Tuesday's Tidbits

OPM's recently installed Director, Dr Jeff Pon, and Deputy Director, Michael Rigas, posted a video for civil servants last week. For people like the FEHBlog who are involved with OPM, it was useful to watch the video to get a flavor for their respective management philosophies.

Thanks to Fortune Magazine, the FEHBlog ran across this eclectic Opioid Watch news feed from the Opioid Research Institute.  One of the articles promotes the study of human waste to identify neighborhoods with high opioid use, known as hotspotting. According to the article this investigative technique which is already popular in Europe has made its way across the pond. Hotspotting is considered more reliable than personal surveys.

In this regard, it's worth adding that this is National Public Health Week in the U.S.

Forbes reports on the technology front that

An effort to apply blockchain technology to improve inaccurate doctor directories of health plans is the goal of a new partnership between UnitedHealth Group and its Optum unit, Humana, Quest Diagnostics and MultiPlan. 

The healthcare companies have no plans to develop bitcoin or a form of cryptocurrency. Rather, healthcare companies involved in a pilot program announced Monday are going to use blockchain’s ability to secure data and distribute it in an encrypted way to make sure the most current information is available in health plan provider directories.

Good luck.