Camille Schenkel

There is an old adage in business about how 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. The adage is based on the Pareto Principle, named after an Italian economist who discovered that 80% of Italy's wealth was concentrated in only 20% of the population. The healthcare market is not immune to the Pareto Principle. ... (more)

NewYork-Presbyterian Adopts Electronic Medical Records

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the first large institution to move beyond the pilot stage of offering consumer-controlled electronic medical records (EMR), the New York Times reported today. The move toward electronic medical records has gained a lot of attention and momentum in the past few months, with EMR being a cornerstone of the Obama Administration's push to contain healthcare costs. ... (more)

Google Wave: The Possibilities for Patient-Centered Communication

Google introduced Google Wave  last week to much acclaim. Several aspects of the product have tremendous potential for patient-centered communication online. The question becomes will the developer community respond during the developer period by building applications that takes advantage of the live collaboration tool or will HIPAA considerations nip the potential of Google Wave in the bud for the Health IT community? ... (more)

Green Furniture

Perhaps you are considering renovating your medical office and one of the things you are evaluating is purchasing furniture. Healthcare furniture has to serve a specific function, such as storage for medical supplies or perhaps even a nurse's station. Unfortunately a lot of furniture these days is built poorly and with materials that are not earth-friendly. Thankfully, it is possible to find functional healthcare furniture that is sustainable by design. ... (more)

Electronic Health Records: Challenges Around Meeting 2014 Goal

As the push for broader adoption of electronic health records (EHR) is underway, several issues have come up as deterrents to adoption. The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) published a study in its current issue that predicted less than half of small physician practices will adopt EHR by the government target date of 2014 at the current rate of adoption. Barriers cited in new studies, like training and privacy issues, are tied closely to larger concerns like the cost of implementation and setting standards. But the full promise of EHR will not be re... (more)