Two Stolen Articles

I had to post these two for the respective reasons:
1. To help me study for an upcoming exam dealing with health care delivery.
2. To spread the word about this great idea by Google Inc. They seem to be at it again with great ideas that make sense and will seemingly help society all the while making them much richer I am sure.

Thank you APTA Bulletin for being so useful (hopefully they don't accuse me of theft :)

United States Continues to Have Highest Level of Health Spending

The United States continues to spend the most on health care when compared with other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Health care prices and higher per capita incomes are major factors for higher US spending, according to a study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Princeton University.

Compared with the average OECD country in 2004, the United States has fewer health resources -- physicians, nurses, and hospital beds -- and lower utilization of these resources. Health care spending for chronic health issues, such as obesity, alcohol consumption, and smoking, also contributes to high health care spending in the United States, says a Johns Hopkins news release.

Key study results, based on 2004 data, show the following about US health care spending:

• Per capita expenditures were 2.5 times greater than those of the median OECD country.

• The United States spent 15.3% of its gross domestic product on health care, which is substantially higher than any other OECD country.

• US growth in health care spending per capita from 1994 to 2004 was similar to the OECD median.

• The United States has promoted policies to reduce the number of hospital days as a way to contain costs. It is now ranked fourth highest among OECD countries for hospital spending per capita.

• The United States spent 3.6 times what the median OECD country spent in 2004 for outpatient care. Most of the difference is attributable to higher spending on physician services.

Results were published in the September/October issue of Health Affairs (Vol 26, No 5).

Google Announces Plans for Health Initiative at Web Summit

Google Inc plans to launch a health initiative in 2008 that will include improved search experiences, data storage, and organization of patient records, the company announced this week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of Search Products and User Experience, told Internet industry leaders that "…people are already using Google more than any other tool on the Web to find health information. And the health care industry generates a huge amount of information every year. It's a natural core competency for us, to understand how to organize all that data."

The company has developed a prototype online platform for its health offering that incorporates personal medical records, health care-related search features, diet and exercise regimens, a localized "find a doctor" application, and other elements.

Microsoft Corp introduced its electronic health record service called Microsoft Health Vault earlier this month.