Aetna encourages health through online gaming

Reminds me of healthprize.com, and Kevin Volpps work at University of Pennsylvania. Behavioral economics and incentives is an amazing area of focus to apply to health and wellness. It reminds me of the books Predictably Irrational and Freakenomoics. It is interesting to ask, “why do we behave the way we do; and how can technology help us change and grow”.

Pete Gordon

Do you want to work with a great team. Stay away from the corporate environment and work with people that trust you. We are the place. (www.critsys.com)

This is for an entry level position.

You need C programming experience to start. We don’t care if it is 5 minutes or 5 years. But, you need to know the foundation of software. And, then build from there, into Object Oriented Development, C#, Java, PHP, Python, Javascript, Ruby (if you must) and all things Internet.

Next, you will need a passion for the Internet. That means HTML/CSS/Javascript/JSON/JQuery/PDF; everything Internet related! And, be willing to learn fast and put all of yourself into leveraging the Internet to build amazing software.

Lastly, communication skills are a must. I know it is hard to be great with computers and programming and still be willing to work with people. But, we are a tight knit group that rely on each other–so you must be excited about being part of our community–and we are excited to have you.

Some desire to get into embedded systems and programming would be good also. (Microchip PIC, Arduino)

Drop us an email with your resume and let’s grab coffee and talk. info@critsys.com Add BinaryHexMaster to the Subject for us.

Thanks!
Pete Gordon
Director of Technology

http://www.meaningfulhitnews.com/2011/05/01/park-defends-plain-text-format-of-blue-button/

I am more concerned about the information reported than the format it is available in. I have seen a medicare recepient data that doesn’t seem to correlate with the medicare claims you see through the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP). This has me concerned about the quality of the data, but now, how to get to the bottom of it.

The Meaningful Yoose Rap from Ross Martin on Vimeo.

Contact us to discuss how we can partner together.

OHSS
SleepCare, Inc.
Self Employed Nurse Practitioners
Lyntek Medical
Dayton Lung
Signature Dermatology
Bexley Physical Therapy
Practice Fusion
Patient Safety

Here was our presentation at the Health 2.0 conference showing a hacked Escali scale and Practice Fusion and MS HealthVault integration.

http://health2challenge.org/blog/real-time-patient-driven-data-challenge/

If you are interested in the source code and more about the project, check out the code on codeplex:

http://pfsync.codeplex.com

This is true in my life after recently changing our cable provider for a less expensive service, I quickly realized that the new service did not provide me with the same menu function. This initially frustrated me and made my surfing ability less efficient due to the new buttons and functions I had to learn. After some time and learning, I realized the new service was indeed much more efficient and offered me more detail when it came to selecting and marking my channels for recording. In the long run this change for me has been more beneficial, due to the function-ability of the service while saving me considerable money. While the short term was painful, the change had to take place and now I am glad that I did it.

In my current position as the Director fo Business Development for Critical Systems I run into health care providers everyday that have the same mindset as I did. There pain could be the hours of required training the entire staff on a new EHR system, the imputing of paper files, and the fear of losing patients due to the perceived short term inefficiency of the office staff while learning the system. While these thoughts are all understandable, the consequences of not changing could become a serious issue to many practices if they don’t consider to implement an EHR shortly.

According to a new survey from Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers, Healthcare IT News reports. Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs will be eligible for incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid. However, beginning in January 2015, health care providers who are not meaningfully using EHRs will face penalties equal to a 1% reduction in annual Medicare payments per year up to 5%.

The survey of more than 500 physicians found that while 85% of physicians were aware of the incentive payments, more than 35% of doctors said they were unaware of the penalties. However, of those who were unaware of the penalties, more than 65% said the penalties would not drive them to adopt an EHR system.

Among physicians who plan to adopt EHRs, 85% said they are “very” or “somewhat” concerned about the cost, and 79% said they are “very” or “somewhat” concerned about staff training. Despite these concerns, more than 58% of the respondents said that EHRs will have a positive or very positive effect on patient care and quality (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 9/23). (iHealthbeat; Septemebr 24, 2010)

As you can see the negative effect in not implementing can cause a practice to loose considerable money if they are not prepared. Another factor that can cause providers problems is the amount of stimulus that may not be available if the provider waits too long. Of the $36 billion stimulus funding for EHR, $33 billion is expected to go to providers with early adopters receiving the biggest payments. So waiting in this case may find you in a real tough position.

This opportunity is timed-based. For every day the implementation is delayed, the practices lose a portion of the incentive. Funding decreases over time and it will go away after 2015. Every day a practice waits, is a missed opportunity to take advantage of financial incentives.

The time is now, so why procrastinate!

If I have kept your interest this long, then now it is time to talk about the real concern.  While the documentation requirements are interesting, the real concern I believe is not HOW do I get FDA 510k approved and the documents that I need to submit; but rather the WHAT do I get FDA 510k approved.  I spoke with an HHS representative a several weeks ago in California and discussed a bathroom weight scale that sends data over the Internet to twitter and Practice Fusion EHR and HealthVault PHR (see more here).  I asked, “If a scale communicates weight up to the Internet, goes into a EHR, is used by the physician or nurse to contact the patient because they may be at risk of hospitalization for CHF, does the scale and the Internet application need FDA 510k approval?”.  It gets even more interesting, if the Internet application uses a rule of thumb, say maybe, weight gain of 2-3 pounds or more per day over a 2-day period or 5 pounds in 1 week, and then notifies the HealthCare provider based on this rule.  She didn’t have an answer, and said it was an interesting question.  Bathroom scales tend to be FDA approved when they do Body Composition and are used directly by a HealthCare provider organization.  HealthCare providers that I have talked with tend to trust that the supplying company, the DME/HME, have already confirmed that the scale they are providing is FDA approved.

All of this said, it seems, the most interesting question is not HOW does one get FDA 510k approval, especially for start-up Internet companies; but WHAT does one get FDA 510k approved in the world of the Internet where connections of valuable Health information are made so easily.  I don’t what to go down the path of fear and say everything needs to be FDA approved, but at the same time I would like to encourage the FDA to make the process as streamlined as possible and allow innovative companies to easily dialog about these types of questions with the FDA so they can continue to produce the breakthrough medical devices and software, and yes, even FDA 510k Internet Software that keeps us on the leading edge of HealthCare Technology innovations.

Table 3. Documentation Based on Level of Concern