Monthly Archives: August 2015

After Big Data—Keep Healthcare Ahead with Internet of Things

Posted on August 31, 2015 | 3 comments

In a way, healthcare has spearheaded the forefront of universal connectivity with common objects. In the world of Big Data, healthcare is now uniquely positioned to take the next step.

A few years ago, I needed hand surgery. Shortly after checking in to the outpatient surgery department, the helpful nurse attached EKG leads onto my arms and chest, and a pulse oximeter to my finger. The monitor next to my bed flickered and came to life. Then, colorful telemetric and oximetric tracings in a nursing station computer reflected an exact copy. A record in the hospital intranet traced my wellbeing overtime. Wireless connectivity allowed an extra pair of eyes to watched me and to ensure aberrant flickers do not go unnoticed… Continue reading

This article originally appeared in American Journal of Managed Care.

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Posted in Technology and Informatics

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Preparing for The Radiology Core Exam

Posted on August 30, 2015 | Leave a comment

This is the first in a series of posts about preparing for the radiology core exam.

September is an interesting month for third year residents.  Your upper class residents finished the core exam 2-3 months ago and receive their scores in August.  The new editions of preparation books for the next year are often published around this time.

And, if you are like me, September is the month you might do some practice cases from a question bank and realize the  you have a lot of work to do.

This series of periodic short posts will documents the progress of my core exam preparation.  I am at best a mediocre test taker who happens to procrastinate a lot; this is a bad combination for standardized testing.  By keeping this series, hopefully I can keep up with what will be an overwhelming volume of information that I will have to know.

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Posted in Residency Productivity 'Hacks'

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Hospital Profitability in Pennsylvania: A 2014-2015 Update (2 of 2)

Posted on August 19, 2015 | 1 comment

In part 1 I presented an updated data set for Pennsylvania hospital financial performance and compare it against my 2010 analysis.

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Posted in Radiology Innovation and Quality

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Hospital Profitability in Pennsylvania: A 2014-2015 Update (1 of 2)

Posted on August 16, 2015 | 1 comment

Is your hospital profitability suffering?  Is it being squeezed by a competitor? Or, is your hospital the one doing the squeezing?  Is it even making money?

As physicians we don’t often ask ourselves about the bigger organizational strategy.  However, it is hard to ignore the reality that hospital policies affecting us are often informed by numbers so hard to understand that sometimes we just pretend that logic doesn’t exist.

Maybe it’s time to do something about that.

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Posted in Radiology Innovation and Quality

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Innovation – The Missing Link in Healthcare Quality?

Posted on August 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

Image credit: mindwerx.com

Fifteen years after the publication of Institute of Medicine’s landmark report To Err is Human, healthcare process improvement (PI) is finally beginning to take root.  Quality improvement (QI) has become a pillar of healthcare for both academic clinicians and private practice alike.

The workhorse of the Donebedian adage of “structure + process =  outcome” is on standardization.  In a world of static, well-defined products, proper application of PI can dramatically reduce variability.

While incremental improvement continues to be necessary in healthcare – we are a long way away from a six-sigma industry – continued standardization and scientific research alone are no longer sufficient to evolve healthcare.

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Posted in Radiology Innovation and Quality

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