Using a Private Label Twitter Network for Doctor-Patient Communication?

“I just read this article about a new generation of Twitter-like tools that allow organizations to maintain private Twitter networks. So I got to thinking what it might be like if a clinician and their patients set up one such network. Kind of like a group visit. I created a mockup, using Yammer, one of the products. It’s a dialogue between a few patients, with the doctor (or name your health professional) chiming in.”
Article
Ted Eytan MD, 14 November 2008

Want to Empower Your Patients? Don’t Be Afraid to Challenge Them!

“Hildner spent the early portion of his well-received presentation, titled “Well Doc, What Would YOU Do? Empowering Patients to Make Educated Decisions,” defining shared decision making. Shared decision making works, stated Hildner, because it improves outcomes, improves patient satisfaction with the care experience, and fosters a stronger patient–physician relationship. He offered a variety of alternative definitions for the term (including “relationship-centered decision making”) that stressed the central importance of a strong patient–physician relationship and effective communication (more on that in a minute) in creating an environment that will not only allow patients to understand the options available to them and the possible ramifications of the treatment decisions they make with their physician, but also ensure that physicians understand their patients’ concerns, values, and priorities regarding treatment. Hildner was careful to also discuss what shared decision making is not; it’s not merely informed consent or patient education—it encompasses the entire process of consultation, teaching, recommending, and listening that characterizes effective family medicine.”
Article
Todd Kunkler, HCP Live, 22 September 2008

Who’s Afraid of the Empowered Patient?

“From today’s JAMA:
“…Yet patients can be stingy too—stingy with their respect and their gratitude. For all our hard-earned knowledge and personal sacrifice, don’t we deserve a little reverence? Of course we do. However,whether we deserve it or not is irrelevant because times have changed. Patients are no longer passive and adoring, and our relationship is no longer hierarchical and paternalistic. It is when we see this change as a demotion, rather than as an evolution, that our hackles get raised.
Delia Chiaramonte, JAMA. 2008;300(12):1393-1394.”
Article
Marina, Im-Patient, 24 September 2008

Consumer or Patient?

“The newest edition of Health Affairs includes the story of Michelle Mayer, a patient whose odyssey seems to validate consumer-driven medicine—at least on the surface. But a closer look reveals that Mayer’s tale is no consumerist parable; in fact, it’s a great example of consumer-driven medicine’s shortcomings as a model for health care.”
Article
Niko Karvounis, Health Beat, 22 September 2008

Experience-based Information: The Role of Web-based Patient Networks in Consumer Health Information Services

“The prevalence of Web-based patient networks creates a substantial need for health information professionals to consider the qualities of such patient-mediated communities. By understanding the social and design characteristics of such communities through online patient community ethnography and comparative analysis of Web information evaluation criteria, health information professionals can better understand how to evaluate these information sources and find service integration points.”
Abstract
Susan Scola-Streckenbach, Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, Volume: 12 Issue: 3, 216 - 236, DOI: 10.1080/15398280802143657

The new doctor-patient paradigm

“The Norman Rockwell image of the doctor-patient bond, typified by an all-knowing, paternalistic doctor focusing on an admiring patient, has evolved into something very different. Now it’s a relationship in which patients, empowered by Internet-acquired information and buffeted by frequent changes in insurance coverage, have few qualms about challenging medical advice or moving on to the next physician. And no one has noticed this transformation more than doctors themselves.”
Article
Gail Garfinkel Weiss, Medical Economics, 27 June 2008

Healthvault is not a PHR - Quotes from the ICMCC Event Panel

Below are some appetizing quotes from some of the members of the ICMCC 2008 Panel discussion.

View the complete panel discussion.

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Quotes from ICMCC Presentations

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The new doctor-patient paradigm

“The Norman Rockwell image of the doctor-patient bond, typified by an all-knowing, paternalistic doctor focusing on an admiring patient, has evolved into something very different. Now it’s a relationship in which patients, empowered by Internet-acquired information and buffeted by frequent changes in insurance coverage, have few qualms about challenging medical advice or moving on to the next physician. And no one has noticed this transformation more than doctors themselves.”
Article
Gail Garfinkel Weiss, Medical Economics, 20 June 2008

ICMCC Event Preview 5

On the Wednesday, Prof. Bernd Blobel, in cooperation with the Working Groups “Electronic Health Records” and “Security, Safety and Ethics” of the European Federation for Medical Informatics, organizes the session Personal Health Paradigm Challenging Citizens and Patients.

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ICMCC Event Preview 3

The second part of the Monday also has 2 sessions, each having 2 parallel tracks.

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Patients should get Wikirecords

“The Government should create ‘Wikirecords’ - online, accessible medical records which patients can contribute to and comment on – according to a new report from think tank Demos.
The idea is one of a number of recommendations designed to reform relations between doctors and patients, and help patients to more fully engage with their treatment.”
Article
e-Health Insider, 15 May 2008

Subspecialist Shortages and the EMR

“New pressures are mounting on proceduralists (like gastroenterologists, cardiologists, radiologists and orthopedic surgeons) to increase procedural volumes. In multispecialty groups, the Medicare reimbursement system which devalues time with patients through its arcane and toxic documentation requirements shifts the burden of revenue generation to specialists to support other subspecialties that are less profitable. High-productivity specialists are now urged to do more to cover short-falls in revenue by their business managers. Even small fluctuations in practice volumes are seen in real-time thanks to electronic billing and the Electronic Medical Record (EMR).”
Article
Westby G. Fisher, Dr. Wes, 5 May 2008

Instant availability of patient records, but diminished availability of information: a multi-method study of GPs use of electronic patient records

“Background: In spite of successful adoption of electronic patient records (EPR) by Norwegian GPs, what constitutes the actual benefits and effects of the use of EPRs in the perspective of the GPs and patients has not been fully characterized. We wanted to study primary care physicians’ use of EPR systems in terms of use of different EPR functions and the time spent on using the records, as well as the potential effects of EPR systems on the clinician-patient relationship.
Methods: A combined qualitative and quantitative study that use data collected from focus groups, observations of primary care encounters and a questionnaire survey of a random sample of general practitioners to describe their use of EPR in primary care.
Conclusions: Although GPs are generally satisfied with their EPRs systems, there are still unmet needs and functionality to be covered. It is urgent to find methods that can make a better representation of information in large patient records as well as prevent that use of EPR systems contribute to increased administrative workload for physicians.”
Article
Tom Christensen, Anders Grimsmo, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2008, 8:12 doi:10.1186/1472-6947-8-12