Acceptability of a personally controlled health record in a community-based setting: implications for policy and design

Weitzman, E. R., Kaci, L., and Mandl, K. D. Acceptability of a personally controlled health record in a community-based setting: implications for policy and design. J Med Internet Res 2009;e14

Substitutability: Why, What and How?

Substitutability is a property of software applications that allows the users of such systems fine grained choice and control of the way their computing environment works for them without. This is in marked contrast to existing healthcare applications, particularly electronic health records which are typically monolithic and do not allow substitution for functions by other vendors without extensive technical support, it at all possible. I review here early questions that follow from the adoption of a substitutability model in health care information technology.

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Emerging Consensus to Create a ‘Health Internet’ With Broad Consumer Engagement

Boston Children’s Hospital Newsroom, October 9, 2009 — Keri Stedman/Rob Graham
As government, industry and academic leaders work to transform the nation’s health information system, there is increasing interest in the notion of a national health information network in which consumers can actively engage, and which can provide the foundation for an “iPhone-like” ecosystem of applications to compete on price and value. In such an ecosystem, purchasers of applications–whether physicians and hospitals buying electronic health records, or patients and consumers buying technology to support wellness and disease management–would be able to easily substitute any application for any other…
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Transforming US Healthcare and its Shadow Impact on Canadian Health Information Technology (HIT)

OSCAR Canada Users Society blog, October 3, 2009 — David Daley
The OSCAR community was privileged to be the sole Canadian delegation present at Harvard’s 2009 HIT Platform Meeting, chaired by Kennedth Mandl and Isaac Kohane, both of Harvard Medical School, and the launch of ITdotHealth (www.ITdotHealth.org), a National Health Information Technology Forum…
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Two big deals in Health 2.0

The Health Care Blog, October 2, 2009 — Matthew Holt
John Halamka writes about the small but important meeting this week at Harvard Medical School hosted by Zak Kohane and Ken Mandl. Because of the impending arrival of about 1,000 of my best friends next week at Health 2.0, I couldn’t go to that meeting. But it may be very important in putting the “cats and dogs” together to think about ways for new platforms with players like Halamka and David Kibbe (who have not been on the same side of these issues) both taking part…
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NHIN: The New Health Internet?

Chilmark Research, October 1, 2009 — John Moore
Chilmark has not been a big fan of the National Health Information Network (NHIN) concept. It was, and in large part still is, a top heavy federal government effort to create a nationwide infrastructure to facilitate the exchange of clinical information. A high, lofty and admirable goal, but one that is…
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Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option

The New York Times, September 30, 2009 — Nelson Schwartz
ZURICH — Like every other country in Europe, Switzerland guarantees health care for all its citizens. But the system here does not remotely resemble the model of bureaucratic, socialized medicine often cited by opponents of universal coverage in the United States. Swiss private insurers are required to offer coverage to all citizens, regardless of age or medical history. And those people, in turn, are obligated to buy health insurance…
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Open and Safe HIT Platforms

How much do you really want a HIT platform to be like an iPhone?

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The iphone, a poor HIT platform analogy

Fred Trotter Blog, August 30, 2009
Recently, a NEJM perspective article titled No Small Change for the Health Information Economy advocates that a Health IT platform should be created in imitation of some of the successful technology platforms in other areas. Specifically the iphone was mentioned. The relevant paragraph…
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Toward a Modular EHR

Family Practice Management, July/August, 2009 — David Kibbe
The remarkable report “Initial Lessons From the First National Demonstration Project on Practice Transformation to a Patient-Centered Medical Home,” in the May/June Annals of Family Medicine, makes this point about…
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