January 2009
56 posts
“Revolutionaries like Apple, Threadless, Etsy, Whole Foods, American Apparel, and...”
– The Smart Growth Manifesto - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org (via fred-wilson)
91,000 people (including their families) became... →
Only 9% of people purchase COBRA insurance after losing their jobs.
100,000 people were laid off this week…91,000 people and their families became uninsured just this week.
Of course they could purchase COBRA and spend 84% of their unemployment pay on health insurance.
Not a pretty picture.
The Economics of Giving It Away →
Really looking forward to Chris Anderson’s new book. I think there’s a lot of merit to the freemium model for technology. I know it works on me for things I deem valuable.
My subscriptions include eMusic, Flickr, Action Method.
Things I would gladly pay for:
Tumblr, Google Reader, Google Docs, gMail, gCal, Tripit, Kayak.
How Hello Health Uses Today’s Technologies To Get... →
Here is an interview I recently did…check it out for some more details on Hello Health.
Visualizing information flow in science →
Moritz Stefaner has to be one of the net’s best visualizers of data…the man can’t be stopped. Beautiful and functional…a perfect combination.
Consumers demand transparency and authenticity in... →
The current health care system is akin to the Madoff Scam or the reason behind our recession. Every transaction and cost is hidden from you in order to maximize the profits of the oligopoly.
The health care system is entirely run on a purposeful lack of transparency in order to maximize profits. Most people don’t care because they’re not spending their own money directly on health...
1 tag
Want a vision of government run health care?: Post... →
This is what the government running something looks like. It’s pension workers, bureacracy, and Windows 95.
And there continues to be all this talk about single payer, and universal coverage, and big government in health care. I don’t think people stand back and think:
What does the government run well?
How does the USPS compare to FedEx?
We don’t need government running...
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What Would Google Do? →
I’ve been reading this book on my kindle…absolutely love the book and the kindle.
Customers are now in charge. They can be heard around the globe and have an impact on huge institutions in an instant.
People can find each other anywhere and coalesce around you—or against you.
The mass market is dead, replaced by the mass of niches.
“Markets are conversations,” decreed The...
WatchPfizer really doesn’t want you to buy unsafe drugs.
+ + + Son & Sons + + + →
Love this…
WatchThe changing advertising market place. It’s a whole new world. Something that damn near all of health care doesn’t understand. And it’s fascinating too because everyone knows that you find a doctor through word of mouth…one to one sort of communication. What happens when you are able to find a doctor you love and share that doctor on Facebook or Digg or Delicious or you...
Need to fill your CareFirst Blue Cross... →
Although a bit of a read, it’s only 5 minutes of the hours this guy spent trying to simply be an educated consumer…and he gets it perfectly:
“CareFirst is not interested in cutting drug costs. CareFirst couldn’t care less how much I spend on prescription drugs each year because they’re never upping my coverage limit beyond $1500 a year - that’s all they pay,...
Scobleizer - Your healthcare privacy is dying and... →
The discussion is always best…and this Friendfeed discussion is quite good too.
“But we all know the TV and cable companies would never let this happen. And they...”
– Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » Boxee (via fred-wilson)
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What Do The American People Want? →
#7…Get the insurance companies out of health care.
Seems to be pretty popular. Since the rise of mainstream managed care in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, sure seems like they’ve done a horrible job managing the cost of health care (aka, doing what they say they’re supposed to do).
Instead, insurance companies are just making everyone’s lives harder. But they...
Justin Van Hoy benefit @ Lit Lounge, NYC →
If anyone is in NYC, stop by Lit Lounge this evening and take the mouth swab test to see if your bone marrow matches his. Justin is a friend of a friend, and a fellow human in need. His leukemia has relapsed and he needs a bone marrow transplant.
Justin is the Art Director of an amazingly well done magazine, Swindle.
Let’s see what we all can do to help him. There’s power in numbers....
“There was the woman in the fur coat who asked a stranger to go back inside the...”
– Passengers tell the inside story of plane that crashed into New York’s Hudson river | The Observer
Capitol Words →
Awesome…a tag cloud of all the words used in the congressional record in the recent past.
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The average health insurance premium costs 84% of... →
So if you lose your job and get unemployment benefits and still want to have some sort of health insurance, 84% of your benefits will go toward having health insurance.
We’re subsidizing a horribly inefficient and criminally perversely incented system that rewards doctors and hospitals for doing more office visits, more tests, and more procedures.
It’s sinking our country, but the...
New Tumblr dashboard! →
Ran into David at Sweetwater last night…I couldn’t sleep last night after he told me about the new Tumblr he said he was releasing today!
And it’s finally here!
Kick ass sir…quite an improvement.
More Adults Than Ever on Social Networks -... →
35% of adults are now on social networks.
When we change the way we communicate, we change society.
Summertime Clothes from the new Animal Collective...
Let me guess…someone was twittering from inside the plane.
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Hello Health on CNN: New in '09: You won't go in... →
Hello Health on CNN…
We’re all about today’s communication with a doctor you have a relationship with who knows you and your health.
Good times…
The launch of Hello Health...
7.3% of all visitors on hellohealth.com who lived in Brooklyn became members.
And we got a lot of visits. I’m very happy and proud of that number. That’s damn unheard of for a totally new concept and new business. And Williamsburg’s a savvy group of consumers…
I think we’re on to something…
;)
A Simple Surgical Checklist Saves Lives →
If you view health care as a process, like Toyota treats building a car, it saves lives!
It’s insane how behind the times the health care industry is. It’s 2008, protocols have been around for I don’t know, thousands of years. And finally we’re fighting a real battle to implement them in surgical suites all across America when it’s so damn obvious that following a...
I'm speaking at the MIT Media Lab next week →
If anyone is in Boston on January 20th and would like to attend, shoot me an email and I’ll make sure you’re invited.
UnitedHealth Agrees to Fund Database of Doctor... →
United has agreed to pay $50 million to fund a nonprofit to create a new, independent database to replace Ingenix’s and “educate health care consumers more directly about market prices for health care services.”
This is huge! Thank you Mr. Cuomo…picking up where the glorious Spitzer left off. But watch out, I don’t think they like you anymore. They might Spitzer you. Just CYA...
Feltron Eight →
Just ordered mine. Better jump on it…only 3000 printed.
High Deductible Health Insurance saves you...
So according to the NY State Department of Insurance, the least expensive HMO that can be purchased as an individual is $752.63 and the most expensive is $1105.34.
$752.63 x 12 months = $9031.56 per year just in premiums.
Let’s be ultra conservative and say there is a 10 year risk of you spending over $10,000 in a given year out of your own pocket on health care (more likely this is about...
In the eyes of physicians, the world is not flat. →
I’ve been talking about this for quite some time now - how physicians need to come out of their silos and view their jobs as the leaders of a team, as coaches, as guides, as mentors for each one of their patients.
In my talks, I mention how physicians spend only, on average, about 32 minutes with you per year (4 visits x 8 min each) for 77 years of your life = 0.0000456% of your life is...
The National - About Today
A Wolfe in Regulator's Clothing: Drug Industry... →
I spent two months at Public Citizen in 2006 working with Sid. Contrary to this somewhat “objective” article, he’s one of the kindest men I’ve ever met who’s fighting an extremely worthwhile battle against what’s often times, snake oil.
Remember…if you survive childhood, the average life expectancy has only increased an average of six years in the past...
“Make something useful, help people use it and then get out of the way.”
– « BuzzMachine
Obama: I Read My Bad Press, Not My Good Press →
Sure is nice to have a Prez who reads the newspapers…
“I often read bad press, not because I agree with it, but because I want to get a sense of, ‘Are there areas where I’m falling short and I can do better?’”
Doing Our Best to Blow Your Minds (Emerging Trends... →
Excellent overview Susannah. Thanks for posting this!
The Feast: Social Innovation Conference →
I’ll be speaking at this conference in February. If anyone is in New Orleans or wants to go for some nice weather, I’m sure it will be awesome. This is an amazing conference hosted by Behance. Behance also has a really helpful social network and powers the project management of Hello Health with their kick ass software, Action Method.
“But what if the old media dies much more quickly? What if a hurricane comes...”
–
It will also mean the end of a certain kind of quasi-bohemian urban existence for the thousands of smart middle-class writers, journalists, and public intellectuals who have, until now, lived semi-charmed kinds of lives of the mind.
So doctors face the same challenges. They’ve been gobbled...
Demanding Customers: Consumerist Patients and... →
Could you imagine the Apple Genius Bar publishing a paper like this?
Consumerist patients place additional demands on their doctors’ time, thus imposing a negative externality on other patients.
So you like ‘em dumb and ignorant do ya?
Wake up! There’s nothing you can do to stop your patients from reading about their health. So, it’s either become increasingly...
Medical Info Overload? - Freakonomics Blog →
I always like to say that the internet has turned us all into first year medical students - intrigued and armed with a glut of information, we scare the hell out of ourselves thinking we have everything from MS to a brain tumor when all we’re suffering from is stress and anxiety. This is the very reason why we’ve built hellohealth.com - so that people can have doctors who meet them in...
“There are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don’t know how to make...”
– Genius. The most important part of a business is deciding who aren’t your customers…I love that dude.
Steve Jobs talking about Netbooks on the most recent AAPL earnings call
Apple F4Q08 (Qtr End 9/27/08) Earnings Call Transcript - Seeking Alpha
(via fred-wilson)
TripIt | Organize your travel →
TripIt is probably one of the best, most valuable, most practical social networks out there…absolutely awesome stuff. Technology is supposed to simplify your life AND connect you with your friends. And TripIt does this perfectly. Sign up. Friend me.
Demographics of Internet Users →
I can’t imagine living without this internet thing…and more and more people are feeling the same way.
Now 41% of people over the age of 65? And Susannah just announced on Twitter that 31% of people age 71+ are now online. Is there a social network for senior citizens yet? If not, I’m going to jump on that. Anyone want to build it with me?
Surgeon General Sanjay Gupta →
If there’s a job I would never, ever want in my life, it’s Surgeon General…a political hack job that has to cater to every special interest out there, especially in the last 8 years. At least that’s the history of the position.
However, here’s to hope, change, and yes we canning.
md mph - Google Search →
That’s very funny. Do a google search for the dual degree “MD and MPH” and I come up as #3…hehe.
I just found this out this evening…a college student thinking about getting this dual degree contacted me asking me if I’m happy…
Yes.