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It’s the quality, stupid.

At the risk of sounding partisan—and I do my best to be unbiased in my actual journalism—I have to call out Sen. John McCain for an ad that he’s been running about healthcare. “The problem with healthcare in America is not the quality of healthcare, it’s the availability and the affordability.”

Say what?

Someone had better brief him on the two Institute of Medicine reports, “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System” (1999) and “Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century” (2001), not to mention the countless other academic studies that have followed in recent years questioning the adherence of physicians and hospitals to established quality metrics.

Watch for yourself.

This sounds like McCain is trying to play the patriotism card by insinuating that we have the best health system in the world simply because we’re the United States of America. Yes, cost and access are huge issues, but so is quality. Ask anyone who has ever been prescribed the wrong medication or acquired a MRSA infection in a hospital.

For his part, Sen. Barack Obama has not really run any commercials related to healthcare, but he does focus on cost in his discussion of quality on his campaign Web site.

Clearly, this issue is more esoteric and less sexy than, say, Hurricane Ike or the Wall Street crisis, but someone needs to explain to both candidates that quality really is a problem in American healthcare. Perhaps these two senators are part of the reason why Congress has done virtually nothing on health IT?

September 18, 2008 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Vote Health Wonk Review ’08

The latest installment of Health Wonk Review is up at the Disease Management Care Blog. Host Jaan Sidorov brings us a September Surprise by framing the post in the form of a political convention, and his rousing narrative is more than just putting lipstick on a pig. There’s no debating that the fundamentals of the blogosphere are strong!

September 17, 2008 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Podcast: HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber

ORLANDO, Fla.—Here’s a podcast that’s been a year in the making. Actually, it was a year plus an hour and a half. Last year in New Orleans, I had a lively, hour-long conversation with HIMSS President and CEO Steve Lieber that was supposed to be for a podcast, but the recording didn’t work.

On Saturday, I showed up at the appointed hour for another sit-down with Lieber, and realized I’d forgotten my recorder back at my hotel, so we rescheduled for about 90 minutes later. Well, the third time was a charm, and the result is this podcast, a lively, half-hour-long conversation with Steve Lieber, just ahead of the opening of the annual HIMSS conference.

Podcast details: Interview with Steve Lieber at HIMSS ’08. MP3, mono, 64kbps, 13.8 MB. Running time 30:10.

0:30 Expected attendance of 27,000+
1:15 Greater attention on technology in healthcare
1:45 Growth on clinical side
2:50 More interest from non-IT executives
4:00 E-prescribing as an example of IT crossing disciplines
5:45 Multiple opportunites for improvements in prescribing and medication administration
6:30 Continuing problems with access to capital
8:50 Prospects for Medicare payment reform
10:07 Health IT in the presidential campaign
11:15 Health IT debate remains largely nonpartisan.
12:40 Progress among private payers in reimbursement for quality
14:00 More focus on disease management than quality per se
14:40 Slow adoption of personal health records
15:42 Suitability of PHRs for chronically ill
17:30 Kids may be first major PHR constituency in general population.
18:05 Google, Microsoft and Revolution Health in healthcare and HIMSS keynotes from Eric Schmidt and Steve Case
20:00 Movement toward home health
20:40 HIMSS strategic interest in medical devices
21:40 HIMSS branching out as an association
22:30 Interoperability of financial and administrative information
23:10 Working for universal set of quality measures
23:35 Globalization of HIMSS
26:00 Standardization beyond the U.S., e.g., Snomed
27:00 Highlights of HIMSS conference: Interoperability Showcase
28:00 Public meetings at HIMSS, including AHIC
29:03 International registration

February 24, 2008 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Politics and healthcare

Here are just a couple of links for the politically minded.

First off, the Kaiser Family Foundation has put up a site with health-related news about the many, many candidates for president in 2008.

And the Healthcare Update News Service, mostly a compendium of press releases from various companies that also has weekly updates from Health Affairs, has posted video of a March 28 speech by the always-entertaining Bill “Dr. HIPAA” Braithwaite from the Fourth Health Information Technology Summit on privacy and security issues that may hold back health information exchange. I saw the speech live, and I think it’s worth the 33 minutes. Even if you don’t have that much time, you can skip to the “chapters” most of interest, much like watching a DVD.

Quick links:
KFF 2008 politics site
Braithwaite speech on privacy and security issues

July 16, 2007 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Talking politics

A lot’s been said of late about what the 2008 presidential hopefuls have to say about healthcare in general and health IT specifically.

I have a few things from the punditry that may or may not shed light on what’s happening.

First off, Kaiser Network has posted the full video, audio and transcript of Barack Obama’s May 29 healthcare policy speech in Iowa City. Click here to see/hear/read his remarks.

Meanwhile, the Cato Institute‘s Michael Cannon is commenting on Jonathan Cohn’s comparison in the New Republic of Mitt Romney’s plan to the “HillaryCare” circa 1993. Ah, barbs from both sides of the aisle! Good thing the election is a mere 16 months away!

Also, it’s not exactly IT, but I had a story in Friday’s Chicago Sun-Times about the Blue Healthcare Bank. And speaking of links to stories I’ve written, my Red Herring piece on PHRs finally is online. Click here.

June 18, 2007 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.