February 2010
49 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-21) →
The Big Pink (78)
Yo La Tengo (36)
Frightened Rabbit (35)
The Gutter Twins (26)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (26)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Study: Half of Infection Deaths Linked Directly to... →
Sepsis and pneumonia, two infections that can often be prevented with tight infection control practices in hospitals, killed 48,000 patients and added $8.1 billion to heath care costs in 2006 alone, according to a study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The news, principal investigator Ramanan Laxminarayan tells the Health Blog, is that the study for the first time links about...
Diabetes Drug Avandia Harms the Heart, Studies... →
The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of...
The Insurance-Premium Kettle That Keeps Getting... →
Health insurance companies want to raise rates by 56% in Michigan, 24% in Connecticut, 23% in Maine and 20% in Oregon. The Washington Post says this morning that Washington area residents also are being notified of premium hikes of as much as 40%.
It currently costs each employer about $11,000 per year per employee to provide health insurance. In 2019, it will cost $28,000. However, this number...
I'm keynoting Gov 2.0 in DC in May. →
The lineup is humbling. Other speakers include:
Tim O’Reilly, Anil Dash, Danah Boyd, and many others.
Come hear us. It’s guaranteed to be an amazing conference.
I now officially have more tumblr followers than...
Tumblr is what twitter should be.
When people oppose reform in 2010, they don't... →
Ironically, there are several important elements of health reform that majorities of Americans, across segments, support:
Transparency of costs and quality, supported by 87%
Administrative simplification, supported by 76%
Piloting new reimbursement programs, supported by 75%
Creating an insurance exchange, favored by 73%
Preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining coverage, supported by 2/3...
“We understand this is a hardship,” said Brian Sassi, president and CEO of...”
– Health Insurance Costs: ‘Shocking’ Premium Increases Coming, Says Health And Human Services Dept.
“Eye-popping health insurance premium increases of up to 39 percent are a worrisome sign of the times, the Obama administration said in a report Thursday as it tried to tap public...
Should any of you so desire...
I’m in the process of building the equivalent of your carbon footprint (like WattzOn)…only for your health…your “health footprint” if you will. If you’d like to help get the ball rolling, help me anonymously here!
Find what STD tests you need and get tested. →
Take the questionnaire. It’ll spit out what tests you need. And then it will take you here to find a testing center or order some tests you can do in your home.
Looks super simple. Highly recommended.
update: Not available in NY because NY State has laws to prevent people from testing themselves. Our senators would rather pander to the physician and laboratory lobbying groups than allow...
ck/ck: Font Aid IV’s “Coming Together” font is now... →
Font Aid IV’s “Coming Together” font is now available for purchase! It costs $20 and the proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders in support of their continuing efforts in aftermath of the Haiti earthquake last month. Nearly 400 type and graphic designers submitted ampersand designs for the project,…
When you get sick...would a service that answers...
What do I do?
When should I do it (now, 2 to 4 hours, 24 hours, or a couple days)?
Where should I go (ER, a specialist, a primary care doc, or a retail clinic)?
How much should I spend (for the office visit, typical tests, typical meds prescribed)?
Besides these four, are there any other solutions you’d want? And of the four, what’s most important?
When you get sick and are in a bind, who do you...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-14) →
Califone (50)
The Antlers (41)
Charlotte Gainsbourg (40)
The Flaming Lips (31)
Frightened Rabbit (29)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Better Outcomes for Hospitals that Specialize in... →
matthewdipaolamd:
Among more specialized hospitals, there were fewer serious post-surgical complications such as blood clots, infections and heart problems, as well as fewer deaths.
The findings, which were published online Feb. 11 by the British Medical Journal, were based on data for nearly 1.3 million patients who received hip or knee replacement surgeries between 2001 and 2005 at 3,818...
What is the difference between health and... →
The Future Well:
According to the dictionary: Health = the state of being free from illness or injury. Healthcare = the maintenance and improvement of physical and mental health, especially through the provision of medical services. While this is true, the modern understanding of healthcare has morphed into what we call “paying for sickcare”– when one becomes sick, “healthcare” is what we pay for...
Should doctors be forced to treat patients... →
New regulations to reduce wait times for medical care in California are due to take effect next year. Under the proposal, primary care doctors employed by HMOs are required to see patients within 10 days of the appointment request, and specialists must see patients within 15 days. Telephone calls must be returned within 30 minutes and patients needing urgent care have to be seen within 48...
Health Care Costs: More Americans Trapped In... →
To critics, a 39 percent hike in health insurance for some Californians foretells skyrocketing rates for the rest of us. Not so, says the company, arguing the increase only hits a relatively small number of people and the economy is to blame. But the rhetoric from both sides distorts the reality. It’s true that hikes like the one by WellPoint Inc. apply only to people who buy individual...
Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk. →
“I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”
Cholesterol Drug Approved for People Without High... →
I’ve been talking about this for quite some time:
We invent disease to sell more drugs.
Statins’ global conquest continues. The class of cholesterol drugs already includes Pfizer’s megablockbuster Lipitor as well as simvastatin, the hugely popular generic that Merck sold under the brand name Zocor. Now, AstraZeneca’s statin Crestor has crossed a new threshold: It’s the cholesterol drug for...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-7) →
The National (88)
Charlotte Gainsbourg (76)
Califone (72)
The xx (44)
Bear in Heaven (42)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Why we started The Future Well. →
I’ve started a new company called The Future Well. We are a design and innovation consulting firm for health and happiness. The best way to describe what we do is we play “film producer” to gather the dream team of creatives, design, and build an optimally pleasant health experience. We design services, products, experiences, strategies, identities, brand positioning, and...
What Costs $282 Million an Hour? →
Healthcare in America.
The U.S. spent $2.472 trillion on health care last year, according to a paper out today in the journal Health Affairs. That’s $282 million an hour. Health spending as a percent of GDP — a key metric that shows how much of all U.S. spending goes to health care — rose from 16.2% in 2008 to 17.3% in 2009, far higher than any other industrialized country. That’s the largest...
Medical examiner cites cocaine toxicity, alcohol... →
And cocaine tragically ends the life of another promising artist…RIP.
Again:
Here are other good cocaine-related facts:
In 74% of cocaine-related fatalities in the United States, another drug, usually alcohol, had been co-ingested. The addition of alcohol to cocaine increases the risk of sudden death 25-fold.
Of patients with cocaine-induced heart attack, 38% had normal coronary...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-1-31) →
Charlotte Gainsbourg (96)
Califone (73)
The National (44)
Spoon (38)
Phoenix (36)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
The Fall of St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan →
For more than 150 years, St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan has been a beacon in Greenwich Village, serving poets, writers, artists, winos, the poor and the working-class, and gay people. It has treated victims of calamities: the cholera epidemic of 1849, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the 9/11 attack and, just last year, the Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549. The poet Edna St....
How to Survive a 35,000-Foot Fall →
The odds of surviving a 6-mile plummet are extra ordinarily slim, but at this point you’ve got nothing to lose by understanding your situation. There are two ways to fall out of a plane. The first is to free-fall, or drop from the sky with absolutely no protection or means of slowing your descent. The second is to become a wreckage rider, a term coined by Massachusetts-based amateur historian Jim...
WatchThe Exchange of Information Saves Lives
BusinessWeek: How to Redesign Health Care by Jay... →
It currently costs employers, on average, nearly $11,000 per year per employee for health insurance. In 2019, it’s going to cost $28,000. That means the 90% of Americans who have few medical needs every year will soon be paying $28,000 a year for the privilege. This is insane.
Going to the doctor, having routine surgery, buying bulk medications online—all could be radically reinvented with...
I'm speaking at tomorrow's NY Tech Meetup "The... →
Join about 800 other New Yorkers hear about our vision for the future. I’ll be talking about the future of health and my new company, The Future Well. Here’s the lineup:
Expect a 2-hour, fast-paced Rally for the Future, featuring testimony from…
Tony Bacigalupo, New Work City http://www.nwcny.com/…
Ben Berkowitz, SeeClickFix http://seeclickfix.co…
Majora Carter,...