From the Department of Better Late than Never comes this podcast, recorded two weeks ago, in advance of the first-ever Healthcare Blogging Summit, which was held Dec. 11 in Washington, D.C. But thanks to my crazy schedule, this interview was not posted until Dec. 15 in a Florida hotel room. Most of the information is still relevant. Promise.

In this interview, Dmitriy Kruglyak, creator of the Medical Blog Network, a healthcare-focused publication in a blog format, talks with me about the growth of blogging in healthcare and explains his current project, the HealthTrain Manifesto. Essentially, it’s a statement of integrity guidelines for the highly unstructured world of grass-roots healthcare media.

Podcast details: Dmitriy Kruglyak, creator of the Medical Blog Network and HealthTrain Manifesto. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 15.6 MB, running time 34:11.0:50 Explanation of the Medical Blog Network
2:35 Healthcare Blogging Summit
3:40 Blogging’s effect on consumers and on healthcare organizations
5:20 The changing dynamics of information dissemination
5:51 Grass-roots transparency and how to respond to it
6:36 Speakers at the summit
8:47 Harnessing the power of the Web and new concepts on the Internet
11:25 Growth of individuals publishing information online
12:52 Power of blogging in other industries
13:45 Transformation of the role of traditional media
14:28 Blogging’s growth in healthcare
16:50 Evolution of the Internet in healthcare
18:37 HealthTrain Manifesto
19:21 Roots of it in ClueTrain Manifesto (late 1990s) for conversational media
20:51 How healthcare is different from other subject matter
22:13 HON Code and other earlier e-health standards more for top-down media
23:05 Holes that HealthTrain attempts to fill
24:21 Credibility of health information
25:10 The 18 concepts of the HealthTrain Manifesto
27:19 Survey of healthcare bloggers re: anonymity
29:48 More on how healthcare organizations should operate in new era of transparency
30:47 Support for HealthTrain Manifesto
33:00 Where to read manifesto and list of supporters

A new name on the healthcare scene is Sage Software, which entered the market in September with its $565 million purchase of Emdeon Practice Services from Emdeon Corp. Who is Sage Software and what are the company's plans for the Intergy brand name? At last week's Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago, I sat down with Paul Stinson, Sage's senior vice president of healthcare, to find out.

Audio quality isn't the best because a lot of ambient noise made its way into the interview booths in the press room, but I don't think it's worse than listening to AM radio.

Podcast details: Interview with Paul Stinson, senior vice president of healthcare for Sage Software, Nov. 27, 2006. MP3, 64kbps, 11.6 MB, running time 25:23.

0:40 Background on acquisition and on Sage
1:30 Sage’s history in accounting software
2:40 Intergy’s history in radiology and imaging
3:35 Sage’s market share
4:00 View of radiology market as part of bigger healthcare picture
5:30 Growth potential in EHR and size of customer base
6:37 Target market
8:00 Division of product line between Intergy and Medware
9:24 Assessment of market for smallest practices
11:45 Effect of Stark exemption on the market
13:37 Effect of CCHIT certification on the market
15:24 Evolution of market in next two years
17:25 Continuing relationship with WebMD
18:16 Growing interest in PHRs and providing information to patients
19:08 Physicians warming to sharing scheduling information online
20:55 Online communication with patients and e-prescribing
22:53 Patient safety improvements and malpractice insurance rates
23:40 Privacy and security issues