In the last month, the world lost two iconic figures: Michael Jackson and Senator Edward Kennedy. The King of Pop and the Lion of the Senate, both these beloved figures left behind a message that has at its core, wisdom for those in the healthcare field. Follow me over the fold to discuss the thread that ties these two stories together. Continue reading…
This is an open thread for Allen School Alumni to gather, get back in touch, share post-graduation experiences and more. Topic of discussion is open to all users. Begin your conversations in the comments section.
I probably don’t need to tell people who juggle online studies, work and family that it is important to make sure you carve out enough time for sleep. We all know how spacey and “out of it” we feel when we miss sleep. Sleep deprivation can be very dangerous. Yet, recently, UCLA professor and sleep expert, Jerome Siegel questioned whether sleep had any correlation to physiological and neural functions. In short, do we really need to sleep? Continue reading…
With a promising future in a growth field, most Allen School students are not fretting over their long term employment prospects. Yet the overall poor state of employment in the US driven by the recession has left many without any solid prospects in the near term. While most will wait it out, some have taken to a different type of “prospecting” – panning for gold in California. Continue reading…
Well it is officially the dog days of summer. Scorching heat and in the Northeast, stifling humidity have come to call reminding us all that back-to-school time is just around the corner. Since August is typically a big month for family vacations, I thought it would be timely to reveal a recent study performed by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, showing that there are tangible health benefits to taking a break from your daily grind. Continue reading…
The debate is in full swing in our nation’s capitol over how to fix the skyrocketing cost of healthcare that is bankrupting many families and pushing 14,000 people every day into the ranks of the uninsured. There are, broadly speaking, three main schools of thought regarding the challenges we face. Where does your thinking fall in this continuum? Follow me over the fold to read the prevailing thinking. Continue reading…
You grow up, run from high school as fast as you can, get married, start having children and one day you wake up and wonder if this is all there is ….
Continue reading…
Writing resumes is intimidating for many and with today’s exceptionally competitive employment environment it can be even more daunting. Continue reading…
Of all the individual ideas for healthcare reform proposed by President Obama, the notion of transitioning to a fully electronic process for the maintenance of medical records would seem to be the most obvious. It also seems like one of the easier things to accomplish, given the other, more ambitious reforms on the agenda. After all, its clear that the technology for such complex electronic record keeping already exists and is currently in use by other industries. Yet nearly two decades after the beginning of the information revolution, while the technology has grown exponentially there has been little will to apply it to medical record keeping.
President Obama was not the first inhabitant of the White House to suggest that enormous savings could be captured through the application of information science and Internet technology to replace old, paper based data management. Maximizing efficiency is one, legitimate way the insurance industry could keep the climbing costs of healthcare down without cutting service levels. Presidents G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton also supported moving in this direction. So what are the obstacles?
Among the roadblocks to adoption of widespread Electronic Medical Records or EMRs in the US are such issues as:
Interoperability – the ability (or inability) of disparate computer systems to “speak” with one another. Doctors’ offices, hospitals, labs, insurers, public health institutions, etc.
Privacy – developing protocols for transfer of data among the numerous providers in a way that protects personal information (partially addressed in HIPAA)
Legacy Data Capture – the logistics involved in scanning and entering existing patients’ medical histories into the system to avoid discarding valuable, historical, medical perspective
Change Management – the process of fostering adoption of new technologies and practices across entire enterprise level industries is challenging
Other obstacles to adoption include: cost of implementation, unclear standards across all programs, problematic legal issues (digital signatures and data preservation procedures etc.).
Everyone seems to agree that implementing EMRs in the US is a worthy goal. Yet, as with so many goals worth achieving, this one is easier said than done.
In the last month, the world lost two iconic figures: Michael Jackson and Senator Edward Kennedy. The King of Pop and the Lion of the Senate, both these beloved figures left behind a message that has at its core, wisdom for those in the healthcare field. Follow me over the fold to discuss the thread that ties these two stories together. Continue reading… 
This is an open thread for Allen School Alumni to gather, get back in touch, share post-graduation experiences and more. Topic of discussion is open to all users. Begin your conversations in the comments section. 
I probably don’t need to tell people who juggle online studies, work and family that it is important to make sure you carve out enough time for sleep. We all know how spacey and “out of it” we feel when we miss sleep. Sleep deprivation can be very dangerous. Yet, recently, UCLA professor and sleep expert, Jerome Siegel questioned whether sleep had any correlation to physiological and neural functions. In short, do we really need to sleep? 
With a promising future in a growth field, most Allen School students are not fretting over their long term employment prospects. Yet the overall poor state of employment in the US driven by the recession has left many without any solid prospects in the near term. While most will wait it out, some have taken to a different type of “prospecting” – panning for gold in California. 
Well it is officially the dog days of summer. Scorching heat and in the Northeast, stifling humidity have come to call reminding us all that back-to-school time is just around the corner. Since August is typically a big month for family vacations, I thought it would be timely to reveal a recent study performed by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, showing that there are tangible health benefits to taking a break from your daily grind. 
The debate is in full swing in our nation’s capitol over how to fix the skyrocketing cost of healthcare that is bankrupting many families and pushing 14,000 people every day into the ranks of the uninsured. There are, broadly speaking, three main schools of thought regarding the challenges we face. Where does your thinking fall in this continuum? Follow me over the fold to read the prevailing thinking. 
You grow up, run from high school as fast as you can, get married, start having children and one day you wake up and wonder if this is all there is ….
Writing resumes is intimidating for many and with today’s exceptionally competitive employment environment it can be even more daunting.