Medical Economics Weekly - Keep confidentiality or exonerate?

In this episode of Medical Economics Weekly, should a doctor keep confidentiality or free an innocent man?, doctors aren't using mobile tech, patient education handouts from specialty associations aren't acceptable, nurse practionerss and primary care physicians argue about NPs providing primary care, and more.

Below are links to the articles and social media activity mentioned in this episode. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more episodes of our podcast. And make sure to connect with Kevin Stout and Brandon Glenn on Twitter (@kevinbstout and @BGlennWrites) or email us with suggestions at kstout@advanstar.com and bglenn@advanstar.com.

Should I Protect a Patient at the Expense of an Innocent Stranger?

Chuck Klosterman replies to a physician in the Ethicist column of the New York Times. The physician is facing a bit of a moral dilemma: a patient he had taken care of in the past had disclosed that he had committed a serious crime and allowed another person to take the fall for it.

Nearly 60% of physicians don't use mobile technology for clinical purposes

A 613-physician survey found that 57% of physicians do not use mobile technology for clinical purposes – such as accessing electronic health records, e-prescribing or communicating with patients.  What’s more, of these doctors who aren’t using mobile for clinical reasons, 78% say they have no intention of doing so in the near future.

Need a second opinion? ConsultingMD’s ‘network of medical experts’ can help

Health startup, ConsultingMD, has just secured a $10 million funding round led by venture firm Venrock, a venture capital operation of the Rockefeller family focused on health. The idea behind ConsultingMD is to allow for patients to receive second opinions virtually.

Primary care physicians, nurses hold widely different views of NPs' quality of care

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week shows there’s a very wide gap in how nurses and physicians perceive the quality of care provided by nurse practitioners.

Athletes With Defibrillators Don't Need To Quit Sports

A recent study found that participants with ICDs could play sports more vigorous than golf or bowling without major problems. While advice from the American College of Cardiology is not to play these vigorous sports, this study seems to contradict that stance. 

Most patient education materials suffer from lack of readability, study says

A recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine shows why. The study examined education materials from 16 specialty societies and found that all of them were written at too high of a reading level.

Health care developers who build on Box get HIPAA compliance for free

Recently, cloud storage technology, Box, received HIPAA compliance certification. This recent certification may make Box the default system for health care developers to use to store patient data in new technologies that may need to access patient health records, medical images, payment information, and more.

Tweet of the Week

In reply to an article in the Wall Street Journal about the declining costs of retirement, user @CarolynMcC replied,

"This is based on populations, not individuals. Each person should look at their potential health care usage to decide."