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Health Blog

May 16, 2012

Cost versus worth of technology in healthcare

Two articles caught my attention this week amid of the flurry of news about jobs, the market and the economy. The first, Not retiring at 65: Physician goes from anti-EHR to pro-ACO , was about a 65 year old physician in Tucson who is not only delaying...(read more)

May 10, 2012

A Whirlwind of Activity at WoHIT eHealth Week in Copenhagen, Denmark

The view from my room high atop the Bella Sky Comwell Hotel pretty much symbolizes what my past two days have been like at the World of Health IT Conference in Copenhagen – whirlwind .  Well, actually the view is of a gigantic wind turbine that supplies...(read more)

May 7, 2012

Creative Destruction – What it means for healthcare, clinical practice and consumers

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of providing a keynote address at the Group Practice Improvement Network (GPIN) conference that was held in Seattle.  I say “pleasure” for two reasons.  Unlike most of the conferences I speak at these days...(read more)

May 1, 2012

Research4Life “Library in a Box” to be honored at GBCHealth Awards in NYC

A public-private partnership known as Research4Life that is sponsored in part by Microsoft, has been commended by the Global Business Coalition on Health and will be honored during that organization’s annual GBCHealth conference and awards dinner in New...(read more)

April 30, 2012

Health Tech Spending and Profitability - Chicken, Egg or Omelet?

As someone whose entire career has been steeped in clinical medicine and technology, I’m a big fan of the American publication, Hospitals and Health Networks .  I especially like reading the commentaries on the publication’s digital feed, H&HN...(read more)

April 17, 2012

Is your IT strategy putting your health organization at risk of becoming extinct?

This week I’m writing from Gothenburg, Sweden, where I am holding meetings with Microsoft customers and partners.  I am also doing a keynote address at Vitalis , a conference billed as the largest health IT event in Scandinavia.  This isn’t...(read more)

April 16, 2012

Microsoft HealthVault opens to the world……. or at least a lot more of it

Whenever I travel outside the US, and even inside the US, I tend to get lots of questions about Microsoft’s platform for personal health records, HealthVault .  I say “platform” because HealthVault is much more than a site for storing your personal...(read more)

April 10, 2012

Health ICT 2012 – Pain, Progress and Promise

After two weeks back in my Redmond office it is time again to hit the road.  I swear I hardly remember last week due to the mental fog of jetlag after a two and a half week sojourn in New Zealand and Australia.  Next week I’m heading in the...(read more)

April 4, 2012

Senior citizens improve health, sense of well being with Kinect, XBOX 360 & Microsoft HealthVault

If you think video games are just for kids, tweens and teens you’d be terribly wrong.  People of all ages are buying and playing video games these days.  In fact, a pilot program called the Exergamers Wellness Club developed by Microsoft, the...(read more)

March 24, 2012

Health ICT moves forward in Australia with some great people and best practices

This weekend I’ve settled in Brisbane at one of my favorite hotels, the Stamford Plaza .  It has an ideal location with easy access to the riverfront, City Cat water taxi service, the botanical garden, restaurants, and local area attractions. ...(read more)

March 19, 2012

New Zealand sets an example on the race for better healthcare

Over the weekend I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, my first stop before I continue on to Australia for a multi-city tour of meetings with customers, partners and government officials in the region.  I will also deliver a few keynote addresses at...(read more)

March 13, 2012

Making health services more accessible and affordable to more people

The Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act is slated to bring health insurance coverage to an additional 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured.  With many primary care medical practices closed to taking new patients and a national...(read more)

March 7, 2012

Don’t blame technology for driving up the cost of healthcare. Blame all of us who use it inappropriately.

If you are a regular reader of HealthBlog, I suspect you may already subscribe to THCB , The Health Care Blog.  Like most folks in the health industry, I’m a big fan of THCB.  It is a “must read” for news and opinion about what’s going on in...(read more)

March 5, 2012

Your turn! Health information and medical services that scale and change the world.

Those who know about my background understand why and how my medical career gravitated toward all things digital.  Frankly, it wasn’t by design.  Life just kind of happened more than it was planned. My career started at the tender age of 17...(read more)

March 1, 2012

Innovations for health and healthcare through the looking glass of Microsoft Research

One of the coolest aspects of my job at Microsoft is getting early previews of work going on at Microsoft Research .  Did you know that Microsoft invests more than $9 Billion a year on applied research across a broad range of ICT.  This includes...(read more)

February 28, 2012

Medical Dictation, Speech Recognition Moves to the Cloud

Healthcare is a data intensive business.  One of the barriers to adoption of electronic medical records is data entry. Using a keyboard to write long medical reports or enter data into formatted templates can be a tiresome productivity sink for busy...(read more)

February 23, 2012

HIMSS 2012 – Software, Solutions and Robots…… Oh My!

In my last post I mentioned that this year at HIMSS I’d be looking for IT solutions that help bring us closer to the “triple-aim” of better (higher quality), faster (improved access), less expensive care.  Oh sure, like every other year I saw some...(read more)

February 20, 2012

Lessons from Las Vegas - HIMSS 12 and Healthcare

As almost anyone even remotely connected to the world of health ICT knows, this week is the HIMSS Conference in Las Vegas.  I arrived early to provide a keynote Sunday morning for a large contingent of our customers and partners visiting HIMSS from...(read more)

February 14, 2012

Software solution keeps doctors on time, patients more satisfied

Have you ever been a patient in a hospital?  If not, perhaps you have had the experience of having a family member or other loved one spend time in a hospital.  In either case, I’ll bet one of the most annoying and anxiety causing things about...(read more)

February 10, 2012

Considering the cost, no excuse for bad service in healthcare

On January 27th I posted a story about the work I’ve been doing with Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.  The medical center has been hosting CEO Healthcare Summits around the country encouraging large employers to apply the same scrutiny to...(read more)