The Health Care Blog: Use Emotion to Drive Adoption—Not Rejection—of Health IT

July 29th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 1%
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The Health Care Blog: Use Emotion to Drive Adoption—Not Rejection—of Health IT.

Colleague Lygeia Ricciardi ( @lygeia ) published this blog post in The Health Care blog today, which is descriptive of a change in attitude that I’ve been observing in the area of Health Information Technology, which is a discussion of the benefits and the risks, rather than “the risks.”

I think this is a combination of people understanding what Health Information Technology is capable of in systems that have implemented well, as well as understanding of how health care is not meeting expectations ( more on that in a second ). This is not the same as “HIT should be considered the solution to all of the problems.” It just means that people are now evaluating HIT as a relative to, not an absolute.

Speaking of meeting expectations, our gathering for the e-Patient Ephemera show is happening tonight. Reading @Lygeia’s post and then joining us to see the patient experience through the eyes of a talented artist will be a great way to think about what we want for the future.

If you can’t make it, don’t worry, there will be pictures up here tomorrow (of course!)

YouTube – Mobile Food Vendors Using Social Media

July 28th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 1%
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YouTube – Mobile Food Vendors Using Social Media.

Maybe nutritionists and/or physicians should also use mobile social media, too?

Remembering what my colleague Paulanne Balch, MD ( @BPBMD2 ) told me – “The number one thing patients want to know when they leave the doctor’s office is ‘what should I eat’”.

Toronto firm licenses mobile app to U.S. health provider

July 28th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 1%
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Toronto firm licenses mobile app to U.S. health provider

Social Media – “How Gen Y’s Learn” – “Empty Piggy Bank” – BusinessWeek

July 28th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 1%
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Retirement: Gen Y’s Empty Piggy Bank – BusinessWeek – Vanguard is testing out social media, using more blogs, a Facebook page, and soon, Twitter. "It's how this younger generation learns," says Vanguard Chief Executive Officer William McNabb III.

Now Reading: “Patient review (of doctors’ notes) remains the rare exception, and roadblocks abound” : OpenNotes Project (Annals of Internal Medicine)

July 25th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 2%
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Imagine how strange it is to read this article after seeing this issue come alive through the storytelling of @ReginaHolliday at Health 2.0 STAT DC last week. It’s hard for this (or any) written description to fully capture the agony and devastation caused to families through opacity in health care:

Many clinical institutions charge for copies, authorize patient review only when a clinician is present, and take their time responding to patient requests for records.

For comparison of impact, look at the 73 Cents Mural and decide for yourself.

However, there’s a lot going on here, including a compelling story. This story includes people, and the researchers on this project are top notch, thoughtful, interested in applying their talents for the benefit of patients everywhere (some of them even trained me … ).

The story also includes an intervention, which is the actual opening up of patient medical records, or actually a part of it, the part that has traditionally been the most secretively kept by health care professionals. The article describes the challenges of sharing doctors’ notes with patients and even has a diagram showing all the people who have access to the notes today. It appears that a lot of people do, just not the patient. Take a look.

In thinking of the experiences right next to each other (Regina and this paper), I quickly diagrammed all of the things that may impact the eventual opening of the doctors’ note to patients and families online for me to visualize the situation better (click to enlarge):

First realization:  ”Yet another diagram with the patient not in the center,” and “we’re hyperfocused on one aspect of a medical tool (whether patients can see it), not on how we use it to help patients heal.”

Second realization: There’s a lot of “stuff” in there. Does it seem a little bit like we’re actors in a play based on a script we didn’t write? Where did the norm of secrecy come from and why have we made ending it so complicated – I have recounted that I “learned” that patients were not supposed to see their notes in high school, not in medical school.  (To the nurses and doctors reading this, when did you actually “learn” that patients were not supposed to see their medical records? Did someone teach you, did you read it somewhere, or did you learn from an experience? – post in the comments, please. )

A research study is a good way to change norms, and this group, through the incentive of grant funding, is changing the wiring of several electronic health record systems to try out a new way. That’s significant in the path to changing norms. The other significant thing is communicating the results to the community in a respected communication vehicle.

Our profession began talking about this at least 37 (thirty-seven) years ago, when we said, “Concern that sharing information with patients may cause sustained psychological distress is probably unfounded.”

In their comments and discussion, this research team anticipates that the wait will end, and I agree with them.

Focus on the Patient Story: Presentation with Regina Holliday at Health 2.0 STAT DC

July 23rd, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 2%
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@Lygeia and @ePatientDave join the dialogue at Health 2.0 STAT DC

One should never get comfortable sitting on a panel as an expert when @ePatientDave is in the audience, and really, life is better when it is understood, in general, that the audience knows as much, if not more than the people on the stage. I have actually never thought of taking a photo of the audience when I am on the stage, until last night, and I’m glad I did.

That’s him, sitting next to Lygeia Ricciardi ( @Lygeia ) from Washington, DC’s Clinovations ( @clinovations ) at last evening’s Health 2.0 STAT DC, lovingly coordinated by the team at Aquilent. I should add that we almost didn’t make it last night, because Regina Holliday’s ( @ReginaHolliday ) ePatient Ephemera show was scheduled to be on this date. However, she moved it to a week later to allow greater participation of this community in her work and vice versa. This speaks to the amount of collaboration that’s going on in the #epicenter.

Regina and I spoke about including the patient story in all of the work we do. The images I presented are below.

To see Regina’s images, you should go to her blog where they are on display. We decided to do a two-blog debrief, with each of our perspectives.

I am hopeful that the other excellent speakers, Emily Zeigenfuse, Chris Boyer ( @chrisboyer ), George Thomas, and Phil Baumann ( @PhilBaumann ), our social media gateway to the Jedi knights of health care, nurses, will do the same.

You’ll see that I found a new image (slide 6) to accompany the now infamous photograph of Fred Holliday’s medical record (copied at a cost of 73 cents a page and offered after a 21 day wait) , which is a notebook of features and screens of Kaiser Permanente’s next generation personal health record, coming into production over the next year.

When I saw it sitting on a table, I thought it told a story about the millions of families who will benefit from access to their health information and physicians and nurses online (17,000,000 visits in first quarter of 2010). See what you think.

We were visited by Louise Liang, MD, herself an international leader in health information technology, through her stewardship of the successful rollout of Kaiser Permanente’s electronic health record, KP HealthConnect. She’s also now an editor of a new book, “Connected for Health: Using Electronic Health Records to Transform Care Delivery.” I’m looking forward to reading it because I know from experience what a great leader Louise has been in creating unparalleled connectivity for patients and those who care for them. She posed for a photograph with Regina and I:

Louise , Regina, Ted

I am glad that Louise got to hear Regina’s story, which adds (through the power of the story….) so much to what she’s accomplished in her career. I sort of think Regina is going to follow in her footsteps. I hope I can keep up.

And…. Regina. I am so impressed with what she accomplishes every day for people when she’s telling her story in person, or when her art is doing it for her. Last night was another reunion of the original 73 cents group, who were brought together by Christine Kraft ( @christinekraft ) in May, 2009.

Christine reminded me last night that when she brought this group of people together last year, the purpose was just to share experiences.

There was no agenda.

No agenda.

No formal writeup.

No peer-reviewed journal article.

Maybe there’s something to this social media thing.

 

Thanks again to Jen Bundschu, Mike Tock, Aquilent, and all of the great people / citizens of the #epicenter for adding their faces to the changes coming in health care.

Update: Direct link to Regina’s blog post, and a little clarification about @ePatientDave above. He only makes me uncomfortable when he’s NOT around.

F as in Fat 2010 District of Columbia Ranks Third Least Obese in the Nation

July 22nd, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 2%
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F as in Fat 2010 District of Columbia Ranks Third Least Obese in the Nation – Washington, D.C. June 29, 2010 – District of Columbia was named the third least obese state in the country, according to the seventh annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The state's adult obesity rate is 21.5 percent, and, in District of Columbia women are more obese than men at 25.4 percent. Now more than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

There’s an interactive map of all the states here. Note that DC is the only “state” that reduced its obesity rate.

Now Reading: Mobile Access 2010 (Pew Internet and American Life Project)

July 21st, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 2%
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What’s not to like in this yet-another-useful-guide-to-what-comes-next by the Pew Internet and American Life project. In order to fully appreciate this space, you also have to read the Teens and Mobile Phones report as well. Hint: teens are not into talking on the phone.

In the meantime, the theme of examining different groups’ use of mobile has been expanded and given the emphasis it deserves, in my opinion. Look at this (graphics by me based on the data):

Americans’ Access to the Internet: 2010

My Health 2.0 Video Interview, right in the #epicenter

July 20th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 2%
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Thanks to the entire Health2.0 ( @health2con ) team for their skillful editing of my fast-talking ways….

Mobile Health – the 2 big deals

July 19th, 2010 by Ted Eytan | Popularity: 2%
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Mobile Health – the 2 big deals – Kaiser Permante’s Tim Kieschnick ( @timiti ) posts about the most valuable aspects of mobile health.

His perspective is unique, and I think very informed, because he works in a health system that is already doing e-health. Worth a read – he definitely helped me clarify for myself what mhealth can add to health care.