Comments on: News 1/23/08

By: dataminer

dataminer — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:22:09 +0000

sachi, can you expand on what you want to talk about? Are you talking about the difficulties on the IT side, the IS side, or even the business side. We implamented an EDW at our company(billing), we now are trying to interface with EMRs for our clients. We have had a heck of a time getting the thing stable. First IT did not buy the right server for growth in data. Then our IS side tried to mimic a UNIX enviroment on a windows box, which killed the server. Finally, the people who lead the project had no clue as to the business reasoning or what to do with the EDW. I cannot over stress that point. What we ended up building was a pile of data. We took all the individual databases and poured them into one big database. Now when people run reports they run them against a larger DB then they need. What I wanted to do, was setup datamarts for specific departments and get structure and put value add on the process. If you are trying to centeralize reporting, I suggest looking at BI tools. There are plenty of BI tools that can add value and structure without having to build a dataware house. This has been my experience and I am always interested in hearing other stories, other problems, and most importantly other solutions.

By: John

John — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:23:10 +0000

Art,
Some good analysis on the ever evolving personal healthcare on the Internet market. And yes, there is a logical connection between these “social websites” and PHRs, but to date, very few, if any, have really brought it all together.

Had a conversation a couple of months back with the leaders at PatientsLikeMe who were emphatic that they were not a PHR, though when you look at the type of information people freely provide on this site, and this is without any significant privacy policies, it is very similar to a PHR.

What I find particularly interesting with these social media sites though is the level of sharing of information. Makes me wonder just how big an issue the whole privacy thing is. Certainly for some groups that are dealing with life changing illnesses, the desire to help one another – improve the social good of the community by openly sharing personal health information, far outweighs the issue of privacy.

One interesting company that is also just out of the blocks is VitalChart. The are a PHR company that has some very strong social/community networking capabilities as well. A hybrid of an iMedix and say, MediKeeper.

As for the ratings of physicians, one only need go to HealthGrades to see that and several PHR companies are now partnering with HealthGrades to offer that as a service to their customers. And let’s not forget Zagats – did a post on that recently over at http://www.chilmarkresearch.com. The only problem I have with the Zagats-Wellpoint partnership is that it appears to be exclusive and I want my own Zagats physician book for here in Boston.

By: sachi

sachi — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:54:30 +0000

Hi Mr. H,

I was wondering if you can start a discussion around datawarehousing initiatives in healthcare, especially in the hospital setting.

thanks,
sachi

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:29:30 +0000

Cathy Coooper-Wiedner was head of IT at Cincinnati Children’s several years ago.