Health Care

Covering health care is never boring, especially lately. I have focused on two areas that were always closely related and are becoming more so:  health information technology and quality measurement and management. I’ve also written about hospital finance and revenue cycle management, and about health facility design and construction. I also write about purely medical topics such as the U.S. News story listed below about young athletes and concussions.

Harvard Business Review

Standardized APIs Could Finally Make It Easy to Exchange Health Records

A rare foray into punditry, in collaboration with John Glaser at Harvard Medical School, one of my co-authors on Advanced Introduction to Artificial Intelligence in Health Care.

US News and World Report

Click on the publication title above for a complete and current list of my bylined work for U.S. News.  The stories below are among my favorites:

People with Neurological Conditions at Greater Risk of Death from COVID-19

This story describes one of the first research studies from a global consortium studying the neurological effects of COVID-19.

Is Your School’s Air Quality a Risk Factor for COVID-19?

The country’s leading expert on school ventilation explains why most schools’ HVAC systems–from kindergartens through top universities–aren’t up to dealing with COVID-19 or other airborne infections.

Who’s Got Your Health Data?

From electronic health records to your phone and your fitness tracker, your computerized health data is ending up in places you don’t know about–and might not appreciate. A look at the growing privacy issues around health data, and what might be done to fix them.

Pain at the Prescription Counter

The sheer irrationality of drug pricing affects millions of patients in the U.S., jeopardizing their physical, mental, and financial health. This story looks at some of the factors at play and ways that consumers can protect themselves.

DNA Will Point the Way

It’s still too early to say how genomics, proteomics, microbiomics, and other -omics will transform how we approach health, disease, and treatment, but it seems clear that radical changes are on the way. This story looks at how these fields are already affecting the care of everyday patients.

Surviving a Patient Identification Error

Are you sure your doctor and your hospital know who you are? This story discusses how mix-ups occur, and how to protect yourself.

Safeguarding Young Athletes from Concussions

The hazards of sports-related head impacts are better and better understood all the time, but children and teenagers run particular risks because the effects are cumulative. This story discusses current research and recommended protective measures.

When the Patient is an Impostor

Medical identity theft poses unique risks–from inaccuracies in medical records to thousands of dollars in incorrectly billed services–for 2 million Americans every year.

Health Data Management

My first love as a healthcare journalist is writing about the many issues that surround the computerization of clinical data. It is an endlessly complicated subject, and my seven years as a contributor to Health Data Management gave me the opportunity to dive deep into many of its most pressing issues. Below are several of my HDM cover stories that were particularly gratifying to report and write. Two were finalists for the Jesse H. Neal Award, the closest thing the business press gets to a Pulitzer.

Proceed with Caution

This 2014 Neal Award finalist for Best Single Article explores the challenges of computerizing mental health information and integrating it with patients’ other medical information. Substance abuse and psychiatric treatment records are so tightly controlled that other providers can’t get access, often leaving them in the dark about a patient’s true needs.

Breaking Bad (IT Behaving Badly)

This story explores several ways in which health information technology can introduce errors into the care process. It was a 2015 Neal Award finalist for Best Single Article

Ebola: Are EHRs Up to the Fight?

When the first U.S. Ebola patient showed up at a Texas hospital and slipped through the rather flimsy public health surveillance safeguards in place, hospital officials first put the blame on the electronic health record system for not doing a better job of flagging him. This story explores what EHRs can and can’t do to alert us to public health threats, whether it’s Ebola, bird flu, or an engineered bioterror weapon.

Changing the DNA of Clinical Care

The new discipline of genomics comes with great promise–and a mind-boggling amount of data that has to be managed, analyzed, and stored. This story looks at the genomics-related data challenges facing providers.

User Unfriendly

For decades, doctors have been complaining about the horrible user interfaces supplied with virtually all electronic health record systems. The industry wisdom was that they just didn’t like computers and were being difficult–until the 2010 federal EHR incentive program put EHRs into wide use and proved that the docs were right.

Why EHRs Won’t Reduce Your Malpractice Premiums

When EHRs came into broad use, it was initially thought that they would reduce medical errors, and therefore the malpractice premiums of providers who used them. This rosy projection turned out to be inaccurate for lots of reasons, enumerated in this 2013 story that may be even more relevant now that the hazards of EHRs are becoming more widely recognized.

Modern Healthcare

I wrote hundreds of stories in my seven years on the staff of Modern Healthcare, and I have freelanced for the magazine since my departure. Below are a couple of my favorite MH freelance pieces.

Making the Cut

This 2006 story on the economics of minimally invasive surgery outlines principles that still apply whenever a healthcare provider seeks to spend a pile of money on a new technology.

Angel of Mercy

Sister Mary Ignatia was one of the first to acknowledge that alcoholism is a disease, and she pioneered treatment and care for alcoholics, sowing the seeds for what later became Alcoholics Anonymous. (A profile for the Healthcare Hall of Fame.)

Clinical Oncology News

Medical Marijuana and the Role of the Physician

With medical marijuana legal in more than half of states, pain specialists discuss its place in cancer treatment.

Precision Medicine and Decision Making in Breast Cancer

How should genetic testing be used to help women decide how to treat their cancer?