May 17, 2011
The challenge that faces health services around the world is to improve the health of their population at a cost that their economy can afford. It is well understood that impacting upon the health of a population requires a combination of individuals and communities taking more care of their own health, public health interventions such as vaccination programmes, effective primary care to manage small illnesses and diagnose major illness early, community services supporting the sick and the elderly outside of hospitals and hospitals to treat acute, long term and psychiatric illness that is too severe to be cared for outside of a hospital setting.
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February 17, 2011
The pursuit of the perfect end-state can drive a belief that there are limitless opportunities for improvement. Although perfection can never be fully realized, its pursuit can propel achievement of value and excellence; that is the rationale behind the Baldrige and other quality awards. The pursuit of perfection can be distinguished from ‘perfectionism’. Perfectionism is retrospective—hind-sighted and judgmental in its point of view. It devalues what has already been done because it is not perfect. By contrast, the pursuit of perfection is prospective and nonjudgmental. It asks the question, What choices and investments should we make today to move closer to the perfect end-state?It was with these thoughts in mind that I read with dismay the post by Katherine Hobson in the Wall Street Journal health blog last week. In it, she says that real benefits of genomics and personalized medicine are still many years away, citing just-published papers in the prestigious British journal Nature. This is a nasty rumor; a cliche; a bad meme that keeps coming back like a bad penny.
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January 25, 2011
ER physicians understand the anguish and challenges of modern healthcare. We are on the frontline, taking the heat and feeling the pain. Our only defense is holding the shield of ‘trying to do the right thing.’ But this is where much of healthcare gets started, especially the ugly stuff (by nature unscheduled, unexpected and often times irresponsible).
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January 13, 2011
At Cerner, we are broadening beyond being a healthcare IT company to becoming a healthcare company. One of the foundational components of this shift is to “walk the talk.” We’ve made considerable strides in understanding what drives the health of our own associates and, in turn, what drives healthcare expenditures.
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December 23, 2010
The traditional hospital strategy of increasing activity to grow revenue is defunct in this challenging economic environment. Much like the accountable care organizations (ACOs) that are being developed in the U.S., the UK will be shifting to a model of results-based payments for health providers, rewarding the quality of care provided as opposed to simply the quantity of patients treated. This change is outlined in the Liberating the NHS White Paper, which marks the start of a series of radical changes for healthcare in the UK which could add up to the greatest change in 60 years.
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December 21, 2010
CPOE requirements can be a hurdle for hospitals to overcome as they move towards Stage 1 Meaningful Use qualifications. However, data from a new study shows CPOE provides measureable benefit when it comes to saving lives.
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November 09, 2010
Cerner CEO Neal Patterson laid out his vision for the next decade in healthcare - one in which healthcare organizations empower individuals to maintain and improve their health. “We are going to shift the paradigm from present and react to predict and prevent,” Patterson said during his keynote address.Federal reforms have not dealt with the fundamental issue of cost, Patterson said, which means the price of healthcare will likely double over the next decade to $5 trillion. If we, as a society, don’t stop these increases, we are not going to be able to afford the more personalized care that can come from human genome analysis.
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October 26, 2010
Over the past two years since relocating to the U.S. from an extended global assignment, I have had the opportunity to get plugged into the largely consumer-driven economy that is enjoyed here in the United States. I’ve had a lot of fun re-defining the “technological me” from the assortment of devices and attachments that best serve and indulge my information needs and desires.
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