DocMatcher.com Launches Web Platform to Enhance Patient-Doctor Relationships and Improve Health Outcomes

Today, I'm excited to share that DocMatcher.com is in the news! This article has some interesting stats on the unhealthy state of the doctor-patient relationship in the U.S. Lets try to make this year about improving it!

DocMatcher.com Launches Web Platform to Enhance Patient-Doctor Relationships and Improve Health Outcomes

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Facebook and Farmville, is it a scam?

Sitting on another mechanically failed American Airlines flight this week, I read an interesting article in Newsweek regarding facebook and farmville - a game I know a lot of my facebook friends are using. I'd be interested in hearing responses to this article from people who actaully play the game. Check out the article!

Happy Holidays!

Just want to thank you all for your support of DocMatcher.com this year!

May next year bring you health and happiness!

Flu Vaccination Rule Suspended

According to an article by the New York Times, Govener David A. Paterson has suspended the mandate that New York City Health Workers must receive both the annual influenza and H1N1 vaccination or face penalties. Mr. Paterson notes his decision was made based upon the need for the limited vaccine in certain health populations such as young children and pregnant women rather than the recent lawsuit and restraining order.

This is a temporary win for the sect of healthcare workers who believe it should be their choice to take a potentially harmful, untested immunization. This is especially important in light of the fact that there has been legal immunity granted to vaccine makers in cases of adverse effects of the H1N1 vaccine and the fact that there is no proof of H1N1 causing more death or disability than the seasonal flu. This decision, however, has not ended the debate and more panic and government intervention can likely be expected before the flu season is through.

Finding and Keeping a Doctor

Today is my first blog. Surprising for many since I talk an aweful lot.

I am Tara Khan and I am the founder and CEO of DocMatcher.com. DocMatcher.com is an initiative to change the United States healthcare system from the inside out. It is a web-platform that helps people find doctors who meet their personal and specific needs and then helps then gives them a safe and easy way to communicate to create a long-lasting healthy relationship. 

At this point people usually stop me and go great idea! Doesn't that already exist? 

You would think so. But unfortunately it does not.

I am an Emergency Physician. People believe that my profession is all guts and glory. Though it’s true, there’s no more stimulating place, at least in a hospital, most of my job is not saving lives; it’s touching lives.

I am a full-time patient advocate. Much of my day is spent fighting fires and advocating on my patient’s behalf. Sometimes I am a primary care doctor, a therapist, and family councilor. Emergency Docs know first just how fundamentally flawed the healthcare system is and just how difficult it is for people to find the help they need.

I have found that many people find the entire system confusing, and why shouldn’t they? So do I. And so do most other doctors. Doctors feel just as bullied.

It was this daily struggle and my own difficulties with the health care system that motivated me to develop DocMatcher.com, nearly two years ago.

DocMatcher is tool for patients and doctors to take control of the healthcare system together. It is a way to connect patients and doctors in a more meaningful way and to free them up from the hassles of healthcare so they can continue to communicate.

Large companies are swooping in to clutch a morsel or two of the indiscriminate funding that is being hurled into the repair of a an already decayed healthcare infrastructure. Unfortunately, though money stimulates ideas, they are not necessarily all very good ideas.

Health Information Technology is in the spotlight as the solution. Just Wednesday, President Obama encouraged the use of Electronic Medical Records. And though the technology is available, and has been for years, it is how we use the technology that will make the true difference. We have to remember to simplify the system, not complicate it. 

It all comes down to communication. All HIT initiatives should focus on improving communication, not hampering it.