Patricia Mechael is the newly installed executive director of the mHealth Alliance, a joint effort of the United Nations Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation. The mHealth Alliance this week is joining with the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health to put on the third annual mHealth Summit in National Harbor, Md.

I first met Patty in 2008, at the mobile health week of the Rockefeller Foundation's Making the eHealth Connection conferences in bucolic Bellagio, Italy, when she was m-health advisor to the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, a post she continues to hold. I was impressed by her international credentials in applying mobility to public health.

She was chosen in September to lead the mHealth Alliance, and joined just a few weeks ago. I interviewed her by phone last week in anticipation of the mHealth Summit. This is the result. (I'll have a companion piece in MobiHealthNews in the next day or two.)

Podcast details: Interview with Patricia Mechael, executive director of mHealth Alliance. Recorded Dec. 1, 2011. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 5.1 MB. Running time 11:05
0:40 Roots in Bellagio meetings
1:30 mHealth Summit
2:05 Vision for mHealth Alliance and mHealth Summit
3:50 Legacy of Bellagio
4:45 Global reach of mobile phones
6:45 Multiple communication channels to account for literacy differences
7:25 Smartphones in global health
8:20 Separating hype from reality in low-resource environments

Did you miss Eric Dishman's keynote address Tuesday at the Medical Group Management Association's annual conference in Las Vegas? That's OK, because I secured a few minutes with Dishman, director of health innovation and policy at Intel, immediately after his talk, and the results are right here.

This podcast, recorded in the somewhat noisy press room at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is a companion piece of sorts to my coverage in MobiHealthNews on Thursday, so I hope you have a chance to check out both.

Podcast details: Intel's Eric Dishman on connected care management, recorded Oct. 26, 2011, at MGMA annual conference in Las Vegas. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 5.2 MB. Running time 11:08.

0:30 Virtual care coordination in nontraditional settings
1:05 Overlap/collaboration with Care Innovations joint venture
2:10 Prototype device for monitoring symptoms of Parkinson's patients
4:00 Home monitoring of "classic" chronic diseases
4:55 Tracking behavioral changes for prevention and early detection
6:05 Realizing the potential of mobile health
6:55 Care coordination and health reform
8:30 ACOs and payment for quality
9:35 Intel's future providing "strategic blueprints" for healthcare
10:20 How to share ideas with him

In part two of my series from month's IBM Exchange 2011, my guest is IBM Distinguished Engineer Scott Schumacher. In this lively podcast, Schumacher discusses Watson, disease management and the concept of the "clinical hub," which envisions bringing together clinical decision support and case management.

As with my previous podcast with IBM's Lorraine Fernandes, I set my mic too low. I boosted the level during editing, but that introduced more background noise than I'd like. Schumacher mostly comes through nice and clear, though.

Podcast details: Interview with IBM Distinguished Engineer Scott Schumacher, recorded Sept. 14, 2011, in Chicago. MP3, stereo, 128 kbps, 13.2 MB. Running time 14:25.

0:30 What the IBM Exchange is
1:38 The "clinical hub"
2:30 Population analytics and individual patient analysis
4:20 Applying Watson intelligence and other medical knowledge
5:40 Target customers for clinical hub
7:10 Technical challenges
8:15 Potential for the technology
9:00 Video/image mining
10:00 Plans for testing and deployment
11:35 Mining of clinical notes and patient history
12:30 Incorporation of genomics and predictive treatment plans

From the Department of Procrastination comes part one of a two-part podcast series from last month's IBM Exchange 2011, an event the vendor put on to display its wares in health information exchange. The two-day conference took place in Chicago, home of the former Initiate Systems, which IBM acquired in early 2010. Here, I talk with Lorraine Fernandes, global healthcare ambassador for IBM (yes, that's really her title), about how HIE enables healthcare reform and improved public and population health. (In part two, which I'll post later this week, I discuss Watson with IBM's Scott Schumacher.)

As usual, I had a minor technical glitch. Since it was a local event, I schlepped my bag downtown and set up a mixing board with two mics. I didn't notice until the very end that I had my mic set way too low. I tried to fix that during editing, but raising the level just introduces more background noise. Ah, at least Lorraine's words are clear.

Podcast details: Interview with IBM Global Healthcare Ambassador Lorraine Fernandes, recorded Sept. 14, 2011, in Chicago. MP3, stereo, 128 kbps, 22.0 MB. Running time 23:50.

1:00 Global problem of public health
1:45 Renewed focus on population health
3:00 Early successes and a search for better models
4:00 Private HIE in competitive U.S. markets
5:00 "Lowest common denominator" of EHR
6:30 Barriers to HIE
7:00 Building trust with consumers
11:30 Engaging people in the healthcare system
12:30 HIE for care coordination
13:30 Planning and executing ACO plans
15:15 Experiments in healthcare reform
16:00 Explaining healthcare innovations to the general public
18:05 Home monitoring for preventing hospital readmissions
19:45 IBM analytics, including Watson
21:10 Addressing continued physician resistance
22:30 Healthcare and American competitiveness

Back in June, I covered the Wisconsin Technology Network's Digital Healthcare Conference in Madison. That conference featured a panel with Vi Shaffer, research vice president and industry services director for healthcare providers at Gartner, Judy Murphy, vice president of information services at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, and Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner, based in nearby Verona, Wis.

The panel discussed the question, "Is meaningful use a floor or a ceiling?" as I reported for WTN News. The conference also featured several sessions on how business intelligence and health information exchange can support Accountable Care Organizations.

A month later, I saw Shaffer again at AMDIS Physician-Computer Connection meeting in Ojai, Calif. There, she presented preliminary data from Gartner's annual survey of CMIOs. After the conference ended, I got a chance to sit down with Shaffer for this podcast. Since the fog and clouds finally lifted on the final day, we decided to record this outdoors at the beautiful Ojai Valley Inn, which is why you will hear some birds and other (human) creatures in the background. We don't care, it was too nice to sit indoors.

We mostly discussed how HIE can support ACOs, but we also touched on meaningful use and health reform in this lively interview. Enjoy.

Podcast details: Interview with Vi Shaffer, research vice president and industry services director for healthcare providers at Gartner. Recorded July 15, 2011, in Ojai, Calif. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 7.9 MB. Running time 17:14.

1:35 ACO as a business model and a fundamental change in the needs of patients (chronic disease)
3:00 Interoperability for care coordination 3:50 Will ACO model be better than disease management as it exists today?
4:50 Nature of proposed rules
7:30 Importance of innovation because "meeting the metrics is average."
9:05 Is meaningful use a floor or a ceiling? Is an ACO a floor or a ceiling?
10:46 Ambulatory services growing faster than hospital services
12:38 "Oligopolies" in healthcare building interoperability and continuums of care
14:40 How far can you go with interoperability in this changing healthcare climate?
15:19 Targeted panel management rather than population health

Why are physicians still resisting EMRs? Maybe it's because systems aren't easy to use and lack interoperability. That's the hypothesis of Rick Kneipper, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Anthelio Healthcare Solutions, a Dallas-based business process services firm that until February was known as PHNS.

In my latest podcast, Kneipper joins me to discuss the shortcomings of current EMRs and current EMR policy, and offers his remedies for the problems. Give it a listen, then share your thoughts, too.

Podcast details: Interview with Rick Kneipper, co-founder and chief strategy officer, Anthelio. MP3, mono, 64 mbps, 12.7 MB. Running time 27:50

1:05 Why he thinks current EHRs aren’t meeting their promise of improving safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare
2:00 Money for meaningful use is starting to flow
2:30 Lack of interoperability in lower levels of in HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model
3:35 Similar problems in meaningful use standards
4:15 No “silver bullet”
5:15 Per PCAST report, many EMRs create electronic versions of patient charts
6:25 Systems for creating billing documentation, not for improving care
7:05 Anthelio’s approach on workflow
7:55 Why aren’t we reengineering workflows?
9:10 Process doesn’t end when EMR goes “live”
10:05 Ultimate objective of meaningful use
10:43 Some physicians are just doing it for the money
12:15 Limitations of certification
12:45 Waiting on Stage 2 requirements
14:20 Caveat emptor and the rush to book revenue
15:33 Interoperability missing from Stage 1
16:00 Physician engagement in EMR selection
18:55 Usefulness of EMR data
20:45 Clinical decision support in MU
23:00 Patient safety compared to aviation safety
25:00 Public apathy toward patient safety
26:20 Advice to vendor community

In 2009, after 25 years of moving "Toward an Electronic Patient Record" (TEPR), the Medical Records Institute disbanded and its founder, Peter Waegemann, shifted his focus to mobile healthcare by creating the mHealth Initiative.

TEPR had grown into a rather substantial event, peaking at 3,800 attendees in 2004, when newly appointed national health IT coordinator Dr. David Brailer was the featured speaker. But attendance and vendor square footage rapidly declined after that, as much of the action in the realm of EMRs either moved to medical specialty societies or the huge HIMSS conference.

Taking a more content-driven than vendor-driven approach, the mHealth Initiative has tried its hand at conferences since last year. (I spoke and served on a panel at the organization’s 2nd mHealth Networking Conference last fall.) A week ago, the group held its third such event in that paradise for lovers of jet noise, Rosemont, Ill., and I sat down with Waegemann to record this podcast.

Podcast details: Interview with Peter Waegemann, chairman and founder of the mHealth Initiative. Recorded March 31, 2011, at the mHealth Initiative’s 3rd Networking Conference in Rosemont, Ill. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 6.0 MB. Running time 26:02.

0:20     Transition from e-health to m-health after 25 years of running TEPR
1:50    "Total paradigm shift" for documenting and accessing information at the point of care
2:20     No country he’s seen has a complete, effective EMR yet
2:40    Movement from an industrial society to an “information society” of knowledge workers
4:40    Beyond voice communications
6:20    Behavior change in healthcare and adapting to technology
7:20    Lack of connectivity among mobile devices and shortcomings in current technology
8:55    The politics of standards for m-health devices and systems
10:40    Always “five years away”
11:20    Searching for the iPhone of home monitoring
12:00    iPad’s role in healthcare and its shortcomings
13:00    Apps
14:20    EMR vendors discovering mobile devices
15:25    Distinctions between wired health, wireless health and connected health
15:50    “Three pillars” of m-health
16:40     “Communication-enhanced healthcare”
17:35    Better care for less money
19:05    Cell phones in hospitals
20:30    Integration issues
21:00    Patients and younger physicians driving change
22:00    “Unified communications”
22:42    Payment for home monitoring
24:30    European approaches to m-health

The 2011 HIMSS conference gets underway this weekend in Orlando, Fla. For the fifth year in a row, I interviewed HIMSS President and CEO H. Steven Lieber to preview the annual conference.

Check Health Data Management's HIMSS microsite Friday and MobiHealthNews next week for write-ups of parts of this interview, but this is the only place you can hear the whole thing. 

The audio is pretty clear, but you may hear faint music in the background. The recorder seems to have picked up some radio interference. That’s not entirely unexpected in a downtown Chicago office building, namely HIMSS headquarters at 230 E. Ohio St. Ah, well. Enjoy the podcast, and I'll see you in Orlando.

Podcast details: Interview with HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber. MP3, stereo, 128 kbps, 30.6 MB. Running time 33:26

0:30 Attendance "well in excess of 30,000"
1:00 Increasing interest in health IT because of meaningful use
1:35 ICD-10 and 5010 somewhat “sidelined” but still important
2:40 The march toward meaningful use
3:00 25 percent of membership already at Stage 1 meaningful use
4:20 "Uncertainty" about future stages replacing confusion about what Stage 1 meaningful use is
5:15 Questions about whether early Stage 1 attestation shortens the timeline for Stage 2
6:00 Efforts by some new members of Congress to repeal or cut funding to HITECH
7:30 Questions about meaningful use he hears from HIMSS members
8:40 Balancing meaningful use with 5010 and ICD-10 compliance efforts
12:00 Incentives from private payers
12:40 Quality vs. cost savings
14:00 Public perception of healthcare reform
16:10 PPACA hasn’t had time to make an impact yet
16:55 Expectations for David Blumenthal’s HIMSS keynote and politicization of health IT
19:10 Speculation about next national coordinator?
21:25 New, parallel HIT X.0 conference-within-a-conference
24:30 Mobile and wireless technology at HIMSS and in healthcare
27:10 Hype cycle in mobile apps
28:10 Home care and telehealth reimbursement
30:00 Technology and ACOs
31:00 Berwick speaking at HIMSS this year after several previous attempts to get him

One of the more interesting figures in health IT is Evan Steele, the outspoken CEO of ambulatory EMR vendor SRSsoft. For years, Steele pushed his Montvale, N.J.-based company’s “hybrid” EMR as a product that won't slow down "high-performance" physicians. After passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, Steele openly boasted that his customers—mostly specialists—were prepared not to receive bonuses for "meaningful use," a program he believes is skewed toward primary care.

Recently though, Steele has shifted his stance. SRSsoft has rebranded "hybrid" EMR as SRS EHR and now is seeking certification so customers can qualify for the federal incentive program. What makes Steele tick and what led to his change of heart? This podcast provides some answers.

I apologize for the audio quality. I was using a new telephone recording device, and clearly don’t have the settings right. I edited this on an airplane, and the recording was tolerable. Just listen with a bunch of background noise and it’ll be fine. :)

Podcast details: Interview with Evan Steele, CEO of SRSsoft. MP3, stereo, 128 kbps, 27.8 MB. Running time 28:22.

0:57 "Hybrid" EMR and physician productivity
1:40 Change in direction for the company with certification
2:15 What has and hasn’t changed with the product itself
3:10 Still targeting "high-performance" physicians
5:25 Why he says SRS EHR won’t slow physicians down
6:40 Documentation options
7:30 Why he believes Stage 1 meaningful use is skewed toward primary care
9:40 Changes in final regulations that focus on specialists
10:35 Why SRS is seeking certification now
13:00 Differences between SRS and other vendors
14:00 Physician confusion about meaningful use
15:40 "Unnatural" elements for specialists in meaningful use
16:30 Innovation being "sapped" from marketplace
17:00 Gamble of the stimulus
18:15 How SRS is innovating within the confines of the new rules
20:00 Expectations for HIMSS11
22:05 What SRS gets out of going to HIMSS
23:30 SRS’ niche among large, enterprise systems vendors
26:20 Message for HIMSS attendees

At the Mobile Health Summit in Washington, D.C., in November, I had a chance to meet Don Jones, vice president of health and life sciences at Qualcomm, for the first time since July 2008, when were both at the m-health week of the Making the eHealth Connection series in Bellagio, Italy. As a founding board member of the West Wireless Health Institute and chairman of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, Jones is a key player in wireless and mobile health both in the U.S. and abroad. In this podcast, we chatted about Qualcomm's interest in this industry, the progress and potential of m-health and what to look for in the future.

Podcast details: Interview with Don Jones, VP of health and life sciences at Qualcomm. Recorded Nov. 10, 2010, at Mobile Health Summit in Washington, D.C. MP3, stereo, 128 kbps, 32 MB, running time: 34:58.

0:30        Qualcomm’s history in wireless healthcare
1:00        Founding of West Wireless Health Institute and Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance
3:30        Global focus of mHealth Summit and needs in different parts of the world
4:40        Progress in developing countries
5:35        Qualcomm’s partnerships, including master’s program at Scripps Research Institute
6:40        Role of mobile/wireless in EHRs and “meaningful use”
7:50        Quest Diagnostics empowering consumers with app for reporting test results
9:00        Auto-population of patient records and medication reminders
10:25     Consumers embarrassing doctors by adopting technology first
11:15     Physician adoption of PDAs, smartphones and now iPads because they save time
13:05     What the iPad is missing, and the future of touch-screen tablets
14:30     Infection control with mobile devices
15:15     Low-cost imaging technologies replacing the stethoscope
16:40     Possible regulation of smartphones and apps as medical devices
18:30     Safety risks in healthcare without technology
19:45     Thought leadership at mHealth Summit
20:25     Orange and GE Healthcare’s city-wide, cloud-based PACS in Paris
23:00     Mobile/wireless in the context of health reform
25:10     Health delivery reform vs. health insurance reform
27:30     EMRs and incentive payments
28:50     Reimbursement/payment for wireless technologies
31:00     Building a competitive environment in healthcare
32:05     Progress to expect in the next year
33:20     Likely product launches in early 2011
34:05     Operator-driven medical devices