February 14, 2010
11:09 am
Expectant and new mothers now have access to a tool to help keep themselves and their babies healthy – free informational tips sent to their cell phones.
Recently, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) launched Text4baby, a free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health. Text4baby provides pregnant women and new moms with information they need to take care of their health and give their babies the best possible start in life. Women who sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411 will receive free SMS text messages each week, timed to their due date or baby’s date of birth. Since the launch, over 10,000 women from all 50 states have been registered for the program.
According to its sponsors, the text4baby campaign is the first free, health education program in the U.S. to utilize mobile phones. Among the sponsors are three Healthcare Leadership Council members: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and WellPoint.
I would like to commend these three organizations for taking part in such an innovative health outreach program.
October 26, 2009
8:24 am
An upcoming edition of the British medical journal The Lancet will feature the results of research into a new diabetes drug that is demonstrating significant progress in helping obese patients lose weight and reduce their blood pressure.
The drug liraglutide, developed by Novo Nordisk, has been the subject of testing by the department of human nutrition at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Weight loss of more than five percent, over a 20-week timeframe, occurred in 76 percent of the patients taking the drug. Additional studies are now needed to investigate the long-term benefits and risks of the medications, the study’s authors wrote.
Pharmaceutical progress in this arena is critical in the drive to boost societal health and control healthcare costs. Almost 75 cents of every healthcare dollar is spent to fight chronic disease, with obesity being a leading driver of chronic illnesses like diabetes, diabetes and heart disease. The Lancet study noted that about half of Europeans and two-thirds of U.S. citizens are currently overweight. Read more
June 30, 2009
10:28 am
I want to thank WPTF Radio of Raleigh, NC for inviting me on the air yesterday morning to discuss health reform. It was a good opportunity to talk about the possible impact on physicians, hospitals and patients if Medicare payment rates are expanded to cover a significantly larger portion of the population. You can listen to the interview here.
April 24, 2009
8:29 am
According to those in the know on such things, there is a new blog created every half-second. That means 175,000 new blogs are finding a home on the Internet every single day. That’s a staggering figure for those of us who struggle to find time to get through the entire newspaper in the morning.
Given this abundance of information on the Web, one needs a pretty compelling rationale to erect another dwelling in this already-crowded community.
Then again, there are few subjects as important as healthcare or, more specifically, better understanding the state of our nation’s healthcare system and its future.
That’s not to say there is a scarcity of interesting and insightful voices bringing provocative perspectives on health issues to the blogosphere. Anyone who wants to add both breadth and depth to their understanding of today’s key health policy debates should add sites like the National Journal Health Blog or Disruptive Women in Health Care to their must-read list.
The niche we want to create for Prognosis is the nexus at which policy meets practice. The organization I head, the Healthcare Leadership Council, has a membership that includes many of the nation’s premier hospitals, academic health centers, innovative pharmaceutical and medical device companies, health insurers, pharmacies and health care services companies.
We’re going to discuss policy on this blog, but we’re also going to make readers more aware of the innovations taking place in healthcare delivery, financing and technology, and how health policy and healthcare practices affect one another. As Congress tackles the tough issues of how we pay for and deliver healthcare while expanding access to every American, let’s have a robust discussion as to the real-world impact possible policy decisions may have on patients, physicians, hospitals and medical researchers.
Our blog title, by the way, stems from the Greek word prognostikos. It means “to have knowledge beforehand.” Not that we’re claiming to predict the future in this space, but we hope that a better understanding of what’s happening today in American healthcare will better enable us to participate in the debate that will shape, hopefully, an exciting tomorrow.
CATEGORIES: Access to Coverage for the Uninsured,
Confidentiality of Patient Information,
Evidence-Based Medicine,
Health Information Technology,
Health Literacy and Disparities,
Health Reform,
Healthcare Costs and Value,
Healthcare Workforce Shortage,
Liability Reform,
Medicare,
Other,
Patient Safety and Quality,
Protecting Innovation,
Wellness and Chronic Care Management |
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