Archive for February, 2008

 

Results of Tech President Primary

Feb 27, 2008 in Element

iHealthBeat (courtesy of Daily Mail) reports on proposed House Bill 4020 introduced last week before the West Virginia Legislature to modify W.Va. Code 27-3-1 authorizing the disclosure of certain mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

According to the article, West Virginia is one of about 24 states that do not allow the release of records to the database. Some states have declined to participate in the federal database because of privacy concerns.
2008 WV Legislature: Modification to WV Mental Health Confidentiality Provisions

Want to know where the presidential hopefuls stand on technology?

Check ou the result of the TechCrunch Tech President Primaries. You can see where the candidates stand on 10 key tech issues. Based on the results the TechCrunch endorsements goes to Barack Obama and John McCain.

Great information if you are concerned about the level of knowledge our leaders must have regarding the importance of technology on the economy and our culture. Results of Tech President Primary

African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927

Feb 24, 2008 in Juvenile

Amazon.com: African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927 (Dover .Amazon.com: African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927 (Dover Thrift Editions): Books: James Madison Bell,Frances Ellen Watkins Harper,Charlotte L. Forten Grimk,George .

Smithsonian Folkways - Anthology of America Folk Music - Old Time .Smithsonian Folkways - Anthology of America Folk Music - Old Time Songs - African American and Afro Music

Dr. David Kibbee provides great insight on the meeting by the Markle Foundation and what it might mean for Health 2.0, consumer driven health care and how health data is managed by traditional health care providers and payors. Well worth the read for anyone interested in where health information might be headed.

I look forward to reading the public policy document cited in his post, Consumer Access Practices for Networked Health Information.” Dr. Kibbee hits on a point that I continue to explore from a legal perspective. He makes the statement:

Markle has lifted the discussion onto another level, and this time it’s about health data, its ownership and rules of access, and its uses in our nation to promote health and wellness.

We are in the midst of a wave of change in the ownership rights of health information and data. Traditionally (and legally) we have viewed health data as owned/controlled by one group or another (what Dr. Kibbee refers to as the institutional custodians). For example, physician/hospital who owns the patient’s paper medical record or insurer who own beneficiaries payment/claims information.

Typical state law support such ownership notions. Most state laws provide you and I as patients the right to copy our records. Some states go as far as providing you and I a right of access. However, to my knowledge no state law takes the alternative approach of the patient owning the records and providing access rights. Most state laws, if not all, base the ownership right on the originator or creator of the medical record. Even the HIPAA privacy rule that evolved to its present state in the late 1990s and early 2000s speaks in terms of a patient’s “right to copy” and “right access to records”. At no point does it speak of patient’s ownership of the records.

Our legal system have very strong views on “ownership” rights. In fact ownership is a basis legal premise build into the fabric of everything we do. With ownership comes notions of control, propriety nature, privacy, competition and power (financially and otherwise). I subscribe that this foundation has largely been the reason we have yet to see integration, standardization and openness of health data exchange. Dr. Kibbee gets at this question in his post when he discusses the spirited debate during the Markle conference surrounding the question of how to “liberate” personal health information.

Dr. Kibbee also gets into the difficult questions that I am constantly struggling with regarding privacy (how much is too much and how much is not enough) and introduces the concept of “fair information practices”. Balance between a patient/consumers right to control access to health information, need for access by health care professionals, reasonable protections to prohibit the breach of data, rights of governments to access/use data for particular purposes, etc.

In reacting to Dr. Kibbee’s worries that physicians are not embracing the change — I suspect this is largely due to the current reimbursement system that we have created to pay for health care. My view is that until this reimbursement model changes to create financial incentives for wellness and management of chronic disease it will be difficult to bring about change via the physicians.

These are my initial reactions (stream of consciousness) after having read Dr. Kibbee’s very insightful and thought provoking post. I hope to have a chance to come back and think some more about his post and my reaction. Kibbee/Markle: Exploration of Consumer Access to Networked Health Information

How does Teflon stick to the pan? This is the sort of question you could be asking yourself after being “taken” by a scam artist telemarketer. Legal phone scams can be devastating enough. No need t Learn How Easy You Can Spot the Phone Scams of a Con Man

Spanish Literature: Free books, poems, novels and history summary.

Feb 22, 2008 in Element

Malignant mesothelioma is a serious form of cancer that affects the smooth lining of the chest, lungs, heart, and abdomen. Most cases of malignant mesothelioma are caused by repeated exposure to asbes Occupations at risk for Mesothelioma

An interview with Dr. Flea (Robert Lindeman, MD) from Eric Turkewitz at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog.

Thanks to Mr. Turkewitz for taking the time and effort to approach Dr. Lindeman and for Dr. Lindeman for agreeing to be interviewed. A great series of questions and answers. There is a lesson in this for all of us — lawyers (plaintiff and defense), physician, hospital CEOs, etc.

Mr. Turkewitz followed up with Dr. Lindeman after seeing that he was interviewed for an article on Canadian doctor blogs, Check my blog and call me in the morning, by the National Review of Medicine. More on the behind the scenes interview for the article at the Canadian Medicine blog.

For more information check out my past post, “The Flea Flicker” and a follow up post highlighting an article I assisted Fard Johnmar, including some basic legal tips for physician bloggers.

Thanks to KevinMD courtesy of Althouse for the tip. The Return of Flea . . .

Category:Spanish literature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSubcategories. There are 12 subcategories in this category, which are shown below. More may be shown on subsequent pages.

Spanish literature definition of Spanish literature in the Free Online .Encyclopedia article about Spanish literature. Information about Spanish literature in the Columbia Encyclopedia, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, computing dictionary.

Spanish LiteratureGuide for research in Spanish literature . 2008 Student Book Collecting Contest. Do you have a great book collection?