“Contact with the US Healthcare System is the 5th leading cause of death in the United States.”

Please read that article. It’s a perfect insider’s view into why it’s so difficult to innovate in healthcare. The dinosaurs have all of the transactions locked up by just a few big players…the little guys actually producing innovative things are locked out of the talks that happen behind closed doors.

NYU has been recently advertising their committment to safety and quality through process design. It saved the airline industry. It will save the sickcare industry too, if:

• Patients demand safety and quality.
• Doctors, hospitals, and nurses change the way they’ve always done things. In essence, we’ve got to get over our own egos and admit fallability and 100% devotion to the patient, who should be at the center of every healthcare experience.

It’s sad we have to do the math to determine how many patients are saved by modern healthcare vs. how many we kill by stupid mistakes. Hopefully we save more than we kill.

One Burger, Hold the Pickles, and Lipitor on the Side

Researchers from the UK — where, it should be noted up front, you can buy a low-dose statin drug over the counter — suggest that fast-food restaurants could offset some of the cardiovascular effects of their meals by including a statin with that shake.

Authors of the new paper, from Imperial College London, draw from a meta-analysis of statins used for primary prevention of heart problems. They argue that the reduced cardiovascular risk associated with a once-daily dose of most statins is larger than the added risk from the extra fat in a 7-ounce burger with cheese and a small milkshake.

They suggest that a “MacStatin” packet (with the catchphrase “I’m neutralizin’ it”) could be handed out just like salt and ketchup packets, along with a leaflet advising people that the best way to cut heart risk is to eat well, exercise, stay trim and avoid smoking — and to see a doctor “for complete advice.”

Here’s what we’ve been doing in London—creating a “moderately healthy” community:

Grant and I have been asked to decide what the above old victorian hospital becomes. The picture was drawn in the late 1880′s as it was originally built under the direction of Florence Nightingale in a neighborhood just north of Notting Hill. It looks a bit different nowadays, but it’s still retained its beauty and charm. It’s no longer needed as a hospital. So what should it become? That’s what we get to design.

It must:

• Promote the health of a community
• Be financially sustainable
• Be an innovative way to engage and entertain

Read more.

This new Menomena album is so good.

A Massachusetts man who was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung came home with an unusual diagnosis: a pea plant was growing in his lung.

Ron Sveden had been battling emphysema for months when his condition deteriorated.

He was steeling himself for a cancer diagnosis when X-rays revealed the growth in his lung.

Doctors believe that Mr Sveden ate the pea at some point, but it “went down the wrong way” and sprouted.

I’ve been riding a Brompton around London all week. It’s my new favorite thing to do— ride across town from Kensington to Shoreditch after dinner. However, I’m longing for the NYC grid. These London streets are mayhem…

via Everynone.

Four Corners of Health Insurance.

Are you on IM now?

Here’s an email I just received:

“i’m not a current patient but i am not near a phone and need some ASAP medical advice, i promise i won’t sue you, please help me.”

Welcome to my life. Obviously, this person is hurt or worried and is in need of something. Maybe it’s my reassuring words? Or maybe she’s got something life-threatening? I don’t know. And I can’t know, even though I want to know. This is why I went into medicine— to help people who need me. But the current system won’t allow me to provide any expertise. In fact, it’s illegal— and they know it (“I promise I won’t sue you”). So I never give any medical advice to anyone, no matter what people say to me over the internet. I don’t even practice medicine anymore. It’s been over two years since I saw a patient. 

We live in a failed system. When people don’t have insurance, when people don’t have a doctor…who do they turn to? Some random doctor they see on the internet? 

They have nobody.

They should be turning to a system that takes care of their health. They should be turning to a system that provides basic needs for a society— one where you can get advice and comfort and health without bankrupting you. 

I’m in London right now. There’s not a single person in this country who went bankrupt from medical needs last year. This is civilization. Our country is living in the dark ages…

Go local. Embrace low-tech. Maximize relationships. Make it sexy.

Here’s a snippet of my take over at The Future Well on what the internet means to our health:

We’re still humans with 200,000 years of ingrained behaviors that only changed to a sedentary lifestyle in the past 100 years or so. So we need real human to human interactions to encourage us to fight our modern conveniences, move, and eat food, mostly plants. This isn’t sexy. It’s low-tech. It’s real relationships with family, friends, and local professionals trained in behavioral modification.

All of this, of course, needs to be packaged up in a sexy experience for people. They need to feel comfortable surrounded by an aesthetic that makes them feel good.

So go local, embrace low-tech, maximize real relationships, and make it sexy. This will be the future of effective healthcare in a community. Our life expectancy has almost flatlined compared to the explosive growth in the last 100 years. We don’t think anyone wants to live as a 90 year old for 40 years. If doctors want to be just as effective in the next 100 years as they were in the past 100, we’ll have to focus on optimizing happiness and satisfaction with life in the healthiest and most enjoyable years of our lives…and not simply prolonging life.

This is a heart wrenching video about how everyone hurts when a young person is killed in a car accident. But it’s so well done. Good luck holding back the tears.

I remember learning back in college that the definition of a criminal is someone who doesn’t think they’ll get caught. It’s the same in this situation. Nobody thinks they’re going to die when they do stupid things that jeopardize their lives. But the effects live forever in your loved ones.