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A new study, authored by Arthur L. Wilmes, FSA, MAAA, principal & actuary at Milliman, estimated the impact of online care by developing individual actuarial cost models for a commercial and Medicare population from internal Milliman data sources. And here’s the money quote from the Government Technology website report:

The majority of savings estimated in Milliman’s analysis came from the potential for substitution of non-emergent ER visits and in-person visits (both acute and follow-up) with lower-cost live interactions using an online care platform. The savings for the commercial population amounted to 9.2 percent for the services analyzed, representing an estimated 1.2 percent reduction in overall medical costs. For Medicare, the savings amounted to 12.1 percent for the services analyzed, equivalent to an estimated 1.2 percent of overall medical costs. Milliman also identified other potential clinical applications of online care with cost savings potential, including chronic patient management, early disease detection and care management.

(Thanks to ICMCC)

The race here in the US may be tight but the rest of the planet- well at least 22 other countries – wants Obama to be the next President.

All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama elected US president instead of his Republican rival John McCain. Obama is preferred by a four to one margin on average across the 22,000 people polled.

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Jeff O’Connor writes in response to my rant on Palin:

True enough, Fred, but – with apologies to Don LaFontaine – in a world where Fox can “cover” the conventions and use words like “bloviate” to describe the Democrat’s while their cross-town rivals at MSNBC yank Keith Oblermann from his anchor duties, do you really think we’re going to get anything but down-home, small-town values and lipstick-wearing canines for the next eight weeks when it comes to covering St. Sarah?

Honestly, this is a woman who calls herself a “pro-life feminist,” yet embraces a party platform that calls for allowing a woman to die on the operating table if her fetus can be saved.

This is a politician who lies about selling state property on eBay that in fact was sold to political supporters – at a loss no less! – during her introductory speech to the nation and the corporate media points-out the lie only long enough to gloss over it without so much as a demand she explain herself.

This is a “reformer” who lobbied for the Bridge to Nowhere only to have Congress take it away from her, who now campaigns on the lie that it was all her idea to begin with.

This is a “fiscal conservative” who left a town of 5,000 people $23M in the hole and, once again, the corporate media stands by mute as she and her running mate (who supports our $12B/month outsourced to KBR and Blackwater fiasco in Iraq but has voted against the last 12 pieces of legislation that would have bolstered Veteran’s benefits!) pimp the status quo like its a cure for the nation’s ills.

I’m not surprised at all; just disgusted that it’s come to this and that the electorate continues to accept it. There is simply no excuse for the American public to allow themselves to be lied to to the extent that they are today except, of course, that we’re more comfortable living with pretty lies than confronting the ugly truth.

Now there’s a soundbite that describes Sarah Palin to a “T,” don’t you think?

Yes I do Jeff, yes I do.

1. A Call for More Tolerance by Chinese Authorities of NGOs
2. How to Talk to Your Doctor: Advice for the New Professional Patient
3. Top Ten Dead or Dying Finance Workhorses in Health Insurance
4. The Future of Medical Work: Send in the New Team
5. EMR “The Movie” — Coming Soon (Maybe)
6. On the Coming ‘Everyware’ Bubble in Health Care
7. Health Care’s Blogging Manifesto
8. How to Read A Blog (With a Nod to Mortimer Adler)
9. Miscellany, Messiness and Medicine
10. Wiki Media, Expert Systems, Free Culture and Health Care: Imagining the Convergence Horizon in Developing Countries.
11. Red Package Health Care in China
12. Essaying about Wonks and Hacks
13. Health Care Reform and the “Feral Beast” Media
14. Is Health Care America’s New ‘Soft Power’
15. Health Care more Translucent than Transparent
16. In Health Care, China Matters…and Vice Versa
17. Respecting Health Care’s Black Swans
18. Top Ten Reasons Why Electronic Medical Records Are Here to Stay
19. Top Ten Reasons Critics Say “Value-Based Competition” in Health Care Won’t Work
20. You Can Lead Doctors to the Internet, But Can You Get Them to Use It?
21. China Comes to Brenham, Texas
22. Will Doctors Bite the Virtual Apple?
23. Growing Concern Over Violence Towards China’s Medical Workers
24. China’s Emergent Public Sphere in Health Care
25. Thinking Global in Health Care

The China Internet Network Information Center(CNNIC) reports that by the end of November 2007, China had almost 73 million blog “spaces” and 47 million bloggers. “By the end of 2006, the number of blog writers was 17.5 million, and within one year the increase reached nearly 30 million, indicating the large-scale growth in number of the blog writer group,” according to the CNNIC report.

See my complete post over at the World Health Care Blog.

“Chinese blogs form the “civilian” intelligentsia, the creation of the “different viewpoint” (”dissent”?) from Beijing, and the change in Chinese society.”

(Peter Wu. From his The Chinese Blogosphere in the Eyes of Western Researchers, and Why They’re Wrong, reported by David Feng of blognation.)

The Chinese Blogger Conference is heating up. See here and here for more coverage of these important and fascinating exchanges. This is about blogging in a nation where it really counts.

File this under “Meeting of the ‘Bigs’”: The Chinese Blogger Conference opened up today (November 3, 2007) in Beijing, China. To remind us that this is the People’s Republic of China, the “Chairman Mao of the 21st Century” — Chinese pioneer blogger Isaac Mao — called the meeting to order just around 10 AM. Also amongst the “bigs” were Rebecca MacKinnon, Shizhao and Mountain from the Chinese Wikipedia, Jeremy Goldkorn from Danwei, Gang Lu from Netvibes, Pan Haidong from Hoodong Wiki, the people behind yeeyan.com, eeMap and City8.com and Flypig from AntiWave.net, just name a few of the bigwigs in the Chinese Web 2.0 scene.

I just want to let readers know that I’ve created a new photo blog. As you may have guessed, photography has been an obsession of mine for many years. So if the images you’ve seen on this site have interested you, then I think you’ll really like this new blog. The posting has just started so stay tuned.

“The growth of the Internet in China is, and will be, a significant force for health care development in the country. So I thought I would put together a short compilation of some history as well as facts and statistics on this amazing social and technical phenomenon. This information was gleaned from a series of articles thanks to Beijing Review.com.

First a brief China Internet history.

In September 1987, with the support of a scientific research group led by Professor Werner Zorn, of Karlsruhe University in Germany, a working group built up an email node and successfully sent out an email to Germany on Sep 20th. The email title was “Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the world.”

See my entire post over at the World Health Care Blog.

“Economic theory predicts that in any system in which all the actors find it in their self-interest to overuse resources, fail to improve quality and impede access to care, there will be system-wide problems of cost, quality and access. And this prediction holds not just for the United States, it holds for the health care systems of Britain, Canada and other countries as well.”

See John Goodman’s Health Blog for his entire post!