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"Friends of the Consortium Library" Campaign
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New Books
Borrow a book from the Consortium's Research Library: (a
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NEW: We have lots of ideas for books we would like to
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of the Consortium Library" Campaign page. These books
are available for your own purchase via the Campaign web page
or consider making a donation of a book. By clicking from our
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will help to support the Resource Center & Library. We will
benefit either way! Thank you.
Abramson, John, MD, Overdo$ed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Distort Medical knowledge, Mislead Doctors, and Compromise Your Health. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2004.
Dr. Abramson, formerly in practice at Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA, decided to research and write this book
because he felt that the "best way [he] could help
people to achieve better health was to find out what
the scientific evidence really shows and explain this
to the public...[] and to other medical
professionals." In Part I, he describes his own "journey of discovery" as witnessed in his family practice, with particular discussion of the Vioxx, Celebrex and hormone replacement therapy debacles. Part II examines the "commercialization of American medicine." Part III focuses on "taking back our health," from the perspective of understanding "the limits of bioscience" and understanding what "research really shows about staying healthy." Finally, Dr. Abramson presents some ideas for healing the health care system itself.
Amatayakul, Margret K., Electronic Health Records: A Practical
Guide for Professionals and Organizations, Second Edition. Chicago,
IL: American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA),
2004.
Margret Amatayakul's Practical Guide to Electronic Health
Records lays out in stepwise, chronological fashion a practical
approach to electronic health record (EHR) adoption, migration
and implementation. Chapter topics include: EHR migration
path impact on quality, strategic EHR planning, healthcare
process assessment, functional needs assessment, data infrastructure
assessment, technology infrastructure investment. New
to this edition is a chapter on return on investment, calculated
at each stage of implementation. Additionally, she provides
models and techniques for facilitating change and building
consensus.
Consumer-Driven Health Care: Implications
for Providers, Payers, and Policymakers, edited by Regina
E. Herzlinger. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (Wiley),
2004
Professor Regina Herzlinger of the Harvard Business School
believes passionately in the importance of consumer control in "all
spheres of consumer endeavor," from academia to industry
to health care. In Part I, she argues for directing health
care from the bottom up, but she notes that currently the "absence
of health care information that can help consumers choose also
hobbles their role." Parts II through V of this lengthy
text include contributed writings from leaders on the topics
of vision and models, the new intermediaries, innovative consumer-driven
solutions to chronic problems, and the role of government.
American College of Emergency Physicians. The
National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine: Evaluating
the Environment of Emergency Care Systems State by State. American
College of Emergency Physicians: Irving, TX, January 2006.
http://www.acep.org
The National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine issues
a shockingly low national grade for the emergency medical system
- a C minus. No state received an A, and "almost all [states]
have areas in which there is substantial room for improvement." The
Report is not an indictment of the care provided by physicians
or hospital emergency departments, but "an assessment of
the support each state provides for its emergency medicine system." State
and national policymakers are urged to work toward increasing
capacity, especially "surge" capacity, increase funding,
reform the medical liability environment, and support training
of ER physicians and first responders, especially at the local
level where most emergency providers tend to stay after training. The
report also includes the first-ever national survey of state-collected
data on ambulance diversion.
Rosenbaum, Sara, JD, Phyllis C. Borzi,
JD,MA, Lee Repasch, MA, Taylor Burke, JD, LLM, John F. Benevelli,
JD, MPH (cand.), Charting the Legal Environment of Health Information .
Washington, DC: George Washington University, School of Publc Health
and Health Services, Department of Health Policy, May 2005. Supported
by grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/Legal%20Environment%20Long%20Version.pdf
Charting the Legal Environment of Health Information looks
at how developments in health information technology "reinforce
many longstanding legal questions related to the provision sharing
and disclosure of health information" and how "the
very technology that makes this revolution possible in turn raises
legal questions of its own."
Commission on Systemic Interoperability, Ending
the Document Game: Connecting and Transforming Your Healthcare
Through Information Technology. Washington, DC: USGPO, 2005.
http://endingthedocumentgame.gov/
In ten months, the Commission on Systemic Interoperability has
prepared and issued a 264-page report giving recommendations
to bring the country towards its goal of an interconnected, secure,
electronic health information system. They have organized
the problem into three areas: adoption, interoperability and
connectivity. Information technology is key to improving
the efficiency, cost and safety of the system, but it is still "about
people" at heart. Health care is intensely personal
in its delivery and consumers need to be "in control of
their care" and have the tools to "make informed choices."
Committee on the Future of Rural Health Care, Board on Health
Care Services, Institute of Medicine, Quality Through
Collaboration: The Future of Rural Health. Washington,
DC: The National Academies Press, 2004.
Quality Through Collaboration: Future of
Rural Health is another in the series of "Quality
Chasm" reports published by the Institute of Medicine.
This report examines how the six aims for the delivery
of quality health care -- delineated in the
2001 "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health
System for the 21st Century" report -- can and should
be addressed in rural settings which have needs which
differ from urban areas. The six aims are for care that
is "safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient,
and equitable." This report outlines recommendations for
addressing key issues of shortages of professionals and unstable
financial supports. Collaborative information exhange initiatives
as well as information technology are seen as powerful tools
in support of rural health. Finally, the Committee recommends
that the Department of Health and Human Services establish a
Rural Quality Initiative to "coordinate and accelerate efforts
to measure and improve the quality of personal and population
health care programs in rural areas."
Barlett, Donald L. and James B. Steele, Critical Condition:
How Health Care in America Became Big Business -- and Bad
Medicine. New York, NY: Doubleday, 2004.
Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and Time magazine reporters
challenge the belief that the U.S. has "world-class health
care", calling it "one of America's most enduring myths." While
recognizing that there are "pockets of excellence",
they contend that the system benefits "2 or 3 percent of
the population at most". Chapters include "A Second
Rate System," "Wall Street Medicine," "Anatomy
of a Systems Failure," "The Labyrinth of Care," "Madison
Avenue Medicine," and others.
HIMSSanalytics and HIMSS, Annual Report
of the US Hospital IT Market. Chicago, IL: HIMSSanalytics
and HIMSS, 2005.
Hospital information technology (IT) spending lags behind investment
rates for many other business sectors, and in few sectors is
the data being held, analyzed, protected, and shared in such
systems less critical than in health care. US hospitals
invest less than three percent (3%) of their operating budgets
on information technology. This report, based on data from
the the Dorenfest IHDS+ Database (recently acquired by HIMSSanalytics),
provides installation rates for specific functional systems within
hospitalsl: revenue cycle management, financial management, financial
decision support, health information management, ancillary/clinical
department systems, radiology picture archiving and communication
systems (PACS), ambulatory/clinic systems, electronic health
records (EHRs), bar coding.
The Lewin Group, Inc., Health Information
Technology Leadership Panel. Final Report. Falls Church,
VA: The Lewin Group, March 2005.
http://www.os.dhhs.gov/healthit/HITFinalReport.pdf
In July 2004, David J. Brailer, MD, PhD, National Coordinator
for HIT, delivered his report "Framework for National Action" which
calls for the establishment of a Health Information Technology
Leadership Panel. The Lewin Group convened this HIT Panel and
this document is the final report of the Panel's conclusions.
The Panel of business leaders recognized that "considerable
investment" in IT was imperative to achieving progress in
the areas of quality, affordability, and access to health care.
In fact, they speak forcefully on this point, expressing "concern
that under-investing in HIT could prolong existing problems or
enable them to worsen."
Henriksen, K, Battles JB, Marks ES,
Lewin DI, editors. Advances in Patient Safety: From Research
to Implementation. Four volumes. AHRQ Publication
No. 05-0021-2. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality, February 2005.
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/advances/
This four-volume compendium includes 140 articles that emanated
from AHRQ-funded research as well as from research conducted
by other federal government agencies. The four volumes
cover the following areas: research findings; concepts and methodology;
implementation issues; and programs, tools and products. Each
volume is further categorized into such topics (for Volume 1)
as the clinical environment, medication safety, surveillance,
technology, ambulatory and rural, and policy and medical expenditures.
This page last updated April 21, 2006
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