Does iPad have a chance in healthcare? 

Yes, and for two reasons. The first is this:In the past healthcare technology has always been about the hardware – building a box that promises to do something, and then trying to educate patients or providers on how to use the box. That hasn’t worked because of bad interface design; the mission was complexity, not simplicity. But the tablets, and the iPad in particular, are designed to be as simple as possible (just one button). They’re not really about the hardware, at all – in fact, if these tools work as promised, the hardware disappears. The device will let users engage with information immediately, without having to negotiate a cumbersome interface. Indeed, the device itself vanishes and the user connects directly with the experience. That’s a powerful shift, and it has great potential for health.

Because the iPad has a multi-touch screen, it becomes an immersive experience, where gestures replace keyboard clicks. The significance of this shift can’t be overstated, and the iPhone has given us a taste (though not the sweep) of what that means. Gestures become visceral, and there’s far less “friction” to the process. For patients and providers alike, this is a huge leap. The learning curve for new devices will pretty much vanish with an iPad, and all sorts of information – scans, charts, home monitoring data – can be engaged with directly. 

And that takes me to the second reasonthe iPad could be transformative: the software. The iPad and other tablet software will have to be simple and intuitive, by design. A keyboard device lets software coders get messy; they can rely on F-keys and keyboard shortcuts to channel readers. But with a touch-centric device, the software will have to work like our brains work – through a series of intuitive motions.  

The iPhone app store has done a terrific job introducing a new aesthetic to software, one that’s fluid and fun (albeit walled-off). The iPad and its ilk should only enhance this aesthetic.  

So it’s got good hardware and good software. But what’s that have to with healthcare? Well, it seems to me that the iPad – with it’s seamless hardware and intuitive software – will be a terrific way to engage individuals in health information that’s relevant, timely, and meaningful. If the Web excels at delivering general information in massive doses, my hunch is that the tablet will improve the process – in a sort of Information 2.0 way – and the software will tailor and personalize information so that patients can go on fact-finding missions and find relevant facts. IPhone apps like Lose It! and BabyBump are already laying the groundwork for this approach by letting people calibrate their health decisions to their specific circumstances. The iPad et al should be able to do the same, but with a larger more captivating and immersive presence. 

I’ll go farther: when the iPad includes a camera – as it inevitably will, down the line – it suddenly will make telemedicine possible. It’ll also make it easier for individuals to track their health records, including images, because we’ll have an easy way to view an interact with our information. 

And simplicity is recursive here, so that a simple interface will allow populations that may’ve been intimidated by a computer/keyboard to engage with information technology. Meaning older populations, meaning people with chronic conditions, meaning the population consuming the majority of our healthcare spending. If the iPad can engage these people on better treatment and behaviors, the savings – in terms of dollars and lives – could be radical. 

Excerpt from www.thehealthcareblog.comwritten by Thomas Goetz

 Images courtesy of Apple.

In his opening address to the gathered summit members, Obama said negotiations and their outcome will be different this time, referring to attempts at healthcare reform during the early years of the Clinton Administration.  His mission is threefold:

• Dramatically expand insurance coverage to the 46 million Americans currently without it;
• Improve overall quality of care; and
• Rein in skyrocketing medical costs draining the budgets of individuals and families, businesses, and the government.

The president is urging members of the summit to look beyond health care alone and the nation’s moral responsibility to provide adequate care to all its citizens but to remember that the crisis in the medical industry contributes tremendously to the nation’s current economic crisis, too.  Current spending is about $2.3 trillion per year nationwide, accounting for a whopping 16% of the gross domestic product.  These figures represent the largest per capita expenditure on health care on the planet but dollars spent do not equate to quality of care.  Living longer and healthier are two major criteria for determining quality of care but, in most other industrialized nations, the average citizen outlives the average American and enjoys a healthier life along the way.

In his proposed national budget, Obama has designated $634 billion, to be spread over a 10-year period, for healthcare reform.  The purpose of this summit is to determine exactly what reforms need to be made, how to make those reforms, and how to fund the reformation.

Acknowledging his expectation of a long and heated debate, the president has asked all involved to accept the impossibility of a plan perfect for everyone and, instead, to avoid making “the perfect the enemy of the good.”  He also reiterated his invitation to evaluate all ideas presented from every source.

Upstate HomeCare Maintaints 797 Compliant Pharmacy To Ensure The Highest Level Of Safety In Our Compounded Drugs.

During the 1960s, the practice of pharmacy began growing and evolving. In response to an increasing number of patient injuries due to medication delivery and sterile compounding, the industry began calling attention to safety.

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) drafted a revision of the general information chapter 1206, which was proposed as a guideline and detailed the procedures for preparing sterile drugs intended for home use. The FDA committee wanted an enforceable entity and, by changing chapter 1206 to chapter 797 and moving it into the General Tests and Assays portion of the USP, they established a legal base by which the FDA could determine whether a drug has been adulterated. The revision of the chapter ensures that medications are compounded accurately and appropriately, protecting patients from microbially contaminated preparations.

USP 797 enlists quality controls for technique, method, and validation, building quality and safety into the entire compounding process. CSPs must be accurately identified, measured, diluted, and mixed. They must then be appropriately purified, sterilized, packaged, sealed, labeled, stored, dispensed, and distributed. And all this must be accomplished in an environment that ensures less than 352,001 particles per cubic meter (0.5 μm or larger), called a cleanroom.  To give perspective to this requirement, realize that ambient air outside in a typical urban environment might contain as many as 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter (0.5 μm or  larger). 

Upstate’s cleanroom meets this ISO7 requirement by having the air entering our cleanroom filtered to exclude dust. Then the air inside is constantly recirculated through high efficiency particulate air HEPA and ultra low penetration air filters to remove internally generated contaminants. 
Static controls are maintained through sticky mats on entrance and exit, a controlled anti room in which special cleanroom garments must be put on, such as gloves, gowns, hoods, and shoe covers.  

iTunes University.

iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 50,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. With iTunes U, there’s no end to what or where you can learn. 

iTunes U puts the power of the iTunes Store so users can easily search, download, and play course content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows. 

And to wet your appitite look at some of the universities offering lectures just waiting to be downloaded (FOR FREE) at iTunes U.  Now there’s no excuse for not being a smarty pants.

Visit iTunes U now

Study participants who ate two eggs for breakfast every day for two months lost 65% more weight than participants in the same study who ate a bagel for breakfast, even though the bagel and the eggs contained an equal number of calories. The egg-eaters also lost 61% more body mass and felt more energetic than the study participants eating bagel breakfasts.

PHI’s mission is to provide infusion services in the comfort of the patient’s home while maintaining high quality care that is also cost effective.

PharmHealth Infusion, Inc. (PHI) is Rochester’s only locally owned home infusion home care agency and pharmacy.

PHI is devoted to maintaining the highest standards of professional care and has provided the highest quality services to the Rochester community and the surrounding counties for over a decade.

PHI is a New York State licensed pharmacy and nursing agency, and is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

The study was carried out by investigators from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research, and is to be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Read more about Weight Loss by Keeping a Food Diary

The study then went on to show how a brief educational chat with a pharmacist about inhaler technique and stickers on the medication can lead to improved asthma control in the patients.

Woolcock Institute of Medical Research (Read more about Improving Asthma Outcomes)