July 15th, 2009 by Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy
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One of my favorite summer activities is watching reruns of Star Trek Next Generation. It’s become somewhat of a summer tradition in my family the last few summers. Having become trekkies themselves, my kids were able to very much enjoy the recent movie, and get the history and lore behind it.
The longevity of the Star Trek enterprise is fascinating. Decades after it’s first launch, it still captures the imagination of inquiring minds and still provides endless hours of entertainment to viewers of all ages.
Even more amazing than the longevity of it’s run is the technology it represents. When the show first debuted, the sci fi components seemed truly out of reach. Today, much of the technology in the new movie and even some of the older shows doesn’t seem that implausible, especially when it comes to health.
Early Trek was a preview of our current Health 2.0 world. When first portrayed, that was not a concept any of us could grasp. Think about it. In the original series, and continuing through to the latest movie, they used communicators in high tech ways with online computers to search data bases and emails and video calls to talk between doctors at different inter-stellar locations. The doctors even had high tech gizmos to look inside and offer a 3-d look within. All medical records were online and available anywhere. New advances in medicine came from experience, science as well as other cultures and the experience of the treating physician. Patients and doctors could review information online and use that to improve their own care.
What wasn’t so out of reach was the portrayal of the practice of medicine and the limitations of what the human physician could achieve. The bedside manner was always first and foremost the key element to a patient’s survival. The physician treated all patients, regardless of species, and had tolerance for different cultural beliefs in treatment. And, not all patients made it through their ordeal. After all, the doctor was “just a man, not a miracle worker”.
So, Trek’s docs were all health 2.0 with a healthy dose of health 1.0 in that they had these important features:
1. high tech gizmos and computers to diagnose and treat
2. traditional docs to take a history and offer counsel but computerized medical records
3. limits on what could be done
4. online communication with “Googling” ability
5. New advances and lessons from other species to tackle new issues and problems
Sounds a great deal like our health system, minus the insurance headaches, huh?
The practice of medicine is begging to be more health 2.0 but with doctors who very much want and need to be involved and keep their health 1.0 skills. Today we have gizmos that keep becoming more high tech…think robotic surgeons. Today we have doctors still driving clinical care with bedside manner still crucial to the success of an outcome. Today we still have limits of what can and can not be done, with a limit of human life, regardless of our efforts to prolong it. Today we have very robust online communication between doctors, between patients, between doctors and patients, and between everyone and the computer, but with an importance still placed on the face-to-face visit.
There’s one big difference between the docs on Trek and us…insurance. Because of that, what we see on Trek is still just a dream. Those docs can do their jobs so admirably and with great patient satisfaction because they are not burdened with an insurance system gone awry and not forced into cycles of defensive medical practices.
Until health reform sorts out how to allow us to have a patient-focused, physician driven system again, what we see on Trek will remain a dream. What’s sad and discouraging is that is this is one sci fi dream that is actually within reach. Don’t you think it’s time we stopped the insurance companies from preventing us from grabbing on?
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Gwenn Is In*
May 21st, 2009 by MotherJonesRN in Better Health Network
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My husband and I did something amazing last weekend. We went out to see the new Star Trek movie before it came out on DVD. You may not find this to be mind-blowing, but we are frugal people. We don’t part with our money easily.
At first I hadn’t planned on seeing the movie. I was afraid that the new movie was going to be a crappy sequel, so I wasn’t going to waste my money on it. Like I said, I’m cheap. Then I heard some of the younger nurses on my unit talking about the movie at work. These kids couldn’t stop talking about the movie. I was amused by their verbiage as they described the movie. One nurse said that the movie was “new, different, and completely groundbreaking.” I just rolled my eyes. I guess they forgot that old nurses like me were watching Star Trek back in the 1960s on our black and white television sets. I just smiled and flashed them the Vulcan peace sign and said, “Live long and prosper.”
My husband and I bit the bullet. We bought our movie tickets, along with a $20 bucket of popcorn, and we walked into the theater just in time to catch the 11 AM matinee. There weren’t too many other people in the place, and the ones who were there were all AARP eligible just like us. I guess my husband and I weren’t the only two old timers who wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I’m not going to give away the plot, but the storyline delves into how the characters first meet up. Unfortunately, Nurse Chapel was nowhere to be seen in this movie. Maybe she’ll show up in their next movie as a student nurse. I’d love to see her in her student nurse pinafore and wearing her nurses cap. They just better not make her into some sort of sex kitten. See my previous rant about Nurse Jackie.
I give the new Star Trek Movie an arthritic thumbs up. Geezers, impress your younger coworkers at the nurses station and go see the movie. They will find it quaint you know about Captain Kirk. You don’t have to tell them that you knew who he was before they were born.
*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*
April 5th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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My husband Steve and I are at the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference in Chicago. There are about 30,000 attendees this year and the event is being promoted on billboards around the city and in hotels within a 3 mile radius of McCormick Place. Since President Obama has set aside 20 billion dollars for electronic medical records creation and adoption, members of HIMSS have responded with jubilation (and perhaps even some salivation).
The HIMSS conference might strike outsiders as a kind of Star Trek convention without the costumes. The 881 exhibitors in attendance range from health technology giants like GE, Philips, and IBM to small EMR start ups and software engineering companies to facilitate patient care. There is even a “village” on the convention center floor devoted to demonstrating inter-operability of data systems. Standards organizations like NIST, non-profits like CAQH, and government agencies like the CDC are aggregated together at booths on a huge blue carpet – all working together to share information in formats that their computers can all recognize.
As I looked out on this sea of exhibits, the size and scope of the healthcare industry really struck me. I had been to medical conventions at McCormick place before (the AAFP meeting was there last year, for example), but this time it was filled, floor-to-ceiling, with companies that were not (with few exceptions) hospitals, provider groups, pharmaceutical companies or insurers. Instead, this was an entire additional array of companies, all making a living on healthcare.
The exhibit hall opens today at 2pm, and I’ll be at the conference through April 8th, blogging and Twittering (follow me on Twitter here) my thoughts and discoveries. I’ve got my dark suit, comfortable shoes, and pocket protector in place.
May we all live long and prosper.
