|
May 4, 2009 |
|
IN THIS ISSUE
Editor's Column: Another Look At Information
Technology
Letter: Medicine And The Pharmaceutical Industry
Medicaid Faces Budget Scalpel
MSMS, Counties Relay Concerns To MedAssurant
WSUSOM Students To Address State Legislators
Oakwood Invests In Dearborn 'Mixed Use'
Development
Wayne State Assistant Dean Accepts Foreign Post
MSMS, AMA Team Up To Offer
IT Help For Members |
|
Click Here To Contact Us
|
Editor's Column: Another Look At
Information Technology
By JOSEPH WEISS, MD
Analysts of health care, critics and futurists agree that
information technology (IT) is the way to make health care more
efficient and save money at the same time. An integral part of IT is
the personal electronic medical file. As envisioned by Google,
Microsoft, WebMD and other giants running the Web, the personal
electronic medical file would contain a patient’s total health
record. Through a series of prompts the individual would put on
record, via the Web page, the following: past and present diagnoses,
conditions, medications, allergies, surgeries, immunizations,
laboratory tests, family history of diseases and diagnoses, and
insurance coverage and its limitations.
Going to the health websites of Google (www.google.com/health),
Microsoft (www.healthvault.com),
and WebMD (www.webmd.com/phr)
will reveal the first problem: making the record. Putting together
the health record these sites require is tedious and the multiple
drop \-down menus are difficult to complete.
The second problem is making this information at once
private for the individual and, at the same time, readily available
to physicians. One of the purposes of having the health record
Web-based is to allow physician access. However, people feel that
the information they are provided on the Web site is sensitive,
personal, and subject to misuse by employers and strangers. No
health record site had solved the problem of making this health
record readily available to physicians, let alone the instances when
the patient arrives unconscious or delirious. In addition, the
record should keep information out of reach from individuals the
patient does not want to give access.
The third problem is the approach itself. In most instances,
physicians can garner the information they need by a review of the
patient’s current medication. Knowing the patient’s medical regimen
gives a physician a good idea of the conditions for which the
patient is receiving treatment. More information such as family
illness comes up in particular cases and asking the right questions
is what we spent at least half our medical training learning how to
do. Furthermore, if a patient is unconscious or in a state of
altered mentation, having a one page listing of medication taken in
a wallet or purse provides a health record that is readily
accessible under a wide variety of medical circumstances.
What the computer should do is to encourage an individual to
word-process their current medication list. We should not view the
computer in medicine as a tool for the complete and complex; rather,
the technology should bring out what is simple, straightforward, and
within the capacity of anyone with a keypad.
Share Your
Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top
|
Letter: Medicine And
The Pharmaceutical Industry
By EMANUEL
TANAY, MD
Powerful propaganda machine operated by big pharmaceutical and
insurance companies has had detrimental impact upon the public
opinions and practice of medicine. Thousands of gift baring
representatives visit medical offices regularly and exert influence
upon the practice of medicine. Physicians are put under pressure by
the “ask your doctors” advertising to the public. These commercials,
in emotional translation, mean that if your doctor is any good he
will prescribe the advertised drug. The exorbitant prices for some
drugs border on grotesque. The justification is research and
development. Great deal of the funds is spend on promotion.
Government and universities finance nearly all basic research.
The standard
treatment for a inoperable prostate cancer is Lupron injection
administered by a nurse. Each injection costs $2000. The patient
usually receives one injection every three months for two years.
Pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies have an
obligation to the stockholders to make profit. Medical ethics is not
their concern but they exercise enormous influence upon practice of
medicine.
Dr. Tanay is a retired Wayne
State University Professor of Psychiatry.
Share Your
Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top
|
Medicaid Faces
Budget Scalpel
Late last week
word leaked that Gov. Jennifer Granholm will make significant cuts
to Michigan’s Medicaid program. MSMS and other health care groups
have learned that Granholm plans to issue an Executive Order on
Tuesday, May 5, that would cut the state budget for the last quarter
of this fiscal year, including a 4 percent cut to Medicaid funding.
MSMS will hold a news conference in Lansing on Monday to argue
against the cuts to the health care safety net.
Medicaid serves
1.7 Michigan resident, but the rolls are growing by thousands per
month as an increasing number of Michiganians find themselves
jobless and without health coverage. Hospitals have reacted
similarly to physicians, but nursing homes might be the most
vulnerable to immediate effects. “We think this could topple some
facilities,” said David Seaman, a vice president with the Michigan
Health and Hospital Association, in reference to nursing homes.
Seaman's remarks were made to the Detroit Free Press.
MSMS is urging
members to immediately contact their legislators using links created
for that purpose on the MSMS website (www.msms.org).
Share Your Thoughts on this
Article
Back to top
|
MSMS, Counties
Relay Concerns To MedAssurant
Last week, MSMS
hosted a meeting with senior staff at MedAssurant. Attendees at the
meeting included senior MSMS staff, county society executives
representing Oakland and Genesee counties, representatives from
Michigan Medical Billers Association and Michigan Medical Group
Management Association, and members of the BCBSM staff.
Included in the
agenda was an opportunity for MedAssurant to provide an overview of
their company and their role in the current reviews, on behalf of
the insurance carriers. We in turn did the same. More than half of
the meeting was used to discuss the problems and concerns you, our
members and administrators, have brought to us. I believe the
message was delivered quite clearly that the process is at best a
minor intrusion into your business and at worst a significant burden
in terms of time and resources.
Numerous
suggestions were made to improve this process, including vastly
improving the communications to your practice prior to reviews, on
the day of the reviews, and subsequent to the reviews. We are also
seeking legal clarification through MSMS legal counsel of your
rights in this process and a definition of what the terms and
conditions of the contracts actually dictate in terms of compliance.
We asked and were supported by MedAssurant in our request to be at
the table in improving this process.
Finally, it is my
belief and that of some others that congressional contacts should be
considered to educate those who could possibly do something about
this mandate at the very top (in Washington).
I would like to
thank MSMS for convening this meeting, particularly Rebecca Blake
and Stacie Saylor. I was pleased to be able to share the concerns of
our members and also hear other perspectives at the table. As always
we will keep you updated as we move forward.
Thank you for
your support!
Donna Welch
LaGosh, Executive Director
Oakland County Medical Society
Share Your
Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
WSUSOM Students To Address State
Legislators
Three of the five
Wayne State University students selected to present their research
to state legislators as part of Michigan Graduate Week attend the
School of Medicine.
Daniel Barkmeier,
Anna Valina-Toth and Amanda Lawson-Gedman traveled to Lansing on
April 23 to represent WSU among the 60 graduate students from 15
colleges and universities who displayed their research for lawmakers
at the Capitol Building. The displays were part of Michigan Graduate
Education Week, April 20-24, proclaimed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The week is designed to highlight the importance of graduate
education and its impact on employment opportunities in the state.
“The importance
of such an event cannot be stressed enough at a time when the state
is cutting appropriations to the research-intensive universities,”
said Ambika Mathur, Ph.D., assistant dean of Combined Degree
Programs and Postdoctoral Affairs for the School of Medicine. “The
presentations by our students served to demonstrate to the
legislators the excellence in research training that is provided to
students at Wayne, and in particular by the faculty and training
programs in the School of Medicine. This was underscored by the two
MD/PhD students presenting at this event, both of whom have been
awarded prestigious individual fellowships. This type of recognition
of our student success is important to raise the awareness of the
excellence of graduate training in the School of Medicine and Wayne
StateUniversity as a whole amongst the legislative body of our
state. This served as a great opportunity for the students to
interact with our elected officials and to serve as ambassadors of
the university and the medical school.”
Dr. Mathur, also
a professor of the Department of Pediatrics, said WSU’s Graduate
School sent e-mails to all graduate program officers across all
schools and colleges soliciting applications from graduate students.
An internal committee reviewed all submitted scientific abstracts
from the students and conducted interviews with them before
selecting the five best to send to Lansing.
Valina-Toth holds
a much-coveted F31 fellowship awarded by the National Institutes of
Health. Barkmeier is the recipient of an award from the Epilepsy
Foundation.
Barkmeier, who
has completed two years of medical school and is in his third year
of graduate school, said his research was well received. “Several
visitors told me stories of people close to them who had epilepsy
and expressed their gratitude and optimism for my project.”
His research
involves attempting to gain a better understanding of epilepsy and
development of a possible cure. “After studying human brain tissue
removed during epilepsy surgery, we have identified the key
molecular pathways involved in epilepsy,” he said. “My project is to
create an animal model that accurately mirrors these pathways and
then to use this model to test new, targeted therapeutics.
“I am honored to
be given the chance to show our community the wonderful research
that takes place at Wayne State,” Barkmeier said.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back to top
|
Oakwood Invests In
Dearborn 'Mixed Use' Development
Oakwood
leadership last week joined representatives from Midwest Health
Center, the City of Dearborn and Redico Development Company to break
ground on the Dearborn Town Center development project – a mixed use
development that will offer multi-specialty medical care, retail,
office space and an assisted living facility for seniors located on
the corner of Michigan Avenue and Schaefer in the heart of downtown
east Dearborn. The $70 million Dearborn Town Center project will
serve the citizens of Dearborn, Detroit and southeast Michigan.
“Oakwood has made
a commitment to revitalize downtown east Dearborn by investing in a
state-of-the-art development and we are proud to partner with
Midwest, Redico Development Company and the City of Dearborn in
order to make this investment a reality,” said Brian Connolly,
President and CEO, Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. (OHI). “Oakwood and
Midwest share a longstanding presence in the Dearborn community and
we are eager to bring this project to life and serve our friends and
neighbors in this region.”
The property sits
on a historic and highly visible street corner – land that was
formerly Montgomery Ward. The vision for the project is to create a
village atmosphere through a comprehensive mix of services. Oakwood
and Redico will jointly own the medical office development, which
will span more than 125,000 square feet of the development.
In January of
this year, Oakwood acquired all five Midwest Health Center locations
from Dr. Mark Saffer and his partners, including offices in
Dearborn, Detroit, Livonia, Romulus and Taylor. Management of the
day-to-day operations of the facilities will continue to be overseen
by Dr. Saffer’s management company. The Dearborn Town Center will
serve as the new home of the Dearborn Midwest Health Center, which
has been serving the community for many years.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
Wayne State
Assistant Dean Accepts Foreign Post
Christopher
Green, MD, PhD, assistant dean for China/Asia-Pacific for the Wayne
State University School of Medicine, has been appointed a professor
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The academy, Dr.
Green said, is the equivalent of the United States National
Institutes of Health. The appointment as professor to the academy
required a nomination and election. Dr. Green was sponsored for the
honor by the academy’s Institute of Biophysics, the location of the
clinical Brain and Imaging MRI Center of Excellence in Beijing. The
center is the country’s key lab for brain and cognitive
neurosciences.
“The appointment
means I have a ready open door when I try to have conversations in
hospitals and medical establishments,” Dr. Green explained. “I deal
with hospitals and academic institutions, and they treat me very
well. The Wayne State University School of Medicine is very well
known here. I have a very easy sell when arranging partnerships with
the school.”
The relationships
that Dr. Green establishes in China assist researchers in the United
States and at the School of Medicine by broadening relationships.
Chinese researchers may be working on similar studies as their
counterparts at the School of Medicine. Opening dialogs and sharing
findings broadens the pool of research subjects as well as the
wealth of discoveries.
While in China,
Dr. Green conducts research at the nation’s largest neurological
hospital, Tian Tan Hospital, which is entirely devoted to studies
and treatment of the brain and neurology.
Prior to his
current assignment, Dr. Green served as the executive director of
the Emergent Technology Research Division in the Departments of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, and Diagnostic Radiology,
where he is an adjunct professor and Fellow in Clinical Neuroimaging.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
MSMS, AMA Team Up
To Offer IT Help For Members
Michigan
physicians are the first in the nation to gain increased access to
health information technologies (HIT) through a new collaboration
announced May 1 by the American Medical Association (AMA) and
Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) with Compuware’s Covisint.
This collaboration builds on MSMS’s nation-leading “MSMS Connect”
and comes just days after the AMA announced its agreement with
Covisint to develop an AMA web-based portal.
The collaboration
will increase the number of products and services available to
Michigan physicians. MSMS Connect currently has a portfolio of
services that help to improve patient care, facilitate efficient
medical practice and ease the adoption of HIT. Later this year,
through the AMA collaboration, MSMS members will be able to access
even more secure tools and information in support of improved
patient care and efficiency.
“Our
collaboration with the AMA is very exciting for Michigan physicians
because we are now able to pool our efforts to deliver a broader
range of resources to help physicians in their practices,” said
Gregory J. Forzley, MD, chair of MSMS board of directors and Medical
Director of Informatics at Saint Mary’s Health Care in Grand Rapids,
Mich. “Physicians can select the products and services they need to
help increase their efficiency, quality of care, and patient safety
through one online portal.”
Available
offerings will include the latest and most useful tools and
information for ePrescribing, electronic health records, and
practice and revenue management to provide very practical and
tangible help to practicing physicians. The new physician-friendly
portal will allow for personalized content, search capabilities and
learning and networking opportunities that will not require great
technological expertise to implement.
“Through this
collaboration with MSMS, Michigan physicians will provide feedback
that will help improve the program for physicians nationwide,” said
AMA Board Chair Joseph M. Heyman, MD. “By working together, we can
develop a better portal with the products and services to help
simplify physicians' day-to-day routines so they can focus on what
they do best – caring for patients.”
The AMA platform
will be launched nationally in 2010.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
|
This publication brought to you by
Natinsky Publishing Network.
Problems seeing this email? You may view it online at
http://www.wcmssm.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter contact
info@wcmssm.org |
|
