Insights Archive

All of our past Insights features are listed on this page.

November 2008	Blogging: Risks and Opportunities If you are involved in health care delivery, here are four reasons that blogging is a technology-supported trend you need to be planning for:   A blog combines reach, multi-media and trendy informality. The very nature of a blog entices communication and interactivity, and the reach of blogs is growing. According to numbers published byTechnorati Media, a blogging search engine, one half of all US Internet users in 2007 read (at least once) a blog. That's nearly 100 million people that have already proved willing to access the media.   Leading health systems are already sponsoring their own blogs. Mayo Clinic combines blogs and podcasts into a very visible part of their web delivery system. The Military Health System takes advantage of their blog to push communications out to their national population.   Smart people are using the medium to express their views on health care delivery, administration and politics. Matthew Holt's The Health Care Blog and John Sharp's eHealth are becoming virtual publication centers of health care and information technology.   The informality and potential reach of blogging poses hidden risk. Done badly, an organizational blog reflect poorly on the author/sponsor. With so much noise and competition in this emerging market space, blogs that are rarely updated, un-promoted or badly written are lurking dangers to a health system's reputation. Even if your organization chooses not to sponsor its own blog, consider your position on personal blogs of staff or executives. How will your organization keep track of what people are writing/publishing in other blogs? Disgruntled patients, or former employees, with very little effort, can affect an organization's reputation. Like any other technology or marketing effort, blogs require careful thought and organization. The risks and opportunities are manageable, but require upfront structure and planning.
December 2007	Disruptive Health Care Engaged patients and social networking have converged on a new website, PatientsLikeMe, created by brothers of a Lou Gehrig's patient. The site provides an online community where patients can discuss and track medical conditions among themselves, access support groups, information, knowledge links, and clinical research and trials information.
February 2007	Revenue Cycle Innovations Revenue cycle management remains a ‘hot' topic into 2007, with new, innovative companies entering the industry. One example is Chicago-based Revenue Cycle Solutions (RCS). RCS' technology is utilized to increase the efficiency of collecting small balance receivables, harvesting millions from otherwise un-collectable or neglected accounts receivable. Of note, RCS is financed by an emerging group of targeted private equity firms. One such firm is InvestRx, based in South San Francisco, which seeks to invest in profitable companies that play a ‘back office' role in the healthcare delivery system. We believe that traditional technology venture capital firms will increasingly seek focused funds like InvestRx as a way to capitalize on hot health care IT trends, and drive further innovation into the industry.
July 2007	Enabling Consumer Directed Health Care As consumers begin to wield greater authority over their health purchasing decisions, entrepreneurial firms are looking to provide them with supportive tools. One such firm is Vimo, formerly known as Healthia. Vimo is based in Mountain View and is backed by venture capital firms Bessemer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures. Vimo's tools allow consumers the ability to comparison shop for health care providers, health insurance plans and surgical or medical procedures. A key feature of Vimo's platform that borrows from more traditional online buying tools (like Amazon.com) is the ability of users to rate the various things they are shopping for.
August 2006	A Good Reaction to Adverse Drug Reactions A handheld device for personalized biomonitoring of prescription medicines is bringing nano-technology based patient safety intervention directly to the consumer. Theranos™ of Menlo Park, CA. produces a wireless unit that monitors a patient's individual response to prescription medications in real time and provides results and alerts. Theranos™ works by running a tiny amount of blood through a biochip that searches for outlier information about drug or protein marker concentration levels. This information is then transmitted to a HIPAA-compliant database and informatics system. Physicians receive data through either push or pull technologies from their PDAs and patients are provided with secure Web access. Monitoring can occur in an ambulatory, acute care or home setting. Theranos™ founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was recently recognized in Inc. Magazine as a Top 30 under 30 leader.
May 2006	Sensor Networks Improve Medical Monitoring Sensor Networks are an emerging health care technology with tremendous patient safety and efficiency benefits using various wireless capabilities. One component is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. At Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, NYC, active RFID technology supports a wrist band chip containing patients' personal data (e.g., medication alerts). El Camino Hospital, in Mountain View, CA, is partnering with Eclipsys to use passive RFID technology over an existing WI-FI network for asset visibility, instantly identifying and routing medical equipment. Learn more. Another component is ultrasound technology, used by Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, to monitor and triage emergency department patients. Developed with the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Scalable Medical Alert Response Technology (SMART) uses the hospitals WI-FI network and a monitoring system, worn in a patient fanny pack. Sonitor Technology provides a tag and heart monitor transmitting vital-sign telemetry and patient status alerts. A Hewlett Packard PDA is used for patient identification.
January 2006	An Update on Personalized, Genomic Based Medicine With the completion of the Human Genome Project, much hope and attention has focused on the potential of Genetic Medicine. Theory has resulted in new tests, novel therapies, and a few select treatments for permanent correction of disease causing genetic defects. Low cost, individualized gene sequencing technology remains a barrier to broad population based genome analysis. Today, specialized gene testing for a specific drug or therapy efficacy can cost hundred's of dollars. Within a decade, it is very likely that a complete personal, portable genomic medical record will approach a one time cost of $1,000. Genomes for All, Scientific America, January 2006 Medical, technology, financial, privacy and ethical considerations abound. A recent HITOutlook® edition, Informatics and Genetic Medicine: Beyond the Research Laboratory, sponsored by Hewlett Packard, provides a point in time survey of the potential and barriers. George M. Church, professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and the author of the above Scientific American article, has launched the Personal Genome Project to explore the risks and rewards of personal genomics.
September 2005	Health Care Delivered On Your Mobile Phone Doctors in your pocket, continuous biometric data collection and, for the calorie counters, a photo-phone nutritional analysis of your meal. The market for mobile telehealth services is emerging and could explode to a $7.7 billion potential by 2006, especially in developing countries with more mobile phones than computers (think China). Blood glucose readings (Healthpia.us), pill delivery and compliance (simpill.com), electrocardiogram's , vitals, blood oxygen saturation (Telemedicine.Partners.org), and a daily or weekly critique of your eating habits, based on self-submitted photographs of your meals (MyFoodPhone.com) are just some of the potential applications. This emerging extension of telemedicine is worth a serious study. The Economist Technology Quarterly, September 17, 2005
July 2005	Convincing Physicians to Use IT-Britain is Struggling Many observers of physician behavior have been watching to see how Britain would overcome physician hesitancy to use medical information systems. Many have hoped that the enormous Connecting for Health project would solve this barrier and provide learning lessons for others. According to recent publications, only 21% of physicians were enthusiastic about the project, and usage rates were low. A good grounding back to the basics, build it with them and for them, and maybe, just maybe, they will adopt. Terminal Care, The Economist, July 23, 2005
April 2005	Genome Based Patient Safety Roche Molecular Systems received FDA testing approval for its AmpliChip CYP450 DNA testing chip, designed to test, based on unique genetic information from an individual patient, the efficacy, safety and potential outcome of a medication. Marketed by Roche in Europe, the chip costs $521 and is being used in the area of psychiatry. This innovation illustrates the potential cost effective nature of genomic based personalized medicine, with a focus on patient safety. A diagnostic blockbuster in the making.
April 2005	High Tech Medical Clothing VivoMetrics received FDA testing approval for its LifeShirt wearable device that can record continuous stream vital signs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, without interrupting a wearer's daily routine. Many medical applications exist, from sleep apnea analysis in children to respiratory and heart disease management, as well as elder care and home health monitoring. Fire departments and the U.S. Army are evaluating potential uses. Consumer applications, while not yet available, may eventually evolve.
April 2005	You,Robot by Chip Walter (Scientific American January, 2005) provides an interesting perspective into the history of robots in general, future potential advances and the need for robots to adapt to the world. Did you know that your Sony Playstation II or Mac G5/Dual 2.0 GHz have the computing power of a guppy brain? An interesting read.

 

 

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