[LINK] Unfulfilled Promises Of Health Information Technology

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Jim rightly writes,

> The US health care system is a wreck.  It is loaded with people and
> companies whose idea of medical progress is to increase their incomes
> with minimal regard to actual health outcomes. The benefits and costs
> of Health IT is swamped by other factors in the US. Costa Rica gets an
> equivalent or better health result with a per capita spent of about 10%
> of the US figure.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376989/


Here's a chart of world health .. Australia is third .. America is last ..

<http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/CPOP/DBASSE_080393#deaths-from-
all-causes>

Also .. here's a New York Times report on this, from just five days ago:

(A new study shows) "The U.S. health disadvantage was responsible for 
dragging the country to the bottom in terms of life expectancy over the 
past 30 years. American men ranked last in life expectancy among the 17 
countries in the study, and American women ranked second to last."

The Report: <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/health/americans-under-50-
fare-poorly-on-health-measures-new-report-says.html>


For Americans Under 50, Stark Findings on Health

By SABRINA TAVERNISE www.nytimes.com Published: January 9, 2013 


Younger Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than their 
counterparts in other developed countries, with far higher rates of death 
from guns, car accidents and drug addiction, according to a new analysis 
of health and longevity in the United States

Researchers have known for some time that the United States fares poorly 
in comparison with other rich countries, a trend established in the 
1980s. But most studies have focused on older ages, when the majority of 
people die. 

The findings were stark. Deaths before age 50 accounted for about two-
thirds of the difference in life expectancy between males in the United 
States and their counterparts in 16 other developed countries, and about 
one-third of the difference for females. The countries in the analysis 
included Canada, Japan, Australia, France, Germany and Spain. 

The 378-page study by a panel of experts convened by the Institute of 
Medicine and the National Research Council is the first to systematically 
compare death rates and health measures for people of all ages, including 
American youths. It went further than other studies in documenting the 
full range of causes of death, from diseases to accidents to violence. It 
was based on a broad review of mortality and health studies and 
statistics. 

The panel called the pattern of higher rates of disease and shorter 
lives “the U.S. health disadvantage,” and said it was responsible for 
dragging the country to the bottom in terms of life expectancy over the 
past 30 years. American men ranked last in life expectancy among the 17 
countries in the study, and American women ranked second to last. 

“Something fundamental is going wrong,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, chairman 
of the Department of Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, 
who led the panel. “This is not the product of a particular 
administration or political party. Something at the core is causing the 
U.S. to slip behind these other high-income countries. And it’s getting 
worse.” 

Car accidents, gun violence and drug overdoses were major contributors to 
years of life lost by Americans before age 50. 

The rate of firearm homicides was 20 times higher in the United States 
than in the other countries, according to the report, which cited a 2011 
study of 23 countries. And though suicide rates were lower in the United 
States, firearm suicide rates were six times higher. 

Sixty-nine percent of all American homicide deaths in 2007 involved 
firearms, compared with an average of 26 percent in other countries, the 
study said. “The bottom line is that we are not preventing damaging 
health behaviors,” said Samuel Preston, a demographer and sociologist at 
the University of Pennsylvania, who was on the panel. “You can blame that 
on public health officials, or on the health care system. No one 
understands where responsibility lies.” 

Panelists were surprised at just how consistently Americans ended up at 
the bottom of the rankings. The United States had the second-highest 
death rate from the most common form of heart disease, the kind that 
causes heart attacks, and the second-highest death rate from lung 
disease, a legacy of high smoking rates in past decades. American adults 
also have the highest diabetes rates. 

Youths fared no better. The United States has the highest infant 
mortality rate among these countries, and its young people have the 
highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and deaths 
from car crashes. Americans lose more years of life before age 50 to 
alcohol and drug abuse than people in any of the other countries. 

Americans also had the lowest probability over all of surviving to the 
age of 50. The report’s second chapter details health indicators for 
youths where the United States ranks near or at the bottom. There are so 
many that the list takes up four pages. Chronic diseases, including heart 
disease, also played a role for people under 50. 

“We expected to see some bad news and some good news,” Dr. Woolf 
said. “But the U.S. ranked near and at the bottom in almost every heath 
indicator. That stunned us.” 

There were bright spots. Death rates from cancers that can be detected 
with tests, like breast cancer, were lower in the United States. Adults 
had better control over their cholesterol and high blood pressure. And 
the very oldest Americans — above 75 — tended to outlive their 
counterparts. 

The panel sought to explain the poor performance. It noted the United 
States has a highly fragmented health care system, with limited primary 
care resources and a large uninsured population. It has the highest rates 
of poverty among the countries studied. 

Education also played a role. Americans who have not graduated from high 
school die from diabetes at three times the rate of those with some 
college, Dr. Woolf said. In the other countries, more generous social 
safety nets buffer families from the health consequences of poverty, the 
report said. 

Still, even the people most likely to be healthy, like college-educated 
Americans and those with high incomes, fare worse on many health 
indicators. 

The report also explored less conventional explanations. Could cultural 
factors like individualism and dislike of government interference play a 
role? Americans are less likely to wear seat belts and more likely to 
ride motorcycles without helmets.     

The United States is a bigger, more heterogeneous society with greater 
levels of economic inequality, and comparing its health outcomes to those 
in countries like Sweden or France may seem lopsided. But the panelists 
point out that this country spends more on health care than any other in 
the survey. And as recently as the 1950s, Americans scored better in life 
expectancy and disease than many of the other countries in the current 
study. 

--

Personally, I suspect that because of their farming methods, their food
is under-nutricious. That is a much reduced vitamin/mineral etc content.
 
Cheers,
Stephen