Dr. David Blumenthal is the newly appointed National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. You may have seen his name as the director of the Institute for Health Policy at the Massachusetts General Hospital (also known as “Mass General”) and Partners Healthcare System which is part of the Harvard hospital system. It’s too bad for Harvard. They’re losing a brilliant healthcare executive, but it’s for the greater good if he serves the nation. As the National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. Blumenthal will be pushing for electronic health record (EHR) adoption in the United States. Read more →

A recent study from Harvard Medical School found that restrictive drug programs might cause schizophrenia patients to stop taking their meds. Nearly 80% of patients without antipsychotic medication will have a serious recurrence of their illness within a year.

The study focused on Medicare beneficiaries with schizophrenia in the state of Maine and a policy (step program) that required schizophrenia patients to use a Medicare-approved medication before they were allowed to be prescribed drugs not on the “approved” list. In comparison with patients in states with no such restriction, schizophrenia patients in Maine were 29% more likely to stop taking their meds. Read more →

It’s pretty well known that sleep deprivation affects memory formation. Getting a good night of sleep after a long day of learning helps consolidate memory formation of the prior day. What hasn’t been known is whether sleep deprivation affects new memory formation. Some research out of Harvard published this month shows that sleep may be critical not only for solidification of memories from the current day, but also in preparing the brain for next-day memory formation. Read more →