Dr. Kizer opening keynote at the HIMSS Southern CA Chapter Healthcare IT Conference #HITCon13

I'm in Los Angeles at the California Endowment attending the HIMSS Southern California Chapter Annual Healthcare IT Conference today. I was invited to speak on the topic of social media this afternoon, so I'm grateful to be here.

The theme of the conference is around Healthcare Consumerism and the Twitter hashtag is #HITCon13.

The opening keynote was delivered by Kenneth W. Kizer, MD, MPH, Director of the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI).  He described some innovative programs like the California Health eQuality (CHeQ) Program, a California HIE program. There are other grant programs supporting HIEs in California, so it seems that other states will be able to learn from these models. You can learn more by visiting the IPHI website.

He also addressed the increasing costs of health care and the unsustainable model that currently exists today. Health care is a complex adaptive system, so change occurs when we pull on key change levers like: financing, performance measurement, health IT, consumerism, and regulations.

How do you define healthcare consumerism? Patient centeredness. Patient empowerment. Patient engagement. Patient autonomy. What exactly do these big terms mean? Including big words in a federal grant request may help you get government funding, but if these terms are not adequately understood by health care professionals, then we won't achieve healthcare consumerism. We can distill all of these terms down to the 5 C's (or 7 C's): Choice (control), convenience, collaboration (connected), comfort, and cost. Patients want to share their health information with family members and they want care coordination to get easier. They want to see efficiencies in the healthcare system. When we achieve this for patients, then we will begin understanding healthcare consumerism.

If we look at other industries, we see major transformations that have been driven by technology and consumerism. For instance, traditional bookstores are hurting because of cloud-based businesses like Amazon.

There are many IT tools that are transforming healthcare, but how effectively are they getting incorporated into patient care today? The HIMSS community has a great opportunity to leverage these tools and platforms to improve population health management and to achieve the 5 C's of health care consumerism.

My summary of the #HIMSS13 keynote by Dr. Eric Topol on day #2

This morning on the second day of the 2013 HIMSS conference, Dr. Eric Topol gave an entertaining, engaging keynote about the future of medicine and the emergence of digital health.

He came on stage wearing his Walking Gallery jacket painted by Regina Holliday. We saw a surge of tweets from the medical community praising Regina for her patient advocacy efforts through her growing Walking Gallery.

Eric entertained the audience with some photos challenging the notion of "what is a digital native?" It seems that unless you started using a smartphone when you were in the womb, you are probably a digital immigrant. We have all immigrated to the digital world.

He also spoke about the current state of medical care. Patients are getting treated as equals right now. We are not routinely incorporating genomic data on specific patients, but we have the capability of doing that right now.

Wearable sensor technology is also gaining momentum in the world of consumer health. We can wear Fitbits and wrist bands that can help people measure, track, and share their physical activity, their sleep, and much more. Top pro athletes are even monitoring their sleep.

On stage, he pulled out his smartphone and showed the audience his AliveCor pocket ECG and his own heart rate. He also demonstrated his own pulse ox by placing a sensor on his fingertip and plugging the device into his smartphone. On his wrist, he had an "ICU on your wrist" that also measured his blood pressure and other biometrics. His point was that we are digitizing health care. Traditional medical equipment like stethoscopes are getting replaced with digital devices that can show how the heart is beating. We now have gadgets that can attach to smartphones and empower patients with medical devices that can evaluate eyes, ear drums, hearts, lungs, and more. We can do so much health monitoring at home. The era of the "smart home" is upon us.

Save the Date: Consumer Health IT Summit on 9/10/12

Save the Date: September 10, 2012 – Consumer Health IT Summit
Expanding Access to Health Information

Are you working to advance consumer access to health information? Last year 1,400 people tuned in to the Consumer Health IT Summit to hear about new public and private sector efforts to make health information more easily available to consumers and to engage them in using their data to improve their care and well being. This year we are celebrating the progress we've made together and preparing to take it to the next level with the 2012 Consumer Health IT Summit. Look for:

• Announcements about new policies and federal initiatives
• Examples of trailblazing companies that are enabling widespread consumer access to health information
• Compelling consumer tools that help people to make use of their data
• Creative approaches to motivate and support consumer engagement in health
• Exciting developments related to the "Blue Button"

The 2012 Consumer Health IT Summit will bring together federal leaders including: Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and inspiring leaders from the private and non-profit sectors. ONC’s Pledge Program has grown more than ten-fold since last year—the 2012 Consumer Health IT Summit is a chance to learn from and share your experiences with others who are leading the charge to empower consumers to be better partners in their health.

Details:
Monday, September 10, 2012
10:00AM – 3:30PM EDT
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue S.W.
Washington, D.C., 20201

Hospital Ratings by Consumer Reports

Hospital ratings are now available through the popular Consumer Reports organization (that produces the same Consumer Reports Magazine). Hospital Ratings are based on survey responses from millions of patients, plus data on infections and readmissions. Take a look here and see what you think. The federal government provides patient experience and readmissions data on its Hospital Compare website.

WEGO Health and WEGOHealth.tv

Recently, WEGO Health launched WEGOHealth.tv

Watch as the most influential voices in online health speak openly about important issues. Health Activists empower others through their online interactions, reaching thousands with their unique voices and experience. WEGO Health TV amplifies their voices to a new level by presenting these candid conversations and stories in an exciting video format. You can expect engaging and thought-provoking videos brought to you by some of the most active contributors in health social media.

Learn more here.

New "e-Patient World" video from e-Patient Connections 2011. I'll be speaking there.

Make sure to watch this new "e-Patient World" video from e-Patient Connections 2011. I'll be speaking there and I hope to see you at the conference.

The e-patient revolution is spreading across the globe. Radical changes are taking place in health marketing. Digital health consumers are now empowered, equipped, engaged, educated and connected through technology. How will you connect with them?

Spend 2 days at e-Patient Connections, and leave with a year's worth of ideas. Bigger than before, we are gathering experts from life sciences, public health, hospitals and also doctors and nurses to benchmark best practices for reaching and supporting digital health consumers.

Register here. Use Kim300 to save $300 on your registration fee.

Improve Your Health through Closer Social Networks

A new study on how social networks impact people’s health overturns long-held assumptions. Scientists had thought that social networks featuring many distant connections could change ingrained habits fastest. However, using the tools of system dynamics and economic sociology, the study found that people living in close contact with people they already know well were more likely to take a positive action, such as registering for an online health forum. Watch a video of MIT Sloan School of Management Assistant Professor Damon Centola explaining why “social reinforcement from multiple health buddies” helped change unhealthy behaviors.

Here's the video:

Health Literacy & the Medicaid Population

Patient education and communication is so vital to effective disease management. When we think about the Medicaid population, we often lump that group into a bucket of people who may have limited health literacy. If that's the case, how can physicians improve communication about health education? How well do your patients understand the importance of adhering to therapy? Do you naturally assume that most of your patients have a high level of health literacy?

Krames Patient Education has a free webinar coming up titled, "Health Literacy & Your Medicaid Population: Ensuring Health Materials Have Maximum Impact." Here's a snippet that describes what the speaker plans to cover:

The majority of Americans cannot read or understand health care information and recent studies have shown Medicaid patients with low reading skills had higher medical costs, more hospitalizations, fewer primary care physician visits, and poorer compliance with their physician’s advice than those with a higher reading ability. This FREE webinar will provide you with the tools to evaluate, choose and execute effective health education programs that will meet the needs of this population.

In about 45 minutes you’ll learn:

    * How to answer the ROI question in the absence of outcomes data
    * How to measure your materials using the Suitability Assessment of Materials scale
    * What to consider when implementing a member health communication program
    * Hear best practices from your colleagues

To register for this upcoming webinar, click here.

"Ask the Pharmacist" at Everyday Health

Everyday Health, Inc. recently launched a new service called “Ask a Pharmacist.” This online service puts consumers in touch with licensed pharmacists. Do you have a question about a specific drug? The service is free and questions are generally answered within seventy-two hours of submission. Given that so many patients are taking multiple medications, it's important for consumers to get educated about drug side effects, drug-drug interactions, safety warnings, and updates from the FDA.

“The ‘Ask the Pharmacist’ feature underscores our commitment to delivering new features requested by our users,” says Marjorie Martin. “Drug information is an important content category for our audience and many of our users have questions about proper dosage and potential drug interactions.”

To access the "Ask a Pharmacist" feature, visit the Drugs A-Z section on EverydayHealth.com and you'll have the opportunity to ask a question in the light blue box.

Everyday Health Inc. is a leading provider of online consumer health solutions. The company provides its consumers, advertisers and partners with content and advertising-based services across a broad portfolio of over 25 websites that span the health spectrum – from lifestyle offerings in pregnancy, diet and fitness to in-depth medical content for condition prevention and management. Everyday Health, formerly called Waterfront Media Inc., is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY.

Patients with chronic diseases are less likely to use the Internet

According to a recent report titled, "Chronic Disease and the Internet" that was published by Pew Internet & American Life Project:

U.S. adults living with chronic disease are significantly less likely than healthy adults to have access to the internet (62% vs. 81%). 

How will these patients gain access to valuable online disease management resources? After all, aren't these the individuals who should be using online personal health records and interactive disease management tools? Shouldn't they be the ones participating in online forums, sharing stories, and encouraging each other with social support? So much consumer health education content is written specifically for patients who have several chronic conditions and who need to learn ways to improve the self management of their conditions. How will they gain access to this information if they're not getting online?

As the general patient population gets more comfortable with computers and the Internet, they are also at risk for misinformation. After all, a large proportion of health content that's published on the Internet is inaccurate and I don't think we'll ever know how to quantify this amount given the volume of blogs and forums where people are talking about medical conditions.

You can read the report titled, "Chronic Disease and the Internet" here. This report is the result of collaboration between the Pew Internet Project and the California HealthCare Foundation

How can we improve medication adherence?

Many patients have chronic conditions that are treated with medication therapy. Some patients are really good at adhering to their treatment regimens while others frequently forget to take their pills or they simply choose to skip doses because they may not want to deal with side effects. How can health care providers help patients improve adherence to medication therapy?

Some inventors continue to leverage technology to build smart pill boxes or automated reminder mechanisms for patients. Here's a very simple tip that doesn't require anything fancy. Use a simple daily alarm. Most patients now have cell phones and most modern mobile phones have an alarm function. You could also use a digital wristwatch that has an alarm function to remind patients to take their pills.

Of course, you can also use some low-tech reminders like post-it notes on the refrigerator, bathroom mirror, or front door. At the end of the day, patients need to be motivated to improve their adherence, and this is where patient education becomes so critical. Even if we see tremendous advances in medical technology that are able to address the issue of adherence, patients with chronic conditions still need to understand the importance of their medications.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has a great article titled, "Thinking Outside the Pillbox — Medication Adherence as a Priority for Health Care Reform." The authors point out several reasons why adherence remains suboptimal among patients.We can spend billions of dollars redesigning the health care system in the United States but unless patients are going to improve how they self-manage their chronic conditions, we won't see much progress in disease management.

PHRs motivate patients to improve health

New national survey FINDS personal health records motivate consumers to improve their health

• Tools that help people manage their health are still not widely used
• Doctors may hold key to increasing adoption

Oakland, CA — Americans who have access to their health information through personal health records (PHRs) report that they know more about their health, ask more questions, and take better care of themselves than when their health information was less accessible to them in paper records, according to a ground-breaking study released today by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF).

The survey indicates one in 14 Americans has used a personal health record, double the number of users from a year earlier. Users say that secure, password-protected PHRs give them the confidence they need to access their personal information online, and when they do, they pay more attention to their health. One in three PHR users say they used the PHR to take a specific action to improve their health – sparking hope that these technologies could be the long-awaited tools that help engage patients in taking better care of themselves. Surprisingly, the benefits of PHR use are most valued among populations that have been difficult for health care providers to engage:  those with multiple chronic conditions, less education, and lower incomes.

Daily chocolate for a healthy heart?

I still remember when clinical evidence started to emerge that a small amount of alcohol could be beneficial to the heart (I specifically say "small amount" because excessive drinking is clearly linked to major heart and other health problems).  Now, there's growing evidence that dark chocolate could also be good for the heart. For people who love wine and cheese, it might be time to dip that cheese in some chocolate (fondue time!).

To read the story on CNN titled, "Daily chocolate may keep the heart doctor away," click here.

Twitter can spread medical misinformation

The viral nature of social media can be a good thing, but when medical misinformation gets spread, it can become a serious public health problem. A recent story on ABC titled, "Study: Single Tweet of Misinformation Can Reach Hundreds of Thousands of People" reveals that when medical misinformation starts to spread on Twitter, it can reach millions of people in a very short amount of time. As tweets get retweeted by different followers, a single erroneous message can propagate around the world very quickly.

This is why we need more medical professionals who are using social media. This is why we need to have a way that we can correct the medical misinformation that's out there. This is why physicians and other health care professionals need to understand the importance of social media. This is why we must be prepared to dispel medical myths that may circulate on the Internet.

WebMD Health Exchange

WebMD recently launched a new social media platform called WebMD Health Exchange.  What is it? It allows consumers to connect with health care professionals and other WebMD users and discuss health topics. Plus, you can view Expert Blogs on this site.

There are two types of exchanges that on WebMD Health Exchange:

1. WebMD-moderated Exchanges are staff-moderated by WebMD and feature best-in-class experts selected by WebMD. Always look for "WebMD" when browsing or searching for a moderated Exchange that features experts. Select from below or see all WebMD-moderated Exchanges.

2. Member-created Exchanges are operated and self-moderated by WebMD members just like you. They can be Public or Invitation-only. Select from below for Member-created Public Exchanges or create your own.

The evolution of the web into web 2.0 hinges on social media and community involvement.

Visit: http://exchanges.webmd.com

FDA launches "FDA Basics" (improving transparency)

In an effort to increase transparency with the public, the FDA has launched a section on its website called "FDA Basics." It's very basic. Here's what you'll find if you visit FDA Basics:

FDA Basics

• What does FDA do?
  
• What does FDA regulate?
  
• How is FDA organized? 
• What is the difference between the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), FDA regulations, and FDA guidance?

Visit FDA Basics here.

Become an empowered patient in the New Year

The phrase "empowered patient" is a common buzzword these days. CNN has a nice story titled, "Top Empowered Patient tips for 2010." Patients wish to be empowered so they can ask the write questions and make some sophisticated medical decisions with the proper guidance. In the past, the practice of medicine was more paternalistic in that physicians told patients what to do, and patients hardly asked any questions. They simply listed to their doctor and did as they were told.

Today, patients are doing research and learning about their conditions and their medications. They're researching options and exploring alternative treatments. They're discussing health topics with their friends and also with total strangers on Internet forums. The bottom line is that if you want to become an empowered patient, then you must become a better informed and educated patient. Don't be afraid to ask questions or get a second opinion. Don't believe everything you hear from your friends or read on the Internet.

There's a danger in "knowing enough to be dangerous," so it's always important to defer to the professional advice provided by your health care provider. Don't assume that you know more than your doctor.

Access to great education on iTunes U

If you like to learn, then have you checked out iTunes U? The "U" stands for university and there's a wealth of great educational content that you can access for FREE. Yes, for FREE. Why pay tuition if you can get a free education? (as long as you don't need a diploma for anything)

I've recently downloaded some great business lectures from MIT, Stanford, and Yale. You can also listen to some fascinating lectures on biotechnology, bioengineering, medicine, and biological science. If you're a life-long learner and you have an iPod, then you should take a look at iTunes U. It's a great addition and I'm eager to continue my exploration of all the different educational resources that are freely available for the iPod.

FDA and Everyday Health Collaborate

It's great to see that the FDA is collaborating with content providers such as Everyday Health and WebMD to expand the reach of consumer health information. As more people become tech savvy, they are using their computers and smartphones to research health information. However, some of the content out there is not accurate or reliable.

According to the FDA, the partnership will initially include:

• A new online resource at www.EverydayHealth.com/FDA: The new co-branded Web site will feature a variety of health content from FDA. The latest information on food and medical product safety as well as prevention and wellness topics will be featured. In the event of breaking public health information, Everyday Health will also feature special “FDA Alert” modules in select locations throughout the site and network, and in e-mail newsletters.
• A new FDA/Everyday Health co-branded weekly newsletter: The latest FDA consumer health information will be sent to subscribers in a weekly Everyday Health newsletter (www.EverydayHealth.com/FDA) The FDA/Everyday Health newsletter will contain “FDA Alerts” as well as up-to-date information on drug safety, cosmetics and skin care products and children’s health products, to name a few.

To learn more about the Everyday Health–FDA partnership, click here.

WebMD and the FDA

FDA NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: October 29, 2009
FDA Media Inquiries: Shelly Burgess, 301-796-4651, shelly.burgess@fda.hhs.gov
WebMD Media Inquiries: Kate Hahn, 212-624-3760, khahn@webmd.net
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA and WebMD Expand Consumer Health Information Partnership
Collaboration expands ability to reach key populations at critical times

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and WebMD Health Corp. today announced an expansion of their partnership to provide increased access to FDA’s consumer health information. This second phase of the partnership includes expanded content and multimedia tools at www.webmd.com/fda. WebMD is personalizing FDA health information for consumers with five new online FDA sections that will initially focus on allergies and asthma, children’s health, diabetes, heart health and vitamins and supplements.

“We see partners like WebMD as critical to helping us reach the public with important health information” said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs.

Launched in December 2008, this joint effort has already proven effective in reaching consumers with important safety information. The FDA’s information is also located within WebMD's homepage, www.webmd.com, WebMD Health News, WebMD Health Search, RSS feeds, and targeted WebMD Newsletters and Special Reports. Since the launch, over 150,000 consumers have accessed the FDA destination on WebMD for health and wellness information on issues ranging from egg safety to contact lens safety to medicine safety. The FDA’s consumer information is also available through WebMD the Magazine, distributed ten times a year and reaching an additional 11 million consumers with each issue.

“WebMD is proud to partner with the FDA to help Americans live healthier lives,” said Wayne Gattinella, WebMD president and chief executive officer. “This collaboration provides health-minded consumers with access to the FDA as a source of timely health information focusing on daily issues such as food safety and the safe use of prescription drugs, over the counter medications, and cosmetics.”

In May, the FDA’s joint partnership center on WebMD’s site increased the reach of the agency’s warning to stop using an over-the-counter weight loss product after reports of serious health problems associated with the product. A special WebMD email alert with the warning reached almost 3 million consumers interested in weight, fitness and health issues—providing the right audience with the right information at the right time.