Thoughts and Opinions
ADAPT-ing Way To Health
Way to Health has been used to test the effectiveness of patient financial incentives in improving outcomes in a variety of health contexts. Now, many of the functions deployed in those studies, including text messaging, will be used by researchers for PENN’s National Institute of Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Center. Read on to understand how texting and other functions of Way to Health will be deployed in research among patients newly diagnosed with depression.
Can Patient Engagement be the blockbuster drug of the century?
Over the course of the last several years, "patient engagement" has mushroomed into a lead topic for speakers, conferences, trade shows, pitch decks, analyst reports and countless headlines (now including this one). The trouble is, there is still no clear path forward to applying learnings at scale.
The Content Wars — Episode 3. New Beginnings?
How could more traditional content and distribution companies react to the Amazon and Netflix content and straming businesses.
The Content Wars — Episode 2. New Empires?
In the content (news, music, movies) business, the internet has created a potential disaster for existing content distributors while at the same time offering the opportunity for new models of satisfying consumer needs.
Content Wars — Episode 1. A New Direction
Article on how content would drive subscription into streaming services and thoughts on how various services would try to capture the market and the likely investments.
Amazon Rx
How could Amazon move into the profitable drug distribution and delivery market. As Jeff Bezos puts it - your margin is my opportunity. Post delves into details about possible approaches that Amazon could take. A lot of this is now a reality.
Naming this site
There are only two hard things in Computer Science, cache invalidation and naming things - Phil Karlton
HL7 204 - The HL7 Scheduling messages, SIU and SRM
The SIU (Schedule Information Unsolicited) and SRM (Schedule Request Message) messages contain information related to appointment scheduling. Scheduling messages contain information about the appointment date and time, resources, services, location, and any other pertinent information regarding the appointment. The purpose or action prescribed by any scheduling message will depend entirely on the trigger event.
HL7 203 - The HL7 ORM (Order Entry) Message
The Order Entry (ORM) message is one of the most commonly used HL7 message type. ORM messages contain information about an order. This includes placing new orders, canceling existing orders, discontinuation, holding, etc. Orders pertain to either materials (e.g., 1 liter of 0.9% saline) or services (e.g., a blood panel, etc.). Usually this is patient specific. The trigger event for this message is any change to an order i.e. order is created, modified, cancelled, put on hold and so on.
HL7 202 - The HL7 ACK (Acknowledgement message)
The HL7 acknowledgement message, or ACK, is critical to ensure that ongoing HL7 communication proceeds smoothly. The concept of an ACK is commonly used in many data networks protocols, including TCP, so you are likely familiar with it. Although conceptually simple (receiving system acknowledges receipt for specific message sent from sending system), there are a couple of nuances (enhanced mode, rate limiting) with HL7 ACK that make covering this topic worthwhile.