May 2009
42 posts
I'm off to meet Tyler Willis of Involver
Tyler is one of the guys at Involver. Make sure and use it if your company has a Facebook page. We use it for our Hello Health Facebook pages - the one for everyone and the one for Health Professionals.
I just found an email I didn't reply to from 1999
sharingtime:
So here’s my reply:
“Oh shit. I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to reply, Rob. Things have been CRAZY BUSY here. Let’s definitely hang out after biology class in the lockers outside Ms. Snuckheim’s office, but we graudated years ago so everything that’s happened in human history is basically after biology class, but…
Yeah, nothing much is new here. You know, just stuff with the...
98,000 lives lost each year from medical errors in... →
Jane is always on:
Consumers Union asserts that preventable medical harm still accounts for over 100,000 deaths a year in the U.S., and a total of over 1 million American lives in the past decade. What factors continue to cause these fatal errors?
Few hospitals have adopted computerized prescribing and dispensing systems which, when effectively deployed, prevent errors.
There continues to be...
“The choice: You can dissipate your gift by making the people with the loudest...”
– Seth Godin, Saying “No” (via GB) (via seanjohnson) (via superamit)
Caring for Your Introvert →
Are introverts arrogant? Hardly. I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts. Also, it is probably due to our lack of small talk, a lack that extroverts often mistake for disdain. We tend to think before talking, whereas extroverts tend to think by talking,...
Small Firms Face Choice Between Health Coverage... →
This is the reality folks…
We’re working damn hard on building Hello Health for Business (very similar to Zipcar for Business) where employers can create an account on Hello Health and sign up their employees for Hello Health. The employer decides how much of each visit that they cover (anywhere from 0 to 100%) and at the end of the month, the employer gets a bill from Hello Health...
RIP Jay Bennett…
Tweedy and Bennett were...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-24) →
Wilco (111)
Willie Nelson (67)
Beirut (41)
M. Ward (18)
Tom Waits (14)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Dustin redesigns AA.com
A friend of mine, Dustin Curtis, the UX guy at Frogmetrics, decided to take it upon himself to redesign the American Airlines website. Dustin’s new site looks absolutely beautiful:
He called them out here. And the same day, they sent a detailed response:
“Let me explain. The group running AA.com consists of at least 200 people spread out amongst many different groups, including,...
This new Wilco album kicks ass. They’ve been...
Anna Quindlen:
America’s opinionators are too white and too gray. They do not reflect our diversity of ethnicity and race, gender and generation. They do not reflect the diversity of opinion, either, mainly because most are part of an echo chamber of received wisdom that takes place at restaurant tables in New York and Washington…
Young people in the news business have been able to...
PRI, the 2nd largest malpractice insurer in NY, is... →
There are two medical malpractice insurers in NY. PRI and MLMIC. PRI is now insolvent. This leaves one solvent malpractice insurer in NY.
We went from an oligopoly to a monopoly.
This has happened all across the country. Malpractice insurers have consolidated so that now almost every state now only has two insurers…every state is now an oligopoly.
It blows my mind that the government will...
How much would it cost Facebook to sign up 11...
Dr. David Blumenthal, how much would it cost Facebook to sign up all 11 million Healthcare workers in America and let them use their very powerful architecture for healthcare delivery? How about then investing in third parties to build apps on top of this “Facebook for healthcare?”
I guarantee it’s nowhere near the $20 billion you want to handout to the industry stuck in 1986.
...
From a Canadian physician
“Americans think of Canadian socialized care as some kind of utopia. Let me tell you that it is not. We need more innovation and as has been said, disruptive innovation is what we need to empower patients. But in Canada, it’s not allowed in healthcare. Pity.”
True…when the government controls how healthcare is paid for (and then private insurers follow their lead),...
The best way to kill innovation (and Health 2.0)...
From the excellent book, The Innovator’s Prescription:
Those disruptors that successfully dismantled the regulations that stood in their way succeeded by circumventing the regulation—by innovating in a disruptive market that was beyond the regulators’ reach or was peripheral to their vision. Regulations ultimately change in reaction to the innovators’ success in those...
“The cost of reducing barriers to care with high premium plans is way more...”
– me
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-17) →
Wilco (83)
Willie Nelson (52)
St. Vincent (51)
The National (30)
Yo La Tengo (25)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Lifehacker - Six Best Exercise Planning and... →
Gyminee looks awesome. Throw in some cash for rewarding people for doing well, pair this up with the insurance companies or your employer, and we’d be on the right track to incentivizing good behavior.
Lines to See Most Specialists Get Longer in Boston →
The average time to see an ob-gyn was 70 days in 2009, up from 45 days in 2004!
This is the future if Obama mandates health insurance without trying to improve how health care is delivered in our country. There’s a fixed amount of doctor visits in America. Markedly increase demand for these visits by “insuring” everyone and your wait to see a doctor will skyrocket.
...
Wolfram|Alpha →
mattlehrer:
amandalynferri:
samreich:
This is something close to the future of the internet. (via adamgotterer)
this is really awesome. you should take 12 minutes out of your day and watch this.
Incredible.
Yeah, I’d do as Sam says.
Are you a doctor interested in using Hello Health?
Launching Hello Health to doctors all over the country is getting super close. Are you a doctor and want to use Hello Health? Also, don’t forget to visit our new site, Hello Health Professionals for everything you ever wanted to know about Hello Health.
Let us know more about you here and we’ll be in touch.
UCLA leaks Farah Fawcett's medical information to... →
Fawcett said she realized that she needed to prove her theory. So when she found out that her cancer had returned in May 2007, she deliberately withheld the news from nearly all of her relatives and friends. “I set it up with the doctor,” she said. “I said, ‘OK, you know and I know.’ … I knew that if it came out, it was coming from UCLA.” Within days...
Health Care Industry Promises to Slow Spending on... →
Sometimes I like to comment with my own words, and others I just like to throw y’all some great quotes (from Maggie Mahar):
You’ve seen the headlines: “Health Care Industry Offers to Rein in Spending”; “Stakeholders to Obama: We’re Ready to Cut Costs”?
What does this mean? I think it means that the industry—and in particular the insurance industry—is afraid, very afraid that the...
“That is what real revolutions are like,” wrote Shirky. “The old stuff gets...”
– How the next internet revolution will save your favourite TV shows, newspapers and magazines - Times Online (via brandpluscontent) (via mikehudack)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-10) →
Beirut (101)
St. Vincent (75)
The National (55)
Yo La Tengo (28)
Bon Iver (28)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Google PowerMeter →
“How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day? What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler? Which uses more power every month — your fridge or your dishwasher? Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood?
Our lack of knowledge about our own energy usage is a huge problem, but also a huge opportunity for us all to save money and...
Dr. Jonathan Zizmor...a legend with a legendary... →
Thank you Gothamist!!!
Dawning and Daunting Health Reform Realities →
Dr. Reece is one of my favorites….here’s his summary. And I agree:
Congress is considering passing a Medicare-for-all plan. The plan stands little chance of passing. Most of the 253 insured Americans want to keep their existing policies, we tend to distrust government-run care. We don’t like radical change. Medicare has a poor cost–containment track record, and such a plan would...
The backlash is starting Obama...
Don’t try to screw with the fastest growing and most profitable industry in America. It’s a $2.5 trillion free for all. The Men profiting off that $2.5 trillion will start bringin’ out the muscle to protect themselves…
Read the rest of the story on CNN:
These ads are part of a $1 million campaign — part of the effort by the group to warn of the dangers if the U.S....
An email I just received from an orthopedist...
I think your points on primary care are right on. It turns out that specialists do a lot of primary care work as well and get reimbursed at primary care rates for office visits. Perhaps this is because PMD’s are overworked or perhaps we rely on too many consults for medico legal reasons. Most specialists I know however, aren’t spending 30 min with each pt. In fact there are...
I'm speaking at The Guardian Activate Summit in... →
Should be fun…quite an interesting group of speakers. If you are in London, come join the fun.
WatchA friend released her second album to much critical acclaim today. Please listen to her music and see her live. It’s stunning.
St. Vincent - Actor.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-5-3) →
Beirut (108)
Silver Jews (58)
Yo La Tengo (52)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (28)
Frightened Rabbit (14)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“Other countries have socialized medicine, we have the Nasonex bee.”
– Bill Maher (via sharingtime)
Jay Leno Reveals Mystery Ailment: Exhaustion →
Do any of you doctors out there know what the diagnosis “exhaustion” is? I surely don’t. The only place I ever hear it used is when celebrities have some sort of freak out and their publicist tells the media “Everything’s ok! It’s just exhaustion people.” And the media and the American public says:
“Oh…ok…it’s exhaustion....
“Took my dog to the vet, then looked at my HSA. Noticed I paid vet 20% more for...”
– camerooni/twitter
Reminds me…I’ve started collecting photos I take of medical clinics vs. veterinary clinics in the same neighborhoods. If anyone has some good examples, send them my way…but here’s the first. Just goes to show that when people pay their own hard earned money...
Hip Doctor Wants to Reinvent Health Care |... →
Newsweek profiles Hello Health…
Why is it so hard to practice good medicine?
lgordonmoore:
The first time I heard a hospital CFO tell me that improved access in the hospital’s primary care practices was a problem for him I was shocked.
“I’m not sure I get the problem here…” said the naive me.
“Well, our system gets about $450 every time one of these patients visit the emergency department and only $50 when they visit our primary care practice. You do the math.”
...