I’m here in Cape Town, South Africa for Design Indaba. The speakers all went on a little sunset cruise down to the cape last night. It’s the tip of the earth…so beautiful. Afterwards, Michael Beirut, Bill Drenttel (who runs Winterhouse and Design Observer), and I went for sushi. Damn good times…

Here’s a photo from the boat. Prior to leaving NYC, I had to make a decision about which camera to bring. I have the Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm f1.2 L lens…it produces absolutely amazing photos. And I also have the iPhone 3GS. Since I never print photos from a trip and hate lugging around a massive, but beautiful camera, I opted for just the iPhone. Wise decision…

I’m off to South Africa to Design Indaba. I’m potentially speaking. If not this year, next year.

I’ve never been to South Africa. I’ll be speaking (if I do) about Designing Health and how other countries can leapfrog the problems we face in the US due to our political and historical issues. South Africa is in quite a rough situation due to the HIV epidemic (as you can see in this gapminder).

Diabetes Drug Avandia Harms the Heart, Studies Find - NYTimes.com

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 2009…Avandia was once one of the biggest-selling drugs in the world. Driven in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, sales were $3.2 billion in 2006…hundreds of thousands still take the medicine, although some top endocrinologists say they have sworn off the drug.

I wonder when the American public is going to realize that Big Pharma is about snake oil and money, not about providing innovative new drugs that improve our health. Seventy percent of the 26 drugs approved by the FDA in 2009 were me-too drugs— when an old drug goes off patent, the pharmaceutical company changes the chemical compound ever so slightly so they can call it a new drug and market it again for another decade and charge exorbitant prices. The FDA approves new drugs if they’re shown to be better than placebo. It can be 5% better than placebo and it becomes a marketing race to garner a $3.2 billion market. If the FDA wanted to side with consumers, rather than Big Pharma, they would mandate that:

1. New medications be tested against not placebos, but the best drugs currently on the market. If the new drug can’t beat what’s currently the best, it shouldn’t be allowed to poison the population.
2. They should be tested against generic medications to answer the question, “Is this drug cost effective for the population?” If a generic medication can be had for $4 a month, and the new medication costs $400 a month, then the new drug should be 100 times more effective than the $4 a month medication.

And if you haven’t yet read, The Truth About Drug Companies, please do so.

Care of the Cold and Preventing TB (via katinthecupboard)

“A well-bred person knows that coughing in another person’s face is poor etiquette and poor hygiene. ….avoid those people! Use a handkerchief. Testing dairy cows for bovine tuberculosis is a safety precaution. Pasteurization is even more important in the battle against TB. Since 1900 the death rate from TB in the US has been cut in half (as of 1937). Surely we may hope for another big reduction with the next generation!”

Illustrator J.G.

“Cleanliness and Health”
By C.E. Turner and Georgie B. Collins
1937, Most illustrations by J.G. and some by H.

Organizing people in real time in a community to improve health.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Joe Edelman at Groundcrew this week. Groundcrew is a new service that matches need with human ability in real time in a given location. It can connect to Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. Groundcrew is agnostic. It can be used for any reason to organize real time meetups.

How can we leverage Groundcrew to improve health?

Emergently disseminating vaccines to a community.
Organizing emergency services in disasters.
Organizing pick up games for sports.
Sellers at urban farmers markets can announce their crops.

There are always many other use cases. Super excited to see where this platform goes.

The Insurance-Premium Kettle That Keeps Getting Hotter

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 does not take into account the individual/freelance health insurance market that will undoubtedly skyrocket way out of control. Individuals who have very little to no collective bargaining power against legalized monopolies like the health insurance companies can expect to be slammed with rate increases as these monopolies see fit. And the real kicker— are the feds going to mandate us to purchase policies from legal monopolies?

That’s a grave mistake.

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 twitter followers.

Tumblr is what twitter should be.

When people oppose reform in 2010, they don't really know what they're opposing.

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 of Americans
• Allowing kids to stay on parents’ insurance plans until they turn 25-26, supported by 65%.

The biggest opposition overall is for an individual mandate, opposed by 2 in 3 Americans.

Most tellingly, The Poll finds that it doesn’t much matter what the details are:“support for, or opposition to, health care reform has little to do with what is actually proposed,” Harris’s polling data indicates.

via Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Beautiful reminders.

Good behaviors need to be encouraged with visually beautiful reminders.

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 people to test themselves for their own benefit…as well as the obvious public health benefit. Physicians and labs want to ensure that their profits remain intact. I’d be angry about this if I were you. Also, NY state has laws that prohibit doctors from selling pre-packaged medications. The pharmacy lobbyists also got to our senators to ensure their profits remain intact. I’d be angry about that too.