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Daily Digest: Open data, lone rangers, and more

Open data, sort of: In a post on the Health Affairs blog, some big brains from Brookings talk about how open data can help end over-treatment and high-cost treatment when science doesn’t support either one. In my opinion (which I shared in a comment on the post) they left somebody out in the data-share: patients. “How Open Data Can Reveal and Correct the Faults in Our Health System”

That which does not kill you … might still kill you: Dr. Aaron Carroll takes up the question of what are called the social determinants of health on his Healthcare Triage YouTube channel. Here’s a link to a post on The Incidental Economist with that video, and some other perspective on the topic. “How Long Are You Going to Live?”

Overwhelmed by over-treatment: One of our friends, Shannon Brownlee, is a globally known thought leader on ending medical overtreatment and shared decision making. From her view on the leadership team of the Lown Institute, she’s seen all the science on why overtreatment is still a pernicious issue in US healthcare. Her op-ed on the subject from DrKevinMD: “Fixing overtreatment: Lone rangers need not apply”

“Let Patients Help” – hospital board edition: In a piece on the NY Times Upshot blog, Austin Frakt says that hospital boards need to have more clinical expertise on them, so that treatment guidelines in the facility don’t wander off the evidence-based/quality-outcome reservation. We think he left out an important consideration: *patients* on hospital boards. “In Hospitals, Board Rooms Are as Important as Operating Rooms”

It’s not your funny bone, it’s your funny brain: It turns out that the old bromide about laughter being the best medicine might actually be true, at least in preventing age-related cognitive impairment. From Medical News Today:  “Laughter may be the best medicine for age-related memory loss“

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Daily Digest: Data passports, narrow networks, and more

Data passports: In the absence of health IT interoperability, some systems have started using “patient passports” for complex cases. It’s a start. Maybe next, patient passports for all? Here’s a Wall Street Journal piece that tells the story: “Patient ‘Passports’ Make Sure People With Complex Cases Are Heard”

Narrow networks, narrower choices: Affordable insurance plans are no guarantee that you’ll find a provider that takes your plan, and is near your home. As the health insurance industry adds millions of new customers via ACA Marketplace plans, it’s turning out to be a contentious relationship for some folks. The NY Times’ Elisabeth Rosenthal breaks down the issue: “Insured, but Not Covered”

Wisdom of children’s books: The always-worth-reading Susannah Fox thinks that healthcare can learn a lot from one of her favorite children’s books. After reading her post, we’re in agreement with her perspective. “What healthcare can learn from Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel”

Deep dive into Twitter on measles outbreak: Our SPM friend Mark Harmel has a terrific post up on the Symplur blog looking at the Twitter data surrounding the #measlestruth conversation kicked off by Dr. Bryan Vartabedian and Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson to support the idea of vaccinating kids against measles. “Did #MeaslesTruth Create a New Form of Twitter Communication?”

Why Anthem hack is potential horror: A very cautionary piece on NPR about the black market for personal data shows that health IDs, particularly Medicare information, is worth a bundle to the bad guys. The real horror here is the lack of cyber-security sophistication on othe part of healthcare industry IT overlords. “The Black Market for Stolen Health Care Data”

John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight” takes on pharma [WARNING: use headphones if you’re at work!]: The weekly HBO news-comedy host takes on pharma marketing in a very funny, but very NSFW (Not Safe For Work), examination of the marketing juggernaut that is the pharmaceutical industry.  “Marketing to Doctors”

 

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Daily Digest: Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Happy Wednesday! Or, as we used to call it in the cube farm, Hump Day. Here’s today’s edition of must-reads –

  1. If you listen to the rising tide of discussion about the cost of care, one of the things that’s -supposed- to help curb that hockey stick upward trajectory is technology. So we found it interesting when we tripped over this piece asking if patients have to pay for portal access. I (Casey) say “no” – you? “Should providers charge patients for portal access?“
  2. Man the battle stations – the White House wants Medicare to be able to negotiate pricing with pharma. Since the introduction of Medicare Part D, CMS has been specifically prohibited to negotiate drug pricing with pharmaceutical companies. This could get loud. “Obama administration seeks to negotiate Medicare drug prices“
  3. The Disneyland measles outbreak, suspected to be accelerated by parents who have refused the MMR vaccine for their children, has raised a lot of heated discussion all over everywhere. I (Casey) almost died from measles when I was 9 years old, the same year (1962) that Roald Dahl, the author of “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” and other classics, lost his 7 year old daughter, Olivia, to measles. In 1988, he begged parents to avoid the heartache he himself had suffered by vaccinating their kids against measles. “Read Roald Dahl’s Powerful Pro-Vaccination Letter (From 1988)“
  4. Speaking of science, both Dave and I are big fans of evidence based medicine. We both believe, and work toward daily, the idea that health and science literacy is a core piece of helping improve patient experience, and patient participation, in the healthcare system. So we’re big fans of the Cochrane Collaboration, which analyzes and publishes scientific evidence aplenty. Here’s their 2014 “greatest hits” page: “Best of the Cochrane Library: 2014 in review“
  5. I (Casey) produce a podcast series for the Society of Hospital Medicine, which gives me the chance to talk to smart hospital clinicians every month. SHM has a great blog, The Hospital Leader, which I recommend to anyone interested in healthcare. Here’s a recent post, pointing up the idea that we all have to think differently, sometimes at the drop of a stethoscope. “The Shield“
  6. From the “how surprising … well, not really” desk, here’s a recent piece by Elisabeth Rosenthal in the New York Times about the snowbirds of Florida, and the growing savviness that retirees are starting to display when it comes to “doctor’s orders.”  “Medical Costs Rise as Retirees Winter in Florida“
  7. And here’s today’s humor break, what we’re calling “Doc Rob vs Dr. Oz, film at 11” – it’s from our good friend Dr. Rob Lamberts’ “Musings of a Distractible Mind” blog, and it tells the story, in tweets, of how Rob responded to the “Dr. Oz’s Inbox” tweetchat (that turned into something of a PR disaster for Oz) last November. “Dr. Rob’s Inbox“

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Daily Digest: Monday, February 2, 2015

 

Welcome to a new feature: the Daily Digest, by my friend and fellow SPM member “Mighty Casey” Quinlan, of Richmond, VA. Her Facebook feed and Twitter feed are so constantly full of things I’d missed that I thought “Shoot, let’s post that!” So this month, Monday through Friday, she’ll post links to what she thinks are the best/hottest/most interesting healthcare, medicine, and bio-science stories that day. Here she goes:

Yeah, there might even be some humor, since we’re both fans of Gomerblog and ZDoggMD.

Today’s crop:

  1. The human brain is a fascinating instrument. This piece from the NY Times’ Well blog looks at the impact price awareness has on the placebo effect. The outcome is both surprising, and not surprising at all. “Expensive Drugs Work Better Than Cheap Ones“
  2. Are minute clinics, where patients can walk in for quick care on stuff like strep throat or flu shots, better patient experiences than care at a regular primary care practice? Geriatrician Dr. Leslie Kernisan had the opportunity to compare two of her own experiences, which she shared on The Health Care Blog: “A Tale of Two Sore Throats: On Retail Clinics and Urgent Care“
  3. How far would you go for medical care? Would you go all the way to Thailand? Morgan Spurlock, the guy behind “Supersize Me,” now has a CNN series called “Inside Man,” where he looked at the rise of medical tourism in the face of rising U.S. healthcare costs. “Surf, sand … and surgery? Inside the world of medical tourism“
  4. Our friends at Symplur, the healthcare data visualization gurus, asked and answered a great question on their blog recently about patient communities and New Year’s goals. Christopher Snider posted this, and it’s a great read. “Looking Forward to Looking Back – How Do Patient Communities Approach New Year’s Goals?“
  5. Connected health and quantified-self have gotten a lot of ink, both physical and virtual, over the last few years. With the rise of self-tracking tools, from Fitbit to AliveCor to Scanadu, patients with chronic conditions and early-adopter tech mavens are monitoring their physical status with more and more granularity. Can connected health penetrate the “actual medical practice” membrane? Here’s a list from The Doctor Weighs In blog: “Five Accelerants to the Adoption of Connected Health“
  6. Because we mentioned humor, and Gomerblog, and ZDoggMD in our intro, here’s a three-fer: a post about Turntable Health, ZDoggMD’s new comprehensive care clinic in Las Vegas, on Gomerblog. It’s not a new post, it dates from May of 2014, but it is definitely worth a read for the laughs. NOTE: this post is SATIRE. “Big Pharma and Mega Hospitals ‘Scared Beyond Belief’ of Tiny Las Vegas Health Clinic“

That’s it for today – check back tomorrow, we’ll have a fresh list of must-reads for you!