Observations from the HIMSS e-Health SIG Panel Discussion on Health 2.0

At HIMSS, I had the opportunity to co-host a panel discussion on Health 2.0 as a co-chair of the e-Health Special Interest Group. We were blessed with an incredible panel:

• Khaled Hassounah, MedHelp (http://www.medhelp.org/)
• Matthew Holt, (http://www.health2con.com/) and (http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/)
• Julie Murchinson, (http://www.health2accelerator.org) and
• Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, THINK-Health (http://www.think-health.com/)

And an incredible group of attendees, leading to some truly fascinating discussion. What follows is a short summary of what I heard in that discussion.

Putting Goldilocks in Control

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist 

My daughters love the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  No number of different Goldilocks books or car trip retellings of her adventures with the bears sour the tale for them.

Goldilocks appeals to kids because, just like the three bears’ house, a child’s world often doesn’t fit them well.  This is too big, that’s too small, or too hard, or too soft.  Finding the “just right” is a real challenge.

I feel like I’ve been hearing that same story at HIMSS in discussions on access and protections on personal health data.  It seems that privacy and control of medical data is a real problem.  Not simply a concern, mind you, but an actual, current, pressing problem.  For several years, we’ve known that the concern relating to the “hackability” and a more general perception of a lack of  control over electronic health information has been a  barrier to adoption of personal health record technologies and we’ve seen many data breaches that demonstrate that there is more that needs to be done to protect health information.  But this is also not the source of the problem that’s being discussed.

HIMSS – How different is dark blue and light blue?

By Deb Rolfes, Market Strategy Manager

Dennis Quaid knows firsthand the difference between these two colors. One color indicates 10 units of the blood thinner Heparin while the other color represents a much larger amount of the drug. As we all know, the wrong color-a potentially deadly dose- was given to his twin babies. At HiMSS09 Sunday, Quaid shared his heart wrenching story of a father, a husband and now an advocate of the prevention and reduction of errors in healthcare.

HIMSS – Patient Portals in Ambulatory Care: Sharing Experiences of the Good and the Bad

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist

I attended a roundtable discussion at HIMSS covering experiences with Patient Portals, “Patient Portals in Ambulatory Care: Sharing Experiences of the Good and the Bad.”  Dr. Kenneth G. Adler, MD, MMM, presented. He is part of Arizona Community Physicians (ACP), and is in the second year of adopting a Patient Portal.  To use their portal, patients are charged $10/year.

HIMSS Has Begun

By Ben Dillon, Vice President & eHealth Evangelist

I walk into HIMSS this year with a mixed set of expectations.  With the public pull-out of several major vendors and the weak attendances we’ve seen at other conferences this year, I’m curious to see how attendance sorts out at HIMSS.

But, I’m more excited about the educational sessions at HIMSS than I’ve ever been !  In most years, there has been little in the way of consumer-facing technologies represented in the sessions.  This year it’s overflowing!