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Dissertation defence broadcast live March 10, 2010

Posted by Hans in : news , add a comment

I came across this blog post about a live-streamed dissertation defence. For those who don’t know, dissertation defences are usually closed-door meetings. At the PhD level, the candidate usually makes a presentation (usually about 20 minutes) summarizing his/her research to the voting members of the panel. Most schools require a minimum of three voting members which consist of the candidate’s thesis committee and some form of external review. The procedure is administered by a representative of the university who ensures that all of the rules are followed.

Not sure that I’ll have a chance to watch the event live, but if it’s possible, I will definitely check it out afterwards.

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Kaiser Permanente keeps chugging along with EHR implementation March 3, 2010

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[UPDATE] I forgot to mention that Kaiser was also recognized as one of the world’s most innovative companies (2010) for its work on EHRs by Fast Company (link to the 2010 list of most innovative companies). I’m probably biased, but Kaiser Permanente’s Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Centre sounds quite a bit like the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation (or at the very least they both seem to do similar work). perhaps the difference is having a clinical/practical focus versus a research focus.

Not sure if this is really news, but Kaiser Permanente (the largest managed care organization in the US) announced that it has completed implementation of its electronic health record called Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect. Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect “is a comprehensive information system that includes one of the most advanced electronic medical records available. It securely connects 8.6 million people to their health care teams, their personal information, and the latest medical knowledge, leveraging the integrated approaches to health care available”. I haven’t seen Kaiser’s solution but

Kaiser was recently recognized and honored with the HIMSS Analytics Award for achieving Stage 7 for its electronic health record implementation. It’s interesting to see how the presentation made by Dr. Louise Liang in 2005 at the OHA HealthAchieve Convention (summary post) seems to have played out. I’m glad to see that there is still hope for large (health care) organizations to be successful and without too much controversy or fanfare complete the base, foundational projects. Unfortunately, Kaiser’s experience seems to be different from the UK’s where all I keep hearing is that the modernization efforts have received mixed reviews at best. From what I’ve heard, NHS Scotland is now one of the models that is being studied for lessons to be applied in Ontario.

In any case, kudos to Kaiser for staying the course and for continuing to equip a very large organization with electronic tools.

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Google and health privacy – is it enough? March 2, 2010

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I’m not sure what to make of this “warning” that Google provides to users of its Google Health service as reported in a recent post on Blogoscoped.

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I can’t say that I’m completely up to speed on my health information privacy regulations, but this does seem to be a bit odd. This type of message can be considered positive in that access to records are monitored and tracked and that you will be notified (doesn’t say when though). On the other hand, if I were a user, I would wonder if unauthorized access isn’t a rare event that a process has been implemented.

What do you think about this message? Is Google doing enough? Google’s health privacy policy is available here.

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ICT standardization and eHealth – a TalkStandards.com forum event February 25, 2010

Posted by Hans in : conferences & conventions, news , 1 comment so far

I was recently made aware of an interesting website called Talkstandards. Talkstandards has a stated goal to be “an active online community where developers, researchers, policymakers and other interested parties can share ideas and collaborate on the global standards system”.

What is most interesting is that will be hosting a live, online forum event titled “ICT Standardization and eHealth” starting at 1100 EST (1600 GMT) today. The forum isn’t open right now, but the topics look interesting:

It’s good to see some community building to tackle the issue of standards and interoperability. While the US has an initiative to address standards in health care, I’ve wondered how having a plethora of options, while practically a challenge to manage, might be a strength in the long-term if we view this fragmentation in terms of bio-diversity. At this moment, I’m a big proponent of coming to consensus on interoperable standards that are used by everyone. The internet is demonstrating (in real-time) that standards allow for the most number of people to participate – and we all benefit from the collective experience.

I’m looking forward to the Talkstandards event. Not sure if I’ll have anything to contribute, but I will be observing and following the comments.

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Health Affairs issue on “E-Health in the Developing World” February 23, 2010

Posted by Hans in : academics, news, research , add a comment

The current issue of Health Affairs (February 2010, Vol. 29, No. 2) is focused on ehealth with a tag-line of “E-Health in the Developing World”.

I just stumbled onto this issue so I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. There are a number of articles grouped into some interesting categories including:

I’m looking forward to reading some of the accounts from this issue. Based on my understanding of Christensen’s theories on disruptive innovation, developing nations can be the place where new ideas can be established. Relatively simple innovations have an opportunity to meet the needs of users who have much less demanding needs and as such, the opportunity for rapid innovation can take place. In developed areas like Canada, the US, or Europe, innovations are challenged to meet the high demands of users who are accustomed to a level of sophistication and polish. The result is that innovations often don’t have a chance to develop and find a place within the market.

I will be keeping track of developments from the developing word as that is where the cheaper, simpler innovations are likely to emerge. In North America, governments have already committed billions to creating large systems which can share information across the country and meet the exacting demands of multiple users (e.g., physicians, nurses, allied health, researchers) and for different needs. On top of these two demands, innovations must also satisfy stringent regulatory burdens which adds additional complexity (and cost).

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Will consumers pay for health content? February 18, 2010

Posted by Hans in : news , add a comment

A Nielsen report titled “Changing Models: A global perspective on paying for content online” found that consumers are likely to pay for some types of content. The graph from Nielsen’s report summarizes the findings:

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What about health information/content? I would guess that respondents would indicate “would consider paying” very positively. Conducting a “willingness to pay” study would be very interesting to find out if health information/content would rate higher. I would probably group respondents into the following categories:

I suspect that people are willing to pay for health information. We already know that genetic testing and the information provided therein is an increasing part of the medical testing market. Whether this type of demand translates into specific or broad willingness to pay is still unknown. Perhaps the results will be similar to the results on willingness to pay for content online as reported by Nielsen.

Note: The content (i.e., graph) is property of the Nielsen Company.

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Google as ISP – potential ideas for health care innovation? February 10, 2010

Posted by Hans in : news , add a comment

Google just announced that it will be developing an experimental fibre network. According to the announcement, these are the plans:

planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people

With this experimental network, Google has the following three learning objectives (for now):

  1. Next generation applications based on ultra-high speed connectivity
  2. New deployment techniques of connectivity
  3. Openness and choice

This seems like a perfect opportunity to test out ehealth innovations in terms of efficacy, feasibility, and usability. It’s interesting that the first example they use (first sentence) mentions a health clinic. Whether there will be many health applications is yet to be seen. However, I am very excited about these types of experiments.
However, as Scot Silverstein is apt to point out, we need to be skeptical of claims and learn from the past success AND failures of IT projects in health care. He has a great website, titled “Contemporary issues in medical informatics: Common examples of healthcare information technology difficulties“, housing resources and commentary on many of these issues. I’ve profiled some of his work in a previous post titled “A voice against irrational exuberance in ehealth“.

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eHealth in the peer-reviewed literature… February 3, 2010

Posted by Hans in : news, research , 1 comment so far

Much to my surprise, two leading health care journals have articles on ehealth.

The first is JAMA (vol 303, no 5, pp 391-470; February 3, 2010), which rarely publishes on the topic of ehealth.

The second is a special theme issue on global ehealth (Feb 2010, vol 29, no 2). The Health Affairs blog has a good description of the articles.

Looks like there’s an increasing interest by those in the research communities on the issues of ehealth. I haven’t had a chance to read all of the articles just yet, but it some of the titles look interesting.

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Website: Hospital.com February 1, 2010

Posted by Hans in : news, resources , add a comment

I came across this wonderful website titled “Hospital“. Seems to be a great resource for news and information from a hospital perspective.

From the website, it describes itself as

… one of the top free resources of general health on the Internet. Our content is delivered by our top-notch writing staff, and is focused on being timely and relevant. hospital.com is also the central site of our network of medical websites that also includes physician.com, Pathology.org, Medicalschool.org and Disease.com.

I recommend you check it out.

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iPhone as life-saver… January 20, 2010

Posted by Hans in : news , add a comment

Talk about great press for the iPhone. A news report titled “Earthquake survivor calls iPhone a life saver” and reports how the man used the applications on his iPhone to treat himself and survive until he could be rescued.

I suspect that mobile applications for health will get a kickstart based on this type of news. However, I’ve always believed mobile health to be an increasingly important and growing area. I will write about this more when I write about my disruptive innovations for health care.

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