Category: news
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Theme issue on "health information technology" from Health Affairs
Health Affairs, a “leading journal of health policy thought and research”, just released a theme issue on Health Information Technology. Sorry, but access to the full articles seems to be restricted to subscribers (try accessing it via an academic institution). The table of contents and abstracts are available for free. You can view the table…
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Is this the end for Canada’s health care system? Some preliminary thoughts on the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling
Wow. If you haven’t heard, the CBC.ca reported that the Supreme Court of Canada has judged that “Quebec patients should be allowed to buy insurance to cover medical treatments already provided by medicare, citing the physical and psychological suffering caused by long waits for services in the publicly funded system” (Health-care ruling called ‘stinging-indictment’ –…
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Waiting for a ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada
Today, the Supreme Court of Canada is to release its decision regarding two cases regarding the legality of the existing health care system in Canada. Basically, the two cases question the legality of prohibiting patients from paying to receive health care services faster and for health professionals from charging for services covered under provincial health…
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Hospital rating web sites
Here’s a quick follow-up to my previous post on Patient Reports and how these types of reports have the potential to change health care and eHealth considerably. The article is from BusinessWeekOnline and is titled “Hunting for Hospitals That Measure Up“. The article doesn’t reveal anything new, but I found the small vignettes to be…
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A step in the right direction…standards for health interoperability
Computerworld.com reports in an article titled “HHS tackles health care IT interoperability” that the US Health and Human Services Department announced a new initiative to address the lack of a commonly accepted interoperable standard for health care. Basically, a new committee, the American Health Information Community (AHIC) will be charged with working with public and…
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Long live the handheld!
It would seem that the “death of the handheld computer” is somewhat premature. An article in yesterday’s Globe & Mail reports how “smart phones” are being pushed by telecom companies and hardware manufacturers alike as the convergence device of the future. I would agree that the original “personal digital assistant” (PDA) didn’t stand a chance…
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Health care leads in wireless adoption
Now here’s an absolute surprise: health care is a leader in adopting wireless technology! Computerworld.com’s special report on “Mobile & Wireless” has an in-depth article on the use of wireless technology in health care. The article presents findings of a survey by market research firm IDC conducted in 2004. IDC found that “more than 80%…
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eHealth and rural communities: Can eHealth keep hospitals from closing?
We keep talking about how eHealth will bring about benefits to the health care system by making it more efficient and effective, but I wonder if there isn’t a significant western, urban “group think”, or even myopic view at play here. In my (limited) dealings with health care issues concerning northern and rural parts of…