Cliniomics - Health Policy and Economics

Google gets their sticky mits on patient charts, back surgery might be a overrated, stem cells show us how they deal with surgar, and the cost of heathcare goes up. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/299/6/656 http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/358/8/794 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120355185318681367.html http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSKIM15269420080221 http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/21/google.records.ap/index.html Join a growing health care community! ClinicResearch is a physician oriented patient research tool. Collaborate with other providers to develop outcome surveys. Start your 60 day free trial at ClinicResearch.com

Stent procedures improved, new bone protein found, FDA lacks oversight, Wall Mart to open 400 new clinics, controlled diabetes may be harmful and tattoos to deliver vaccines. Join a growing health care community! ClinicResearch is a physician oriented patient research tool. Collaborate with other providers to develop outcome surveys. Start your 60 day free trial at ClinicResearch.com

Universal health care not looking good in California, health plans stop paying for errors, a news letter for research studies and home genetic tests. Download the show today, leave comments here in the comments section or email at feedback@labcoatinnovations.com show002-show_notes.rtf Join a growing health care community! ClinicResearch is a physician oriented patient research tool. Collaborate with other providers to develop outcome surveys. Start your 60 day free trial at ClinicResearch.com

America spends $2 Trillion on healthcare, IT guys can bomb servers, UCLA makes progress on nerve replication and 80 year olds benefit from surgery. I'm joined by Dan Schrenk, CIO of LabCoat Innovations, LLC. Join a growing health care community! ClinicResearch is a physician oriented patient research tool. Collaborate with other providers to develop outcome surveys. Start your 60 day free trial at ClinicResearch.com

As readers of this blog know by now, I'm a fairly frequent reader of the the Wall Street Journal. Today's opinion video does a great job at briefly explaining the differences in health policies between the two leading democratic candidates [Obama and Clinton]. The conversation also touches on the inadequacy of attention of health policy from the right.Particularly revealing in this short conversation is the incrementalism approach Sen. Obama is using. As I've described before, incrementalism is a sure way to mitigate the huge pains the U.S. would feel by moving to a universal coverage plan all at once. It would further assuage the economic risks of completely overhauling our country's health insurance model. Should universal coverage turn out to be grossly more expensive than budget forecasts predict, this incremental approach would alleviate those pains.Another highlight of this video is the focus on the uninsured. I wrote a policy paper in graduate school describing the demographics of the uninsured. Rago's comments in this video confirm my earlier conclusions: the uninsured are not those at the bottom of the economic ladder nor those at the top; they are right in the middle and are choosing not to buy insurance. For most of these individuals it is a question of marginal utility not disparate conditions.Marginal utility refers to the concept of making a purchase decision. A person can choose to spend a dollar at one store or another. The person will spend the dollar where she recognizes more value. For healthy young males, the case for purchasing health insurance is simply not compelling enough. This is an opportunity for health insurance companies to attract these individuals with competitive rates and plans rather than a dire situation in which these individuals are fenced out of playing the game.Finally, the question of missed opportunity. Republican candidates are embracing a market based health system but are doing little in terms of education. Largely, Americans do not understand the health insurance market. Universal coverage is easier to understand as a solution though market based strategies may provide fewer pains and more efficiency in the long run. Candidates should focus on this opportunity and begin education campaigns to highlight how insurance companies work, how they compete for business and how this competition incentivizes companies to find efficiencies in operating costs. Join a growing health care community! ClinicResearch is a physician oriented patient research tool. Collaborate with other providers to develop outcome surveys. Start your 60 day free trial at ClinicResearch.com

Today's episode covers the structure of the new Cliniomics podcast. Brought to you weekly (probably bi-weekly at first), the Cliniomics podcast covers health news, policy, economics and includes a short editorial. Join a growing health care community! ClinicResearch is a physician oriented patient research tool. Collaborate with other providers to develop outcome surveys. Start your 60 day free trial at ClinicResearch.com