Expert Opinions on PPACA

 

The CATO Institute reported on June 25, 2012,

Even if the Affordable Care Act survives its first Supreme Court test — the lawsuits won't end. Citizens have already filed challenges to what critics call the law's "death panel" and its impact on privacy rights, religious liberty and physician-owned hospitals. Still another potential lawsuit poses as great a threat to the law as the case now before the high court.

Under the guise of implementing the law, the Internal Revenue Service has announced it will impose a tax of up to $3,000 per worker on employers whom Congress has not authorized a tax. To make things more interesting: If the IRS doesn't impose that unauthorized tax, the whole law could collapse. 

The Act's "employer mandate" taxes employers up to $3,000 per employee if they fail to offer required health benefits. But that tax kicks in only if their employees receive tax credits or subsidies to purchase a health plan through a state-run insurance "exchange."

The IRS doesn't have a leg to stand on here.

This 2,000-page law is complex. But in one respect the statute is clear: Credits are available only in states that create an exchange themselves. The federal government might create exchanges in states that decline, but it cannot offer credits through its own exchanges. And where there can be no credits, there is nothing to trigger that $3,000 tax.

States are so reluctant to create exchanges that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius estimates she might have to operate them for 15 to 30 states. Even if she manages that feat, the law will still collapse without the employer mandate and tax credit.

The IRS doesn't have a leg to stand on here.  This may now be a moot argument since the SCOTUS ruled the ‘penalty’ is really a tax. Congress under pressure could vote to amend the PPACA to prohibit this being a  tax, athough the law mandates that the IRS would administer the penalty (tax)

This is only the first barrage fired across the bow of PPACA.

Lost completely in this current round are the underrepresented uninsured, unemployed, and disabled Americans.

The law is desperately flawed, built by persons who do not, did not, nor ever will understandthe physician patient interface, the byzantine multilayered approaches to payments, and the new calling to laminate the system with another stratum of sediment.

Unauthorized Tax

To prevent that from happening, on May 18 the IRS finalized a rule making credits available through federal exchanges, contrary to the express language of the statute.

Because those credits trigger penalties against employers, the IRS is literally taxing employers and spending billions without congressional authorization. Estimates by the Urban Institute indicate that had this rule been in effect in 2011, it would have cost at least $14.3 billion for HHS to run exchanges for 30 states. About 75% of that is new federal spending; the remainder is forgone tax revenue.

The IRS doesn't have a leg to stand on here. It has not cited any express statutory authority for its decision, because there is none. The language limiting tax credits to state-established exchanges is clear and consistent with the rest of the statute. The law's chief sponsor, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), is on record explaining creation of an exchange is among the conditions states must satisfy before credits become available. Indeed, all previous drafts of the law also withheld credits from states to push them to cooperate.

Employers can sue

Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has 60 days from the date of issue to block the rule. Reps. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., and Phil Roe, R-Tenn., have introduced a resolution. It may receive a cold reception from President Obama, but "taxation without representation" is a difficult position to defend. If that approach fails, states that have refused to establish a health insurance exchange, and large employers the IRS will hit with this unauthorized tax, could challenge the rule in court.

The authors of the Affordable Care Act wrongly assumed states would be eager to implement it. If saving the law from that miscalculation requires letting the IRS tax Americans without authorization, then it is s not worth saving.

Technorati Tags: irs,ppaca,scotus,taxation,congressional review act,cato

The Treacle of Social Media

 

Well, there it is… The Higgs Boson particle…It took 50 years to prove it is there. We cannot see it, we can prove it’s there using highly sophisticated physics. What is it? It’s the ‘glue’ that exists throughout the universe which allows matter to exist. Without it all there would be is pure energy flying around at the speed of light. There would be no stars, no planets, no life (as we know it). Without it would  beings of pure energy, much like some of the creatures we read about in science fiction or Star Trek’ s ‘Q’ who materialized or the other malevolent energy fields the Enterprise would encounter on their journey to ‘where no one had gone before’.

Happy Independence Day everyone 1776-2012. 236 years have passed. The U.S.A. is still a relatively young nation, our national identified thus far by exceptionalism in private investment and entrepreneurial enthusiasm.  We have always striven for excellence based upon individual effort coupled with team work.

Social media is a form of teamwork….Competition abounds in the social media sphere between Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, and many other social platforms.  How many platforms can you name  ?

Social media’s treacle is the very essence of humanity, the need for social interaction, the glue of what makes us human, along with primates and an inborn need to communicate and have sensory input from outside each of our beings.

 

Technorati Tags: social media,boson particle,higgs,treacle

#mHealth is Here, Now along with #hcsm

 

 

Top Paid Medical Apps for iPhones (from the iTunes store)

 

 

1. Pill Identifier ($0.99)

Developer: Drugs.com

Pill Identifier allows you to identify more than 10,000 different over-the-counter and prescription pills based on their appearance. Search by imprint, size, shape or color.

2. Pregnancy ++ ($2.99)

Developer: Health & Parenting Ltd.

Pregnancy ++ tracks the course of your pregnancy, including your weight, diet and exercise. It also includes HD fetal pictures, a kick counter and a contraction counter.

3. Baby Connect (Activity Logger) ($4.99)

Developer: Seacloud Software

Baby Connect tracks your baby’s everyday activities (including feeding, sleep, growth, health and vaccines) and creates graphical reports and trending charts. The information can be shared between parents, nannies and other child care providers.

4. Instant ECG: An Electrocardiogram Rhythms Interpretation Guide ($0.99)

Developer: iAnesthesia LLC

Instant ECG is an app for health care professionals, which teaches the basics of reading electrocardiograms (ECG). The app offers video demonstrations of 30 different arrhythmias to teach and then test a provider’s ability to diagnose irregularities.

5. MedCalc (medical calculator) ($0.99)

Developer: Mathias Tschopp and Pascal Pfiffner

MedCalc gives health care professionals access to more than 200 different diagnostic formulas, scores, scales and classifications that help measure a person’s health.

6. Pill Reminder by Drugs.com ($0.99)

Developer: Drugs.com

The Pill Reminder App keeps track of all of your medications, vitamins and supplements. Set up reminders to take your meds or refill a prescription, and check for drug interactions, dosage information and possible side effects.

7. Anatomy 3D: Organs ($1.99)

Developer: Real Bodywork

Anatomy 3D: Organs teaches users about structure and function of internal organs using 3D models, videos, audio lectures, diagrams, quizzes and a glossary.

8. Diagnosaurus DDx ($1.99)

Developer: Unbound Medicine, Inc.

Diagnosaurus DDX helps health care providers accurately diagnose patients quickly at the bedside. Providers can search over 1,000 differential diagnoses by organ system, symptom and disease, and use a special feature to consider alternative diagnoses when multiple conditions are possible.

9. Everyday First Aid ($0.99)

Developer: Portable Monster LLC

Everyday First Aid offers users information on how to handle an emergency. The medical information is based on guidelines from the American Red Cross and other health organization, and tells you how to handle situations including choking, wound cleaning, jellyfish stings, tick bites and heart attacks with illustrated training guides.

10. Drugs & Bugs ($5.99)

Developer: Haymarket Media

Drugs & Bugs is an app for medical students and health care professionals who care for patients with infectious diseases. It provides information on more than 100 antibiotics and nearly 200 bacterial pathogens, and allows providers to compare the effectiveness of various drugs.

 

Technorati Tags: iOS,apple,medical apps,#mhealth

Hangout Therapy for Immobilized and Challenged Patients

Virtual Photo Walk Tour, Capture Image of Toronto Canada, courtesy VFW.

Today’s Health Train Express delivers us to a wide variety of global tourist interests. The power of technology is readily harnessed with new, innovative and affordable consumer devices.

 

I have been privileged to work with many talented individuals, our cofounders, Bruce Garber (in Boston, MA), our announcer, video producer, and John Butterill  Ontario Canada) CEO of Virtual Photo Walks.

VPWs are routinely broadcast, as scheduled events.

In today’s VPW we had several patients challenged with advanced neurologic diseases, multiple sclerosis which render them non ambulatory.

The technology necessary for this is a simple webcam, laptop with broadband internet and even works well with smartphone or tablet pc’s running on a cell network for the VPW.  The broadcast locations were all transmitted using either an Android device or an iPhone using 4G cell connectivity.

I have included several previously archived events. The live events can be viewed via a ‘Google Hangout on Air’  (HOA).

KOMU TV news Anchor Sarah Hill is a journalism professor at the University of Missouri and is a pioneer Google Hangout person, championing it’s use in health, charitable fund raising, news gathering and in education.

Follow her narration of our next virtual photo walk.

 

 

Australian Beach

 

Japanese Cherry Blossoms

 

GooglePlex

 

Virtual Photowalk in Singapore

For future events go to www.virtualphotowalks.com . Also please visit our YouTube Channel at  Virtual Photo Walk for the archives.

Virtual Photowalks invites requests for specific patients to be scheduled. Photowalks are global in nature and we have resources on all continents (we are working on Antarctica)

 

Technorati Tags: google,google plus hangout,googleplex,virtual photowalk,komu tv,sarah hill,john butterill,bruce garber,health train express,disabled

Something This Way Wicked Cometh.

 

The New Yorker this morning has an article by Atul Gwande MD with that ominous title.

Pumping up the rhetoric seems to have been the present outcome of the Supreme Court Decision about the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act.

Here comes the list of the present ‘winners’ and ‘losers’

THE MORNING AFTER

It's the bitter pill 24 hours after the supreme court decision(s) on PPACA.

The decision leaves a trail of winners and losers, from Main Street, USA, to the very steps of the Supreme Court. For some, it's a mixed bag. Here's a look:

WINNERS

Casey Quinlan, a 59-year-old breast cancer survivor who lives near Richmond, Va., and millions of other uninsured people. Starting in October 2013, the uninsured will be able to sign up for taxpayer subsidized coverage either through private insurance plans or the Medicaid health care program. Coverage commences on Jan. 1, 2014. The law eventually is expected to provide health insurance to about 30 million of the estimated 50 million uninsured Americans. Insurers will not be able to turn away people with a history or medical problems, or charge them more.

Hospitals. Their stock zoomed Thursday after the Supreme Court ruling guaranteed them millions more paying customers. Some analysts expect the law to reduce uncompensated care losses borne by hospitals by about half. Currently about one-fourth of the care provided by hospitals is never paid for, either because debts can't be collected or the patient is uninsured.

Stocks of big laboratories also rose.

insurance companies had a see-saw day, down sharply at first but recovering some lost ground. They'll get millions of new customers also, but they face new federal regulation and taxes they fear will drive up costs.

Family practice doctors. The law provides a pay boost for those treating Medicare patients, and takes other steps that could make general practitioners the new gatekeepers of a more efficient health care system.

Democrats. President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi devoted a vast amount of his first term to passing a health care law that has divided the nation.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. Obama's top Supreme Court lawyer was maligned for his performance in both the health care and Arizona immigration cases.

Chief Justice John Roberts - The darling of conservatives, Roberts finds himself in the unusual position of being praised by the left and criticized by the right following the health care ruling,

LOSERS

The National Federation of Independent Business. The law imposes fines on employers that do not offer coverage, but companies with fewer than 50 workers are exempt,

Republicans. From presidential candidate Mitt Romney, to congressional leaders like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., it will get harder for Republicans to argue that the law should be wiped from the books. However, Republicans could regain the upper hand by targeting unpopular provisions for repeal, like tax increases on industry, cost controls and cuts to service providers.

States that didn't prepare. About half the states now find themselves in the position of the little piggy that built his house out of straw. Many Republican-led states held back on carrying out the law's plan to set up new insurance markets, confident the Supreme Court would toss out the whole thing.

Justice Antonin Scalia. He sat glumly and silently as other justices read their takes on the health care law. Scalia was more vocal than any justice in his distaste for the law

 

Technorati Tags: scotus,ppaca,supreme court,republicans,democrats,obama,romney

Supreme Court Decision on PPACA

 

First-person Impressions from Today's Supreme Court Decision on Healthcare

My friend and colleague +Ann Waldo (an attorney with whom I've worked on some healthcare privacy issues) was able to attend today's Supreme Court decision.  She shared some first-person impressions via email, and gave me permission to share them more widely here.  Ann wrote:
"Family and friends,  here’s a summary of my take on the Supreme Court decision that Doug and I were privileged to attend in person today.  I’m still pinching myself that we got to be there.  I sat up front in the Supreme Court Bar section, approximately four feet from retired Justice John Paul Stevens and about 10 feet from the Justices.  The day was full of formality – the Deputy Clerk was wearing a morning suit with tails!  What a pleasure to be there.
I do realize, of course, that not all of us view the underlying law the same way, and I’m not trying to open a political debate.  Just sharing with you my impressions of being present on this historic occasion

“First of all, it really was breathtaking just to be there on such an historic day.
The mood in the courtroom was silent but extremely suspenseful.  Chief Justice Roberts started out by saying in very strong language that the Commerce Clause does NOT permit Congress to compel citizens to buy something they don't want to buy, whether insurance or broccoli.  He said the Constitution allows the regulation of commerce, but not the compulsion of commerce.  He went on for about 10 minutes about how the framers of the Constitution would have understood this in a common sense way – the government simply cannot compel people to buy an unwanted product.
I was sitting (in the second row, unbelievably!) along with the Solicitor General’s lawyers, and they all seemed to stop breathing.  Roberts continued, saying that allowing the mandate as an exercise of regulating commerce would be a vast government overreach, and would fundamentally change the relationship between government and individuals.

So – it really looked like the mandate was dead as a doornail, and my mind was racing ahead to the next logical question - the severability question – i.e., how much of the law would instantly evaporate.  I, like most in the room, was listening hard for clues as to how much of the law would disappear (contemplating the massive changes to contracts, payment arrangements, delivery systems, ACOs, performance measures, children’s health, keeping kids under 26 on their parents’ insurance, etc.)

But then the Chief Justice suddenly switched gears.  He said that if a law is unsustainable under one constitutional theory, but supportable under another theory, then it must be upheld.  He then analytically worked his way to a firm conclusion that the mandate is a tax.  Even though Congress didn’t call it a tax, it is administered by the IRS, it is collected on 1040s, it is based on income and dependents, and it raises revenue – it’s a  tax.  And, of course, Congress has almost plenary power to enact taxes.  (I’ve been saying for months that I wish the Democrats had just called it a tax, for then all these lawsuits would have been dismissed summarily.)
The bottom line – a person can choose to decline to buy insurance and pay the tax without breaking any law.  Thus, it’s not a real mandate; it’s a tax.  Thus, it’s Constitutional.

Roberts did a brilliant job of threading the needle. In my opinion, he showed real leadership by following the law, not politics or his personal views.  (He even implied he didn’t favor the law.) And by unexpectedly voting with the liberals, he helped undermine the growing perception of the Court’s own partisanship.  There’s no question that he elevated his own historical position as a powerful Chief Justice.

He also threaded the needle on the Medicaid expansion.  Although he ruled that while the Medicaid expansion as written was overbroad and coercive (which was the first time in history that the federal spending power has been ruled to be so heavy-headed as to be unconstitutionally coercive on the states), he found a way to avoid knocking millions of poor people out of newly eligible care by making the Medicaid expansion essentially optional at the state level.
Justice Kennedy delivered a blistering dissent.  People have been saying he was a swing vote and might vote to uphold the mandate, but no way, that was far from true.  He was adamant about how the mandate exceeded the government’s powers, and he didn’t buy the argument that it was really a tax.  Powerful, articulate positions.

Justice Ginsburg delivered a strong dissent to the majority decision that the mandate violated the Commerce Clause.  She said that not buying health insurance is not remotely like not buying vegetables, because individuals who don’t buy insurance and get sick impose substantial costs on taxpayers and other people who pay for insurance, and that slippery slope arguments are absurd. “

A big day, an amazing decision.  We’ll all have to stay tuned for reactions and next steps. The political battle lines are certainly being hardened already.
P.S. In case you’re not  clear on what the contents of this extremely complicated law are, here’s a small summary.  There’s a lot more too, much of which has to do with overhauling how we improve quality and save money by paying hospitals and clinicians for the quality of their results, rather than the expensive, terribly expensive status quo method of paying for each service ordered. 

But here’s a quick summary of some of the major effects on individuals:

* Insurance companies no longer have unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women more than men.
* Soon, no American will ever again be denied care or charged more due to a pre-existing condition, like cancer or even asthma.
* Preventive care will still be covered free of charge by insurance companies--including mammograms for women and wellness visits for seniors.
* By August, millions of Americans will receive a rebate because their insurance company spent too much of their premium on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.
* 5.3 million seniors will continue to save $600 a year on their prescription drugs.
* Efforts to strengthen and protect Medicare by cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse will remain in place.
* 6.6 million young adults will still be able to stay on their family's plan until they're 26."l

All of the above are well intentioned and meaningful. However there remains much to decide as the law proscribes a rigid administrative bureaucratic structure that will increase costs dramatically with formation of accountable care organizations, a nationwide health information network (which is still largely inoperative and only in the planning stages. In addition to the ACOs and the NHIN a new paradigm for reimbursement must be designed, converting from a procedural base to one of  excellence of outcomes. And there is still uncertainty how and what measures will be utilized

 

Technorati Tags: scotus,ppaca,john roberts,justice kennedy,justice ginsbert,justice scalia,healthreform,individual mandate,irs,tax

Governor Brown Loves the Children !

 

SACRAMENTO -- Advocates on Monday made a last ditch effort to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders to back down from a plan to eliminate Healthy Families, the medical insurance program that serves children from low-income working families.

Axing the program to save tens of millions of dollars is a key provision in the budget that Brown and Democrats worked out last week as part of an agreement that spared more painful cuts to safety net programs for the poor. More than 900,000 children would be required to change to the Medi-Cal system over the next year and a half, forcing them to find new doctors in what critics say is an already overwhelmed system.  (and the medi-cal system is fee for service with even fewer doctors)

"Medi-Cal already faces serious challenges in providing access for 3.5 million kids served by it today, and it's straining to serve them well," said Wendy Lazarus, founder and co-president of The Children's Partnership, which outlined demands in a letter co-signed by 64 groups.

"But by putting added pressure on a very fragile Medi-Cal system now, the plan will endanger access to care for as many as 4.5 million kids."

Healthy Families provides medical, dental and vision care for children who don't have insurance but who do not qualify for Medi-Cal. A family of four can make up to $30,000 and qualify for Medi-Cal, while a family of four can qualify for Healthy Families with an income of up to $56,000.

Democrats on Monday began taking up 21 trailer bills that will enact

---

 

---

various aspects of the budget, including one specifically on Healthy Families. They will work through the bills in committee before taking a vote on Wednesday. That is the last day Brown can take action on the budget: He can either veto it, veto parts of it, sign it, or take no action, which would automatically enact it into law.

Only a majority of votes are needed for each bill in both houses, so Democrats, who have wide majorities in each house, could spare a handful of no votes. If enough rise up against it, the budget deal would collapse with the end of the fiscal year looming. That doesn't look likely, however, as advocates can count only two Democratic lawmakers opposed to the dissolution of Healthy Families. They need a minimum of seven to block it in the Senate and 12 in the Assembly.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is one who opposes the dissolution, along with Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento. Yee said if he can't persuade colleagues to support abandoning the plan to eliminate Healthy Families, he wants a strong assurance that children moving to Medi-Cal won't lose coverage.

"It's incumbent on all of us to do what we can to change the governor's mind," Yee said. But short of that, he wants to "ensure children in Healthy Families are not going to be left holding the bag."

One of the biggest concerns is that doctors who receive Healthy Families patients do not accept Medi-Cal patients. Doctors and health providers receive a higher reimbursement rate from Healthy Families than from Medi-Cal.

By dissolving Health Families, the savings would net $13 million for the rest of this year, and another $54 million next year and $78 million the following year. But the state stands to lose millions of dollars in federal matching funds that will be cut off once Healthy Families is dissolved, critics said. And it will likely forfeit $200 million for each of the next two years that it would have gotten through an industry-paid managed care organization tax, which helps fund Healthy Families.

The tax is set to expire at the end of the month, and extending it would require a two-thirds vote, and Republicans, who have criticized the move to shutter Healthy Families, are unlikely to vote for it.

"This has the potential to make our budget worse, not better," said Anthony Wright, director of Health Access California. "In order to get a little savings now, we're potentially blowing a bigger hole in the budget in the future, one that will reverberate onto kids' programs and kids' services."

Contact Steven Harmon at 916-441-2101. Follow him at Twitter.com/ssharmon

Alaska Medicaid Agency To Pay $1.7M To Settle HIPAA Case

 

Why our health system is so expensive.

Does this appeal to your common sense? No ! Robbing Peter to pay Paul. The State of Alaska should have been required to use the funds to train their workers in HIPAA

This case was over three years ago, when HIPAA was just coming into effect nationally.

Don’t waste my money on idiocy!!

Needless bureaucracy and expense.

Alaska Medicaid Agency To Pay $1.7M To Settle HIPAA Case

Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services -- which oversees the state's Medicaid program -- has agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle possible violations of the HIPAA Security Rule, Modern Healthcare reports.

Leon Rodriguez, director of HHS' Office for Civil Rights, in a statement said, "This is OCR's first HIPAA enforcement action against a state agency, and we expect organizations to comply with their obligations under these rules regardless of whether they are public or private entities" (Zigmond, Modern Healthcare, 6/26).

About the Possible Violations

In October 2009, Alaska's DHSS submitted a breach report to OCR indicating that a portable electronic storage device that might have contained protected health information had been stolen from the car of a DHSS computer technician (HHS agreement, 6/26).

After investigating the breach, OCR found that DHSS had failed to:

• Address the encryption of devices and media;
• Complete a health data risk analysis;
• Conduct health data security training for employees; and
• Implement controls for devices and media (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/26).

Details of the Settlement

In addition to paying the settlement, DHSS agreed to review, revise and maintain its policies to ensure compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule.

As part of the agreement, a designated monitor will report to OCR regularly about DHSS' compliance efforts (Cadet, CMIO, 6/27).

 

Technorati Tags: hipaa,security,medicaid,alaska dhss,compliance,civil rights,encryption,health data risk

Online Program Lets Docs 'Prescribe' mHealth Apps

 

How many physicians actually prescribe mobile health applications to their patients by writing an Rx or having a list to give to their patients?  Believe it or not some patients do not know what is on the market and readily available for mhealth. Those who are familiar with mobile health and/or remote monitoring will look to you as an “expert” on mobile and remote monitoring.

If you are not an expert or have meager knowledge of this subject , and little time to research the subject you have two choices:

1. Assign responsibility to a staff member

2. Look at our resource white paper on mobile health, and remote monitoring.

3. Do both.

Social media is an excellent source of information, in blogs, on Facebook, Twitter and Google plus. Numerous discussion groups occur on Google plus Hangouts. This link will guide you how to join Gmail (necessary) and start a hangout.

Health Train Express and Digital Health Space produce a ‘Hangout Doctor” at 5 PM Pacific time Monday through Thursday. Circle ‘Digital Health Space’ for up to date information

Happtique, a mobile health application store aimed primarily at healthcare providers, plans to launch an mRx program that will give hospitals and physicians a mechanism for prescribing mHealth apps to patients. Following a two-month pilot this summer, Happtique expects to launch its patent-pending mRx technology in the marketplace.

Happtique offers a full suite (catalog) for both iPhone and Android OS solutions and is catalogues by specialty as well as by profession. Register here

 

Technorati Tags: digital health space,mobile health apps,mhealth,happtique,google hangout,facebook,twitter,google plus

Smart Medicine, SmartPhones

 

        

The evolution of computer processing power has led to a reduction in size of the most commonly used device used for computing and social media tasks.  The tower shrunk to a desktop or all in one format, the desktop was replaced by laptops and tablets. Tablet PCs, notepads, netbooks are morphing into mobile devices of assorted sizes and utilities, merging with video capabilities.

These changes are key to ‘meaningful usability’ in a medical or hospital environment.

Health care and medicine have lagged behind in the use of social media

How the iPhone set the bar for other smartphones in healthcare -

iPhones could be considered the technology that truly kick started the mobile revolution in home care. Small, easy to use and powerful, the iPhone was the first smartphone to really capture the attention of physicians, and to develop tools and resources for healthcare.
Recent data shows nearly 65 percent of hospitals are supporting iPhone use on their networks, and another 83 percent are supporting its larger cousin, the iPad. 

Dozens of developers create add-ons, plug-ins, special lenses, and apps that can turn the iPhone into any number of use-specific healthcare tools, including:

Image-viewers: Recent studies have shown that the iPhone can be an acceptable viewer for MRI, X-ray and other images, although with the caveat that it shouldn't be used for primary diagnosis.  

Diagnostic tools: Developers have created strips, touchscreen devices and other tools to diagnose everything from malaria to e. coli infection via the iPhone. 

Remote monitors: iPhones can read and transmit data from remote monitoring devices. For example, the iPhone has been employed as a scanner to take glucose readings from strips of nanosensors under skin.

Microscopes: A cheap, $50 lens turns the iPhone into a field microscope. It's not the same as powerful lab microscopes, but can enlarge images 350 times, which can be more than enough to see tissue abnormalities and even some diseases.

Electrocardiograms:  A pocket sized device attached to the back side of a smartphone can transmit a remote rhythm strip to a physician or hospital from a 911 first responder.

iPhones also have hefty enough processing capacity to access patient records, Being

Another key component in the iPhone revolution in healthcare clearly is consumers. Saldana estimates that of the 7,000 users who access his hospital's MyCare patient portal, 80 to 90 percent do so with iPhones. It was one of the main reasons his team moved early on to enable the hospital's Epic electronic medical record system for iPhones, and later iPads.

And iPhones certainly are upping the ante in terms of patients' expectations, Feldman adds. "Particularly now that patients have access themselves to their data via portals, so often my patients are as up to date as I am on their labs. It would be embarrassing if they have faster access than I did."

Physicians will be dragged into social media by their own patients and consumers who will annoyed by not having that functionality with their physician or medical group. Physicians will come to realize the efficiencies of not having to contact the patient about ‘normals’, and the lab data normality can be programmed into the software.

Security Issues:

The one lagging item on the iPhone agenda continues to be security. iPhone users are famous for finding workarounds,

While not HIPAA compliant smartphone experts say they had good luck with "just put[ting] on the lock screen, which encrypts the data on the device and ... set[ting] up remote wipe/locate, which are all free features of the phone." These issues still abound how to encrypt data over the cell and wifi networks.  The military does this already with Blackberry devices, which are standard military issue for email and communication in DOD medical facilities.

The capability is there and someone is going to come along and develop this capacity.

And last but not least is social media.  Email is slow compared to using Twitter which can actually function much like a pager with a message displaying and a sound alert much like the now obsolete digital pager. It also facilitates a quick reply if desired.
 

How the iPhone impacted the handset industry

How the iPhone set the bar for other smartphones in healthcare -

 

And during slow times, there is always:

 

Technorati Tags: smartphone,iphone,hospitals,security,social media,healthcare,it,news,blackberry,military,email,twitter,wifi,cell network,network,mobile apps tablet pc,laptop,mobile apps

on

Torrid Rate of Growth for Digital Health Funding

 

After investments in digital health doubled from 2009 to 2011, the torrid pace of growth has continued in the first half of 2012. Rock Health’s founder Halle Tecco stated why they released a report at this time. “The impetus of this report was the notable growth in venture funding of digital health–so much so that we are seeing 73% more investments than the same time last year. As we strive to foster innovation and entrepreneurship within the space, we want to best characterize the landscape to paint a clear picture of where our field is going.”

@Rock_Health 2012 Midyear Funding Report

View more presentations from Rock Health

In order to understand this dramatic increase in HIT spending, look only as far as the Department of HHS incentive plan for HER and HIT coupled with the incompleted plan for PPACA.

The driving factors for this dramatic increase:

• Pharma’s Huge Threat (and Opportunity): mRx
• Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall(ed Garden)
• Strategic Healthcare Investors’ Investment Thesis
• Community Hospital Joins Wave Of New Strategic Venture Funds To Drive Disruptive Innovation
• Government Poised To Provide A Huge Boost To Healthtech Startups
• Patients Are More Than A Vessel For Billing Codes
• Aetna: The Company Scaring Its Competition And Delighting Startups
• What Pharma Can Learn From the Railroads and IBM
• Why It’s Good News HealthIT is So Bad
• The Rise of Nimble Medicine
• Money Ball for Medicine – Business Models for Healthcare

Either Way the Patient Will Lose in This Round

 

The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author:

  Gary M. Levin MD

 

Let me state unequivocally that we need to reform our health system, but not in the manner being attempted by our present Congress, nor President Obama.

The Health Reform Law was passed almost two years ago and spontaneously ignited a ‘food fight’ of incredible proportions, with over reaction from each side, Republicans being accused of ‘Darwinian theology’’ for their health reforms, while Democrats are accused of being flaming socialists wealth redistributionists and even communists.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said we would not know what was in the bill until after it passed.  That was and is a profound oxymoron and understatement.  No one really knows what it will cost, if it can be funded in the short or long haul, much of the administration is still not in place and there remains much to be accomplished.

Pandora’s box has been opened and no one really likes the details. Democrats surely must regret passing a nonpartisan act. Republicans are so incensed at being ‘bullied’ into submission that they are not likely to approve most Democratic proposals for anything. 

Perhaps our political system has gone off the rails, defying rational thought in favor of lobbyists.

The act  was passed with little review by grass root healthcare providers in the trenches.  Yes, the American Medical Association (representing only about 160,000 out of close to 800,000 doctors and hundreds of thousands of other providers, hospitals, durable medical device manufacturing companies) endorsed the Act. The AMAs endorsement did not include me. The only groups that seemed to have the attention of the congress were insurance companies and pharma.

I would say that this Law is not the best or even near the best approach to health reform.  That is a very sad thing that so much time has been wasted in our effort.

 

During a financial crisis when debt is escalating out of control, isn’t it best to reign in spending, stop borrowing money to fight wars or other programs. Let’s take a breather and put  PAPCA on hold….makes more sense that to have e SCOTUS make a critical decision based on the constitution to overcome our intransigence.

The law was badly conceived and written and passed, without concern for the implementation. It was passed as a political expediency by Democrats, without Republican support.

Haste makes waste !

Can a health system be designed by Congress? Or for that matter, Health and Human Services?

Technorati Tags: ppaca,health reform,hhs,supreme court,nancy pelosi,american medical association

The Doctor’s Tablet A Blogger’s Anniversary

 

I start each day reviewing blogs and the social media stream(s).  It offers up a wide variety of topics on “what’s hot”. Admittedly most of it is in the health care field and now overlaps with 'social media’. I am beginning to not like that term, for the time being. Although diminishing in ‘bad press’  “social media” harbors some lingering stereotypical attitudes, unless one know how to use it and avoid the ‘bottom dwellers’ who are there. 

Our presence in social media should elevate it’s content, and health care providers will not be lessened if we take on a leadership role.

Today I want to congratulate and encourage “The Doctor’s Tablet” which is approaching it’s  six month anniversary of blogging.  Directly from their “about page” here is what they say about themselves. 

“This dynamic blog, written primarily by Einstein faculty, reviews the latest in medical research and development while bringing you a unique glimpse into how doctors use their knowledge, skills, experience and intuition to make diagnoses, treat patients and strive to provide compassionate care.

Each week, College of Medicine faculty share observations and insights from the front lines of medicine and translational research. The thoughts and words are their own. The Doctor’s Tablet  editors, Paul Moniz, managing director of communications and marketing, and David Flores, social media manager, provide editorial guidance.”

As most experienced bloggers will advise, “Content is king”.  I have found networking with other credible bloggers is important. Linking with twitter, facebook and Google Plus serve to attract readers.

The Doctor’s Tablet has  a unique strength in it’s expert sources from many New York Hospital Institutions, and their physicians.

Our best wishes for continuing success for The Doctor’s Tablet and welcome to the ‘blogosphere’.

 

Technorati Tags: doctor's tablet,blogosphere,Einstein College of Medicine,social media