Archive
Infographic on the Evolution of Medicine
An infographic summarizing the entire evolution of medicine.
240 years lawyers were writing the Declaration of Independence, and doctors were using leeches. Only one of these learned professions has advanced much over the last 2 centuries.
See on medivizor.com
Internet access is a basic human right: A Q&A with Keren Elazari
With the increasing importance of patient safety and need to have universal access to health records, the internet’s importance grows as a foundation for improved healthcare.
Health care providers embrace the challenge to do better
Iowa is a leader in providing high-quality, low-cost health care.
— This is what is supposed to happen under Obamacare.
Let’s all admit one thing — the serious talk of improving quality of healthcare, increasing access to care, and reducing the cost of care began in earnest as a result of Obamacare.
See on www.press-citizen.com
Obamacare Faces Major Struggles
Public support for President Barack Obama’s health care law is languishing at its lowest level since passage of the landmark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll.
At some point the liars win and progress stops. Has there ever been a bigger campaign of deceit and misinformation than what the ACA has had to endure?
See on www.huffingtonpost.com
The Next Big Health App Needs to Do More Than Just Track Our Numbers | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
This week we got a deep look at the rumored new health and fitness tracking application for Apple’s next iPhone, called Healthbook. Supposedly, Healthbook will not only track things like how much exercise and sleep you’re getting, but also your blood pressure, your blood sugar levels, and much more. All that collection will be great, but without a way to not just collate them, but make them meaningful, it runs the risk of becoming data clutter.
Parochial restrictions on telemedicine will become irrelevant when smartphone apps effectively aggregate healthcare data to help individuals become and stay healthier. It is only a matter of time when face to face interaction between healthcare providers and their patients become the exception rather than the rule. Physicians will be able to devote their time to sicker patients while still monitoring their healthier patients to keep them healthy.
See on www.wired.com
Doctors on Twitter: 2006 – 2014 Worldwide growth mapped #hcsm
[Video maps growth in doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals using Twitter since its launch in 2006 to 2014.]
While Facebook lends itself better as a professional social media portal, it would be interesting to know the growth in patients’ following their physicians on Twitter (and other social media). If we can get past the hurdles of HIPAA restrictions and other legal silliness, social media could become the mechanism through which patients and their physicians effectively interact and improve their healthcare.
See on www.youtube.com
Back to Posting on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Healthcare and Healthcare Reform
It’s been several months. Where has the time gone?
I have been watching the unraveling of the foundations of the Affordable Care Act. I have been depressed that the unraveling is coming from the President.
Then I saw the Republican “Plan” and I had hope. Oh, yes, they can’t stop talking about repeal, but that’s not really what their Plan is about. It is about improving.
It has always been my belief that our Republican elected representatives, patriotic men and women of good will, would adopt many of the same positive aspects of Obamacare, if they thought about it and shook themselves free of the closed and narrow minded of their constituents. Access to health insurance, no preexisting conditions … I mean, who does not support these items in Obamacare?
Implementing is where the Republicans always fall short, because they refuse to take any step that would look like our government is actually governing. A Republican omelet must look like a pan with eggs rolling around in it, since they have no stomach for breaking any.
I have hope that moderates of both parties follow the mandate they have had but have refused to acknowledge as they listened to the ranting of the flatworlder/Tea Party members.
By the way, in case you wondered …
Ohio Decides to Expand Medicaid
As reported in “Action of Ohio Controlling Board on Medicaid Expansion” posted on Bill of Health, a blog sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School:
On Monday, October 22, at the urging of Governor Kasich, the Controlling Board of the Ohio Legislature voted 5-2 to accept $2.5 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid in the State of Ohio. Under the laws of Ohio this action was valid.
Illuminating an illness without end: Fellows Friday with Jennifer Brea
Could someone without healthcare insurance and only showing up at an ER, looking for charity care, ever have been diagnosed or treated appropriately?
Sore from being Kicked
Republicans make a lot of hay pointing out how health insurance premiums available on the health insurance exchanges have increased for many Americans. Where this is true (and is not true in all states), it is the result of many factors. Some of the increase is the result of more benefits being provided as required by Obamacare, some of the increase is the result of the prohibition against denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions and related protections under Obamacare, and much is the result of bad decisions (both historically and recently) by state legislatures or governors or both. Some of these decisions were made for the sole purpose of hurting the implementation of Obamacare — e.g., refusing Medicaid expansion, not setting up a state exchange, not exercising authority over insurance rates, etc.
No one wants to pay more for the health insurance they already had. Some increase may have been inevitable. However, we should make sure to place much of the blame on short-sighted political shenanigans aimed at thwarting healthcare reform at the expense of people. I have written before about Florida’s Governor Rick Scott and his campaign of lies and deceit against Obamacare which many Florida Cabinet officers and Department heads and State Legislators have endorsed. Apparently, Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker is just as bad — health insurance premiums for Wisconsin residents will be 79% to 99% higher than those for Minnesota residents because of him.
Yes, there have been some pretty horrendous computer network issues at the exchanges that have frustrated and dissappointed those seeking to get health insurance.
But can’t we all agree that there is a difference between the unintended (even negligent) computer snafus on the one hand and the deliberate behavior seeking to do harm on the other? As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote in The Common Law, “Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.” Frankly, I’m a little sore from being kicked.
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 