Author: DOuG pRATt
From HIS to EHR to EMR
It’s been more than ten years since the HITECH program within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act began offering incentive payments to hospitals and doctors to encourage the use of electronic medical records. Medical providers that were already using electronic systems also received these payments when switching vendors.
The end result was that President Obama distorted the well-established and competitive medical information software market. This paved the way for a single privately-held company — Epic Systems — to become dominant in the market, despite its products being, by far, the most expensive.
Marketplace covers the recent acquisition of Cerner by database giant Oracle, but with no mention of Epic. Cerner has the government contracts for hospitals within the Department of Defense and, separately, the Veteran’s Administration.
The fact is, medical records within Epic’s huge installed base can be shared seamlessly between providers, if they so choose. I have seen this for myself, and appreciate the convenience. With Epic on track to eventually manage 75% of all non-military medical records in the United States, the government might want to consider an antitrust case against the company it helped to promote.
Ultimately, the solution is to force a standard format for medical records that can be shared between medical providers using different software systems. How likely is it the government will pursue that route to level the playing field, rather than a direct antitrust case? I see neither happening anytime soon.
“Live” Hanks
Boss Radio 66 DJ Tom “Good Guy” Hanks is live right now, with his (pre-recorded) Christmas show.
The stream seems to be very busy, so be patient if it doesn’t play. I’ll link later to the completed podcast.
Three Christmas Gifts in Five Parts
Last year at this time I pointed out a book I had read, Brian Sibley’s Joseph and the Three Gifts: An Angels Story.
This year the book has been adapted as a BBC Radio 4 play. I can’t embed it here, so it’s linked on this picture.
A young girl in trouble, needing a husband, and he marries her knowing the child is not his. That’s as human as it gets.
From the New Revised Standard Version:
The Birth of Jesus the Messiah
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[i] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;[j] and he named him Jesus.
This American Radio Life
Freakonmoics Radio is one of those NPR series with a format patterned after the highly influential This American Life. Stephen J. Dubner’s narration is similar to Ira Glass, who consciously dropped his “radio voice” when starting This American Life. This is irrelevant to the high quality of the program content, but as a former radio announcer myself I find the style a smidgen twee.
Dandelion, We Love You
Adams Lane, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1967 — My brother Jeff had an inexpensive AM radio transmitter kit. He put it together and I helped him string up a very long wire for an antenna, out of his room to a tree in our backyard. Friends up the street were on the phone, ready to tell us if the setup worked.
Speaking into the cheap mic that came with the kit, then holding it up to the speaker of our Arvin record player, I had my first taste of being a radio DJ, playing a record belonging to our sister Liz. The kids up the street said they could hear us! That record has always been my favorite Rolling Stones single.
