iPhones

This entry is part 30 of 44 in the series Words

On May 3, Steve Stack, Chair of the American Medical Association (and an emergency physician from Lexington, KY) gave a presentation on electronic health records (EHRs) to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The paper is worth a close read. He observes that physicians are technology early-adopters, but that there had to be Federal […]

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Giveaway

This entry is part 24 of 44 in the series Words

In a February 19 article in the New York Times,  Julie Creswell calls the healthcare IT portion of the 2009 stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)  ‘a $19 billion government “giveaway”’ resulting from the lobbying of the big HIS vendors. One of the quotes in her article points out the usability limitations […]

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Cost Disease

This entry is part 20 of 44 in the series Words

The Cost Disease is both the name of a book, and the economic theory espoused by this book. The theory is relatively simple at its base. There are two segments to our modern economy, the progressive and the stagnant. The progressive sector makes rapid improvement in efficiency. Examples include manufacture, particularly of items such as […]

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Model T

This entry is part 23 of 44 in the series Words

An article in the New York Times points up some of the shortcomings of the push for meaningful use of electronic medical records (EMR): it’s vulnerable to fraud. The Department of Health and Human Services is shocked, just shocked, that perhaps some physicians and hospitals may have not been entirely accurate in self-reporting how well […]

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Menu

This entry is part 19 of 44 in the series Words

Faced with a long dinner menu, it’s hard to decide what to order. (Even with a medium-sized menu, my wife always says “You go ahead and order, I haven’t decided yet.” But that’s extreme.) It’s not just an urban legend. There are scientific studies that demonstrate it. The study When Choice is Demotivating by Sheena […]

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