Diet and Nutrition. Natural Health, and Healthy Living

A surprise move by ONC/HHS indicates the wheels may be falling off health IT reform at about the same rate they've fallen off Democrats' broader health reforms.

David Blumenthal and his staff have unveiled two separate plans to test and certify EHR technology products and services. We don't think this is a good idea. We've supported the purpose and spirit of the ARRA/HITECH incentive programs, and believe ONC's/HHS' re-definition of EHR technology puts it on a trajectory to improve the quality and efficiency of health care in the U.S. But this recently-announced two-stage EHR technology certification plan bears all the marks of a hastily drawn up blueprint that, if rushed into production, could easily collapse of its own bureaucratic weight.

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After days of technical gremlins holding me back, I'm getting my HIMSS interviews up online. I’ll start with one from two of my favorites. This is Daniel Palestrant of Sermo and Jonathan Bush of athenahealth, who are starting to work together in a potentially interesting way (if you’ve been following my mantra of Health 2.0 Tools and Communities merging). And both of them are pretty riotous to interview, so enjoy!

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As I noted in another post, the media seems to be turning “reconciliation” into an ugly word.

But “filibuster” is the word with a more unsavory history. (Thanks to HeathBeat reader Barry Carroll who sent me a link to the history of the word.)

“Filibuster” finds its root in the Spanish word “filibustero,” which means “pirate.” The filibuster was originally seen as an opportunity to “pirate” or “hijack” a debate.
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It wasn’t a good start to the cruise on Saturday. …….here is why:From: DREAM I/S MANAGERSent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 5:25 PMTo: Distlist DreamSubject: CRT - SPMS - FSS- Unix ServerImportance: HighGood Afternoon Dream.Due to sudden hardware failure we have lost connectivity with our Oracle Data Base on Unix server that means all systems using [...]

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Today till WedsI'll be at HIMSS in Atlanta. You can see me at the Bloggers panel at 3pmMonday, or more importantly at the talk Jane Sarasohn-Kahn & I are giving on Health 2.0 & Participatory Medicine at 1pm on Tuesday in Georgia Ballroom 1.

I’ll also be wondering around with the trusty flipcam, so expect to see a few schedules and not so scheduled interviews up on THCB too. And you can always follow my twitter feed http://twitter.com/boltyboyIf you want to meet me, best bet is to DM or follow my social schedule herealthough with Jetlag waking me up at 4am not sure how long I’ll last tonight!

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For those of you just getting up on Friday, here's a little taste of the atmosphere we're drinking in for the upcoming Health 2.0 Europe conference. And yes, we have been working hard here too!

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This is not a fun day for athenahealth, and frankly with HIMSS coming up, not a fun time to have such a day. None of this has anything to do with their products or their client services, but late last night the company announced that it’s going to be restating its earnings. You can see a longer discussion on The Street.combut essentially it appears that athenahealth has been amortizing its installation costs over one year whereas they ought to have been doing it over more years. The net result is that they’ll have to restate some earnings and are going to miss the next earnings reporting deadline. The stock is off roughly 12% today.

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Last week in London I met with two of the brightest lights in the UK's community of physicians looking at Health 2.0. Annabel Bentley is the medical director and head of informatics at Bupa, the UK-based non-profit health insurer, which owns Health Dialog amongst many other activities, and is also a sponsor of the upcoming Health 2.0 Europe conference. Emma Stanton is a psychiatrist, round-the-world yachtswoman, and has just spent two years on assignment working with Sir Liam Donaldson the Chief Medical Officer in the UK, and is on her way to a Harkness fellowship in the US working with Don Berwick & Eliot Fisher. Not bad company!

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Dr. Lavizzo-Mourney is the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Before joining Robert Wood Johnson she taught at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of medicine and health care systems and director of Penn’s Institute on Aging. In Washington, D.C., she was deputy administrator of what is now the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality.

Thanks to a new set of reports, we now know that where you live matters to your health. People who call Prince George’s County Maryland home are twice as likely to die prematurely from disease as their neighbors just across the line in Montgomery County. The data cut both ways. People who live in the healthiest counties, such as Montgomery or Howard County Maryland have a two-to-three times better chance of living longer than people who live in less healthy counties such as Prince Georges or Baltimore.
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But meanwhile more importantly—the party schedule. So far I’m signed up on Monday for the MeDecision party (mostly because it’s in the aquarium), the HISTalkparty (in which you try to spot the mysterious MrHISTalk and Inga) at Max Lagers. I’ll likely be wearing a sash.

For Tuesday night I’ve been asked to give a special shout out to the FierceHealthIT party. Apparently this one will be huge but there’s room for more. It’s at the World of Coca-Cola, and I'm not sure if you have to bring your own rum. Sign up here

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