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Topol visits Colbert for a heart, ear exam

You asked for it, so here’s the video of Dr. Eric Topol on “The Colbert Report” from last night. Check out coverage by Jonah Comstock at MobiHealthNews.

 

 

Kudos to Stephen Colbert for asking the question about insurance companies mining personal data.

In case you missed it, here‘s the “Rock Center with Brian Williams” segment on Topol from January.

March 27, 2013 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Podcast: HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber: 2013 edition

Once again, as has become custom, I sat down with HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber at the organization’s Chicago headquarters the week before the annual HIMSS conference to discuss the conference as well as important trends and issues in the health IT industry. I did the interview Monday.

Here it is late Friday and I’m finally getting around to posting the interview, but it’s still in plenty of time for you to listen before you get on your flight to New Orleans for HIMSS13, which starts Monday but which really gets going with pre-conference activities on Sunday. At the very least, you have time to download the podcast and listen on the plane or even in the car on the way to the airport. As a bonus, the audio quality is better than usual.

Podcast details: Interview with HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber about HIMSS13 and the state of health IT. Recorded Feb. 25, 2013, at HIMSS HQ in Chicago. MP3, stereo, 128 kbps, 46.0 MB. Running time: 50:17.

1:00        Industry growth and industry consolidation
2:50        mHIMSS
3:45        Why Dr. Eric Topol is keynoting
6:00        New Orleans as a HIMSS venue
6:50        Changes at HIMSS13, including integration of HIT X.0 into the main conference
8:55        Focus on the patient experience
9:35        Global Health Forum and other “conferences within a conference”
13:00     Criticisms of meaningful use, EHRs and health IT in general
17:00     Progress in the last five years
20:45     Healthcare reform, including payment reform
22:30     Why private payers haven’t demanded EHR usage since meaningful use came along
23:50     Payers and data
26:28     Potential for delay of 2015 penalties for not meeting meaningful use
29:15     Benefits of EHRs
30:40     Progress on interoperability between EHRs and medical devices
32:52     Efficiency gains from health IT
35:27     Home-based monitoring in the framework of accountable care
36:55     Consumerism in healthcare
39:40     Accelerating pace of change
41:10     Entrepreneurs, free markets and the economics of healthcare
43:25     Informed, empowered patients and consumer outreach
46:30     Fundamental change in care delivery

March 1, 2013 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Maybe Topol and Agus are rock stars after all?

I saw this advertisement on bus shelter near my home in Chicago Tuesday night:

 

Topol-Agus

Yes, that’s Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, and Dr. David Agus, co-founder of Navigenics, flanking pop star Seal, in an ad for fashion house Geoffrey Beene’s Rock Stars of Science program. (The www.rockstarsofscience.org URL currently redirects to Geoffrey Beene’s home page, but the Facebook page still works.) The photo actually is from a GQ shoot in 2009, as readers of MobiHealthNews might recall, but I’ve only noticed the outdoor ads recently. I guess the band must be on hiatus right now.

FWIW, Topol is keynoting Tuesday morning at HIMSS13 in New Orleans.

February 26, 2013 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

AliveCor gets some airtime, too

I’ve had a lot of traffic to this site today because of Dr. Eric Topol’s appearance on “Rock Center with Brian Williams” on NBC last night, which I posted early this morning. As I mention in my related story in MobiHealthNews, Topol showed, among other gadgets, the iPhone ECG, the recently FDA-cleared iPhone add-on from Dr. Dave Albert and AliveCor.

The iPhone ECG also got a mention on Fox News’ Sunday Housecall on Jan. 6, in the form of a discussion between Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. David Samadi, who actually disagree about the usefulness of the product. Siegel thinks it might be a bit frivolous and a toy for the “worried well,” while Samadi hails it as a breakthrough. Siegel did, however, come up with an interesting potential alternate use for the ECG add-on. Take a look:

January 25, 2013 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Dr. Eric Topol on NBC’s ‘Rock Center’

Digital health’s rock star, Dr. Eric Topol, appeared Thursday night on “Rock Center with Brian Williams” to discuss the potential of wireless and mobile health technology with NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman. I have a full recap in MobiHealthNews that will appear Friday morning, but I also have the full video of the segment right here:

 

I have a feeling it will open some eyes among those in the general public who think the status quo in medicine is acceptable and really the best we can do. Obviously, we can do better. We should do better. We must do better.

UPDATE: Here’s the MobiHealthNews story I wrote.

I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Topol’s talk at TEDMED 2009

If you saw my presentation to Meharry Medical College earlier this month either live or on video, you know I referenced Dr. Eric Topol’s talk at TEDMED 2009, in which the Scripps Health cardiologist predicted the demise of the stethoscope by the 2016, the 200th anniversary of that old standby. If you were curious, there is video available of Topol’s session. In fact, it’s right here.

You don’t actually get to see Topol throwing his stethoscope in the trash. I understand that happened right when he took the stage. This video starts a little after then.

April 25, 2011 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.