Health - US

healthdatamanagement.com - by Joseph Goedert - October 5, 2012

Four powerful members of the U.S. House and Representatives have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius calling for an immediate halt to the electronic health records meaningful use incentive program, which they consider to be weak.

. . . The House members contend the meaningful use program is not meeting its goals, has wasted $10 billion and may do more harm than good. What follows is text of their Oct. 4 letter to Sebelius:

“We are writing to express serious concerns about the final Electronic Health Record Stage 2 Meaningful Use Program rules recently issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. We believe that the Stage 2 rules are, in some respects, weaker than the proposed Stage 1 regulations released in 2009. The result will be a less efficient system that squanders taxpayer dollars and does little, if anything, to improve outcomes for Medicare.

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Image: Because regulation is light, the industry can kill off the only effective system for telling us how much fat, sugar and salt food contains. Photograph: Brownstock Inc/Alamy

guardian.co.uk - September 10th, 2012 - George Monbiot

When you raise the subject of over-eating and obesity, you often see people at their worst. The comment threads discussing these issues reveal a legion of bullies who appear to delight in other people's problems.

When alcoholism and drug addiction are discussed, the tone tends to be sympathetic. When obesity is discussed, the conversation is dominated by mockery and blame, though the evidence suggests that it may be driven by similar forms of addiction.

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