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“PictureWhat” ??? Super-Human Poison Ivy. What’s Going On? – The Health Care Blog
By MIKE MAGEE Connecticut loves its’ trees. And no town in Connecticut loves its’ trees more than West Hartford, CT. The town borders include an elaborate interconnected reservoir system that does double duty as a focal point for a wide range of nature paths for walkers, runners and cyclists. While walking one path yesterday, I...
DNA is Better at Math than You Are – The Health Care Blog
By KIM BELLARD I was tempted to write about the work being done at Wharton that suggests that AI may already be better at being entrepreneurial than most of us, and of course I’m always interested to see how nanoparticles are starting to change health care (e.g., breast cancer or cancer more generally), but when...
Poor Kids. Pitiful Us – The Health Care Blog
By KIM BELLARD Well, congratulations, America. The child poverty rate more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, jumping from 5.2% to 12.4%, according to new figures from the Census Bureau. Once again, we prove we sure have a funny way of showing that we love our kids. The poverty rate is actually the Supplemental Poverty...
The Times They Are A-Changing….Fast – The Health Care Blog
By KIM BELLARD If you have been following my Twitter – oops, I mean “X” – feed lately, you may have noticed that I’ve been emphasizing The Coming Wave, the new book from Mustafa Suleyman (with Michael Bhaskar). If you have not yet read it, or at least ordered it, I urge you to do...
Shiv Rao, CEO demos Abridge – The Health Care Blog
Abridge has been trying to document the clinical encounter automatically since 2018. There's been quit a lot of fuss about them in recent weeks. They announced becoming the first "Pal" on the Epic "Partners& Pals" program, and also that their AI based encounter capture technology was now being used at several hospitals. And they showed...
“The Greatest Scientist of All Time” says Scientific American. Who is it? – The Health Care Blog
BY MIKE MAGEE When it comes to our earthly survival as a human species, words are often under-powered and off-the-mark. Clearer concepts, definitions and terms are required for clarity. Here are five terms that are useful and worth remembering: Planetary Boundaries Earth Systems Human Perturbations Planetary Scale Destabilization Holocene Epoch vs. Anthropogenic Epoch These terms...
Beyond the Scale: How organizations should evaluate the success of obesity management solutions – The Health Care Blog
By CAITLYN EDWARDS Obesity treatment is often framed as a race to the bottom — how much weight can someone lose? Five percent? Ten percent? And with recent scientific advancements in anti-obesity medications such as GLP-1s, what about even 15-20%? Obesity treatment, though, isn’t just about the number on the scale. It’s about moving the...
All the Lonely People: Primary Care isn’t a Team Sport Anymore, We’re Only Interacting with Our Computers – The Health Care Blog
BY HANS DUVEFELT In spite of all the talk these days about health care teams and in spite of more and more physicians working for bigger and bigger healthcare organizations, we are becoming more and more isolated from our colleagues and our support staffs. Computer work, which is taking more and more time as EMRs...
Smells like AI Spirit – The Health Care Blog
By KIM BELLARD There are so many exciting developments in artificial intelligence (AI) these days that one almost becomes numb to them. Then along comes something that makes me think, hmm, I didn’t see that coming. For example, AI can now smell. Strictly speaking, that’s not quite true, at least not in the way humans...
Has Sensemaking Collapsed When It Comes To U.S. Healthcare? – The Health Care Blog
By MIKE MAGEE This past week my wife and I were at a family event to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 70th birthday. Our extended family has more than a few doctors. A physician nephew who had read CODE BLUE and had a strong interest in health policy asked if I felt I (and others) were too...
THCB Gang Episode 134, Thursday August 31 – The Health Care Blog
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday August 31 at 1pm PST 4pm EST are the small but mighty pairing of Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); and patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@mlmillenson). You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved as a...
The One Question FOX News Moderators Should Ask Tonight – The Health Care Blog
Editor Note: This article was published a week after the Republican Party Primary debate BY MIKE MAGEE This evening, the Republican Party will sponsor their first Primary Debate. It will be historic in featuring the absence of their lead contender for the 2024 Presidential campaign, a candidate who appears committed to the destruction of their...
Let’s Start Over – The Health Care Blog
BY KIM BELLARD When I first read the reports about some Silicon Valley billionaires wanting to start a new city, I figured, oh, it’s just a bunch of rich white guys wanting to take their toys and go to a new, better home. After all, they’ve seen what’s been happening to downtown San Francisco (or...
20th Birthday Classic: “Healthcare” vs. “Health Care”: The Definitive Word(s) – The Health Care Blog
This is the last of the classics that THCB will run to celebrate our 20th birthday. And we are finally tackling the most important of questions. Is what we call this thing one word or two? Back in 2012 Michael Millenson had the definitive answer--Matthew Holt By MICHAEL L. MILLENSON A recent contributor to this blog...
THCB 20th Birthday Classic: Value-based care – no progress since 1997? – The Health Care Blog
As the 20th Birthday rolls on I thought I'd bring out a more recent piece first published in October 2020, albeit one that relies heavily on 25 year old data to make a point. This is some evidence to back up Jeff Goldsmith's comment on the original that for all the talk “ 'Value based”...
The Next Pandemic May Be an AI one – The Health Care Blog
By KIM BELLARD Since the early days of the pandemic, conspiracy theorists have charged that COVID was a manufactured bioweapon, either deliberately leaked or the result of an inadvertent lab leak. There’s been no evidence to support these speculations, but, alas, that is not to say that such bioweapons aren’t truly an existential threat. And...
Torben Nielsen, CEO, Uptiv Health – The Health Care Blog
Early this month I caught up with Torben Nielsen who is now CEO of Uptiv Health. Another one from the Redesign Health factory, Uptiv Health came out of stealth recently with the goal of improving the experience and reducing the cost of those patients who have to have regular infusion treatments. Uptiv Health just raised...
Lash of St. Francis – The Health Care Blog
BY MIKE MAGEE On September 25, 1939, Southern California woke with fear of The Lash of St. Francis or El Cordonazo on the horizon. The term refers to northwestern tracking, cyclone-laden storms that can hit the western shores of Mexico and California most commonly around the Feast of Saint Francis, on October 4th. This one made...
THCB 20th Birthday classics: A Brief History of Price Controls by Annoyed Republican Administrations – The Health Care Blog
By UWE REINHARDT One of the greatest pleasures of running THCB has been to get to know and host the writings of some of my health policy heroes. This week I have already published work from Jeff Goldsmith, and Ian Morrison & Michael Millenson among others will be featured next week (as the party won't...
Academics Weigh In On How To Bring Down Trump – The Health Care Blog
By MIKE MAGEE This week, as a fourth indictment came due, a tragic Donald Trump headed back to social media, digging himself into a hole that will eventually lead to some personal hell. But before Donald Trump, there was William Frederick Kohler. He made his appearance on the American stage on February 28, 1995, an...
THCB Gang Episode 133, Thursday August 17 – The Health Care Blog
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday August 17 at 1pm PST 4pm EST are futurist Jeff Goldsmith: medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee); policy expert consultant/author Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1); and patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@mlmillenson); You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio is preserved...
THCB 20th Birthday Classic: As I’ve always suspected, Health Care = Communism + Frappuccinos – The Health Care Blog
By MATTHEW HOLT Our 20th birthday continues with a few classics coming out. Back in 2005 I was really cutting a lyrical rug, and would never miss a chance to get that Cambridge training in Marxism into use. This essay about whether health care should be a public or private good has always been one...
THCB 20th Birthday Classic: McKinsey wants to inspire lots of change; caveat emptor – The Health Care Blog
by MATTHEW HOLT So to celebrate 20 years, we'll be publishing a few classics for the next week or so. This is one of my faves from the early days of THCB, back in 2006. It's interesting to compare it with Jeff Goldsmith's NEW piece from yesterday on vertical integration because at the time a...
What Robotaxis Mean for Healthcare – The Health Care Blog
BY KIM BELLARD You may have seen that last week the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) gave approval for two companies to operate self-driving taxicabs (“robotaxis”) in San Francisco, available 24/7 and able to charge fares. Think Uber or Lyft but without drivers. It has seemed inevitable for several years now, yet we’re not really...
Vertical Integration Doesn’t Work in Healthcare: Time to Move On – The Health Care Blog
So in this week of THCB's 20th birthday it's a little ironic that we are running what is almost a mea culpa article from Jeff Goldsmith. I first heard Jeff speak in 1995 (I think!) at the now defunct UMGA meeting, where he explained how he felt virtual vertical integration was the best future for...
Happy 20th Birthday THCB – The Health Care Blog
Hard to believe it but 20 years ago (Aug 12 2003) I started writing THCB! Somehow 20 years later it's still here. Lots of changes over the years. Hundreds of people have written for THCB, thousands have been interviewed on it, and we've made a little dent in the world of health care. Next week...
Naive Realism and the Legal Profession – The Health Care Blog
By MIKE MAGEE In 2002, psychologist Emily Pronin and her co-authors, in an article titled, You Don’t Know Me, But I Know You: The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight, laid out the concept of “Naive Realism.” As she explained, “We insist that our ‘outsider perspective’ affords us insights about our peers that they are denied by...
I Want a Lazy Girl Job Too – The Health Care Blog
BY KIM BELLARD I came across a phrase the other day that is so evocative, so delicious, that I had to write about it: “lazy girl job,” or, as you might know it. @#lazygirljob. Now, before anyone gets too offended, it’s not about labeling girls as lazy; it’s not really even about lazy or even...
Population Health Management: SDOH Challenges and Solutions – The Health Care Blog
By ARJUN GOSAIN In the United States alone, one in ten people live in poverty, 10.2% of households are food insecure, and more than half of people living below the poverty line are transportation insecure. These statistics represent social determinants of health (SDOH) measures that describe a patient’s experience outside hospital walls. Health.gov defines SDOH...
How to Talk to a Doc – The Health Care Blog
BY KIM BELLARD For better and for worse, our healthcare system is built around physicians. For the most part, they’re the ones we rely on for diagnoses, for prescribing medications, and for delivering care. And, often, simply for being a comfort. Unfortunately, in 2023, they’re still “only” human, and they’re not perfect. Despite best...
Republican Misbehavior Promoted Health Professional Activism – The Health Care Blog
By MIKE MAGEE If you wanted to create a motto for the summer of 2023 - one that would stand the test of time from the medical exam room of Ohio to the gilded bathroom of Mar-a-lago - it would have to be Jack Smith’s “Facts matter!” If that is true on a national scale,...
THCB Spotlight: Dexcare CEO, Derek Streat – The Health Care Blog
According to their press release, "Dexcare is a care-access platform to manage the logistics of digital-care delivery. The platform enables healthcare systems to forecast and predict demand and manage how and where care is merchandized to consumers – throughout the digital ecosystem". What does that mean? How does it compare to a bunch of other...
Sach Jain, CEO of Carrum Health talks to Matthew Holt – The Health Care Blog
The concept of "centers of excellence" has been around for a few decades. Surely sending health plan members and self-insured employers' employees to the best and most effective providers should improve health outcomes and save payers' money? Sach Jain is CEO of Carrum which has been working on this problem, partnering with the best providers...
THCB Gang Episode 132, Thursday July 27 – The Health Care Blog
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday July 27 at 1pm PST 4pm EST are Olympic rower for 2 countries and DiME CEO Jennifer Goldsack, (@GoldsackJen); patient advocate Robin Farmanfarmaian (@Robinff3); Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); and medical historian Mike Magee @drmikemagee. You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio...
Is More Physician-Owned Hospitals the Solution to our Health Cost problem? – The Health Care Blog
BY JEFF GOLDSMITH Robert Frost once said, “Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Increasingly, in our struggling society, that place is your local full service community hospital. During COVID, if it wasn’t your local hospital standing up testing sites, pumping out vaccinations and working double overtime...
Outpatient Vascular Care: Good, bad or ugly? – The Health Care Blog
BY ANISH KOKA Filling in the holes of recent stories in the New York Times, and Propublica on the outpatient care of patients with peripheral arterial disease Most have gotten used to egregiously bad coverage of current events that fills the pages of today’s New York Times, but even by their now very low standards...
Health Care, Disagree Better – The Health Care Blog
BY KIM BELLARD On one of the Sunday morning news programs Governors Spence Cox (UT) and Jared Polis (CO) promoted the National Governors Association initiative Disagree Better. The initiative urges that we practice more civility in our increasingly civilized political discourse. It’s hard to argue the point (although one can question why NGA thinks two...
Matthew’s tidbits: Obesity Summer – The Health Care Blog
Every time I get around to sending out the THCB READER I add a short & usually not to sweet commentary on some aspect of health care.--Matthew Holt I saw the obesity crisis up close this week. And by that I'm not just referring to my addiction to Salted Caramel with Pretzel Ice Cream, bad...
Truthfully, the Physician Shortage Doesn’t Exist! – The Health Care Blog
BY HANS DUVEFELT Conclusion: For every hour physicians provide direct clinical face time to patients, nearly 2 additional hours is spent on EHR and desk work within the clinic day. Outside office hours, physicians spend another 1 to 2 hours of personal time each night doing additional computer and other clerical work. (Sinsky et al,...
THCB Gang Episode 131, Thursday July 20 – The Health Care Blog
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday July 20 at 1pm PST 4pm EST are futurists Jeff Goldsmith; patient advocate Robin Farmanfarmaian (@Robinff3); Suntra Modern Recovery CEO JL Neptune (@JeanLucNeptune); and our special guest Investor at Bessemer Sofia Guerra (sofiaguerrar) You can see the video below & if you’d rather listen than watch, the audio...