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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Health 2.0 SF Final Day: From DC to VC


This was fabulous. I'd been only mildly interested in this post-Health 2.0 SF event (the Venture Capital part; I'm not looking for VC money -- yet, lol), and, after the packed, celebratory open bar reception last night, I was moving a little slow this morning (I copped a bit of a Pinot buzz, though mostly I was just tired), but DC to VC admission came with my comp press pass, so felt I obligated to show up. I am so glad I did. So much to report on. Many holes to fill in from the week. Stay tuned.

NudgeRx CEO David Schuster, voicing concerns that a Romney election  -- the fatuous "I'll Repeal Obamacare on Day One" aside -- could throw major sand in the gears for HIT, primarily at the hospital level.
ONC HIE Chief Claudia Williams and Congressman Murphy

Above: former Congressman Patrick Murphy. He blew me away Tuesday night and again on Wednesday with his passionate defense of health policy reform (and repeal of DADT). He's now running for Pennsylvania Attorney General. From his campaign site:
Patrick Murphy is a husband. A father. The son of a police officer. A native Pennsylvanian. And his lifetime of experience has made him ready to be our state’s next Attorney General.

Patrick has law enforcement in his blood. He grew up in a row house in Northeast Philadelphia, where he learned the importance of public service at an early age from his father Jack Murphy, who was a Philadelphia police officer for more than 22 years after serving in the Navy.

Patrick has dedicated his life to protecting American families. After 9/11, he volunteered for combat to bring those who would harm Americans to justice. And whether it was prosecuting terrorists and leading convoys in Iraq, enacting tougher consumer protection laws at home, or putting dangerous criminals behind bars, Patrick has been committed to doing what it takes to keep our families safe and our neighborhoods secure.

After serving first in Bosnia, Patrick deployed to Iraq in 2003 as a paratrooper in the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division. In Baghdad, Patrick successfully prosecuted three Central Criminal Court cases, two of which convicted terrorists bent on killing Americans. Patrick was awarded the Bronze Star for his service...


After it was over, I trucked back down to the Powell Street BART station. Stopped to take a shot as I descended into the turnstiles. Beautiful day. Beautiful city.


Did an OJ at the airport and just barely made the earlier Virgin America flight back to Vegas. As we climbed out into an initial west turn, the fog was rolling it below. No ground hold for me this time.


Went to the kennel and picked up my dogs, which I'd not expected to do until the morning. They were thrilled to see me.
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I have just spent most of the week in the company of quite an assemblage of highly intelligent, technically amazing, and morally committed people. This old REC grunt is pretty humbled, overall.

Much more to come. Thanks to everyone for being so nice to me.

Thanks, Matthew Holt and Health 2.0.
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Below: a "Make Lemonade" photo.


What do you do with a shot that was off-center (she was moving, and I was trying to catch the backlight on her hair) and not quite sharp enough, given the relatively dim available light? (I was shooting ISO 6400, 'cause I can't afford a $6,000 300 mm lens. And, I will not bail out to flash.) Couple of minutes in Photoshop to the rescue, take out the chroma, add a bit of text.

Wish I had a portrait studio. And $20k worth of gear. I'd be competitive.
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Booming thunderstorms with lightning here in Vegas tonight (we had widespread street floods today). Blogging, watching the VP debate. Fixin' to go to bed. Tired.

Much more to come...


BACK IN THE TRENCHES

The lawmakers have risen high; Camp is chair of the Ways and Means Committee and Upton chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, two of the most expansive and powerful committees in Congress. They recently co-authored a letter with their health subcommittee chairs, Rep. Wally Herger at Ways and Means and Rep. Joe Pitts at Energy and Commerce, calling on HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to halt--and then rehaul--the electronic health records meaningful use program.
Read that letter and you’ll wonder how much the two committee chairs know about the health care industry. You’ll be amazed at how little the subcommittee chairs know. They contend that 4 1/2 years into the meaningful use program (actually about 3 1/2 from the time the law was signed for those who know basic math) “it is safe to say that we are no closer to interoperability in spite of the nearly $10 billion spent.”
They actually expected the nation’s largest, most fragmented and complex industry to fully automate, integrate and share data within a few years--faster than most other industries, if not all of them, were able to do the same. And they have no idea what meaningful use has done to change the entire mindset of an industry toward information exchange...
Ouch. Article link here.

In other MU news:

National Library of Medicine Sets Meaningful Use Standards

NLM, in collaboration with the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, will provide vocabulary sets for clinical measures found in MU Stage 2
By Michelle McNickle InformationWeek October 11, 2012 05:07 PM
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announced it will launch the NLM Value Set Authority Center (VSAC) in collaboration with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and theCenter for Medicare & Medicaid Services. VSAC will provide downloadable access to all official versions of vocabulary value sets contained in clinical quality measures that support Meaningful Use Stage 2...
CODA

Apropos of Health 2.0., from InformationWeek Healthcare:

Meaningful Use Needs Mobile Magic
Mobile technology could play a huge role in meeting the federal MU regulations, but the Stage 2 rulebook virtually ignores this potential.
Paul Cerrato | October 09, 2012 08:28 AM


Mobile apps and devices have taken the healthcare industry by storm. So why is the word "mobile" mentioned only once in the 672 pages of Meaningful Use Stage 2 regulations? One can only guess the rationale behind that decision, but several experts see the need for more emphasis in this arena...
Interesting. This past week I've seen a plethora of mobile apps spanning the gamut of health care data gathering, transmission, and analysis, right down to post-op care-continuity wound healing assessment via secure mobile phone photo transmission.

It's pretty clear to me that the cutting edge developers are way out ahead of the feds. How that will reconcile is an open question, I guess.

OK...
HIE Expert: ‘Most State HIEs Won’t Survive’
October 11, 2012 by Jennifer Prestigiacomo
Yeah, like Nevada's. Just give us the money. What have you got to show for the ~$3 million you've spent to date?
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