September 28th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Announcements, Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: 23rd Annual Benefits Forum and Expo, Avoiding Misguided Care, Best Doctors, Charlie Salter, ConAgra, Employee Benefits, Employee Health, Employer-Provided Health Coverage, Empowered Patients, Evan Falchuk, General Medicine, Healthcare Benefits, In Control Of Your Healthcare, Incorrect Diagnosis, Patient Empowerment, See First Blog, Wrong Treatment
No Comments »
I’m speaking [today] at the 23rd Annual Benefits Forum and Expo. This is one of the premier events in the health care benefits industry, and it’s a thrill for me to be the opening speaker on the “Health Care” track.
I’m presenting along with Charlie Salter, the VP of Benefits of ConAgra, one of our customers at Best Doctors. The talk Charlie and I will give is called “Real Results: When Individuals are in Control of their Health Care.”
As regular readers know, good things happen when people are in control of their care. They have a chance to make sure they’re not one of the 20 percent of people that end up with an incorrect diagnosis, or the more than 60 percent of people that end up with the wrong treatment. It’s the single most powerful thing you can do to make sure your health care experience is as good as it can possibly be. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
September 27th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Boston, Chapel Hill, Children's Computational Epidemiology Group, Children's Hospital, Drug Side Effects, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, iPhone App, Medgadget, Medical Apps, MedWatcher, Outbreaks Near Me, Real-Time FDA Alerts, University of North Carolina, Up-To-Date Drug Safety Reports
No Comments »
Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed an iPhone application that keeps you up-to-date with drug safety reports and allows you to submit any side effects directly to the FDA.
The app, called MedWatcher can keep a list of medications for which you receive both official FDA alerts and news from other channels. Users can report side effects straight from the app and view other submitted reports. The researchers hope to lower the barrier to reporting side effects, increasing the participation in safety surveillance.
Reports of serious adverse events are reviewed by members of the Children’s Computational Epidemiology Group and then submitted to the FDA. The app was developed using technology from the Outbreaks Near Me app, which we covered one year ago. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 26th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: AngelMed Guardian System, Biotechnology, Cardiac Screening Devices, Cardiology, Critical Medical Alerts, Dr. Wes Fisher, Early Heart Attack Detection, Hand-held Telemetry Device, Heart Attack, Heart Attack Overdetection, Heart Attack Underdetection, Implantable Medical Devices, Pre-Heart Attack Screening, Predicting Heart Attacks, Preventive Medicine, Silent Ischemia, ST Segment Shifts, Symptom Alerts For Doctors, Wireless EMT Alert Service
No Comments »
Imagine: There you are sitting outside on a warm, sunny day having a leisurely picnic with your family. You hear an ambulance in the distance getting closer. You’re not on call. Suddenly, the paramedics hop from the vehicle’s cabin and pronounce:
“Excuse me sir, your heart’s not getting enough oxygen and you might develop a heart attack. Please, come with us.”
Sound far fetched? Well, maybe not. A new device is being tested that might detect “silent” ischemia and notify a patient (or even call 911) that he or she is showing signs of heart ischemia on the wire installed in his or her chest. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
September 25th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Evidence-Based Health Reporting, Gary Schwitzer, HealthNewsReview.org, Inaccurate Health Reporting, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, Preventive Medicine, Preventive Screening, Screening Tests, Sound Health Journalism
3 Comments »
One part of the health care law that took effect this week is widely reported as “establishing a menu of preventive procedures, such as colonoscopies, mammograms and cholesterol screening, that must be covered without co-payments.” For example, one of my local papers, the [St. Paul, Minnesota] Star Tribune, wrote: “Some people will no longer have to pay for copays, coinsurance or meet their deductibles for preventive care that’s backed up by the best scientific evidence.” (emphasis added)
That phrase should always include a huge asterisk, like the one hung on Roger Maris’ 61st home run. The best scientific evidence according to whom?
Time magazine reports, “Procedures, screenings and tests that are considered ‘preventive’ will be determined by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Centers for Disease Control (for vaccines) and the Health Resources and Services Administration.” As written, that is incorrect and inaccurate at worst and misleading at best. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
September 25th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Humor, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Diabetes Criminals, Diabetes Management, Diabetes Police, Doctor Patient Relationship, Dr. Bill Polansky, Dr. Steve Edelman, Endocrinology, Improving Diabetes Health, Individual Diabetes Needs, Kerri Morrone Sparling, Living With Diabetes, People With Diabetes, PWD, Six Until Me, Taking Control Of Your Diabetes, TCOYD
No Comments »
At TCOYD [Taking Control Of Your Diabetes], one of the sessions I attended was about Diabetes Police (Healthcare Providers) and Diabetes Criminals (People With Diabetes). And I was a little taken aback by the title of the session, but we used it to our advantage when we walked into the session a few minutes after it had already started.
“Okay, we see a few late stragglers in here. It’s not like they had to be on time or anything,” Dr. Edelman quipped from the front of the room, giving us a smirk.
“I’m sorry we’re late. But what do you expect? We’re the criminals, man!” I shot back at him. And the crew of us “criminals” took up the last few rows, our smartphones at the ready to Tweet out the best of the session. (We were the total nerd row.
The charismatic team of Dr. Bill Polansky and Dr. Steve Edelman were running this session, and it was packed with both PWDs [people with diabetes], caregivers, and medical professionals. Bill and Steve took to the white board, asking first for complaints that PWDs have about healthcare providers. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
