Embracing the New, New Thing
My life has been devoted to the pursuit of innovation - attempting to embrace new ideas and new technologies before the path ahead is completely clear. Admittedly, I have not leveraged social media to the extent I should have.For a decade, I ’ve posted blogs and for many years wrote lengthy posts every day. In recent months, as my writing has focused onbooks,articles, and the newBlockchain in Healthcare Today peer reviewed journal, I ’ve written fewer blog posts.In an age where the news cycle is 24 hours (or less), I ’ve found that people appreciate more frequent, shorter communications, so I’ve turned t...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - February 6, 2018 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
My Technology Christmas List for 2017
Although this week will be lighter because of the holidays, the work never ends. At the Sanctuary, I ' m using our Terex skid steer and its attachments (consensus method from forums suggests the " blade " to create windrows then the snowblower attachment to move the windrows. Light snow - blade only). Although we did not receive more than a few inches of snow, we are getting early bitter cold, so snow will not be melting for the next 10 days. It was a very white Christmas!Here ' s my technology Christmas list for 2017The Sanctuary now usesoutdoor Nest cameras so that we can remotely view the animals to bett...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - December 26, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Another Dispatch from a Broken Healthcare System
I ' m working on a series of " Dispatches from a Broken Healthcare System " based on my personal experience as a care navigator. I ' ve already written about a frustratingcare management experienceToday ' s blog is a guest post from Amy Stiner, a healthcare expert and single mom from the Pacific Northwest. She reflects below on what should be a simple task - transferring records between institutions in the age of Meaningful Use." My name is Amy Stiner and my healthcare consulting career has taken my 6-year old son, my mother, and me progressively across the country. Over the course of Grant ’s sweet...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - November 30, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Dispatch From South Africa
My blog readers must think I ' ve abandoned them over the past few weeks. I apologize for the whirlwind of October and November. With the BIDMC-Lahey merger planning and the new cloud hosted Meditech go lives of my day job, plus the usual Fall conference commitments, and my new work with the Gates Foundation, blogging has fallen behind.The Gates Foundation has a bold plan for Africa - unifying the health records of the continent using biometrics, simple phone apps, and a highly resilient low bandwidth cloud that includes data integrity components based on blockchain.Here ' s the use case - patients with HI...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - November 20, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Unity Farm and Unity Farm Sanctuary Update for November 2017
Starting next month, my daughter Lara will take charge of our instagram, Facebook, and Twitter feeds, providing daily updates about the Farm and Sanctuary. As we approach winter 2017, we can officially declare that the farm and sanctuary are now fully built and we ' re transitioning to daily operations. We have over 250 animals at this point, all kept healthy, warm and fed every day. Here ' s a summary of the past month, as told in pictures.From mid October to early November, the swamp maples, oaks, and poplar take on shades of crimson and bright yellow, turning Unity Lane into the kind road less tra...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - November 20, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Don't Let Things Slip Away From You
Kathy has written this guest post, about the unexpected death of a friend." Please don ’t let things slip away from you:first steps,first kiss,first real vacation …first time you know that something is not quite right in your body.I discovered yesterday that someone about my age whom I have known for at least 15 years had passed away in September. I had seen her once during the summer.I was told by her colleague that about a year and a half ago, she noticed leaking from one breast. Her coworkers persisted in asking about the situation and she then told them it was just an infection from a cat scratch. It is not clear s...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - October 25, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Building Unity Farm Sanctuary - September 2017
I ’m on a flight to New Zealand as part of my international government service. The 26 hour commute means that even with just two days of meetings in Auckland, I will be gone from the farm for 5 days.I spent Saturday morning cleaning paddocks, emptying manure carts, packing hay bins, filling water troughs, and doing the final repairs/maintenance that will ensure the farm/sanctuary can thrive for a few days while I ’m gone. What happens at the sanctuary over a typical week? Numerous volunteers spend time with animals, providing companionship, exercise and socializationHorse experts bond with Amber, Milly,...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - September 17, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
We Can Improve Care Management
As a physician and CIO, I ’m quick to spot inefficiencies in healthcare workflow. More importantly, as the care navigator for my family, I have extensive firsthand experience with patient facing processes.My wife ’s cancer treatment, my father’s end of life care, and my own recent primary hypertension diagnosis taught me how we can do better.Last week, when my wife received a rejection in coverage letter from Harvard Pilgrim/Caremark, it highlighted the imperative we have to improve care management workflow in the US.Since completing her estrogen positive, progesterone positive, HER2 negative breast cancer treat...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - September 12, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Building Unity Farm Sanctuary - August 2017
I ’ve put down the pitchfork and shovel, returning to the keyboard to update everyone about our Sanctuary progress. Here ’s what’s happened over the past few weeks.As Kathy wrote on Facebook on July 25, Pippin, our 30 year old Welsh Pony passed away from cancer. His last few months included daily play with three other ponies, walks in the woods, and generous servings of grain/treats. He was the centerpiece of our horse work at the sanctuary and we miss him every day. He ’s buried on a hill covered with oaks overlooking the barnyard marked by a large flat stone.The sanctuary volunte...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - August 17, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Unity Farm and Sanctuary Guest Post
Over the past few weeks I ' ve been writing a few journal articles and finishing a book, so my blog posts have waned. They will start again soon. In the meantime, my mother is visiting and here is her guest post.Dagmar Halamka ' s farm notes from August 4,2017 and August 5, 2017.The beauty here is infinite - wildflowers everywhere, bee colonies in colorful hives, gushing fountains in ponds with swimming ducks and geese and vast amounts of greenery because of the frequent rain. 60 acres of enchanted forest that even " House and Garden " magazine could not duplicate surround the farm. Roosters...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - August 6, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Reflections on the US HIT Policy Trajectory
I ’m in China this week, meeting with government, academia, and industry leaders in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou. The twelve hour time difference means that I can work a day in China, followed by a day in Boston. For the next 7 days, I ’ll truly be living on both sides of the planet.I recently delivered this policy update about the key developments in healthcare IT policy and sentiment over the past 90 days.I ’ve not written a specific summary of the recently released Quality Patient Program proposed rule which provides the detailed regulatory guidance for impleme...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - July 7, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Building Unity Farm Sanctuary - First Week of July 2017
Admittedly, the pace of my writing has slowed this Summer since each day is filled with a combination of IT work, mentoring, and keeping 60 acres of farm/sanctuary running smoothly. How ’s it all going? Our trajectory is good.So much of what we ’re doing at the farm/sanctuary is improvisation that we have no choice but to create a vision and accept ambiguity on the daily journey.We received a request to adopt a house pig - Rue, who ’s 80 pounds at 4 years old and extremely well behaved. We ’ve been socializing her with the other pigs and thus far, all is proceeding as expected - they chall...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - July 3, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Building Unity Farm Sanctuary - Second Week of June 2017
Star the Donkey arrived at the Sanctuary last week and she ’s living with the goats, serving as a livestock guardian. She ’s 18 years old (donkeys live to 35) is about 100 pounds overweight. We ’ll be restricting her diet, giving her daily exercise, and provide intensive veterinary care until her weight normalizes. I expect that will take a year or two. Her first vet visit and farrier (hoof) work will be this week.Honey the chicken develop wheezing this week and we ’ve isolated her from the flock. Although she has intermittent breathing issues, she ’s eating, layi...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - June 8, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
What ’s Next for Electronic Health Records?
With the Department of Justice announcement of the $155 million dollar eClinicalWorks settlement(including personal liability for the CEO, CMO and COO), many stakeholders are wondering what ’s next for EHRs.Clearly the industry is in a state of transition. eCW will be distracted by its 5 year corporate integrity agreement. AthenaHealth will have to focus on theactivist investors at Elliott Management who now own 10% of the company and have a track record of changing management/preparing companies for sale. As mergers and acquisitions result in more enterprise solutions, Epic (and to some...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - May 31, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Building Unity Farm Sanctuary - 4th week of May 2017
Spring ’s warmth and rain is accelerating our plant and mushroom growth such that every day is a balance between agricultural management and sanctuary development activities like trail building as pictured below. The stone bridge you see was built in the early 1800 ' s.The adventuresome project of last weekend was replacing the 20 year old heating oil tanks in the Sanctuary. The seams were weeping and oil was accumulating on the sides of the tanks. I recently heard a nightmarish story about an oil delivery of 500 gallons into a 250 gallon tank that had a newly ruptured seam. With new tanks, w...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - May 25, 2017 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
