healthy4u

Abbott Laboratories Settles

Another day, another settlement, this time,as reported <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0720003720100107">by Reuters</a>: <blockquote>New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) and French drugmaker Fournier have agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle a multistate lawsuit that accused them of conspiring to block generic forms of their TriCor treatment for triglycerides. The drugmakers will pay the money to New York, 22 other states and the District of Columbia, Cuomo said in a news release on Thursday. About $4.5 million goes to New York. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware federal court in March 2008, alleged Abbott and Fournier schemed to block generics when competitors started to develop versions of TriCor, used to treat a type of blood fat that increases the risk of heart disease. Cuomo said Abbott and Fournier made minor changes to TriCor that provided no clinical benefit, but were meant to prevent pharmacists from dispensing less-expensive generic versions of TriCor. The states alleged the drugmakers also thwarted generic competition by filing baseless patent-infringement suits against generic drugmakers, thereby securing a monopoly for blockbuster TriCor. </blockquote>The ongoing march of legal settlements of charges of various kinds of wrongdoing by diverse health care organizations is a reminder of the pervasiveness of bad conduct by such organizations. We have commented repeatedly (see some posts<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/legal%20settlements"> here</a>) such settlements, including the "corporate integrity agreements" now frequently attached to them, seem to have done little to deter bad behavior. Usually, the companies involved only need to pay fines, and no individual who performed, directed or approved unethical or illegal acts will suffer any negative consequences. I submit once again that such fines are viewed merely as costs of doing business by the affected companies, and do not deter future bad behavior. While each new entry in the ongoing march of settlements merits a few lines in the business media,separately, or in the aggregate these settlements rarely get noticed by health services or health policy research, or receive attention in health policy circles.  Nor do the contrasts between the conduct revealed by such settlements and the rosy public relations of the settling companies attract much attention.  For example, Abbott Laboratories proclaims <a href="http://www.abbott.com/global/url/content/en_US/10.10:10/general_content/General_Content_00003.htm">its "promise</a>," <blockquote>We are here for the people we serve in their pursuit of healthy lives. This has been the way of Abbott for more than a century - passionately and thoughtfully translating science into lasting contributions to health. Our products encircle life, from newborns to aging adults, from nutrition and diagnostics through medical care and pharmaceutical therapy. Caring is central to the work we do and defines our responsibility to those we serve: We advance leading-edge science and technologies that hold the potential for significant improvements to health and to the practice of health care. We value our diversity - that of our products, technologies, markets and people - and believe that diverse perspectives combined with shared goals inspire new ideas and better ways of addressing changing health needs. We focus on exceptional performance, a hallmark of Abbott people - worldwide - demanding of ourselves and each other because our work impacts people's lives. We strive to earn the trust of those we serve by committing to the highest standards of quality, excellence in personal relationships, and behavior characterized by honesty, fairness and integrity. We sustain success - for our business and the people we serve - by staying true to key tenets upon which our company was founded over a century ago: innovative care and a desire to make a meaningful difference in all that we do. The promise of our company is in the promise that our work holds for health and life. </blockquote>The settlement of allegations about a scheme to maintain a monopoly on a profitable drug raise doubts about the company's committment to "earn the trust of those we serve" through "behavior characterized by honesty, fairness and integrity."  Whether the disconnect between this settlement and the "Abbott Promise" will affect the stratospheric earnings of Abbott executives (for example, in 2008, the total compensation of Abbott CEO Miles D White was $28,335,494 per the company's <a href="http://www.abbottinvestor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94004&p=IROL-secToc&TOC=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvY29udGVudHMueG1sP2lwYWdlPTYyMDg3NjQmcmVwbz10ZW5r&ListAll=1">2009 proxy statement</a>) is a question that could be put to the company's Board of Directors.  Perhaps our readers at Yale University might want to ask Dr Robert J Alpern, Dean of the Yale  School of Medicine, who just joined the Abbott <a href="http://www.abbott.com/global/url/content/en_US/70.45.10:10/general_content/General_Content_00083.htm">Board of Directors</a> in 2008 about that.

Abbott Laboratories Settles

Another day, another settlement, this time,as reported by Reuters : New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) ...

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Two New Challenges to a Healthcare Cybernetic Utopia: Yet More Hurdles Exposed

At "<a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=2009">2009: a Pivotal Year in Healthcare IT</a>" I concluded that 2009 had proven to be a critical year in HIT, due to authoritative publications on HIT difficulties and related issues that appeared that year. It was good to see the critical thought processes and the scientific methods inherent in modern medicine applied to the irrational exuberance and marketing-dominated field of healthcare IT. It seems in 2010 the trend may continue. Two new very interesting publications have recently come to my attention regarding the complications that can, and are, introduced by HIT. These complications are worsened by the "boatload of cash," as one author expressed it, that is helping fuel what I term an irrational exuberance, or purchased exuberance, in this technology and its use in social re-engineering in medicine. ----------------------- The first publication of note is a newsletter "Medical Risk Management Advisor" from <a href="http://www.proassurance.com/">ProAssurance Indemnity Company</a>, Inc. and affiliates, a provider of medical insurance for clinicians. It can be downloaded <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Proassurance_newsletter.pdf">here</a> (PDF). It advises: On choosing an EHR system: <blockquote>Be sure to obtain physician input and review of the software prior to purchase to ensure it meets the needs of your practice. Consider talking to other medical practices already using the software, not only to assist in your decision, but to anticipate flaws or errors existing users may have encountered. Lastly, establish a process to address problems discovered after implementation.</blockquote> "Anticipating flaws or errors existing users may have encountered" seems to be at odds with nondisclosure clauses in heathcare IT contracts, but this insurer seems to have gotten the message that HIT is not a perfected technology by a long shot. On Alert fatigue: <blockquote>Physicians may ignore e-prescribing alerts for a variety of reasons (e.g., excessive alerts or alerts that are not clinically useful). Again, input from physicians prior to implementation can help prioritize and choose alerts appropriate to the practice.</blockquote> That the advice has to be given by an insurance company to healthcare organizations that "input from physicians prior to implementation" is crucial reflects a pathology, whose root is within the paternalistic and patronizing IT culture. This culture and occupation has <a href="http://histalk2.com/2010/01/06/readers-write-1710/">invaded medicine</a> and supplied endless predictions of utopia for at least the past thirty years, in a domain it generally understands at the level of a layperson. On "additional features" creating risk: [HIT incurs risk? How can the tool touted to revolutionize medicine incur risk? - ed.] <blockquote> For example, some software programs require a diagnosis listed with each prescription. Consider the following: a patient is on Depakote for bipolar and seizure disorders, but the e-prescribing system only notes bipolar disorder because of its one-diagnosis limitation by design. Subsequently, the patient becomes manic and the on-call psychiatrist starts the patient on lithium for the bipolar disorder. Checking the e-prescribing system, he notes Depakote was prescribed for bipolar disorder so he titrates the Depakote to discontinuation. The patient has a seizure during the titration which leads to death. The on-call psychiatrist assumed the patient was on Depakote solely for bipolar disorder and not seizures. If the diagnosis feature had been more extensive or had not been used with the software, the on-call psychiatrist might have explored further before discontinuing the Depakote. Again, input from physicians prior to implementation may help prevent potential risks. </blockquote> (According to <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/socky-meditech-sockpuppet-on-vacation.html">Socky the Meditech Sockpuppet</a>, such events are impossible.) On Interoperability: <blockquote>Another issue is whether your e-prescribing system fully integrates with pharmacy systems. Using the previous example, what if the diagnosis was changed in the psychiatrists’ system, but the pharmacy system did not automatically update this information? Be sure to investigate the compatibility of your system with others in your area. Not all pharmacies have e-prescribing capabilities. Many rural areas do not have the broadband internet access required.</blockquote> It is unfortunate that the HIT vendor community is based on a business-computing model. That culture is extremely territorial. Seamless interoperability will be a long time in coming in HIT. On Medication Reconciliation: <blockquote>Physicians and pharmacies may find it difficult to trust the completeness and currency of the medication history and reconciliation, since medication histories often derive from multiple sources. Continue to verify medication histories with patients, and update records accordingly.</blockquote> What? Actually not rely on the computer? What kind of extremist anti-health IT Luddite advice is this insurer proffering? On Indemnity or "Hold Harmless" agreements: <blockquote>Finally, be cautious about entering into hold harmless agreements with software vendors. Your ProAssurance policy excludes from coverage liability assumed under any contract or agreement, unless the liability would be imposed by law in the absence of the contract or agreement. It covers only the insured’s professional liability and not the liability of another party that the insured may assume through an indemnity agreement. If you are asked to sign such an agreement, you should have your attorney carefully review the agreement and your insurance policy.</blockquote> I did not think of this issue when I wrote my <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/302/4/382">July 2009 JAMA letter to the editor</a> and a fuller posting on this issue at my Drexel HIT difficulties <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=koppel_kreda">website here</a>. In addition to violating their fiduciary responsibilities and Joint Commission Safety Standard obligations, hospital executives signing nondisclosure and hold harmless agreements may be putting their organizations under undue financial risk if a HIT-related catastrophe occurs. ----------------------- The second publication of note is an article from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). A Jan. 6, 2010 IEEE Spectrum article entitled "<a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/more-hurdles-appear-in-us-electronic-health-record-adoption">More Hurdles Appear in U.S. Electronic Health Record Adoption</a>" has been published. I would actually have entitled it "More Hurdles Exposed in U.S. EHR Adoption", but that's not important now. What is important, once again, is the Management Information Systems (business computing) approach to healthcare IT. The typical convoluted licensing arrangements for this software (really a virtual clinical tool that happens to reside on a computer) has created this fine mess: <blockquote>The first was a <a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/legal-services-litigation/13153613-1.html">story</a> from a few months back that [the IEEE author] ran across recently from the Washington State <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/">Spokesman-Review </a>about <a href="http://www.inhs.info/">Inland Northwest Health Services</a> suing the owner of <a href="http://www.deaconessmc.com/Pages/home.aspx">Deaconess Medical Center</a>, which the paper said alleged breach of "contracts and bad faith dealings that imperil the region's acclaimed electronic medical records network. It is a bit complicated, but in essence, in 1994, Spokane's <a href="http://www.deaconessmc.com/Pages/home.aspx">Deaconess Medical Center</a>, <a href="http://www.holy-family.org/">Providence Holy Family Hospital</a>, <a href="http://www.shmc.org/">Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital</a> and <a href="http://www.spokanevalleyhospital.com/Pages/home.aspx">Valley Hospital & Medical Center</a> established the non-profit Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS) as a way to merge competing lines of business and to oversee them. One of the things INHS did was to invest in electronic medical records using <a href="http://www.meditech.com/">MEDITECH's</a> technology. [You mean <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-on-perversity-in-hit-world.html" style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">this</a> Meditech? - ed.] Apparently, <a href="http://www.chs.net/">Community Health Systems</a>, a Tennessee company that <a href="http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/09/29/daily29.html">bought</a> Spokane's Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital & Medical Center in 2007 decided that it was going to start charging INHS $150,000 a month to use the MEDITECH license, claiming that Deaconess Medical Center was owner of the license. INHS says that Deaconess transferred ownership to it years ago. The Spokesman says some 38 hospitals along with many private practices and clinics are affected by the dispute. The upshot of all this is that license ownership of the underlying EHR technology will likely be a big issue in the future as more <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Health_Information_Organization">regional health information networks</a> are started, as will be technology lock-in (INHS has been using MEDITECH technology for 13-years, and it moving to another EHR is unlikely to be an easy or inexpensive proposition). Neither issue has appeared much in the EHR literature.</blockquote> Yes, indeed, except once again I would have written: <blockquote> The upshot of all this is that license ownership of the underlying EHR technology will likely be a big disaster in the future...</blockquote> ... as the HIT vendors will likely only allow their profitable licensing practices to be pried from their cold, dead fingers (metaphorically speaking, of course). Then, this on EHR patient data trafficking: <blockquote>... there was also a <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/11/30/bisc1130.htm">story </a>in the <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/">American Medical News</a> in late November about the <a href="http://my.clevelandclinic.org/default.aspx">Cleveland Clinic </a>giving $1 million to a start-up company called Explorys to "commercializing the patient database search system Cleveland Clinic developed." The Cleveland Clinic <a href="http://my.clevelandclinic.org/patients/records/electronic.aspx">has</a> a very extensive EHR system and data base of patient information that it now wishes to exploit. As I <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/computing/it/electronic-health-records-are-worth-it-or-not">mentioned</a> last month, there was a <a href="http://www.pwc.com/us/en/healthcare/publications/secondary-health-data.jhtml">report</a> by <a href="http://www.pwc.com/">PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP</a> that found 76% of healthcare executives surveyed felt that all the data being collected in their EHR systems was going to be their organization's greatest asset over the next five years. It also found that the executives only felt they could recoup their investments if they could exploit that information in some way.</blockquote> The IEEE author largely addresses health IT failure as an impediment to such EHR patient data trafficking. In my Oct. 2009 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/health-it-vendors-trafficking-in.html">Health IT Vendors Trafficking in Patient Data?</a>" I came at the issue from an ethical and legal angle. I wrote: <blockquote>This practice [trafficking in EHR patient data] raises numerous questions: <ul><li>Meaningful informed consent issues: as an example, of 1000 patients at one of the facilities using this vendor's HIT products, what percentage would be able to tell me they know their data is being trafficked to pharmaceutical companies and other organizations for profit?</li></ul><ul><li>Healthcare data ownership and stewardship issues: who, exactly, extracts the data for aggregation and sale? Hospital employees properly trained and bonded (i.e., Healthcare Information Management professionals) regarding privacy of patient data? IT personnel lacking such credentials and experience? HIT vendor employees?</li></ul><ul><li>De-identification issues: what processes are being used to de-identify data? Who is performing it? At some point before the data is de-identified, it is protected information in identifiable form. Is access to the data during de-identification audited in any way, and if so, by whom? If not, why not? (Also see article on re-identification below.) </li></ul><ul><li>Legal issues: who is, by contract, liable for data breaches that occur in the transfer process?</li></ul><ul><li>Fiduciary issues: as I expressed in my July 22, 2009 JAMA letter to the editor regarding "vendor hold harmless" and IT defects gag clauses, are hospital executives further violating their fiduciary responsibilities by signing HIT contracts that surrender ownership of patient data to third parties? (see my posts "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/07/health-care-information-technology.html" style="font-style: italic;">JAMA letter: Health Care Information Technology, Hospital Responsibilities, and Joint Commission Standards</a>" and "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/07/inquiry-to-joint-commission-on-points-i.html" style="font-style: italic;">Inquiry to Joint Commission on points I raised in my JAMA letter on HIT</a>" for more on those issues.</li></ul><ul><li>Pharma integrity issues: with the many stories on this blog and others about ethically questionable pharma practices such as <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/ghost%20writing">ghostwriting</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/manipulating%20clinical%20research">manipulation of clinical research</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppression of research</a>, pushing drugs on physicians and patients for unapproved <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search?q=unapproved">off-label </a>uses, etc., what are these organizations going to do with the data? Who will have access to it, and will their access be audited? Are they going to resell it? Might they try to re-identify data to locate individuals of interest? And so forth. </li></ul> Serious consideration of these issues in vendor-led healthcare data trafficking becomes more imperative in the face of just how easy it is to "re-identify" data: Ohm, Paul: "Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization" (August 13, 2009). University of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 09-12. Available at SSRN: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1450006">http://ssrn.com/abstract=1450006</a></blockquote> In Dec. 2007 I'd also presented to the IEEE Medical Technology Policy Committee on some of these issues in "<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/12392282/To-The-Moon-In-A-Hot-Air-Balloon-Why-Is-Clinical-IT-Difficult">To the Moon in a Hot Air Balloon: Why is Clinical IT Difficult?</a>". In response, they introduced me to the term "resilience engineering" in the sense that healthcare IT was lacking in that particular characteristic: <blockquote>The term <a href="http://www.resilience-engineering.org/">Resilience Engineering</a> represents a new way of thinking about safety. Whereas conventional risk management approaches are based on hindsight and emphasise error tabulation and calculation of failure probabilities, Resilience Engineering looks for ways to enhance the ability of organisations to create processes that are robust yet flexible, to monitor and revise risk models, and to use resources proactively in the face of disruptions or ongoing production and economic pressures.</blockquote> Health IT as a cybernetic miracle? As I've stated before, healthcare is a harsh environment for cybernetics, talent to accomplish the needed IT and medical culture changes essential to successful computerization in medicine is grossly mismanaged by the HIT and hospital industries, and reality is a harsh mistress. -- SS

Two New Challenges to a Healthcare Cybernetic Utopia: Yet More Hurdles Exposed

At " 2009: a Pivotal Year in Healthcare IT " I concluded that 2009 had proven to be a critical year in HIT, due to authoritative p...

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Socky the Meditech Sockpuppet on Vacation?

[Note: this post is written semi-satirically, but the issues it addresses are dead serious.] It seems Socky the HIT Sockpuppet, a.k.a. anonymous heckler and physician-ridiculer “IT Guy” here as well as "Programmer" at the <a href="http://www.histalk.com/">HIStalk</a> blog, whose <a href="http://www.military.com/ContentFiles/techtv_update_PSYOPS.htm">psyops</a> appeared to emanate from Massachusetts HIT company <a href="http://www.meditech.com/">Meditech</a> ("over 2,200 customers worldwide"), has disappeared. I imagine that my post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-on-perversity-in-hit-world.html">More on Perversity in the Healthcare IT World: Is Meditech Employing Sockpuppets?</a>" had something to do with the sudden silence. <div class="commenttxt">I'd conducted a forensic exercise in that post using the publicly accessible <a href="http://www.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s20hcrenewal">Sitemeter</a> access logs for this blog. The analysis pointed straight to that company. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLWs8g5NYl1iJ1O6ieGfPklg_kmkSgU0wb4_O47ZWRn_RtrWSFr4QcVkct3xGW1bZBUzcS1Bd54rdBY9q8DEHjfSThYKySROxkD9ex3sfJbbccd2MfbBPEltrD47_l6SnEMibUXhcUOSBj/s1600-h/sockpuppet2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424054698608473634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLWs8g5NYl1iJ1O6ieGfPklg_kmkSgU0wb4_O47ZWRn_RtrWSFr4QcVkct3xGW1bZBUzcS1Bd54rdBY9q8DEHjfSThYKySROxkD9ex3sfJbbccd2MfbBPEltrD47_l6SnEMibUXhcUOSBj/s320/sockpuppet2.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 153px; height: 176px;" /></a>Health IT Expert Socky the Sockpuppet! That HIT company-based trolls would resort to psyops to support diffusion of tools that are eliciting widespread complaints from physicians — about the tool’s interferences with patient care, in fact — and ridicule those physicians is perverse, whether company-sanctioned or not.It is not uncommon for company competitive intelligence and corporate communications personnel to monitor blogs. Aggregators actually sell information about what's being said in blogs and other new media back to the companies themselves, for enhancing market awareness among other purposes. It would not at all surprise me if companies were resorting to anonymous online harassment of those whose views they do not like. In the case of HIT, however, everyone reading this could one day be a victim, or have loved ones who could be a victim, of defective health IT. Imagine, say, <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20100107/NEWS06/1070452/1319/Abdulmutallab-faces-life-in-prison-for-Flight-253-plot">Northwest Airlines</a> conducting online psyops to discourage and discredit those fighting for better security screening of passengers. Would that be perverse enough to attract attention?By the way, it was rather unthoughtful for the perpetrator to have carried out these activities considering that I had conducted <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/content/documents/FINAL_Healthcare%20IT%20Failure_Oct_19_2006.ppt">this research</a> (PPT) a few years ago, a fact they might have been aware of if they had bothered to follow the HIT literature.Anyone listening in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives? (The visitation logs of this blog also show "hits" from those IP's.) Perhaps you should perform some health IT vendor forensics of your own. -- SS 1:00 PM Addendum: Socky, ya still out there? We'd love to hear from you! <blockquote> Domain Name (Unknown) IP Address 12.11.157.# (Medical Information Technology) [Meditech - ed.] ISP AT&T WorldNet Services Location Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : Massachusetts City : Milford Lat/Long : 42.1544, -71.521 (Map) Language English (U.S.) en-us Operating System Microsoft WinXP Browser Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; GTB6.3; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; MS-RTC LM 8) Javascript version 1.3 Monitor Resolution : 1024 x 768 Color Depth : 16 bits [Who uses 1024x768 @ 16 bit color depth anymore? Can't this rich HIT company afford better? - ed.] Time of Visit Jan 7 2010 11:28:16 am Last Page View Jan 7 2010 11:36:41 am Visit Length 8 minutes 25 seconds Page Views 2 Referring URL Visit Entry Page <a href="https://exchangeweb.drexel.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=01329f424a1b4b5e92323f9b80e72025&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2f2010%2f01%2fsocky-meditech-sockpuppet-on-vacation.html" target="_blank">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/socky-meditech-sockpuppet-on-vacation.html</a> Visit Exit Page <a href="https://exchangeweb.drexel.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=01329f424a1b4b5e92323f9b80e72025&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2f2010%2f01%2fmore-on-perversity-in-hit-world.html" target="_blank">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-on-perversity-in-hit-world.html</a> Out Click News 1/6/10 | HIStalk <a href="https://exchangeweb.drexel.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=01329f424a1b4b5e92323f9b80e72025&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhistalk2.com%2f2010%2f01%2f05%2fnews-1610%2f" target="_blank">http://histalk2.com/2010/01/05/news-1610/</a> Time Zone UTC-5:00 Visitor's Time Jan 7 2010 11:28:16 am Visit Number 645,750</blockquote> /sarc -- SS </div>

Socky the Meditech Sockpuppet on Vacation?

[Note: this post is written semi-satirically, but the issues it addresses are dead serious.] It seems Socky the HIT Sockpuppet, a.k.a. anon...

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To Whom Does a Leading "Off-Shore" Medical School Owe its Allegiance?

We have noted how existing US medical schools seem unwilling to invest or reward teaching (see post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/04/medical-schools-to-faculty-show-me.html">here</a>.)   It is no secret in academic medicine that for years, US medical schools have been unable to train enough students to meet the country's current demand for doctors. Brain Drain Hence, a significant proportion of physicians practicing in the US were trained by medical schools in other countries.  One well-known adverse consequence of our disinclination to put sufficient resources into medical education is "brain drain," the migration of physicians from countries with severe physician shortages and major unmet health care needs to the US.  (For more discussion of this issue, see our 2005 post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/10/physician-brain-drain.html">here</a>, and also Mullan F. The metrics of the physician brain drain. N Engl J Med 2005; 353: 1810-1818. Link <a href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/17/1810">here</a>.) At the end of 2009, the St Petersburg (Florida) Times published an <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicine/article1061189.ece">investigative report</a> which showed some further adverse effects of the US disinclination to support medical education sufficient to meet the country's needs.  Ross University and Its Problems The report profiled the problems at one important "off-shore" medical school. <blockquote>Ross University School of Medicine may be the biggest medical school you've never heard of. For decades, the school on the Caribbean island of Dominica has been accepting U.S. students whose poor test scores make it impossible for them to get into medical schools in the States. And though Ross is 1,500 miles from the mainland, U.S. residents who attend the school, and about two dozen other offshore medical schools, qualify for federal student loans. That has meant more than $150 million a year in government-guaranteed aid for Ross, which has about 3,500 students, double the biggest U.S. medical school. Ross and other foreign medical schools say they're responding to U.S. demand for new doctors as the population ages. And there's no question that these schools have produced thousands of practicing physicians. There are more than 80 Ross graduates in the Tampa Bay area alone. But federal regulators are taking a closer look at evidence suggesting taxpayers and students may be getting shortchanged by foreign medical schools. • At Ross, fewer than one-third of the students finish in four years, compared to nearly 100 percent at U.S. medical schools. [And as reported later in the article, the six-year graduation rate is only 66% - editor] • Since Ross, like other Caribbean medical schools, doesn't have a teaching hospital, it pays hospitals stateside for students' clinical training, with wide variations in quality. • Students of foreign medical schools like Ross graduate with higher average debt, $235,000 compared to the average $158,000 owed by graduates of U.S. medical schools, according to an August report to Congress by regulators. • About 20 percent of Ross graduates fail to land a residency, the key to a license to practice in the United States. If they cannot pay their student debts, taxpayers are left holding the bag. </blockquote> The article concludes with: <blockquote>In a report to Congress in August, the group that accredits offshore medical colleges recommended that the schools raise standards and improve reporting on everything from test scores to graduation rates to total cost. [Michael] Rendon, the former Ross registrar, said he agrees with the need to stiffen entrance requirements. 'We want doctors but we can't give that kind of money to everyone who's chasing a dream of being an M.D.,' he said. 'We need to be a little bit more discriminating about who those tax dollars go to.' </blockquote> Based on what I wrote above, these criticisms do seem very "US centric." It seems obvious that a school based in the tiny Commonwealth of Dominica, with a population of little more than 72,000, and an estimated gross domestic product of $726 million in 2008, (according to the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/do.html">CIA factbook</a>), might have trouble meeting US standards.  But instead of trying to do so, wouldn't it be better if the school could concentrate on training physicians to practice in the Caribbean region? But wait, it is not so simple...  Who  Really Owns Ross University? It is true that the missions of most of the medical schools outside of the US which make substantial contributions to the US physician workforce are mainly to train physicians to practice within their countries.  But that description hardly applies to Ross University.  Per the St Petersburg Times, <blockquote>Robert Ross, a commodities trader in New York, opened his medical school in 1978 in a motel in Dominica's capital at the suggestion of an employee whose son couldn't get into medical training in the States. By 2000, Ross had sold majority interest in both the medical school and an affiliated veterinary school in St. Kitts to a group of New York investors. Three years later, both schools were acquired by <a href="http://www.devryinc.com/index.jsp">DeVry, [Inc]</a> for $310 million. Ross is the only offshore medical school owned by a publicly traded corporation, which must disclose more financial data than privately owned schools. Last year, DeVry, better known for its tech training schools, reported $165.7 million in net income after taxes. But the company also reported an additional $140 million in tax-free income from the Ross operations. </blockquote> "<a href="http://www.rossu.edu/">Ross University</a>" <a href="http://www.rossu.edu/about/">describes itself</a> as: <blockquote>Ross University is one of the largest and most successful medical educators in the world – and remains one of the great secrets in medical education. Since opening in 1978, Ross has been committed to our students with a rigorous curricula that mirrors the education of its U.S. peers. </blockquote>I see nothing obvious on the "<a href="http://www.rossu.edu/">Ross University</a>" web-site that mentions DeVry Inc.  But "Ross University" and "<a href="http://www.rossu.edu/medical-school/">Ross University School of Medicine</a>" are really just operating subsidiaries of DeVry Inc, which does <a href="http://www.devryinc.com/index.jsp">describe itself</a> as: <blockquote>one of the largest publicly held, international, higher educational organizations in North America, is the parent organization for DeVry University, Ross University,.... </blockquote>This raises questions whether the US students who apply to the medical school know they will be taught by a for-profit US corporation? Who Leads Ross University?   Note that the CEO of DeVry Inc, and his lieutenants most responsible for medical education at Ross University do not seem to have the sort of qualifications you would expect from those in charge of a "unviversity" and a medical school.  Per the DeVry Inc., web-site: <a href="http://www.devryinc.com/corporate_information/about/srmgmt_daniel_hamburger.jsp">Daniel Hamburger</a>: <blockquote>Daniel Hamburger is President and Chief Executive Officer of DeVry Inc. Hamburger joined DeVry in 2002 as Executive Vice President, responsible for DeVry’s online operations and Becker Professional Review. He was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 2004, and Chief Executive Officer in 2006. Prior to DeVry, Hamburger served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Indeliq (pronounced 'in-DELL-ik'), now owned by Accenture Learning. In addition, his previous experience includes serving as Division President of WW Grainger's Internet Commerce group, growing revenues from $10 million to over $100 million in one year. Previously, Hamburger started the Internet Services Group for RR Donnelley’s Metromail division, and was responsible for its venture capital investments. He also served as a consultant with Bain & Company in London, Warsaw and Boston. Hamburger graduated in 1986 from the University of Michigan with bachelor's and master's degrees in Industrial Engineering. In 1990, he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. </blockquote><a href="http://www.devryinc.com/corporate_information/about/thomas_shepherd.jsp">Dr Thomas C Shepherd</a>: <blockquote>Dr. Thomas C. Shepherd has been the president of Ross University since 2004. In this position, Dr. Shepherd is responsible for the operations of the School of Medicine, located in Dominica,.... Prior to joining Ross University, Dr. Shepherd was the president of Bastyr University, a Washington-based university with multiple offerings in healthcare education. Prior to Bastyr he co-founded Royale Healthcare, Inc., a hospital management company in North Carolina, to provide hospitals and health systems throughout the United States with management and consulting services. He has served in senior management roles for a variety of [for-profit] hospitals and healthcare systems, including Hallmark Healthcare (now Community Health Systems), American Healthcorp, Inc., and HCA. Dr. Shepherd received a bachelor of science degree in business administration cum laude from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1972, a master’s degree in hospital administration from George Washington University in 1975, and a doctor of health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1999. </blockquote><a href="http://www.devryinc.com/corporate_information/about/wiliam_hughson.jsp">William Hughson</a>: <blockquote>William Hughson is President of the Medical and Healthcare group at DeVry Inc. Hughson joined DeVry from DaVita Inc., a leading provider of dialysis services in the United States. At DaVita, he managed a wide number of business units including co-founding DaVita at Home, and founding DaVita Rx. Prior to that, he headed Ultra Lucca from 1997-1999, which under his guidance, rebranded itself A.G. Ferrari Foods and more than doubled in size. Previously, Hughson was president and chief financial officer of Noah’s New York Bagels, which he helped to grow from one to 39 stores. Hughson began his career in the Capital Markets Division of Morgan Stanley in 1986 and subsequently worked at Bain & Company in 1990. He received his bachelor’s degree in English from Williams College and graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with a master’s in business administration. </blockquote>For their pains, Mr Hamburger had amassed 548,666 shares of DeVry stock, worth $30,966,709, at today's price of $56.44/share, and received $3,454,711 in total compensation in fiscal 2009, while Mr Shepherd had amassed 74,950 shares, worth $4,230,179,  and received $714,688, according to the <a href="http://ccbn.10kwizard.com/xml/download.php?repo=tenk&ipage=6551795&format=PDF">2009 DeVry Inc proxy statement</a>. Yet none of the three top leaders of DeVry Inc with responsibilities for the Ross University medical school subsidiary are physicians, have any obvious direct clinical or biomedical scientific experience, or have any educational expertise or experience. Conclusions So here we have a new kind of example of what laissez faire unregulated capitalism has wrought for US health care.  The medical school in tiny, impoverished Dominica exists only to train physicians for the US not for Dominica, or the Caribbean area.  Nonetheless, the school does not do a great job: one-third of its students do not graduate even in six years, and one-fifth of those graduates never even start a residency.  Yet the students pay more than $30,000 a year in tuition, and graduate with an average debt much higher than US trained medical students.   In fact, the school is actually a subsidiary of a large, US for-profit corporation, although it is not clear if this is made obvious, or even revealed to prospective students.  The leaders to whom the school report to seem to have no expertise or background in clinical medicine, biomedical science.   Yet they are handsomely rewarded for their lack of relevant expertise and experience, and apparently for the poor performance of their graduates. There is something really <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-on-perversity-in-hit-world.html">perverse</a> about a nation that spends $2.3 trillion a year on health care, yet does not spend enough on medical education to educate the physicians it needs, while drawing physicians from unregulated, for-profit schools located in less developed countries, but owned by US corporations.

To Whom Does a Leading "Off-Shore" Medical School Owe its Allegiance?

We have noted how existing US medical schools seem unwilling to invest or reward teaching (see post here .) It is no secret in academic me...

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Spectranetics Settles

I could not let this story, which came out just before the new year, completely slip by.  As reported <a href="http://www.gazette.com/articles/based-91487-spectranetics-springs.html">by the Colorado Springs Gazette</a>: <blockquote>Spectranetics, the Colorado Springs-based medical-laser manufacturer, will pay $5 million to resolve federal government allegations that the company illegally imported and marketed unapproved medical devices, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday. Spectranetics will not face criminal prosecution, although it 'has accepted responsibility for its conduct' and agreed that 'officers and employees who acted on behalf of the company engaged in multiple areas of wrongdoing,' according to a Justice Department news release. The investigation had been under way since at least Sept. 4, 2008, when agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the company’s Springs headquarters, seeking information and correspondence. Spectranetics manufactures sophisticated medical lasers used to clear blockages in coronary and leg arteries. At issue in the federal probe were allegations that Spectranetics imported medical devices and provided them to physicians for use in patients without federal regulatory approval, the Justice Department said. Also, Spectranetics allegedly conducted a clinical study that didn’t comply with federal regulations, while it also promoted products for which it hadn’t received FDA approval or clearance, according to the Justice Department. Spectranetics’ actions caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare from 2003 to 2008, the agency also alleged. Spectranetics will pay $4.9 million in civil damages to resolve the claims, the Justice Department said. In addition, the company said it has agreed to a future forfeiture of $100,000 in cash or property. Spectranetics has also instituted measures to prevent similar conduct and will cooperate in 'an ongoing criminal investigation,' the agency said. </blockquote> Also ongoing are a class-action lawsuit initiated by shareholders, and possibly a US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. The Gazette also noted, <blockquote>The company also went through a management shake-up; then-President and CEO John Schulte resigned a few weeks after the September 2008 raid. </blockquote> Another day, another settlement of charges of wrong-doing by a health care organization.  So my stock response is xataloging legal settlements seems to be a useful way to assess the sorts of bad behavior manifested by large health care organizations (see some posts <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/legal%20settlements">here</a>). However, as we have said frequently, such settlements, including the "corporate integrity agreements" now frequently attached to them, seem to have done little to deter bad behavior. Usually, the companies involved only need to pay fines, and no individual who performed, directed or approved unethical or illegal acts will suffer any negative consequences. I submit once again that such fines are viewed merely as costs of doing business by the affected companies, and do not deter future bad behavior. As seems standard operating procedure for such settlements, the fine in this case was barely more than a financial speed bump, given that the company had revenues of about $104 million in 2008 (per its <a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9Mzk4MnxDaGlsZElEPS0xfFR5cGU9Mw==&t=1">2008 annual report</a>).  At least the CEO who was in charge at the time of the admitted wrongdoing actually lost his job.  However, presumably he was able to leave with at least the 792,354 shares of stock, currently worth $5,340,466, based on today's price of $6.74, 2.5% of outstanding shares which he beneficially owned prior to his departure, according to the company's <a href="http://ccbn.10kwizard.com/xml/download.php?repo=tenk&ipage=6289166&format=PDF">2008 proxy statement</a>. I once again submit that would-be health care reformers who want to improve care, reduce costs and improve access should advocate for real negative consequences for people who implement, direct or approve the various versions of fraud, kickbacks, and miscellaneous wrongdoing, corruption and malfeasance we have discussed on Health Care Renewal.

Spectranetics Settles

I could not let this story, which came out just before the new year, completely slip by. As reported by the Colorado Springs Gazette : Spec...

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IT Religion and Windows 7 "God Mode"

I've written in the past that IT has become something of a religion, with computers as an altar or shrine, programmers and technicians as clergy, programming a sacrament, and an irrational exuberance and "faith" prevailing about the computer's miraculous capabilities despite growing literature to the contrary. Of course, my focus has been on <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/medinfo.htm">computers in medicine</a>. I am generally very happy with Windows 7. Microsoft has done well, but this caught my attention: <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10423985-56.html"> </a><blockquote><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10423985-56.html">Understanding Windows 7's 'GodMode'</a> CNET News January 4, 2010 12:41 PM PST Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder. By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition. ... To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following: <blockquote style="font-weight: bold;">GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}</blockquote> Once that is done, the folder's icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. </blockquote> I've tried it, and it works. Upon renaming a new desktop folder as above, the folder actually transforms into the following icon and label: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLmMcZo1bRqQoFNOrXlT223w-XGJPBOO_jbgDoepPkiZz3LDeZyWHRsGM6Bj6YExyjAdDXFY4QB27ebV_4303X76dnY9V68uwdNVTYk8kwjFHa0QbIBAJwOopiMDUApHC7Pz0rjWHA-oQN/s1600-h/godmode.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423490590552765362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLmMcZo1bRqQoFNOrXlT223w-XGJPBOO_jbgDoepPkiZz3LDeZyWHRsGM6Bj6YExyjAdDXFY4QB27ebV_4303X76dnY9V68uwdNVTYk8kwjFHa0QbIBAJwOopiMDUApHC7Pz0rjWHA-oQN/s320/godmode.bmp" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 123px; height: 99px;" /></a> Then, on opening the "God Mode" icon a comprehensive list of control options appears. Very convenient and useful. While the name was clearly intended to be humorous, I think that the originators of this name could and should have come up with a less theistic name. Not on religious grounds, but on psychological ones - i.e., the impact such nomenclature might have on IT personnel. I'm already seeing comments such as "<a href="http://www.webtlk.com/2010/01/02/become-a-windows-god-how-to-enable-godmode-on-windows-7/">Did you know that you can become a God? Well, at least on Windows 7!</a>" on IT enthusiast sites... The culture of IT is already patronizing enough towards end users, thank you very much. I felt the same way ca. 1976 when visiting professors from MIT implemented the programming language "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_%28programming_language%29">Logo</a>" on Boston University's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/370">IBM 370</a>-based <a href="http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/resmith/s/fs/index.html#RAX">RAX</a> timesharing system. The RAX/370 monitor command for restarting after a Logo interpreter fault was "RESAT GOD" (resume at symbolic address 'God', a symbol defined by the professors to represent an address in the 370's user program address space). Since the Logo interpreter was in beta, I had to type that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049833/">Charlton Heston</a>-esque command often... Note: having spent some time in Saudi Arabia, I'm not sure how well this Windows 7 holiness will go over in that part of the world... -- SS Addendum: I've discovered that renaming a folder to, say, "Bob.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" creates an icon with identical capabilities, but with a ... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob">somewhat less presumptuous name</a>. :) <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpF887X5JHYEDz-udFf2nmdqSsL5IztqSn1XNba2mMLRgPhOKjQPFkC_HwgzTxIV7fpZ0gIAS3N_zOsJwdkHArARZmP6l_Xi_5Re7EhkRVaBHkRtISBdmiyM905IXHv7mUU9pw2ZOGafp/s1600-h/ms_bob.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423678780837424322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpF887X5JHYEDz-udFf2nmdqSsL5IztqSn1XNba2mMLRgPhOKjQPFkC_HwgzTxIV7fpZ0gIAS3N_zOsJwdkHArARZmP6l_Xi_5Re7EhkRVaBHkRtISBdmiyM905IXHv7mUU9pw2ZOGafp/s320/ms_bob.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 131px; height: 73px;" /></a>

IT Religion and Windows 7 "God Mode"

I've written in the past that IT has become something of a religion, with computers as an altar or shrine, programmers and technicians a...

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More on Perversity in the Healthcare IT World: Is Meditech Employing Sockpuppets?

<div style="text-align: center;">(Note to readers: also see my Jan. 7, 2010 followup post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/socky-meditech-sockpuppet-on-vacation.html" style="font-family: arial;">Socky the Meditech Sockpuppet on Vacation?</a>")</div> At "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/12/are-dissmissive-industry-and-government.html">Are Dissmissive Industry and Government Reactions to Physician Concerns about EHR's and other Clinical IT Simply Perverse?</a>" I observed that cavalier dismissals of physician reports on HIT unusability and difficulties fit quite well the definition of "perverse:" <blockquote> Merriam-Webster dictionary: <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Perverse">Perverse</a> (adj). Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French purvers, pervers, from Latin perversus, from past participle of pervertere Date: 14th century 1 a : turned away from what is right or good : corrupt b : improper, incorrect c : contrary to the evidence or the direction of the judge on a point of law <perverse> 2 a : obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable, or accepted : wrongheaded b : arising from or indicative of stubbornness or obstinacy 3 : marked by peevishness or petulance : cranky 4 : marked by perversion : perverted</perverse></blockquote> In a later post, "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/honest-physician-survey-on-ehrs.html">An Honest Physician Survey on EHR's</a>" I reported on the comments submitted by hundreds of physician members of the <a href="http://www.aapsonline.org/">American Association of Physicians and Surgeons</a> (an organization mainly of physicians in private practice who strongly support physician independence and other conservative views, founded in 1943) in a 2008 survey about HIT: <a href="http://aapsonline.org/surveys/hitsurveyresults.pdf" style="font-weight: bold;"></a> <blockquote><a href="http://aapsonline.org/surveys/hitsurveyresults.pdf" style="font-weight: bold;">AAPS - PHYSICIAN ATTITUDES & ADOPTION OF HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY</a> (PDF)</blockquote> The common theme in their feedback was how HIT in its present form disrupted private practice physicians, distracted them from the physician-patient relationship and impaired their ability to properly care for patients. See the above-linked post and AAPS survey report. An anonymous, usually lively and even combative reader "IT Guy," who claims to be an IT professional at an HIT vendor, on occasion leaves comments to my HIT posts. These are typically in the form of unsubstantiated refutations of the material in the posts, and ad hominem attacks in the unmitigated defense of HIT, e.g., referring to this writer as "a teaching professor at a major university who has virtually no understanding of statistical analysis" or as a "grandstanding self-promoter" (See, for example, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=4799128165855153590&isPopup=true">here</a> at January 5, 2010 8:53:00 AM EST. Read the entire thread.) In the latest case, "IT Guy" commented on my report of the AAPS HIT survey responses <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/honest-physician-survey-on-ehrs.html#c2210228343379076434">as follows</a>: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/15695921178556625665" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"></a> <blockquote><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/15695921178556625665" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow">IT Guy</a> said... It's the March of the Ludites. Thanks for a very funny post. <div class="comment-timestamp">January 4, 2010 12:28:00 PM EST</div></blockquote><div class="comment-timestamp"></div> I failed to see the humor in dozens of adverse comments about HIT from private practice physicians, and replied with a link to my <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/12/are-dissmissive-industry-and-government.html">initial post about HIT industry perversity</a> mentioned above, which elicited the even more perverse response: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/15695921178556625665" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow"></a> <blockquote><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/15695921178556625665" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow">IT Guy</a> said... No one is dissmissive of legitimate concerns. Luddites are a different story. Most of the "concerns" in that diatribe are of the Luddite variety. <div class="comment-timestamp">January 4, 2010 1:33:00 PM EST</div></blockquote><div class="comment-timestamp"></div> In other words, a survey of physician concerns is a "diatribe" and it is up to the "IT guys" to determine which physician concerns are "legitimate" and which are of the "Luddite" variety. "IT Guy" remains anonymous and has been so since he first started posting comments here, despite prodding to reveal his identity to better facilitate an understanding of where his/her viewpoints arose. He/she has neglected to do so. Even the blogger profile is blank, click to enlarge: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2qfCG46u1rT-15jqP0fBkOLk9fOonO49xQ-1oDlRjVHVJ_bby2k5g90jDLYtt7kqp1FTLjT7CRAo8kbB1IrsN_sRkIZJn8Cdabsq3ioc-9ajRvdmFUDXqMcpGZsTDodu77bB4ENpu3bcP/s1600-h/itguy.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423280702099210722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2qfCG46u1rT-15jqP0fBkOLk9fOonO49xQ-1oDlRjVHVJ_bby2k5g90jDLYtt7kqp1FTLjT7CRAo8kbB1IrsN_sRkIZJn8Cdabsq3ioc-9ajRvdmFUDXqMcpGZsTDodu77bB4ENpu3bcP/s320/itguy.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 233px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 209px;" /></a> Now, I welcome anonymous comments and have a thick skin - to a point. When the comments go ad hominem or perverse, I do consider deleting them. However, when such comments are potentially revelatory of major issues, I promote and amplify them - as now. Read on. This person also apparently uses the anonymous moniker "Programmer" at the <a href="http://www.histalk.com/">HIStalk</a> blog where he similarly attacks my comments made under my actual name S Silverstein or under MedInformaticsMD. The HIStalk site owner actually edited out defamatory comments made about me in Oct. 2009 at HIStalk comment #28 <a href="http://histalk2.com/2009/10/17/monday-morning-update-101909/comment-page-1/#comment-6240">at this HIStalk comment thread</a> and apologized for this entry on his blog: <blockquote>#28 Programmer [at HIStalk blog - ed.]October 20th, 2009 at 11:57 am <div class="commenttxt"> Yes, it’s that simple. If you select for pre-IT and post-IT data and use a large enough sample size the other factors with equal out. If the sample size is large enough you should have a relatively small margin of error. [i.e., "Programmer" -- who I soon show is also "IT Guy" -- opines that in comparing clinical adverse event rates pre- and post healthcare IT installation, all you need is a large enough sample size, which then nullifies or cancels out, for example, changes occurring over time that are not related to the intervention, and other potential confounders in a pre-post comparison. If only evaluation studies in healthcare informatics were that simple ... it is concerning that IT vendor personnel might have such beliefs - ed.]And the fact that a teaching professor at a major university has virtually no understanding of statistical analysis makes me say “at least I don’t have to worry about losing my job to one of his students." [Latter sentence was removed by HIStalk owner - ed.] </div></blockquote>Now, back at HC Renewal see <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=5650114337316261515&isPopup=true">this combative comment thread</a> where "IT Guy" a.k.a. "Programmer" refers to that removal, and repeats the above statistical faux pas and ad hominem ("just to make sure I read the whole thing"), and adds another ad hominem for good measure. I let them remain. (Comment dated October 20, 2009 1:35:00 PM EDT.) HIStalk's "Programmer" and HC Renewal's "IT guy" are apparently one and the same. Getting to the core of this posting, I repeat, when such comments are potentially revelatory of major issues in HIT, I promote them - as here. The raison d'être for this posting is an interesting pattern: Before "IT Guy" posts comments at HC Renewal, "hits" appear from a major health IT vendor's IP in our publicly-accessible <a href="http://www.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s20hcrenewal">Sitemeter log</a>, with outclicks to the comment sections of posts where "IT Guy's" comments then appear. For example: <blockquote>Domain Name (Unknown) IP Address 12.11.157.# (Medical Information Technology) [Meditech - ed.] ISP AT&T WorldNet Services Location Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : Massachusetts City : Milford Lat/Long : 42.1544, -71.521 (Map) Language English (U.S.) en-us Operating System Microsoft WinXP Browser Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) Javascript version 1.3 Monitor Resolution : 1024 x 768 Color Depth : 32 bits Time of Visit Jan 4 2010 11:49:49 am Last Page View Jan 4 2010 12:55:12 pm Visit Length 1 hour 5 minutes 23 seconds Page Views 12 Referring URL Visit Entry Page <a href="https://exchangeweb.drexel.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=5aed7d70d55e446ca5afa8ea987230d0&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2f" target="_blank">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/</a> Visit Exit Page <a href="https://exchangeweb.drexel.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=5aed7d70d55e446ca5afa8ea987230d0&URL=http%3a%2f%2fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2f" target="_blank">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/</a> Out Click 0 comments <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=4799128165855153590&isPopup=true">https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=4799128165855153590&isPopup=true</a> Time Zone UTC-5:00 Visitor's Time Jan 4 2010 11:49:49 am Visit Number 643,748</blockquote> At the time of the outclick, there were "0 comments" to that post, as shown in the log above. Shortly after, IT Guy's aforementioned "Funny March of the Luddites" comment appeared ... as comment #1. Likewise today, several "hits" appeared from IP 12.11.157.# with outlinks to the comment thread, for instance as seen below when only 23 comments were present, mostly from "IT Guy", Dr. Poses and myself: <blockquote>Domain Name (Unknown) IP Address 12.11.157.# (Medical Information Technology) ISP AT&T WorldNet Services Location Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : Massachusetts City : Milford Lat/Long : 42.1544, -71.521 (Map) Language English (U.S.) en-us Operating System Microsoft WinXP Browser Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) Javascript version 1.3 Monitor Resolution : 1024 x 768 Color Depth : 32 bits Time of Visit Jan 5 2010 9:38:07 am Last Page View Jan 5 2010 9:57:40 am Visit Length 19 minutes 33 seconds Page Views 3 Referring URL Visit Entry Page http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/ Visit Exit Page http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/ Out Click 23 comments <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=4799128165855153590&isPopup=true" style="font-weight: bold;">https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=4799128165855153590&isPopup=true</a> Time Zone UTC-5:00 Visitor's Time Jan 5 2010 9:38:07 am Visit Number 644,308</blockquote> After that, more comments from "IT Guy" appeared starting with ... #24. The pattern has remained consistent. Now, the evidence is circumstantial but it does not take a Sherlock Holmes to realize it is quite likely this commenter is an employee of a healthcare IT vendor named in the above links, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=Medical+Information+Technology%2C+Inc&btnG=Google+Search">Medical Information Technology, Inc</a>., a.k.a. <a href="http://www.meditech.com/">Meditech</a>. I am concerned that a possible employee of an HIT company - any HIT company -- might find physician concerns about HIT as serious as those expressed in the AAPS survey "funny" and "of the Luddite variety." I also am concerned that an employee might think that in situ pre-post evaluations of the technology need not take into account possible confounders. If this person is an HIT vendor employee and IT professional at this HIT company or any other -- I think it likely he/she holds such a position at some HIT company and such attitudes -- then a number of questions are raised: <ul><li>How common is this attitude among HIT vendor employees? Is this a systemic problem?</li></ul><ul><li>How do such attitudes translate into satisfying customer requests for remediation of HIT defects and problems?</li></ul><ul><li>Should HIT vendors be doing better due diligence in their hiring practices to assure they hire IT personnel with a service mentality and who understand that clinicians are the enablers of medicine, they the facilitators? (A point my graduate healthcare informatics students are taught and grasp readily.)</li></ul> At the very least, perhaps employees of HIT companies (such as the one in the logs above at Meditech, whoever they may be) should pay more attention to improving HIT, rather than spending 1 hour 5 minutes 23 seconds reading 12 posts here during business hours. "IT Guy" is welcome to continue submitting anonymous comments, but if they contain ad hominem they will be deleted. -- SS Addendum 1/5/10: A HC Renewal reader with an MBA non-anonymously relates the following (emphases mine): <blockquote>In reading this thread of comments I have to believe IT Guy is a salesperson. My only question is: Were you assigned this blog or did you choose it? We had this problem a number of years ago where a salesperson was assigned a number of blogs with the intent of using up valuable time in trying to discredit the postings. In my very first sales class we learned to focus on irrelevant points, constantly shift the discussion, and generally try to distract criticism. I would say that HCR is creating heat for IT Guy’s employer and the industry in general. I find it sad that a company would allow an employee to attack anyone in an open forum. IT Guy needs to check with his superiors to find out if they approve of this use of his time, and I hope he is not using a company computer, unless once again this attack is company sanctioned. Steve Lucas</blockquote> I think that is an interesting possibility - someone paid to disrupt. It fits, and again invoking Sherlock Holmes, there is the means, the motive and the opportunity. Time for another definition: <blockquote>Sock puppeting: "the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one’s self, allies or company." (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/technology/16blog.html?ex=1342238400&en=9a3424961f9d2163&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">NY Times</a>)</blockquote> If true (unfortunately for the salesperson), I make this observation: To most of the readers of Healthcare Renewal, who find a focus on irrelevancy and irrationality to be signs of foolishness and hysteria (we clinicians have seen it all, by the way), this salesperson has nothing to sell. Another perversity also comes to mind. If what Mr. Lucas suggests is indeed occurring, a company behind such actions would be exhibiting self destructive behavior in trying to disrupt and discredit those who could actually help them to make better products and be more competitive. I remind that patients are the true "customer." It also follows that, if this analysis is true, the defamatory attacks left at HIStalk and here at HC Renewal would have been made with foreknowledge of their falsity and with malice.  I have informed the company's General Counsel of this information and hope that will be sufficient to cause the harassment from their company to cease. Defamation, I also add, is certainly not a particularly wise HIT vendor strategy with the HIT industry under investigation by US Senator Grassley (see Oct. 2009 PDF letter to a number of vendors and management consultant firms <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/grassley_erecords102409.pdf">here</a>). Having worked in pharma, however, another self-destructive industry due to its internal pathologies, I've seen worse done to critics. Incidentally, another probable blog troll/sockpuppet comment from that industry is in the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/01/merck-and-vytorin-who-exactly-is.html#c8072942025901224211">comments</a> section at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/01/merck-and-vytorin-who-exactly-is.html">this Jan. 2008 post</a>. -- SS

More on Perversity in the Healthcare IT World: Is Meditech Employing Sockpuppets?

(Note to readers: also see my Jan. 7, 2010 followup post " Socky the Meditech Sockpuppet on Vacation? ") At " Are Dissmissi...

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