The Bug That Is Eating Manhattan: Cimex lectularius

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | No Comments

Mike Magee

On July 16, 2010, New York City dwellers reacted with shock and disgust at the news, Cimex lectularis had been detected in a wonder bra at Lexington and 58th. The tenant? Victoria’s Secret. Obviously it was time to get serious. It wasn’t a matter of disease – the bug doesn’t transmit disease. It was it’s reputation for being nearly impossible to get rid of (having developed resistant to most insecticides); for striking in the middle of the night and sucking your blood (you don’t feel the bite because the bug injects an anaesthetic and anticoagulent into your skin); and for leaving you with itchy trail marks, a bad reputation, and insomnia. (CONTINUE….)

Category: public health
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American Medical News: Physician smartphone popularity shifts health IT

Posted on | August 28, 2010 | No Comments

PAMELA LEWIS DOLAN
American Medical News:  amednews staff. Posted Aug. 23, 2010.

Doctors’ embrace of such devices puts them at a disconnect with hospitals that rely on desktop-based health technology.
With physician smartphone use nearing a saturation point, doctors are in an unfamiliar position when it comes to health information technology — demanding that others adapt to their needs, rather than the other way around.

Physicians’ rapid embrace of mobile devices — well beyond the rate the general population uses them, as measured by several surveys — has caught many involved in health information technology off-guard. That’s particularly true of hospitals, which report being besieged by physician demands that electronic clinical information systems be available through their BlackBerrys or iPhones.


“Five to 10 years ago they were saying, ‘If only my docs would be using computers,’ ” said C. Peter Waegemann, vice president for development of the mHealth Initiative, a Boston-based organization that promotes mobile technology in health care. Now hospital executives bemoan the fact that doctors are “using these smartphones all the time … and I don’t know how to integrate it,” he said.

(CONTINUE….)

Category: HIT, Health Information Technology, eHealth, health technology, hospitals, information technology, public policy, telemedicine

The Hype and The Hope of “mHealth”

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 1 Comment

Eric Dishman

Another day, another flyer arrives for a seminar on “mHealth.” One that showed up in my mailbox this week is typical: high-gloss images of mobile phones and heart signals, celebratory claims about how all of this will “revolutionize” healthcare, and liberal use of the words “innovation” and “transformation” in almost every keynote title. I bet I could circle the globe going to all of these mHealth events if I would let myself. Then there are the numerous press articles starting to beat the drum about mHealth. Concepts like “home health” and “wireless” and “smart phone” and “telehealth” are being bandied about as if they are all the same thing, under the rubric of “mHealth,” without much distinction between these very different capabilities, value propositions, and markets. Methinks we doth proclaim too much!

I have no doubt that we are living in a world in which personal technologies–from PCs to smart phones to game machines to wearable and eventually even implantable sensors–will become increasingly important for capturing healthcare data, prompting us to adhere to care plans, and connecting us with providers and each other in some powerful new ways for collaborative care. I have done, sponsored, and funded R&D at Intel in wireless technologies, sensor networks, mobile applications, and home-based services for healthcare. And I believe that consumer empowerment tools are a disruptive and important part of healthcare reform globally. However, this well-intentioned but premature celebration of all things “mHealth” may come back to bite us, if we’re not more careful. Here are some of my concerns: (CONTINUE….)

Category: Eric Dishman, Health Information Technology, aging, elder health policy, information technology, mHealth, telemedicine

Should New York State’s Medical Society Oppose Mandated End-Of-Life Discussions With Patients?

Posted on | August 25, 2010 | No Comments

Mike Magee

Nearly 30 years ago, when the consumer health movement began in earnest, health professionals responded with extreme caution, concerned that their authority and control over patients and the health care system would ultimately be challenged. To the credit of most doctors, nurses and health care leaders, caregivers have evolved, accepting that the best patient is an educated patient and that mutual decision making leads to better decisions. (1) But as with all great sociologic movements, progress is not linear but filled with up’s and down’s.
Witness as a concrete example The Medical Society of the State of New York’s opposition to a new law enacted last week that requires physicians caring for terminal care patients to inform them regarding their palliative care alternatives including pain management and Hospice. The problem? A fear that the law provides a “legislatively designed standard of care” and would trespass “unnecessarily upon the patient-physician relationship”. (2) But the public advocacy group that drove the legislation said it was necessary because too often terminal patients and their families suffered needless agony and pain, as well as financial disaster pursuing expensive and invasive treatments that were neither helpful nor advisable. (3) Their not so subtle message to health professionals – get with the program!  (CONTINUE….)

Category: Doctor/Patient Relationship, Medical Society of the State of New York, aging, death, death and dying, elder health policy, elderly, end of life care, end-of-life, health plans, health policy, organized medicine

Is It Safe To Walk The Streets of New York?

Posted on | August 18, 2010 | No Comments

Mike Magee

A decade ago, I spent an interesting year with 15 young New York executives as part of the David Rockefeller Fellowship. (1) One of the fellows that year was Janette Sadik-Khan, who at the time was managing US transit market customers for the renowned international engineering firm, Parsons Brinckerhoff. She now serves as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation under Mayor Bloomberg. She was in the news this week with the release of a comprehensive study of pedestrian injuries in New York City which she termed “the Rosetta Stone for safety on the streets of New York”. (2) The good news – pedestrian fatalities in New York City were 3 per 100,000 (about the rate of Portland, Amsterdam and Paris) – and much less then in places like Atlanta (11/100,000) or Detroit (10,100,000). The bad news, as Janette said, “One crash is one crash too many.” (3)

The point of the study was not to make news, or prove that visiting New York streets is relatively safe for pedestrians.  It was to discover where the vulnerabilities were and re-engineer and redesign the pathways shared by vehicles and pedestrians to improve safety for all. Of the many things I gained from my year in that fellowship was an interest in learning more about the intersect of transportation, safety and health – thanks to Janette. In that pursuit, I came in contact with an international medical organization dedicated to global road safety called The Bone and Joint Decade (4). Here’s what I learned.  (CONTINUE….)

Category: Janette Sadik-Khan, health care, health policy
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Why Public Housing Units Should Be Smoke Free.

Posted on | August 12, 2010 | No Comments

Mike Magee

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) oversees the housing of 7 million Americans in public multi-housing units. 40% of these units are occupied by families with children. These homes fall under the local jurisdiction of some 3500 Public Housing Authorities nationwide. The mean annual income of households in public housing is just over $13,000. (1,2,3)HUD rules for Public Housing Authorities seeking federal funding maintain that “HUD housing must be decent, safe, sanitary, and in good repair” and that “all areas and components of the housing must be free of health and safety hazards. These areas must include, but are not limited to, air quality.” (4)

One year ago, HUD broke it’s own silence on an obvious enemy of air quality – tobacco smoke. (CONTINUE….)

Category: HUD, HUD regulations, cigarette smoke, indoor smoke, public health, public policy, smoking

Cleveland Clinic’s Harris on Health Visioning For The Future

Posted on | August 7, 2010 | No Comments

Recommended Videos on Healthy Homes Movement (thanks to Susan Rose)


Category: C. Martin Harris MD, Cleveland Clinic, health reform, health technology, information technology, telemedicine
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