EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 10/17/24

The hot topics around the physician lounge this week included new alerts in the EHR to help clinicians manage IV fluids efficiently. If you’re not aware, Hurricane Helene damaged Baxter International’s production facility earlier this month. The single facility is responsible for nearly two-thirds of the IV fluids that are used in the US, which is problematic, especially considering that we’ve read the plot of this story before in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017, which damaged a Baxter International facility in Puerto Rico. The US government has invoked the Defense Production Act to try to help get the facility back to production while Baxter is ramping up production at facilities in Europe and China. Meanwhile, hospitals are postponing surgeries due to the fluid shortages, which is devastating for patients who have been waiting for carefully timed procedures that may not be emergent or urgent but are still important.

Another hot topic was a research letter about billing for patient portal messages that was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this week. It summarized changes to physician and patient attitudes when organizations decide to bill for patient messages. Some of the highlights: patients weren’t thrilled about being billed but were willing to accept it, but there was confusion about which messages would lead to billing. When patients were to be billed, they expected “speedy, detailed replies.” Ultimately patients said they would be more likely to call the office than to use the patient portal to avoid being billed. Physicians also began to receive messages where patients specifically asked not to be billed. The physicians talking in the lounge were split on whether billing for portal messages was a good thing or not, although two said they no longer manage portal messages at all – anything that requires physician input becomes a scheduled appointment.

I’ll admit I was lured by this headline: “Surgeons use PlayStation controller for long-distance endoscopy.” The procedure was performed in by a surgeon in Switzerland, with the research subject being a pig in Hong Kong. Although endoscopy is not without risk, it’s less risky than surgical procedures where tissue is removed or altered. The magnetic endoscope was steered using a magnet outside the pig’s body. Researchers note the potential for this technology to assist in remote locations. The first thing I thought of was for workers overwintering at the South Pole where resources are scarce and where the late Jerri Nielsen treated her own breast cancer while serving as the station’s physician. Reliable high speed internet is essential for the solution to work, which unfortunately may be a limiting factor for its use. Still, it’s an interesting idea and we’ll see how far it evolves over the next few years.

I love wearable tech, although I’m still sad about the untimely demise of Ringly and still wear my smart bracelet as a plain old bracelet. Happy Health just received FDA clearance for its new Happy Ring smart ring that can track pulse, temperature, and blood oxygen levels. It’s also a sleep tracker and can monitor “brain activity,” but I haven’t seen details on what exactly that involves. From an aesthetic perspective, it’s a bit chunky and certainly wouldn’t be mistaken for actual jewelry, but I suspect people that want those features are less likely to be fashionistas. The press release notes that it has “a near-indestructible, diamond-hard ceramic design,” which makes the emergency physician in me cringe a little bit, having fought the battle against a number of titanium rings in an effort to salvage fingers that might have otherwise been lost. The company will launch its first clinical program in the coming months, targeted at sleep health. For the people in my life trying to get ahead on their holiday shopping, I’m a size seven.

From Hoopster: “Re: health system sponsorships. Kaiser Permanente has become a founding partner of San Francisco’s WNBA expansion team.” Financial details weren’t shared publicly, but a previous deal with the National Women’s Soccer League was estimated at $850,000 per year. Kaiser filed multiple layoff notices in September and October, so I can’t imagine employees being thrilled about the new expense. Having worked in the software industry, I know how care delivery organizations think about ROI (return on investment) whenever they’re asked to spend money. I’m not familiar with the math around this kind of sponsorship ROI, but I imagine it must be there if so many organizations are taking the plunge. Either that or there’s just a cool factor around it. If you’re in the know, feel free to drop me a line.

Has anyone else’s LinkedIn inbox become a dumping ground for spam? The majority of my invitations are from people I don’t know who are trying to promote services I don’t need, ranging from financial advice to career coaching. I had two invites today from people promising to “get you more patients,” which is not a problem that 99% of primary care physicians have in the US today. Another one was pitching weight loss services for busy physicians. I hope the platform gets it under control, because having those kinds of messages makes me not want to access it and makes it likely that I will miss something that I really do want to see. I’m not a robust user of the platform, so maybe if I engaged differently with it, I might have a different experience, but it’s hard to engage when my feed is full of reposts that seem to beat the same few topics to death.

Many of our readers are prepping for HLTH 2024, where the who’s who of the industry will again come together. Many will be launching new solutions, schmoozing potential clients, identifying new partners, and trying to close deals. Others will simply be trying to “outcool” each other, and I’m deputizing all attendees to send me their best footwear and fashion pictures so I can feel in the loop. Word to the wise for first time attendees: the name of the conference is pronounced “health” as opposed to “H-L-T-H” which I continue to hear in conversations. Pronouncing it correctly can only add to your cool factor. I’ll be popping in for a single day only, so if you’re exhibiting, make sure your sure your shoes are shined and your phone is safely tucked away so you can engage the people walking by.

I also noticed that they announced a new “Main Stage” speaker for Wednesday, Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States. She’ll be discussing the future of women’s health research. My first thought was “what kind of extra security is this going to add to the event,” especially given how the HLTH conference floor plan is configured. If there will be additional measures, HLTH owes it to attendees to explain it well in advance. Many of the people I know who are attending are planning to fly out Wednesday morning (after recovering from the Busta Rhymes event), so it will be interesting to see what attendance looks like.

If you’re going to HLTH, what’s your game plan for the event? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.