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 'healthcare informatics'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:32:08 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287842&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F02%2Fgreen-cda%2F Less fat or half baked? (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287842 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:24:17 +0100 3287842 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3272986&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F02%2Fmeaningful-x%2F Should Doctors Reject the Government’s EHR Incentive Plan?—David Kibbe It’s a big hill to climb for a carrot that may not be there when you reach the top. Is health information technology (IT) being set up to fail? Might we be facing a lost generation of health IT investment? Will Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic get windfall profits while small practices receive nothing but hassles? It’s beginning to seem that way. Valid questions in this excellent article by Kibbe. A physician must consider many factors in coming to a decision on whether and when to participate in the HITECH incentives program. HITECH Physician Incentives (carrots and sticks)   Adopt2011 Adopt2012 Adopt2013 Adopt2014 Fail toAdopt 2011 $18K         2012 $12K $18K &n... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3272986 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:45:00 +0100 3272986 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3269760&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F02%2Fhealth-information-startup-funding%2F Sebelius, Solis Announce Nearly $1 Billion Recovery Act Investment in Advancing Use of Health IT, Training Workers for Health Jobs of the Future Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today announced a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act (ARRA) awards to help health care providers advance the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (IT) and train workers for the health care jobs of the future. The awards will help make health IT available to over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology. This Recovery Act investment will help grow the emerging health IT industry which is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs ran... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3269760 Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:30:11 +0100 3269760 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3251283&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F02%2Fmeaningful-barrier%2F Companion posts: Meaningful Absence, Meaningful Use: rules, not people! When behaviors (broadly construed) are incentivized, and exchanges amongst behavioral–states likewise incentivized, are we not summing the behavioral constraints of all? Will meaningful absence lead to a meaningful barrier? The three goals of meaningful use: Incentivize certified EHRs. Incentivize exchanges amongst certified EHRs. Self–validate a certified EHR with the production of meaninful use measurements. Meaningful Use (1x): incentivized behavior Meaninful Use (zoom out 10x): incentivized exchanges Meaningful Barrier (zoom out 100x) (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3251283 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:24:56 +0100 3251283 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3248607&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F02%2Fmeaningful-use-rules-not-people%2F Hattip to Heather on the title. Adapted from Federal Register January 13, 2010: Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Electronic Health Record Incentive Program , 1844–2011 [E9–31217] (TXT)(PDF) Meaningful Use (Stage 1, 2011): Responsible Entities, Patient Recipient Eligible Professional (EP) Eligible Hospital (EH) Unique Patient (UP) CPOE for 80% of all orders CPOE for 10% of all orders   implement Drug-Drug, Drug-Allergy, Drug-Formulary checks implement Drug-Drug, Drug-Allergy, Drug-Formulary checks   maintain an up-to-date Problem List of current and active diagnoses for 80% of UPs seen maintain an up-to-date Problem List of current and active diagnoses for 80% of UPs admitted   75% of all permissible prescriptions written by EP are transmitted electronically ... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3248607 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:23:08 +0100 3248607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3248608&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F02%2Fmeaningful-absence%2F What are incentives? Incentives are governmental monetary–inducements for entities to offer a product or provide a service. What is an EHR? An EHR is an electronic health record, funded in whole or in part by governmental incentives, subsequently certified, and capable of producing meaningful use. What is Certification? Certification is a process, conducted by a third–party entity (e.g., TJC), certifying that an EHR passes governmentally defined regulations and standards and capable of producing meaningul use. What is Meaningful Use? Meaningful use is the necessary work products of a certified EHR required to substantiate eligibility for governmental incentives. What is an Eligible Hospital? An eligible hospital is a hospital that is eligible to receive governmental inc... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3248608 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:25:21 +0100 3248608 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3224905&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fhealth-information-commons%2F The commons refers to resources that are collectively owned. There are two tragedies that may befall a commons: The Tragedy of the Commons and The Tragedy of the Anticommons. Paraphrasing Michael Heller (Gridlock Economy): the tragedy of the commons is when too many people share a single resource, we tend to overuse it; and the tragedy of the anticommons is when too many people own a single resource, and anyone can block the use. Modifying this for healthcare, the tragedy of the healthcare anticommons is that too many people own portions of a patient’s health information (HI), and anyone at anytime can block a full rendering of the patient’s HI. A patient’s HI might be charcterized by those that have an interest in the HI, including the patient. This interest extends beyo... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3224905 Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:43:32 +0100 3224905 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208501&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fgrassleys-questions-on-hit%2F As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, which has jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs, I have a special responsibility to protect the health of the programs’ more than 100 million beneficiaries as well as the congressionally authorized tax dollars used to fund these programs. This includes ensuring the effective and efficient use of taxpayer money by the health care industry in implementing Health Information Technology (HIT), such as Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems and Electronic Health Records (EHR). In recent legislation, approximately $19 billion in taxpayer funds was appropriated to encourage development and implementation of HIT systems, which further emphasizes the importance of responsible use and thorough oversight. Over the p... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208501 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:13:32 +0100 3208501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208502&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fgrassleys-concerns-on-hit%2F Grassley asks hospitals about experiences with federal health information technology program WASHINGTON—Senator Chuck Grassley has sent letters to 31 hospitals nationwide asking about their experiences in implementing the $19 billion federal health information technology program launched last year. “Given the taxpayer investment and the investment of the health care system overall in the information technology industry, the more Congress and others overseeing implementation of this program dig into the problems and work to get them sorted out now, the better,” Grassley said. “Hospitals are on the front lines and their perspective will be very valuable in this effort, so I look forward to hearing what they have to say about expanded use of health care information te... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208502 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:12:21 +0100 3208502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208504&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fdoctor-do-you-speak-flower%2F BTR: Doctor: Do You Speak “Flower”?, 1.26.10 0900 PST, hosted by @2healthguru What is flower? At this time it’s an abstraction—a placeholder for several concepts centering on what would healthcare look like if…? And, more specifically what would personal health information (PHI) look like if…? A flower was chosen as the abstraction because it is easily and universally understood, regardless of language, anywhere in the world—a flower is a flower. Where a flower is flower carries the additional abstraction that there is a common ground—characterized by property and implementation. While a fluid and dynamic idea, this informed panel will provide both history and context for its genesis and diverse unfolding narrative. Join Dirk Stanley, MD, @dir... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208504 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:11:52 +0100 3208504 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3163782&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fhypothetical-health-information-federation%2F Columbia is a fictional city of 1.5 million in the fictional state of Jefferson. The greater Columbia catchment area has a population of 3 million. There are four integrated healthcare systems in Columbia. The healthcare systems are associated with ten hospitals, dozens of clinics and skilled nursing facilities, over one hundred pharmacies, over one thousand physicians, and several hundred ancillary services. Columbia’s population utilize emergency services with an average incident rate of 0.35, consistent with the rest of the state and country. Thirty–five percent of the population goes to the ER every year, with 10% arriving by ambulance. The annual ER and EMS censuses are 1.05 million and 300,000 respectively. On any given day there are 2,877 ER visits and 822 ambulance tran... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3163782 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:05:06 +0100 3163782 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3163783&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fhealth-information-communication-models%2F There appears to be two distinct (+overlap) models for health information communications. One uses the seven–layer OSI Model which seems dominate in the health informatics community (including HIT vendors, cats). The other uses the four–layer TCP/IP Model, the Internet Model, seen in the health internet community (dogs). The importance of the distinction is over whether or not content and transport are treated separately. No separation is more representative of the health informatics community. The health internet community handles them separately. Where there is no separation, there is the need to assert specialized standards for the transport of health information (e.g., HL7). Where there is separation, there is a belief that the security and privacy standards are sufficientl... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3163783 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:03:35 +0100 3163783 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3159730&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fhealth-information-federation%2F A health information federation (HIF) might be defined as a health informational construct where there is no need for interoperability or health information exchange (HIE). To do so requires the health information content (data) to use structure–standard(s). Structured data, conforming to a structure–standard, is data that is machine readable (computable) in its native form. To eliminate the need for HIE requires that all participants within the HIF share a common structured data infrastructure. Interoperability becomes moot because such an infrastructure is, by design, wholly–operable. Interoperability and the use of HIE may be the most significant barriers (cost and technology) to widespread availability of health information. A HIF may be further characterized by a com... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3159730 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:38:37 +0100 3159730 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3159731&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2010%2F01%2Fwhat-should-be-knowable%2F I’ve spent several days going over the recently released Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (PDF) and the Initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology (PDF). Took notes and recreated some tables: Meaningful Use Stage 1 Objectives/Measures and Interim Final Rule. After taking a high–level cruise through 692 pages—I’m impressed. Meaningful Use Stage 1, MU–1 (2011) The Stage 1 meaningful use criteria focuses on electronically capturing health information in a coded format; using that information to track key clinical conditions and communicating that information for care coordination purposes (whether that information is structured or unstructured, but in structured format when... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3159731 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:44:39 +0100 3159731 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3129503&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Frebooting-information%2F You need a Data Asset—not a Data Warehouse—Family Health Guy A data asset is a collection of all the information relevant to an organization, regardless of source and of type. We call it an “asset” because this data, not the systems that created it or that are used on any given day to interact with it, represents the true long-term capability of an organization to thrive. The potential of that organization to measure itself, to learn, to adapt to new situations and technologies, to predict future outcomes and improve operations, all rely on its ability to find, use and re-use data. This is what Amalga does – it captures all the information, and stores it in data atomic form. “Data atomic” means that rather than try to selectively normalize incomin... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3129503 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:16:44 +0100 3129503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3126607&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fstructuring-and-focusing-information%2F A few weeks ago I saw a 40 year old male patient in the ER for chest pain, episodic over 2 days. He had diabetes for 15 years, hypertension for 20 years, and hyperlipidemia for 7 years. Four months prior he had a NSTEMI, 5–way coronary bypass, and 2 stents placed. Since that hospitalization he has had one followup with a cardiologist (unknown name), continues to smoke in excess of one pack of cigarettes a day, continues to drink vodka daily, and ran out of “some” medicines last week. He received his heart surgery and stents in one health system in our community, sees a cardiologist within another health system, and comes to the ER of a third health system. This is not an uncommon presentation for the ER, and not an uncommon problem where health information is spread acros... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3126607 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:38:43 +0100 3126607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111418&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fflower-federation%2F Speak[ing] Flower might form a federation of Flower speakers and might take the form of: Flower Federation EMR: electronic medical record PHR: personal health record EHR: electronic health record Wave Client/Server HISP: health internet service provider, a hypothetical entity offering TLS secured internet connectivity dedicated to healthcare XMPP: extensible messaging and presence prrotocol Wave Data Model Adapted from Google Wave Federation Architecture Overview (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111418 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:19:25 +0100 3111418 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3111419&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fspeak-flower%2F What is flower? At this time it’s an abstraction—a placeholder for several concepts centering on what would healthcare look like if…? And, more specifically what would personal health information (PHI) look like if…? A flower was chosen as the abstraction because it is easily and universally understood, regardless of language, anywhere in the world—a flower is a flower. Where a flower is flower carries the additional abstraction that there is a common ground—characterized by property and implementation. Property Wonder if PHI were to be characterized as personal property? A property that is permissively shared with family, friends, and health enterprises. A property that was complete and whole, and personally accessible anywhere on any device capable o... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3111419 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:17:45 +0100 3111419 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100802&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fshould-healthcare-be-binary%2F Doc Searls Weblog · Do we want “smart” utilities? Utilities, at least to the end user, the final customer, the one paying the bills, are simple things. They are dumb. Their availabiliy is binary: it’s there or its not. When it is, you want to hold down costs, sure; but you expect it to be there full–time. I think what we want out of the Internet is what we already have with water, gas and electricity: it’s just there. Nothing more complicated than that. I hope that’s where we end up. But my fear is that old–fashioned utilities will get smart the way the phone and cable companies have made the Internet smart. And that would be dumb. Rephrasing Healthcare, at least to the end user, the final customer, or the one paying the bills, is a simple thing... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100802 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:56:21 +0100 3100802 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100804&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fidentity-identification-uniqueness%2F Healthcare reform is dependent on the move from paper to electronic digital records (renderings of personal health information, PHI). Explicit and implicit in the legislature’s and constituencies’ reform language are the following three benefits of this move: improved quality, reduced cost, and enhanced prevention. Core features, and prevailing obstacles, to this move are the needs to provide identity, assure identification, and guaranty uniqueness. Uniqueness Taking the obstacles in reverse order, we need to have all players (broadly construed to include providers, payers, patients, etc.) uniquely identified. It’s not unlike a social network where you are uniquely identified, so you can form permissive relationships with other residing in the same social space. We call t... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100804 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:43:50 +0100 3100804 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092695&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fwavehealth%2F Wes Rishel’s Simple Interop: The Health Internet Node got me thinking about what would the health internet look like where HIEs/RHIOs are not necessary and interoperability is replaced with a federation model of wave servers and clients. Also the idea that there should be a TLD for the health internet, .hc is available. A discussion first started in this wave. Separate email and data servers are not needed in this model because waves will carry both communications and content (document). Health Information as a Wave Federation EMR: electronic medical record PHR: personal health record EHR: electronic health record Wave Client/Server HISP: health internet service provider, a hypothetical entity offering TLS secured internet connectivity dedicated to healthcare .hc: a TLD set asid... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092695 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:31:05 +0100 3092695 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092696&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fhealth-information-palliation%2F Cure v. Palliation For those that practice in emergency medicine or work in ERs, we share a common bond of enjoying both the excitement and diversity of medical conditions that find there way in. There is nothing as satisfying and rewarding as participating in a medical or trauma resuscitation where there is a good outcome. And there is nothing so important as helping family and friends deal with the loss of a loved one due to a medical or surgical emergency. Unfortunately, the realities of emergency medicine practice is not dealing with true emergency, but rather acute episodes of chronic illnesses, the failings and lack of primary care, and those suffering from psychiatric and other social ills. We find ourselves many times not treating actual diseases or disease states, but rather treat... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092696 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:34:31 +0100 3092696 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3089293&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fopenhealth%2F This post is an attempt to pull several themes together into a concept I’ve termed “OpenHealth.” Several months ago I signed “A Declaration of Health Data Rights.” I had some initial misgivings (and still do) because of a sense of incompleteness and necessary ambiguity. Necessary ambiguity because it was a statement pitched to engender widespread endorsements from patient, providers, enterprises, and vendors within healthcare. The Declarations of Health Data Rights are—we the people: Have the right to our own health data. Have the right to know the source of each health data element. Have the right to take possession of a complete copy of our individual health data, without delay, at minimal or no cost; if data exist in computable form, they must be mad... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3089293 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:00:20 +0100 3089293 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067048&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F12%2Fexploring-privacy-use-cases%2F —PDF Medical Prescriptions Social Networking Mobile Phones Online Behavioral Advertising Retail Loyalty Card (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067048 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:02:31 +0100 3067048 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056734&cid=t_315050_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F12%2F03%2Fsearch-for-new-cchit-chair%2F Now that Mark Leavitt announced that he was leaving CCHIT, it’s going to be interesting to see who will replace him as the Chair of CCHIT. Healthcare Informatics has an interview with CCHIT search committee chair and CCHIT trustee, Frank Trembulak (Geisinger Health System EVP and COO) that’s worth reading to understand more about CCHIT plans to search for Mark’s replacement. This is going to be an interesting change to CCHIT. Or will it be a change at all? What do you guys think, should I apply? Related posts:Mark Leavitt Leaves CCHIT Today the big news was that Mark Leavitt is leaving...CCHIT Town Halls and CCHIT Comments on New Jersey Bill For those that participated in the CCHIT town hall meetings...Health Search Engine – Competition with Google Health? An EMR ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056734 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:25:02 +0100 3056734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3035885&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F11%2Fopen-dilemmas%2F openID How do I maintain the same authentication across web services? openSocial How do I maintain a continuity of social relationships across social networks? openHealth How do I provided a continuity of health information across healthcare providers? (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3035885 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:49:54 +0100 3035885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3029809&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F11%2Fa-vast-anticommons-health-information%2F The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives—Michael Heller Private ownership usually creates wealth. But too much ownership has the opposite effect—it creates gridlock. Gridlock is a free market paradox. When too many people own pieces of one thing, cooperation breaks down, wealth disappears, and everybody loses. {@xiv} Fixing gridlock is a key challenge for our time.… [T]he first and most important step to solving gridlock is to name it and make it visible. With the right language, anyone can spot links among gridlock puzzles, and all can come togeter to fix them. {@xiv} We create gridlock all the time, but tragedy is not our fate. Just as the European powers removed robber barons from the Rhine after 1815, we too can ... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3029809 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:24:10 +0100 3029809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3029814&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F11%2Feverything-new-is-old-again%2F Hey—was that just an HIT Standards breakthrough?—Family Health Guy “We need to get SDOs out of the business of creating HTTP”…key to this success [i]s a clear separation of content (HTML) from envelope (HTTP)…each…could evolve and innovate separately from the other[.] [W]e have been able to add security models on top of HTTP with no dependencies on HTML. HTML has seen great use beyond the world of HTTP[.] Guiding Principles for the HIT Standards Committee—Life as a Healthcare CIO Keep it simple; think big, but start small; recommend standards as minimal as possible to support the business goal and then build as you go Don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good enough”; go for the 80% that everyone can agree... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3029814 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:47:47 +0100 3029814 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908596&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fpatients-data-markets%2F When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question—NYTimes The idea of an entirely paperless medical system holds the promise of more efficient and cost-effective care. And, with the incentive of stimulus package money, many companies are rushing to sell clinical information systems to streamline services like patient scheduling, sample tracking, and billing at hospitals and clinics. In some cases, the same companies that sell data management systems to hospitals and physicians also store that information and then repackage it to make money on other services. Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data—PricewaterhouseCoopers US The data that could be mined from the US health system can be re-used to improve patient care, predict public health trends, reduce healthcare costs... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908596 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:34:05 +0100 2908596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901634&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fgooglehealth-wave%2F (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901634 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:37:28 +0100 2901634 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901635&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fwave-mechanics%2F If personal health information can be conceptualized as a wave (wave health record, WHR) containing wavelets and blips of information. What about information coming from multiple sources enterprise health records (EHRs, EMRs, etc)—is a composite wave any different from a singular wave? Intent certainly seems to trump concepts of ownership and property rights. WHR1 WHR2 WHR3 WHR4 WHRΣ1–4 (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901635 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:31:12 +0100 2901635 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901636&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fhealth-information-well%2F 74 year–old woman sent to the ER for low blood count (after receiving a phone call). She reports that her hemoglobin (Hb) was 5.7 (severe anemia). The blood specimen containing the Hb of 5.7 was obtained 5 days ago when she complained to her primary care doctor of weakness and shortness of breath. Hb in the ER was 5.1, she was admitted to the hospital for multiple blood transfusions. 46 year–old male of dialysis, refusing dialysis, had a potassium (K) of 6.6 on a blood specimen obtained 4 days ago, just called and told to go to the ER. K in the ER 5.4, no action required. Father of a 13 year–old male soccer player who has swelling just above his right ankle is told by primary care doctor to go get x–rays. X–rays obtained at an office where there is no radiolog... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901636 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:42:50 +0100 2901636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876044&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fwonder-if-data-communication-and-action-all-ride-together%2F Still waiting for my Google Wave invite…but doesn’t stop the “wonder if” application sans real–world experience. {adapted from here} BTW, if you have a spare invite, send to contact information above. Wave A wave is a threaded conversation, consisting of one or more participants (which may include both human participants and robots). The wave is a dynamic entity which contains state and stores historical information. A wave is a living thing, with participants communicating and modifying the wave in real time. A wave serves as a container for one or more wavelets defined below. Wavelet A wavelet is a threaded conversation that is spawned from a wave (including the initial conversation). Wavelets serve as the container for one or more messages, known as blips.... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876044 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:22:12 +0100 2876044 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2871625&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Frights-or-concessions%2F AHIMA’s Health Information Bill of Rights (PDF) The right to access your health information free of charge. The right to access your health information during the course of treatment. The right to expect that your health information is accurate and as complete as possible. The right for you or your personal representative(s) to know who provides, accesses, and updates your health information, except as precluded by law or regulation. The right to expect healthcare professionals and others with lawful access to your health information to be held accountable for violations of all privacy and security laws, policies, and procedures, including the sharing of user IDs and passwords. The right to expect equivalent health information privacy and security protections to be available to all... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2871625 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:45:26 +0100 2871625 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2857410&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Femail-a-metaphor-for-whats-wrong-with-health-information%2F Just substitute every instance of “email” with “health information,” and you’ll be well along the way to understanding the daunting problems of moving our nation’s health records to digital records. Google gets it, we don’t need endless partial/incomplete copies of email—we need a single instance that is shared and contributed to. (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2857410 Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:20:00 +0100 2857410 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2823994&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F09%2Fpay-4-walled-garden%2F Excellent, Kaiser Permanente (”KP”) deserves high praise for this vision; but how do we bring this high–value experience beyond the confines of the patient’s monthly payment? Does the relationship survive the contract? We’ve seen this before, if this were a social network, we’d call it a wall–garden. As implemeneted KP is the equivalent to an AOL—content, albeit healthcare information, remains locked to the proprietary (contractual) relationship. Social media has passed judgment on walled–gardens, will healthcare informatics fare differently? (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2823994 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:56:05 +0100 2823994 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820230&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F09%2Fhealth-information-discontuity%2F As with many hospitals and healthcare systems, the IT infrastructures and UIs are a cobbling together of different vendor products over many years. Sometimes a prior system or component is subsumed by the newer so there is no or minimal loss of data functionality. More often, the old/new system/component are too disparate and a discontinuity or a fracturing of data occurs. A variation on this would be the discontinuity between paper and digital storage. It exists, and it’s a very costly reality to correct and there is a substantial cost when left uncorrected. Costs are not just financial costs, but also data-integrity/fidelity costs—borne not only by the institutions, but by those that are the subject of the data, and by those third-parties that are in a dependent relationship to t... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820230 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:57:18 +0100 2820230 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2788594&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F09%2Fbsns%2F via The Medical Quack (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2788594 Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:07:02 +0100 2788594 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2788596&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F09%2Fhealth-information-calculus%2F What’s needed…the goal Joe (patient) and all those that encounter Joe in the context of healthcare have only one true need—all the information about Joe’s health (broadly construed) integrated over time and from all instances—right here, right now. Old school…both problem/solution The present problem with Joe’s healthcare information is that it’s fragmented across his lifespan and across innumerable instances of care. Joe wants the whole picture at any moment in time, but knows that can only happen if there is true interoperability connecting all instances of his care. This would require that every instance of Joe’s care, stored in various data silos, be connected by a health information exchange (HIE) or regionalized in regio... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2788596 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:38:42 +0100 2788596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2788597&cid=t_315050_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F09%2Fthey-get-it%2F …for as long as the premium (condition) is met …for as long as you’re with Kaiser (relationship) If shared knowledge is of high value, then shouldn’t that value transcend condition(s) and relationship(s). If it doesn’t, then is it truly shared to begin with? Should the nexus be defined by condition(s) and relationship(s)—or should the person… A PHR is not a PHR unless it transcends all initiating conditions and relationships. (Source: quanta vie) quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2788597 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:23:47 +0100 2788597 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348873&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F03%2Femr-adoption-incremental%2F See EMR Adoption Model (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348873 Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:49:23 +0100 2348873 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348874&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F03%2Femr-adoption-model%2F ℠ Stage Cumulative Capabilities 2007Final 2008Final Stage 7 Medical record fully electronic; HCO able to contribute CCD as byproduct; Data warehousing in use 0.0% 0.3% Stage 6 Physician documentation (structured templates), full CDSS (vairance & compliance), full R–PACS 0.3% 0.5% Stage 5 Closed loop medication administration 1.9% 2.5% Stage 4 CPOE, CDSS (clinical protocols) 2.2% 2.5% Stage 3 Clinical documentation (flow sheets), CDSS (error checking), PACS available outside Radiology 25.1% 35.7% Stage 2 Clinical Data Repository, Controlled Medical Vocabulary, Clinical Decision Support, may have Document Imaging 37.2% 31.4% Stage 1 Ancillaries—Lab, Rad, Pharmacy—All Installed 14.0% 11.5% Stage 0 All Three Ancillaries Not Installed 19.3% 15.6% ... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348874 Sat, 07 Mar 2009 04:28:04 +0100 2348874 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348875&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fp-is-for-prevention%2F Considering the problem of exsanguination, a physician will look for the anatomical pressure–points to staunch the flow of blood. In this setting, any breach in bodily surface integrity serves as a new conduit of flow for blood diverted from a compressed pressure–point. More breaches increases blood loss and decreases the effectiveness of any singular attempt to control flow with the application of pressure. Jumping from circulation to healthcare information, breaches in the body surface is analogized to the plethora of data silos available to be compromised. The government is in the process of massively funding the digitalization of the paper–laden healthcare industry. As part of the implementation, every provider: hospital, pharmacy, physician, etc., will be implementin... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348875 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:04:46 +0100 2348875 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348876&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fe-is-for-exsanguination%2F In medicine, exsanguination is the uncontrolled loss of blood from the body that will cause death. It’s caused by an external insult to the body (i.e., traumatic injury) or from an internal derangement that compromises the integrity of a bodily surface (e.g., esophageal varices). By either mode, the protective nature of the body is breached leading to death, if left uncontrolled, or potential significant disability even if control is gained. The keys to gaining control in the setting of potential exsanguination are prevention and mitigation—blocking or staunching a breach. Whether an external or internal breach leads to exsanguination, it can be further characterized in terms of whether the breach was by an intentional act (e.g., gunshot) or by a negligent act (e.g., motor vehi... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348876 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:28:29 +0100 2348876 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348877&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F02%2Ftethers-pipes-and-cloud%2F Doing some three Rs today: reading, ’rithmatic, and ’riting… Just got HIMSS’s Personal Health Records the other day and working my way through the text. Also read an excellent post by John Moore on HIEs, SaaS, and EHRs. Healthcare on many levels is nothing more than a transactional relationship between a clinician and a patient. The currency is information. What would our present economy look like if currency was still physically married to paper–form. Absurd! Yet we readily accept this absurdity when it comes to the currency of healthcare—marriage to a structural form no less dissimilar from paper. Compounding this conceptual disconnect from modern economies is the equivalent of stuffing one’s money in a mattress—the file, the office, the h... symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348877 Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:48:41 +0100 2348877 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348878&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F02%2Fhealth-scrabblematics%2F Possibilities: CPOE EHR EMR PAPER PBHR PHR ePHR RPR THR QHR WHR (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348878 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:32:11 +0100 2348878 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348879&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F02%2Fone-record%2F Modified (with apologies to Tolkien) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia… Three Records for the Insuring-kings under the sky, Seven for the Hospital-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for mere Physicians doomed to try, One for the Patient missing from the throne, In the land of Healthcare where the shadows lie. One Record to inform them all, One Record that finds them, One Record to bring them all, and in its starkness bind them, In the land of Healthcare where the shadows lie. (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348879 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:37:51 +0100 2348879 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348880&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F02%2Fbut-its-like-this%2F (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348880 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:21:39 +0100 2348880 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348881&cid=t_315050_114_f&fid=34963&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.com%2F2009%2F02%2Fshould-be-this-simple%2F (Source: symtym) symtym blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348881 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:18:07 +0100 2348881 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1933315&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2FGj0d_xsp6EY%2F Image via WikipediaI am not a lawyer, and while I have some opinions and some knowledge of FDA guidelines, I want to use the current pharma story du jour to highlight something that we need to do. I am sure anyone who listened to NPR today heard about Wyeth’s anti-nausea drug, Phenergan. To cut a long story short, the drug was administered to Diana Levine, a musician from Vermont, via the IV-push method, which has a small risk of inducing gangrene (if pushed into the artery). At issue, whether Wyeth should have changed the label having known about the issue. I won’t go into what Wyeth should have done, or not. That case is now before the US Supreme Court. I want to talk about the importance of pharmacovigilance, about the need to essentially never end clinical trials. We often ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1933315 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:22:15 +0100 1933315 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1618087&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F334462456%2F Image via Wikipedia So one thing I learned from having my DNA sequenced is that very few diseases have a single point genetic basis Those are words from a blog post by Kevin Kelly on the first 23andme User Group Meeting. Now Kevin is a knowledgable person, more so than most. Events such as this one, and getting himself genotyped have taught him a lot more about the genetics of disease than he knew before. That is one of the points I like to make about personal genetics. The quantified self as Kevin likes to call it, is not much more than additional information about yourself. Information, whose content becomes more useful over time as more information is unearthed about ourselves. I wonder if Kevin’s new knowledge will lead to him finding out more about genome wide association studie... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1618087 Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:32:33 +0100 1618087 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1531362&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F315116567%2F It’s a Harvard teaching hospital, which means that a procession of young doctors come through, each with a fresh line of inquiry, few of which, when fulfilled, contributes to an institutional memory. Most of the doctors I’ve seen here have been only once or twice. Doc Searls is sick, but like Jon Udell in the comments, I was drawn to the lines above. In medicine, where information and knowledge is truly built via the collective, and where you might find non-obvious linkages, wouldn’t we really benefit from capturing this collective intelligence, across doctors and patients. A lot of healthcare systems focus on building hospital efficiency and on a per-patient level. I wonder if they do as good a job of capturing this knowledge, and potentially alerting doctors of possible diagnos... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1531362 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:13:42 +0100 1531362 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1306554&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F252810883%2F Google’s non-profit arms seems to be joining the Gates Foundation in taking up arms against infectious diseases. Their Predict and Prevent program plans to use information and technology to “empower communities to predict and prevent emerging threats before they become local, regional, or global crises.” Current focus is on Hot spot identification: The goal here is to use data to understand the drivers that can help communities identify surprises. This will require a lot of information sharing. Enable rapid response: This is the part I find fascinating. How can we use data and act on it? How do we empower communities to self-organize? Currently Google.org is looking to partner with people working on Collection of specimens at the human/animal interface to identify and ... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1306554 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:08:18 +0100 1306554 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1243475&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F237916144%2F Yesterday, we talked about the grand challenge to engineer better medicines. Today, lets look at a related topic; advancing health informatics. First of all, health informatics probably means different things to different people. In my mind, health informatics is only really useful if it not only benefits the individual, but also our overall understanding of medicine. The challenge identifies health informatics as the acquisition, management and use of information in health, with the purpose of enhancing the quality and efficiency of medical care and response to public health emergencies. All are topics that have been referred to often here, whether it be in the field of telemedicine, or infectious disease management. The information challenges facing human health are enormous, stemming f... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1243475 Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:27:28 +0100 1243475 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1239292&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F237123988%2F Nathan Wolfe’s work on disease surveillance is fascinating. I wonder what kind of role informatics can play here. My brain is mashing up iPhones, stream querying, triple stores and maps Further reading Streambase: Query your streaming data The CDC embraces the Semantic Web Technorati Tags: Disease Surveillance, Infectionus Diseases, Nathan Wolfe (Source: business|bytes|genes|molecules) business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1239292 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:04:58 +0100 1239292 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=789225&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F142185558%2F Well actually there are several, but one that I really wanted to attend was one that involved Ann Wokcicki, co-founder at 23andme, but in all the crush of talks, I ended up at another talk at the same time. Ah well, so it goes. The real killer was that I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. For some reason I felt awkward to walk up to her, since she was almost always with hubby Sergey Brin, and other notables. I am still kicking myself for that. Anyway, I can always tell myself that if the announcement (in BioArray News, sub reqd) of the partnership between Illumina and 23andme had come before scifoo, I would have probably chomped at the bit to have a conversation. According to the report, Illumina is going to provide with tools for what at this time looks to be a consumer focused gen... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=789225 Thu, 09 Aug 2007 01:04:30 +0100 789225 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=705917&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F129167024%2F I first started writing this post when L’Affaire Avandia first came to light, but decided to put it off this the incessant coverage had died down. Of course, days became weeks, but better late than never. I will not focus on the specifics of the Avandia situation, but rather on the concept of pharmacovigilance and the role of post-marketing analysis, at least as far as I understand the problem. Listening to a lot of talks on adverse event reporting at the DIA conference also definitely helped crystallize some of these thoughts. In the recent NEJM paper, Steve Nissen and Kathy Wolksi essentially carried out a meta analysis, where they combined results from multiple independent studies (42 clinical trials) to arrive at their conclusions. That got me thinking. What constitutes appropria... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=705917 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 05:07:07 +0100 705917 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=638229&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F119711436%2F From Bioinform (sub reqd) we learn about a proposal from Aaron Cohen and William Hersh of the Oregon Health and Science University’s Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology to develop a wiki-style thesaurus that would contain disease names, types, and variations. According to the scientists, the thesaurus would be based on a relational data model that connect all the data types. The goal of the project is to discover relationships and associations and eventually therapeutic mechanisms. The hope is to bring as many as 20,000 bioinformaticians and researchers into the project. From where I stand, just limiting the proposal to a relationship-oriented wiki might be too narrow. Here is what would be really cool 1. A wiki-style system as proposed built using a Freebase-styl... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=638229 Sat, 26 May 2007 01:11:26 +0100 638229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=520596&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F106591182%2F One of the reasons I have always had a soft spot for IBM (not counting my favorable experiences with their SP systems), is the company’s ability to do some really cool science and technology development. It harks back to a day when some of the giants in the field (IBM, Intel, AT&T, etc) used to be at the forefront of innovation. Recently, I found HealthMiner on the IBM web pages. What is HealthMiner? First of all, it is a middleware package, which makes it possible for IBM to make it available to their ISV partners. It integrates with other applications developed at IBM, namely Thoth (a pattern recognition tool), CliniMiner (a data mining method for finding hidden relationships in massive data sets), and Predictive Analysis (a decision support tool to develop classification tool... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=520596 Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:18:39 +0100 520596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=512530&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F105514908%2F Over the years, many information services companies, notably IBM and SAIC have been actively involved in working with the pharmaceutical industry in trying to develop IT solutions to improve business processes and develop the infrastructure for improved data handling in clinical trials, drug discovery, etc. Of course, much of the hardware that provides the computing resources for in silico drug development also comes from the IBMs and HPs of the world. Many of the services being provided include the development of knowledge management solutions for drug discovery and clinical trials. In recent years some other companies, not historically involved in the healthcare/drug development business, have become actively involved in the field. To an extent this is a natural evolution of a world wher... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=512530 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:31:08 +0100 512530 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=486919&cid=t_315050_132_f&fid=35011&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmndoci%2F%7E3%2F102643126%2F A new medicinal chemistry blog has an interesting post about “idiosyncratic” drug reactions, adverse reactions that occur in a small set of patients. For any number of reasons, trying to get a handle on unpredictable ADRs in small patient subpopulations is critical for the pharmaceutical industry. I am no authority on such ADRs and suggest reading the original post for more information, including references and the authors views. Currently, idiosyncratic ADRs are not predictable since their mechanisms are not well understood. This is where I believe that translational research is going to play a strong role. Can we identify potential biomarkers (either metabolic markers or genotypes or anything else) that can help identify potential patient subpopulations that might suffer from... business|bytes|genes|molecules blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=486919 Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:06:20 +0100 486919