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PLEASE, No More Magical Thinking in HIT!

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...

Completing my list of billing code errors

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...

Dr. Reuben deeply regrets that this happened!

This is the third post in the unfortunate series about conflicts of interest. You must be kiddin’! That’s all Scott Reuben, MD, the doctor Scientific American calls “a medical Madoff”, had to say after putting the last two handful of nails into...

Bartering for your health

The wonderfully helpful NYTimes series Patient Money reported Friday on the topic of Opaque Inc., as posted recently here by Gilles. The article, Bargaining Down the Medical Bills, gives practical advice about how to negotiate your doctor, lab, and hospital fees. The...

Opaque, Inc.

Cross-posted from my own blog. Truth be told, at present, the activities of “La Cosa Nostra” are more transparent that what goes on in the health care system. The only certainty I have, as an individual trying to figure out what is not wrong with the...

Disruption and the healthcare bubble

At the 25th annual TEPR+ conference in Palm Springs on Feb. 2, Alan Greene (DrGreene.com) gave the opening address. It was inspiring – I wish we had a video of it. Too bad so many attendees opted to skip the keynotes and fly into town late! Like, did you guys think...

The Wellsphere Blogging Controversy

You may have heard of the Wellsphere blogging controversy (if not, here’s one take on the issue, and here’s another from a different perspective). In a nutshell, Wellsphere went to bloggers in the health world and asked them if they could syndicate their...

An e-patient call to arms

E-patients, this is a call to action. Now. I want you to go express yourself on Paul Levy’s blog. Most readers of health policy blogs know what a costly, inefficient mess healthcare in America has become. Paul Levy would like the people in his business to work...

In the Spin III: The Smart Resident

My quest for a second qualified opinion on an abnormal mammogram (microcalcifications) began in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Two days before the end of the year, a sharp surgical resident put an end to the spin. The solution was simple – and not high tech....

In the Spin II: You and Your Billing Code

Pass the Valium! Previously on e-Patients.net I recounted the crazy-making quest for a second opinion on an abnormal mammogram (microcalicifications) as per the advice of New York Times health columnist Jane E. Brody, a breast cancer survivor.  The gynecologist who...

Making sense of health statistics

Cross-posted from my own blog, with a late p.s. from this morning’s paper When John Grohol read my post the other day about evidence-based medicine, he steered me to a paper worth reading: Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics. (Update Dec...

In the Spin: Death by Referral

In October I recounted how my daughter was put through a spin cycle of referrals and medical misdiagnosis that nearly got her killed. The lump on her forearm that looked like a cyst was instead a deadly cancer. The nightmare began at the local radiology practice,...

All MRIs Are Not Created Equal

Gina Kolata’s must-read article, “The Scan That Didn’t Scan,” in last week’s Science Times points out vast differences in the quality of MRIs as well as vast differences in the expertise of the radiologists who interpret them. Patients...

Spellchecker

“I noticed that my spellchecker doesn’t recognize ‘subprime’. […] I am guessing that will be remedied soon. “in the Beginning” Stephen J. Dubner; 09/30/2008 This is so true! Just like e-patient and participatory medicine! None of these...

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