Medical Innovation – Big Data and Patient Engagement
At the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit, there was a discussion about big data in health care which moved to the issue of patient engagement and the need for not…
Should Hospitals Offer Hotel-like Services?
Henry Ford Hospital in Bloomfield, MI offers room service, flat screen TVs and other hotel-style amenities. The primary goal is to attract well-insured commercial patients, but there’s also an underlying…
The Real Obamacare
Even before the Affordable Care Act had become law, its opponents cleverly dubbed it “Obamacare.” Their intentions were obvious: to capitalize on a substantial proportion of the public’s disapproval of…
Primary Care vs. Nurse Practitioners and Specialists
Brian Klepper comments on the American Academy of Family Physicians’ recent moves to knock down the idea that nurse practitioners are equivalent to physicians for primary care. He mainly concedes…
Does Anyone Even Understand What’s on Your Hospital Website?
According to a recent study, the information on 95 percent of prostate cancer websites is over the heads of their readers. Of 62 websites surveyed, only three had treatment information…
‘Thinking Out Loud’ about Telemedicine and Sandy
Hurricane Sandy has driven home some important lessons, again. Hurricane Sandy has driven home some important lessons, again.Power and communication systems are critical for healthcare. Most of the patients in some New York…
Smoking and Sudden Cardiac Death: The Time to Quit is NOW!
Tobacco was once the cash crop of the south. I grew up in North Carolina in the 1970s and early 1980s where summer jobs on tobacco farms and “priming tobacco”…
The Popularity of Health Content is Rising on Pinterest
Over the past year or so the question has been asked many, many times among health marketing professionals: what role does Pinterest play in health? We know the site is…
Industry Funded Medical Research and The Integrity of the Scientific Method: Have We Lost Our Way?
Recently, my middle school daughter has been learning about the use of the scientific method in science class. In her school laboratory, she and the other sixth graders learn how…
Irresistible Forces: HealthCare Costs
At our first meeting years ago, Tom Emerick, Walmart’s then VP of Global Benefits, told me,“No industry can grow indefinitely at a multiple of general inflation. It will eventually become…
