Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan visited the emergency department of a Dallas Hospital with a temperature of 100.1 degrees Fahrenheit, abdominal pain, decreased urination, and a sharp headache. He was sent home with antibiotics because it was not disclosed to the doctors on staff that Duncan had recently traveled from Liberia, where the disease has […]
We’ve written a lot about health care spending in the US, and about the ways we could lower costs and improve outcomes. This nicely-designed widget from the Institute of Medicine creates visualizations that further clarify the exorbitant costs of healthcare in the US, and also provides information on lowering costs and improving outcomes. Take a […]
We’ve been hearing a lot recently about Americans panicking over Ebola concerns. Ebola is highly infectious, and the outbreak in Africa has been met with sensational media reports about both the African outbreak and the (unlikely) possibility of a similar outbreak in North America. Following news of the confirmed case of the affected man in […]
The cost of healthcare in the United States is staggering. This is well-documented but bears repetition. In 2012, healthcare in the United State cost $2.8 trillion. Of this, 75% was related to chronic conditions. That 75% amounts to $2.1 trillion spent annually on treating chronic conditions.
Around 600,000 people die of heart disease in the US annually. Another way of putting it: One in every four American deaths is caused by heart disease. And according to the CDC, about half of all Americans (49%) have at least one of the key factors of heart disease. In addition to endangering lives, heart […]
Last week when we wrote about the US’s exorbitant healthcare expenditures we mentioned that spending on physicians constitutes only about 10% of the nation’s healthcare spending. We also noted that the U.S. has only 2.4 practicing physicians per 1,000 population—putting us significantly below the OECD average of 3.1.
Skyrocketing healthcare costs have been making headlines for the last three decades. Repeated policy solutions focused on financial and administrative remedies have been attempted–healthcare policy reform was a key domestic policy initiative under both Presidents Bush and Obama. President Bush initiated Medicare Part D, the largest overhaul of Medicare in the program’s history. President Obama’s […]
Health Monitoring System’s EpiCenter system has long been an industry leader in syndromic surveillance. This summer, our developers have been hard at work on some exciting future EpiCenter enhancements. Here is a preview of what’s in store in the coming months for EpiCenter.
Summer brings with it the many joys of enjoying the great outdoors, from picnicking and swimming to sporting events and outdoor performances and entertainment events. It also brings to the spotlight a familiar set of public health concerns. Thankfully, EpiCenter comes with tools designed to help monitor and analyze some of the common ones, in […]
Due to federal Meaningful Use regulations, syndromic surveillance has gone from being a fairly obscure concept to one that is now familiar–if not entirely understood–by almost every segment of healthcare provider. Health Monitoring Systems was founded long before the advent of the federal meaningful use program, and we have always had a broader vision of […]