Diet and Nutrition. Natural Health, and Healthy Living

Ruth Given has spent the last few months doing an exhaustive study of the physician ratings business. Ruth is an independent health economist and consultant who has in the past worked for Kaiser, the California Medical Association and Deloitte Consulting. We’re very happy to make her study available on THCB and the Health 2.0 Blog. You can download the full report at the end of this introductory article — Matthew Holt

The past few years have seen an explosion in growth of websites allowing patients to review/rate (usually rant or rave about) their health care providers. Recent mainstream media attention has focused on the rating of physicians, with over 30 such sites now operating. A few sites, including RateMDs and Healthgrades, have been around for a number of years, but several high profile initiatives were recently launched. Last fall, national health plan Anthem announced that it would be partnering with restaurant rater Zagat to allow its enrollees to rate their MDs online. And in April, Angie’s List, whose subscribers rate a wide variety of local service companies, began to include all types of health care providers, including physicians.

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Starting this month and continuing for the next year or so, I'll be presenting a standard talk to physician audiences entitled "Confessions of a Physician EMR Champion," subtitled "A Conversation with American Physicians About How to Save Medicine in the Age of Information."

The broad message is that, to be successful, the adoption of health IT by physicians, nurses, and staff must extend communication and health data exchange beyond the narrow confines inside the four walls of their practice. Health IT needs to empower all providers to act as effective members of a team which includes the patient, medical home, specialists, and ancillary service providers such as pharmacists and lab technicians.

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THCB regular reader Deron Schriver wants THCB readers to suggest plans to reform the health care system. Here's his appeal:

I enjoy many of the discussions on THCB. Intelligent people from all vantage points of the health care system congregate to engage in conversations about the most important issues out there. What if there was a way to translate those discussions into treatment plans for the ailments of our health care system?

Meaningful, sustainable reform can only come from a collection of people from the various stakeholder positions (physicians, patients, insurance companies, employers, etc.) who see what’s working and what isn’t on a daily basis. Politicians do not have the exposure to the system that is needed to prescribe effective solutions. However, they are in a good position to assist in the implementation of well-designed solutions.

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Trudy Lieberman at the CJR : Campaign Desk calls Mike Huckabee's views on health care "a fresh addition to the national health care discussion." Huckabee talked about the origins of health and the need to focus on societal issues that help keep people healthy and avoid the pitfalls of obesity, smoking, alcoholism, etc. Huckabee said, “the real enemy is not the health care system; it’s poor health.”

Partners in Health improves chronic care in Rwanda with electronic medical records. The model is based on home health monitoring, a lot like Health Buddy, says Steve Brown, but without the institutional barriers and a lot less expensive.

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