Gov 2.0 and Health Care: 3 Ways Data Can Lower Costs and Empower Citizens

Every day, Americans are looking for ways to lower their health care costs and understand rules that govern their care. Gov 2.0 can help them.

Now, I've been to WebMD and even joined Revolution Health (alav hashalom), but I'm no doctor. I've never even played one on TV. But at the Gov 2.0 Summit taking place this week, real-life doctor Elliott Fisher will discuss how data can improve health care and reduce costs in a session titled, appropriately, "How Data Can Improve Health Care and Reduce Costs." I have yet to meet Dr. Fisher, but I'd like to offer three ways that government can help citizens bring down their costs and regain control over their health care.

I've tried to look at three separate agencies (the FDA, CDC, and HHS) and look at ways that the government can either provide data or amalgamate it and present it in ways that citizens would find useful.

1. Make the FDA Drug Database available for third-party applications, so consumers can easily see a picture of the drug and five key facts:

1. Price
   
2. Side effects
   
3. Generic equivalents
   
4. Generic equivalents' prices
   
5. Contraindicated drugs
   

Unlike the current FDA app, this one could perhaps save consumers some money and will certainly let them know more about the drugs they are taking or have been advised to "ask their doctors about."

2. Establish hash tags for and monitor the spread of infections on Twitter. Now that Twitter is location-aware, the CDC should encourage institutions that have to report cases of, say, H1N1, simply to Tweet #H1N1 and allow their tweet to include their latitude and longitude. Sync that up with a Google Map and let anyone track the concentration of all the infections the CDC is tracking. They could let people know about the program through the CDC Facebook page. (And, please, this map helps no one, and don't even try going down this rabbit hole.)

3. Release updated prices that Medicare and Medicaid pay for routine procedures so that consumers can negotiate with their care providers for the same prices. Currently the department of Health and Human Services has data available about the prices Medicare and Medicaid pay in each state for a variety of hospital inpatient; ambulatory surgical centers; physician; and hospital outpatient procedures. The utility of the data is compromised, however, as prices for hospital inpatient procedures dates back to 2006, physician and hospital outpatient to 2007, and ambulatory surgical centers to 2008.

Oh, and here's a fourth idea: get whoever's in charge of the CDC's Facebook page to find counterparts at the FDA and HHS. Really, there's no reason that these two bands are the top search results for FDA. I don't think they're even American.

Follow Gadi Ben-Yehuda on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gbyehuda

Comments

[no body]

07:38 AM on 09/09/2009

You're not thinking bold enough we can do so much more with what has already been passed in the Recovery Act. With a public, private partnership. I think two things will help need to occur. The first is the Electronic Health Records (EHR) stored at the your local telecom that are encoded for security and access is audited. The other is electronic medical workbook's that when filled out represent all the various treatments available also stored at the local telecom. Since both of these records are in XML it opens up many possibilities that can absolutely guarantee that Americans receive the best healthcare in the world at the lowest cost mistake free.

[no body]

07:43 AM on 09/09/2009

An excellent explanation of WHAT we need to accomplish in Healthcare Reform can be found here http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/0901_btc.aspx. HOW do we do this? By using the finest physicians, best scientists and evidence-b­ased-medic­ine from around the country and the world to come up with “Best Medical Practices” electronic medical workbooks using XML (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML) ,XML schema (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_schema) , XForms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xforms) and web-services (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service) (savings Director Orszag's 700b, less medical errors) which are IETM Class V compliant documents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETM) that when filled out are checked for accuracy and completeness in real-time and saved to a third-party (savings malpractice 100b). The workbooks are created, maintained and continuously updated (always learning) by the regional Health Information Technology Research Centers, CDC and HHS in conjunction with the Health care Industry to provide an effectivity rating for the different treatments, the ability to produce a prognosis and cost of treatment in real-time. In addition, Senator Sanders 400 billion in administration costs would be greatly reduced because we would only have one set of forms country-wide and they can be easily automated. Also because IBM (http://dita.xml.org/sites/dita.xml.org/files/IDCMSBlue.pdf) and the DOD for their interactive electronic training manuals are already using these technologies the CBO can score the savings.

[CTtransplant]

07:43 PM on 09/08/2009

NO trigger!!! And NO waiting five years !!!

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!!
If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1