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Psychiatric disorder / shutterstock

In a July 2011 editorial entitled “Vanishing clinical psychopharmacology” in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, authors Gerven and Cohen point out that, in 2010, only two medications “with a broadly defined psychiatric or neurological indication” were approved by the FDA. Now there's worse to come.[read more]

At a time when mobile health initiatives and mobile apps are flooding the market, the Federal Communications Commission has shown enough interest to appoint Matthew Quinn as Director of Healthcare Initiatives. Mr. Quinn will have expanding responsibilities at his new position.[read more]

Patient experience / shutterstock

There’s a huge gap “between hospital management and frontline clinicians with respect to improving patient satisfaction,” according to a study out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). It seems as if “patient satisfaction” is everyone’s destination, but few hospitals have a map to get from here to there.[read more]

Singapore

William Haseltine, chairman and president of ACCESS Health International and author of Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Health Care System, attributes Singapore’s ability to control health care costs to balancing a highly regulated market and managing a successful social wellness program.[read more]

On this trip I met with clinicians, healthcare executives, EMR developers and IT staff from some of the finest institutions in the country (including the world famous Karolinska Institute). I heard the same stories I hear almost everywhere I go in the developed world—stories of healthcare systems with perverse incentives that make sick care preferable to prevention; that inhibit innovation while maintaining the status quo; that fail to meet the needs of a growing population of patients who have increasing expectations and an ever higher incidence of chronic disease.[read more]

Health Start-Ups!

The movement toward price transparency that’s sweeping various parts of the healthcare system has now reached medical device sales via a new e-commerce startup that connects medical device companies with health systems looking to purchase stable implant technologies.[read more]

Recently I ran across a great presentation by the folks at Pathfinder Software entitled “Agile Development for FDA Regulated Medical Software.” Pathfinder’s engineers help explain why the FDA doesn’t know or really care about what software methodology you use as long as you ensure that the output of your development approach results in high quality, safe, reliable software.[read more]

Health Start-Ups!

Next Wave serves as a strategic adviser or investor to a few companies already, including Ohio-based Health Care DataWorks and cloud-based search and booking solution provider HealthPost. “I would say most of the investments are under $5 million,” Nelson said. “If partners are needed, then we have access to those relationships as well.”[read more]

Mobile Health Around the Globe

Apple is showing off its marketing chops, and tugging at our heartstrings, in a new video posted to its YouTube channel. Called “Making a difference. One app at a time,” the 10-minute video depicts some of the ways the company’s devices and various iOS apps are solving problems across the world, starting with rural access to healthcare.[read more]

And, aside from the cost of bringing the drugs to market, and aside from their. . .well. . . seeming uselessness. . .the third reason companies are gun-shy about psychotropic medications is something major: we just don’t understand the brain well enough.[read more]

I lost my phone!

This morning, I was halfway to work when I felt for the phone in the inside pocket of my jacket. Not there. I palpated other pockets none of which contained the desired item. The car seat was bare. I did not fear the most dreaded explanation, that being that the phone was mistakenly left in Starbucks and purloined by a Frappuccino felon.[read more]

Unplanned readmissions to the hospital have been the focus of much attention in recent years for obvious reasons: First, they are relatively easy to measure using administrative claims data. Second, like all inpatient hospitalizations, they cost a lot of money–and are therefore a target for reducing spending. Third, they are a proxy for quality of care, as at least some portion of them are likely avoidable if the hospital does its job well.[read more]

socialmedia/shutterstock

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to public health….I also have pinboards dedicated to tattoos, Halloween ideas and things that make me giggle-out-loud. Guess which ones I pin more to? (hint: not the public health one). Although these health orgs are pintastic, there just isn’t enough public health visual content that I come across that pin-spires me.[read more]

concussion/shutterstock

With the recent tragedies of retired football players, like Junior Seau, taking their lives after retirement people have become curious on the impact of concussions. In explosive sports such as football, high impact collisions are very common.[read more]

guncontrol/shutterstock

The federal government has proposed that state mental health agencies be allowed to transmit certain data about mentally ill patients to the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System. The idea is to keep people who’ve been declared mentally unfit from buying guns.[read more]

Orphan drugs today

A recent report from EvaluatePharma predicts worldwide orphan drug sales to total $127 billion by 2018 with a compound annual growth rate of +7.4% per year between 2012 and 2018. The authors forecast that orphan drugs will be 15.9% of worldwide prescription sales by 2018 (excluding generics).[read more]

healthcare best practices / shutterstock

I met a colleague this week that arrived at her current healthcare role via a pathway that brought her to Silicon Valley. She has been struck by the tendency for healthcare workers to look to their "superiors” for permission prior to trying something new.[read more]

Medical scribe

“The scribe industry is in a boom time,” Dr. David Strumpf explained in a phone interview. Strumpf is an emergency physician and the CEO of Emergency Medicine Scribe Systems, a California company that hires, trains and manages medical scribes deployed across the country.[read more]

pharmacy app / shutterstock

On the way to the drugstore recently, I wondered if CVS might have an app. To my pleasant surprise when I arrived at the counter I saw that they do indeed, and can even text you when your prescription is ready.[read more]

New opportunity for healthcare PR (credit: thesidenoteblog)

In the last few years, data have changed the landscape of the healthcare public relations (PR) industry where I work as a digital specialist. The change has been largely driven by the use of digital technologies and social media.[read more]

Don't let patients drive you crazy!

The nearly daily reality is that every hospital and healthcare provider has “difficult” patients. “[We] don’t always like the patients that we take care of. It sounds harsh, but let’s be honest,” Lanette Anderson writes in a NurseTogether.com post.[read more]

Stay hydrated

The best defense against heat-related emergencies is prevention. Drink more fluids (nonalcoholic), regardless of your activity level. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. Limit your outdoor activity to morning and evening hours, and try to rest often in shady areas.[read more]

Fun content for hospitals

It's hard to figure out what patients want to hear. Effective healthcare marketing should start with great content. Whether you need a starting concept, or you are just plumb out of ideas, this article will help you develop content that will educate, engage and impact your patients.[read more]

While team care, care coordination and EMRs may increase practice efficiency, there is nothing inherently patient-centered about these “things.” That’s because patient-centered care is a philosophy of care delivery…not simply a punch list of HIT and staffing requirements.[read more]

Noise reduction in hospitals / shutterstock

Patient experience can make a significant difference to patient care and comfort. A case in point is hospitals’ recent emphasis on reducing noise, as described in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Noise is the biggest issue on patient experience surveys, so it’s been an obvious place for hospitals to focus.[read more]

The Future of HealthCare Delivery by Stephen Schimpff

Since the nomination of Congressman Paul Ryan last summer as the vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party, Medicare became front and center in the political discussions and, although there is less attention just now, it will return with a vengeance once again to dominate.[read more]

medical devices

The medical device market is a fast-developing sector in the U.S. healthcare industry, and mobile health solutions have been a subject of serious discussions among technology experts for quite some time. The fact that mobile devices have great potential to improve care quality is now accepted worldwide.[read more]

Stay fit with fitness apps!

Fitness apps making keeping track of your dieting and healthy lifestyle much easier and simpler, whether it's allowing for you to track your mileage when you run or the calories you eat per day. Here are the top ten fitness apps that can help you stay fit and healthy around the clock.[read more]

Health scores for eateries?

When people visit the review site Yelp to look up a restaurant, they usually look for reviews on food quality and service. Each page’s profile provides reviews from customers, location information and hours of operation. Now in select cities, people can also get the restaurant’s health score.[read more]

Molecular, genomic diagnostic lab (photo: dancentury)

Using DNA sequencing to help doctors and pharmaceutical companies personalize treatments for disease has netted a South Carolina startup a small seed round of capital: according to a recent SEC filing, Selah Genomics has raised at least $300,000 and could raise another $600,000 more.[read more]