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October 23, 2000
THE CURE IS IN
HAND: BRINGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO PATIENT CARE
Josh Fisher and Rosemary Wang of W.R.
Hambrecht have issued a
comprehensive 78 page report examining the wireless handheld
market for physicians.
Here are a few highlights:
With less than 1% of U.S.
physicians using handheld devices for transactional purposes
today, we believe there are exceptional opportunities for
companies developing handheld applications for the healthcare
market.
We believe wireless handheld
devices, which fit seamlessly into a physician's workflow, will
not only involve physicians but get them addicted to Internet
technologies.
Already, approximately 15% of
physicians are using handheld devices for reference uses (i.e.,
storing phone numbers and looking up drug information)....
By 2004, we project that 20% of
U.S. physicians will be using handheld devices for transactions,
generating over $2 billion in sales for handheld companies.
Which is the bigger opportunity --
reducing administrative costs or clinical costs? Both are big
opportunities, but the bigger opportunity, which is more difficult
to quantify, is on the clinical side.
Is there a "killer handheld app"
for physicians? We think charge capture, with its strong ROI
proposition, and e-prescribing, with its multiple revenue streams,
are the two best applications out today. In the future, the
"killer app" will likely be a handheld device that can perform all
applications.
ADDITIONAL
READINGS
Editorial --
Electronic Prescribing and Monitoring Are Needed to Improve Drug Use
Analyses of Allscripts, Inc. (MDRX),
a publicly traded company developing wireless handheld solutions for
physicians :
Witsoundview
Fbr 1
Fbr 2
The Internet Analyst
WRHambrecht
BABY BOOMERS
STRUGGLING TO CARE FOR AGING PARENTS
Family Circle and Kaiser Family
Foundation have issued an excellent report entitled "National Survey on
Health Care and other Elder Care Issues". The survey was
designed to examine the experiences of adults in the course of
caring for an aging parent. Some interesting findings (among
respondents with a parent age 65 and older):
33% of respondents reported that
their parent lives more than 100 miles away
40% could not identify their
parent's doctor or health care provider
43% say they know next to nothing
or nothing at all about health insurance to help their parent with
information
25% reported their parent requires
some kind of help to take care or himself/herself
26% have helped or given advice
about making decisions about medical care
Over a third (38%) say their
parent is in fair or poor health
When asked "How concerned are you
that your parent is not getting medical care she/he needs?", 21%
answered "very" or "somewhat concerned".
When asked "How concerned are you
about your parent's safety?", 47% answered "very" or "somewhat
concerned".
UPCOMING
CONFERENCES
HEALTH INTERNET CONGRESS & INAUGURAL E-CARE FORUM
The Center for
Business Innovation is sponsoring two conferences in San Jose,
CA.
The first is the Health Internet
Congress, December 11-12, 2000. This conference will focus on
financing, partnering and value creation for e-health companies.
Attendees will include leading financiers, innovative e-health
companies, hospital executives/clinicians, managed care
executives/clinicians and pharmaceutical/biotech executives. Keynote
speaker is Peter Boland, President, Boland Healthcare.
The Inaugural E-Care Forum, December
13, 2000 is an intensive one-day program that delves into e-care,
the use of Internet-based applications to optimize the delivery of
care. It features practical and timely case studies from
leading-edge hospitals, health systems and managed care
organizations. Keynote speaker is Allen Hinkle MD, Corporate
Medical, Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire.
2nd ANNUAL DMAA DISEASE
MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP FORUM
The 2nd Annual Disease Management Leadership Forum will be held
November 12-15, 2000 in Baltimore, Maryland. This premiere event is
sponsored by the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA).
HIMSS
TELEHEALTH 2000 CONFERENCE
The Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) will host
its first Telehealth 2000 Conference, October 31st-November 3rd, in
Los Angeles at the Century Plaza Hotel. The conference will focus
on:
Strategic considerations for
developing a telehealth program
Practical applications for using
telehealth to enhance patient care
Best practices and tools to
implement high-quality and cost-effective telehealth programs
MEDTRONIC VISION
2010 - "PROVIDING LIFELONG SOLUTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC
DISEASE"
Medtronic's Vision 2010 strategy
proscribes a compelling new role for the medical device company:
"Medtronic is the world's leading medical technology company,
providing lifelong solutions for people with chronic disease."
"21st Century Healthcare: The Patient
Revolution" was presented by Medtronic CEO Bill George as a keynote
address at the recent Windows on Healthcare conference in Las Vegas.
Click here to listen to the
Webcast and view the Powerpoint presentation. Read about
Medtronic's Vision 2010.
NCQA RELEASES
"STATE OF MANAGED CARE QUALITY 2000" REPORT
NCQA has released its
4th annual State of Managed Care Quality report.
The good news: Overall, reporting plans made significant improvement
in 1999, showing gains on all clinical quality measures NCQA
tracked. The measure showing the most consistent and dramatic
improvement over time is Beta Blocker Treatment after a Heart
Attack. The percentage of patients discharged from a hospital after
surviving a heart attack and who received a prescription for beta
blockers has risen from 62% in 1996 to 85% in 1999.
There's still much room for improvement. Many other measures show
only marginal improvements over time, and regional variations are
significant.
REPORT IDENTIFIES
3 MAJOR FORCES DRIVING PHARMACEUTICAL COSTS
The BlueCross BlueShield Association
has issued a 106 page report entitled "Prescription Drug
Costs: Federal Regulation of the Industry". The report examines
the Association's views of three of the most important forces
driving prescription drug costs.
- Direct-to-consumer advertising
- The flow of new technology to
market
- Intellectual property protection,
including special treatment granted to the pharmaceutical
industry.
DEFINED
CONTRIBUTION IN A NUTSHELL
The Center for Studying Health System
Change has published an issue brief entitled "Are Defined
Contributions A New Direction for Employer-Sponsored Coverage".
The more-than-casual reader can peruse an insightful transcript of a
recent conference on this topic (click the link on the right).
RED HERRING
ASSESSES E-HEALTH
The
October 2000 issue of Red Herring magazine contains a series of
articles on Health Care and the Net.
A particularly relevant set of
articles describes "Three Promising Clinical Applications":
- PDAs for drug research and
prescriptions
- In-hospital wireless monitoring
- Remote monitoring of chronic
illnesses
BIOTECHNOLOGY'S
IMPACT ON DISEASES OF THE ELDERLY: A WHITE PAPER
The Biotechnology Industry
Organization has developed a useful 103 page report. "Biotechnology's Impact on
Diseases of the Elderly: A White Paper" describes the costs of
eight age-related illnesses in human and economic terms. It also
examines some of the biotech medicines on the market and in
development to treat the diseases and details their impact on
patients' quality of life and health-care expenditures.
PERSONALIZED
MEDICINE FOR ASTHMA
As reported in the
British
Medical Journal, researchers have discovered subtle differences
in the DNA of people with asthma which help to predict which
patients will benefit most from a certain drug before they take it.
It is the first example, researchers said, of personalized drug
treatment, made possible by the sequencing of the human genome. In
the future, the researchers said, they will be able to match
individual patients to different medications, using their DNA as
guidance to improve the drugs' effectiveness and eliminate harmful
side effects. "Pharmacogenomics" is considered the most likely
spin-off of decoding the human genome to have practical application
in the near term.
"This is a step toward personalized
medicine," said Dr. Stephen Liggett. "The era of one drug fitting
all is probably coming to an end soon."
Click
here for more.
Disclosure - BHT clients referenced
in this issue: Medtronic Neurological.
E-CareManagement News is an
e-newsletter that tracks a major change in health care and managed
care—the paradigm shift from “managing cost” to “managing care”.
This e-newsletter is brought to you by Better Health Technologies,
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