Denise Silber's eHealth

Sermoblog or Sermo Blog? Can an anonymous critic represent physician transparency?

Are you interested in how to run an online physician community? Many people are. That is why the subject will be treated at Health 2.0 Europe. The panel will be segmented in two parts: international physician communities and national physician communities. One American community will be present, Sermo represented by Daniel Palestrant. SInce I'll be moderating that panel, I was intrigued by a post on Sermo blog, self-described as "keeping an eye on physicians' social media. "Today's article is entitled: what makes a physician forum work, part 1? The post was tweeted around today, amongst others by @Gaborgy who manages a physician community in Hungary.

The post sounds interesting:  starts by saying that a physician's forum should be limited to physicians. So far so good. But in the middle of the article, hmm, we find this sentence: "Since I started this blog by critiquing Sermo.com,"...So who is behind a blog to critique Sermo? Is it a physician? A would-be entrepreneur? A genuine competitor? A spouse tired of being a Sermo widow or widower?

But, when we click on "about", there is no information. We don't know who wrote it. Should someone who is advocating transparency and proof of physician identity be writing under anonymous cover? Are we dealing with a physician or not? We have no idea. The author ends with an ominous "There is one huge problem with all this, which I’ll get to in later posts." and then proceeds to lambast doctorshangout.com 

I have no stock in any of this. But frankly, is this what social media is about? Hiding behind anonymity to criticize everyone. I hope not and I don't think so! So far, whether linkedin, facebook, twitter, my experience with social media has been enriching. It has helped me meet people with similar interests and have great exchanges. SermoBlogWordpress, please come out of the closet !

Here is Sermo's blog with articles by Daniel Palestrant, the doctor who founded Sermo (meaning conversation). Daniel will be speaking at Health 2.0 Europe Paris.

On this blog, we know with whom we are dealing. There are insightful texts. And added comments by anonymous registered doctors...but we aren't totally in the dark, since we know that the main material is vetted by Dan.

PHR's : 1 up, 1 down -- Microsoft HealthVault, Revolution

So, it's a big week in PHR-land.

• Revolution Health stops theirs for lack of users.
• Obama doesn't mention health IT in his State of the Union address.
• Microsoft Health Vault goes off to test European waters via Siemens in Germany.

Good thing the weekend is almost upon us...But that doesn't mean the news will stop. On the contrary, with all the tweeters, bloggers, etc, we're all having to tweet and blog, faster and faster to keep our platforms current.

Who can predict the physionomy of the PHR market? All I can say, is that it is sure to be hybrid. No big new national programs that ultimately bite the dust, despite Denmark's success. Long live innovation...We're waiting for the breakthrough and if we don't continue to innovate, phr's will remain imperfect for quite some time.

Microsoft HealthVault to launch in Belgium?

While  the definition of "meaningful use" is occupying some of the finest minds in official EMR-land in the US, things are also moving in Belgium, and Microsoft HealthVault may be approaching roll-out, according to the Francophone website of a patient association. The site reports that patients must partake in the pending debate on this subject. Here is the link to the  article in French by the president of the association.  And an extract from the article:

"Even though all of this seems to contribute to the centralization of medical data by the patient, who is the only one to decide to share the data with the entity of his or her choice, Microsoft HealthVault could represent a danger for Belgian patients. ... We think we should participate in the debates concerning Microsoft HealthVault to preserve the freedom of choice for patients (freedom to change vendors, suppliers, health management system...). Let us hope that Microsoft will guarantee the associations the right to follow the studies that may one day enable Microsoft to participate in the improvement in our country of the transmission of objective non commercial information about patients and their providers.

 Lucio Scanu

Personal health records are indeed progressing in many ways, shapes, and forms, in parallel to physician-initiated electronic medical record systems. Public and private organizations are venturing in many interesting directions.   Personal health records in Europe will be demoed and discussed with representatives from several significant initiatives from the US, UK, France, Netherlands at Health 2.0 Europe, Paris, April 6-7, 2010.Should you be attending, exhibiting, covering the conference? Contact me.

Terminology : EHR, EMR, PHR

Electronic health record, electronic medical record, personal health record -- We decided to see how frequent the use of the term has been over the past 50 years, with an advanced Google timeline search.

  

 

Communicate (animated film on you, your health, and the internet)

Independent evaluation of web sites of French hospitals and clinics

How good are the web sites of French hospitals and clinics? Which web sites should be studied? Which criteria should be included in the review, with what methodology?

Well, the short answer to the long question is that Denise SIlber convinced Basil Strategies ;-) to study the web sites of what are reportedly amongst the best hospitals and clinics in France. The conclusions of the Basil Study are that these institutions are clearly not perceiving the benefit to their organization in maintaining an attractive, up to date site that answers most of the basic questions, recruits new employees, and actually saves its institution time and money. The average score was 50 out of 100, with no major difference between public, private, and not for profit, although the best one seemed to be public and the worst, private.

More on the study soon!

French hospitals & clinics must make public 10 specific quality indicators

On Dec. 30, 2009, the French daily official publication (Journal Officiel) regarding law stated that French hospitals must make readily available to the public (ie as in on the institution's web site ) 10 quality indicators as follows, demonstrating yet again, the relation between the quality of care and the availability of information.

ICALIN (fight against hospital infections), ICSHA (consumption of hydro-alcoholic products), SURVISO + (surveillance of infection in O.R.);  ICATB (proper use of antibiotics);  a composite score of the above

+ 5 scores from the patient file: management of the patient file, time required to receive post-hospitalization letter (which in Denmark would be instantaneous), record of pain evaluation, nutritional prevention,  anesthesia file.

It is interesting to note that this request does not come from a Twitter-like movement on the ground, but more from traditional lobbying, by patient groups and efforts of the French Health Authority (HAS). Hopefully it will be picked up and amplified by the tweeters.

Will hospitals be able to comply with this request? Please see the following post which discusses Denise Silber's exclusive new study of hospital web sites...The short answer is "unlikely". If the information is just "thrown up there" on sites that are already not well-organized, the information will not really be accessible.

 Health 2.0 -- Do you know what's going on in France ? You are not alone if you don't ! But even if Silicon Valley is 9 time zones away, participatory medicine is truly active in Europe.

Preparing the Health 2.0 Europe conference in Paris is  showing us that no one knows even a half of what's going on, because programs don't always cross language boundaries...which is why you'll have to attend the conference to find out. #health2eu

And if you can be in Paris in February, one day after Valentine's ;-), we're launching the first Health 2.0 Chapter in Europe in Paris. February 15th 2010, from 7 to 9pm. Who should attend this free event? If you're reading this possibly you, and definitely if you are a Health 2.0 innovator, inventor, and or enthusiast. Please let Denise @health20paris or TIphaine @tiphainemf know via Twitter and check out the Facebook event by clicking on the Chapter Logo. Space is limited. So, you must be confirmed.

Pour commencer l'animation du mouvement français de la Santé 2.0, nous organisons, à la mode américaine, un "chapitre" ou club des supporteurs en France. La première réunion se tiendra le 15 février de 19h à 21h,  à la CIté Universitaire Internationale de Paris, qui nous ouvre ses portes, en vue de la future manifestation.

Le but sera de découvrir en quoi consiste la Santé 2.0 en France, en écoutant les inventeurs d'outils, les bloggeurs, les fans. Ce sera une rencontre informelle, sympathique, informative, étonnante, créative.C'est aussi le début d'un mouvement puis que nous nous reverrons après la conférence et au delà ! 

Vous pouvez vous inscrire sur Facebook  ou par message direct sur Twitter ( Denise Silber  @health20paris ou Tiphaine de Fremont @tiphainemf ) mais vous devez attendre confirmation, car les places sont limitées.

Free Wiki handbook on Medical Informatics and more: just out on Wikipedia in time for New Year's

The Wikipedia Handbook of Biomedical informatics is itself a gem "published" today, thanks to the wonderful new Web 2.0 world in which we live and in particular to the organizational  efforts of Pr Renato Sabbatini in Brazil. Read on for  the reasons to not miss out on this one!

Health 2.0 in Europe: Quotes & Testimonials

We've been reaching out and  collecting statements regarding Health 2.0 Europe from health care's finest in Europe.  Etienne Caniard from the National French Health Authority and Ségolène Aymé from OrphaNet, speakers at the conference raise some interesting points in this post. Click also for our Regional Health 2.0 Ambassadors from Europe.

Health 2.0 in Europe: Couldn't? Wouldn't? Does!

(first published on the Health Care Blog)

They said it couldn’t happen in Europe, that social media and online tools wouldn’t catch on, because the healthcare context was soooo different from the US. They said that Europeans don’t worry about access and cost, that they aren’t looking for information online because they they trust their doctors utterly and fully, and that European doctors don’t go online, except if they're Scandinavian. Well, it just isn’t so!

Health 2.0, a rising trend in Europe, says Manhattan Research

Surprise, surprise ! Social media are rising in Health Care in Europe. European physicians are using Wikipedia -- (how could it be otherwise, given its position in searches ?). They are recommending it to patients, and consumers expect that pharmaceutical companies -- who often don't know how to approach Wikipedia, for various reasons--are checking their drugs on Wikipedia and completing information. These are the results of the latest Cybercitizen in Europe study by Manhattan Research.

France: telelehealth report by legislator Lasbordes: 15 recommendations

In Jan 2009, Pres. Sarkozy declared that telemedicine is a national priority. Prime Minister FIllon asked legislator Pierre Lasbordes to make a national policy recommendation.  Téléchargement 2009_11_10_Rapport_Telesante  The remarkable report was published on Nov. 12th. It is the strongest policy paper in favor of telemedicine that I have seen.  There is excellent  international data and very practical policy recommendations. Among the highlights: