Wednesday, November 5, 2008
goLITE Fights the Coming Winter Blues
You don't have to be a doctor to know that the amount of light a person is subject to has an effect on one's daily mood. Furthermore, severe underexposure to light leads to things like winter blues and cabin fever. To deal with the problem you can always point a 500 watt halogen lamp at your face and blind yourself to everything else. That's how the previous generations of light boxes were designed: too much too bright.
Philips has just released its state of the art (and science) goLITE device, which your humble editor got a chance to try out for the last few days. The scenario for review turned out to be perfect: as our days in the Northern Hemisphere are getting progressively shorter, I had to also adjust from some recent travels and from standard daylight time coming into effect.
The goLITE sits beautifully on the desk, somewhat resembling Apple's iPod aesthetics. When the device is turned on, it emanates a rather pleasant blue colored light. Apparently, the body responds best to certain wavelengths of light, and the unit uses the optimal frequency blue LEDs to deliver the most positive effect on the body. The light is certainly not weak, but I am comfortably writing this on my laptop while the unit is right next to the screen. There is a bit of a visual imprint that stays when I glance away, but it is considerably less intense than after staring at an incandescent 100 watt bulb.
In terms of features there is a back lit touch screen which can be used to adjust light intensity, set a timer or an alarm clock, and during off time you've got a desktop clock. The goLITE is held up by a nifty magnetic stand that hangs on the back when being transported, and considering its simplicity it's somewhat surprising we haven't seen this design before.
In terms of effectiveness, there's definitely a certain uplifting feeling, somewhat like that first hour in the sun on a winter vacation in the Caribbean. Not to equate the two in any way, but indeed there's something about it that I believe I sense.
So, if you were disappointed with the previous generation of light panels, you will probably like the moderate blue light coming out of this one. And considering its looks, it will make a pleasant addition to your work table.
Press release: Philips introduces new, advanced light therapy device to offer quick relief from winter blues
Product page: Philips goLITE
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
CARDIOHELP, World's Smallest Bypass Machine
We have learned that at the upcoming Medica 2008 (Nov. 19-22 in Düsseldorf, Germany), MAQUET GmbH & Co. KG is set to unveil the company's latest circulatory bypass machine called CARDIOHELP, a device "no bigger than a suitcase." 
Following the presentation, CARDIOHELP will be available in selected European markets starting May 2009. Depending on the timeframes for national registrations other then the CE mark, the device will also be available in other markets as soon as the required regulatory approvals are obtained.
This little device is stuffed with all sorts of mechanical and even digital features. The following is from the upcoming press statement from the company :
CARDIOHELP is not only the world’s most compact and lightweight heart-lung machine, it is also a complete solution for use in cardiac surgery, cardiology, intensive care and emergency medicine.The individual operating modes and the disposables make CARDIOHELP suitable for all indications with cardiac or pulmonary support, so it can be used not only in the operating room but also in catheter labs and intensive care units. Thus, the principle of extracorporeal circulation for supplying the heart and/or lungs with oxygen is now available in new areas as a means of life support and saving lives.
A vision has become a complete system. The central component of CARDIOHELP is an integrated drive and control unit in the form of a compact, functionally designed box, just 50 cm long, 26 cm wide and 30 cm high, into which the various disposables are docked.
CARDIOHELP is almost instantly ready to use. Furthermore, it is designed with user-friendliness in mind, so a single push-and-turn knob and a touch screen are all that nursing staff are required to operate. MAQUET offers a modular training program for the various applications.The required operating mode is configured in advance according to the particular area of use. USB and Ethernet ports mean that CARDIOHELP is equipped for data exchange. The unit can either be connected up to a wall power outlet or to the electrical system on aircraft or helicopters. Integral lithium-ion batteries provide 90 minutes of independent operation, which is particularly important for inter- and intrahospital transportation. The universal holder mount allows CARDIOHELP to be securely fixed to all conventional carrier systems.
Connecting the disposables is equally simple. The various oxygenator and pump units are flange-mounted directly to the back of the machine, so they are immediately ready for service without any hose connections or clamps. The CARDIOHELP system offers three operating modes and is combinable with three different disposables to suit the specific requirements of operating room, intensive care unit and transportation.
CARDIOHELP represents a further advance in the integration of components that MAQUET began with the QUADROX-i oxygenator. The new unit, called QUADROX-iR, features not only an integral arterial filter but now, for the first time, a centrifugal pump. In addition, four external pressure sensors, two temperature sensors, two air bubble sensors and a flow sensor can be connected to the back of the unit.
The enhanced version of the highly successful QUADROX system features a minimised priming volume, thanks to integration and compact design. The oxygenator-pump unit guarantees a constant blood flow, low pressure drop and therefore, in conjunction with a very small surface contact, minimal blood trauma.
Apart from cardiac surgery, MAQUET has also developed a product for long-term use in intensive care. This integrates not only the oxygenator and centrifugal pump, but also sensors for three blood pressure parameters and temperature. The readings are shown on the display for ease of monitoring by the nursing staff. Equipped with a high-quality diffusion membrane and a biocompatible, blood-friendly Bioline coating, the product will be approved for periods of use of at least 14 days.
Integration is taken even further in the premium product line. In addition to pressure and temperature sensors, this is the world’s first disposable product to offer a high-tech sensor for measuring the important parameters of venous saturation (SvO2), haematocrit (HCT) and haemoglobin (Hb) plus venous temperature (Tv).
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Friday, October 31, 2008
Medgadget's Sci-Fi Writing Contest: Return of the Prose - Sponsored by Epocrates
We are excited to announce the third annual Medgadget Sci-Fi Writing Contest! The competition is designed to present to the public talented writers, among our readers and beyond, who imagine the future of medicine through fictional stories. Whether it is a hitherto unknown ethical dilemma that will come up many years from now, or an imaginary technology, we can't wait to see this year's entries! Our readers will recall the amazing set of stories that dazzled and stirred the imagination last year. Lets take a look at the future of medicine together again!
Just like last time, here are the rules:
To learn more about the Epocrates Essentials Deluxe, check out this short product demo. All in all, Epocrates is offering an almost $500 package to the winner.
In addition, the winner will take home a box set The Complete Wreck (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-13) by Lemony Snicket, a gift from the Medgadget team.
That's it! Get your thinking caps on and start typing! Feel free to browse our archives ... for inspiration.
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Thursday, October 9, 2008
Guess-a-Nobel Awards Announcement
Medgadget would like to congratulate the winners of our first annual Guess-A-Nobel contest.
Haruhiko Ishii, who works in a biology lab in the US, and is originally from Japan, named the three physics laureates with impressive gusto, and will soon be the recipient of a bright yellow iPod nano.
Marc Zimmer is a chemistry professor at Connecticut College, and named all three of the chemistry laureates (out of five submitted names). He wrote a book about green fluorescent protein (GFP), the science of which led to this year's Nobel in chemistry, and has a site devoted to the subject. Of course he chose a green colored iPod.
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Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Guess-A-Nobel Update
We have some bad news to report about our Guess-A-Nobel Contest. No one from our audience, arguably one of the smartest blog audiences out there (cough, cough), was able to identify and predict the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine.
As a follow up, we have only one question: What were those judges in Sweden thinking?
Link: The 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded for Viral Discoveries
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Monday, September 29, 2008
Guess-A-Nobel Contest
In one week from today, the Nobel Foundation will start announcing this year's Nobel Prizes. Medgadget is proud to present the first ever Guess-A-Nobel contest. Here's your chance to shine: name either the scientist(s) or discoveries in the comments to this post, and win one of the new iPod nanos.
Since we are a medical blog, initially we were thinking only about the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But then we decided to expand to include the other two supreme sciences of nature: Physics and Chemistry.
So here are the rules:
1. Anyone can enter by writing a comment to this post. Please make sure you leave your email address, so we can get in touch with you.
2. Identify either the scientist(s) or discoveries in Medicine, and/or Physics and/or Chemistry, for your chance to win an iPod nano, or even three of them.
3. If a winner lives outside the US, Canada, or EU, instead of sending the prize, we'll transfer an equivalent amount of ca$h via a PayPal account.
4. Deadline for entries is Midnight Pacific Standard Time on Saturday Oct. 4.
Good luck to all!
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Friday, September 19, 2008
The Future of Clinical Computing: A Vision from Panasonic
This week, Panasonic quietly gathered some of the bigger brains in medical technology and introduced them to the company's upcoming Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA), a new computer for doctors and nurses to use at the point of care. We were not able to attend, but wanted to get a few answers from Panasonic about the discussion and the future of devices like the MCA. Below is our brief interview with Greg Davidson, Healthcare Sr. Business Development Manager, Panasonic Computer Solutions Company.
Medgadget: Can you provide our readers with the overview of Healthcare Mobile Technology Symposium, and what was discussed at the conference?Panasonic: For the past three years Panasonic has hosted the Healthcare Mobile Technology Symposium as a way for thought leaders, solutions providers, doctors, nurses and healthcare facility IT staff to discuss market trends, issues and needs and to share mobile technology experiences and best practices. Attendees share their experiences with industry peers while discovering the latest innovative technologies in mobile healthcare. The Healthcare Mobile Technology Symposium is an opportunity for the leading providers in healthcare to discuss best practices and chart the course for mobile technology.
During the event we covered a broad array of topics including current and future healthcare mobile technology solutions; the mobile technology needs of facilities, home healthcare providers and large organization, like the Defense Health Information Management System (DHIMS). We heard from senior healthcare directors at Intel and Microsoft as well solution providers like Sprint, Absolute Software and NetMotion. Of course, there were also customer case studies and discussion panels. Not surprisingly, we spent time discussing Panasonic's family of mobile healthcare products, including our soon to be release, Intel Atom-based Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA).
Medgadget: Everybody understands that mobile technologies can significantly streamline the clinical workflow, decrease mistakes, increase patient satisfaction, improve compliance and documentation, etc, etc. Did anyone at the conference discuss the possibility that mobile technologies can improve clinical outcomes, decrease morbidity and mortality, and maybe even decrease rates of nosocomial infections?
Panasonic: The ability for technology to address the tens of thousands of error-based deaths in healthcare was certainly addressed. The real time access to data, the ability to better track meds administration, clearer and more detailed clinical notes and improved collaboration all have the potential to improve clinical outcomes.
Microsoft's worldwide health senior director, Bill Crounse talked in detail about the ability of commodity computing technology to significantly impact the healthcare practices in remote locations in developing countries. While healthcare facilities in the Western world struggle to secure multi-million dollar IT projects, a simple laptop and webcam in rural India is arguably making a greater impact on patient care.
As for decreased rates of nosocomial infections, the best thing a mobile device can do is be fully sanitizable. The problem with most technologies available in medical settings is that they are difficult to sanitize. A simple feature like a fan on a mobile device -- often used to cool the processor -- creates a risk for the passing of germs and infections because you can't fully sanitize the device without cracking it open and cleaning the inside. Mobile devices that are constantly moving from room to room and from patient to patient need to be fully sealed, so that they can be completely and easily sanitized.
Mobile devices in healthcare should be considered alongside any other important equipment utilized in healthcare facilities--they must be sanitizable, they must be of the highest quality, and they must provide the highest level of reliability. Just as with any significant piece of healthcare equipment, when mobile healthcare technology is substandard or fails to perform, patients' lives are at stake.
Medgadget: We understand that implementation of new technologies always costs money. However, doctors and nurses are already mired in a sea of paperwork. What is preventing more adoption of mobile computing in the hospital and at the office?
Panasonic: There are a number of issues preventing the adoption of mobile computing devices, including the security of the device and the data that resides on it, the high failure rates of many of these devices, a short battery life, the lack of a compelling integrated solutions -- a small, light, fully functioning device with a camera, barcode scanner, RFID and maybe even GPS -- a lack of applications that are ideal for healthcare mobile computing and the trade-offs that come with mobility (smaller screen, small or no keyboard, etc.).
That said, I think we are at a point now where many of these problems have been successfully addressed.
There will never be a "one-size-fits-all" mobile technology solution for healthcare. I think we can all agree that's a failed model. The healthcare market needs a broad set of solutions that meet the reliability, durability, connectivity and functionality requirements of its users.
Instead of selling organizations on one device and convincing them to modify their existing workflow to suit that device, at Panasonic we utilize events such as the Healthcare Mobile Technology Symposium to directly gauge the needs of healthcare industry leaders and deliver a full range of mobile solutions, from which customers will hopefully be able to find a device that meets their users' specific needs. Mobile devices should adapt to meet the specific workflows of their users--not vice versa.
Medgadget: Do you see any specific hurdles that the technology needs to cross to get to critical mass when mobile devices are a standard in the clinic?
Panasonic: Connectivity is one of the major hurdles that mobile healthcare professionals face. We understand the challenges that exist in creating a seamless wireless network in healthcare facilities, especially given the emissions from some of the equipment being used. What surprised us at this year's Symposium was that over 50% of our attendees are deploying more than one wireless carrier solution to ensure connectivity in the field; most often in home health environments.
For example, a home health nurse could be out in the field with an embedded Sprint WWAN card in her laptop, while also carrying a Verizon WWAN card for area's where the Sprint signal is weak or non-existent. Obviously, this creates considerable IT management issues and costs.
Given this reality, we expected more people to be aware of the recently announced Gobi technology from Qualcomm, which will allow a single embedded modem to access multiple carrier networks through a software interface. This type of mobility will enable much greater productivity in the field. As Gobi awareness grows, we expect customers will demand solutions leveraging this technology for their highly mobile workers.
Battery life is another major hurdle for mobile device deployments in clinical settings. Regardless of the device type, users want to make sure the unit will operate for nearly a full shift on a single charge. Obviously, a device is not very mobile when it's charging in its cradle. It comes down to productivity and economics; the longer a device functions on a charge, the more the staff can leverage it, resulting in a greater ROI. The shorter a device operates on a charge, the more of them you'll have to purchase in order to meet your needs.
If a device is running out of power, the ability to switch out batteries while the unit remains fully operational is another clear need. Powering down a device, changing the battery, powering back up and then logging back into the system, is not an acceptable solution for nurses, doctors, system administrators and the CFO.
Security is another major issue faced by healthcare facilities attempting to deploy mobile solutions. Because of the sensitive nature of the information stored on many mobile devices, hospitals need to be able to ensure the security of patient data at all times. If a laptop is stolen, it's important to be able to track the physical asset in an attempt to recover it, but it's more important to be able to delete all data remotely. Now that solutions like this exist from companies like Absolute Software, healthcare facilities can deploy mobile computing solutions with less concern about their potential legal liabilities.
Another hurdle is that some clinics are still waiting for the "perfect" solution and succumb to "paralysis by analysis". There will never be a perfect solution--and tomorrow's solutions will always be better than today's. However, organizations around the globe are achieving amazing benefits with today's imperfect solutions. As such, those organizations that choose to wait must understand that the lost value in not utilizing today's technology far outweighs any potential gains from waiting for a more perfect solution in the future.
One of the Symposium presenters quoted Voltaire to make this point: "Better is the enemy of good."
More from Microsoft's Dr Bill Crounse at the HealthBlog...
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Monday, July 28, 2008
An Interview with Navigenics
Recently we had the opportunity to be beta testers for Navigenics, a personal DNA company. Upon receiving the results, we were saddened to learn we weren't part of a genetically superior class of super humans. But then we dried our eyes and sat down with Navigenics CEO Dietrich Stephan to talk about this new technology.
Medgadget: Thanks for taking some time to speak with us today. Can you give our readers a little summary about the history and mission of Navigenics?
Dietrich: Its a pleasure, thank you for agreeing to be involved in our beta testings. Navigenics was started by myself (a human geneticist) and David Agus (a clinical oncologist) in 2006. We both recognize that all human disease has a genetic component and that the most effective cure is prevention. Take the case of melanoma - by seeing a dermatologist and removing skin lesions before they metastasize we are actually curing melanoma. It is much more difficult to cure melanoma when it has metastasized throughout the body. The same concept is almost universally true for every disease. The major goal of Navigenics is to use risk information embedded within the genome to drive prevention strategies early in life.
The goal of Navigenics is ultimately to provide an individual (and their physician) with a holistic assessment of their genetic predispositions to disease. The vast majority of disease burden in the world is caused by chronic diseases - also called complex genetic diseases - which have a genetic and an environmental component. By learning of predispositions to complex genetic diseases early in life, an individual should be able to focus their prevention efforts on specific environmental toxins that they are more susceptible to, engage in early screening in a focused way, and also achieve a diagnosis earlier and go on therapy earlier which generally results in better clinical outcomes. If we can deliver this information in a broad-based fashion, and motivate individuals to act on the risk information, it is reasonable to assume that we can reduce the burden of chronic disease for some individuals and have a public health impact. We hope that in the next decade we can nucleate a shift from reactive medicine to preventive medicine.
Medgadget: Currently you screen for about 21 diseases, but your promotional video mentions that eventually Navigenics will offer access to "hundreds of different conditions." How soon do you think Navigenics clients will have access to this broad of a genetic screening exam?
Dietrich: Yes, we are proud to announce the recent addition of 3 new conditions (Atrial Fibrillation, Abdominal Aneurysm, and Lung Cancer) to bring current total to 21 medical conditions. Our number of conditions and the number of SNPs for each condition will keep pace with the quality associations that are published in the public domain. We commit to minimal lag time in updating our members with new medical risk information. We anticipate a continued linear increase in association findings over the next 5 years, with researchers addressing less common disorders, prognosis, and drug response/adverse effects as alternative questions in the coming years.
Medgadget: After reviewing the detailed patient and physician educational packets, we were curious as to why has Navigenics decided not to include clinically significant genes like BRCA for breast cancer?
Dietrich: First of all, I'm pleased that you found the educational packets helpful. We are dedicated to ensuring that our clients are well educated about the clinical significance of their results. However, today we are screening an individual's genome for common variants that raise risk. DNA sequencing for monogenic disease (such as sequencing for BRCA1/2 mutations) is currently not supported by our company.
Medgadget: Will clients be able to update their genetic sample as your technology improves? Will this be necessary?
Dietrich: Members will obtain updated information regarding the common variants that predispose to common complex genetic disease over time based on the archived genotype file that they provided. At any point in time an individual can terminate membership and their data will be purged from the Navigenics systems. If a member would like to take advantage of various other types of risk factor screening services in the future, a new DNA sample may be necessary.
Medgadget: We think many clients, especially from our reader population, would be interested in having more (unlimited) access to their genetic information. Will clients be able to freely 'browse' their genetic code?
Dietrich: That's an excellent question, thank you for asking. We firmly believe that an individual owns their genome, and is the only person who should ever have access to that information freely. To this end, we will always allow an individual to obtain the complete sequence file from us. There will be an educational component associated with this information transfer that explains that most sources of information regarding correlations between sequences within the genetic code and disease predispositions are incorrect, and that by freely "browsing" their genome, an individual is assured of being misinformed. There is a critical role for expert interpretation of sequence variants and Navigenics prides itself on the quality of its interpretations.
Medgadget: Absolutely. I think many of our readers would be interested to learn a little more about the Affymetric tecnology...Can you give us a brief overview?
Dietrich: Sure thing, its a bit technical but I'm sure your many of your readers will appreciate the details. Our scan, performed by a CLIA-certified laboratory, uses the Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 (R). It tests for nearly 2 million genetic markers, including more than 900,000 SNPs, or single nucleotide polymorphisms. The arrays sequence specific regions of the genome by taking advantage of the natural tendency for DNA to form a double helix and specifically align with sequences that match itself and are perfectly complementary. The Affymetrix array has short single-strands of DNA that are grown on the surface of the array and match very specific regions of the human genome. The person who is being tested then submits a DNA sample which is fragmented, labeled, and poured onto the array in single-stranded form. The individual's DNA fragments will hydrogen bond to the exact sequences on the array when there is a perfect match, and allow the sequence of that person to be read out. If there is no match, then there will be no binding and that sequence is not present in the individual's genome.
Medgadget: What do you feel is the most significant genetic marker you currently screen for?
Dietrich: Of course, depending on an individual clients results, the "most significant" marker will be the one that affects their health the most. However, in objective terms, the single strongest marker we test for (if an individual opts in to receive this information) is the APOE gene related to Alzheimer's disease. That being said, there are combinations of markers that together have even stronger predictive power - for example the SNPs for age-related macular degeneration.
Medgadget: How does your service compare with that of your competitors? What differentiates Navigenics from the similar services?
Dietrich: We focus only on actionable medical conditions. We present the highest possible caliber of curation of our variants. We are completely transparent with our risk scoring. We guarantee 100% complete data - no missing SNPs. We capture SNPs that are correlated with disease and meet our quality criteria even if they do not reside on the Affymetrix platform using secondary technologies. We present risk in an intuitive fashion. We provide guidance for an individual and their physician so that they may easily understand the information and decide on a prevention plan. We have partnered with the best medical institutions in the world as collaborators, such as the Mayo Clinic and Harvard University.
Medgadget: Its hard to argue with a commitment to quality like that. Its clear that you've handpicked the most accurate variations, but if I had a specific interest in emerging research for "disease x" will I ever be able to search my info for those alterations?
Dietrich: We will only provide interpretations for those variants and diseases that we feel are of the highest quality.
Medgadget: Mr. Stephan, thank you very much for allowing to participate in the beta testing of the Navigenics. As clinicians, it will be extremely exciting to see what the future holds for individual genetic analysis and its role in clinical medicine.
Dietrich: Absolutely, it was a pleasure to work with you...and sorry to break the bad news about you not being a member of some super-human race...
More from Navigenics...
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Introducing Medpolitics.com: A Voice for Doctors
We are very proud to unveil a new web service called Medpolitics.com, a blogging site open to US physicians to opine on healthcare, public health, politics of medicine, and the state of our profession. The time seems perfect considering that healthcare is such a hot debate topic, and many doctors feel that we should have a stronger voice in the debate. We figured we know a thing or two about blogging and healthcare. So why not build a service where doctors write their political thoughts and others read them and comment? We hope that one day politicians, policy makers, news makers, and others will be checking it out to see what the doctors actually think on the important medical policy issues.
So we registered the domain, installed a user-friendly publishing software, and gave it some testing. The site is now ready to go, all without any significant investments (except for our time) or outside funding. In other words, 100% independent political network for doctors.
Some features of the website: WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) blog editor, drag and drop picture uploading, social networking (make friends, establish contacts), bookmarking, event announcements, polls creation, and much more. The publishing on Medpolitics is as easy as writing an email: no knowledge of HTML is necessary. Again, the site is open for blogging to US physicians only, and everyone else can follow the debate and comment. We have a person on staff to treat everyone who signs up the old fashioned way, "like a doctor." That means continuous support, a phone number to call for help or to explain how to do something, and the utmost attention to all your requests. What blogging platform will do that for you?
We are not looking for thousands of members, but just for some of you that care for the future of our profession and have the desire to have your opinions heard. So let's see if the experiment will work, and whether we can get some of the quiet voices out. Sign up now, and if you have that Blogger account that gets drowned in a sea of chatter, move it and join other physicians. A few voices together are definitely louder than individuals scattered all over.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with us via this contact form.
See you in the debate halls of Medpolitics.com!
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Monday, July 14, 2008
Medgadget Interviews Dr. J. James Rohack, President-elect of the AMA
Medgadget rarely ventures into politics. However, after one of our editors contacted the American Medical Association (AMA) public relations department to check out how the AMA is doing, we were offered a chance to talk to senior leadership in the organization. We, of course, couldn't have missed such an opportunity! The result is an interview with J. James Rohack, MD, a cardiologist from Bryan, Texas, in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, and recently announced president-elect of the American Medical Association. Dr. Rohack will assume the AMA presidency in about a year from now, in June 2009.
We'd like to note and to give credit to the AMA for not officiating this discussion, for not setting limits or requesting in advance the questions we were planning to ask.
Medgadget: Dr. Rohack, my name is Michael Ostrovsky. Welcome to Medgadget, I think everything is working very well now.
Dr. Rohack: Great, very good.
Medgadget: We really appreciate you giving us this opportunity to interview the president-elect of American Medical Association. It's a great opportunity for us. Just to let you know about Medgadget. We are a physician edited blog, and we've been discussing the AMA a little bit among ourselves, and would like to ask a couple questions about the AMA and its future. First question would be.. Can you give us a little summary of the mission of the AMA at the present time, in these turbulent for physicians political times.
Dr. Rohack: From a historical perspective, as well as right now, our mission is to promote the art and science of medicine, and the betterment of public health. Our three major areas of focus, however, that we are trying to accomplish is to make sure that the 47 million Americans that are uninsured do now have health insurance. And it is through a process of changing the Federal tax code so that those that can't afford health insurance can get tax credits to purchase their own health insurance. The second is to fundamentally reform the Medicare system. Medicare was created 40+ years ago, [it] is still siloed as far is its payments, it is still backwards as far as how the system works, in that it took almost 37 years to finally get a drug benefit, and we still see that Congress, having to go to Congress to say "We need to cover immunizations" is kinda backwards. And the third thing we're focusing on is improving the quality and safety, and that's through not only continuation of our involvement in standard setting for medical education, both at the medical school, the graduate medical education, and continuing education, but more importantly taking a look at tools that we can help physicians in their offices how care is being provided in different ways, to reduce the duplication that maybe out there that maybe unnecessary, that physicians may not have the tools to help them. So, clearly there are many other areas we're involved with, but those are the top three.
Medgadget: Also, I'm sure you know that there is a lot of disagreement among doctors, some would even say discontent among doctors, with the AMA, with the organization itself. Do you feel this is a time when the AMA is having more difficulty reaching physicians with its message. Specifically, are you seeing any evidence of this discontent among physicians in your membership numbers?
Dr. Rohack: Well, certainly our historical process that we've had for getting feedback from physicians has been tied to our house of delegates that assembles twice a year with physicians representing every state and specialty. However, it's also a recognition that the technology has changed. We've also looked at weblogs and other venues where physicians are being engaged for us to get an experience if that's something we should be more involved with, to interact with our members. A few years ago we started to do what's called 'Member Connect surveys', where we sent electronically to our membership individual questions, that they could respond to, to help shape our annual agenda that we put together. So I think that one of the things that the American Medical Association has done over the last decade is recognize that the historical past of how communication occurred with doctors... that is doctors coming to the AMA twice a year, the doctors then returning back to their community, and then those doctors being responsible for communication, has left the average AMA member, in fact has left the average doctor, completely unaware of what the AMA is doing. The other recognition that we have, our house of delegates which meets twice a year, is a very open, deliberative, democratic body. We don't bar the press from those deliberations. And it is so democratic, that any individual can bring a resolution to that debate, so that any time the resolution that is introduced happens to be on social policy, where the country hasn't come up with a consensus, unfortunately sometimes the press, that becomes the headlines, and it really distorts all the things the AMA does to help the actual practice and doctor in their every day life.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
Youngest Editor Admitted to The Board
We'd like to apologize for the somewhat patchy posting schedule lately, as Medgadget has begun training its latest Junior Editor in the art of blogging. With the latest crop of editors coming in, our philosophy has been to start early and to blog often. Valerie is seen here learning the finer points of blogging etiquette, and it looks like she's taking it very seriously. Soon it'll be no sweat at all.
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Monday, April 7, 2008
Max.MD: Exclusive Provider for Medical Domains (.md)
Everyday we report on the often mind boggling technological revolution occurring in the medical and bio-tech fields. Unfortunately, the actual delivery of medicine has remained hopelessly stuck in the '80's with limited adoption of internet technologies. Front line physicians are stuck between a patient populace crying for electronic communication and an adversarial government's vague regulations and strict financial punishments.
Thankfully, there are innovative companies that hope to drag help bring medical professionals into the 21st century with secure, affordable, seamless solutions. Recently, we had an opportunity to sit down with Scott Finlay, CEO of Max.MD, and chat about how this company hopes to do just this.
Medgadget: What is Max.MD?
Scott: Max.md is a US based Registry and an innovative internet technology company committed to the idea that physicians, practices and the healthcare industry in general would benefit from the establishment of a Top Level Domain (TLD) for the Healthcare industry. .md Because Medicine is your Domain.Max.md owns the exclusive rights to create sub domain names in the .md TLD and to register, market, maintain, publicize, promote, distribute, and license such domain names and provide related services to any and all customers in over 90 countries around the world. Max.md has developed a secure communication platform (patent pending) for physicians, practices and covered healthcare organizations in the United States so that they may communicate securely over the internet in compliance with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The Max.md registration bundle offers healthcare organizations an ability to communicate securely with each other via .mdEmail® and .mdSecureIM™ for pennies per user per day. Max.md is located in Jersey City, New Jersey and maintains Secure Server locations in Texas, Virginia and New Jersey.