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From HealthIT:

Healthia Inc.
launched Tuesday an online comparison shopping portal for healthcare products
and services. Businesses and consumers in the United
States will be able to use the Web site www.healthia.com to
research and select health insurance plans, health savings accounts (HSAs), and
doctors from across the country, said Chini Krishnan, CEO and co-founder of
Healthia, a startup in Santa Clara, Calif.

Interesting idea. Of course, it’s only as good as the quality of the information in it. But get this: in the section on "doctors" (I looked up oncologists within 15 miles of my zip) there’s a customer review form! You get to rate your doc and comment on him/her. It’s like rating a book or camera.  There’s evidently a consumer rating form for each health "product".  Well  that’s the net for you: participation.

OLDER PATIENTS

Ageism may affect older cancer patients.  So says AARP magazine, Nov./Dec.’ 05. Almost 50% of breast cancer cases involve women 65 and older, yet according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, only 8% of those patients received chemo.  Patients in their 50s were almost 4 times more likely to be offered chemo . The problem extends to other cancers as well.

The discrimination in a big way is due to physician bias-a belief that older bodies simply can’t handle the rigors of chemo.  And that may be true. But doctor’s reticence,. while well meaning, may ultimately be misguided.  The JAMA study found that older women receiving aggressive chemo showed the same improved survival rates as women who were much younger.  Patients 65 or 70 have a lot more years left than they did decades ago..

Lung Cancer

Just back from a 16 day cruise through the Panama Canal.  We dodged hurricanes, tropical storms typhoons and came away all in one piece.

Steve Forbes, Editor -in-Chief, of Forbes Magazine, October 17th issue, had a few words about lung cancer that are worth repeating as food for thought.

He said that lung cancer annually kills more Americans than liver, colon,  prostate and  brest cancers combined and that it is grossly underfunded. He went on to say that though lung cancer kills four times as many people as breast cancer, the National Cancer Institute last year spent twice as much money on beast cancer than lung cancer.

He says one promising detector is the so called spiral CT scan whicn appear to pick up tumors far better than traditional X rays do..  Trials on  the accuracy of this  scan aren’t schedules to be completed till 2009. It should be sooner.

He says it is no surprise  that most states  are spending most of their  multibillion dollar tobacco settlement  money on pet political projects instead of on projects targeted toward stopping smoking in the first place.

Society finds resources for Katrina survivors