Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Cancer Prognosis Can Be Daunting. One Site Wants To Make It Easier For Patients To Understand Their Survival Chances.
Stat: 'How Long Do I Have?’ A Website On Cancer Survival Rates Seeks To Help
Talking about cancer is hard. Talking about your chances of surviving cancer is even harder. Now one of the entrepreneurs behind the drug-pricing information site GoodRx wants to make conversations about cancer easier with a new site called CancerSurvivalRates.com. Launched this month, its mission is to make information about cancer prognoses more accessible to patients and families. The idea is to improve on what people can find on the internet or even sometimes in their doctors’ offices, co-founder and drug supply chain veteran Stephen Buck said. (Cooney, 1/15)
Modern Healthcare: AMA Links Docs With Health Tech Startups, Investors
The American Medical Association is expanding its physician innovation network with a new effort centered on early-stage startups and investors. The network, an online forum that connects physicians with digital health companies, on Tuesday launched an online hub in collaboration with RedCrow, a crowdfunding company focused on healthcare startups. The new hub is part of the AMA's broader push to encourage healthcare technology startups to work with physicians. By connecting health technology startups and companies with physicians, the AMA hopes to help spur creation of new technologies that respond to the needs of front-line medical staff. (Cohen, 1/14)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Doctors Spend More Time On Electronic Devices Than With Patients
A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday revealed physicians spent an average of 16 minutes and 14 seconds of active time using electronic health records during each appointment. Doctors reviewed EHRs for chart reviews 33% of the time, spent 24% of their time on documentation and 17% of their time on ordering functions. Reuters reported that broke down to 5 minutes and 22 seconds spend on EHRs, 3 minutes and 51 seconds per patient on documentation, and an average of 2 minutes and 42 seconds ordering things like lab tests. (Willis, 1/14)
Politico Pro: Health Care Data-Sharing Rules Touch Off Intense Lobbying Fight
The looming release of data-sharing rules for health care have sparked an intense lobbying fight, with hospitals, digital health firms and patient access groups joining a battle that pits the promise of care coordination and streamlined research against nightmares over compliance and privacy. On Tuesday, former HHS Secretary and Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson jumped into the fray with an op-ed denouncing the rules on behalf of a hometown company, health records giant Epic, which is based outside Madison. (Tahir, 1/14)
