A post by Microsoft Health Vault’s leader Peter Neupert, discusses two important points. First, showing outcomes is what the health care reform is about versus the technology. As The Health Care Blog points out: "We should think expansively about which technologies to invest in, based on the results we want to get." The second point Neupart makes is that health reform efforts are separate from the economic stimulus package; while the later is being "rushed" through congress, the former needs to be evaluated from all levels of health care system (i.e. efficient health tech spending and quality assurance).

It’s All About Outcomes

Here is a video interview with Neupert about the topic.

Article Excerpt (source: Tech Net Blogs)

"My main message to the Senate was:  We should really focus on the health outcomes we want to achieve, not just on the technology itself.  What the health system needs is to adopt technology in ways to deliver better outcomes, better chronic care management, better hospital effectiveness.   We really want to make sure that we have the leadership focused on encouraging the usage of technology to achieve certain goals, like better chronic care management."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has compiled the following report to provide policymakers proposed steps toward "value driven care (VDC)." A 3-5 year plan to implement VDC and a call for transparency are some of the issues discussed.

The report is fairly long, but it’s worth a reading to understand how stakeholders purpose to making commercial coverage affordable.

Roadmap for Implementing Value Driven Healthcare

Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The need to focus efforts of Primary Health Care (PHC) is the theme for today’s post. The World Health Organization’s 2008 report, "Primary Health Care: Now More Than Ever," is a detailed report stressing "a renewal of primary health care."

So why renew now, more than ever? "Globalization is putting the social cohesion of many countries under stress, and health systems are clearly not performing as well as they could and should. People are increasingly impatient with the inability of health services to deliver. Few would disagree that health systems need to respond better – and faster – to the challenges of a changing world. PHC can do that."

WHO Full Report: "Primary Health Care: Now More Than Ever"

WHO Report Summary

Source: The World Health Organization

The Health Care Blog posted the following article to shed light for the ongoing issue of health care form for small business owners. I have attached the article as well as an additional report (conducted by The Main Street Alliance) that "reports results from a survey of 1,200 small business owners’ experiences with health insurance and perspectives on different reform proposals."

OP-ED: Small Business and Health Reform

"Taking the Pulse of Main Street: Small Businesses, Health Insurance, and Priorities for Reform ."

Article Excerpt (source: The Health Care Blog)

"Small businesses are among the groups hit hardest and left most vulnerable in our current health insurance system.  Yet, the small business community has been almost uniformly typecast as down on reform.  So goes the conventional wisdom.  But is it true?"

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I happened to stumble onto this interesting article, written by Dr. Michael L. Cowan, when studying infectious control hospital trends. He discuss "ways to better utilize technology and leverage social media" as a means to "improve the communication, quality, and efficiency of…patient-doctor relationship in 2009."

Key Trends for 2009

Article Excerpt (source: AdvanceWeb.com)

"One reason we are seeing the patient-doctor relationship change is that ever increasing numbers of our society – and certainly the younger members – trust and rely on the Internet. We use it for daily communication, shopping, online banking and the sharing of all kinds of information. On social networks, we share personal thoughts and experiences with "friends" we have never met. However, while the Internet is being used highly effectively in other areas, a notable exception is in health care. To receive health care, most of us must physically "go" to the doctor’s office; we can’t e-mail, text or instant message (IM) him or her. Doctors are not at our disposal at the "click of a mouse."