A survey reported in the American Journal of Managed Care finds that use of health information technology is reducing the time physicians have to see patients; for each new system a doctor uses, capacity to see new privately insured patients drops by about 14%, although no effect was reported on Medicare or Medicaid capacity.
Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development regularly estimates the average cost to bring a new compound to the market and currently says that cost is $2.56 billion, more than double what it was 11 years ago.
MedeAnalytics, a cloud-based or cloudy health care analytics firm, has acquired OnFocus HealthCare, which focuses on data to improve performance or performance to improve data, something like that.
A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine confirms that only about 30% of older Americans use the internet to find health information and that less than 10% of those who have serious health issues do so.
HealthEdge, a health care investment fund, has given an undisclosed amount of capital to Data Dimensions, which helps health care companies transform paper to electronic form and performs other back-office tasks.
LexisNexis, the large publishing and software firm, is acquiring Health Market Science, which provides a variety of data regarding the practices of health care providers.
Xerox, which through its ACS acquisition has a significant business in health plan outsourcing services, has invested in HealthSpot, a maker of telemedicine kiosks.
Truven Health Analytics, the former Thompson unit, has acquired Heartbeat Experts, a global provider of data analytics services, primarily to life sciences companies.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that using a formal care handoff process to share information between a patient's clinicians reduced medical errors in hospitals.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.