Information overload

SAN FRANCISCO—Talk about irony: I’ve got tons and tons of great information to report, and very little time in which to do so. I’m currently at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, fresh off the Medical Group Management Association annual meeting down the coast in San Diego. I’ll be at the Collaborative Communications Summit in Los Angeles early next week.

Aside from all the frequent-flier miles, I’ve collected much news from vendors, organizations, and others in health IT. At some point, I’ll actually get around to reporting the news. In the meantime, you can check out the story I wrote this week in Digital HealthCare & Productivity about MGMA’s desire for health plans to develop a standardized, machine-readable insurance card for all patients.

I also wanted to draw your attention to yet another celebrity medical error. According to the Boston Herald, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has had to have three follow-up procedures to contain an infection in the knee he recently had reconstructive surgery on. He’s currently on IV antibiotics to contain the infection.

Although the story doesn’t say so, my immediate thought is that Brady contracted the infection from something that wasn’t fully cleaned in the operating room at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles during the Oct. 6 surgery. In other words, Brady likely is the victim of yet another hospital-acquired infection.

Also, the counter in the bottom right of this page recently passed 40,000 visits since September 2004. There have been more than 52,200 page views. Traffic has accelerated since a slow start, and is now at about 1,000 visits and 1,300 page views a month. Thanks for reading.