A parasitoid death would be a very gruesome death," said first author Kerry M. Oliver. "It's like the movie 'Alien' where this thing grows inside of you and then ruptures out of you and kills you.

Why I should have stuck with the bio major....

http://www.actionorange.com/politics/biden-sebelius-to-unveil-funds-for-electronic-medical-records-kansas-city-star

"Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave formal authority to Dr. David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health IT, to administer grants and loans to promote the adoption of health information technology under ARRA. Much of the funding will support health IT technical assistance and training.

The action, published in the Aug. 18 Federal Register, formalizes work Blumenthal has been leading. It does not include authority to issue Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments to providers who qualify as meaningful users of electronic health records. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has that authority."

http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=71984#

One of the points that interested me the most was the assertion that about half of all hospitals save all medical records, presumably electronically, forever.

From "Lab Soft News: About One-Half of U.S. Hospitals Save Their Medical Records Forever."

US sales of electronic medical record systems to large hospitals fell to a seven year low in 2008.

Sales of new EMR contracts are, however, predicted to be far higher in 2009, spurred by $19 billion of federal financial incentives for ‘meaningful use’ of EMRs.

The figures, produced from US research firm KLAS, say EMR vendors sold the lowest number of new contracts to hospitals with more than 200 beds in the US and Canada since it began recording figures seven years ago.

The biggest winner in the depressed 2008 EMR market was EPIC Systems, which continued to make gains among large hospitals even during the economic downturn, capturing nearly 40 percent of the new business, according to KLAS.

According to Hospital IT News McKesson and Siemens also counted wins, while Cerner saw no net growth in its clinical market share for the first time.

The main clinical wins in 2008 were for Epic's EpicCare Inpatient, Siemens' Soarian Clinicals and McKesson's Paragon Clinicals.

From "E-Health Europe :: US hospital EMR sales slumped in 2008."

HITSP+Capabilities+Mapped+to+Interop+Specs.JPG (image)

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, which has been the group providing a seal of approval for electronic medical record products since 2006, will continue to be the certification body for health IT systems at least until December when the U.S. government finalizes its definition of "meaningful use" of e-health products.

After the meaningful use definition is finalized, multiple organizations will be allowed to perform testing and certification of products for meeting the evolving criteria and standards of U.S. and Health and Human Services health IT certification rules. Vendors would need certification from only one certification body.

From: "HIT Certification Committee Still In Play -- Health IT -- InformationWeek"

Patients decide whether to seek care and whether to comply with a physician’s prescriptions.

From: "The Missing Focus in the Health Care Debate: Both sides are asking the wrong questions."

From @twilson650. I love how the instructor actually starts 'real-laughing' at about 40 seconds in...

FDA Public Health Notification: Potentially Fatal Errors with GDH-PQQ* Glucose Monitoring Technology

* glucose dehydrogenase pyrroloquinoline quinone

Date: August 13, 2009

Dear Healthcare Practitioner:

This is to alert you to the possibility of falsely elevated blood glucose results when using GDH-PQQ glucose test strips on patients who are receiving therapeutic products containing certain non-glucose sugars. These sugars can falsely elevate glucose results, which may mask significant hypoglycemia or prompt excessive insulin administration, leading to serious injury or death. The following provides background information on this problem, a summary of fatality reports FDA has received, and recommendations to reduce the risk. This problem can occur wherever these products are used including in-patient and out-patient healthcare facilities, and at home.