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For Want of a Surge Protector…

by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. | Jun 4, 2009

It seems somewhere between highly unlikely and impossible for this to happen in this day and age, but Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis had to turn away patients when a power surge took down its electronic medical records system. Yes, that’s right — our...

Atul Gawande examines why health costs are high some places and lower others

by e-Patient Dave | May 28, 2009

As soon as you can, stop what you’re doing and devote 20-30 minutes to reading Atul Gawande’s important new article in the June 1 New Yorker, The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care. I don’t claim to be an expert about...

Will The Great Recession Create Millions of e-Patients?

by Gilles Frydman | May 19, 2009

Another post about healthcare “creepware” from Opaque, Inc. While reading the Wall Street Journal health blog, I saw this disturbing piece of information: In a new survey conducted by Mercer, the employee benefits consulting shop, nearly half of the 428...

PLEASE, No More Magical Thinking in HIT!

by Gilles Frydman | May 12, 2009

Magical thinking: the ability to draw conclusions that are based on a person’s desire for what reality should be, not necessarily upon what reality actually is. Cargo Cult HIT: Concepts in HIT that follow all the apparent precepts and forms of evidence-based...

Applying Participatory Principles to EHRs/PHRs

by Gilles Frydman | Apr 20, 2009

Neither health professionals nor patients can do it alone. Let’s make no mistake: We are here to participate and to help! e-Patient Dave original story of the health data transfer from his hospital EHR to Google Health PHR is remarkable in many ways and shows...

Completing my list of billing code errors

by e-Patient Dave | Apr 19, 2009

This post will complete (I hope!) the list of errors that I discovered in the billing data that forms part of my medical records. The original post is here. As I said in the the previous post, “Let me make clear, I personally have only one agenda: to empower, equip...