The CMS Open Payments database is up for the public to view, but the site is difficult to navigate. Here is a step by step guide to using the site. Go to openpaymentsdata.cms.gov From the list of databases, click on the General Payment Data with Identifying Recipient Information – Detailed Dataset 2013 Reporting Year (or skip step one… Continue reading How to View Your Doctor’s Drug Company Payments
Category: Computers & Software
AutoLayout Revisited
My initial experiences with Apple’s iOS AutoLayout were pretty negative. Using Interface Builder’s (IB) ability to generate AutoLayout constraints automatically based on the positioning of views turned out to be frustrating, as it would generate constraints that were incompatible with iOS 7. As iOS 8 has only been out for a few weeks, I definitely… Continue reading AutoLayout Revisited
How Secure is Your Medical Data?
With the recent discovery of the ShellShock vulnerability affecting a large number of computers, the question comes up again: how secure is medical data? Thanks to the federally mandated push to transfer medical data from paper charts to computer databases, most if not all of this data is now fertile ground for hackers. As pointed… Continue reading How Secure is Your Medical Data?
AutoLayout Headaches
The new larger iPhones and iOS 8 are here. Xcode 6, upgraded to deal with these new beasts, is also ready for download. Anyone who has written apps designed for the iPhone has to make sure their apps run on these new devices and the new iOS. Previous iPhones had two different heights (3.5 and… Continue reading AutoLayout Headaches
Using Social Media in Moderation
I’ve been backing off from social media recently. For someone who writes a blog as well as publishing medical apps this may appear to be a risky tactic. In truth this retreat has not been completely voluntary. Something known as “real life” has been seeking my attention and gotten in the way of my online life… Continue reading Using Social Media in Moderation
Is a Mobile Electronic Health Record Possible?
It’s been a while since my last rant about Electronic Health Records (EHRs), so let’s remedy that right now. EHRs in their current iteration are — how to put this delicately? — an unmitigated disaster. Nevertheless, much of the criticism of EHRs, including mine, has been in the destructive category. What about some constructive criticism?… Continue reading Is a Mobile Electronic Health Record Possible?
Dark Clouds for the Sunshine Act
I finally decided to review my Sunshine Act data. We are in the period of time when the data can be reviewed by physicians and disputed if necessary. On September 30 the data will be released to the general public. The data in question is a list of payments (whether food and drink, honoraria, travel… Continue reading Dark Clouds for the Sunshine Act
When Downloads Take a Century
Back in the good old USA and the first thing that smacks me in the face is how bad my Internet service is. In Paris, France I clocked my Internet speed at 66 Mbit/s. Here in Parker, Colorado, just south of Denver, a major center for telecommunication companies, I clocked my speed at 0.93 Mbit/s.… Continue reading When Downloads Take a Century
Maintaining Order in the Midst of Chaos
There are few jobs more chaotic than that of physician, at least based on my own experience. Yes there is a schedule of sorts: hospital rounds, procedures, office patients. Unfortunately things rarely go as planned. There is a particularly sick patient on rounds who needs a temporary pacing wire placed. There are more consults than expected.… Continue reading Maintaining Order in the Midst of Chaos
A Stroll Down (Random Access) Memory Lane
My lifetime has spanned many of the important developments in the Age of Computers. Back in 1969 when I entered college, I was a frequent visitor to the Kiewit Computing Center, the lair of a GE-635 computer that filled several rooms. Students had access to the computer via noisy teletypes and a multiuser operating system known… Continue reading A Stroll Down (Random Access) Memory Lane