Put health records in the Vault.
Microsoft has launched Health Vault, a Web site where consumers can post and maintain their personal health records. Individuals can input their health and medical data on the free site and give permission for their health care providers to access it. The site can accept scanned copies of faxed...

Across time and space: variations in hospital use during Canadian health reform.
Substantial variation in the provision of medical and surgical services may reflect system capacity (bed and physician supply), patient health status, a lack of consensus within the provider community, and the discretionary nature of some procedures. In Canada, reductions in acute care beds have been one of the main...

FROM PATIENTS TO CONSUMERS.
IS THE INTERNET MAKING US HEALTHIER? Most people who use the Internet, the surveys tell us, have searched at one time or another for the answers to their own health problems. If you have ever done this, you will know that there are hundreds of pages of...

Agreement between self-reported and routinely collected health-care utilization data among seniors.
Epidemiological and health services research has increasingly focused attention on health-care utilization among the aging population (Ory and Bond 1989). Many of these studies have consistently shown strong associations between health problems, aging, and the use of health-care services. However, it remains to be seen whether improved health practices...

Studying the Effects of Health Plan Competition: Are Available Data Resources up to the Task?
Objectives. To review the availability of data sources to study health plan competition in the United States. Data Sources. The literature on health plan competition was reviewed. Possible data sources to study health plan competition were evaluated. Experts in the field of health plan competition were contacted...

Free and reliable consumer health information for patients.
Authoritative consumer health information from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Library of Medicine is available from any Internet-accessible computer. These two government agencies jointly sponsor the website MedlinePlus at MedlinePlus.gov. Launched in 1998, the site's information is updated daily and covers more than 700...

Know how it works before you fix it: a data analysis strategy from an inpatient nephrology patient-flow improvement project.
Abstract This article describes a two-part data analysis strategy that was used as part of a process improvement project on an inpatient renal unit. The goal of the project was to improve patient flow-through from admission to discharge. The Canadian Institute for Health Information reported that the...

Bookmarkable: Current Health's favorite health web sites for teens.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From comparing zit treatments to looking for relationship advice to researching a relative's illness, you've probably hit the Web for health information. You're not alone--a recent Pew Internet survey found that 80 percent of people in the United States have taken their health searches online....

Blue Cross Health Information Site Earns Internet Award.
BluePrint for Health(R) Online Recognized for Providing Outstanding Health Information ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota's (Blue Cross) industry-leading health and medical information Web site, BluePrint for Health Online, recently received an award for outstanding health...

Support patients' use of internet health care info: encourage responsible self-management.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A digital divide between patients and physicians may be creeping into some offices, Roe A. Roberts, Ph.D., said at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association. Encouraging patients to be informed and educated was viewed in the 1980s as a way of...