The Readmore 2014

In all, six lawyers from Flaherty, Sensabaugh & Bonasso, PLLC were selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2008. Congratulations go out to the other honorees:

• Bob Coffield - Health Care Law
• Mike Bonasso - Commercial Litigation
• Tom Flaherty - Personal Injury Litigation (Defendants)
• Don Sensabaugh - Medical Malpractice Law (Defendants)
• Jeff Wakefield - Commercial Litigation (Defendants)
  
• Stephen Brooks - Medical Malpractice Law (Defendants)

Below is background information about Best Lawyers and the process used to select attorneys for inclusion:

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 25,000 leading attorneys cast almost two million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

A few weeks ago my fellow blogging colleague, Fard Johnmar, announced the second edition of Taking The Pulse Of The Healthcare Blogosphere (2007 Survey). A survey co-produced by Johnmar's Envision Solutions and Trusted.MD Network.

The survey was first conducted last year (read the highlights). The survey will again look at the trends of health care bloggers so that we can all better understand why people blog about health and medical topics.

Today I finally got around to taking the survey and am passing along a recommendation to others health and medical bloggers to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to add to the survey data. Deadline to take the survey is October 15.

Also check out Fard's interesting post from today covering the relaunch of Organized Wisdom at Healthcare Vox.

If you are creative and living in West Virginia (or a West Virginia expatriate) check out the upcoming Create West Virginia Conference set for November 12-14 at Stonewall Resort. More from the Create West Virginia Blog.

iHealthBeat provides commentary and an update on the outcome of the Consumers' Checkbook v. HHS matter involving whether or not Medicare physicians claims data should be made publicly available.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of Consumers' Checkbook on August 22 requiring that HHS release the physician data requested under FOIA to Consumers' Checkbook. So far HHS has not appealed the decision and the data is required to by produced by September 21.

It will be interesting to see if HHS appeals the decision. Classic example of transparency vs. privacy. Brian Kleppner has more over at that The Health Care Blog.

UPDATE (10/22/07): The WSJ Health Blog reports that HHS has decided to appeal the decision requiring that HHS release data under FOIA to Consumers' Checkbook. The decision initially required production of the data by September 21 which was then extended until October 22.

iHealthBeat reports about the Joint Commission's new pilot wiki, WikiHealthCare. The pilot project is an effort by the Joint Commission to create a collaborative space for open exchange of information among health care professionals.

According to the article, the site now only has 1,500 registered users and only about 10 actively posting to the wiki. What's a wiki?

Modern Healthcare has more.

Who isn't inspired by a story like this (Washington Post version) about West Virginia University's starting fullback, Owen Schmitt. The story is one of determination, persistence, hard work, overcoming adversity and living out your dream. A lesson for us all.

My favorite quote from starting back and Heisman hopeful, Steve Slaton:

"He's like ‘Rudy' or something," Slaton said. "Everybody loves him."

And Schmitt's response:

"I don't understand why I get that attention. I mean, we have actual stars on this team."

Courtesy of the Daily Mail via the Washington Post.

Go Mountaineers!

Today I received an email from my colleague, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, a health economist and management consultant, announcing that she had joined the health care blogging world. Congrats Jane!

Jane will be blogging at Health Populi. Over the past year or so I have been reading Jane's thought provoking columns for iHealthBeat and have checked out her THINK-Health site. An example is today's post looking into the priorities (and shifting costs) of Americans on spending for health insurance and technology.

Here is her introductory post and why you should read her blog:

In this blog, I will share my multi-faceted perspectives on health care. In the new wave of transparency in American health care, I seek to shed light. I want to help move along the dialogue that Americans – not just politicians and pundits, but the bulk of Americans living and working outside of legislatures -- must have regarding how to honestly, openly and boldly confront the challenges facing U.S. health care.

Changing our behavior in this new world will involve re-engaging with the U.S. health system and our innermost motivations by

• understanding what health care costs,
• taking better care of ourselves,
• getting smarter about health and health care, and,
• voting in elections.

Along with education, no single domestic issue will affect every American more directly than health care will in the next years and decades to come. Now, read on. Get smart. Go health-shopping. Demand value from those who supply you with health goods and services. Vote. The health system is yours. Act like it.

I can't agree more Jane. Don't miss subscribing to the Health Populi RSS feed.