Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sharethis: Dear White House - The Personal Data Challenge

Now here's an idea I could get behind.

Please read the article, check out Alexandra Carmichael's CureTogether site, and ponder whether this might be a better use of taxpayer dollars than government-run EHRs.

Not doing well. July is just a bad month for me all around. Going to hide underneath some rocks and read about the monster of an alligator not too far from me in Mulga, Alabama.  I've only seen a picture of it but man, it was a beauty.  Must have been at least 7 feet long.



dear-white-house-our-personal.php from kk.org - StumbleUpon
Source: stumbleupon.com

 
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Monday, July 19, 2010

Sharethis: CNSNews.com - Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS

Who doesn't approve of being healthy?  Well, I should phrase the question, "who wouldn't like to improve his or her health?"  Probably most everybody wants improved health.  I sure as heck want to improve my health and I work at it like a full-time job.

The attached article disturbs my long-term thinking.  My father chided me for years to stop "what-if?" -ing so intently.  My thick Taurus Ascendant brain finally learned not to postulate within his hearing.  My brain continued to extrapolate nevertheless.

I "what-if" -ed my way through this article and ended up disturbed at the potentials that this EHR law brought up in my mind.

I'm not huge into BMI as a key health indicator.  There are few absolutes in health, I am learning.  My issue with EHRs isn't limited to BMIs.  The whole thing illustrates what can happen when laws are pushed through before adequate time for reflection is allowed.  I expect that many, many issues will arise due to legislation passed since January 2009 that will be the undoing of many.

I metaphorically flipped the mental switch to turn off the "and then...and then...and then..."  You can join the fun by letting your mind imagine every wrong thing that medicine and the government can think up to do with your body measurements.  Be sure to add in hackers and information thieves who would love to know your information too.

I'm going to drink a nice hot cup of mugwort, mullein, and sweet woodruff tisane sweetened with hops syrup.  I'm not going to worry.  "Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof" is how I learned this verse.  My current Bible reads, "Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."  Matthew 6:35.  I've got enough to do getting from sleep to sleep.

But I'll tell you this from my decades of association with the government under administrations from Eisenhower through Obama:  If they can identify a problem they've caused, they'll do the best they can to tax it as stringently as possible as well. 



CNSNews.com - Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS
Source: cnsnews.com

 
Parin Stormlaughter sent this using ShareThis.