This catch-up edition of Blog Buzz covers events from late February through the first week of April, and has been edited in the interest of brevity.
The last minute patch to the SGR (sustainable growth rate formula for Medicare payments), and delay of the new ICD-10 coding system this past week is big news for hospitals and healthcare providers around the country who have been working toward the previous October 2014 deadline. Below are a few posts on different parts of the law;
- In this statement, American Society of Clinical Oncology President (and MSK physician) Clifford Hudis expressed frustration with the patch.
- Healthcare Informatics spoke with a representative of the American College of Radiology to provide some Clarity on the New Diagnostic Imaging Ordering Mandate in the “Doc-Fix”/ICD-10 Law.
- On Healthcare IT News, John Halamka shares some responses he received by email from fellow CIOs in Massachusetts when he suggested they “continue with testing and go live with as much technology as we can in 2014.”
PLoS made a splash toward the end of February with posts about a new Data Policy beginning last month wherein all papers submitted to their journals should share their data and indicate where it is housed. There were strong reactions online from researchers who felt that they couldn’t possibly share their data, and others who think that in most cases folks should be able to share their data… a sensible post about this – including links to some stronger reactions – was from Genes Gone Wild (and came to my attention via @KristinBriney). A clarification of the policy is here.
A recent item from the New Yorker, The Doctor Will See You Onscreen, discusses telemedicine.
The NY Times marked the passing of Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, saying the 1994 book How We Die is credited with examining attitudes about death and “fueled a national conversation about end-of-life decisions” in this obituary.