Health Care Update News

The Health 2.0 public option - Ano Lobb

Justmeans health writer and RAND researcher Sam Werthheimer recently reported on interesting trends from the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.  Just because the conference was dominated by private ventures,  however, doesn't meant that governments aren't also trying to apply web 2.0 to improve health delivery.

US health reform efforts are banking on effective health information technology (IT) as a means for improving the efficiency, quality, and value proposition of health care delivery.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/-Health-2-0-public-option/38379.html


Facebook triggers asthma -  Ano Lobb

Can Facebook trigger asthma attacks? Apparently so. Italian doctors report in The Lancet on a new and previously unreported health risk associated with the ubiquitous social networking site: Asthma.

Sound crazy? Granted, the headlines are catchy and trying to ride the wave of social-media. But the details actually make sense. The case-report discusses an 18-year old man with asthma who was distraught after his girlfriend un-friended then broke up with him. After gaining access to her facebook page, he saw that she had friended several new young men, then had an asthma attack.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Facebook-triggers-asthma/38149.html

Health 2.0 Company Launch Review Part 1 - Sam Wertheimer

The term "Health 2.0" describes the interface between web 2.0-inspired technology and health care. The sector is growing rapidly as patients search for ways to navigate the health care system and companies - both large and small - race to serve consumer needs. The annual Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco (Health 2.0 SF) brings many of the key players under one roof. This year I joined the gathering to learn more about the entrepreneurs, innovators, and consumers doing good work in the Health 2.0 sector.

Among the highlights of the conference were launches of new Health 2.0

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Health-2-0-Company-Launch-Review-Part-1/38299.html

Health 2.0 Company Launch Review Part 2  - Sam Wertheimer

Sharecare is WebMD plus facebook. The site aims to help patients make healthy decisions by interacting through social media applications with registered health care "experts." These experts are vetted by Sharecare and include health care providers, advocacy groups, and corporations. Consumers can search the site by topic, enter particular health care questions, or browse their favorite expert's pet subjects. They can also use the facebook "like" button to endorse helpful health care advice and become friends with the experts who provide the tips.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Health-2-0-Company-Launch-Review-Part-2/38304.html

Smart health care=Innovation - Ano Lobb

Basic sciences are increasingly being applied in innovative ways to address some fundamental health care problems. Applied chemistry has combined paraffin and dye to potentially double the effectiveness of blood tests used outside the clinic. Improving the accuracy of home-based health tests has benefits beyond the obvious improvements in accuracy: When appropriately used they also reduce demand on health care resources by potentially keeping people away from unnecessary clinical encounters, and by bringing the test to the person they are the embodiment of patient-centered care.

Post continues:- http://www.justmeans.com/Smart-health-care-Innovation/38338.html

Health Care Weekly Updates - Justmeans

Commonwealth Games vs. Common Health goals in India - Ano Lobb

Along with the expected fanfare accompanying the opening of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India this weekend there was a generous serving of controversy. While there are many good reasons for skeptics to raise concerns, this post will briefly consider three: Public health, dengue fever, and malaria.

Bluntly stated, health equals wealth. More specifically, greater inequalities in national distribution of wealth are correlated with worse measures of population health. Rapid economic gains in India have not been shared by all; one telling statistics is that the personal wealth of the richest 49 Indians accounts for a whopping 31% of India's entire gross domestic product, according to the newspaper Financial Express.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Commonwealth-Games-vs-Common-Health-goals-in-India/33533.html

Race (still) Matters: Innovation needed to tackle health disparities - Ano Lobb

A recent posting looked at a new study of health technology being overused in breast cancer care.  Another study presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference sheds light on the importance that race plays in health outcomes, regardless of insurance status.

Assistant Professor Heather Hoffman and colleagues from George Washington University's School of Public Health performed a retrospective analysis of 983 women who underwent breast cancer examinations at six hospitals in Washington D.C. They measured diagnostic delay, the span of time between the detection of a breast abnormality and a definitive diagnosis, for women who were white, African American, or Hispanic, stratified by whether they were insured or not.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Race-still-Matters-Innovation-needed-tackle-health-disparities/33735.html

Is questionable medical information technology putting patients at risk? - Ano Lobb

There's been a lot of good news in cancer care lately: The American Cancer society recently reported a decrease in cancer deaths, medical information delivery harnesses technologies such as interactive patient-information kiosks, and nano-technology verges on a breakthrough for more targeted treatments. All of these, combined with more vigorous prevention and detection efforts and more effective standard treatments has helped to make cancer an increasingly survivable journey.

Technology, however, is not a panacea. A striking example is the increasing usage of computer-aided detection (CAD) for both screening and detection mammography. Rather than depending on the seasoned eyes of radiologists, CAD uses a computer program to analyze radiographic images.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Is-questionable-medical-information-technology-putting-patients-at-risk/33641.html

The Evolution of Primary Care: Part 4 - Sam Wertheimer

Delivery of primary health care services in the U.S. used to involve a physician and a patient. The physician would see the patient in a clinic, conduct an examination, enter notes in a paper record, prescribe a follow up appointment, and say goodbye until the next scheduled visit. Usually this process occurred within a 15-minute window arranged by the physician's front office staff. Although this type of health care visit still occurs, it is fast becoming an exception to the new rules of primary care. This column, the fourth in a series on the players changing primary care, focuses on non-physician health care providers.

One of the targets of change in the evolution of primary care is the 15-minute visit. This is because many find visits this short do not allow enough time to provide comprehensive health care.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/-Evolution-of-Primary-Care-Part-4/33128.html

Health news: Fascinating, irrelevant and sometimes strange

Every week I receive the gift, and sometimes the curse, of a flood of press releases about the latest findings from new health, medical and general scientific studies. Often it’s a treasure trove of new discoveries, exciting hypotheses, or confirmatory findings. Sometimes not so much. And nearly always there are some that fall into what I like to call the “Duh!” category. As in “that’s so obvious, or irrelevant. Why did anyone bother to study it?” Here are a few standouts from this past week.

Policy researchers have determined that simply giving money to people in poverty is not a good way to reduce levels of poverty. Hmmmm, perhaps there are some other underlying causes for poverty beyond lack of cash: Insufficient education, drug abuse, mental illness, chronic disease, a multigenerational “culture” of poverty? If dolling out the shillings was sufficient to restructure society, we’d likely be living on a very different planet.

Yet another good reason to drop the smokes: Cigarettes contain a host of potentially hazardous bacteria, including those linked to respiratory, lung and blood infections, as well as an anthrax relative. Researchers are now studying whether and how the critters might survive the burning process to colonize the human respiratory tract. That just sounds disgusting.

The world appetite for frog legs (OK, its actually the appetite of the French, Belgians and Americans who eat 75% of the world’s stock) is leading to a dangerous spread of amphibian pathogens such as Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. That’s a fungus that’s harmful to other amphibians, but not humans. I’m not sure what the practical implications of this paper are, but as a lover of useless trivia, I was fascinated to learn that Indonesia exports 45% of the world’s frog legs.

Researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles are reporting that the air in neighborhoods around airports contains more pollutants from aircraft than air in other neighborhoods. I’m not sure I have a comment for that one.

And finally, in the only study that stood out as actually being potentially important, researchers have linked an increased levels of depression in pregnant women with an increased risk of asthma in their child once it is born. At this point they aren’t sure what a causal link may be, though the hypothesis is that mothers may not manage their own chronic illnesses as well when they are depressed, and that may result in less robust babies.

Have you encountered any interesting, bizarre or ridiculous health news lately? By all means share what you’ve heard!