I realize it's been quite a while since I taught - or was in school myself - but I'm distressed…
Morning Headlines 8/3/17
Cancer moonshot head recounts exchange with Epic’s Faulkner
Politico reports that Epic CEO Judy Faulkner told Vice-President Joe Biden at a private January 2017 Cancer Moonshot meeting, “Why do you want your medical records? They’re a thousand pages, of which you understand 10,” to which Biden responded, “None of your business. If I need to, I’ll find someone to explain them to me and, by the way, I will understand a lot more than you think I do.”
Merck Announces Second-Quarter 2017 Financial Results
The pharmaceutical giant says its June 27 malware attack continues to disrupt its manufacturing operations, possibly leading to shipment delays for some drug products, and says the company is not yet able to quantify the financial impact of the NotPetya-caused event.
What Could Happen If The Administration Stops Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments To Insurers?
Tim Jost’s Health Affairs blog lays out the scenarios that could result if President Trump follows through on his threat to order the federal government to stop making cost-sharing reduction payments as a challenged law requires, dismissing the President’s contention that the payments represent a bailout to insurers.
Google Is Matching Your Offline Buying With Its Online Ads, but It Isn’t Sharing How
The Electronic Privacy Information Center complains to the Federal Trade Commission that Google is using secret methods to match a user’s in-store credit card purchases with their Google ad clicks, allowing it to sell ads based on how they perform in motivating offline sales.
Scientists successfully used CRISPR to fix a mutation that causes disease. This is huge.
OHSU researchers describe in a journal article how they corrected an inherited genetic disorder that causes heart problems using CRISPR, although they stopped short of implanting the embryos in a woman’s uterus. Some experts suggest moving forward with clinical trials, while others urge measuring societal perception to avoid charges of creating “designer babies.”
Meanwhile, Judy’s got every physician in America telling her to stop showing them a thousand pages when they only want the important 10. I don’t think Judy needs anyone to feel sorry for her, but dang.
Sound bites from private conversations out of context are great for tabloid reporting.
Look the Biden’s lack any real sound judgement. See here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/03/01/report-joe-bidens-son-widowed-daughter–law-love/98599998/
Judy asks a legitimate question….”why do you want to see this? It’s 1000s of pages only a handful of people will understand” and Joe has to act like she’s being nefarious. Asking to see the 1000s of pages of your medical record is like asking to see the source code for Windows. A few people would benefit, but the fast majority will just be confused and overwhelmed.
So let me get this straight. Judy Faulkner doesn’t trust Joe Biden to understand more than 10 pages of his health record? This is a man who has had several tragedies in his life. A man who clearly has deftly navigated the health care system on many occasions. And also, our Vice President. This person is pushing her reasonably functional EHR and its crappy ancillary modules onto a large number of hospitals. The hubris drips from the top down in that company. Even the sea of 23 year-olds who end up being your Epic install team show it.
Biden’s response is, shall I say, epic? “None of your business” was perfect. Go Joe!
But do you think it is fair to say that while the specific exchange topic leaked was patient records the real underlying consternation was with interoperability and data exchange as a whole?
Judy is trying to protect her gains. But really her “concerns” could have been just easily alleviated by Biden saying, fine give me the 10 first, and immediately follow them with the rest. If I don’t understand them, I’ll stop reading after the first 10, but if I do I still have the option of continuing at my own time and place without any roadblocks.
Kennedy: I need all the information you have on rockets and rocket fuel.
Rocket Scientist: OK. Where do you want to go?
Kennedy: None of your business.
I hope this reply gets picked up for tomorrow’s headlines. It sums up what Biden did perfectly!
That’s what physicians want, patients walking around with 1000 page medical records asking me to make sense of them. I’d rather use Epic to present that information on an organized way. That’s why we have EHRs.
That is understandable but you seem to be leaving the most important parts of the equation out.
1. The record is the patient’s. They have a right to it regardless. Whether or not them having it might make extra work for you.
2. There are plenty of patients who can read and understand their entire patient record who have the right to see the information you are making decisions for them off of. The fact that many wouldn’t understand or have the inclination to undertake such an effort is irrelevant.
The patient is the customer.
I don’t disagree, that’s why I left those points out. I think Ms Faulkner asking “why” was a nonconfrontational, valid question taken out of context. It’s important to know why because there are things software can do for you. Ex: Is it so you can upload your data to a patient portal? Maybe an API can be developed to make that easier for you.
When the industry agrees upon a standard for what defines “the entire medical record” then vendors will probably not have an issue providing it. But at present, not a single institution in the country agrees upon what defines a “legal medical record”. No 2 are alike. So while I can appreciate Biden’s sentiment, what he’s asking for doesn’t exist in standard form, though every modern EMR is capable of providing a CCD or some firehose of interface data, that’s not what he’s asking for. Ms Faulkner should have just said “yes, we can send the whole record” which is likely true. What isn’t true is that no playbook exists beyond a CCD.
RE: Biden and Judy – A tiger cannot change its stripes…Epic and Judy are who they are.
Look, no one should be surprised that Judy was challenging the biggest piece of legislation ever passed to address data blocking. That’s standard operating procedure.