Homeowners' Benefit: Alamo Homes Line the Iron Horse Trail

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East of San Francisco Bay, past the beauty of the Oakland hills, is the upscale and exclusive town of Alamo. And Alamo has just about everything one could want in the way of lifestyle. Being centrally-located in the Golden State, the Bay Area provides Alamo with all of the big attractions like the Pacific Ocean (about an hour), the intriguing cultural theaters of the big city, wine tasting in the gorgeous Napa Valley, the World Champion San Francisco Giants, as well as skiing and entertainment fun at Lake Tahoe.

Sometimes, many of the added-value small amenities that exist in the Bay Area present themselves after one has lived in a neighborhood for some period of time, in other words, you end up "discovering them". But, "if these perks can be known ahead of time, small attractions usually become significant in any home-buying decision as they may greatly improve quality of life", says two Realtors over coffee. "The Iron Horse Trail is one of those not-so-small treasures one loves while living in the town of Alamo", he adds.

"Well, get up and drink some water and let's go!" I say to our white German Shepherd "Mika" (pronounced "Mee-ka"). Into the bathroom she pads to her dish, I hear "slurp, slurp, slurp", and she is back waiting eagerly by the door after taking a series of gigantic happy-bounces. Her big brown eyes and dolphin-like smile let me know that at least with her, "my stock is up today!" As the door opens, she is out of the house and into the bright sunshine, fresh air and trees, acting like a two year old puppy. Come on, she pleads; there are dogs to visit and people to see! Mika strongly believes that a walk is the absolute best thing that can happen in any given day. This is living, this is luxury!

And, everyone does love a great place to enjoy a leisurely walk, reacquaint with nature while pondering life's bigger challenges. They say there is no exercise like walking to line-up all the muscles and bones in your body while making peace with your mind. Dogs know this, too. Also, for those of you with young bones who love to jog, I know just the place in Alamo. So, go ahead, like me, you can take your puppy for a walk, exercise your horse, ride your mountain bike, roll along on inline skates, enjoy the sunshine, breathe some fresh air, and get that positive attitude going for the day on the Iron Horse Trail.

With her head moving from side to side, those big German Shepherd ears are up and ready for anything, Mika is happy to be going onto "her trail". "Don't pull my arm like that!" I command. Mika is hearing none of it, she is "on a walk" and nothing else matters. Like sports car enthusiasts who live for an on-ramp, shepherd dogs live for a walk.

According to Alamo Real Estate professionals, a great benefit of living in the San Ramon Valley in the East San Francisco Bay Area is being able to enjoy use of the Iron Horse Trail. The trail, appropriately-named after early Indians dubbed a steam locomotive an "Iron Horse", stretches south from Concord through Walnut Creek, Alamo, Danville, San Ramon all the way to Dublin and Pleasanton. It passes through Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. This great trail is relatively flat, paved, and well-maintained. The roughly 33-mile trail was built after the Iron Horses of the Southern Pacific Railroad became silent and abandoned the land in 1977. Serving as an important recreational and even commute choice for the communities it passes through, it poses the thought: "Why not take my bike to shopping, to the store, or even skate to work?" I, for one, cannot offer an excuse as to why not as the trail is open most all of the day from 0500 am until 10:00 pm.

Arriving at the turn-around point on our walk, Mika has slowed down a little and is now acting her 88 people-years of age. Somewhere along the way, she greets her friend Sarah, a black and brown Shepherd, as well as every other dog she sees while "getting her dog news". She also knows it is time for us to stop in and relax while getting some chow at one of the nearby restaurants. People have to "get the news" too. Remarkably, restaurants are friendly here to the dog population, and Mika, for one, really appreciates it.

A great benefit of this fabulous trail is that one may find food (I like Alamo Plaza and Danville for several breakfast and lunch haunts) in many places if the need strikes you, or if you just want to sit, share a cup of coffee, and chat with fortunate local residents. Restaurants in Alamo include MaggieRay's stellar barbeque for yummy ribs, pulled pork and tasty salads. Cherubini Coffee shop, Starbucks, and Peet's Coffee offer great sit around and chat places too. In nearby Danville, the best breakfast is to be had from historic Vally Medlyn's restaurant.

The Iron Horse connects almost seamlessly to four other great Trails: the Ygnacio Canal Trail, the Contra Costa Canal Trail, the Las Trampas to Mt. Diablo Regional Trail, and the Briones to Mt. Diablo Trail. Close by, in several of the communities the Iron Horse passes through, are entrances to the huge Las Trampas Regional Park as well as close-by access to the beautiful Mt. Diablo State Park. However, one should reserve the Las Trampas and Mt. Diablo trails for more serious hikes whereas the Iron Horse is for everybody.

The Iron Horse Trail transits many residential neighborhoods, along canals and a golf course, and is near Hap Magee Park in Danville. Hap Magee Park is now famous as a great dog park, and is especially popular with Mika's new friend "Nicki".

Ok, now brunch is over and it time to head home to her relaxing bed. Mika is happy overall in having the best walk she has ever had. Like me and to her, every walk along the Iron Horse is the best walk we have ever had.

What a wonderful home Alamo is to live in, and a great place to buy real estate. Perhaps the wonderful perk of the Iron Horse Trail will be yours to enjoy too.


Michael S. Hatfield invites Home property Buyers and Sellers to search listings of homes for sale on his website http://www.alamoluxuryhomes.com. To better assist Clients, this site is enabled in several languages. The site includes tips on how to prepare your home for sale, provides the latest Real Estate News, gives info on where to dine locally or get a Contractor, find a bouquet of flowers as well as a virtual multitude of really useful stuff. Alamoluxuryhomes.com allows the client to setup a Listing Manager Account so that a client can store properties they are interested in, as well as save property searches for retrieval and study later. Log in to http://alamoluxuryhomes.com and get the help you need so get the absolute best Real Estate deal.

Mexico Real Estate's Gems - Cancun Compared to Puerto Vallarta

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Mexico real estate has many excellent locations for Americans and Canadians to consider; two that stand out as exceptional choices are Cancun real estate and Puerto Vallarta real estate. The following is a comparison of some similarities and differences.
Similarities
Beachfront - Both Cancun and Puerto Vallarta are located on some of Mexico's finest beaches. In both places, beachfront properties are readily available and life on the beach can be enjoyed directly at your "front door." Both locations also offer nice properties back from the beach with close driving access to enjoy a walk in the warm sand, or a cold drink on a sunny day.
Luxury Properties - The properties available in both locations are very nice, with spacious design, nice views, high-quality finishing details, onsite amenities (in the case of condo complexes) and full modern connections for everything from basic electricity to high-speed internet. A beachfront lifestyle can be enjoyed in comfort.
Pricing - Just as important is that these luxury properties can be found in both Cancun and Puerto Vallarta for prices accessible to the average American budget. Financial tools such as mortgages help to make this even more accessible. The cost of day-to-day life is also considerably lower, making life's little luxuries much easier to afford.
Modern Services - Both locations have grown to be Mexico's top tourist destinations. Along with this large-scale tourism have come many modern services including activities like boat tours, sight-seeing tours, movie theaters and professional golf, as well as day-to-day necessities like Walmart, Home Depot, modern malls and top of the line clinics and hospitals.
Differences
Pacific vs. Caribbean - Puerto Vallarta is located on the Pacific Ocean, offering beautiful views of splendid sunsets where it looks like the sky is on fire. The Pacific Ocean also offers some unique oceanfront activities like surfing. Cancun, on the other hand, faces east on the Caribbean.
Views - Puerto Vallarta not only offers views of the Ocean, but also of the beaches stretching out along the bay and the surrounding mountains. Cancun offers views of it's very wide, white beaches, and the uniquely turquoise Caribbean beyond - beaches that many consider to be most beautiful in the world.
History - Puerto Vallarta has its Old Town, and is not too far away from the birth place of Mexico's famous liquor, the Tequila Valley. Cancun's is close to many Mayan ruins, and about 1.5 hours from the awe-inspiring Chichen Itza pyramids, now one of the new wonders of the world.
The choice between these two locations can be a tough one, and is largely dependent on personal taste. In either case, a buyer will be enjoying a beachfront lifestyle at its best, at a price they can afford!
TOPMexicoRealEstate.com; Mexico's Leading Network of Specialists for Finding and Purchasing Mexican Properties Safely

Bill McDonough at Zeitgeist '07

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Bill McDonough at Zeitgeist '07 Tube. Duration : 20.22 Mins.

Session Title: The Green Collar Worker We're beginning to realize that all of us aren't just connected by the Internet; we're connected through the things we produce. McDonough, co-author of the seminal "Cradle to Cradle," has for years been a passionate advocate of green supply chains and living buildings. In this session, McDonough will discuss examples where companies have completely rethought their entire process of designing and delivering products to ensure they better mimic the natural world around them.
Keywords: Google, Zeitgeist

Almost Wasn't - A Memoir Of My Abortion And How God Used Me

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Mexico Real Estate's Gems - Cancun Compared to Puerto Vallarta

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Mexico real estate has many excellent locations for Americans and Canadians to consider; two that stand out as exceptional choices are Cancun real estate and Puerto Vallarta real estate. The following is a comparison of some similarities and differences.
Similarities
Beachfront - Both Cancun and Puerto Vallarta are located on some of Mexico's finest beaches. In both places, beachfront properties are readily available and life on the beach can be enjoyed directly at your "front door." Both locations also offer nice properties back from the beach with close driving access to enjoy a walk in the warm sand, or a cold drink on a sunny day.
Luxury Properties - The properties available in both locations are very nice, with spacious design, nice views, high-quality finishing details, onsite amenities (in the case of condo complexes) and full modern connections for everything from basic electricity to high-speed internet. A beachfront lifestyle can be enjoyed in comfort.
Pricing - Just as important is that these luxury properties can be found in both Cancun and Puerto Vallarta for prices accessible to the average American budget. Financial tools such as mortgages help to make this even more accessible. The cost of day-to-day life is also considerably lower, making life's little luxuries much easier to afford.
Modern Services - Both locations have grown to be Mexico's top tourist destinations. Along with this large-scale tourism have come many modern services including activities like boat tours, sight-seeing tours, movie theaters and professional golf, as well as day-to-day necessities like Walmart, Home Depot, modern malls and top of the line clinics and hospitals.
Differences
Pacific vs. Caribbean - Puerto Vallarta is located on the Pacific Ocean, offering beautiful views of splendid sunsets where it looks like the sky is on fire. The Pacific Ocean also offers some unique oceanfront activities like surfing. Cancun, on the other hand, faces east on the Caribbean.
Views - Puerto Vallarta not only offers views of the Ocean, but also of the beaches stretching out along the bay and the surrounding mountains. Cancun offers views of it's very wide, white beaches, and the uniquely turquoise Caribbean beyond - beaches that many consider to be most beautiful in the world.
History - Puerto Vallarta has its Old Town, and is not too far away from the birth place of Mexico's famous liquor, the Tequila Valley. Cancun's is close to many Mayan ruins, and about 1.5 hours from the awe-inspiring Chichen Itza pyramids, now one of the new wonders of the world.
The choice between these two locations can be a tough one, and is largely dependent on personal taste. In either case, a buyer will be enjoying a beachfront lifestyle at its best, at a price they can afford!
TOPMexicoRealEstate.com; Mexico's Leading Network of Specialists for Finding and Purchasing Mexican Properties Safely

How to presuppose the Loan Constant (Cost of Capital)

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The cost of capital for a property is called the Loan Constant (Constant) or Mortgage Constant. All loans have a certain interest rate and, unless there is an interest-only measure to the loan, all loans will require a essential and interest payment. The essential is calculated based upon the amortization of the loan. Thus, if the loan has a 30-year amortization, which is equal to 360 months, the essential must be paid in 360 installments so the loan is paid in full on the last loan payment.

The quoted interest rate of a loan is strictly the estimate of interest that loan accrues. The loan constant, on the other hand, is expressed as an interest rate that incorporates both the interest and essential refund of a loan. The recipe is:

Based On Income Apartments

Loan Constant = [Interest Rate / 12] / (1 - (1 / (1 + [interest rate / 12]) ^ n))

How to presuppose the Loan Constant (Cost of Capital)

n = the estimate of months in the loan term

Example 1: Suppose an investor received a loan for ,000,000 at a 5.50% interest rate with a 30-year amortization. We can theorize the required annual loan payments once the loan constant is known.

Constant = [.055 / 12] / (1 - (1 / (1 + (.055 / 12]) ^ 360))

Constant = .06813 x 100 = 6.813% (rounded)

Annual payments = ,000,000 * .06813 = 2,520

While the property has an interest rate of 5.50% the investor's actual cost of capital for the loan is 6.813% once the essential cost has been factored. If the above loan scenario has a 1.25x debt aid coverage ratio (Dscr) requirement then an investor knows that the property must have at least the following Noi to support the loan:

2,520 x 1.25 = 0,650

Consider that the reverse also holds true. A borrower can factor his inherent debt aid loan with the loan constant as long as he knows the Noi.

Example 2: A borrower wants to refinance his loan. His Noi is 0,000 and he has heard that his local bank will give him an interest rate of 6.25% for 25 years with a minimum Dscr of 1.25. What is the maximum loan he can borrower branch to an appraisal?

Constant = [.0625 / 12] / (1 - (1 / (1 + (.0625 / 12]) ^ 300))

Constant = .07916 x 100 = 7.916% (rounded)

Since the borrower knows the Debt aid Coverage Ratio must be 125% more than annual debt payments he can theorize the annual payments as the following:

0,000 = 8,000

1.25

With 8,000 of the property's net operating income ready to aid the debt payments, his maximum inherent mortgage based on debt aid would be:

8,000 = ,659,424

.07916

As illustrated, the loan constant is a tool that can help a borrower surely understand the inherent debt aid related with a property based upon a certain net operating income. Any borrower should make sure they check the loan constant with their lender to ensure that it matches his assumptions. For example, Fha multifamily mortgages have a mortgage guarnatee premium that is also factored into the loan constant which raises a property's cost of capital. A few other items to remember are:

Shortcoming #1: The constant only works for fixed rate loans. For adjustable rate mortgages that have changing monthly interest rates lenders will typically underwrite the maximum inherent interest rate for that loan. Find out from your lender what is acceptable when modeling debt assumptions.

Shortcoming #2: The constant changes based upon the amortization of the mortgage. While not necessarily a shortcoming, it is prominent to understand the terms of any loan quote you receive from a lender or if your loan assumptions are spoton for a singular property or market. The shorter the amortization duration of a loan, the higher the property's cost of capital.

Shortcoming #3: The constant does not factor interest-only periods. In the current lending environments, most lenders use an amortizing constant. When modeling cash flow it is prominent to note an interest only periods but although it will growth the cash-on-cash returns, it will not convert the loan amount.

How to presuppose the Loan Constant (Cost of Capital)Luther Center Video Clips. Duration : 0.48 Mins.

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Bill McDonough at Zeitgeist '07

To contact us Click HERE
Bill McDonough at Zeitgeist '07 Tube. Duration : 20.22 Mins.

Session Title: The Green Collar Worker We're beginning to realize that all of us aren't just connected by the Internet; we're connected through the things we produce. McDonough, co-author of the seminal "Cradle to Cradle," has for years been a passionate advocate of green supply chains and living buildings. In this session, McDonough will discuss examples where companies have completely rethought their entire process of designing and delivering products to ensure they better mimic the natural world around them.
Keywords: Google, Zeitgeist

Almost Wasn't - A Memoir Of My Abortion And How God Used Me

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Bill McDonough at Zeitgeist '07

To contact us Click HERE
Bill McDonough at Zeitgeist '07 Tube. Duration : 20.22 Mins.

Session Title: The Green Collar Worker We're beginning to realize that all of us aren't just connected by the Internet; we're connected through the things we produce. McDonough, co-author of the seminal "Cradle to Cradle," has for years been a passionate advocate of green supply chains and living buildings. In this session, McDonough will discuss examples where companies have completely rethought their entire process of designing and delivering products to ensure they better mimic the natural world around them.
Keywords: Google, Zeitgeist

Almost Wasn't - A Memoir Of My Abortion And How God Used Me

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Blown Away: Tornado in a Small Town

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Food Stamps at Starbucks Causes a Stir

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Apparently, food stamps can be used to purchase Starbucks in Oregon... and some people are really angry about it.
All of the noise started when Jackie Fowler used her Oregon Trail Card (EBT card) to purchase a frappuccino and a slice of pumpkin bread at a Starbucks inside a Safeway.
Fowler made the purchase to show her local Fox news station that it is possible to use SNAP benefits at Starbucks.
She feels that it is a misuse of the state's food assistance funds. Fowler stated that Starbucks sells luxury items, and if a food stamp recipient wants a luxury item, they should purchase it with their own money.
According to the SNAP benefits guidelines, people cannot purchase foods that can be eaten in the store or hot foods. Nowhere in the SNAP guidelines does it say that a recipient cannot purchase "luxury" items.
In fact, recipients can purchase soft drinks, cookies, ice cream and bakery items. A Starbucks frappucino is a cold drink, and a slice of pumpkin bread is a bakery item, so there is no real issue present. In addition, both the bread and the drink can be eaten off of the property.
I understand that the country is still suffering a recession, but lashing out at poor people is not the answer. This type of attack on the poor first reared its ugly head earlier this year when people got all up in arms because certain states allowed SNAP benefits recipients to purchase fast food with food stamps.
If Fox wants to talk about misuse of funds, she needs to start looking at what the big banks have been doing and stop worrying about what impoverished people can purchase with their EBT cards.

Online Food Stamp Fraud Is On The Rise

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The Food Stamp program, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) comes with many rules and regulations for recipients.

One of those rules and regulations is that you cannot trade your food stamp benefits (SNAP benefits).

Even though the practice is strictly prohibited, it has been going on for years.

Back in the day, people used to trade their paper food stamps for cash.

With the invention of EBT Cards, came the invention of allowing non recipeints to utilize the card in exchange for cash.

It would seem that people cannot be stopped from selling their food stamps.

The problem has come to the attention of the Illinois Department of Human services.

Apparrently, recipients have been using social media to hawk the use of Illionios LINK Cards (the state's EBT Card).

There are people who Tweet their intent to sell their food stamps, and others who place their intent on their Facebook page.

Currently, the Illinois Department of Human Services is working with federal agencies to find out if soliciting such an intent online is a prosecutorial offense.

True enough, rules and regulations cannot stop people from breaking the law, and these people will probably be charged with a food stamp fraud.

Stay safe and use your food stamp benefits for yourself and your family, and do not place yourself in the position of having to spend time in jail for such a ridiculous offense.

You can read the original story below:

Federal Crackdown on Online Food Stamp Fraud

Louisiana Food Stamps Program Seeing Shattered Stereotypes

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The number of families depending on food stamps benefits has increased exponentially, and officials say the spike is attributed to the recession that gripped the country in 2007.

Nearly 380,835 people receive Louisiana Food Stamps, these families depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to help provide food for their families on a monthly basis.

There is a stereotype of the average food stamp receipient, and that stereotype has been shattered because people from all walks of life are applying for Louisiana food stamps, so the stereotype simply does not hold water any longer.

More and more, the faces and situations of SNAP recipients are changing throughout the country. Today, the common list of food stamp recipients include:

• College Students Who Can't Meet Their Expenses and Eat at the Same Time
• Young Adults who are Under-employed
• Families Who Cannot Afford to Pay their Bills & Health Insurance at the Same Time
• Senior Citizens Who Cannot Afford toPay for their Medications and Food at the Same Time

Workers at Louisiana food stamp offices state that every day they are hearing heartbreaking stories of people who cannot buy basic toilitries, such as shampoo and hand soap, because the expense might be taking food out of the mouths of their children.

Ten Items You Cannot Buy With Food Stamps

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The Food Stamp Program, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as it has been renamed, is a federal food assistance program. 

Each state administers the program to its recipients within its jurisdiction, but there is a universal list of items recipients cannot buy with food stamps.
If you are new to the program, and you would like to know which items you cannot buy with food stamps, you can refer to the following list:

1. Alcohol
2. Tobacco
3. Dog Food
4. Cat Food
5. Toiletries
6. Household Supplies
7. Vitamins
8. Medicine
9. Pumpkins (edible, not holiday items)
10. *Hot Foods (that are meant to be consumed in-store)

Most of the above list contains items that you definitely cannot buy with food stamps under any circumstances.  However, some states have passed laws that allow people to use food stamps at fast food restaurants.
Generally, the fast food restaurant allowance rule comes with some sort of specification.  For example, you can use Arizona food stamps at certain fast food restaurants only if you make an application to do so, and you must be homeless in order to be eligible for the restaurant meals program.
Although many people are becoming vocal about the need for the government to restrict food stamp recipients from purchasing junk food (chips, cookies, sodas, energy drinks, etc.) and so-called, luxury foods (shrimp, steak, lobster, etc.), there are currently no restrictions in place.

What is Considered to be a Household for Food Stamps?

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There is a lot of confusion about what is considered to be a household in order to meet food stamp eligibility.

A household, as far as SNAP Benefits are concerned, can be many of types of living arrangements.

Obviously, a household can be a traditional family, with a married couple only, or a married couple with children, but other living situations also qualify as a household for SNAP eligibility as well.

A household can be a single person who lives alone, or a group of people who live in the same home, purchase their food together, and share their meals.  The group of people does not need to be related in order to qualify as a household for food stamp eligibility purposes.

If you live in a situation where you buy your own food for yourself and/or your children, but you live with other people who buy their food separately from you, you should be able to apply for food stamps as a completely separate household.

 If you apply as a separate household, you may be able to get more food stamp benefits because the income of the other members of the household will not be calculated.

As far as SNAP eligibility goes, the less income you have, the more food stamps you will be eligible for in each monthly allotment.

U-Mass Medical Center Cuts Another 140 Jobs And Puts Hospital Labs Up for Sale

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It was just back in February of this year UMass announced 700 to 900 jobs would be cut so now the number gets a little higher.  We still seem to have this big focus on games and entertainment when it comes to money and the healthcare system loses.  In addition the hospital labs are up for sale and we have seen this with other hospitals.  Part of the decrease in income is due to insurers sending patients to other facilities where the cost is less for a number of outpatient procedures.  U-Mass is also categorized as a “safety’net” hospital, in other words the last place to go for many who have no insurance.

UMass Memorial Health Care Will Cut 700 to 900 Jobs And Will Sell Off Home Health Services–Pressure From Insurers Who Are Seeing Bigger Profits to Reduce Costs

The hospital expected to break even this year which is better than losing money.  In addition the home health hospice division was recently old and that accounted for the loss of 144 jobs.  BD

---

UMass Memorial Health Care is stepping up its restructuring efforts, telling employees Tuesday that it plans to pare another 140 full-time jobs at its flagship hospital in Worcester.

In a letter to the system’s 13,200 employees, chief executive John G. O’Brien blamed declines in health insurance payments and the number of patients it treats. He said the latest cuts will come on top of about the 150 positions that have been eliminated at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester since February. The system also operates four community hospitals in central Massachusetts.

http://www.boston.com/businessupdates/2012/09/25/umass-memorial-medical-center-away-with-another-full-time-jobs/tk5YphCNQJ4nXYg75Fe0xI/story.html

The Blue Button Campaign–Get Your HL7 and XML Engines Up and Running–Lot of Code to be Written to Ultimately Make It Simple for the Consumer To Benefit

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For the consumer who is not tech savvy on all of this terminology I have to say it must be confusing as it’s an effort for me to write and try to explain some of these things so everyone can get an idea of what’s happening here.  Code, code and more code…keep that in mind and time, time and more time needed, so if you realize that all the systems out there need some standards and universal code to work with, some of this might make more sense.  Time and code are the issues everyone is facing today.  I have covered quite a bit about the Blue Button campaign and it certainly is a good thing by all means and the idea and the creation of the Blue Button taking a simple ASCII text format and making it available for sure is a winner and I tell everyone, VA and Medicare users to go get it. 

Now the Blue Button does have some competition with medical records systems that already have a format and/or portal that makes patient information available for viewing and downloading.  So the next question is how do I get what the Blue Button may have into that technology?  Not a simple answer and there’s developers from many different area working on just that…remember code and time and more code and time:)  With that last statement I think it kind of drills home the fact on how important standards are today as the more you have using data standards, is is less time and code.

Since I’m on this topic, time for a little political comment here on the logic of repealing of the healthcare law…back to those same words…time and code.  The entire Medicare system runs on a huge IT infrastructure and first of all look at the time and work here just for the Blue Button..it’s a lot.  Could you imagine the work and money it would require to change the entire Medicare IT infrastructure, let alone find enough engineers to do it?  Anyway, anytime I hear the Ryan plan on changing Medicare I have to laugh as there’s not enough money and resources to do that…digital illiterate politicians out there talking up a storm and making news, but again it would be impossible so I really do wish those running for office were a little smarter with addressing the US consumers today instead the “drama king and queen” antics that we hear all over the news.  He talks dream and we don’t have the resources with money or with enough engineers…at some point you have to be realistic and stop buying in to the emotional sell of what can’t be done and hopefully along the line we may get some smarter politicians who may understand this. 

The campaign for the Blue Button certainly is having some success with consumer awareness but sometimes a little disappointing that all the features they want now are not there yet.  Time and code and time and code..keep that in mind:)  I know it’s hard to understand all of this when a new game pop out there on the web and can basically cook breakfast for you and you wonder, why does this take so long.  Just remember too that software for games is not life critical either so they have lot more leeway and if they have software issues, they fix it and nobody dies and everyone gets entertained and jumps all over some new little feature added.  We sure would like to see that too with the Blue Button and maybe we will but it’s time and code issue and getting the privacy and formats done right out of the gate. 

Patients say they want a better record and not have to look up codes…again this work in progress…back to time and code.  Years ago when I worked with bringing lab results in the system I wrote I had to do that and match lab codes to the text that describes it, otherwise you just get a number to go look up and we don’t have time for that today, so stop and think there are other elements that need to be indexed such as medications and so forth with what is called a “primary key” used to match with data bases.  Working data base information with XML is amazing and makes a lot of this possible too, but again time and code and enough engineers too.

So patients get marketed with some of this too with the awareness factors and sure many consumers get lost in the shuffle.  Myself when I explain the basics to VA members and Medicare I pretty much stop at the instructions on how to go get it as that’s enough for your average consumer to understand at one point today.  If they can do that, they are miles ahead.  Here’s a good case and point story that happened at Walter Reed, the officer logged in with his phone and got the information.  It was credible and readable so enough said.  With the way marketing grows as some of these technologies come on line too there will be even more competition with one company saying “my Blue Button is better than ABC company’s”…just watch..I say that because of everything I read and see out there. 

A Strong Case for the Veterans Affairs “Blue Button”–Patient Access To Their Medical Records–Role Model Employee From the Navy Recounts His Experience At Walter Reed Hospital–We Need to Hear More Like This

You also have Microsoft with HealthVault who’s out there ahead of the game most of the time and has a lot of their connectivity built in and out there for developers to connect.  Shoot they even have a nice dicom viewer built in to the HealthVault software.  As a matter of fact, I learn new stuff all the time here too and was not aware of the SmartApps open source initiative either. 

White House Makes Official Introduction of the “Blue Button”–Microsoft Demonstrates HealthVault Integration And Sharing

I was reading Sean Nolan’s blog about this and we have yet another way in the works to securely get data from EHR systems and he already wrote a small application (yes Microsoft folks use open source too) for HealthVault, on an airplane no less:) That’s actually a compliment as I couldn’t do that to save my life as the noise alone would be enough to distract me.   Here’s a screenshot just for show on how we have another area that works with EHRs and PHRs for securely obtaining data.  A short quote from his article below:

“So …. on the plane home I decided to put my IDE where my mouth was and build a SMART app for HealthVault. We spend a lot of time trying to help providers comply with the patient engagement metrics around meaningful use, so that was an obvious place to start. Thus was born the “HealthVault SMART Patient” app … which enables any provider using a SMART-enabled EHR to send their patients a copy of their clinical information as a CCD/C32 document:”

In summary case in point here is yet one more way to get information from an EHR  to a PHR.  So let’s not get confused here though and think that everything can be written on a plane trip from the east to west coasts, as there were years of coding and research and development that made this effort possible as software and code builds on itself and it keeps getting better when innovative minds get their heads around what can be done.  I hope this maybe explains a little bit of the time elements though and the hard work by many to make all of this a reality, a simple format for consumers to get their data.  For now, take what you can and make sure you have a record in whatever format you want and can understand how to use, as any PHR and Blue Button information is better than “NO” information.  BD     

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As more companies get behind Blue Button, maintaining

interoperability becomes a more critical requirement. Health Level Seven International (HL7), the international health IT standards body, has adopted Blue Button as an "authoritative interoperability exchange format," and the VA, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, and others are now building an XML-based standardized version of Blue Button data that coincides with the HL7 Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture standard.

The HL7 standard will make it easier to share information with and among health providers and to develop applications and services that aggregate Blue Button data from multiple sources and present data in a simple format. Levin said the industry is moving in a direction "that adds value to the data, that mashes it, that aggregates it, and that shares it not just between patient and provider, but between institutions." Blue Button leadership calls this the Automate Blue Button initiative.

http://www.informationweek.com/government/enterprise-applications/feds-want-wider-use-of-health-records-ap/240007937?pgno=1

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