A post on the Top 10 Things Every Small Business Owner Should Do in 2009 by Guy Kawasaki came across my screen this morning via @paulhelmick and caught my eye.

Great advice for any business person to consider and “do” in 2009. We can all do better at understanding how our customers view us and improving on the service or product we offer them.

Res Ipsa Blog brings you this week’s edition of Blawg Review — Blawg Review #186. This edition begins with a summary of the raging Twitter Wars and includes a link to a post I did last week discussing some of the legal implications of live tweeting in health care.

Check out this week’s edition for the latest law news from around the blogosphere.

HealthcareIT News reports on the announcement of a Medicare personal health record (PHR) pilot project that will be made available to Medicare beneficiaries in Arizona and Utah.

The four PHR companies selected out of almost 40 who applied to participate in the pilot are: Google Health, HealthTrio, NoMoreClipboard.com and PassportMD.

The Arizona Republic has more on the pilot project. More background information on CMS’s PHR projects.

Tip to iHeathBeat on the article.

Google Flu Trends uses search terms as an indicator of flu activity by state.

According to the Google.org Flu Trends the aggregated search data can estimate flu activity in a state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems. The chart comparison with CDC data is impressive at showing the consistency between tracking search terms vs. using influenza surveillance data. Read about how it works and the FAQs.

EHealth Initiative has released the results of the 2008 Fifth Annual Survey of Health Information Exchanges (HIE) at the State and Local Level.

The survey included responses from 130 community based initiatives from 48 states. Here is a summary of the key findings.

Doc Searls on The Patient as the Platform.

I missed this post and am glad it was pointed out via Twitter. The title caught my eye because it captures in a phrase what I think may be happening to our health care information system - a shift from provider-centric records to patient-centric records.

Thanks to Jen McCabe-Gorman for the twitter tip.

Yesterday’s Daily Mail article indicates that John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20 speaking at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Business Summit spoke out against West Virginia’s Certificate of Need laws arguing that the free market is better than regulation of health care.

What does everyone else think? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Another great example of why West Virginia is Wild and Wonderful. Rainy day in Charleston today - but this brightened my morning.

Thanks to Rick Lee who has a knack for capturing the beauty of our state.

The West Virginia Health Care Authority website indicates today that Governor Manchin approved the final revised certificate of need Cardiac Catheterization Standards.

Is blogging good for your health?

This Boston Globe article, Cancer blogs become part of treatment, indicates that blogging about your condition has a positive impact.

The article states:

Boyd is one of a growing number of cancer patients turning to the Internet to discuss their disease, keeping friends and family updated, and connecting with other patients, according to oncology social workers and psychologists. Personal blogs, listservs, and sites like CarePages, CaringBridge, and Breast Cancer Stories give patients an outlet to express the emotional turmoil associated with the disease, enabling a virtual catharsis for some. . .

. . . While there hasn’t been much research done on the relatively recent phenomenon, patients attest to its many benefits. And two Ohio State University researchers, conducting one of the first studies on cancer patient blogs, said their preliminary findings suggest that online journals indeed help.

Thanks to Alan Goldberg for pointing out the article on the AHLA HIT listserve.