by Danny van Leeuwen | Jul 22, 2018
Do you care about health data ownership and want to stay abreast of national initiatives to wrestle with and solve ownership issues? If so, this post is for you. What does it mean to own my health data? Is it like owning my car or my house? Is it like a copyright? Do...
by e-Patient Dave | Jun 27, 2018
This is the first of two posts about this important policy issue regarding portability of our medical records. The second is by Michael Millenson, who did the lion’s share of this work, as noted below. Our Society’s Advocacy and Policy chair Vera Rulon...
by David Harlow | Feb 27, 2016
The recent Precision Medicine Initiative Summit at the White House saw dozens of private entities committing to join with the administration in supercharging the effort to enroll one million patients into precision medicine research programs, collecting and securely...
by David Harlow | Jan 12, 2016
A long time ago (in internet years), the original HIPAA regulations were promulgated. (The final Privacy Rule was published in 2000.) They’ve been tweaked and updated over the years, most notably in the “mega-reg” promulgated a few years back in...
by David Harlow | Jun 27, 2015
I recently hosted a Google Hangout on Air entitled Patient Reviews of Physicians: The Wisdom of the Crowd? (presented by The Harlow Group LLC in association with The Society for Participatory Medicine). I spoke with Niam Yaraghi (Center for Technology Innovation, The...
by David Harlow | Jun 20, 2015
Patient Reviews of Physicians: The Wisdom of the Crowd? Google Hangout On Air Hosted by David Harlow with Niam Yaraghi and Casey Quinlan Wed, Jun 24, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET Presented by David Harlow (aka HealthBlawg) in association with The Society for...
by e-Patient Dave | Jun 15, 2015
Today (11:59pm ET) is the deadline for public comments on the proposed rollback of “Meaningful Use 2” regulations for patient access to their medical records. SPM feels that this is a major issue for enabling patient-provider partnerships; as SPM co-chair...
by David Harlow | May 20, 2015
There are two sets of Meaningful Use draft regulations out for comment at present: (1) Proposed revisions to Meaningful Use Stage 2 (“MU2”), with comments due June 15 and (2) Proposed Meaningful Use Stage 3 (“MU3”) regulations, to be effective in 2017 at the earliest....
by David Harlow | May 1, 2014
The Heartbleed web security exploit was first publicized several weeks ago. In the time since then, numerous web-based services have let their users know (some more clearly than others) whether and how their data security was compromised by this OpenSSL flaw that has...
by David Harlow | Mar 27, 2014
A Perspectives piece I wrote was published this week by iHealthBeat – Unlocking the Power of Health Data. In it I argue for patient-controlled sharing of rich data, as opposed to HIPAA-regulated stripping of identifiers in order to eliminate the risk to patient...
by David Harlow | Feb 4, 2014
The lab test result data access rule is finally final. See the HHS press release and the final rule, which is scheduled to be published on Thursday. What does this mean? In a nutshell, patients in all 50 states are now guaranteed the right to access the results of...
by e-Patient Dave | Dec 19, 2013
As we’ve said endlessly here (and in Washington), one of the key enablers of better healthcare is access to information. For that subject there’s no more important job in the world than America’s National Coordinator for Health IT, who runs ONC...
by Casey Quinlan | Nov 18, 2013
In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-Five Theses” to the wooden doors of Wittenberg Cathedral, sparking a global reformation of the Christian faith that’s still going on today. In the 1950s and 1960s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked to drive inclusion for all in...
by e-Patient Dave | Oct 30, 2013
Healthcare IT News is one of the most important – if not the most important – health IT publications. With readership of 54,000, it’s seen by a lot of important “eyeballs,” as they say in marketing. And in this time of critical change, as...
by David Harlow | Oct 14, 2013
Meaningful Use Stage 2 includes the requirement that health care providers with EHRs seeking Meaningful Use incentive dollars demonstrate that 5% of patients actually view, download or transmit their data. The HIPAA/HITECH Omnibus Rule, which is now fully in effect...
by David Harlow | Sep 23, 2013
[Note added by e-Patient Dave: this is such a big deal that I’m taking the rude step of adding highlights [bold] to Attorney Harlow’s post!] We’re inching closer to promulgation of final regulations that will likely make all lab test results more...
by David Harlow | Aug 28, 2013
There’s a new index in town. This week’s entrant is the EveryMove 100, a ranking of health plans across the US “based on how they engage with and empower consumers to manage their own health.” according to the presser. (EveryMove is a health...
by David Harlow | Jun 5, 2013
ONC is sponsoring the Blue Button Plus Challenge — putting up some prize money to incentivize teams of developers to come up with solutions to the problem of getting patient data to patients. The first phase of the challenge is crowdsourcing ideas from patients...
by David Harlow | May 20, 2013
Going public recently with her story of a prophylactic double mastectomy after testing positive for BRCA1 (a gene linked to breast cancer) via an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Angelina Jolie is clearly trying to get the message out that radical choices must...
by David Harlow | May 12, 2013
The FDA launched an impressive patient network website this month, after nearly four years of research, focus groups, usability testing and more. The twin goals for this website are promoting the educational mission of the FDA, and promoting opportunities for patient...
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