HIStalk Quotes
News 05/23/07
From The PACS Designer: "Re: clustering. With the discussion on the 2.0 concept heating up, TPD has been espousing the use of data mining and clustering to get more information in front of healthcare users. The Wikipedia defines text mining in a clustering environment as 'usually involves the process of structuring the input text (usually parsing, along with the addition of some derived linguistic features and the removal of others, and subsequent insertion into a database), deriving patterns within the structured data, and finally evaluation and interpretation of the output.' Since there are various systems in a department from different vendors it behooves the department to attempt some kind of clustering effort to get all information in one separate database for viewing to maximize the data viewing experience and help minimize the chances for future medical errors. Additionally, if several departments who routinely work together start the clustering process simultaneously they can achieve increased value for their joint development efforts, promote team spirit, and eliminate the chances of non-functionality down the road for clustered viewing."
From Gail Stanwyk: "HIMSS asked Congress for three things last week: (1) fund HIT; (2) codify ONCHIT; and the surprising one, (3) DO NOT ENACT LEGISLATION THAT MANDATES FIXED UNIVERSAL PATIENT-TO-NURSE RATIOS." What's that all about? I don't agree with #1, I don't care about #2, and while I agree with #3 (half-heartedly), it sounds like a special interest at work. I've never been comfortable with the whole HIMSS advocacy thing since it usually advocates for big Diamond members instead of me or the places I work. They're even giving awards to politicians.
From GA Webmaster: "Re: doctors and porn. I was beginning to wonder if there was a loophole regarding porn and physicians. I know that a couple of ours spend a lot of their downtime in the ER doing pornographic research. When I mentioned it to our executive team, they said that they would look into the situation. Of course , that was years ago and the trend continues. I placed their username into our webfilter which prohibits this type of traffic. This only lasted a few days. I received a notice from the execs that I must remove it." Maybe my phony news item about an EMR with sponsored porn ads wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Your excellent (and numerous) submissions for finishing this caption for the Neal Patterson picture above: "In this picture, Neal looks like he's about to _____":
- sing a scintillating rendition of the Wayne Newton classic, "Tick-Tock, I've got my eye on you."
- apologize to the Indianapolis hospital about his documentation system crapping out.
- say, "Can everybody in the back
see my solid gold cufflinks? Can you see my initials on my
cuffs? How about my Bruno Maglis? What? Oh, size 7."
- do his Frank Sinatra routine to wow his benefactors.
- yell "Going... going... gone!!!" (auctioning the stool he is standing on).
- tearfully confess that one time
he had sex with one of the pigs on that farm where he's always talking
about being raised.
- point to the sky and say, “de plane, de plane”.
- say, "Wow ... So this is what 6 feet tall is really like?"
- say, "Come on down ... you're the next contestant on The Price is Right."
- film his audition for American Idol.
- announce the releasing of the hounds.
- boast to everyone that Cliff couldn't carry his jock strap.
- announce, "I can't find my
elevator shoes."
- do a great Wayne Newton imitation.
- grab Judy by the neck and say, "How can I turn this party into a Rainbow Gathering and inspire my people like you do?"
- explain the advantages of multi-level marketing.
- sell some timeshares.
- announce that there are plenty
of pimiento cheese sandwiches to complement the free-flowing
boxes of wine, but please don’t rush the Chiefs Cheerleaders
booth when it opens in 10 minutes.
- order a hit on the Gambino family.
- be caught by the ERISA police
in front of friends, family, and co-workers giving another sermon about
working hours at the factory.
- threaten to jump from his perch
if he sees any cars leave the parking lot of his estate before 7 PM.
- introduce Cerner's new VP of marketing, Justen Deal.
- bitch about Judy again.
- do some fundraising for the George W. Bush Legal Defense Fund - it's never too early to plan ahead.
- apologize to Orange County and explain that it was all a misunderstanding.
- make a pitch for his new worm farming franchises.
- introduce the fall line of suits from K-mart.
- take a header over the railing
into the ice feature.
- say, "I have $6 billion from McKesson, thanks, John ... who'll give me 7, got 6, got 6, wanna 7 ... 7 it is, over in the corner from GE. Do I hear 8? Gimme 8? Going ... going ..."
Someone who should know tells me that HIMSS goofed when it created HIMSS Analytics as a for-profit subsidiary. Their auditors told them they couldn't do that, so HIMSS had to go back and make it a nonprofit. It certainly was a quiet flip-flop.
Great news! It looks like Uncle Sam may subsidize the healthcare IT the potential customers aren't willing to fund out of their own pockets! Next they'll be paying vendors not to create any of it, like they do with farmers! You just can't trust that free market to spend money even when it's good for their businesses!
Former Per-Se' VP John George joins benefits management vendor A.D.A.M. as sales VP, replacing Paul Ringo (OK, I made that last part up.)
Texas Health Resources is looking for somebody to replace David Muntz, the CIO they lost to Baylor.
I was Googling Soarian today and ran across an old Siemens press release claiming that over 50 hospitals had signed up for it in just one quarter, all of them to be implemented in the following year. It would be a fascinating (yet depressing, I suspect) exercise to call them up and see how it turned out.
I haven't heard of any health crises now that the Santa Barbara RHIO has shut down. What if they threw a RHIO and nobody came?
The head of the British Medical Association is canned for siding with the government over its majorly screwed up online recruiting system for medical residents.
Siemens picks a new CEO to get it out of widespread bribery scandals. The new one, that is, not the Siemens Scandal of 1914, when the company got caught paying kickbacks for Japanese navy contracts. Or, another company embarrassment: using Nazi death camp labor in its factories during World War II. And Soarian.
The State of Vermont is bringing in big tax dollars, up to $20 million, from GE's IDX buyout and income taxes due from shareholders of record.
News, rumors, more pictures I can use for your witty retorts: e-mail me.
Inga's Update
The award for the company with the most name changes goes to … HLTH Corporation, formerly known as Emdeon. The latest change is in connection last year’s sale of 52% of Emdeon Business Services. OK, new contest … big prizes for anyone who can correctly identify every name this company has ever used.
I am curious about the new movie “Sicko” being premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. This is Michael Moore’s latest documentary about the US healthcare system. It is true that if you type into your browser “sickofilm.com” or “sickomovie.com” you will be automatically directed to www.billoreilly.com? (I had read that and of course I had to try it myself). Also true that if you type “Inga” into your browser, you can easily reach www.ingalagringa.com. If anyone takes the time to visit that site, please know that THAT Inga has about as much in common with me as Michael Moore does with Bill O’Reilly.
A Miami Herald reporter receives numerous “graphic” faxes from a hospital. Faxes are intended for a colorectal physician with a similar fax number. It’s 2007 – don’t we have a better way to communicate medical information yet?
Computerworld looks at speech recognition technology and discusses whether it has advanced enough to replace keyboards. The conclusion is that the best you can expect is about 95% accuracy, which to me translates to an error rate of 5%. For medical records, 5% is not acceptable, making proofreading a must. Perhaps some providers find it to be a time saver, but I think today there is other technology faster and more efficient (e.g., template-driven point and click options.)
E-mail Inga.
RE: Gilmore Girls...I know what you mean. Watched the show for 7
years...enjoy them, the show goes by fast!
RE: Cerner Takeover? From what I remember, Microsoft was also interested
in Cerner. I am sorry, but Cerner has been making reorganization moves
over the past 5 years to shave costs while maximizing revenues, just to
make that bottom dollar sweet. Neal is in it for the money and would sell
Cerner to the highest bidder if they ever came a calling. He owns the
Wizards and charges $250 a head to hear him speak at his mansion paid for
by non-profit organization Cerner's stock has only been rising up and up
for the past two years without really skipping a beat. I will say it
now...Cerner will be owned by someone else in the next 3 years and by a
vendor not even in the HIS game.
I'll bet Siemens is kicking itself that it didn't buy Cerner in 2000
instead of SMS. Cerner was trading at a split-adjusted $10/share then
(almost $60 now). Siemens could have bought them, even with a premium, for
less than $2 Billion it spent buying SMS. I'm not saying that Siemens
wouldn't have screwed up Cerner like they did SMS (current problems are not
fully a reflection of the old SMS), just that they probably wish they had
Cerner now.
Inga, templated documentation - come on now - that works in some areas but
not for patients with complicated and multiple conditions. It also works
great when you change the dialogue with a patient from a true dialogue, to
a Q&A session. Just try and speak with an older person and they will start
telling you about their heart condition, the remember they have pain in
their hip, which leads them to talk about issues with their feet, and so
on. For procedural or limited acute conditions it works. For those that
are more complicated, it doesn't. Distinctly document the information
necessary with some standard language or codes in order to drive decision
support and just let the rest be text for the medical informatics folks to
cut-loose their language processing engine du-jour upon.
Art - you are correct - there is definitely some data that does not lend
itself to a template world. However, there definitely is a place for
templates. My point was that rather than do a full H&P via voice
dictation, there are more efficient methods than voice recognition. For
the non-discrete stuff, I agree you have to enter them in some method other
than templates, either keyboard, dictating, or voice recognition.
Inga - we are in violent agreement. It just drives me nuts when the
vendors claim everything can be discrete. It is usually some rent-a-doc or
one who never really practiced who is trying to pitch the template
everything implementations.
