DOCtalk by Dr. Gregg 5/6/11

A, O, Oh, Way to Go, Ohio

Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) wrote and sang that line condemning Ohio’s industrialization, pollution, and general state of ill health back in 1982. She’s an Akron gal, but often associated with Cleveland. That whole northeast corner has been hit hard by excessive and poorly planned industrialization, the subsequent “Rust Belt” blues, and, most recently, the dis from home town wunderkind LeBron.

Columbus has more recently been hit in its favorite point of pride, THE Ohio State University Buckeyes, with the memorabilia-for-tattoos swapping by some of the sainted Buckeye football squad along with the implications of improper handling by their otherwise extraordinarily ethical coach, Jim Tressel.

Depending upon your political affiliations … well, actually, your redness or blueness doesn’t really matter, as Ohio has had tons of complaints from both Dems and the GOP on its elected officials and election results during recent years.

And, of course, our state’s economy is just a mess, though I suppose we’re not alone there.

Ohio sure needs some good news.

Well, thank you, thank you, thank you, and praises be — we have some! No, LeBron isn’t coming back. But, I did hear some gospel that I thought was worth sharing, just in case you haven’t noticed anything good out of Ohio for a while.

First off, the state’s HIE/REC, OHIP (Ohio health Information Partnership) is leading the country in signing up PPCPs for their Meaningful Use journey. OHIP has nearly 3,700 providers signed up and many more nearing “signage.” (Fair notice: I was recently added to their board of directors, so I am a little extra proud.)

Secondly, I just heard some great news about one of the local companies in Columbus, Ohio, that I wrote about briefly in a pre-HIMSS HIStalk piece earlier this year, Health Care DataWorks. HCD was just listed by Gartner as one of their Cool Vendors in HealthCare Providers, 2011. This is a pretty excellent acknowledgement from Gartner, as these are the companies that they see as leading the way in healthcare with innovative and “potentially transformative” solutions.

Third, my alma mater, the Ohio University-College of Osteopathic Medicine, just announced this weekend that they have received something definitely transformative. The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation just awarded them $105 million, the largest private donation ever given to any college or university within the state of Ohio. They’re planning on using it to help bridge the impending “doctor gap” of primary care physicians by becoming “…nothing less than the leader of primary care [medical] education.”

Plus, they’re creating research centers for diabetes (a disease that is expected to skyrocket in coming years) and for musculoskeletal disorders. (Please don’t quote me, but I also heard from “well-placed sources” that there would be “some impact” upon HIT here in Ohio.)

OK, so this isn’t all the most HIStalk Practice-specific stuff, but from one hard-hit state, it is all definitely news we needed and some fun stuff we can finally crow about a bit — at least until the next election.

A, O, Oh, way to go, Ohio!

From the Ohio trenches…

“I’m just a lucky slob from Ohio who happened to be in the right place at the right time.” – Clark Gable

 

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, directs the Pediatric Office of the Future exhibit for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).