May 13th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
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A patient apologized to me for asking so many questions. “There’s no need to apologize,” I said to the patient, “It’s wonderful that you have so many questions concerning your healthcare.” I mentioned to her that she is an “empowered and engaged patient,” and that’s a good thing.
It’s no secret that health consumers are turning to the Internet for health information.
In a recent article from MediaPost News, Gavin O’Malley writes that, according to new a study by Epsilon Strategic & Analytic Consulting Group, “40% of online consumers use social media for health information — reading or posting content — while the frequency of engagement varies widely. According to the study, individuals who use healthcare social media fall into two broad groups: the 80% who are highly engaged patients, and take active roles in health management; and the 20% who lack confidence to play an active role in their own health.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
March 17th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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The time is approaching when businesses will want to capture the eyes and minds of physicians in the social world. Throwaways and mailouts will give way to more current channels of communication. Friends in the health
industry ask how they should connect with physicians using social media channels.
The rules really aren’t much different but here are a couple of things the consultants will never tell you:
I’m not on Sermo. While Sermo and Ozmosis may seem like obvious targets, physician specific verticals are tricky. The road to the successful physician network is littered with the skeletons of startups who went broke trying to capture our eyeballs. While its hard to ignore Forrester’s bullish analysis of services like Sermo, I don’t
expect the enthusiasm to be sustained. Look to the next iteration of IMedExchange to possibly be a game changer
in this area. Until then, the connectors who are going to get you where you want to go aren’t necessarily hangin’
with other doctors. They’re found in the wild. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
October 12th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Expert Interviews
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I’ve been following the career trajectory of Dr. Gordon Moore since I first became aware of his low-overhead, high-tech model of medical practice. He’s come a long way since the AAFP first interviewed him in 2002. I had the chance to catch up with him at the recent Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco, and we discussed the future of primary care and a practice model that I believe in (I just joined DocTalker Family Medicine myself!) Here’s our peek into our healthcare crystal ball…
Dr. Val: Tell me about what got you interested in creating a new practice model for primary care?
Moore: I came into healthcare with a somewhat Pollyannaish vision of reducing suffering and improving health. Without any docs in my family, I had no understanding of what it meant to actually practice. About 5 years after residency, I realized that there was an increasing disparity between my vision of practicing medicine and its reality. At that time I joined a quality improvement initiative at the University of Rochester, and we looked at increasing efficiency in primary care, including creating the idealized design of clinical office practices. Read more »
October 10th, 2009 by Emergiblog in Better Health Network, News, True Stories
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All I could think of when I saw this photo was Gordon Ramsay screaming that the Cream of Wheat was lumpy.
But she’s smiling, so this can’t be Hell’s Kitchen.
It’s more like pot-luck-in-the-break-room.
Cherry Ames got in trouble for “sampling bread and butter” in the ward kitchen, which was apparently against the rules back in the day.
Now you can come into my department and have a four-course meal laid out on the table, which is great for morale but bad for those of us babes with too much “back”.
And when it really does look like “Hell’s Kitchen” in the ER, nothing boosts your serotonin like a big, chocolate brownie, or nacho cheese Doritos!
Sometimes it feels like my shift is one big exercise of will power, and I usually poop out by by 0300. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*
July 15th, 2009 by Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy
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One of my favorite summer activities is watching reruns of Star Trek Next Generation. It’s become somewhat of a summer tradition in my family the last few summers. Having become trekkies themselves, my kids were able to very much enjoy the recent movie, and get the history and lore behind it.
The longevity of the Star Trek enterprise is fascinating. Decades after it’s first launch, it still captures the imagination of inquiring minds and still provides endless hours of entertainment to viewers of all ages.
Even more amazing than the longevity of it’s run is the technology it represents. When the show first debuted, the sci fi components seemed truly out of reach. Today, much of the technology in the new movie and even some of the older shows doesn’t seem that implausible, especially when it comes to health.
Early Trek was a preview of our current Health 2.0 world. When first portrayed, that was not a concept any of us could grasp. Think about it. In the original series, and continuing through to the latest movie, they used communicators in high tech ways with online computers to search data bases and emails and video calls to talk between doctors at different inter-stellar locations. The doctors even had high tech gizmos to look inside and offer a 3-d look within. All medical records were online and available anywhere. New advances in medicine came from experience, science as well as other cultures and the experience of the treating physician. Patients and doctors could review information online and use that to improve their own care.
What wasn’t so out of reach was the portrayal of the practice of medicine and the limitations of what the human physician could achieve. The bedside manner was always first and foremost the key element to a patient’s survival. The physician treated all patients, regardless of species, and had tolerance for different cultural beliefs in treatment. And, not all patients made it through their ordeal. After all, the doctor was “just a man, not a miracle worker”.
So, Trek’s docs were all health 2.0 with a healthy dose of health 1.0 in that they had these important features:
1. high tech gizmos and computers to diagnose and treat
2. traditional docs to take a history and offer counsel but computerized medical records
3. limits on what could be done
4. online communication with “Googling” ability
5. New advances and lessons from other species to tackle new issues and problems
Sounds a great deal like our health system, minus the insurance headaches, huh?
The practice of medicine is begging to be more health 2.0 but with doctors who very much want and need to be involved and keep their health 1.0 skills. Today we have gizmos that keep becoming more high tech…think robotic surgeons. Today we have doctors still driving clinical care with bedside manner still crucial to the success of an outcome. Today we still have limits of what can and can not be done, with a limit of human life, regardless of our efforts to prolong it. Today we have very robust online communication between doctors, between patients, between doctors and patients, and between everyone and the computer, but with an importance still placed on the face-to-face visit.
There’s one big difference between the docs on Trek and us…insurance. Because of that, what we see on Trek is still just a dream. Those docs can do their jobs so admirably and with great patient satisfaction because they are not burdened with an insurance system gone awry and not forced into cycles of defensive medical practices.
Until health reform sorts out how to allow us to have a patient-focused, physician driven system again, what we see on Trek will remain a dream. What’s sad and discouraging is that is this is one sci fi dream that is actually within reach. Don’t you think it’s time we stopped the insurance companies from preventing us from grabbing on?
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Gwenn Is In*
