I want to add the following. I'm an IT professional. In the course of my professional duties, I'm expected to…
Morning Headlines 9/8/16
Q&A: ‘Always put the consumer and consumer protection first’
In a Modern Healthcare interview, outgoing National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD reflects on her time leading ONC, saying “We shifted focus away from the electronic health record and on to the data….The work we did to unlock that data is going to create unlimited opportunities for entrepreneurs and for consumers to have access to information.
In a Stat News editorial, Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush reacts to the recent Annals of Internal Medicine study finding that physicians spend about half their work hours on EHRs. He divides blame for the state of physician dissatisfaction with health IT software between the ONC and EHR vendors, suggesting that the first unintentionally limits private sector innovation while the second fails to embrace modern user-centric design processes.
Percentage of Uninsured Historically Low
The percentage of uninsured US adults continues to drop, hitting 8.6 percent in 2016, down from 9.1 percent in 2015.
Did I read this right? Karen deSalvo says put “consumers” first? Does she mean patients? There is a HUGE difference between patients and consumers. Any MD that has spent 1 minute on the front lines knows this. Doctor patient relationship is NOT the same as consumer vendor relationship. I don’t give my patients “whatever” they think they want, like narcotics, a MRI that is not needed, etc. etc. The relationship is asymmetric for a reason. It has to be to work, like teacher student. The teacher does not give the student an A because they are always right or need to get what they want. I find it pathetic that the leaders of ONC have very little front line medical practice experience.