A few days ago ProPublica had a headline I wished I'd written: If It Needs A Sign, It's Probably Bad Design. Although the article started with a health care example (EpiPen of course, citing Joyce Lee's brilliant post), it wasn't focused on health care -- but it might as well have been. Health care is full of bad design, and of signs. Take, for example, the waiting room. When most patients enter a provider's office or facility, the first thing they are likely to see is a waiting room. The waiting room probably has other would-be patients already waiting there, each full of their own health concerns. In some instances, the initial waiting room is merely a staging area; once processed, patients may be sent to yet another waiting room to wait some more. And, of course, once they eventually do reach an exam room, they'll probably endure some more waiting, no matter how long their wait has already been...
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
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RowdMap, Inc. Speaks at Health:Further Summit on Creating High-Value Care from Open Health Data
Joshua Rosenthal, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at RowdMap, Inc., will be speaking on how health plans and physicians and hospitals create high-value care with open data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), thirty cents of every dollar goes to low-value care, or care that has higher risks and costs but does not produce better outcomes. According to researchers, if low-value care were removed, there would be more than enough care to cover the population...
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S&I's Doug Fridsma on NwHIN Enabling the Next Amazon, eBay or Facebook
Consider NwHIN to be the building blocks for what may become the World Wide Web of healthcare information – on top of which may one day be the next Amazon, eBay or Facebook, only with a health slant. Read More »
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SAHMSA Contributes Open Source Code for Omnibus Care Plan to OSEHRA
The Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance (OSEHRA), a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to accelerating innovation through open source strategy, is pleased to welcome a major code contribution from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Agency (SAMHSA). The complete Omnibus Care Plan (OCP) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and SMART on FHIR Infrastructure, including the Care Coordination and Consent Management code package, contributed using the Apache License Version 2.0, has been delivered to OSEHRA and is now available for the healthcare community.
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Save the Dates! National Health Code-A-Thon Calendar
The Department of Health and Human Services is interested in the development of innovative applications and solving critical social and health problems, and to help you optimize the opportunity you have to solve some of the most critical health issues this country faces we have developed HealthData.gov... Read More »
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Sequestration Can’t Halt Government’s ‘Historic’ Health IT Spending
Federal health IT spending grew 27 percent annually from fiscal 2011-2015, with the market jumping from $2 billion four years ago to $6.5 billion in fiscal 2015, according to research from big data and analytics firm Govini. Civilian health agencies fueled health IT spending the most. The Health and Human Services Department increased its annual health IT spend by a compound annual growth rate of 34 percent, with about half of its total obligations driven by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is preparing for a major modernization effort and call center upgrade...
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SGT. SHAFT: Civilian Population Should Have Access To Talking Prescription System
"I know that you are very interested in the safety of visually impaired veterans when taking their prescriptions. You understand all too well the danger of not reading prescription labels and the possibility of making a tragic mistake..." Read More »
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Shovel-Ready Clinics
Barack Obama has spent most of his first term as president wrestling with three enormous tasks: kick-starting the economy to create jobs again; standing the banking sector back on its feet; and providing health care to the 40 million Americans who lack insurance. He’s made progress on all these fronts. Read More »
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Solving Design Problems in Healthcare Starting with the Waiting Room
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Stakeholders Divided On Speed Of Implementing Meaningful Use
Pressure is ramping up on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to reassess the current implementation timelines for the next stages of the Meaningful Use program, with industry stakeholders and others using a Senate hearing on patient care to call for a reexamination of the issue. Read More »
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State HIEs Prep For Disaster Recovery
Direct protocol to enable data exchange among providers caring for patients displaced from their homes Read More »
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States' Medicaid Expansion Fraught With Political Consequences
States are facing complex choices about whether to expand Medicaid coverage since it’s their call now and they will not be forced to do so under the health reform law. Read More »
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Tech Experts: Health Exchange Site Needs Total Overhaul
The federal health care exchange was built using 10-year-old technology that may require constant fixes and updates for the next six months and the eventual overhaul of the entire system, technology experts told USA TODAY. Read More »
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Tech Surge Aims To Fix What Ails HealthCare.gov Site
After a month of haunting outages and outrage from disgruntled former supporters, the folks at HealthCare.gov -- the so-called Obamacare website -- are in need of a quick and serious fix. Oracle chief Larry Ellison said his company is pitching in to help fix what ails the government's health care Web site, shooting for improvement by November's end. Read More »
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TEDMED Tuesdays: U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park
Todd Park is HHS’s Chief Technology Officer, a post he has held since August 2009. In this role, his mission is to be a change agent and “entrepreneur-in-residence,” helping HHS harness the power of data, technology, and innovation to improve the health of the nation. Read More »
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Test Highlights: How To Do EHR Data Sharing Right
The Department Veterans Affairs and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have demonstrated how to securely share sensitive health information via electronic health records (EHRs). Read More »
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