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The impact of an electronic health record appears to be in the eye of the beholder -- or the physician trying to use it.
In its “EHR Report 2012: Physicians Rank Top EHRs,” Medscape found that while 36 percent said their EHRs had a positive impact on doctor-patient relations, 30 percent said it had a negative impact. "Staring at a screen leads to a more impersonal encounter," wrote one internist, according to Medscape. And while 15 percent said they were more productive using an EHR, 26 percent said they were less productive. Slightly fewer, 23 percent, thought their office was more efficient with an EHR. Physician attitudes going into an EHR implementation appeared to play a role, the survey found. Roughly 62 percent of physicians queried were “somewhat” or “strongly” supportive of an EHR before implementation. After implementation, the proportion feeling the same was 67 percent. After implementation, the proportion of doctors who were somewhat or strongly against an EHR increased from 12 percent to 14 percent. When asked to rate satisfaction with their EHR vendors, 45 percent were satisfied, 35 percent were neutral, and 21 percent were unsatisfied, according to Medscape. Doctors frequently complained that the EHR wasn’t tailored to their specialty. They also noted difficulties in working with their vendors’ IT specialists.
Nearly 30 percent of Docs say EHRs Negatively Affect care EHRs: Which Ones Doctors Like and How Their Lives Changed (Medscape)
The WikiLeaks scandal has inspired State Department officials to be more active online rather than less, says a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “[WikiLeaks] is largely made up of members and followers rather than paid staff,” Clinton’s Senior Adviser for Innovation, Alec Ross, said in an interview taped for C-SPAN’s Communicators program. “It has a Web address rather than a street address. It’s truly transnational and virtual in nature.” “When you recognize that an organization like that can so disrupt the conduct of foreign policy you can do one of two things,” Ross continued. “You can either curl into the fetal position or you can say, ‘you know what, these networks are of great power and great consequence in our foreign policy, so we need to be as strong as possible.’ Secretary Clinton is not one to curl into the fetal position. Nor are any of the rest of us at the State Department. So if anything, it’s affirmed the need for us to be Internet smart.”
State Department Advisor lays Out Pros and Cons of Internet Diplomacy
A former car showroom in Charlotte (NC), Packard Place has been transformed into a startup hub -- and, for a few days, a media office -- just as tens of thousands of politicos are descending onto the city to talk about how to create jobs and sustain the middle class in a new economy built on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Obama’s themes are the building's successes. Packard Place has been remade into a LEED-certified building. It houses a couple dozen startups in various stages, including several within an energy-focused incubator and another incubator for social entrepreneurs. Its ground-floor not-for-profit community center, called the Garage, has become the central (and free) meeting place for entrepreneurs and business-advocacy groups from throughout the city (as well as for regular Thursday-afternoon happy hours).
In DNC Bloggers’ HQ, The Story Of American Innovation Writ Small
News that Bruce Willis is reportedly considering legal action against Apple to make sure he can leave his virtual record collection to his daughters will have surprised anyone who thought their online possessions were theirs to dispose of as they choose.
So what rights do you have over the accounts and goods that exist only virtually? "Across the world the law is in a state of flux – it hasn't evolved to keep up with innovation in digital content," says Jas Purewal, interactive entertainment and digital media lawyer at Osborne Clarke. "It is set up to deal with physical goods, and it is not clear therefore what the position is with social network accounts, iTunes accounts, your subscription to Netflix, and so on." There are not yet statutory laws around ownership of virtual goods, nor is there case law. The EU is looking at consumer protection in this area, but nothing has yet been passed, so Purelaw says it is being left to the providers of content to decide what they will allow consumers to do with items they buy and share online. He says there are promising signs judges recognize that virtual content can be owned like physical content.
Do you own your digital content?
At the Republican National Convention, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan gave a speech that was eloquent, exciting, and riddled with misleading statements. Ryan criticized President Obama for failing to save an auto plant in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville (WI) — even though the plant closed before Obama took office. He noted that Obamacare cuts Medicare spending — cuts that Ryan himself included in his own budget proposal. He blamed Obama for not heeding the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles debt commission — but didn’t mention that, as a member of that commission, Ryan himself opposed its final report. And he faulted Obama for the downgrade of America’s credit — while eliding the fact that the ratings agency that issued the downgrade cited the debt ceiling standoff precipitated by Republicans as the reason.
As Ryan spoke, Twitter erupted with real-time outrage and refutations of his claims. But, as Brendan Nyhan noted here at CJR, even after a strong run of political factchecking, “the morning-after coverage of Ryan’s speech in the mainstream media [was] largely an example of what not to do.” If mainstream outlets are willing and able to publish factcheck material in their blogs and columns in short order, and in second-day pieces in the main report, why wasn’t it more prominent in the initial news articles on the speech?
Speeding up the factcheck cycle
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, TLC's controversial reality show about a self-proclaimed "redneck" family and their Toddlers and Tiaras daughter, hit another ratings high. The fourth episode of Honey Boo Boo pulled in just shy of 3 million viewers at 10 p.m., according to Nielsen overnight ratings, growing 30 percent from last week's 2.3 million haul. In the demo, Honey Boo Boo did even better. The half-hour series' showing among adults 18-49 bested all other cable outings for the night -- including coverage of the Republican National Convention -- to pull a 1.3 rating.
'Honey Boo Boo' Ratings Top the Republican National Convention
A Q&A with Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs.
While much of the mobile industry is still reeling from last week's Apple-Samsung verdict, at least one wireless giant—Qualcomm—is confident the outcome won't hurt its business. The San Diego-based company's chips are found in hundreds of different smartphone models, and as long as the industry as a whole continues to grow, Qualcomm will keep growing too. Of course, the wireless chipmaker is no stranger to its own patent infringement lawsuits (which is probably why it's happy to watch this one unfold from the sidelines). Qualcomm resolved its long-standing legal battle with Nokia back in 2008, and now the two companies have a tight partnership -- in fact, Qualcomm powers all Microsoft Windows Phone smartphones, including Nokia's Lumia line of devices. Its chips are also found in many Google Android smartphones and some Apple products.
The company Apple-Samsung can't hurt
While Democrats have touted their grassroots fundraising efforts for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, deep-pocketed corporate donors are helping underwrite the event. Among the corporate sponsors at the Charlotte convention: AT&T and Time Warner Cable.
The corporate sponsorship appears to fly in the face of the Democrats’ pledge to host a “people’s convention.” The party’s 2012 “host committee” is not accepting contributions from corporations, lobbyists and political action committees. Democrats also capped how much money individuals can give at $100,000. But the party is accepting in-kind donations from corporate firms. In addition, a second nonprofit, called “New American City” was established in May to “defray” administrative expenses and other costs. New American City does accept corporate money.
Corporate cash helps fuel Democratic convention despite pledges
Hispanics and African-Americans are more likely to tune in to Internet radio on mobile devices and behind the wheel, according to a new study of minority listening habits performed by Parks Associates for TargetSpot, which operates a digital audio advertising network.
Among minority Internet radio listeners, 70% of Hispanics and 60% of African-Americans tune in on mobile devices, compared to 55% of the overall population of Internet radio listeners. Ninety-five percent of African-American Internet radio listeners and 91% of Hispanics tune in behind the wheel, compared to 86% of all Internet radio listeners. They are also more likely to listen at home and at work, with 70% of the African-American audience tuning in at home and 58% at work, while the proportions for the Hispanic Internet radio audience are 75% and 62%, respectively. Minority Internet radio listeners are also more likely to tune in via tablets. Among minority listeners who own tablets, 85% of African-Americans and 75% of Hispanics listen on these devices, compared to 73% of the general population. They are also regular listeners, with 80% of the Hispanic Internet radio audience listening one to three hours per day and an even higher proportion of African-American audiences.
Minorities Prefer Internet Radio In Cars, Tablets
[Note: We're resending this in celebration of Dr Parker's 100th birthday.]
I have written in this space before about the obstacles facing telecommunications and media reformers, about the crushing influence of big money in all things political, and the stubborn resistance of our leaders to harness the winds of social and technology change to the enhancement of American democracy in the Twenty-first century.
At the same time, I have expressed hope, even optimism, that we are capable of changing course. Changing course demands three things:
- smart and totally committed leaders who know how to build and who are possessed of the courage to persist against whatever is thrown against them;
- like-minded individuals and organizations pulling together on a common agenda; and,
- a media environment that lays out the issues citizens need to understand if they are successfully to practice the demanding art of self-government during this time of grave national peril.
First point: reform has to be driven by savvy leaders. Across America there are a thousand points of light at work—good and needed causes that need to be advanced if America is to overcome the obstacles and inertia that have held us back for most of the past 30-plus years. The challenge is to present reform in a program of common objectives that people can understand and rally around. This requires us to out-think, out-strategize, and out-work the well-heeled lobbies of privilege and reaction whose easy access to the corridors of power has shackled needed change for more years than our country could afford.
This month, we gather for the annual Everett Parker Awards Breakfast in Washington, DC. If you want to know what kind of leader I am talking about, look no further. Everett Parker, who turns 100 in just a few months, personifies the savvy, toughness, organizational genius and unstoppable perseverance that are the enablers of change. If you don’t know his story, you’re missing something important. You need to learn—and learn from—it. I’d suggest starting with Kay Mills’ fine book, Changing Channels: The Civil Rights Case that Transformed Television Channels, or with Robert K. Horwitz’s excellent article entitled “Broadcast Reform Revisited” in The Communication Review (Volume 2, No. 3 [1997], pp. 311-348).
Dr. Parker, then Director of the Office of Communications of the United Church of Christ, put media squarely in the middle of the Civil Rights crusade of the 1960s—right where it belonged (and still belongs). He did so by taking on the license renewal application of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, a station that somehow managed to ignore the fight for civil rights in the south and across America. Often the picture on the WLBT screen would be replaced with a notice like: Sorry, we’re having technical problems—just as, say, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was coming on the evening news. Civil rights news blackouts were common, and black Americans were conspicuous by their absence on a station that seemed more interested in white supremacy than equal rights for all. Dr. Parker thought this wasn’t how the peoples’ airwaves should be used and that WLBT was about as far away from serving the public interest as a station could get. He led the challenge to deny FCC relicensing to WLBT, courting and convincing other parties to join his crusade, and buttressing his case with overwhelming data gleaned from program logs and other telling evidence.
Talk about obstacles being thrown in the path! WLBT, many of its friends from other broadcast stations, and high-paid industry lawyers and lobbyists all swarmed the FCC and argued that ordinary people without a property interest in a station had no standing to appeal a license. And the FCC, to its shame, agreed. Disappointed but undaunted, Dr. Parker and his growing band of supporters went to court. It quickly became obvious that the D.C. Circuit Court, under Judge (and later U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice) Warren Berger, had more sympathy for Parker’s case than for the station or its seeming ally, the Federal Communications Commission. To make a long story short, Dr. Parker and his colleagues had to go to court twice—because the Commission continued its stubborn resistance to denying the license to WLBT. In the end, Judge Berger, who made the historic decision to grant standing to the Parker-led petitioners even though they didn’t have property in the station, virtually commanded the Commission to take the license away. As quoted in Horwitz’s excellent article, Judge Berger said that “the broadcast industry does not seem to have grasped the simple fact that a broadcast license is a public trust subject to termination for breach of duty.”
It’s a fascinating and exciting story to which this brief synopsis does small justice, but I hope the lesson comes through that savvy, committed and consensus-building leadership is essential for genuine reform. Dr. Parker’s leadership didn’t end with the WLBT case. His long and exemplary life is marked with achievements too numerous to discuss here. I’ll just mention two more. Without the Parker brand of leadership, the FCC would likely have dragged its feet for years in approving Equal Employment Opportunity rules and affirmative action initiatives to diversify employment in the broadcasting industry. And then there is the wonderful Emma Bowen Foundation, co-founded by Dr. Parker and another civil rights legend, Emma Bowen. This Foundation works to prepare minority youth for meaningful careers in media. Nearly 500 graduates have already benefited from this visionary yet practical initiative.
Second point: Everett Parker didn’t fight alone. He found allies and recruited them to his mission. He encouraged maximum coordination of effort and smart utilization of always-scarce resources. Today we are fortunate to have many good and effective champions of reform, some working in Washington, many more around the country. They are working to bring fairness to our elections, justice to the denied, openness to our democracy and equal opportunity for each and every one of us. With the floodtide of special interest money and disinformation inundating America, we have to find new ways to maximize the resources available to these agents of democratic change. Money-wise our resources aren’t remotely competitive and they never will be. People-wise, our side wins—or, better put, our side can win. It’s not so easy as going out and harvesting support that is just waiting to be asked. Truth be told, there is a lot of convincing yet to be done. All of us have been bombarded with the best disinformation money can buy for three decades. But each of our organizations has information, facts, insights and proposals to address our current policy short-falls. Each of our groups has a somewhat different constituency and outreach. We have to work smarter together. Policy-making, like politics, is a game of addition.
Third point: Marshaling the forces of reform has been made incredibly more difficult because America’s media is doing such a poor job in teeing up and explaining the issues upon which our country’s future depends. Here’s what we see, for example, on the major TV network news: before the program begins, two anonymous political ads—one each from opposite sides—suggesting the criminality of the other candidate/party/side of an issue. That’s followed by 20-some minutes of glitzy infotainment that seldom gets around to the real problems of the nation and world we live in. Politics is covered by citing the latest poll, a sound-bite of the day’s most outlandish charge, and airing the latest damning ad from each camp. Then it’s on to celebrities, puppy dogs and kitty cats. Does anyone truly believe that out of this toxic brew of information-free chatter we are supposed to be sufficiently informed to cast intelligent votes in an election that comes as America confronts challenges that threaten its very well-being?
Broadcasters, newspapers, and the big consolidated interests who increasingly run the Internet aren’t going to repair our media shortfall. It’s silly and futile to expect them to do that. Only real reform—fueled by leaders that can lead and by citizens across the land who understand—can do that. This kind of thorough-going reform comes in cycles and spurts, but eventually it comes. It’s happened before. It can, it will, happen again.
An early “Happy Birthday” to you, Everett, and may those 100 candles on your cake re-ignite in each of us the spark and spirit of reform that makes you such a champion of civil rights and the public interest.
Editor's note: Benton Foundation Chairman, CEO and Trustee Charles Benton will be honored at the UCC's Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Breakfast. Benton will receive the Everett C. Parker Award in recognition of his many years of leadership and support for promoting the public interest in traditional and digital media.
Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. His years at the Commission have been highlighted by his strong defense of "the public interest"; outreach to what he calls "non-traditional stakeholders" in the decisions of the FCC, particularly minorities, Native Americans and the various disabilities communities; and actions to stem the tide of what he regards as excessive consolidation in the nation's media and telecommunications industries.