 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
·PSA Supports Frontline Role For Pharmacists, Australia
·Proposed Biomass Plant In Leon County, Fla., Might Exacerbate Area's High Black Infant Mortality Rate, Opinion Piece Says
·New Medicaid Regulation Will Curb Abuse, Save Money, HHS Secretary Leavitt Writes In Letter To The Editor
·Sens. Baucus, Grassley ReleaseDraft Bill To Link Medicare Payments For Inpatient Hospital Care To Quality
·Man Says His Dog Detected His Skin Cancer
·Scottish Study Shows One-Third Of Men With HIV Unaware Of Status; NHS Launches HIV Awareness Campaign
·Connecticut Attorney General Calls For Rebidding Of State Health Insurance Programs, Governor Says Move Is Unnecessary
·Senate Leaders Hold Closed-Door Meeting To Discuss Health Care Overhaul Legislation
·Sex Work Increasing On Colombia's Caribbean Coast, Contributing To Increased HIV Prevalence, IRIN/PlusNews Reports
·Michigan Attorney General Says Lawmakers Should Not Pass Health Insurance Legislation In Lame-Duck Session
read more... |
| |
 | HSG News: Health Site Guide College Edition now available |  |
 Health Site Guide, through the guidance of Deborah Taeid
of Brandeis University and Gillian Gertz of University at Albany, has created a new section designed specifically for college and college-aged young people. Learn more
|
|
|
Posted by hsg on Thursday, August 07 @ 14:21:36 EDT (508 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| HSG News: New Survey About Online Health Info | |
AccessMyHealth.org, a partnership of patients and doctors convened by the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA), has launched an expanded Web site where state residents can find out about how to better access their health care information with convenient, accessible and secure online personalized health records; and where they can register their opinions by taking short online surveys.
On the site (online at www.AccessMyHealth.org), all Washingtonians are encouraged to take two ten-minute surveys. The surveys are designed to encourage a broad cross-section of Washington citizens to offer their opinions about the concept of online health records, the features and benefits they would find worthwhile, and their thoughts about privacy and confidentiality issues when it comes to personal health information online.
"AccessMyHealth.org is a great opportunity for Washingtonians to learn about the benefits of having their health information online -- in a very secure manner -- and to inform us of what they would find worthwhile," said Governor Chris Gregoire. "The Evergreen State is taking a leadership role to learn from the prospective users of online health records, be they patients, doctors or consumers that are ready to take charge of their own health."
The AccessMyHealth.org Web site and surveys are part of a broader effort of the HCA to develop a strategy for adoption and use of online personalized health records in the state's health care community.
"We encourage anyone in the state of Washington to take our online surveys," said Wendy Carr, chair of AccessMyHealth.org. "We've got the questions -- and Washingtonians have the answers. The state Legislature and the Health Care Authority are providing strong vision and creating opportunities to test the promise of personalized online health records. But to do it well, we have to find out: What privacy and security measures are important to Washingtonians? How will doctors and patients benefit from such access?"
By mid-August, the HCA is expected to announce that up to four collaborative community efforts in different regions of the state will be designated as demonstration projects. The grant awards -- to Washington-based not-for-profit organizations partnering with different online health record vendors -- will be used to create and explore the viability and value of personalized online health records. With a maximum grant award up to $600,000, the Health Care Authority will be able to closely test and monitor the usage and benefits of personalized online health records. The pilot projects will be operational from January 2009 through June 2009 and will be available on a pilot basis to thousands of Washingtonians in each region.
Using this new technology, patients will have the ability to view and share a copy of their health record -- without having to create from scratch mounds of information, prescriptions and medical information which is supplied by various health care sources. By having the ability to access and use their health information, patients could manage when, how and with whom they will share all or part of their health information.
To take two online surveys about online health records -- and give us your opinion -- please visit www.AccessMyHealth.org and click on "Take a Survey" in the upper right hand corner of the home page. AccessMyHealth.org will protect the privacy of everyone's personal information to the full extent of the law; the organization will not share email addresses or other personal information with any other party for commercial purposes.
|
|
|
Posted by Deborah on Tuesday, August 05 @ 09:22:46 EDT (402 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Trusera Launces Social Network for Health Advice | |
|
Family and friends are usually crucial when dealing with medical problems, so it’s no surprise that there are a lot of companies trying to bring online social networking to the medical world.
Click for more
|
|
|
Posted by Gillian on Thursday, July 31 @ 11:49:48 EDT (600 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Trusera Launches Social Network for Health Advice | |
By Anthony Ha
Family and friends are usually crucial when dealing with medical problems, so it’s no surprise that there are a lot of companies trying to bring online social networking to the medical world. We’ve cast a skeptical eye on some and argued that a company needs to work hard to stand out. But Seattle startup Trusera has been building a strong community while in testing mode, and founder Keith Schorsch says his site is more focused on practical advice than the competition.
Schorsch, a former Amazon executive, says he was spurred to start the company after his struggle with Lyme disease — despite seeing many doctors, it was “a friend of a friend” who ended up giving Schorsch the correct diagnosis, and it was through friends with similar experiences that he figured out the best treatment. With Trusera, users facing health issues can tap into the knowledge of a larger network of people who have gone through the same experience.
The emphasis is rather different from sites like DailyStrength and PatientsLikeMe, which are more about emotional support, Scorsch says. There’s room for inspirational advice, but Trusera is also a place for concrete suggestions that people can use immediately to improve their health. Also, PatientsLikeMe focuses on connecting people who are dealing with a specific disease — there are obvious reasons for that approach, but Schorsch says it also limits users with unnecessary labels, since people often look for advice in many different health-related areas. [Update: After getting a message from PatientsLikeMe co-founder David Williams, I took a closer look at the site, and it's more action-oriented than I had initially thought. As I note later in the article, it's hard for me to judge the quality of the medical advice, but PatientsLikeMe certainly tries to do more than just provide emotional support.]
The heart of Trusera is a system for requesting, publishing, commenting on and rating health advice. There’s also a search engine that keeps the information easily accessible, rather than buried deep within a message board. Trusera has a very active core user base motivated by a combination of altruism and the desire to tell their own stories, Schorsch says.
Since I’m not really looking for medical advice myself, I’m probably not a great judge of Trusera’s content. But from the quick demo, I can say the site looks easy-to-use and friendly to those who aren’t Internet-savvy. For example, the publishing system offers pointers as you write about the best format and content. And when you’re done with an article, you can decide whether it should remain private, become available to others within your social network or to anyone on the web.
|
|
|
Posted by Gillian on Thursday, July 31 @ 11:39:18 EDT (715 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Drug Test Cheaters Turning to Web | |
|
Individuals bent on beating drug tests need only turn to the Internet to find dozens of products that claim to help them do so, scientists have found.
Click for more.
|
|
|
Posted by Gillian on Thursday, July 31 @ 11:29:25 EDT (569 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Drug Test Cheaters Turning to Web | |
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) -- Individuals bent on beating drug tests need only turn to the Internet to find dozens of products that claim to help them do so, scientists have found.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School plan to present a detailed list of drug-test cheating options, along with sophisticated counter-measure tests that can be done by laboratory scientists, at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry's annual meeting, Monday, in Washington, D.C.
"People have been trying to cheat on drug tests for decades," said Alan H.B. Wu, director of chemistry and toxicology at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the research. "The general population is unconcerned, because they're clean and don't need to worry about that. But, if you're addicted to opiates or painkillers, your job is dependent on clean urine, and these people go to great lengths to try to pass that test."
"These [Internet] companies prey on that mentality with products that enable them to cheat, and laboratories, on the other hand, employ countermeasures to try to detect that practice," Wu added.
Drug testing basically started in the 1980s, after President Ronald Reagan issued a mandate ordering federal agencies to have drug-free work places. The federal government and many other employers now have mandatory drug testing. Today, some 20 million employees are screened annually in the United States for illicit drugs, and maybe 1 percent to 2 percent of samples come out positive, Wu said.
Time-tested ways to cheat on drug tests include using someone else's urine, adding drain cleaner, disinfectant or even water, vinegar or hand soap to the urine sample, or drinking herbal tea. Some people have even tried to smuggle drug-free urine hidden in their armpits or inject drug-free urine into their bladders, the researchers said.
As a result, Wu said, "urine detection sites started taking away any source of water, putting bluing agents in the toilet bowls themselves, so methods [of cheating] have gotten more sophisticated."
The researchers cited some examples of the quick fixes that can be found on more than 1,000 Web sites, products such as "Ready Clean Drug Detox Drink" and "Urine Luck." There are even advertisements for synthetic bottled urine.
In addition, they said, Internet sites sell a fairly inexpensive variety of fluids or pills to flush out the system. And then there are products, with names like Stealth, that can be added to the urine sample after it is collected.
But for each measure, there's often a countermeasure, according to lead author Amitava Dasgupta, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, who outlines a host of them in his presentation.
The toxicology arsenal ranges from recipes for detecting nitrites in urine to spot color tests and test strips that show doctored urine.
Dasgupta said, in a prepared statement, that only 2 percent of folks try cheating on drug tests. But, he added "There are always a few bad apples, and if you don't catch them, they can spoil a workplace."
"It's a minority that succeed, but it's certainly not zero," Wu added. "We don't know how many are successful, because if we knew that, they wouldn't be successful."
|
|
|
Posted by Gillian on Thursday, July 31 @ 11:18:25 EDT (810 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 5)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Online Health Records in Minnesota | |
|
Online personal health records got a boost from Minnesota’s governor yesterday.
Click for more .
|
|
|
Posted by Deborah on Thursday, July 31 @ 10:27:17 EDT (578 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Health Records Online in Minnesota | |
by Jacob Goldstein
Online personal health records got a boost from Minnesota’s governor yesterday.
Tim Pawlenty (pictured) said 50,000 state employees would be able to access their health records online next year, with a plan to extend access to everyone in the state by 2011, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
The PHR is a popular idea in health IT circles these days — Google and Microsoft have been pushing the concept, as have insurers such as Aetna. But it hasn’t really caught on with the public.
Pawlenty, a Republican rumored to be on McCain’s list of possible VP running-mates, used the language of market-driven health care in describing his new plan.
“We need to put consumers in charge,” he reportedly said. “We need to give them the tools so they can make good decisions.”
Earlier this year, Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have expanded a state-run health insurance program that covers the working poor.
|
|
|
Posted by Deborah on Thursday, July 31 @ 09:32:34 EDT (819 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 5)
|
|
|
| HSG News: Medical Records Online | |
|
If you have ever driven to your doctor's office to get a copy of your medical records, you may have wished for an easier way.
Click for more.
|
|
|
Posted by Deborah on Thursday, July 24 @ 14:50:16 EDT (606 daily)
(Read More... | HSG News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
| News: Medical Records Online | |
If you have ever driven to your doctor's office to get a copy of your medical records, you may have wished for an easier way.
Soon you will have it, as an increasing number of doctors and hospitals move to make medical records web-accessible to patients.
"We're going to absolutely love the convenience," said Phil Yanov of the GSA Technology Council. "I think in the end, the convenience will probably trump what is a very legitimate privacy concern."
Keeping online medical records safe from thieves is just one concern. Some worry that the information may be shared with insurance companies.
"I personally would be fearful of that," said Carin Slader of Medical Data Services. "An insurance company would say, 'oh I see you were diagnosed with ABC. That means we're not going to give your coverage for ABC for the next two years until we're sure that that's gone.' "
|
|
|
Posted by Deborah on Thursday, July 24 @ 14:41:03 EDT (687 daily)
(Read More... | News | Score: 0)
|
|
|
|
