Upcoming Events: HBO's COMA, IHI's Shared Quality Agenda & Medicine 2.0

Summer should be a time to kick back and take it easy (I think?) but it's going to be a busy month here at Healthline. First up, HBO is airing a new documentary, Coma, on July 3, 2007. Directed by documentary filmmaker and producer of Ghosts of Abu Ghraib Liz Garbus, the two hour special follows the lives of four families of brain-injured patients at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model System in Edison, NJ. I had the opportunity to preview the film last night and found it refreshingly subtle. As a former neurotrauma ICU RN and TBI/catastrophic case manager, this is another one of those areas I'm passionate about. Garbus delicately teases out the subtle differences between persistent vegetative state (as in the Terry Schiavo case) and minimally conscious state (as in the case of Terry Wallis). Healthline is going to feature some more stories about TBI - Garbus' film triggered a flow of memories of some of my unforgettable patients I should share with readers - and we will update our popular Symptom Search to include more conditions associated with TBI. More about the upcoming show after I interview the director later this week...

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) was kind enough to provide me with a press pass to attend the important upcoming conference, Engaging with Physicians in a Shared Quality Agenda here in San Francisico later this month. IHI is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the delivery of health care internationally. They strive to accelerate the continual improvement of health care delivery in areas of safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency and equity. There programs are legendary for being demanding, energetic, challenging and smart. Looking forward to sharing their vision and ideas with our readers.

Healthline Connects will be hosting Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival on July 24, 2007. The brainchild of Bertalan Mesko of Scienceroll, whose professed hobby is the relationship of medicine and Web 2.0. Well, I prefer Health & Web 2.o, but healthcare bloggers, step up to the plate. You're doing the dirty work but start writing about it. What does Web 2.0 mean in your work and what is your vision of the future? I want to hear/read all your best stuff! For the uninitiated, Web 2.0 was coined by tech guru Tim O'Reilly in 2003 (correct me if I'm wrong). He's intriguing in that he studied Classics and his honors thesis "explores the tension between mysticism and logic in Plato's dialogues..." Cool. Check out the Web 2.0 Meme Map developed at one of O'Reilly's brainstorming sessions. Now think about applying it to the delivery of healthcare. Cool...Blogging, RSS, the wisdom of crowds are all Web 2.0 features. How do we square that with Evidence Based Medicine? Do you want the "wisdom of crowds" when you're trying to titrate your amiodarone drip? Didn't think so...

Finally, a group of us are going to see Michael Moore's Sicko this Friday. We'll let you know our reaction.

Thank you richardmasoner for use of photo of US CDC graph.