Passivity, Competition, Coopetition or Leadership from the Disease Management Community?

The Disease Management Care Blog used the weekend to collect some random observations and took a moment to take stock.

Speaking of stock, I’d be remiss if I didn’t alert readers to Healthways’ reason to sponsor a Carnival bloco. Maybe it’s time for the Board to allocate some reals (depending on the exchange rate) to samba lessons for their executive team.

Vince Kuraitis’ blog has an unbelievable link showcasing a daughter’s attempt to help her ill mother being squelshed by a medical records system-behemoth run amok. While it is an anecdote, it speaks to what the Health 2.0-ites are telling us and challenges John McCain’s assertion that it is only at our peril that we mess with the “world’s best health care.” I’d sure mess with it if my mom could be easily enrolled in a disease management program that not only warehouses/organizes all her data, not only safely open-sources it for “mining,” not only makes sure she and her children are able to use it (along with personalized support) for maximal self care, but also assures that her health information gets to the right providers at the right time. What’s the role for Google, Healthvault and RevolutionHealth? What's the role for Healthways, LifeMasters, XLHealth, SHPS, Accordant, ActiveHealth, McKesson, Alere, Matria, Health Dialog, Nationwide and other companies already in possession of huge data bases that are already accessible by their patients? Passivity, competition, coopetition or leadership from the disease management community? You be the judge.

And to help you make a better informed judgment, check out this birth announcement of the PHIN. Vince and David Kibbe take the vision described above and put the consumer in the driver’s seat. They promise to spell out the details in future posts.

The acerbic and savvy Matthew Holt has a well written treatise on his blog about the past present and future of health insurance optimization companies. I leave it to the reader to think how disease management will fit into his sage predictions; he left that part out.

And speaking of predictions, I also found two links with calculators that will help you determine how long you have to live. They're on the right

I also found another blog link for your erudition: Pathophila. Well written, wide ranging, sharply informative and off the beaten track.

And I thank Pathophilia’s Dr. Martin for flagging this link to the numberwang game show video. The DMAA has a number of awards every year and I suggest a new category: Outstanding Achievement in Game Show How Companies Can Present Their Data. Now that’s real innumeracy. And speaking of innumeracy, check out this link to a peer-review publication option if you are thinking of submitting gazillion to one ROI outcomes data for your disease management program.

If I’m going to speak so highly of others, might as well give me equal time. I’m speaking March 12 at the Avalere Broaden Your View Forum on Diabetes. My emphasis will be on the intersection between gadgets and population-based health care. Never mind that, I’m really looking forward to what the others have to say. Think about trying to register. However, for the rest of you, look forward to continuing to read this blog, because I’ll give you a breakdown of what some of the other speakers have to say.