley lets you upload your own research papers to your personal library under publishers’ fair use agreements and to share them with their peers as you might share a traditional paper reprint. So, maybe Napster was never the right metaphor…there’s nothing illegal in sharing your papers via reprints and most publishers nowadays allow their authors to do so via eprints. Mendeley describes itself as, “Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research.” Now, personally, I have just a few papers in research journals dating back to the ... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4394516 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:00:41 +0100 4394516 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4360977&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fpoint-and-click-medicine-the-emr-game%2F2011.01.18 Whistleblower readers know of my criticisms of the electronic medical record (EMR) juggernaut that is oozing over the medical landscape. Ultimately, this technology will make medical care better and easier to practice. All systems will be integrated, so that a physician will have instant access to his patients’ medical data from other physicians’ offices, emergency rooms and hospitals. In addition, data input in the physician’s office will use reliable voice activated technology, so that some antiquated physician behaviors, such as eye contact, can still occur. Clearly, EMR is in transition. I place it on the 40 yard line, a long way from a touch down or field goal position. A colleague related a distressing meeting he had at the community hospital he works at. This hospital, like ne... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4360977 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0100 4360977 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4349694&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FxghWdm5jAQA%2F As with any industry, there are always behind-the-scenes players that occupy an important role and one of them is IMS Health, which is best known as a market research firm because it traffics in an enormous amount of data. And to expand its scope, IMS Health is now buying a rival, SDI Health, according to sources who are familiar with the deal. The move will solidify IMS Health’s position as a provider of key data to the pharmaceutical industry, which means drugmakers will have fewer sources for information on patients and prescriptions. This raises the question of the extent to which this deal will cause antitrust concerns. The next biggest player in this market is Wolters Kluwer. The acquistion comes after IMS Health was taken private last year, but has been under pressure to boos... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4349694 Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:08:25 +0100 4349694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4343334&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FCgLvWskDCNk%2F Hello, everyone, and top of the morning to you. A steely, wintry sky hovers over the Pharmalot corporate campus this morning, where we are enduring the usual routine of hustling short people to this or that school house. As we cope - where is that cup of stimulation? - please join us in perusing the news of the world. Meanwhile, feel free to pass along interesting tidbits. Have a good one… AstraZeneca And Cancer Charity Strike Drug Testing Deal (Bloomberg News) FDA Warns Of Acetaminophen Risks Of Liver Toxicity (Drug Store News) Drug Shortages Persist With No End In Sight (Daily Finance) Biotechs And Generics Spar Over Biologic Exclusivity (The Wall Street Journal) FDA Says Sanofi-Aventis’ Lantus Link To Cancer Is Unclear (Reuters) US Cancer Costs Are Expected To Soar (Los Ange... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4343334 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:02:18 +0100 4343334 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4331240&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Ffs_tQgfFVm0%2F Nothing like a trade off between generations. A new study suggests that extending data exclusivity for small molecule brand-name drugs will lead to higher drug costs in the short term, but down the road, more than 200 additional drugs would be approved as a result of the increased revenue generated, offering increased industry incentives. And this would also boost life expetancy for future generations. In other words, today’s patients pay more, but tomorrow’s patients can get a better deal. Data exclusivity, you may recall, refers to the exclusive access to clinical trial data and, right now, brand-name drugmakers are granted five years for data submitted during the FDA approval process. There’s also an extra three years for supplemental applications and six months more f... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4331240 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:55:34 +0100 4331240 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4327003&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FqMAAzjXOv1A%2F Tweet I am fascinated by the entire field of social network analysis. Given all the data, however incomplete and noisy, at our disposal today, we can learn a lot about our behavior and habits. While some companies and organizations leverage these data to sell more targeted advertising and improving the relevance of search results, there is a whole slew of socio-economic and other metrics/trends that we can evaluate as well. For example, Jake Hofman does some fabulous work on how to analyze social network dynamics. There are many others doing much the same. An example of some interesting work in this area comes to us from Marcel Salathé and co-workers at Penn State. Their paper on “A High-Resolution Human Contact Network for Infectious Disease Transmission” looks into the num... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4327003 Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:39:37 +0100 4327003 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4322690&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FUjxdBU3b7R8%2F After several years of courtroom battles, the US Supreme Court has agreed to review whether laws that ban data mining - specifically, the sale of prescription drug info that identifies prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes - are unconstitutional (see this). The move, which is not surprising, comes after conflicting rulings issued by different federal appeals courts. Last November, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit shot down a Vermont law after deciding it violated the First Amendment right to free speech (see here). Previously, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld similar statutes passed by Maine and New Hampshire (read this). The challenges to the state laws were made by three healthcare research firms - IMS Health, SDI, Wolters Kluwer hea... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4322690 Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:10:01 +0100 4322690 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4322539&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Fcommon-questions-on-mds-3-0-section-m-skin-conditions%2F I recently gave another training session for nursing home professionals for MDS 3.0 Section M: Skin Conditions.  In the audience were nurses, directors of nursing, administrators, MDS coordinators and a smattering of physical therapists, doctors, and social workers.  After the didactic I fielded questions and decided to share the most common ones with my blog [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4322539 Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:47:26 +0100 4322539 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4302236&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2Fpb9DlJ7Snls%2F Tweet Hans Rosling is a great presenter on the value of statistics and he now has a BBC documentary to go with it (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4302236 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:51:33 +0100 4302236 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4304954&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2010%2F12%2F30%2Fsurescripts-becomes-onc-atcb-ehr-certification-body%2F In the weirdest news I’ve seen in a while, SureScripts has become an ONC-ATCB. Here’s the details from Health Data Management: In a Dec. 23 announcement, the Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT said that Arlington, Va.-based Surescripts can verify that e-prescribing, privacy and security modules meet the standards laid out in the meaningful use requirements. Surescripts is the sixth authorizer to be approved by ONCHIT, but it’s the only one with limited certification abilities—the five others have ONCHIT’s blessing to certify Complete EHRs and EHR modules. Doesn’t this scream conflict of interest? They run a nationwide e-Prescribing network, and yet they can certify ePrescribing for ONC. I guess you could make the argument that they know ePrescribing w... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4304954 Fri, 31 Dec 2010 05:59:44 +0100 4304954 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4298689&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FEaXwhFuiM7w%2F I’m excited to announce the beginning of Meaningful Use Monday on EMR and HIPAA. I first came up with the idea when Lynn Scheps from SRSsoft commented on one of my previous meaningful use posts. Lynn provided such valuable information, I asked her if she’d be interested in becoming a regular guest blogger on EMR and HIPAA. As they say, the rest is history. Each Monday, Lynn (and sometimes myself) will be covering some topic related to the EMR Stimulus money and meaningful use. We hope you enjoy Meaningful Use Monday. -John With the impending start of the EHR incentive program on January 1, the results of a recent Health Data Management poll are troublesome. 72% of respondents feel that the meaningful use guidance provided by the government to-date has been either “inadequate ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4298689 Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:18:40 +0100 4298689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4285200&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fa-makeover-for-lab-reports%2F2010.12.23 Although medical professionals get used to it, the way laboratory data is presented in reports can be quite confusing to the patient. Typically, it is a few columns of black text with poor organization and little guidance to help the patient discern any meaning. The folks at Wired agreed, and they brought together some Dartmouth physicians and a group of designers to bring a new look to these drab reports. We got to see their refreshing results at TEDMED, but now these prototype reports have been published online: Link: The Blood Test Gets a Makeover… *This blog post was originally published at Medgadget* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4285200 Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:00:02 +0100 4285200 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4275537&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F12%2F21%2Fnewistic-mining-social-media%2F I’ve recently come across Newistic as I was about to meet the co-founder, Horatiu Mocian, but we couldn’t make it. The service sounds intereting and timely to me. Newistic offers a customizable web dashboard used for monitoring and analyzing social media for the pharma and healthcare industries. It enables persons or companies interested in the healthcare vertical to get a social media overview for any drug, disease, pharma company, or any other keyword. The features that set Newistic apart from other social media monitoring systems are: Monitoring patient communities Discovering diseases and symptoms that are associated with any search The possibility of searching all or some of the brand names of a generic drug To demonstrate its real power, here is a recent analysis they ... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4275537 Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:52:16 +0100 4275537 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4253118&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9jHx1bT-QCg%2F By Daniel J. MitchellWhen big-spending politicians in Washington pontificate about “deficit reduction,” taxpayers should be very wary. Crocodile tears about red ink almost always are a tactic that the political class uses to make tax increases more palatable. The way it works is that the crowd in DC increases spending, which leads to more red ink, which allows them to say we have a deficit crisis, which gives them an excuse to raise taxes, which then gives them more money to spend. This additional spending then leads to more debt, which provides a rationale for higher taxes, and the pattern continues — sort of a lather-rinse-repeat cycle of big government. Fortunately, it looks like the American people have figured out this scam. By a 57-34 margin, they say that reducing ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4253118 Sun, 12 Dec 2010 20:06:59 +0100 4253118 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4245394&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fhealthcare-it-implications-healthcare-reform I'm often asked how Healthcare Reform will impact IT planning and implementation over the next few years. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4245394 Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:14:38 +0100 4245394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4241721&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2F200-healthcare-systems-in-4-minutes%2F2010.12.08 Hans Rosling, director of the Gapminder Foundation, just released another spectacular video featuring 200 years of 200 healthcare systems with 12,000 numbers in four minutes. Enjoy: *This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4241721 Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:00:40 +0100 4241721 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4241949&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FU1IRA4muioM%2F Generally, trade agreements are discussed behind closed doors, but a New Zealand talk paper was leaked the other day and contains ideas that run counter to suggestions being pushed by US and the global pharmaceutical industry. In fact, the Public Citizen advocacy group, which publicized the leak, calls it a “direct challenge to the monopoly interests of major pharmaceutical corporations.” The disclosure comes amid negotiations that are being held this week in New Zealand among eight countries and the US that are participating in the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, or FTA. At issue is the extent to which the FTA would move beyond intellectual property standards in the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, or TRIPS agreem... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4241949 Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:45:36 +0100 4241949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4238065&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F12%2F07%2F200-healthcare-systems-in-4-minutes%2F Hans Rosling, director of the Gapminder Foundation, just released another spectacular video featuring 200 years of 200 healthcare system with 12,000 numbers in 4 minutes. Enjoy: (Source: ScienceRoll) ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4238065 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:29:40 +0100 4238065 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4233128&cid=t_93693_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F12%2F06%2Fimpact-assessment-visualised%2F Overall Impact We saw a great feedback wordle from a training session the other day so we thought it would be interesting to run the Impact Assessment feedback forms through it as a really quick and lazy piece of content analysis. This is particularly useful for the comment boxes on our feedback forms which we’ve been mor than a little gratified people have completed. Mediated Search Feedback Document Supply Impact Feedback Information Handling Training Impact Feedback   Filed under: Fade, Fade Comms, Librarianship, Library Services, Literature Searching, Searching, Study Skills Tagged: Content Analysis, Data, Impact Assessment, Visualisation (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4233128 Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:34:35 +0100 4233128 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4230320&cid=t_93693_151_f&fid=36896&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSuboxoneTalkZone%2F%7E3%2FUpAr4nYYtVU%2F What is Suboxone? Suboxone is the trade name for a medication that contains buprenorphine and naloxone. A similar medication, Subutex, contains buprenorphine without naloxone.  Both are manufactured and sold by Reckitt-Benckiser, a company based in the UK with operations world-wide. Suboxone is FDA indicated for the treatment of opioid dependence.  Both medications are also used ‘off label’ (**see footnote ), or without FDA indication, to treat chronic pain and more controversially,  refractory depression.  Because of longstanding regulations in the United States that prohibit treating opioid dependence with narcotics, a waiver from the DEA is required in order for doctors to prescribe buprenorphine for that indication.  Buprenorphine can be used to treat other conditions,... Suboxone Talk Zone blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4230320 Sat, 04 Dec 2010 23:52:33 +0100 4230320 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4225659&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FaUJt6QgUc6g%2F Once again, another work week is about to draw to a close. Although meetings and deadlines loom today, already we are looking ahead to spending time with the short people, a night at the movies, catching up on some reading and promenading with the official Pharmalot mascots. What about you? Anything special planned? Maybe an afternoon nap or a fancy dinner? Well, you could always pay some bills. In any event, here are a few tidbits to peruse while you consider the possibilities. Whatever you do, have a great time and stay safe. See you soon… Pharma Mergers Scrutinized In Insider Trading Probe (Reuters) Merck Pays $500 For SmartCell Diabetes Drugmaker (Bloomberg News) FDA Panel Backs AstraZeneca Thyroid Drug (MedPage Today) Licensing Deal Threatends Cheap AIDS Meds For Poor (The Indep... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4225659 Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:36:07 +0100 4225659 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4225532&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FEQGwfrXIYX4%2F Tweet There’s a lot of interesting stuff out there which I don’t have time to blog about, so here are some links that I might end up blogging about later NASA, a little bit of hyperbole, but some cool biochemistry. You’ve all seen the news. Here is thhe (paper in Science). A few interesting blog posts by Steve Betz, PZ Myers and Derek Lowe Science and gameplay. Phylo is to comparative genomics what Foldit is to structure prediction LinkedIn, the place for data scientists. Or so it seems, as they add Daniel Tunkelang to an excellent team of data geeks (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4225532 Fri, 03 Dec 2010 06:56:31 +0100 4225532 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214157&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Freverse-staging-of-pressure-ulcers-explained%2F The issue of “reverse staging” or “backstaging” of pressure ulcers as they heal is often a cause for confusion, even for some experts.  With this blog post I hope to clarify things and explain why reverse staging is now discouraged when assessing wounds, and place the issue in context with the revised Minimum Data Set [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214157 Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:09:11 +0100 4214157 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4200541&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F11%2Fonline-health-data-in-employers-and-insurers-predictive-analytics.html By FRANK PASQUALE Did you know that buying generics instead of brands could hurt your credit? Or that a subscription to Hang Gliding Monthly could scare off life insurers? Or that certain employers’ access to electronic health records could lead... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4200541 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4200541 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4197361&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F56S6t7OGekU%2F A federal appeals court has ruled that a Vermont law restricting data mining - specifically, the sale of prescription drug info that identifies prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes - is unconstitutional. The law was challenged by three healthcare research firms - IMS Health, SDI, Wolters Kluwer health - and the PhRMA trade group, which argued the legislation would hurt public access to healthcare info and violated commercial speech. The decision is a setback for consumer advocates who maintained such laws can protect doctor-patient relationships and consumer privacy, promote patient safety and contain health care costs. Vermont, in fact, passed its law three years ago and then amended it in hopes of staving off court challenges (see here). Similar bills have been intr... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4197361 Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:29:23 +0100 4197361 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4190097&cid=t_93693_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F22%2Finternational-journal-of-epidemiology-2010-vol-39-no-5%2F This article looks at statistical approaches adopted in the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, in which primary data has been collated to enable analyses of various risk markers in relation to incident cardiovascular disease outcomes Print subscription held at Fade Library Filed under: Journals Tagged: Analysis, Epidemiological Studies, Epidemiology, Meta-Analysis, Statistical Data (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4190097 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:35:37 +0100 4190097 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4183538&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FyBd3vLakqQw%2F First, some drugmakers caught the transparency bug. Now, a big regulator has been infected. As of next week, the European Medicines Agency will provide clinical trial data on request for every drug that has been reviewed, and hopes to publish reports on its web site within five years, according to Bloomberg News. The move came in response to a long-standing request from researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre for trial reports on three obesity drugs - Roche’s Xenical, Abbott Lab’s Meridia and Sanofi-Aventis’ Acomplia - in hopes of determining whether published data corresponded with the detailed reports submitted to the EMA, the news service continues. The researchers sought the reports in June 2007, just after an FDA panel rejected Acomplia over suicide concerns (see this). Th... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4183538 Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:01:16 +0100 4183538 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4159243&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fan-app-to-self-test-for-stds%2F2010.11.11 A new £5.7 million project being led by St. George’s-University of London is developing self-test devices that can plug directly into mobile phones and computers, immediately identifying sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The project is called eSTI — electronic self-testing instruments for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) — and is being led by Dr. Tariq Sadiq, senior lecturer and consultant physician in sexual health and HIV at St George’s-University of London. Most of the funding is coming from The Medical Research Council and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. The UK has seen a 36 percent rise in STIs from 2000 to 2009 — often blamed on the reluctance of the population to get diagnosed and the stigma of going to public health clinics — promp... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4159243 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:00:06 +0100 4159243 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151841&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Funavoidable-pressure-ulcer-assessment-in-section-m-skin-conditions%2F The revised Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) with the new MDS 3.0 Section M: Skin Conditions radically expands the assessment process for pressure ulcers in Medicare certified skilled nursing facilities.  In contrast to the prior version, there are data fields for improving or deteriorating pressure ulcers, ulcer measurements, and tissue type at the base of the [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151841 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:41:39 +0100 4151841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4142737&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1dQt1jt-1WM%2F By Jim HarperThe recent European Commission proposal to create a radical and likely near impossible-to-implement “right to be forgotten” provides an opportunity to do some thinking about how privacy norms should be established. In 1961, Italian liberal philosopher and lawyer Bruno Leoni published Freedom and the Law, an excellent, if dense, rumination on law and legislation, which, as he emphasized, are quite different things. Legislation appears today to be a quick, rational, and far-reaching remedy against every kind of evil or inconvenience, as compared with, say, judicial decisions, the settlement of disputes by private arbiters, conventions, customs, and similar kinds of spontaneous adjustments on the part of individuals. A fact that almost always goes unnoticed is that a ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4142737 Mon, 08 Nov 2010 12:06:11 +0100 4142737 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4142924&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FQ4Z3IdCJ2QM%2F Tweet Ben Black has a great blog post on GigaOm on scale-driven database architecture. There are two key messages there that I would like reiterative in the context of modern biology. The first comes right at the beginning of the post Scale breaks everything. Scale even breaks your assumptions about how best to store and query data. Scale does not care about your personal engineering preferences, or about SQL vs. NoSQL. The demands of rapid growth and ever-higher expectations for availability, performance, and cost efficiency force you to re-evaluate and re-imagine what you need, what is possible, and how to best achieve your businessscientific goals. The second message comes in right at the end Lost in all the debates about SQL vs. NoSQL, ACID vs. BASE, CAP, and all the rest is simply ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4142924 Sat, 06 Nov 2010 18:41:39 +0100 4142924 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4139480&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FQQmWLy0WjS4%2F Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us and we’ll share with it others. That’s right. Send us your announcements and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going, especially with all the layoffs. Despite the downsizing, there is movement. Here are some of the latest changes. Recognize anyone? And here is our regular feature. Send us a photo and we will spotlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Weill Cornell Medical College hired Steve Paul to head the Appel Institute for Alzheimer’s Research. Before joining the institution, Paul was vp of science and technology and president of at Eli Lilly Research Labs and was the scientific ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4139480 Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:32:57 +0100 4139480 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4119198&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fnine-ways-icd-10-will-better-your-business The healthcare industry might not yet realize this simple fact: Although this does not garner much in the way of media attention, ICD-10 promises to improve the business of healthcare in numerous ways. Despite the cost, expanse, and overwhelming transformation payers and providers will have to undertake to achieve ICD-10 compliance, ultimately it will be a boon for both healthcare in America and those organizations that serve up that care. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4119198 Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:15:09 +0100 4119198 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4119476&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FPvDVvw4jMlA%2F TweetI’ve written about Swivel in the past, but I never really got around to using it. Well Swivel is no more. Robert Kosara interviewed the co-founders about the rise and fall of Swivel (interestingly both had left Swivel prior to this news). Read the entire interview, but it reminded me about businesses and what might seem obvious with one thing doesn’t translate as well to others. But in the end it seems to be there were a lot of mistakes in execution. Perhaps Swivel was not the kind of business meant to be just it’s own business, but part of a larger operation. Perhaps they should have worked harder on the data sets they could get their hands on. I wasn’t there, so can’t say for sure and armchair backing is an easy exercise. I also think that a part of the... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4119476 Thu, 28 Oct 2010 06:10:01 +0100 4119476 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4097905&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmON0D8QzICM%2F By Daniel J. MitchellGallup just released a poll showing that 46 percent of Americans view the federal government as an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans. My first reaction was to wonder why the number was so low. After all, we have a political elite that wants to do everything from control our health care to monitor our financial transactions. But a secondary set of numbers is even more remarkable. As seen in this chart, both Republicans and Democrats tend to view the federal government as a threat mostly when the White House is controlled by the other party. This complacency is very unfortunate. Republicans presumably want to limit government control over the economy, yet it was the Bush Administration that put in place policies such as Sarbanes-Oxley, th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4097905 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:31:22 +0100 4097905 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4065397&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Fclassification-of-pressure-ulcers-in-long-term-care%2F Revised Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Section M: Skin Conditions greatly expands the process of skin assessment in nursing homes.  The accompanying Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) Instruction Manual has instructions on how to identify and code pressure ulcers and other wounds using a methodology that is explicitly stated.  These instructions include the following: “If an [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4065397 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:35:57 +0100 4065397 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4031424&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FYXvzgVBdqOg%2F TweetDrew Conway has come up with a Data Science Venn Diagram. My favorite bit from the diagram is the “danger zone”. Drew positions the danger zone as follows Finally, a word on the hacking skills plus substantive expertise danger zone. This is where I place people who, “know enough to be dangerous,” and is the most problematic area of the diagram. In this area people who are perfectly capable of extracting and structuring data, likely related to a field they know quite a bit about, and probably even know enough R to run a linear regression and report the coefficients; but they lack any understanding of what those coefficients mean. It is from this part of the diagram that the phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics” emanates, because either through ignorance or mali... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4031424 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:24:15 +0100 4031424 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4036755&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2010%2F10%2F04%2Ffuture-emr-differentiation-will-be-usability-and-not-features%2F This week I saw a product demo of EMR vendor, SOAPware. Now that SOAPware has their fully integrated practice management system, they have a great demo and all the features you could want in an EMR system. In fact, as I was watching the demo and asking questions about different features they might have or not have I came to an interesting realization. SOAPware, and most EMR vendors that have been around for any reasonable amount of time, have all of the features covered. They all have ePrescribing. They all have CPOE, and Clinical Decision Support. They all have allergy and drug interaction checking, etc etc etc. Basically, it seems like the EMR market has matured to the point that we’ve covered all the base features that a doctor could use for their clinic. The real challenge now is... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4036755 Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:01:08 +0100 4036755 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4027161&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fbias-in-clinical-research-is-inevitable%2F2010.10.03 DrRich has said many times that clinical science is among the least exact of the sciences, and therefore, the results of clinical research are particularly susceptible to “spinning” by various interested parties, in order to yield the kind of results they would prefer to see. Until recent times in American medicine, the parties who have been most interested in spinning clinical research have been the people who run drug companies and medical device companies (who need clinical research which supports the use of their products), and the medical specialists (who are more likely to be paid for performing medical procedures that are supported by clinical research). In writing about such data-spinning abuses, DrRich has particularly targeted his own Cardiology Guild, but only because he kno... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4027161 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:00:16 +0100 4027161 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4025735&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FAWCxEW662Yk%2F TweetTo answer the right questions you need the right people That’s the last line from a blog post by Steve O’Grady. In Even with Big Data, it’s difficult to hard to ask the right question, Steve points out that with large amounts of data, asking the right question is quite hard. His point, channeling Kevin Weil, is that with a lot of data, asking the right questions becomes critical. In the sciences this gets magnified, because the questions we ask are critical to developing new hypotheses and as a former colleague of mine always said, it’s always about our point of view. In other words, framing questions is critical and the results we get depend on the questions we ask and how we are asking them. As we generate more and more biological data, our biggest challenge ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4025735 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 07:55:24 +0100 4025735 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3998990&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fshould-old-age-be-a-cause-of-death%2F2010.09.24 The Washington Post asks whether “old age” should be reconsidered as a legitimate cause of death for the elderly. Because more people are dying at very advanced ages with multiple system failure, it’s often harder for physicians to pinpoint the specific underlying cause, but using “old age” as a catch-all term could make mortality data less meaningful, the article said. An upcoming revision of the International Classification of Diseases might provide some guidance: “Each revision of the ICD is the right moment to reconsider this question,” the co-head of the ICD’s mortality statistics committee told the Post. (Washington Post) *This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3998990 Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0100 3998990 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3999182&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F5yRMHgkwQ4o%2F TweetIlya Grigorik has a great set of slides up on slideshare from his recent talk at the 2010 Golden Gate Ruby conference. The talk called Intelligent Rudy + Machine Learning is the kind of presentation I absolutely love. He talks about the what, the why, the trends, and relevant tools. Over the past few years, I’ve become fascinated with machine learning. For the longest time, from my perspective, machine learning was something for academics to play around with models without significant real world utility. The availability of data and computing has changed that, and today I am a convert to the power of machine learning, and wish we pushed the envelope more, at least in the life sciences. Some of this change in opinion is due to the adoption of machine learning in non-academic sett... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3999182 Fri, 24 Sep 2010 07:54:22 +0100 3999182 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3983417&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Flegislated-standards-of-medical-practice%2F Recently Governor Paterson signed a law that mandates New York doctors to offer balanced information on choices for end-of-life care – a practice in line with principles of geriatric practice and informed decision making.  All nursing homes are already mandated by regulation to perform assessments for such medical problems as delirium, depression, and pressure ulcers [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3983417 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 05:03:10 +0100 3983417 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3982087&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FCD6ILq6hA48%2F Greg Linden points us to a great paper (pdf) on machine learning by folks at Google that was presented at LADIS ’10 (I’d love to go some day) The presentation covers Sibyl, a “system for large scale machine learning” and about Parallel Boosting, an iterative approach that does well at predictions based on sparse data. The Boosting page says that the boosting approach is designed to work with semi-accurate rules of thumb (made me think of ligand pose scoring for some reason). As might be expected from a Google approach it is embarrassingly parallel and uses the following approach (image from the talk PDF) They also talk about how they leverage RAM, lots of cores and GFS (column store). Greg does a great job of covering some of those aspects. This method allows the ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3982087 Sun, 19 Sep 2010 03:28:12 +0100 3982087 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3983449&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2010%2F09%2F15%2Fno-sign-for-healthcare%2F I recently heard Arien Malec from ONC summarize the biggest challenge of Healthcare Information Exchange (HIE) in one simple phrase: There’s no @ sign for healthcare It’s a really basic idea, but sadly cuts straight to one of the core reasons HIE isn’t happening. We don’t have a great way to authenticate, verify and address health information to another provider. Twitter has created this interesting concept of using @ to specify people. For example, you can find me @techguy and @ehrandhit. It’s amazing how quickly Twitter has created a whole new set of addresses where we can communicate with other people. Certainly it’s not designed for healthcare, but it’s amazing that they could create this whole new address system for people and organizations. A... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3983449 Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:11:26 +0100 3983449 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3965524&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2FW7-Cvm8tO98%2F Who has the most comprehensive data about YOUR clinical conditions? For most people, the answer today is “your health plan”, but it’s not at all clear that health plans will continue to have this role in the future. As physicians and hospitals adopt EHRs, it’s foreseeable that clinical data about patients will be far more available and accessible. Will patient data become: A jockeying point for control and business advantage between health plans and care providers, A collaborative opportunity to optimize clinical care and care coordination, or Both? (more…) Article Series - Stages 2 and 3 of HITECH: The Golden Era of Care Coordination or Bureaucrats Practicing Medicine?Overview: Here Come Stages 2 and 3 of HITECH!Megatrend Spotting: Health Plan Role of Having “Best Data... e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3965524 Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:23:38 +0100 3965524 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3965468&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Fresources-for-nursing-home-wound-care-clinicians%2F I received so many inquiries about resources for skin assessment in the nursing home that I devoted this blog post to providing links and downloads useful to wound care clinicians.  Below you can access PDFs which contain important information related to skin, pressure ulcer, and wound assessment that will be helpful to nurses, doctors, medical directors, inservice directors, MDS coordinators, and anyone else [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3965468 Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:16:41 +0100 3965468 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3942728&cid=t_93693_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F09%2Fheart-bypass-results-consumer-reports%2F The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has agreed to release the results of their national database of cardiac surgery outcomes to Consumer Reports to aid patients in selecting the best surgeons and hospitals when they are facing surgery. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3942728 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:31:12 +0100 3942728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3915095&cid=t_93693_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdoctorandpatient.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fhealing-sick-healthcare-system-dr.html Open publication - Free publishing - More sickThis excellent book, MANAGEMENT OF THE SICK HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM - What Is Wrong - What Can be Done is authored by Dr S.V.Nadkarni, Former Dean, L.T.Med.College, Sion.It's 139 pages long, and is packed with the wisdom of a life time of working as a surgeon and medical administrator. Dr Nadkarni has some very clever and thought provoking ideas as to what makes our present healthcare system sick - and what we can do to heal it !Dr Nadkarni's mobile is : 9320044525; and his email id is: sadanadkarni@gmail.com. The book is available with Vora Medical Publication, Near J.J.Hospital , Signal Traffic Byculla, Tel- 91-22- 23754161, E-mail : voramedpub@yahoo.co.in (Source: The Patient's Doctor) The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3915095 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:50:00 +0100 3915095 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3915001&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fthe-twitter-diet%2F2010.08.29 Here is a recent piece in the New York Times by reporter Brian Stelter who decided to lose weight by 1) getting support from fellow Twitterers, and 2) by tweeting everything he eats throughout the day. An excerpt: I knew that I could not diet alone; I needed the help of a cheering section. But rather than write a blog, keep a diary or join Weight Watchers, I decided to use Twitter. I thought it would make me more accountable, because I could record everything I ate instantly. And because Twitter posts are automatically pushed to each person who subscribes to them, an audience — of friends or strangers — can follow along. What’s surprising is that he didn’t start using some kind of data-collecting application. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3915001 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:55 +0100 3915001 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3899376&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7Q282tzEUmw%2F It sounds a little bit like the “pre-crime” unit featured in the 2002 film “Minority Report,” but news that Washington, D.C. will implement software to “predict” crime is not quite as worrisome as it might seem at first blush. Beginning several years ago, the researchers assembled a dataset of more than 60,000 various crimes, including homicides. Using an algorithm they developed, they found a subset of people much more likely to commit homicide when paroled or probated. Instead of finding one murderer in 100, the UPenn researchers could identify eight future murderers out of 100. Berk’s software examines roughly two dozen variables, from criminal record to geographic location. The type of crime, and more importantly, the age at which that crime wa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3899376 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:09:42 +0100 3899376 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3896036&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F08%2F23%2Ftwitter-diet-the-new-york-times-story%2F Here is a recent piece in the New York Times about a reporter who decided to lose weight by 1) getting support from fellow Twitterers, and 2) by tweeting everything he eats throughout the day. I knew that I could not diet alone; I needed the help of a cheering section. But rather than write a blog, keep a diary or join Weight Watchers, I decided to use Twitter. I thought it would make me more accountable, because I could record everything I ate instantly. And because Twitter posts are automatically pushed to each person who subscribes to them, an audience — of friends or strangers — can follow along. What is surprising is that Brian Stelter didn’t start using some kind of a data collecting application. I reported about one a few days ago. On your.flowingdata.com, you can collect ... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3896036 Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:51:55 +0100 3896036 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3889156&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fgoogles-window-healthcare-it-market One of the major goals of the federal government's push for nationwide electronic medical record adoption is to create an information network where "health data can flow freely, privately, and securely to the places where they are needed." So far, this is proving to be a challenge for the nation's hospitals and doctors. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3889156 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:57:23 +0100 3889156 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3876620&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Femail-and-the-environment-further-insights-into-data-storage%2F photo: Thinkstock Remember the article about how email attachments are bad for the environment from Mother Jones? It claimed that sending email attachments creates a lot of duplicate files, which mean that a lot more machines are needed to open and download the files, and a lot more server space is needed to keep the internet functioning. That article caused quite a stir over at Mother Jones, and it provoked a ton of comments — some outraged, some insightful. One commenter pointed out that opening up an email with attachments could actually save power consumption if, prior to opening the email, you were running a program that was using all of the computing power of the machine. The email would give your computer a break. Many commenters tried to dispute the idea that sending four email a... Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3876620 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:07:29 +0100 3876620 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3876698&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Fteaching-america-how-to-assess-wounds%2F Last week I presented at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) Train-the-Trainer program in Las Vegas for the introduction of Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 which will go into effect October 1, 2010.  This assessment tool will impact 17,000 nursing homes and 1.6 million people who reside in them across America.  My assignment was to introduce [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3876698 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:39:26 +0100 3876698 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3865349&cid=t_93693_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2Fpf6WYPAVZos%2F Very interesting article in the New York Times on the reasons behind growing research of how to detect Alzheimer’s Disease: Rare Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s (New York Times) (Situation before) Scientists were looking for biomarkers, but they were not getting very far. “The problem in the field was that you had many different scientists in many different universities doing their own research with their own patients and with their own methods,” said Dr. Michael W. Weiner of the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs, who directs ADNI. “Different people using different methods on different subjects in different places were getting different results, which is not surprising. What was needed was to get everyone together and to get a common data set.” (Si... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3865349 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:05:51 +0100 3865349 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858229&cid=t_93693_112_f&fid=34971&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdoctorandpatient.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fpgd-newest-art.html Open publication - Free publishing - More infertility (Source: The Patient's Doctor) The Patient's Doctor blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858229 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:37:00 +0100 3858229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858142&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcCf6h1Zwm2w%2F By Tad DeHavenThe Bureau of Economic Analysis latest release of industry compensation levels shows that the average federal worker ranks up at the top along with employees in the finance and energy industries. That’s not exactly popular company these days. The BEA presents compensation data for 72 industries that span the U.S. economy. Figure 1 shows the 20 industries with the highest levels of average compensation, which includes wages and benefits. It also shows the average for all U.S. private industries and the average for the industry with the lowest compensation. (The names of the industries have been simplified in some cases). Federal civilian workers have the sixth highest average compensation of the 72 industries: As yesterday’s post showed, federal employee compensation has ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858142 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:25:42 +0100 3858142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3848828&cid=t_93693_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fthomas-jefferson-university-hospital-patient-information-stolen%2F Officials at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are admitting that personal health and demographic information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth on 21,000 patients was downloaded in unencrypted form to a personal laptop which was then stolen from an employees office. All inpatients between March, 2008 and November, 2008 have likely been compromised. Disclosure: This editor was a former staff member at Thomas Jefferson University (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3848828 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:21:02 +0100 3848828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3845239&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FShGFWOdSkgM%2F Image of Matt Wood I’ve had the luxury of working in some very interesting areas; large scale protein structure prediction, physics-based approaches to drug discovery, data management for all kinds of molecular profiling data, and high-scale distributed infrastructure. I also have had the fortune of meeting some of the brightest people in the world at their craft over the years. In particular, over the past couple of years, I’ve met or observed some exceptionally bright people at the forefront of information retrieval and data mining. While there is a lot of naive, follow the latest trend, activity, there is also a lot of excitement. The web produces a lot of data, and many smart folks are trying to make sense of all that data. I am obviously biased, and can never really sto... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3845239 Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:29:47 +0100 3845239 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831432&cid=t_93693_113_f&fid=38494&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcuretogether.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F08%2F06%2Fwelcome-curetogether-curators%2F . We’re excited to announce a new development at CureTogether. Our most active contributing members have been upgraded to official Curators! Amazing people like Ricky Buchanan in Melbourne, Australia (pictured above and found at http://notdoneliving.net/) are combing through CureTogether data. They are carefully checking for accuracy, duplicate entries, and generally helping to make sure that the information we have for our over 500 conditions is the highest quality it can be. This enables more discoveries that we can share with our condition communities and the larger public. Ricky and people like her are the reason CureTogether was started, and we are so grateful and glad to welcome the support of these inspiring heroes. Thank you!! (Source: The Collective Well) The Collective Well blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831432 Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:42:25 +0100 3831432 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831508&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F08%2F06%2Fdo-you-collect-data-about-yourself%2F I’ve written about the Quantified Self project plenty of times (group of empowered patients trying to live a healthy life via data collection and analysis), and now over at FlowingData blog, there is a great discussion about collecting data about ourselves. Author, Nathan Yau shared how data collection can become fun and a vital part of our lives. On your.flowingdata.com, you can collect your life data through a few simple steps on Twitter. One data point per tweet! Step 1. Follow @yfd on Twitter Step 2. Sign in to your.flowingdata with Twitter Step 3. Start recording data (via direct messages) following a few simple guidelines Without using data analytics softwares and sites, it’s still easy to collect your blood sugar or blood pressure levels. FlowingData lets you visuali... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831508 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:35:12 +0100 3831508 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831509&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F08%2F06%2Flets-find-out-if-google-is-watching-you%2F When you’re browsing the web and personal information is being sent to Google servers, it means some kind of a risk for you. How can you find out when it’s happening? Google Alarm that works with Firefox and Chrome, will let you know now. So how does the plugin work? “[It] inspects each page you visit for Google-related URLs: googleanalytics.com/ga.js for Google Analytics, doubleclick.net/googlesyndication.com URLs for AdSense, youtube.com/v/ for YouTube embeds, and many more,” Wilkinson says. “Each service triggers an individual visual and audible alert to help you become more aware of when you’re transmitting data to Google.” If you’re into the idea, the source code is currently open, and Wilkinsen welcomes suggestions. Check out the video below for more info: ... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831509 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:28:44 +0100 3831509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3816439&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Fmds-3-0-will-change-resident-assessment%2F Hear ye!  Hear Ye!  RAPs are out!  CATs and CAAs are in! I chuckle as I write this blog post knowing that few of my regular readers will understand, and have probably clicked off by now.  But the few of you who remain know how important this topic is to long-term care.  On October 30, 2009 CMS finally [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3816439 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:00:26 +0100 3816439 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3802586&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FRSx3foaRw3A%2F Last week, several public interest groups filed a complaint with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights alleging the Obama Administration’s US trade policy violates international human rights obligations. Specifically, the groups charge the White House has used the US Trade Representative’s ‘Special 301′ status toward foreign intellectual property law standards to promote policies that restrict access to affordable medicines (background). We spoke with Sean Flynn, who is the associate director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual at the Washington College of Law, about why this step was taken… Pharmalot: So why was this complaint filed? And why now? The issues raised are not new. Flynn: Here’s the background. After the US Trade Rep’s 2009 ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3802586 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:19:23 +0100 3802586 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3787088&cid=t_93693_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FWYnan9rhGbA%2F Image via Wikipedia I am reading up a lot of Jim Gray these days, so a lot of his ideas are quite fresh in my head. Also had an interesting discussion with Nancy Parmalee on Twitter about software, informatics, bench scientists and small labs. One thing that jumped out, and is hardly a surprise, is that for the most part, there is a huge disconnect between the data science, and the scientists who need to make use of the work done by data scientists (often bench scientists). I’ve long argued that we neglect “infrastructure” software like data management systems, tracking systems, query systems, etc which all require well designed, scalable backends and should be treated like products, cause they are, even if they are home grown, or derived from open source software. Thi... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3787088 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:02:10 +0100 3787088 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3784290&cid=t_93693_105_f&fid=39124&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jeffreymlevinemd.com%2Fblister-pressure-ulcer-staging-cms-update%2F Another guest blog post by Elizabeth A. Ayello, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, CWON, MAPWCA, FAAN Good news! Since the educational training programs held last March and April, CMS has reconsidered its original guidance regarding how to code blister pressure ulcers on the revised Minimum Data Set (MDS) version 3.0. Previously, CMS directed that any pressure ulcer that [...] (Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers) Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3784290 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:43:03 +0100 3784290 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3772468&cid=t_93693_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FFY7B5pRD5NU%2F Several public interest groups will file a complaint today with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights alleging that the Obama Administration’s US trade policy violates international human rights obligations. Specifically, the groups charge the White House has used the US Trade Representative’s ‘Special 301′ status toward foreign intellectual property law standards to promote policies that restrict access to affordable medicines. “Although the 2010 Report shows some improvement, the Obama administration continues using Special 301 to pressure developing countries to adopt escalating intellectual property rules that are not required by any international agreement and that will negatively impact access to medicines,” says Sean Flynn, associa... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3772468 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:42:05 +0100 3772468 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3761559&cid=t_93693_131_f&fid=35008&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscienceroll.com%2F2010%2F07%2F16%2Fpoyozo-centralizing-data-flow%2F In a huge hospital or clinic, the data flow of doctors is enormous. A possible solution might be the centralization of data flow which means they don’t have to check e-mails, news, other services online, but they can do the same in one place. Poyozo could be a potential solution: Take a moment and think off all the data you put other there on separate Web services. Email, photos, status updates, documents, location, contacts, and the list goes on. Many of the services are really good, but what if they went down? Where would are your data go? Or what if you could bring all that data into one place, so that you didn’t have to login to Flickr, Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook. Poyozo tries to get all your data in one place – on your own computer – and help “make... ScienceRoll blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3761559 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:06:21 +0100 3761559 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3750062&cid=t_93693_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fheart-attacks-are-killing-fewer-people-why%2F2010.07.13 Heart attack mortality fell by nearly a half a percent last year at 4,500 hospitals that treat Medicare patients. And, facilities with the lowest and highest death rates saw similar declines, according to a new hospital report card by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Heart attack mortality fell from a national average of 16.6 percent last year to 16.2 percent, with a range among all facilities from 14.5 percent to 17.9 percent. CMS released the data as part of its hospital report card effort to spur better quality and outcomes through public reporting of recommended treatments. The agency added heart attack and heart failure mortality to the report card three years ago. At issue now is what’s driving the figures: public reporting of hospital data driving... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3750062 Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100 3750062