I had dinner over the weekend with a close friend who is a breast cancer survivor (her word) and a former avid participant in the annual marathons sponsored by the Susan B. Komen Foundation. Her status as a former activist was new. ’Is this what we were racing for?’ she said. She is skeptical by [...]

I am seeing the world of medicine change before my eyes, and I wonder where we’re going.Never before has there been more information at our disposal, yet more confusion. Like molecules being heated, the Brownian motion happening in medicine seems completely ineffectual for those of us on the front lines of care, geared more toward [...]

Rick Santorum won three GOP contests yesterday: Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, so I decided to take a look at where he stands on health care. Turns out his health care platform is just a predictable jeremiad of anti-Obama rants plus a collection of well-worn Republican feel-good proposals that would have little practical impact if enacted. [...]

So the holidays have past and we can all ease back into the well-known and comfortable understanding ofStage 1 Meaningful Useand incentives. Correct? Well don’t get too deep in that couch. Sure the incentives are flying into inboxes at a record pace. In November 2011 alone over$585,000,000was paid out toEligible ProfessionalsandEligible Hospitalsas incentives. I hope [...]

Every week, MedCity News highlights the best of its MedCitizens: syndication partners and MedCity News readers who discuss life science current events on MedCityNews.com. Now here’s the best of what YOU had to say.

The CMS EHR Incentive Program is going full bore. Over $390,000,000 was paid out in November alone by Medicare to Eligible Professionals (EP) and Eligible Hospitals (EH). That doesn’t even include the Medicaid incentives. Seems like every possible EHR is certified, EPs and EHs are registering, and we’ve even seen the Stage 1 early 2011 [...]

This post is sponsored by NextGen:Health.NextGen:Health is a new way of doing conferences: An invitation-only live event with world-leading experts giving “TED.com-style” Talks that are DYNAMIC, INSPIRING and SHORT (between 6-18 minutes). The topics are game-changing BIG ideas on: improving experiences of professionals, patients, and families; enabling innovation through research and data-sharing; mobile and tech; [...]

This post is sponsored by Opal Events.How would you rank your strategy for optimizing CMS’s 5-Star Quality Rating System? Were you a top-rated plan in 2011? If not, the Star Ratings Symposium, held Feb. 27-28 in Anaheim, California, is a must-attend conference for you. The information will be high-level, but very practical. You’ll learn valuable [...]

This post is sponsored by CED.CED, the Southeast’s largest entrepreneurial support organization, will feature the Biopharma and Medtech Emerging Company Showcase, showcasing the most promising emerging companies in North Carolina, which will occur at the CED Life Science Conference on Feb. 15–16, 2012 at the Raleigh Convention Center.“North Carolina has an abundance of emerging life [...]

There are many misconceptions about health care and medical care. This includes the discussions over the last few years about healthcare reform but is not limited to those discussions. I plan to write about these over the coming days and weeks in some detail. Here is the first one. ’American has the best healthcare system [...]