August 2008
32 posts
An update on Hello Health
Things are going very well here in Williamsburg. We’re seeing new patients at a steady rate and, most importantly, every single person who walks out of our office has a smile on their face. They made their appointment online, told us everything they wanted us to know about their story online, and then came in to talk more with us and be physically examined. They even leave with a full...
perspctv →
Very cool visualizations here.
Thanks for the tip Lukas!
101.9 RXP - Matt Pinfield →
I’ll be on the Matt Pinfield radio show Wednesday morning around 8:15. Tune in. It’s a real treat to be interviewed by him. I grew up watching Headbanger’s Ball every weekend night because there wasn’t much else to do back home in the middle of nowhere Missouri. I’ll post a link with the interview soon.
“Tie credit card payments and your medical records together with you and your...”
– Me (in an email thread from yesterday)
FREEwilliamsburg: Ask Dr. Jay →
Fire away guys. Ask Dr. Jay is here to answer your questions on FREEwilliamsburg.
Trend Central - Hello Health →
Health Blog : Obama Says Single-Payer Health Care... →
If there’s anything that could destroy our health care system and make it look even more like the post office, it’s government-run health care. Why not eliminate the incentives for doctors to practice more care and do costly procedures at the expense of the consumer? That would be a step in the right direction. But government run anything is probably the worst solution to anything. ...
Jay Parkinson, MD, MPH. A doctor in Williamsburg,... →
I did a bit of site redesign this morning. I went back to the old site design and added the “press” section.
Urbanite: An IM chat with Williamsburg's Hipster... →
I met Lauren, the interviewer, at the McCarren Park dog run. She just happens to be one of the amNew York bloggers. Finally, someone in the press asked me about what it’s like to be known as the Hipster Doctor.
1 tag
The Brooklyn Paper: The doctor is in — and hip! →
The weird thing about this article is that the photographer was Adam Bosworth’s daughter. Adam resigned as the head of Google Health many months ago to start his very, very awesome new company called Keas. By the way, the Keas website is ironically quite unassuming. Expect something really awesome in the near future to appear there. We were talking prior to the interview and she said,...
Billyburg "Hipster" Doc Does IM Consults for Now... →
It’s always nice to make the Village Voice. The worst thing that could have happend to Hello Health is that nobody talked about us and our launch. Over the course of the past year, I’ve realized that the press only gets about 50% of the concept correct no matter how crystal clear the message is. It’s frustrating, but I’m a firm believer that there really is no bad press.
The Blogging Doc - Freakonomics - Opinion - New... →
It’s always nice to be mentioned in the Times. Funny though, my first mention was in my second year of residency when I started a short-lived company in my apartment that was one of the first to put songs on peoples’ iPods by ripping their CD collection. In my off-time I was always on the internet doing things. And people were willing to pay me to rip a CD every few minutes. It...
Gothamist: Hello Health Says Good-Bye to Subway... →
The ads are generating all kinds of buzz. Supposedly CBS/MTA don’t have a problem with the other version of the ad that is simply “how do we feel today?” without all the thought bubbles and this enormous white space. My understanding is that they think the white space doesn’t encourage “vandalism” whereas the thought bubbles do.
MTA Bursts Thought-Bubble Subway Poster Campaign |... →
So the MTA (the NYC subway system) has shut our ads down…stay tuned…the controversy is brewing….
I'm speaking with Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky... →
I am grateful to be speaking along with Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky at this year’s Pop!Tech conference. If any of you can make it to Camden, Maine on October 22-25, please do so. It promises to be lovely fall foliage and quite an interesting group of speakers and attendees.
August 11th...It's Hello Health day!!!!
As of 8 am this morning, hellohealth.com is alive and well. All of the people on the site are patients of mine who live here in the neighborhood. The photos were taken by Noah Kalina. The site was designed by The Barbarian Group. All of this was made possible by one of the most talented groups of people you could ever conceive…our team at Myca.
We are now accepting new members.
The cost...
An IM chat I just had...
hey jay... im have a management-production company in beverly hills. we represent writers, directors and actors. im very curious about your practice... curious if u would be interested in exploring it as a tv show
thanks for contacting me. i've gotten about ten offers in the past year but I'm not interested. it's really not my thing plus i don't want to involve any of my patients in any of this media stuff. i appreciate it though.
can we steal your idea 
ha
for what?
were good at that in hollywood
honeslty... i thnk this is something A&E would buy
bc
its like dog the boutny hunter
but set in the medical world
ha. i'll just save this conversation and make my billions in the future  once you've stolen it
i read about u on trendcentral email this morning
yeah i know. people love this whole thing. but we're definitely onto something here and i think we can change a good bit of the heatlhcare system by making this very legitimate and not all over the media
are there other people who practice in a similar fashion?
nope
but if its done the right way... there is no better way to get hte message out there
think of the tv show as your infomercial to your practice
i know that sounds cheesy
but... we can put together a good team
i hear you. but i do not want any private matters on the air. it's not what this is about.
that is understood but everything wouldnt be subject to air
and everyone always wants to use my patients and that's simply not going to happen.
we would control that
ask oprah 
the closest anyone came to getting me to agree was making this some sort of dramedy. big names were involved but i didn't want to give it the time.
well... what if i got bigger names
my company represents eminem, jeff bridges, liv tyler, ryan philipe, wesley snipes, justin timberlake, gwen stefani and many more
lets do it!
gwen can play your wife ha
let's chat in the future...gwen's way too old!!!
ha
how old are u?
32
ok
im not done with u
dont want to keep you from your work
but i like the dramedy idea
yeah it's not so bad
fictional stuff
what if i got the guy who created entourage to write it for hbo
its fascinating what i'm doing and seeing. it's definitely a good time.
that wouldn't be bad
ok
i'd be into working with you in creating something like that. it's a timely issue and the system is completely messed up. something needs to change and a lot of people are looking at this as one of those changes.
ok
i will talk to some people on my end
and stay in touch
talk to you later
bye
Gawker: Williamsburg's Hipster Doctor Resurfaces,... →
Back on September 21, 2007 (three days before I launched my practice) Gawker linked to my site and my story. The buzz really hasn’t stopped since. Gawker has the ability to make people famous.
And yesterday I resurfaced on Gawker simply because they love to hate Julia Allison. I’m a regular Gawker reader so of course I love to see all of this.
Thanks Sheila.
I love it when companies get into fights...
“It makes them sound like people!”
-Alena
in response to this email I got from American Airlines:
“American Airlines Fares No Longer Displayed On Kayak Or Sidestep
Dear Jay Parkinson, As a valued customer who has booked an American Airlines ticket through Kayak.com or Sidestep.com over the past year, we would like to inform you that American Airlines fares are no longer being...
The Hello Health Launch Party was last night.
It was an absolute blast with over 130 people here to help celebrate. We gave tours of our office and everyone’s comment was either “This looks like an ultra-mod hotel” or “It looks nothing like a doctor’s office.” That made me happy. We’ve done a good job outfitting the space. It’s a perfect mixture of the old and the new in it’s decor. ...
