Obama Has Spent $113 Million on Health-Themed Ads
My initial reaction was how many uninsured children would benefit from money thrown at TV ads.
BuzzNet Tags: campaign ads,politics and healthcare
HEALTH TRAIN EXPRESS Mission: To promulgate health education across the internet: Follow or subscribe to Health Train Express as well as Digital Health Space for all the updates for health policy, reform, public health issues. Health Train Express is published several times a week.Subscribe and receive an email alert each time it is published. Health Train Express has been published since 2006.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Health Train Billboards
Gene Train Express
Quote of the day:
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. - Steven Weinberg
*************************************************
The rapid scientific progress in genomics is now translating into almost everyday clinical applications. It becomes obvious,although expensive at this time, that DNA analysis will cause a revolutionary catalytic disruption in how medicine will be practiced.
One-stop' embryo test unveiled
A gene mapping test could tell parents-to-be if embryos are affected by almost any inherited disease, UK scientists have claimed.
The team from London's Bridge Centre say the £1,500 test could detect any of the 15,000 inherited diseases in weeks. The claims for this new technique, called karyomapping which analyses chromosomes, is that it is a universal 'one size fits all' test. The human genome project has allowed mapping our DNA.
The economics of genetic testing is a double edged sword. Initially this testing will be expensive. Most payers will not pay for this testing, at first. As the early testing translates into "assembly line" techniques the cost will diminish exponentially. The upside is that proper testing will allow forecasting and accurate diagnosis of genetic conditions, allowing for targeted specific conditions. Patients will benefit from designer drugs modeled to prevent allergic and cross reactions in some patients. It may become possible to design antibiotics against drug resistant organisms.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Health Train at San Francisco
By now those of you who read my blog regularly realize that I did not go on a media fast. It didn't seem quite right in the middle of the Health 2.0 ver 3.0 in San Francisco. If Matt, Sarah, Michael are working, who am I to be a slack? So I am monitoring Health 2.0 from afar.
I received an email from Wellsphere asking if they could link to my blog here at Health Train Express. The "train" is getting new routes.
I must admit as I have extracted myself from all the 'wonderful' things of patient care, 
the only thing I miss is the personal interactions between myself and patients. I always aimed for the best outcomes, and was disappointed and somehow always felt guilty when the outcome of an eye surgery was not what I assumed to be perfect. I always had to go back and review what I might have done wrong, and discussed it with colleagues. I tried to keep my 'ego' out of the equation.
I am now a 'voyeur' enjoying academic discussions, patient care, and via several listservs, Sermo, iMedexchange focused on deep thought and practical questions with not only ophthalmologists from Brazil, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia, Iceland and beyond.
Nancy Turett in her blog shares her excitement about Health 2.0 and I can see why. These gatherings are educational but also are the physical manifestation of 'blogging'. It is the real world of virtual social blogging. Friendships are made, and lost in a virtual world...a good deal like having a pen pal who sometimes answers your letter. Putting a face and a voice on the blog seals the deal.
At Health 2.0 Gary Karr lists Seven Great Health Care Policy Blogs.
I expect to see some updates on your flights back home.
gml
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Health Train Genetic Transcription
John Hamlaka, M.D. the Chief Information Officer at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital has "donated" his genome for the PGP (personal genome project.
It is now in a public space, accessible to anyone who can read AGTC code.
Audio transcript--John Hamlaka M.D.
Thought Leader #2--David Altshuler
I took a wrong turn surfing looking for blog material and happened upon these wonderfully informative daring innovators
Listen to the podcasts...you will need either iTune or Windows media player.
Episode 1- The Science of Social Networks--Audio
Episode 2- The Secrets of Aging--Audio
Episode 3- The Art of Perception--Audio
Episode 4- And Coverage for all ? --Audio
Episode 5- Striving for Global Health--Audio
Episode 6- Your Genome, Your Future--Audio
You may find the accompanying text from Harvard Medical Labs here.
Successful Health Train Reform
In many ways healthcare and education have taken a similar path. Education has endeavoured to equalize the playing field by increasing the number of pe0ple who are educated, thereby elevating them from impoverished lives, both economically and socially.
Despite increased spending in education, and a number of 'innovative' techniques' some of which have suceeded in their own relaively narrow segment, the effort has largely failed....left behind.
Parallels can certainly be drawn between our educational system and our health care non system.There remains a large number of uninsured.
Obesity and dys nutrition abound fueling chronic diseases.
Florida has excelled in education outcomes. The tools have been a liberal use of charter schools, (300)......
— Standards and Accountability
— Ending Social Promotion
— Focusing on Reading
— Expanding School Choice Options
— Improving Teacher Quality
The Goldwater Institute elaborates further on the report from the Heritage Foundation.
Does this sound familiar? Our government and payors have thrown more and more money at these issues in medicine, the underinsured, the medically indigent, the lack of physical fitness, and malnutrition without measurable success over the past ten years, except for some improvement in heart diseases.
We physician leaders need to step back, out of the box, and ponder if some of education successes and failures apply to health care as well.
Health and wellness education and training needs to begin in elementary school.
Evan Madianso likewise associates "affordable housing" and "affordable health care (brought to you by the feds.
See Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. and yes they are still in business, have a web site and 'doing well' Thank you very much!!!
Health care needs a bailout, but we do not want it from the feds, for all the obvious reasons.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Health Train Rest Stop
Well, frankly I need a break from blogging, healthcare and politics. I am going on a 7 day media fast (not fest).
So you all enjoy Health 2.0, don't step on the homeless people, and use protection!!!
See you in a week.
Health Financial Markets Impacted
iHealthbeat reported this morning that the merger between WEBMD and HLTH was cancelled due to current economic situation. They cited several reasons for cancelling the merger which was announced in February 2008
In a statement, Martin Wygod, chair of HLTH and WebMD, said, "The boards of directors of HLTH and WebMD believe that, in the current economic environment, it is important for a growth company like WebMD not to be encumbered by $650 million in [HLTH's] long-term debt that would be coming due in 18 to 36 months" (Washington Post, 10/21).
Health IT experts tackle vendor collaboration
Dan Michelson -- chief marketing officer of physician software vendor AllscriptsMisys Healthcare Solutions -- recommended that physician group buyers "contractually obligate" their vendors to provide systems that can easily share data with other vendors.
Health Train 2008
Health 2.0's annual conference begins tomorrow in San Francisco. Although registration deadline has passed and there are over 900 attendees, an additional room has been opened across the hall from the main room. There will be large screen presentations, and audio. You will be able to attend the breakout sessions, and exhibit hall.
You can't go in the ballroom for the main sessions, but you can attend the breakout sessions, the exhibit hall, the "unconference" lunch, the IDEO session (there are actualy only limited spaces available anyway
HEALTH 2.0 REGISTER HERE MEETING OCTOBER 22,2008
Prognosticators are theorizing how our current economic crisit will affect health care reform and what the impact will be on Health 2.0, Web 2.0 and health information technology adoption.
Richard Reece M.D. analyzes our current predicament(s) and gives a futuristic prediction for HealthCare 2020 at
Medinnovation
Richard Reece, M.D. (photo from his blog)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Health Train Express International
Perhaps we should emulate the Chinese in revising our health care system. Long considered primitive regarding health care, China is taking a bold step toward caring for it's billion or more people.
The Chinese however may have an advantage that much like building a home, it is much easier and less expensive to start from scratch. The United States is faced with disassembling a system that has grown over the past 100 years or more and transitioning to a better means of financing health care. We see that a large barrier to transitioning lies in the financing. Converting to a new system will be disruptive financially, and old habits are difficult to break.
The Wall Street Journal reports that China is aiming for universal heatlh care.
The proposed plan would be quite a shift for China. The draft plan’s overall goal is to cover 90% of the population within two years and achieve universal care by 2020. It aims to return to non-profit national health care, an idea that was largely abandoned in the country 1980s.
This all stands in contrast to China’s current system, which provides little government funding to government hospitals and requires patients to pay heavy out-of-pocket expenses. The WSJ notes that out-of-pocket payments made up more than 60% of health spending in China at the end of the 1990s.
The plan — drafted in consultation with groups including the World Health Organization, the World Bank, consultant McKinsey & Co. and a few Chinese university-based public health experts —-----The government also aims to set pricing standards for medical services.
Other news about Chinese health care, Pharma,Western style hospitals is in the Wall Street Journal. And what does Heparin have to do with hot dogs?
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Health Train Express--Sunday Edition
On the heels of Colin Powell's endorsement of Senator Obama, we can begin to look at the options for health care reform that the two candidates espouse.
Before I talk about that I make the following observations.
Few if any Physicians have access to the national stage in a manner that prominent senators, governors, and other publicly elected officials enjoy. We have relied on our national organizations, the AMA, specialty societies, lobbyists.
There are other major players and foundations ,fund policy analysts, and speakers on the national circuit of speakers that elaborate on options for health care reform. In fact there is an alphabet soup variety of publicly funded organizations active in these matters. Some are underwritten by non profit organizations that are actually underwritten by payers.
National Health Policy Resources
Robert Woods Johnson Foundation
The American Hospital Association
U.S. Non- Profits Health Data and Statistics
The following two interviews detail the essentials of the two candidates platform for health care reform.
HEALTH TRAIN MEET THE PRESS FOR SENATOR OBAMA
HEALTH TRAIN MEET THE PRESS FOR SENATOR MCCAIN
Both interviews courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foudation
Health Train Transformation
- Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.
- Oscar Wilde
Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)- *********************************
Today's post, is indirectly related to healthcare. Electrifying news this morning, as we awoke from slumber.
To me it was almost as punctuating as the events of JFKs assassination, and the bombings of 9-11. Colin Powell who was George Bush's Secretary of State, and critical of the Iraqi war as it boged down, endorsed Barak Obama for the Presidency.
Colin Powell has such enormous stature from not only his role and experience in government, but also his eminence as a person of great integrity and moral stature.
Mr. Powell did not have to endorse anyone, he could have remained silent. His love of his country and performance of his duties leaves no doubt as to how this will impact the election.
The sad thing is that George Bush did not listen to what Colin Powell was telling him (and we as taxpayers paid for it). 'res ipsa loquitor'. (the thing speaks for itself).
This is the final nail in the coffin of the Bush administration.
This announcement also comes as the Iraqi Government begins to renegotiate terms for our remaining in Iraq.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Californians' health premiums rise 5 times faster than pay
In California from 2000 to 2007, annual premiums rose from $6,227 to $12,194. During that same period, the median pay went from $25,740 to $30,702.
About 6.6 million are medically uninsured in California.
On average nationally, health premiums rose 78 percent, lower than California's rate, during the seven-year period. However, earnings in California outpaced the rest of the country, which saw wages rise by 14.5 percent.
What is clear is that health care is becoming less and less affordable," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Oakland-based Health Access California
The system is broken and needs to be fixed," said Wright, who called for greater oversight of the insurance industry.
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