A New Insurance Company for the New Workforce

This is exactly why Grant and I at The Future Well are ridiculously excited to be working with The Freelancers Union to help them build and grow a health insurance company that’s effective and sustainable. 

I’m honored to be working with Sara and her team. They’re remarkably smart and passionate people with a mission that can’t be beat.

Build the tools, then the community.

Some thoughts regarding today’s Apple announcements…

• First, build tools that make solving real problems effortless and fun (like organizing and listening to music).
• Grow the user base by tweaking an amazing product.
• Then, add a community to those tools. 

My problem with Facebook is that its tools suck.

Tumblr started out for me as a stupid simple way to power my blog. And then a community grew up around it. Flickr was the same. I wanted a place to publish my photos. Then a community grew up around it. I’ve been a music lover all my life and iTunes enabled me to easily organize my music. Now it looks like there will be a community that will form around my music interests.

There are professional photographers and professional writers. They need stupid simple tools to effectively solve their problem. If there’s a profession in need of tools, there’s a huge number of amateurs looking for the same tools. I’m worried that there aren’t professional location sharers. 

From my post over at The Future Well:

Did anyone ask us if we want the future?

How do we understand the sequelae of a generation that’s getting married at an average age of 28? If people are getting married later and having children later, then those children will have parents that die sooner. How will children whose parents die when they are teenagers deal with having no parents as twenty and thirty-somethings? Will this make their lives less happy? Even more so, what will come of their kids who grow up with no grandparents?

Available on Etsy:

Custom, acrylic painting done on canvas board from an ultrasound photo. Since it is from an ultrasound photo, it will be somewhat abstract and surreal in appearance, but will still capture the joy of expecting a baby. Just e-mail me a photo and tell me which color you would like. The one shown here, is in monochromatic green with metallic yellow to add warmth and depth. If you have several favorite photos, send them all, and I’ll pick one. The painting can usually be done within a weekend’s time and I can ship it when it dries.

Flagrant self-promotion: Me in the latest GQ Japan. 

I have no idea what it says!

Physician Free Thyself - The Hello Health Doctor Blog

For those interested in health policy and how it effects primary care, Gordon Moore is doing an excellent job covering these issues.

New York Study of Pedestrian Victims Leads to Unexpected Conclusions

• The standard speed limit for NYC steets is 30mph! (who knew??)
• Private cars are involved in far more accidents than cabs
• Jaywalkers were involved in fewer collisions than people who obeyed walk signs (though jaywalkers were more likely to be killed)
• Male drivers were responsible for 80% of pedestrian deaths (57% of vehicles are registered to men)
• Driver inattention was the most common cause of accidents
• Pedestrian deaths have been down 20% since 2001
• 256 traffic fatalities last year, the lowest number since 1910

Doctors Are Bad for Your Health

You may want to think twice before your next visit to the doctor’s office. According to Dr. Barbara Starfield’s now-famous study (in JAMA), iatrogenic deaths (those resulting from treatment by physicians or surgeons) are the third leading cause of mortality in the United States, resulting in the loss of 225,000 lives per year. Of that total, nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections kill 80,000, physician errors claim 27,000, and unnecessary surgery results in 12,000 deaths.

But iatrogenic errors aren’t the only reason people should avoid hospitals, says physician and health care administrator Archelle Georgiou. She tells Big Think that relying on doctors may actually shorten your lifespan. Georgiou bases this idea on her studies of the earth’s so-called “blue zones,” isolated communities around the world whose inhabitants live longer and healthier lives than the greater populace.

In the Greek blue zone, the island of Ikaria, inhabitants are more than 4 times more likely to live to age 90 than Americans are—yet there is virtually no health care infrastructure. Georgiou tells us: “There are no hospitals or major surgery capabilities…. People needing emergency care are transported by helicopter to Samos (a neighboring island), and all elective surgery is done in Athens.”

Takes me back to the days of being a pediatrician…

Sketchy Ice Creams

Best line from last night’s Mad Men:

Faye: “You’d be surprised what people will say to an interested stranger.”

Don: (Annoyed) “Why does everybody need to talk about everything?”