For those of you who are new to the study of (U.S.) healthcare, you may find pp. 128 – 135 of the Commonwealth Fund’s International Profiles of Health Care Systems helpful. Scott will cover more about the changing U.S. system in his lecture on September 19th as well. If anyone has suggestions for other good primers on the U.S. system, please add them to the blog comments.  And we’re happy to answer questions during or after class this Friday!

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2013/nov/international-profiles-of-health-care-systems

On September 12th, we’ll be discussing the crucial tools that allow new ways of capturing, storing, and sharing health information, with the potential of ultimately helping to re-organize healthcare.  We’ll be joined by Matthew Douglass from Practice Fusion and Susan Moon from Kaiser Permanente. Here are some background readings to get you going:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/google-ceo-eyes-national-ehr-database

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/06/is-one-company-about-to-lock-up-the-electronic-medical-records-market/258473/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2012/04/18/epic-systems-tough-billionaire/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/04/18/obamacare-billionaire-what-one-entrepreneurs-rise-says-about-the-future-of-medicine/

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1203102

http://online.wsj.com/articles/apples-next-big-focus-your-health-1409959072 [article moved behind paywall, so please use the following newer alternative]:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2014/09/10/apple-watch-is-cool-its-different-and-for-healthcare-its-disappointing/