Feeling the Pain ? ACO ACA HIX HIE HHS CMS ICD10

We physicians have some difficulty objectively measuring pain.  Even subjectively it becomes a challenge when your patient asks for pain medications.

The standard of medical practice now is to ask, "What is your pain level from 1-10 if 10 would be the worst pain  you have ever felt, and 0 is no pain whatsoeverl.  Even this scale is very subjective and is based upon what that patient considers his worst pain.  That depends on many factors. Patients who have never had any pain would not know what the worst pain would be.  Pain thresholds differ greatly from one patient to ano ther.  Comparing one patient to another with  this metric is meaningless.  Perhaps we should set a standard as labor pains. This standard however would only apply to women.

All of the above acronyms are a feature of health reform, which is not painless. The medical lexicon includes countless three letter or four letter acronyms, which are too lengthy to describe here.

ACO, ICD-10, MU, PCMH, and PQRS are more than just an acronym soup. 

Karen DeSalvo now the head of ONC and a former primary care physician from Louisana is the lady for the job of reducing our pain. (perhaps hypnosis, denial, or retirment would be better than the narcotic of acceptance and/or major revision of how government interacts with healthcare.

Diana Manos of Health IT News describes DeSalvo's background: 

To advance America’s triple aim of improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of healthcare, DeSalvo outlined five key goals, which ONC will be focused on over this, the second decade of its work.

They are:

1. Increase end user adoption of health IT
2. Establish standards so the various technologies can speak to each other
3. Provide the right incentives for the market to drive this advancement
4. Make sure personal health information remains private and secure
5. Provide governance and structure for health IT

DeSalvo believes interoperability remains the most important issue as a framework for Health Reform.

Despite more than half a decade of progress, Interoperability appears to have stalled.

Michael Schatzlein MD 

of Asencio Health describes the current status of interoperabillity and it's future in the world of the internet.  It's greatest hope is the present generation of internet enabled patients who will demand interoperability, perhaps at the ballot box if bureaucrats cannot accomplish the goal..  The federal government has already invested billions of dollars of your tax money toward this goal.

When Sharing may not be Caring

It's basic, my dear Watson....as Sherlock Holmes would inform his sidekick whose name was  Wastson (not the cyber-edition from IBM.

As written by Tina Reed Johnson

When Sharing is *Not* Caring on Social Media!

You might think that photographers appreciate it when you share their images online.  Believe it or not, this isn’t always the case!  There are oftentimes conditions on image use, and you can get into trouble if you are not paying attention.  If you are using someone else’s image to spice up your post, you might want to think about it first.

But it’s so quick and easy to share social media images, and if it’s online it’s okay to use it right?  And especially if the photographer name is already on a photo then there shouldn’t be a problem.  Hold on there a minute!  

And it's safe to use your own images?  Right ?

It’s important to follow image use guidelines to avoid violating a copyright, and causing problems for yourself and your business. It can be expensive to pay for your mistakes. You may have to hire an attorney, repair damage to your online reputation, in addition to compensating an artist or photographer for image (mis)use.

The Basics on sharing images, art and more on Social Media

Just as in health care privacy and sharing are intertwined. HIPAA establishes strong guidelines (boundaries) and so to do copyright law.......