Fast Foreward by
Rick Dana Barlow

CHIP CRYPTIC. In an effort to simplify and streamline the healthcare industry’s information technology capabilities a bill in the U.S. Senate encourages development of portable devices that will enable people to carry their medical records around with them in a necklace or a key chain device. This is coming from a legislative body that can’t even properly regulate and prevent identity theft through credit cards and card scanners and mobile telephones. Of course, if you’re one of the 45 million or so uninsured any wireless hacker probably will call up a 404 or DNS error message.

CHIP DIP. Before the CIO of Harvard Medical School, who’s also an M.D., could recommend implanting medical-record-carrying RFID chips in humans he decided to try it on himself. So he’s currently walking around with an embedded transmitter, making him quite the celebrity at airport security checkpoints. Let’s hope he doesn’t need an MRI anytime soon.

CHOCO HAULIN. Candy maker Mars Inc. is working with several large pharmaceutical companies to develop a line of cocoa-based prescription drugs for the treatment of diabetes, some forms of dementia and other illnesses. It’s based on the possible health benefits of cocoa flavanols, which are compounds contained in one of the basic ingredients of chocolate. While it’s an intriguing idea let’s hope those patients don’t end up readmitted for bariatric treatment.

NEWS PRUDES. Despite all the lobbying by industry organizations and endless reports by trade magazines like Healthcare Purchasing News for years did you ever wonder why Congress does nothing about key issues in healthcare operations until it reads about them in mainstream newspaper outlets like the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post? From the group purchasing investigations in the Times to the HCA and Tenet accounting scandals (among others) to the recent decision by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to probe the reprocessing of single-use medical devices, courtesy of a Post series of reports, it looks like Congressional researchers have a short reading list from which to initiate, if not establish, policy.

ERROR PATROL. A new study suggests that sleep-deprived doctors might as well be drunk. No, then they’d be airline pilots.

BEER NUTS. Oregon State University researchers theorize that a "flavonoid" compound called xanthohumol that is found in hops used to make beer might help prevent many types of cancer. "We can’t say that drinking beer will help prevent cancer," said Fred Stevens, a researcher with OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute and an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in the College of Pharmacy. "Most beer has low levels of this compound, and its absorption in the body is also limited. But if ways can be developed to significantly increase the levels of xanthohumol or use it as a nutritional supplement – that might be different. It clearly has some interesting cancer chemopreventive properties, and the only way people are getting any of it right now is through beer consumption." Managed care organizations must be ecstatic on one hand because of the money they’ll convert to profits, but they’re worried that they’ll have to shell out big bucks to care for beer-swilling guys who will grow older for a longer time, get fat … and potentially become airline pilots. (To deflect any e-mails I may receive from any mistakenly believing I’m insulting all airline pilots, rest assured I’m not. I’m sure your relative or friend is a talented aviator. But when the nation’s only major airline with a spotless record screws up a routine landing in Chicago’s tiny Midway Airport during a mild snowstorm, crushing a car at a prominent intersection and killing a child right before Christmas, snidely comments from the snark-intelligentsia will emerge.)

FLAYING EBAY. So you legally can buy reprocessed or reused single-use medical devices on eBay…even complex devices for as little as $5…and some may even be stolen. Finally, a healthcare cost-reduction solution with tangible results!