"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."
--Mark Twain

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Rx for Noncompliance: Text Messages
Cell phones get blamed for many ills, from causing car accidents to stunting teen-agers' social skills. But a Van Nuys orthopedic surgeon has found a way to use cell phones for good, not evil.

David Auerbach, MD, created ReminderMed.com, a service that reminds people to take their medications by sending them text messages. "The main reason patients are noncompliant is that they simply forget to take their medicines," he says. "The goal of ReminderMed is to remind patients to take their medicine and to tell them which pill to take."

As you know, there's a lot at stake when it comes to prescription drugs. Studies show that if patients took medications just as you prescribe, healthcare costs could be reduced by more than 50 percent and hospitalization risk could be cut in half.

Patients can set up the service online using a three-step process. They enter the names of the medications they need to take, pick the times they want the reminders and specify any special instructions, such as "Take with food." For a monthly fee of $9.99, patients can receive up to 120 text messages. Unlimited text messages are available for $19.99.

So the next time you're struggling to manage a patient's noncompliance, stop pleading or issuing polite threats and suggest this new high-tech approach.

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Heartfelt Remembrances
You treat the patients, so you know the numbers. Every year around the world, more than 17 million men, women and children lose their lives to cardiovascular disease--the two most common forms being heart disease and stroke. In the United States alone, more than 900,000 people die annually-that's one person every 34 seconds.

A new online memorial at www.heartmemorial.com pays tribute to them and helps raise awareness and funding for cardiovascular disease research and treatment. "Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable, and the memorial not only emphasizes this, it also humanizes the subject by placing a name, face and a life story to the statistics," says R. Christopher Traviss, the founder of the site.

Family members and friends can add a basic memorial to their loved ones at no cost. Upgraded memorials are available with more photos and features. Hearts of Remembrance will donate 25 percent of every dollar
back to one of several international heart or stroke associations that
users choose when creating their remembrance.

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Healthcare Politics
The Association of Health Care Journalists has launched an online resource at www.healthjournalism.org that compares the 2008 presidential candidates' positions on healthcare. The database shows which candidates have released reform plans and what each has said about health-related issues in debates, speeches and statements. A chart sketches out where candidates stand and a list of articles links to healthcare news from the campaign trail.

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74% of patients surveyed would like to use e-mail to communicate directly with their doctors.--Harris Interactive, February 2007

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Leapfrogging Ahead
Six California facilities, three in Southern California, met quality and safety criteria established by the Leapfrog Group, qualifying the hospitals for inclusion on the business coalition's national list of top hospitals for 2007. The local facilities honored include Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange, Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach, and UCLA Medical Center. Leapfrog scores hospitals according to their use of computerized physician order entry; use of intensivists; performance on seven high-risk medical procedures and three neonatal procedures; and advancement toward compliance with 27 safety practices from the National Quality Forum.