June 24, 2013 Gabriel Perna
We’ve come a long way with telemedicine and yet it’s in its “relative infancy,” a recent report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) revealed. That’s too bad because as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) showed me, there’s a lot of opportunity out there for it to do more.
June 13, 2013 Gabriel Perna
With the issue of government transparency becoming the topic du jour on the heels of the recent NSA controversy, it’s fair to ask: have the CMS and HHS released enough claims data on hospital outpatient charges? Some, like athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush and U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., don’t seem to think so.
June 6, 2013 Gabriel Perna
Health Datapalooza IV has come and gone. Approximately 2,000 people came to Washington D.C.’s Omni Shoreham hotel to talk healthcare, data, and everything in between. One of the major themes of discussion? Whether or not patent-generated data can be infused with traditional clinical data.
May 31, 2013 Gabriel Perna
We’re at the point where more than half of all doctors and other eligible providers have received Medicare or Medicaid incentive payments for adopting or meaningfully using electronic health records (EHR). And yet it seems like widespread EHR satisfaction is a pipe dream.
May 24, 2013 Gabriel Perna
Many healthcare organizations have struggled to adopt and use social media properly, citing valid concerns over privacy and the patient-provider relationship. Yet there is hope in California, as a live-tweeted surgery shows that organizations such as UCLA Health System are figuring it out 140 characters at a time.
May 17, 2013 Gabriel Perna
An opinion piece from Jonathan Bush, the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of athenahealth Inc. recently caught my attention. Bush was advocating for better venture capital investment in healthcare IT and made a pertinent point about how fee-for-service models of reimbursement have stifled innovation.
May 9, 2013 Gabriel Perna
What can analytics do for you? That’s the question health IT leaders have to be asking themselves in 2013. From what I’ve seen in the news, and from talking with Mark Van Kooy, M.D., director of clinical informatics at the Aspen Advisers, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm, many are looking at the big picture and answering that question by saying, “A lot.”
April 30, 2013 Gabriel Perna
When Norman Rockwell painted, it was a direct representation of life during a simpler time. What would he think of life today—specifically within the world of healthcare? It’s a question worth pondering, after a recent study revealed that doctors spent 40 percent of their time behind a computer, compared to only 12 percent in direct contact with a patient.
April 23, 2013 Gabriel Perna
The bombings in Boston united an already close-knit city and showed everyone’s resolve in the face of terror. This includes the city’s hospitals, which thanks to the impressive preparation and dedication of its doctors and nurses were able to prevent this catastrophe from being even worse.
April 15, 2013 Gabriel Perna
Becoming an accountable care organization (ACO), and transforming your method of delivering healthcare from fee-for-service to pay-for-performance is a long journey. It is the journey of getting your providers to deliver evidence-based medicine. As I found out recently in an interview with two different ACO leaders, it's one that comes with numerous roadblocks and challenges along the way.
