Nurses Strong During Hurricane Sandy and Every Day

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA The post is dedicated to all the remarkable nurses, doctors and other members of the health care team.  Your strength and dedication is extraordinary, and not only in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, but every day. The original post, “Hurricane Sandy: No Match for Nurses’ Resolve,” is published on The Huffington Post. While Hurricane Sandy’s fury wreaked havoc on the Northeast and caused massive destruction, one thing is for…

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Speaking Event: Ivey Global Health Care Conference – Measuring What Matters: Cost vs. Value

Upcoming speaking event for Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Barbara would love to hear from you.  Please see “Your Turn” at the end of this post.  As always, thank you for your valuable time. I’m thrilled to be invited to participate at the Ivey Global Health Care Conference Measuring What Matters: Cost vs. Value in Toronto, ON Canada.  I will join an exciting panel to discuss “Needs, Wants and Values in Health Care:  The Public…

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Connected Health Care: How Technology is Driving Transformation

Guest post by Bernard J. Tyson The age of mobile has arrived. A recent Pew Research Center report found that more than four in 10 American adults now own a smartphone, and one in five owns a tablet. People are connected to the Web wherever they are and whenever they want information. They are using their mobile devices to manage their workload and family calendars, pay their bills, and find the nearest Starbucks. It doesn’t…

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TEDMED Challenge of Health and Medicine – Improving Medical Communications

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Health care is about you being in charge of your health. It’s about you partnering and communicating with your doctor and other health care providers. Patient engagement is essential and it begins with you being an empowered and proactive patient. How can we improve communication between doctor and patient? A critical first step is to gather knowledge and ideas from all of us with a passion for improving our…

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mHealth: Valuable information in PwC report, but are the findings remarkable?

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA A recent report, (PDF link) “Emerging mHealth:  Paths for growth,” commissioned by PwC, (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) the Economist Intelligence Unit, is well executed, however it’s important to understand the research sample for this survey. Is it possible that the results of the survey would be different if the sample was broader in terms of the types of patients questioned and the doctors and executives from payer organizations that were selected were…

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