Everybody Wants a Piece of Your Health data

Everybody Wants a Piece of You – Health data rights and questions of ownership in the digital age

 Who “owns” my medical information? Me? My doctor? My health insurance company? Can I take possession of it? Protect it? Prevent access to it? Share access to it, either freely or at a price? These are questions that are beginning to take form and that demand answers.

When we think about personal data, the two categories of information that are often perceived to be the most personal and private are financial data and health data. Although numerous laws have been in effect for many decades regarding the privacy of personal fi nancial data, it is only recently that personal health data has come under the attention of legal regulation.

The US Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996, containing both a Privacy Rule and a Security Rule. The Privacy Rule took effect in 2003, regulating the use and disclosure of “protected health information” (PHI) by “covered entities,” which include doctors and health insurance companies. The Security Rule established measures that covered entities must take to protect PHI. HIPAA specifi cally states that individuals have a right to access and receive a copy of their PHI (www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs8a-hipaa.htm). Covered entities must also protect the PHI and inform patients when PHI is disclosed and to whom. But it does not address data ownership.

via hcplive.com

There is growing interest in asserting individuals’ right to ownership of their health data.

HealthDataRights.org (www.healthdatarights.org) drafted a “Declaration of Health Data Rights” that outlines four basic principles that proclaim all people have the right to:

• Their own health data
• Know the source of each health data element
• Take possession of a complete copy of their individual health data, without delay, at minimal or no cost; if data exist in computable form, they must be made available in that form
• Share their health data with others as they see fit

Interesting debate and with the potential to decide future technology.

 

 

Social Media Use and Implications for Health Communication

Approximately 69% of US adults reported having access to the Internet in 2007. Among Internet users, 5% participated in an online support group, 7% reported blogging, and 23% used a social networking site. Multivariate analysis found that younger age was the only significant predictor of blogging and social networking site participation; a statistically significant linear relationship was observed, with younger categories reporting more frequent use. Younger age, poorer subjective health, and a personal cancer experience predicted support group participation. In general, social media are penetrating the US population independent of education, race/ethnicity, or health care access.

Conclusions: Recent growth of social media is not uniformly distributed across age groups; therefore, health communication programs utilizing social media must first consider the age of the targeted population to help ensure that messages reach the intended audience. While racial/ethnic and health status–related disparities exist in Internet access, among those with Internet access, these characteristics do not affect social media use. This finding suggests that the new technologies, represented by social media, may be changing the communication pattern throughout the United States.

via jmir.org

The purpose of the study is to identify the sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with current adult social media users in the United States. Continuing and increasing use of social media for communication is bound to have a huge impact on the way health information is imparted and easily comprehended by the people.

 

Doctors use EHR for older, richer patients – Study shows.

Your doctor tends to use electronic health records if you’re older or richer: a new riff on meaningful use:

“There’s a new survey on EHRs out that most industry news outlets have headlined, ‘More doctors have gone digital.’ This, directly from the survey’s title, Doctors Gone Digital, conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media for Practice Fusion, the EHR developer.The Practice Fusion survey was conducted from February 5-7, 2010, by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, via random digit dialing phone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adult interview subjects aged 18 or older nationwide.  The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus three percentage points.

Forty-eight percent, or nearly 1 in 2 patients in the U.S., has noticed that their doctors have their records stored digitally on a computer. This is, of course, good news indeed. But under the proverbial hood of the survey data, you find a subtext: that if you’re older or more affluent, your physician is more likely to have access to electronic health records. A slightly higher percentage of patients over 65 (52.6%) have digital records, compared with only 40% of people 25-34. Furthermore, 52.9% of people with incomes over both $50K and $75K have access to electronic health records, compared to 46.5% of patients with incomes between $20-29.9K.

Other important points elicited in the report include –

• Of patients who reported that their doctor used a computer during their last visit, 45.2 percent said their doctor made the switch to an electronic system during the previous two years;  14.3 percent said the switch occurred in just the last six months.
• Patients who reported their doctors did not use a computer were split on their doctor adopting the technology.  Of these respondents, 38.4 percent wanted their doctor to “go digital,” while 32.7 percent did not and 28.9 percent were not sure.
• More women (52.8 percent) than men (43.7 percent) reported EHR use by their doctors.
• Higher income patients saw greater EHR use by their doctors; 52.9 percent for respondents with incomes over $50,000 a year compared to 45.2 percent for those with incomes under $20,000 a year.
• Of note, 14% of physicians who had used an EHR previously either discarded it or replaced it. Most of these (85%) replaced it with another EHR.
• Cost and usability were among the main drivers for EHR adoption. In the Texas survey, EHR purchase, training and implementation costs averaged $18,000 per physician (down from $25,000 in 2007), with monthly maintenance costs averaging $350 per physician (down from $425 in 2007).

Read more on http://www.ehrbloggers.com

 

Related articles

• Practice Fusion Hits 25,000 EHR User Milestone (medicineandtechnology.com)
• Medical records: the digital movement to convert paper documents gets a boost (dailyfinance.com)
• Health records: Software lets docs go paperless for free, if they look at ads (dailyfinance.com)

 

Digital Medicine – Technology in Medicine – TEDMED 2009 videos

TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone’s life around the globe.

The speakers featured in this video playlist are-

1. Aimee Mullins –
Athlete, Actress, Activist
Outfitted with woven carbon-fiber prostheses that were modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah, she went on to set World Records in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and the long jump, sparking frenzy over the radical design of her prototype sprinting legs.Aimee has received accolades for her work as an actor, including in the critically-acclaimed film by contemporary artist Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3, which was released in 2003.

2. Eric Topol –
Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute
Dr. Topol has been active in wireless medicine, having served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cardionet, the first commercially successful wireless health company, and presently on the Board of Directors of Triage Wireless.

3. Jamie Heywood –
Co-­‐Founder& Chairman, PatientsLikeMe

4. David Agus –
Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California
Dr. Agus’ research is focused on the application of proteomics and genomics for the study of cancer and the development of new therapeutics for cancer.

5. Bill Davenhall –
Global Marketing Manager, Health & Human Services Solutions, ESRI
Bill’s newest mission is creating intelligent geographic solutions and technologies that would help physicians improve their diagnostic capabilities by receiving geographically and environmentally relevant information at the time of a patient consultation.

6. Anthony Atala –
Dir., Wake Forest Inst. for Regenerative Medicine. Chair of Urology, Wake Forest Univ.
His current work focuses on growing and regenerating tissues and organs. Dr. Atala has received numerous awards, including the US Congress funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, and was named by Scientific American as a Medical Treatments Leader of the Year. His work was listed as Discover Magazine’s Number 1 Top Science Story of the Year in the field of medicine, and as Time Magazine’s top 10 medical breakthroughs of the year.

 

Technology in Medicine- TEDMED 2009 Video channel

  

TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone’s life around the globe.

The speakers featured in this video playlist are-   

1. Aimee Mullins -

Athlete, Actress, Activist

Outfitted with woven carbon-fiber prostheses that were modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah, she went on to set World Records in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and the long jump, sparking frenzy over the radical design of her prototype sprinting legs.Aimee has received accolades for her work as an actor, including in the critically-acclaimed film by contemporary artist Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3, which was released in 2003.   

2. Eric Topol –

Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute

Dr. Topol has been active in wireless medicine, having served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cardionet, the first commercially successful wireless health company, and presently on the Board of Directors of Triage Wireless.

3. Jamie Heywood –
Co-­‐Founder& Chairman, PatientsLikeMe

4. David Agus –
Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California

Dr. Agus’ research is focused on the application of proteomics and genomics for the study of cancer and the development of new therapeutics for cancer.
 

5. Bill Davenhall –
Global Marketing Manager, Health & Human Services Solutions, ESRI

Bill’s newest mission is creating intelligent geographic solutions and technologies that would help physicians improve their diagnostic capabilities by receiving geographically and environmentally relevant information at the time of a patient consultation.

6. Anthony Atala –
Dir., Wake Forest Inst. for Regenerative Medicine. Chair of Urology, Wake Forest Univ.

His current work focuses on growing and regenerating tissues and organs. Dr. Atala has received numerous awards, including the US Congress funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, and was named by Scientific American as a Medical Treatments Leader of the Year. His work was listed as Discover Magazine’s Number 1 Top Science Story of the Year in the field of medicine, and as Time Magazine’s top 10 medical breakthroughs of the

Related articles

• ‘Can We Grow Organs Instead of Transplanting Them?’ [Science] (gizmodo.com)
• Extraordinary TEDMED Video About Growing New Organs (singularityhub.com)
• Medicine Looks Ahead at TED MED (scientificamerican.com)

 

Free iPhone medical app for Residents and Neurologists

NeuroMind

NeuroMind is an application for medical students and neurological / neurosurgical residents.

Version 1.1 offers five categories:

1. Anatomical pictures (with legend)
2. Differential diagnosis (as text and mindmap !!)
3. The WHO Safe Surgery checklist items
4. Many relevant score and grading systems (by topic)
5. An overview of updates in each new version

User instructions are provided inside the categories, if considered to be helpful.

Screenshots

 

Status

The application can be downloaded for free from the App Store.

• Category: Medical
• Updated Feb 23, 2010
• Current Version: 1.1
• 8.6 MB
• Languages: English

Related articles

• Reducing Medical errors in Clinical practice (neeleshbhandari.blogspot.com)
• Technology based learning in Medicine? You wish! (meducationtechnology.blogspot.com)

 

Discharging a patient when his condition is critical- Medical law in India

QUESTION

Is it legally permissible to discharge a patient on request even when the treating doctors are of the opinion that discharge from the hospital is not in the interest of the patient and is likely to result in further deterioration of the patient’s condition?

ANSWER

It is permissible. In fact, it is binding on the hospital. No hospital is legally authorized to keep a patient in the hospital even for a minute against his will. No doctor is authorized to administer any treatment, including life- saving treatment, to any patient against his will. Forcible hospitalization will, in law, be deemed as illegal confinement and forcible treatment will be deemed as a willful act causing injury to the body of the patient.

via health.groups.yahoo.com

(Ex)Prof. M C Gupta
MD (Medicine), MPH, LL.M.,
Advocate & Medico-legal Consultant
www.writing.com/authors/mcgupta44

Little Nuggets of Medical laws and regulations concerning the healthcare delivery system in India.
 

Lots of other stuff where this came from..

 

Big Pharma subverts medical education ?

If someone paid for your meals every day, bought you books and gave you gifts, do you think that they would expect anything in return? The pharmaceutical industry is not known for it’s generosity and consideration. Rather it is big business with a solitary concern for profit. Would it surprise you to know that over half (55.9%) of medical residency training programs in the US accept support from drug companies.

In the Feb 20, 2010 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine researchers surveyed 236 program directors (physicians) regarding the involvement of Big Pharma in their training programs. Of the respondents, 132 admitted such “acceptance of industry support”. Interestingly, the training program’s incorporation of this support was primarily based upon the program directors’ personal view of the appropriateness of such an alliance and not based upon institutional or ethical standards. In addition the residency programs not accepting support graduated better educated physicians who had higher pass rates on board certification exams.

The implication of the study is that the quality of educational support from Big Pharma is poor, inaccurate and likely incomplete. The lecturers they provide are on their payrolls. The literature they distribute is cherry picked and biased in their favor. If physicians rely on drug companies to educate them, it is apparent they are worse doctors.

Consider that the scope of the problem is immense, as practicing physicians are likewise detailed, wined and dined by often attractive drug reps. Many busy physicians have few other sources for education on newer treatment and medication.

via examiner.com

 

 

Mayo Clinic + GE and Intel for home-based monitoring study

GE Healthcare, Intel, and the Mayo Clinic are teaming up to test a new prototype for healthcare delivery, bringing care into the home for patients at risk for re-hospitalization.

The year-long study, led by the Mayo Clinic, will involve 200 high-risk patients over the age of 60. It will explore and evaluate whether GE/Intel remote monitoring devices might reliably be put to use in reducing hospitalizations and emergency department visits.

Each day, the patients will use the devices to measure their vital signs – blood pressure, pulse, weight – and respond to questions about their diseases. This data will then be reviewed by a clinical care team working with their primary care provider.

The technology, which includes videoconferencing capabilities, will allow the care team to assess patients for signs and symptoms that suggest clinical deterioration, and facilitate early medical intervention. The hope is that early recognition and treatment of changes in clinical status will reduce the need for unnecessary hospitalizations.

via healthcareitnews.com

 

 

Who needs hand scrubbing ? Fighting Germs With Plasma Gases

 

A prototype hand sanitizer, left, designed by Gregor Morfill.

HOSPITAL workers often have to wash their hands dozens of times a day — and may need a minute or more to do the process right, by scrubbing with soap and water. But new devices could reduce the task to just four seconds, cleaning even hard-to-reach areas under fingernails.

Instead of scrubbing, the workers would put their hands into a small box that bathes them with plasma — the same sort of luminous gas found in neon signs, fluorescent tubes and TV displays. This plasma, though, is at room temperature and pressure, and is engineered to zap germs, including the drug-resistant supergerm MRSA.

The technology is being developed in several laboratories. Gregor Morfill, who created several prototypes using the technology at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, says the plasma quickly inactivates not only bacteria but also viruses and fungi

via nytimes.com