By Bianca Grogan SUBTEXT: At the start of the Health 2.0 Goes to Washington Conference, June 07, 2010, Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya welcomed all of the conference attendees with an introduction to Health 2.0. In the middle of that...

By JONATHAN BUSH At last, we have received from Mt. Olympus those much awaited writings….the definition of “meaningful use”! Oy. I understand how we got here. I could put myself in the shoes of government decision-makers at every step of...

By PAUL LEVY This has to be a very difficult time for insurance companies in Massachusetts. Notwithstanding that they are non-profits, they are under a lot of scrutiny with regard to reserve margins and profitability. Much of this is unfair,...

By Matthew Holt At the Health 2.0 Goes to Washington conference June 7, 2010 there was an excellent panel discussing the role of consumers in Health 2.0. It was moderated by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn from THINK-Health. Panelists were Linda Harris from...

By BRADLEY LATINO Regardless of one’s opinion on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s constitutionality, most commentators-and no less an authority than the Congressional Budget Office)-agree (or concede, as the case may be) that Congress has never required Americans...

By Ida Strom Seljeseth SUBTEXT This is the complete panel debate on the Role of "Data Liberacion" from the Health 2.0 Goes to Washington on June 10, 2010. The panel featured Todd Park from the US Department of Health and...

By ED PULLEN, MD I really dislike the term healthcare reform. I think our system needs to be changed not reformed. I assume that I am not the only person who suspects that the recent health care reform act is...

By Ida Strom Seljeseth SUBTEXT At the Health 2.0 Goes to Washington conference on June 10, 2010 Josh Sommer, Executive Director of the Chordoma Foundation gave this brief interview were he talks about the future he wishes to see in...

By Matthew Holt Earlier this week there was a curious little hearing at Pete Stark’s committee. Much of the Q & A—mind you post the announcement of the final meaningful use rules—was (apparently, as I can’t find the transcript) a...

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD I was planning on leaving behind the seriousness of the past few posts and going back to my usual inane writing, but some of the comments have made it too hard for me to keep quiet....

By Matthew Holt One of my favorite topics is back in the news. Apparently ACL repairs may be unnecessary. Here’s the WSJ Health Blog write up about the NEJM study. Two groups of active young people with torn ACLs were...

By MARGALIT GUR ARIE The regulators have completed their work. CMS has defined how you should use technology in your practice or hospital (Meaningful Use) and technical requirements for EHRs have been finalized. CMS and ONC have removed all ambiguity...

By Ida Strom Seljeseth At the AHIP conference in Las Vegas in June 2010, Matthew Holt sat down with two leaders in Microsoft's health plan practice: Dennis Schmuland, Director οf U.S. Health Plans Industry Solutions and Hector Rodriguez, Industry Technology...

By Matthew Holt SUBTEXT: In this technology showcase from the Health 2.0 Goes to Washington conference on June 7, 2010, the participants in the Data Drives Decisions panel showcased and discussed how data collected from and by users can be...

By Matthew Holt In this interview captured at the Health 2.0 Goes to Washington on June 10, 2010 David Hale, project manager at the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health talks about his vision for the future...

By Matthew Holt Ever since the "build your own network" company Ning moved to a pay model for its networks, there’s been some browbeating on the blogosphere about what to do with those communities which had created traction on Ning,...

By NORTIN HADLER, MD There has been much progress in the understanding of the biology of Alzheimer’s disease. Chemicals detected in the blood and spinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s and findings with new brain imaging techniques are the long...

By ALAN WEIL, JD The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act creates a continuous set of coverage options for every American with income below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about half of the nation’s population. Sounds simple,...

By ROB LAMBERTS, MD I went to a patient’s funeral this past weekend. I generally don’t do that for people whose relationship I’ve built in the exam room. It’s a complex set of emotions, but invariably some family member will...