IrishBeat.com

Today I sent my proposal to President Obama on how to fix a small aspect of the health care system. I think too little attention has been spent on the systems aspect of the problem. The US has an extremely low adoption rate for medical record keeping and modern back office health care systems, so my proposal is to try to change this by federally supporting an open source health care system freely available to medical practices. Once released a governing body would be created to support the standards, much like exists for other public standards. Below is the full letter for your review. What do you think?

Dear Mr. President,
Last night you said that you would listen to any serious proposals for solutions for fixing the health care system in this country and I would like to propose one. I have worked as a systems designer and implementer for 13 years and have had clients such as the US State Dept, US Mint, IRS, Marriott, and Freddie Mac. At each client, the business was complex and yet there were huge efficiencies and monetary savings that were being created as a result of modernizing the back office systems. I believe that innovation in the systems used by health care providers is critical to any real solution. There are many existing back office health care systems, the problem is that the ROI does not exist for small doctors offices and practices to implement them. This is part of the reason for a lack of adoption. I am proposing that the federal government sponsor the initial development of an Open Source Health Care System. Open Source Applications technology is used in every aspect of today’s modern systems architecture and could provide the initial impedes for these doctors offices to convert their medical records and back office systems.

Here are the major points of my plan
1) Federally back an initial system design and development using open source technology and methodologies. There are many established and proven applications built on this framework. Once developed, it will be freely distributed with guides for setup, maintenance, suggested process flows, and data entry. Key aspects of the system design will include:

2) Provide a Tax Credit for practices and doctors offices to implement this solution. This will include purchases of hardware to run the system, data entry of existing records, and training of front office personnel. The key here is to create an ROI for these providers by drastically reducing the cost of software purchase and implementation.

3) Use the existing task force as a starting point to organize a governing body for the standards and procedures for interacting with this system. This will be critical to ensure interoperability. This type of body already exists for other interoperable systems and would add a framework for health care system standards. It should include physicians, insurers, patient representatives, and systems experts.

I know there will be enormous benefits as a result of this effort. A few of the most significant include: job creation during the data entry and implementation aspects of this effort, monetary savings from the development of interoperable standards and integration of systems, fewer medical errors as a result of lack of access to medical records, and innovation in medical records technology and interoperability.

Thank you for taking the time to read this proposal and I look forward to your response.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what I can get out of the country and get away with it!  In today’s Democratic race what are the options? A known liar, cheater and manipulator or a pompous ass that does not have enough common sense to know that he his preacher is a racist.  How does one decide between the two?

My personal choice is that I will not. This will be the one election I choose to vote Republican.  Although there are aspects of the Republican Party I do not like, I cannot stand to think of Clinton or Obama in the White House.

The one major issue I think the democrats have misjudged again is the War in Iraq.  Once again, they will loose the White House because of this issue.  It is a tragedy that we have lost one life during a mis-shapen war over oil (and potentially terrorism). However just to piss away those lives and stop what we are doing; those dead soldiers are turning over in their graves just hearing it being considered.  The fight needs to remain in the terrorists’ back yard, not America’s. It is ridiculous to assume that we were going to fix this in 5 years, 10 years even 20 years. However, it is not ridiculous to think that we can continue to influence the direction Iraq and other countries are going as long as we have a presence. We got into the war for all the wrong reasons but now that we are there, we need to make the commitment to stay. What do we do if we stay? Get the politicians the hell out of the decision-making and turn it back over to the Soldiers. They are the best. They will get the job done IF we give them the chance and do not tie their hands.

Maybe in 2012 the democrats will get it together and gives us options for a real world candidate; one that is a strong leader and believes in defending this country! God Bless America!

With the recent announcement that the last of the British troops will be leaving Northern Ireland after nearly a decade without any fatalities, what’s next for Ireland? Do you think we’ll hear calls for reunification? Surely the people of Northern Ireland would like to experience the prosperity and tourism that their southern neighbors do. Do you think a reunited Ireland is possible? Wouldn’t a united Ireland be the ultimate sign of the success of negotiation and peace over irrational behavior and violence?

Can you imagine the map of Ireland like this?