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Health Care Corporate Disinformation Campaigns: Wendell Potter's "Deadly Spin"

I wish I had gotten to this earlier....  In 2009, Wendell Potter, a mild-mannered former chief of public relations for for-profit health care insurance company Cigna, testified before Congress about how insurance companies manipulated public opinion to support corporate vested interests.  <blockquote>insurance companies make promises that they have no intention of keeping, how they flout regulations designed to protect consumers . . . and how they ‘purge’ small businesses when their employees’ medical claims exceed what underwriters expected [Kendall]</blockquote>In November, 2010, he published a book entitled <a href="http://wendellpotter.com/deadlyspin/">Deadly Spin</a> on this topic.  Starting then, a series of op-ed pieces by Potter, reviews of his book, and interviews with him provided a chilling picture about how corporate health care uses disinformation to support its interests, regardless of the public's interests.  I am sure there is much more in the book, which I will endeavor to purchase and read forthwith.  Meanwhile, pieced together from these articles are examples of insurance industry disinformation campaigns, and some observations about how their disinformation machine works. Stifling the Clinton Administration's Health Care Reform <blockquote>He took part in the planning for the 'Harry and Louise advertising blitz that helped derail the Clinton health-care initiative and used to bandy about catchphrases that have resonated in more recent campaigns. [Wilemon]</blockquote> Discrediting Michael Moore's Movie Sicko <blockquote>I described the meticulously planned and deception-based strategy the health insurance industry developed and carried out -- with help from one of Washington's biggest PR firms -- to discredit documentary maker Michael Moore and his 2007 movie, Sicko. Because the movie laid much of the blame for the seemingly intractable problems of the American health care system on insurers, the industry I used to work for spent a big chunk of policyholders' premiums on a behind-the-scenes campaign to demonize Moore and to misinform Americans about the health-care systems in Canada and Europe that -- as Moore explained in the movie -- provide coverage for all their citizens and provide high quality care for them at much lower costs than we do in the U.S. [Potter, Huffington Post]</blockquote> Quieting the Furor After a Denied Liver Transplant In 2007, Cigna initially denied payment for a liver transplant for a 17-year old girl named Nataline Sarkisyan, creating a national uproar. <blockquote>We learn that executives at Cigna worried that Nataline’s situation would only add fire to the growing public discontent with a health care system anchored by private insurance. As the case drew more national attention, the threat of a legislative overhaul that would ban for-profit insurers became real, and Mr. Potter found himself working on the biggest P.R. campaign of his career.[Chen] As busy as they might have felt in the days leading up to Nataline’s death, he and his staff were inundated with calls from the news media immediately afterward. To bolster what was seen as a fight for its survival, Cigna hired a large international law firm and a P.R. firm already well known to them from previous work aimed at discrediting Michael Moore and his film 'Sicko.' [Chen]</blockquote> Twisting "Obamacare" to Benefit the Insurance Industry Mr Potter himself wrote about how "Obamacare" was twisted into a win for the insurance industry in an op-ed entitled "Repeal and Replace?": <blockquote>Despite all the attacks on 'Obamacare,' the new law props up the employer-based system that insurers and large corporations benefit from so greatly. It also guarantees that private insurers will get billions of dollars in new revenue. And the insurers won’t have to share a penny of that windfall with a government-run public option the president once said was necessary 'to keep insurers honest.' [Potter, Newsweek]</blockquote> On one hand, the goal of the insurance industry was the "individual mandate," the requirement that all Americans MUST purchase insurance, which for most means insurance provided by for-profit health insurance companies: <blockquote>Although I was ashamed of many of the things I did during my career, I didn’t plan to speak out about the industry’s devious practices until I saw Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, tell President Obama at the end of his March 2009 White House Forum on Health Reform, 'You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help pass health-care reform this year.' Then I knew the industry’s disingenuous charm offensive had begun. Soon after that I read that, Aetna chairman and CEO Ron Williams, the driving force behind the industry’s effort to get the individual mandate enacted, had met with the president half a dozen times. I knew Williams was trying to persuade the president to drop his insistence on the public option and to embrace the individual mandate. Sure enough, Williams got his wish. [Potter, Newsweek]</blockquote>In fact, <blockquote>For months before I left my job, I worked closely with my counterparts at the other big insurers to develop the list of must-haves our well-connected army of lobbyists would take to Capitol Hill when lawmakers began drafting reform legislation. Despite their public statements to the contrary, insurance companies really liked much of what was in both House and Senate versions of the bill—big chunks of which they actually wrote behind the scenes—especially the requirement that all Americans buy insurance if they’re not eligible for an existing public program like Medic-aid or Medicare. [Potter, Newsweek]</blockquote> On the other hand, the industry wanted to make sure that the law did not regulate them too tightly, or otherwise inconvenience them or cost them too much money: <blockquote>During the reform debate, the industry’s deception-based PR strategy had two active fronts. One was a highly visible charm offensive designed to create an image of the industry as an advocate for reform and a good-faith partner with the president and lawmakers in achieving it. The second was a secret fearmongering campaign using shadowy 'AstroTurf' groups and business and political allies as shills to disseminate misinformation and lies—like the one about the creation of 'death panels'—with the sole intent of killing any reform that might hurt the bottom line. [Potter, Newsweek]</blockquote> Tactic: Front Groups This seems right out of the old KGB playbook, as described by Mr Potter in an interview about the campaign to discredit Michael Moore's Sicko: <blockquote>one key component was to fund a front group, and that is something that I write about quite a bit in the book, about how special interests, and the insurance industry, in particular, will use premium dollars to funnel thousands and thousands, if not millions, of dollars to big PR firms to set up fake grassroots organizations—astroturf, as we call it—and front groups. And in this case, there was a front group that was set up called Health Care America, and the sole purpose for it to be set up was to attack Michael Moore and to attack the notion of a single-payer system in this country. [Goodman]</blockquote> Note that this particular tactic was never previously exposed: <blockquote>I’ve done a search recently just to find out how they were covered, and they were never exposed. [Goodman]</blockquote> But it was quite influential: <blockquote>They were quoted extensively. They sent out press releases. And they were given status as a legitimate organization, even by the New York Times. [Goodman]</blockquote> Tactic: Third Parties (Useful Idiots?) An example from Potter's account of how insurers manipulated the Obama administration's health care reform: <blockquote>He contends that the insurance industry used 'third parties,' such as sympathetic congressmen, 'to kill key elements of the president’s plan, if not all of it, by scaring and lying to the public.' [Weiss]</blockquote> Here is another version used in the campaign to quell the furor over the denial of the liver transplant: <blockquote>the aggressive placement of articles with friendly 'third party' reporters, editors and producers who would 'disabuse the media, politicians and the public of the notion that Nataline would have gotten the transplant if she had lived in Canada or France or England or any other developed country.' [Chen]</blockquote> Tactic: Spies This really is out of the espionage playbook: <blockquote>A 'spy' was dispatched to Nataline’s funeral; and when the Sarkisyan family filed a lawsuit against the insurer, a team of lawyers was assigned to keep track of actions and comments by the family’s lawyer. [Chen]</blockquote> Tactic: Distractions to Make Important Issues Anechoic We have often discussed how some of the issues we discuss on Health Care Renewal are anechoic, generating almost no discussion, polite or otherwise in the medical and health care research and policy literature, and sometimes even in the main-stream media. Part of the anechoic effect may be due to deliberate distraction, as Potter discussed in reference to the campaign to manipulate "Obamacare": <blockquote>Potter shows then-Cigna chairman Edward Hanway's leading role in "a multi-milllion-dollar public relations and advertising campaign" in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, designed to 'divert the public's and the media's attention' away from the central fact of millions of uninsured and underinsured sick people, toward other problems that were harder to blame on insurers: aging Americans, extravagant doctors, expensive technology, and consumers demanding costly operations they don't need. [DiStefano]</blockquote>Note that the usual dogma one sees in the medical and health care research/ policy literature about the causes of US health care's excess costs, declining access and poor quality are just as listed above: an aging population, high doctors' fees and excessive utilization, technology that appears to be ever costlier (unlike technology everywhere but health care), and patients' unreasonable demands. Tactic: Message Discipline As discussed by Potter in terms of the campaign to align "Obamacare" with the insurance industry's interests: <blockquote>It's incredible message discipline, and it's based on an understanding of ideology. The health insurers know that they need to be allied with big, well-researched organizations like the Chamber of Commerce. They want to be associated with people who can convince us that the way to go for health care is market-based. You're going to be hearing in the weeks to come, as we revisit health care, from Republicans and big business and those in the industry that what we need are 'common-sense, market-based solutions.' Those are carefully crafted words, just as what we have now was a 'government takeover of the health care system.' They spend enormous amounts of money very carefully selecting words and putting them together in a way that will elicit an emotional response. The people who are saying this believe their own talking points because they don't have an understanding of how the system is working or not working. If they are conservative, they think, 'I'm supposed to believe this.' They're supposed to believe that the market should work well in health care. They just simply have their blinders on and won't take them down to see the reality. [Whitaker]</blockquote>Tactic: Entrapment (Double-Think?) Finally, Potter discussed how public relations leaders keep their own people in line: <blockquote>There's an entrapment that's part of the problem here. I was paid very well, but I wasn't independently wealthy, and I had to consider my own ability to make the house payments and the car payments and putting the kids through school. You also find that your ego and what you do for a living, you let it define you. How much money you make, what neighborhood you're able to live in, where you're able to send your kids to school, it all becomes part of your shell and your own self-identity. To do anything that will potentially destroy that is too frightening for people. It was certainly something I had to deal with, and I had to come to terms with the fact that I could lose all of that, whatever I had. I came to feel, well, I could lose it but what have I lost? A good friend of mine said, 'Well, you can at least push a broom, can't you?' I didn't think I was going to end up pushing a broom, but I didn't have to have all of that stuff. But people are afraid of losing all that stuff because they're afraid of losing part of their identity. So, financially and psychologically and from an ego point of view, it's hard to separate yourself from something you've been involved in. [Whitaker]</blockquote>Summary In Mr Potter's own words, the for-profit health insurance industry's public relations machine, and by extension, the public relations machines of all the big health care corporate players <blockquote>onslaught drastically weakened health-care reform and how it plays an insidious and often invisible role in our political process anywhere that corporate profits are at stake, from climate change to defense policy. [Potter, Huffington Post]</blockquote>So, <blockquote>The onslaughts of spin will not stop, the distortions will not diminish, and the spin will not slow down. To the contrary, spin begets spin, as the successes of corporate PR functionaries increase the revenues of their employers, further funding their employers' efforts to create a more hospitable climate for their business interests. Americans are thus being faced with increasingly subtle but effective assaults on their beliefs and perceptions. Their best defense right now is to understand and to recognize the sophisticated tactics of the spinners trying to manipulate them. Most important is a singular mandate: Be skeptical. [Potter, Huffington Post]</blockquote> I hope that summarizing some of Mr Potter's amazing points will help us all to be much more skeptical. Note that Mr Potter has his own blog <a href="http://wendellpotter.com/blog/">here</a>, which will be added soon to our blog roll. References Chen P. When insurers put profits between doctor and patient. New York Times, January 6, 2011. Link <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/health/views/06chen.html">here</a>. DiStefano JN. Potter vs Hanway: Cigna rebel tells all in book. Philadelphia Inquirer, January 20, 2011. Link <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Potter_vs_Hanway_Cigna_rebel_tells_all_in_book.html">here</a>. Goodman A. "Push Michael Moore off a cliff." Democracy Now, November 17, 2010. Link <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/17/push_michael_moore_off_a_cliff">here</a>. Kendall J. An insider dissects the health insurance industry. Boston Globe, November 22, 2010. Link <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/11/22/a_former_health_insurance_pr_executive_and_whistleblower_flays_the_industrys_deception_of_the_american_public/">here</a>. Potter W. Repeal and replace? Newsweek, November 5, 2010.  Link <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/05/why-healthcare-reform-will-survive.html">here</a>.  Potter W. Why I will stay far away from cliffs from now on. Huffington Post, November 9, 2010. Link <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/why-i-will-stay-far-away_b_780961.html">here</a>. Weiss G. Spin doctor reveals all. Portfolio.com, December 21, 2010. Link <a href="http://www.portfolio.com/industry-news/banking-finance/2010/12/21/wendell-potter-book-deadly-spin-says-insurance-pr-spun-health-care-reform">here</a>. Whitaker R. The insurance industry scam. Austin Chronicle, January 21, 2011. Link <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2011-01-21/the-insurance-industry-scam">here</a>. Wilemon T. 3 events led 'Deadly Spin' author to turn on health insurance industry. Tennessean, January 13, 2011. Link <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110113/NEWS01/101130319/3-events-led-Deadly-Spin-author-turn-health-insurance-industry">here</a>.

Health Care Corporate Disinformation Campaigns: Wendell Potter's "Deadly Spin"

I wish I had gotten to this earlier.... In 2009, Wendell Potter, a mild-mannered former chief of public relations for for-profit health car...

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FDA to Scientific Protein Laboratories Managerement: "We Are Concerned About Your Fundamental Understanding"

Per Ed Silverman <a href="http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/02/heparin-supplier-is-warned-again-by-the-fda/">on the Pharmalot blog</a>, we hear of new concerns about a company in the supply chain that ended up with adulterated heparin and dead patients.  Before summarizing what the blog reported, let me summarize the case again. Case Summary - We have posted several times, recently <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/12/unreasonably-dangerous-heparin.html">here</a>, about the tragic case of suddenly allergenic heparin. Although heparin, an intravenous biologic anti-coagulant, has been in use for over 70 years, serious allergic reactions to it had heretofore been rare. Starting in 2008, hundreds of such reactions, and now over 80 deaths were reported in the US after intravenous heparin infusions.All the heparin related to these events in the US was sold by Baxter International. - We then learned that although the heparin carried the Baxter label, it was not really made by Baxter. The company had outsourced production of the active ingredient to a long, and ultimately mysterious supply chain. Baxter got the active ingredient from a US company, Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC, which in turn obtained it from a factory in China operated by Changzhou SPL, which in turn was owned by Scientific Protein Laboratories and by Changzhou Techpool Pharmaceutical Co. Changzhou SPL, in turn, got it from several consolidators or wholesalers, who in turn got it from numerous small, unidentified "workshops," which seemed to produce the product in often primitive and unsanitary conditions. None of the stops in the Chinese supply chain had apparently been inspected by the US Food and Drug Administration nor its Chinese counterpart. - The heparin proved to have been adulterated with over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS), and many patients who received got seriously ill or died. While there have been investigations of how the adulteration adversely affected patients, to date, there have been no publicly reported investigations of how the OSCS got into the heparin, and who should have been responsible for overseeing the purity and safety of the product. Despite the facts that clearly patients died from receiving this adulterated drug, no individual has yet suffered any negative consequence for what amounted to poisoning of patients with a brand-name but adulterated pharmaceutical product.  (For a more detailed summary of the case, look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-questions-no-answers-about-case-of.html">here</a>, and for all our posts on this topic, look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/heparin">here</a>.) The FDA Letter Pharmalot reported that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a warning letter dated January 20, 2011, to Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC, and provided <a href="http://freepdfhosting.com/e89847cc8b.pdf">a link</a> to the letter.  The letter identified continuing serious problems with Scientific Protein Laboratories' operations: <blockquote>During our July 28, 2010 - September 3, 2010, inspection of your active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility, Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC, located at 700 E. Main Street, Waunakee, WI, investigators from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified significant deviations from Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) for the manufacture of drugs. These deviations cause your drugs to be adulterated within the meaning of section 501(a)(2)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 351(a)(2)(B)] in that the methods used in, or the facilities or controls used for, their manufacture, processing, packing, or holding do not conform to, or are not operated or administered in conformity with CGMP.</blockquote> The firm failed to adequately respond to complaints about its products, including heparin: <blockquote>Failure to investigate all quality related complaints whether received orally or in writing according to a written procedure. For example, your firm failed to conduct a formal investigation concerning a complaint identifying potential contamination with Oversulfated Chondroitin Sulfate (OSCS) in a lot of Heparin Sodium USP (lot 1035-0778) on October 9, 2008. Your firm did not initiate a formal investigation until September 9, 2009. In addition, at that time, your firm failed to extend your investigations to other lots of Heparin Sodium USP manufactured using the same crude lot identified with OSCS contamination. Your investigation did not consider the other lot of Heparin Sodium USP that was associated with the same contaminated crude lot until May 26, 2010, eight months after initiating a formal investigation (i.e., lot 1035-0780, which tested negative for OSCS in June 2010). We acknowledge that you initiated a voluntary recall of Heparin Sodium USP that included lots 1035-0778 and 1035-0780 on October 13, 2010. In your response, your firm notes that you have revised your procedure to state, “Any SPL employee will inform QA of a customer complaint.” However, this response does not address the fundamental issues that allowed the delays in communications and investigation to occur. Your handling of the heparin contamination complaint suggests the need to evaluate training across all departments about the types of information requiring prompt reporting to the quality unit. Further, your response does not address how you will ensure that complaint investigations are handled in a timely manner.</blockquote> Also, the firm still had problems overseeing the work of companies that supplied it: <blockquote>Your firm failed to properly evaluate a contract laboratory to ensure GMP compliance of operations occurring at the contract site</blockquote> Furthermore, it did not use the proper equipment: <blockquote>Failure to have equipment for the manufacture of APIs of appropriate design for its intended use.</blockquote> The FDA seemed concerned that company management did not understand its responsibilities: <blockquote>The manner in which you addressed this problem [the contamination of the heparin] is very worrisome with respect to the timeliness of the investigation, the identification of all potentially affected drugs, and implementing appropriate actions to resolve these issues. Be advised that your firm has the responsibility to ensure the quality, safety, and integrity of its drugs. FDA expects that your corporate management will immediately undertake a comprehensive evaluation of your quality system to ensure comprehensive compliance with CGMP.</blockquote> In addition, <blockquote>However, we are concerned about your firm’s fundamental understanding of what is required by your Quality Unit and the regulatory expectations for a firm that enters into agreements with contract testing laboratories. Although you have agreements with other firms that may delineate specific responsibilities to each party, you are ultimately responsible for the quality of your products and the reliability of test results. Regardless of who tests your products or the agreements in place, you are required to manufacture these products in accordance with section 501(a)(2)(B) of the Act to assure their identity, strength, quality, purity, and safety.</blockquote>Summary In previous discussions of the case of the adulterated heparin I speculated about reasons that the current leaders of health care corporations may have abandoned their most fundamental responsibilities, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/12/unreasonably-dangerous-heparin.html">for example</a>: <blockquote>I submit that corporate cultures increasingly influenced by the arrogant, greedy, amoral leadership of the financial services industry that lead us to the brink of another depression are also leading us to the brink of a poisonous era in health care. Corporate leaders intent on cutting costs, and paying themselves as much of the resulting proceeds as possible, may see quality and safety as just another cost cutting target. Corporate leaders brought up in the culture of finance, but untrained and inexperienced in engineering, science, and medicine find it all too easy to ignore quality and safety and focus on the bottom line. </blockquote> The FDA letter to Scientific Protein Laboratories seems to confirm my fear that leaders of health care corporations no longer seem to understand their most elementary responsibilities for providing safe products, in this case, pure, unadulterated drugs. It did not speak to why that may be the case, but certainly does not contradict my theory above. The letter provides some reassurance that the FDA, at least, has not forgotten the case of the adulterated heparin. However, despite the number of deaths involved, this case has been relatively <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic</a>, and never fully investigated. So here I go again: as long as the leaders of health care organizations are not held accountable for the results of their decisions on health care quality, cost, and access (even in such extreme quality violations as those resulting in multiple patient deaths), we can expect continuing decisions that sacrifice quality, increase costs, and worsen access, but that are in the self-interest of the people making them. To really reform health care, we must hold health care organizations and their leaders accountable (and not blame all the problems on doctors, other health care professionals, patients, and society at large).

FDA to Scientific Protein Laboratories Managerement: "We Are Concerned About Your Fundamental Understanding"

Per Ed Silverman on the Pharmalot blog , we hear of new concerns about a company in the supply chain that ended up with adulterated heparin ...

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BLOGSCAN - Electronic Health Records: Should Congress “Defund” the Stampede to Convert to EHRs? No, But . . .

Maggie Mahar over at <a href="http://www.healthbeatblog.org/">HealthBeat Blog</a> has written a piece on Jan. 31, 2011 entitled "<a style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2011/01/electronic-health-records-should-congress-defund-the-stampede-to-convert-to-ehrs-no-but-.html">Electronic Health Records: Should Congress “Defund” the Stampede to Convert to EHRs? No, But . . .</a>" It cites my Jan. 28, 2011 HC Renewal post "<a style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);" href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/us-house-of-representatives-proposes-to.html">US House of Representatives Proposes to Defund Largest Non-Consented Medical Experiment in U.S. History: HITECH</a>." She points out something quite interesting about the HIT market from an economic perspective (emphasis in the original): <blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">... I am hardly an IT expert. But I have spent enough years observing markets—stock markets, real estate markets, and most recently, our health care market—to recognize a big, bright Bubble when I see one. Eager to take advantage of fat federal subsidies, too many buyers, with too little information, are scrambling to purchase health IT. And, as is always the case, too many sellers are all too eager to satisfy the buyer’s desire to part with his money.... ... The more I think about it, the more I am reminded me of the bull market of the 1990s. Then, as now, neither buyers nor the analysts, brokers and financial planners who sold them stocks possessed the knowledge that they needed. “Momentum” was all as the pace of investing quickened. As for the “collateral damage”—our economy is still recovering from the 1990s. </blockquote> I hope the medical world will not find itself recovering from the "collateral damage" that too-soon, frantic adoption of not-ready-for-prime-time health IT can cause. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZfk58-uedzngmJ4Ryz-lB3nwbD5uQg5FObH56nZ7QVHYPPi5guI9VuiKQlVoxoBaNNgE4yEHb41aQ2ExioF-z-47SfrBEpORVMy8P78iNix2cns5pccADotEYRontRndqYSPcYUUYgZf/s1600/bubble.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569203850116824002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZfk58-uedzngmJ4Ryz-lB3nwbD5uQg5FObH56nZ7QVHYPPi5guI9VuiKQlVoxoBaNNgE4yEHb41aQ2ExioF-z-47SfrBEpORVMy8P78iNix2cns5pccADotEYRontRndqYSPcYUUYgZf/s320/bubble.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 177px; height: 101px;" /></a>The health IT bubble </div> -- SS

BLOGSCAN - Electronic Health Records: Should Congress “Defund” the Stampede to Convert to EHRs? No, But . . .

Maggie Mahar over at HealthBeat Blog has written a piece on Jan. 31, 2011 entitled " Electronic Health Records: Should Congress “Defun...

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An Updated Reading List on Health IT

<div style="text-align: center;">“It is only the ignorant who despise education.” - Publilius Syrus, Latin Poet, 43-85 AD</div> In a March 2009 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/reader-on-why-we-have-busywork.html">A Primer On Why We Have Busywork Generators Masquerading as EMR's: Health IT Reality vs. the Bernard Madoff Version</a>", I posted a "reading list" of articles about health IT that I consider essential in understanding the issues surrounding the experimental nature of this technology. <div class="MsoNormal">I wrote:</div><blockquote>Anyone contemplating policy work in health IT should be intimately familiar with these works, as they illustrate the true HIT environment in 2009, not the Bernard Madoff "unlimited returns no matter what" version. What these articles do not illustrate is the common atmosphere of irrational exuberance and complacency now prevalent about HIT, with healthcare organizations and physicians now being pushed forcefully to adopt these technologies or suffer payment penalties they can ill afford:</blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"> I've updated the list.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Updated reading list (not meant to be at all comprehensive; this is just a set I've collected over recent years writing on health IT):</div><div class="MsoNormal"> -------------------------------------  2013 Addenda: <ul><li><a href="http://www.ccjm.org/content/80/7/406.full">Electronic siloing: An unintended consequence of the electronic health record</a>, James Stoller MD. doi:10.3949/ccjm.80a.12172 Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine July 2013 vol. 80 7 406-409.   For all the purported benefits of the electronic health record (EHR), an unintended adverse effect is “electronic siloing" -  the isolating effect of the EHR on clinical workflow that drives caregivers to work in silos, ie, alone at their workstations, thereby discouraging spontaneous interaction. To the extent that increasing evidence supports the importance of interaction among clinical colleagues and of teamwork to optimize clinical outcomes, electronic siloing threatens optimal practice and quality. </li></ul> </div><div class="MsoNormal">-------------------------------------</div><div class="MsoNormal">2012 Addenda:</div><ul><li><a href="http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2012/09/06/amiajnl-2012-001145.abstract" target="_blank">Next-generation phenotyping of electronic health records</a>, George Hripcsak,David J Albers, J Am Med Inform Assoc, doi:10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001145 .  The national adoption of electronic health records (EHR) promises to make an unprecedented amount of data available for clinical research, but the data are complex, inaccurate, and frequently missing, and the record reflects complex processes [economic, social, political etc. that bias the data - ed.] aside from the patient's physiological state. . </li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.iom.edu/Global/Perspectives/2012/ComparativeUserExperienceHIT.aspx" target="_blank">Comparative user experiences of health IT products: How user experiences would be reported and used</a>. Discussion Paper, Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC. Sinsky, C. A., J. Hess, B-T. Karsh, J. P. Keller, and R. Koppel, 2012.  At present, some [most if not all - ed.] vendors prohibit users from sharing screenshots and otherwise effectively communicating with others about a problem with an EHR. There is currently no place for health IT users to share publicly the experiences they have had with their health IT products. </li></ul> <ul><li><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3243129/" target="_blank">Patient Safety Problems Associated with Heathcare Information Technology: an Analysis of Adverse Events Reported to the US Food and Drug Administration</a>. Magrabi, Ong, Runciman, Coiera, Australia.  AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings 2011; 2011: 853–857. 2011.  Healthcare information technology (HIT) events associated with patient harm recognized as such, and voluntarily submitted to the FDA Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database, were analyzed. The authors examined the problems in 46 relevant events submitted to MAUDE from January 2008 to July 2010 to identify natural categories of problems from a clinical perspective. CPOE and PACS were found to be involved in 93% of the events. Adverse events were associated with medications in 41%, clinical processes in 33%, radiation in 15% and surgery in 11%. There were four deaths. </li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">-------------------------------</div><div class="MsoNormal">Late 2011 Addenda </div><ul><li><a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Patient%20Safety%20and%20Health%20IT%20prepub.pdf">Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care</a>, U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, Nov. 2011. The IOM is aware of severe health IT risks and safety issues, recognizes that health IT is unregulated, but admits it does not know the magnitude of the risks and safety issues. (Is that the proper environment for rapid national deployment?)</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.nist.gov/healthcare/usability/upload/Draft_EUP_09_28_11.pdf">Technical Evaluation, Testing and Validation of the Usability of Electronic Health Records</a>, U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of Commerce, Sept. 2011. Commercial health IT is not very usable, creating lost efficiency and risk, and much remedial work is needed. (Again, I ask , is that the proper environment for rapid national deployment?)</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal">-------------------------------</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [1] <a href="http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/archinternmed.2010.527v1">Electronic Health Records and Clinical Decision Support Systems: Impact on National Ambulatory Care Quality</a>. Max J. Romano, BA; Randall S. Stafford, MD, PhD, Arch Intern Med. Published online Jan. 24, 2011. doi:10.1001/ archinternmed.2010.527. Conclusion: "Our findings indicate no consistent association between EHRs and CDS and better quality. These results raise concerns about the ability of health information technology to fundamentally alter outpatient care quality." </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [2] <a href="http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/167/13/1400" target="_parent">Electronic Health Record Use and the Quality of Ambulatory Care in the United States</a>. Linder, Ma, Bates et al. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:1400-1405. Conclusion: As implemented, EHRs were not associated with better quality ambulatory care.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [3] <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000387">The Impact of eHealth on the Quality and Safety of Health Care: A Systematic Overview</a>. Black AD, Car J, Pagliari C, Anandan C, Cresswell K, et al. PLoS Medicine 8(1): e1000387 (Jan. 18, 2011). doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000387. Conclusion: There is a large gap between the postulated and empirically demonstrated benefits of eHealth technologies. In addition, there is a lack of robust research on the risks of implementing these technologies and their cost-effectiveness has yet to be demonstrated, despite being frequently promoted by policymakers and “techno-enthusiasts” as if this was a given.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [4] <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/4/639.abstract">Electronic Health Records’ Limited Successes Suggest More Targeted Uses</a>. DesRoches, Jha et al., Health Affairs, April 2010 vol. 29 no. 4 639-646, doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2009.1086. Abstract: We examined electronic health record adoption in U.S. hospitals and the relationship to quality and efficiency. Across a large number of metrics examined, the relationships were modest at best and generally lacked statistical or clinical significance.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [5] <a href="http://jamia.bmj.com/content/17/6/617.abstract">Health information technology: fallacies and sober realities</a>. Karsh et al. (Oct. 2010). JAMIA 2010 17: 617-623. Abstract: We discuss 12 HIT fallacies and their implications for design and implementation. These fallacies must be understood and addressed for HIT to yield better results. Foundational cognitive and human factors engineering research and development are essential to better inform HIT development, deployment, and use.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [6] <a href="http://jamia.bmj.com/site/icons/amiajnl8946.pdf">Challenges in ethics, safety, best practices, and oversight regarding HIT vendors, their customers, and patients: a report of an AMIA special task force</a>. Goodman et al. JAMIA doi:10.1136/jamia.2010.008946. Nov. 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [7] <a href="https://www.ecri.org/Press/Pages/Top-10-Health-Technology-Hazards-List-2011.aspx">The Top Ten Health Technology Threats to Patient Safety for 2011</a>. ECRI Institute, Plymouth Meeting, PA, Dec. 7, 2010. Data loss, system incompatibilities, and other health IT complications is #5.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [8] <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12572" target="_parent">Current Approaches to U.S. Healthcare Information Technology are Insufficient</a>. Computational Technology for Effective Health Care: Immediate Steps and Strategic Directions. National Research Council of the U.S. National Academies, Jan. 2009. Abstract: Current efforts aimed at the nationwide deployment of health care information technology (IT) will not be sufficient to achieve medical leaders' vision of health care in the 21st century and may even set back the cause, says a new report from the National Research Council ... The report describes difficulties with data sharing and integration, deployment of new IT capabilities, and large-scale data management. Most importantly, current health care IT systems offer little cognitive support; clinicians spend a great deal of time sifting through large amounts of raw data (such as lab and other test results) and integrating it with their medical knowledge to form a whole picture of the patient.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [9] <a href="http://aci.schattauer.de/en/home/issue/special/manuscript/15729/show.htm">Evaluating the Impact of the Electronic Health Record on Patient Flow in a Pediatric Emergency Department</a>. Mathison, Chamberlain, Children's National Medical Center – Division of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC. Applied Clinical Informatics, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2011, 10.4338/ACI-2010-08-RA-0046</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [10] <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/%7Ehitru/essays/Pt%201%20-%20The%20Story%20of%20the%20Deployment%20of%20an%20ED%20Clinical%20Information%20System6.0.pdf">A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck?</a>, Professor Jon Patrick, Health Information Technology Research Laboratory, School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney, Australia, Jan. 2010. Severe software engineering flaws in a major U.S. EHR for emergency rooms makes the software difficult to use, unstable and subject to unpredictable data loss.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [11] <a href="http://works.bepress.com/sharona_hoffman/7/">E-Health Hazards: Provider Liability and Electronic Health Record Systems</a>. Sharona Hoffman and Andy Podgurski. Berkeley Technology Law Journal (2010). Followup paper on EHR medical and legal risks. This article is a first of its kind, a comprehensive analysis of the liability risks associated with use of clinical IT. The authors point out that the potential benefits of computerization could be substantial, but EHR systems also give rise to new liability risks for health care providers that have received little attention in the legal literature. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [12] <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1697587">Meaningful Use and Certification of Health Information Technology: What About Safety?</a> Sharona Hoffman and Andy Podgurski. Case Research Paper Series in Legal Studies Working Paper 2010-34, October 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [13] <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/regulation_and_oversight_hoffman.pdf" target="_parent">Finding a Cure: The Case for Regulation And Oversight of Electronic Health Records Systems</a>, Sharona Hoffman and Andy Podgurski. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 2008 vol. 22, No. 1</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <cite>[14] </cite><a href="http://www.dri.org/articles/MedicalLiability/FTD-1007-Brouillard.pdf">Emerging Trends in Electronic Health Record Liability</a>. Chad P. Brouillard. For the Defense, July 2010 (Defense Research Institute). <cite> </cite></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <cite>[15] </cite><cite><a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/norcal.pdf">Electronic Health Records: Recognizing and Managing the Risks</a>. ClaimsRx: Clinical and Risk Management Perspectives. NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company, Oct. 2009.</cite></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> <cite>[16] </cite><cite><a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Korin%20Quattrone%206.11.07.pdf">Litigation in the Decade of Electronic Health Records</a>. Joel B. Korin and Madelyn S. Quattrone. New Jersey Law Journal, June 11, 2007.</cite></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [17] <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/10/1197" target="_parent">Role of Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems in Facilitating Medication Errors</a>. Ross Koppel, PhD, et al, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005;293:1197-1203</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [18] <a href="http://www.jamia.org/cgi/content/short/15/4/408" target="_parent">Workarounds to Barcode Medication Administration Systems: Their Occurrences, Causes and Threats to Patient Safety</a>, Koppel, Wetterneck, Telles & Karsh, JAMIA 2008;15:408-423</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [19] <a href="http://www.ctlab.org/documents/Hiding%20in%20plain%20sight.pdf" target="_parent">Hiding in Plain SIght: What Koppel et al. tell us about healthcare IT</a>. Christopher Nemeth, Richard Cook. Journal of Biomedical Informatics. 38 (4): 262-3.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [20] <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/301/12/1276" target="_parent">Health Care Information Technology Vendors' "Hold Harmless" Clause - Implications for Patients and Clinicians</a>, Ross Koppel and David Kreda, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2009; 301(12):1276-1278</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [21] <a href="http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343%2809%2900816-X/abstract">Hospital Computing and the Costs and Quality of Care: A National Study</a>. Himmelstein. Wright, Woolhandler. The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 123, Issue 1 , Pages 40-46, January 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [22] <a href="http://jamia.bmj.com/content/17/1/104.abstract">Unintended errors with EHR-based result management: a case series</a>. Yackel and Embi; JAMIA 2010 17: 104-107; doi: 10.1197/jamia.M3294, Oct. 2009.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [23] <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2260">Information Technology: Not a Cure for the High Cost of Health Care</a>: Knowledge@Wharton, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, June 10, 2009. (PDF version available <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/createpdf.cfm?articleid=2260">at this link</a>).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [24] <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/">Contemporary Issues in Medical Informatics: Common Examples of Healthcare Information Technology Difficulties</a>. Teaching website, Scot Silverstein, MD, Drexel University, College of Information Science and Technology, Philadelphia, PA. Site initiated in 1999.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [25] <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/">Healthcare Renewal blog</a>. I write on healthcare IT issues at this multi-author website sponsored by the Foundation for Integrity and Responsibility in Medicine (FIRM), a 501(c)(3) advocacy group. FIRM researches problems with leadership and governance in healthcare that threaten healthcare's core values.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [26] <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/health-it-project-success-and-failure.html" target="_parent">Health IT Project Success and Failure: Recommendations from Literature and an AMIA Workshop</a>. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Bonnie Kaplan and Kimberly D. Harris-Salamone. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [27] Joint Commission: <a href="http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/SEA_42.PDF" target="_parent">Sentinel Events Alert on HIT</a>, Dec. 2008.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [28] <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Internal-FDA-Report-on-Adverse-Events-Involving-Health-Information-IT.pdf">Internal FDA memorandum on HIT risks</a> to Jeffrey Shuren MD JD (Director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health). "Not Intended for Public Use." Feb. 23, 2010. (Description/summary of memorandum is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html">at this link</a>).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [29] <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/maude-and-hit-risk-mother-mary-what-in.html">FDA's Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database (MAUDE) and HIT risks</a>. Healthcare Renewal Blog, Scot M. Silverstein MD, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 2011</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [30] <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/hostileuserexper">Health IT's Mission Hostile User Experience</a> (eight-part essay), Healthcare Renewal Blog, Scot M. Silverstein MD, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, Feb. - Mar. 2009.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [31] <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15304.htm">The National Programme for IT in the NHS: </a><a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15304.htm" target="_parent">Progress since 2006</a>. Summary points, conclusions & recommendations. UK Parliament House of Commons, Public Accounts Committee, January 2009. (Full report <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15302.htm">at this link</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [32] <a href="http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/MediaCentre/Pressreleases/DH_119293">The future of the NPfIT</a>. Program slated for major downsizing and decentralization after poor progress and expenditures exceeding £13 billion. UK Dept. of Health, Sept. 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [33] "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-soumerai/dont-repeat-the-uks-elect_b_790470.html" id="title_permalink" title="Permalink">Don't Repeat the UK's Electronic Health Records Failure"</a>. Stephen B. Soumerai, Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Anthony Avery, Professor of Primary Care at the University of Nottingham Medical School, UK. Huffington Post, Dec. 5, 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [34] <a href="http://www.isb.nhs.uk/documents/isb-0160/dscn-18-2009">Health informatics — Guidance on the management of clinical risk relating to the deployment and use of health software</a>. UK National Health Service, DSCN18 (2009), formerly ISO/TR 29322:2008(E).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [35] <a href="http://www.isb.nhs.uk/documents/isb-0129/dscn-14-2009">Health Informatics — Application of clinical risk management to the manufacture of health software</a>. UK National Health Service, DSCN14 (2009), formerly ISO/TS 29321:2008(E).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [36] <a href="http://www.haps.bham.ac.uk/publichealth/cfhep/documents/NHS_CFHEP_001_Final_Report.pdf">The Impact of eHealth on the Quality & Safety of Healthcare, A Report for the NHS Connecting for Health Evaluation Programme</a>. (Note: 7 MB in length). Car et al., Imperial College, London, March 2008. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [37] <a href="http://www.lakemedelsverket.se/upload/foretag/medicinteknik/en/Medical-Information-Systems-Report_2009-06-18.pdf">Medical Project Agency's Working Group on Medical Information Systems: Project summary</a>. Proposal for guidelines regarding classification of software based information systems used in health care. Läkemedelsverket - Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA), June 2009, revised Jan. 2010.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [38] <a href="http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/18821/1/18821.pdf">Tensions and Paradoxes in Electronic Patient Record Research: A Systematic Literature Review Using the Meta-narrative Method</a>. Greenhalgh, Potts, Wong, Bark and Swinglehurst, University College London. Milbank Quarterly, Dec. 2009.  </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [39] <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18213422" target="_parent">Failure to Provide Clinicians Useful IT Systems: Opportunities to Leapfrog Current Technologies</a>, Ball et al., Methods Inf Med 2008; 47: 4–7.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [40] <a href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/301/9/919" target="_parent">IT Vulnerabilities Highlighted by Errors, Malfunctions at Veterans’ Medical Centers</a>, JAMA Mar. 4, 2009, p. 919-920.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [41]<a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090114/REG/301149994"> Software hiccups cause drug, treatment errors at VA</a>”, Associated Press, January 14, 2009</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [42] <a href="http://www.usmedicine.com/articles/electronic-records-system-unreliable-difficult-to-use-service-officials-tell-congress.html">Electronic Records System Unreliable, Difficult to Use, Service Officials Tell Congress</a>, Sandra Basu, U.S. Medicine - the Voice of Federal Medicine, May 2009</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [43] <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/116/6/1506">Unexpected Increased Mortality After Implementation of a Commercially Sold Computerized Physician Order Entry System</a>, Han et al., PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. 1506-1512 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-1287).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [44] <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06coben.html" target="_parent">The Computer Will See You Now</a>, New York Times, Armstrong-Coben, March 5, 2009.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [45] <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/dr-monteith-hit-testimony-to-hhs.html">Physician testimony to HHS Standards Committee Implementation Workgroup</a> of the ONC, Jan. 11, 2011. Reproduced with permission at Healthcare Renewal blog.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [46] <a href="http://iig.umit.at/efmi/badinformatics.htm" target="_parent">Bad Health Informatics Can Kill</a>. Working Group for Assessment of Health Information Systems of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [47] <a href="http://articles.icmcc.org/2009/01/23/dutch-ehr-postponed-are-they-in-good-company/" target="_parent">"Dutch nationwide EHR postponed: Are they in good company</a>?", ICMCC.org, Jan. 24, 2009</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [48] <a href="http://www.infoclin.ca/assets/emr%20success%20methodologies%20framework%20development%20ishimr%202006%20v2.pdf" target="_parent">"The failure rates of EMR implementations are also consistently high at close to 50%"</a>, from Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Health Information Management Research – iSHIMR 2006 </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [49] <a href="http://www.taxonomer.com/PublishTxgd001/index.htm" target="_parent">Adverse Effects of Information Technology in Healthcare</a>. This knowledge center presents a collection of information on the adverse effects of information technology in its application to healthcare. It also references sources of information on information security, and related media reports.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [50] <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/15/AR2009051503667.html?hpid=topnews">The Machinery Behind Health-Care Reform: How an Industry Lobby Scored a Swift, Unexpected Victory by Channeling Billions to Electronic Records</a> - Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post, May 16, 2009</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [51] <a href="http://aapsonline.org/surveys/hitsurveyresults.pdf">American Association of Physicians and Surgeons Survey on Health IT</a>, June 2008</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> [52] <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/Goldfinch_pessimism_PAR.pdf" target="_parent">Pessimism, Computer Failure, and Information Systems Development in the Public Sector</a>. Shaun Goldfinch, University of Otago, New Zealand, Public Administration Review 67;5:917-929, Sept/Oct. 2007 <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/15/AR2009051503667.html?hpid=topnews"> </a></div> -- SS

An Updated Reading List on Health IT

“It is only the ignorant who despise education.” - Publilius Syrus , Latin Poet, 43-85 AD In a March 2009 post " A Primer On Why We Hav...

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More on Hospital Executives' Disproportionate Pay

Local US news media brought some more striking examples of disproportionate pay given to health care organizational leaders.  Carolinas HealthCare System: Corporate-Style Compensation for a Public Hospital CEO Carolinas HealthCare System declares it is "the largest health care system in the Carolinas and the third largest public system in the nation" in its <a href="http://www.naph.org/Main-Menu-Category/About-NAPH/About-Our-Members/Profiles/Carolinas.aspx">membership blurb</a> for the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.  That association describes its members thus, <blockquote>Since the establishment of the first public hospital in the United States in the early 1700s, safety net hospitals and health systems have been an essential part of our nation’s health care delivery system. In the 21st century, safety net hospitals continue their long tradition of quality and service to the community. By delivering care to America’s growing number of working uninsured families, providing world-class trauma and emergency care, preparing for and responding to the threat of terrorism, epidemics, and natural disasters, and training the next generation of doctors, nurses, and dentists—safety net health systems ensure our nation’s communities are health and strong.</blockquote>The Charlotte Observer just <a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/27/2012618/hospital-systems-disclose-salaries.html">noted</a> how much this "safety net hospital," which declared solidarity with "working uninsured families," pays its CEO: <blockquote>Carolinas HealthCare System paid its CEO $3.7 million in 2010, $287,000 more than the year before as the system lifted a pay freeze and paid bonuses for reaching annual and long-term goals. Chief Executive Officer Michael Tarwater, 57, who has led the $6.3 billion public hospital system for nine years, received a base salary of $986,172, two bonuses totaling $2 million, and other compensation, including retirement and health benefits, of $630,346. In 2009 his compensation package totaled $3.4 million.</blockquote> So the leader of an organization that serves the poor and uninsured gets enough compensation to make him  quite rich.     Mary Washington Healthcare: Net Income Increases, but 20% Goes to Bonuses of Top 20 Executives <a href="http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/012011/01052011/594215">According to </a>the Fredricksburg (Virginia) Free Lance-Star, from 2008 to 2009, Mary Washington Healthcare saw its total revenues increase, but its net surplus decrease, <blockquote>The company's net income was $25 million in 2008, up from $20 million in 2007. </blockquote>Then <blockquote>The company opened its second hospital that year [2009] and recorded revenues of more than $666 million, up from $551 million in 2008. However, net income dropped to $8 million, in part because of the opening of Stafford Hospital.</blockquote> So what happened to its executive compensation? <blockquote>The top employees at Mary Washington Healthcare earned more than $1.1 million in bonuses in 2009, their reward for a successful 2008. More than two dozen key executives and employee physicians earned annual bonuses ranging from $2,000 to $246,278. The median bonus for the company was more than $28,000. Fred Rankin, president and chief executive officer, received the largest bonus among managers: $151,430. Rankin continues to be the firm's highest-paid employee, with a 2009 salary package of $955,282.</blockquote> The hospital's net income increased $5 million (25%) from 2007 to 2008.  It then dropped $17 million (66%) from 2008 to 2009.  Reflecting 2008 results, its top 20 executives received 2009 bonuses of over $1 million, an amount that exceeded 20% of the hospital's 2008 net revenue increase on which the bonuses were based.  The total compensation of these 20 people in 2009 was approximately $6.5 million (see <a href="http://fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2011/012011/mary-washington-hospital-salaries">here</a>), which exceeded the hospital's entire increase in net revenue from 2007 to 2008.  The hospital CEO's compensation in 2009 would have consumed one-eighth of the net revenue that year.  This all suggests that the top executives of this hospital consume an inordinate part of the organization's total revenue stream.     Hutcheson Medical Center: CEO Compensation and Deficits Rise Here is how the Rome News-Tribune <a href="http://romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/11174752/article-Region--Hutcheson-Medical-Center%E2%80%99s-executive-salaries-rise-as-lean-years-continue?instance=home_news_lead_story">described</a> the financial status of Hutcheson Medical Center, located in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia: <blockquote>HMC reported a profit of $766,766 in 2007 and a $7.3 million loss in 2009.</blockquote> In addition, <blockquote>In 2008 more than 80 Hutcheson employees lost their jobs when the hospital eliminated its emergency medical services. And after the profitable year of 2007, the Hutcheson administration approved major renovations for the hospital’s front lobby and entered into a $35.5 million dollar bond issue to fund further renovations and pay off debt. That bond issue is currently in default, which prohibits the next $10 million payment from being released to HMC.</blockquote> Things look worse in the future: <blockquote>At a meeting Thursday, Jan. 28, of the Hospital Authority Board, HMC chief financial officer Gerald Faircloth revealed that the hospital had losses of $3.3 million in the first quarter of budget year 2011 and projected total 2011 losses at around $9 million. Faircloth, whose compensation went down by $15,000 from 2008 to 2009, also reported that HMC has an estimated 15 days of operating cash on hand. 'So the wolf is at the door,' said Bill Cohen, a trustee who represents Catoosa County on the Hospital Authority Board. Faircloth agreed.</blockquote> Wolves notwithstanding, however, the Hutcheson CEO has done very well: <blockquote>In the face of Hutcheson Medical Center’s financial losses over the past several years, financial documents reveal that president and CEO Charles Stewart’s compensation package has increased more than 26 percent from 2007 to 2009. According to Internal Revenue Service documents for the 2007 and 2009 budget years, Stewart received $337,081 and $425,745, respectively, in total compensation. The Fort Oglethorpe hospital’s budget year runs from October through September. Stewart’s 2009 income includes a “bonus and incentive compensation” of $69,750.</blockquote>So despite a major financial loss, lay-offs and service discontinuations, and a bond default, the CEO got "bonus and incentive compensation" in 2009.   At least that drew some attention: <blockquote>'I’m really surprised that the board (Stewart) works for would give him such an increase,' said Walker County commissioner Bebe Heiskell, referring to the HMC board of directors that oversees the day-to-day operations of the hospital. 'For a failing hospital that’s exorbitant.'</blockquote> So while the hospital's financial performance continued to decline, the total compensation provided its CEO continued to increase. Summary Here were three instances in which the compensation of top non-profit hospital leaders seemed out of all proportion to the hospitals' financial results, let alone their accomplishment of their missions. In the first case, the CEO of a public hospital system meant to serve poor and uninsured patients was paid enough in one year to make him an instant multi-millionaire. In the second, the bonuses alone handed out to a handful of top executives ostensibly based on a net revenue increase would have consumed one-fifth of that increase, and when net revenue declined the next year, those executives' compensation would have almost consumed that entire year's net revenue. In the third, a CEO got increasing compensation while his hospital suffered increasing losses. As we have <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/executive%20compensation">said before</a>, far too often the leaders of not-for-profit health care institutions seem more interested in padding their own bottom lines than upholding the institutions' missions. They often seem entirely unaware of their duty to put those missions ahead of their own self-interest. Like the financial services sector in the era of "greed is good," health care too often seems run by <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/12/compensation-madness-insiders-hijacking.html">"insiders hijacking established institutions for their personal benefit."</a> True health care reform would encourage leadership of health care who understand health care and care about its mission, rather than those who see a quick way to make a small fortune.

More on Hospital Executives' Disproportionate Pay

Local US news media brought some more striking examples of disproportionate pay given to health care organizational leaders. Carolinas Heal...

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HITECH and Funding Cuts: The Battle Begins

At "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/us-house-of-representatives-proposes-to.html">US House of Representatives Proposes to Defund Largest Non-Consented Medical Experiment in U.S. History: HITECH</a>" I predicted this: <blockquote>... I have no financial conflicts of interest regarding HITECH or health IT to weep about. Others do, and it's not hard to predict their financial interests will push them to oppose repeal "by any means necessary." The next few months should be an interesting time in the politics of healthcare IT. A replacement HITECH act that's "HI" on research and caution, but not so "HIGH" on stealth, coercion and euphoria (i.e., as on mind altering substances) would be welcomed. </blockquote> The battle's already begun. At "<a href="http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/meaningful-use-incentives-jeopardized-gop-bill/2011-01-28">Meaningful Use incentives jeopardized by GOP bill</a>", Jan. 28, 2011 by at Dan Bowman at FierceHealthIT.com, views exactly as I expected have begun being proffered by the industry: <div style="border: medium none; text-align: left; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none;"> <blockquote>... All of that [possibility of HITECH funding termination] has HIMSS Vice President for government relations Dave Roberts just a little on edge, reports Healthcare IT News. "We're trying to tell people that this process is going on. This is only one body [of Congress]. Don't let this be a concern," he said. But "if this is a new way of thinking, that could be concerning. So I think that while this particular bill may not pass, it's something that has to be watched closely." Patti Dodgren, CEO of <a href="http://www.hielix.com/">Hielix</a>--which helps to facilitate electronic health information exchanges across the U.S., shares Roberts' view. [Any possible conflicts of interest towards full-speed-ahead-damn-the-torpedoes health IT diffusion in that role, I ask? - ed.] "Just the suggestion of repealing HITECH stimulus funds for physicians...is short-sighted at best, and threatens the very progress that is already beginning to be realized within the industry to move our healthcare system into the 20th [yes, 20th] Century," Dodgren told FierceHealthIT. "All this bill serves to do is strengthen the cynics of health IT. [Translation: "short sighted" and "cynic" = those more interested in taking the time to do health IT "<a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12572">right</a>" and in patient rights and patient well being, than in personal gain - ed.] We work with thousands of physicians and state government healthcare officials who have worked tirelessly over the past months to achieve the benefits that healthcare IT promises [no, Ms. Dodgren, they haven't, actually; you and they have merely encouraged a rushed, cavalier and reckless rollout (of a technology even HIMSS' former Chairman of the Board, a physician, admitted is not ready), damaging - not helping - health IT's prospects. See below - ed.], and this bill is a disservice to them and to the healthcare industry." </blockquote>It may be a "disservice" to those who stand to profit from the health IT industry, but it's a great service to the healthcare industry and to the patients it serves. I didn't really need to look, as experience at HC Renewal has proven time and again about the healthcare pundits, but the credentials of someone making such claims about health IT are not impressive IMO. From an <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/pattidodgen">online bio</a>, Ms. Dodgren holds the illustrious "CPHIMS" certification that I wrote about at my April 2008 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/04/is-himss-certified-professional-in.html">Is the HIMSS Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems stamp substantive, or just alphabet soup?</a>". After 8 years as Director Budgeting & Financial Systems at (now-defunct) Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) and 4 years as Senior Business Analyst at Dun & Bradstreet, she has been a "change management professional" for twenty years who "co-founded a management consulting practice which specializes in the application of change management principles to health information technology." I note no medical (or medical informatics) training or experience. My reply to these people is as follows, as posted in a FierceHealthIT comment: <div style="border: medium none; text-align: left; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none;"> <div class="submitted"></div><blockquote><div class="submitted">By S Silverstein MD | Posted 7:09pm | January 30, 2011 Patti Dodgren and Dave Roberts seem to favor continuation of a risky and even harmful national medical experiment that does not even have the fundamental decency to seek patient informed consent. See <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/maude-and-hit-risk-mother-mary-what-in.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/maude-and-hit-risk-mother-mary-what-in.html</a> for examples of some of the risks. The former Board Chair of HIMSS, Barry Chaiken, MD, MPH, FHIMSS said it best in July 2010:</div> <div class="content"> <blockquote><a href="http://histalk2.com/2010/07/19/histalk-interviews-barry-chaiken/">http://histalk2.com/2010/07/19/histalk-interviews-barry-chaiken/</a> ... We’re still learning, in healthcare, about that user interface. We’re still learning about how to put the applications together in a clinical workflow that’s going to be valuable to the patients and to the people who are providing care. Let’s be patient. Let’s give them a chance to figure out the right way to do this. Let’s give the application providers an opportunity to make this better.</blockquote> Let the industry learn the responsible way, not on patients' and physicians' blood, sweat and tears through way-too-early national initiatives that will only add to the $14 trillion national debt (<a href="http://www.usdebtclock.org/">http://www.usdebtclock.org/</a>), and throw some of the money into industry pockets.</div></blockquote><div class="content"></div> </div>Franky, as a physician with no financial conflict-of-interest axes to grind, I am increasingly disgusted with the cavalier, money-grubbing attitudes of the health IT industry and its pundits. Their attitudes and behaviors represent a poster study of healthcare industry at its worst. This latter fact is not lost on me as I speak with government representatives seeking to improve medical drug/device watchdog legislation, and to attorneys looking to protect patients from harm or gain recompense for those already injured as a result of faulty IT. -- SS </div>

HITECH and Funding Cuts: The Battle Begins

At " US House of Representatives Proposes to Defund Largest Non-Consented Medical Experiment in U.S. History: HITECH " I predict...

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US House of Representatives Proposes to Defund Largest Non-Consented Medical Experiment in U.S. History: HITECH

In a new bill in the House of Representatives, the ‘‘Spending Reduction Act of 2011’’ (<a href="http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/UploadedFiles/JORDAN_004_xml.pdf">link - PDF</a>), it is proposed to cut unobligated funds of, among others, division A of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009": <blockquote> Spending Reduction Act of 2011 ... TITLE III—RESCISSION OF UNOBLIGATED STIMULUS FUNDS AND REPEAL OF CERTAIN STIMULUS PROVISIONS SEC. 301. RESCISSION OF UNOBLIGATED STIMULUS FUNDS. Effective on the date of the enactment of this Act, there are rescinded all unobligated balances of the discretionary appropriations made available by division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111–5). SEC. 302. REPEAL OF CERTAIN STIMULUS PROVISIONS. Effective on the date of the enactment of this Act, subtitles B and C of title II and titles III through VII of division B of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111–5) are repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such provisions of division B are restored or revived as if such provisions of division B had not been enacted. </blockquote> Division A of the ARRA Act of 2009 (<a href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.pdf">link to PDF</a>) includes this: <blockquote>SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’’. SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. ... The table of contents for this Act is as follows: DIVISION A—APPROPRIATIONS PROVISIONS ... TITLE XIII—HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY </blockquote> Title XIII of the ARRA along with title IV of division B is better known as HITECH: <blockquote>SEC. 13001. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS OF TITLE. (a) SHORT TITLE.—This title (and title IV of division B) may be cited as the ‘‘Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act’’ or the ‘‘HITECH Act’’.</blockquote> It looks like HITECH is one of a number of spending extravaganzas now on the proposed chopping block. I can't be too sorry about this for these reasons: <ul><li>This country cannot afford HITECH at this time. We are broke, with some calling the economic crisis of 2008 worse than the crisis of 1929, and the national deficit ballooning far out of control. The money would be far better spent at this time on care of those who cannot afford it. </li></ul><ul><li>HITECH appeared as if out of nowhere, with little to no input time from stakeholders. This suggests lobbying by those with conflicts of interest to push this bill onto the public, affecting their medical care without informed consent (see my March 2009 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/draft-patient-rights-statement-and.html">Draft Patient Rights Statement and Informed Consent on Use of HIT</a>"). The bill includes persuasion along with economic coercion for non-adopting organizations and physicians. ("Adoption" = adherence to government-set standards of "meaningful use" of <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/hostileuserexper">poorly usable technology</a>.) I disapprove of the stealth process by which HITECH appeared. This is the U.S., not the old USSR.</li></ul><ul><li>Mass social experiments involving major systemic changes to our healthcare delivery system, with exceptional claims being made about IT, need to be backed by exceptional evidence. That evidence is lacking. (March 2011 addendum: the evidence might actually be in the negative direction. See my post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/updated-reading-list-on-health-it.html">An Updated Reading List on Health IT</a>.") </li></ul><ul><li>The technology <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/?loc=cases&sloc=2009">is not ready</a>. It is dangerous in unqualified hands, which most every medical center and physician office is in 2011 (i.e., an <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/">IT backwater</a>). The field of health IT was somehow transformed from an experimental field into the 'savior of medicine' without the proof of value and safety that would ordinarily be required to move an experimental technology from lab to national rollout. Per the Washington Post, this process appears to have been a highly politicized one, favoring the corporate elites. The Washington Post’s 2009 article on the influential HIT vendor lobby “The Machinery Behind Healthcare Reform” is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/15/AR2009051503667.html?hpid=topnews">at this link</a>. </li></ul> While this House Bill is just the initial battle in the repeal of this and other mass expenditures, I would not weep for the HITECH act's passing. It would allow the restoration of health IT back to an unrushed and careful endeavor. It would also give time to work out the significant issues causing health IT difficulty (such as <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12572">raised in 2009 by our National Research Council</a>) before we embark on national diffusion. In other words, its passing would <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/maude-and-hit-risk-mother-mary-what-in.html">reduce risk</a> and help restore an essential level of sanity and due diligence to the healthcare IT sector, now afflicted by irrational exuberance bordering on <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/healthcare-it-delirium.html">delirium</a>. We would avoid the largest non-consented medical experiment in US history, which as I have repeatedly written I feel would be disastrous with current levels of understanding of this technology and how to design, deploy and manage it. (My relative's 2010 HIT-related injuries only strengthened my convictions in this regard.) Of course, I have no financial conflicts of interest regarding HITECH or health IT to weep about. Others do, and it's not hard to predict their financial interests will push them to oppose repeal "by any means necessary." The next few months should be an interesting time in the politics of healthcare IT. A replacement HITECH act that's "HI" on research and caution, but not so "HIGH" on stealth, coercion and euphoria (i.e., as on mind altering substances) would be welcomed. -- SS

US House of Representatives Proposes to Defund Largest Non-Consented Medical Experiment in U.S. History: HITECH

In a new bill in the House of Representatives, the ‘‘ Spending Reduction Act of 2011 ’’ ( link - PDF ), it is proposed to cut unobligated fu...

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