Jay Parkinson + MD + MPH = a doctor in NYC

Why we started Sherpaa

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:35:00 -0500

If our healthcare industry functioned like a true System, Sherpaa would be irrelevant. The definition of a system is:

A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.

Healthcare in America doesn’t work together. And it is disconnected, not interconnected.

There have been many attempts to make health(care) simple. There’s ZocDoc doing wonderful things with making appointments with doctors online. There’s WebMD publishing information to the world that was once only available to doctors. There’s Dr. Cranquis using tumblr as a well-trained, entertaining, and knowledgeable physician answering health questions for the tumblr community. There’s the Withings Scale uploading your weight to the cloud every morning. And, then, of course, there’s the cloud.

But even all of these things are disconnected. And having access to information without having a professional to make that information relevant to you, doesn’t always ease your anxiety.

What we need is a real-time command center for health manned by local doctors that’s plugged in to you, your needs, local healthcare resources, and the best online resources and tools that help you optimize your health. This command center organizes everything for you because it’s their job, not yours, to keep on top of all of the health options you have nowadays, both in your neighborhood and online.

There’s a confluence of things all coming together that, if organized, filtered by wisdom, and presented to you in a very human and personal way, can truly make your health simple.

So we’ve gathered together a group of truly amazing doctors to serve as your Guides. And we’ve also gathered together a carefully curated group of local specialists who are friendly with our Guides and want to work together with us to provide the exact care you need. These doctors know that healthcare should be delivered in a better way and want to be a part of something new and better. They’re mission-driven, well-trained, and have great personalities— I couldn’t think of a better combination. They’re the modern day Marcus Welby’s.

And we’re all working together with you to simplify your health. Wish us luck!

I’m very excited to announce that we’ve officially...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:52:00 -0500

I’m very excited to announce that we’ve officially launched Sherpaa.

Who it’s for: Currently it’s for tumblr’s employees. In the near future, we’ll be signing up other NYC-based companies.

Why: When you’re sick or hurt, figuring out exactly who and what you need and when you need it is difficult. You need an accessible, friendly doctor you can call and email 24/7 who will either solve the problem right then and there or guide you to the highest quality, health professionals with the best personalities who will provide exactly the care you need.

Our wonderful friends at tumblr are our first clients. And that means that all of tumblr’s employees can now email or call our doctors (or Guides as we call them) 24/7 when they have a health concern or question. Our Guides are well connected, in-the-know local doctors. Sometimes they can solve everything for you right away, and other times they’ll collaborate with other New York City specialists to arrange the most appropriate care for you. They make your health simple. And that’s our mission.

We’re starting slow. We’re focusing on working exclusively with tumblr for a while and will soon be signing up other NYC-based companies. If you’re interested in joining Sherpaa, please do let us know.

I’ve been quite busy for the past few months getting Sherpaa started. This is the next big phase of my life. And I’m super proud of it. It’s a service designed and built by us at The Future Well. We’re doing wonderful things and I’m a happy, happy guy.

Top five regrets of the dying

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:26:20 -0500

nevver:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

I wish that I had let myself be happier.

more

Also, read The Life Reports.

For the latest episode of ReCivilization on CBC, I’m...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:41:18 -0500

For the latest episode of ReCivilization on CBC, I’m interviewed by Don Tapscott about disrupting healthcare. Don is one of my favorite authors who wrote:

Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World

Don flew down from Toronto a few months back and interviewed me in my backyard over a cup of tea. My part starts around 30 minutes in, but it’s a good listen throughout.

Just bought this photograph. It’s truly amazing. From the...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:42:00 -0500

Just bought this photograph. It’s truly amazing. From the Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital in 1910.

Me and my “living” room. The big mirror is a new...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:28:00 -0500

Me and my “living” room. The big mirror is a new acquisition that was salvaged from the Toy Building on 5th Avenue and 23rd Street (the Eataly building— if you haven’t tried Eataly, it’s a wonderful experience).

For all you medical people out there, there’s no less than 4 Netter’s behind me. More to come. There’s also a prescription for alcohol that doctors had to use during the Prohibition Era just over my right shoulder. It’s a blank one and supposedly there are only 50 or so blank ones in existence because doctors were required to send in their blanks when Prohibition was over. There’s also a “Diptheria in this House” quarantine sign from Montoursville, PA from 1923 banning anyone from entering or leaving a house.

My favorite little visitor, Doc, had too long a day. Poor...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:43:19 -0500

My favorite little visitor, Doc, had too long a day. Poor guy’s tuckered.

jstn: Robot and Frank is the feature film debut of Jake...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:00:59 -0500

jstn:

Robot and Frank is the feature film debut of Jake Schreier, my friend and longtime Francis and the Lights co-conspirator (you may know him as the director of the incredible video for The Top). It stars Frank Langella as an old man with a slipping memory whose kids (James Marsden and Liv Tyler) give him a caretaker robot that he initially loathes but gradually forms an uneasy alliance with. It just premiered at Sundance this week (see some clips here) and will likely be coming soon to a theater near you.

It also features a number of near-future devices with fictional user interfaces imagined and designed by myself, which was one of the funnest projects I’ve ever worked on. I have a new appreciation for the needs of a real, functioning interface versus the kind you see in the movies. I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you wind up seeing it keep an eye on Frank’s TV and everyone’s cell phones and tablets.

So, clearly I’m biased, but I saw a rough cut of the movie a couple months back and truly loved it. I couldn’t be more proud of Jake, who’s been working slavishly on this for a long time (he talks about the genesis of the project in this interview) as well as Francis, who wrote the film’s beautiful score.

If I never get to work on something cooler I’ll die happy.

Can’t wait to see this.

What really happens to our muscles as we age if we are...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:15:00 -0500

What really happens to our muscles as we age if we are chronically active?

These are MRI cross sections of leg muscles. Via this recently published study in the journal Physician and Sports Medicine. See also.

This looks great and it’s one of the most important health...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:24:00 -0500

This looks great and it’s one of the most important health issues in our country. Glad to see there is more attention being given to why our cities and economy were designed to make health so hard.

A provocative new 4-hour series soon to air on public television, Designing Healthy Communities, examines the impact of our built environment on key public health indices, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, cancer and depression. The series documents the connection between bad community design and burgeoning health consequences, and discusses the remedies available to fix what has become an urgent crisis.

Retrofitting Suburbia (by MPC)

via

Good news from a study just published in Circulation: Sex is...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:13:00 -0500

Good news from a study just published in Circulation:

Sex is the cause of less than 1% of all acute heart attacks, the review said. And autopsy studies suggest that only between 0.6% and 1.7% of sudden deaths are related to sexual activity.

(A word to the wise for cheaters, though: Of those who did die during the act, most were men having “extramarital sexual activity, in most cases with a younger partner in an unfamiliar setting and/or after excessive food and alcohol consumption.”)

via

by Jessica Hische

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:53:34 -0500

by Jessica Hische

A lovely, lovely song. Buy it here. The War on Drugs, Come to...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:56:00 -0500

A lovely, lovely song. Buy it here.

The War on Drugs, Come to the City. This record has been on constant rotation for the last 4 months or so. And then seeing them open up for The National at the Beacon Theater, well, they are just spectacular.

strle: superamit: Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:43:28 -0500

strle:

superamit:

Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me.

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE

8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers.

Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months.

Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC.

Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth.

9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia!

Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time.

TODAY

… After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor!

You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.

First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.

Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.

Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.

This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.

AFTER THE TRANSPLANT

Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering:

My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick.

Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life.

Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo.

Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young.

THE GREAT NEWS

I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan.

I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Thank you.

<3

apoplecticskeptic: @Skulled via @vincelavecchia So good…

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:20:16 -0500

apoplecticskeptic:

@Skulled

via @vincelavecchia

So good…

Christopher Lyles, 30, had tracheal cancer that had progressed...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:46:00 -0500

Christopher Lyles, 30, had tracheal cancer that had progressed so far it was considered inoperable. In November, doctors made him a new windpipe - or trachea - made out of tiny plastic fibers seeded with stem cells from his own bone marrow.

Two months after his successful operation, Lyles arrived home in Md. last week.

via

The New York Times is reporting that the MTA is reassessing the...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:06:00 -0500

The New York Times is reporting that the MTA is reassessing the width of its’ seats on public transit to account for our nation’s ever increasing backsides.

It’s interesting how our country is being redesigned for the new normal. Every industry is making their own rules— the airlines make obese people buy two seats for example.

But the one thing that frustrates me about the airlines is the policy charging passengers for luggage based on weight:

Me: 159 pounds + 55 pound suitcase

Guy in front of me: 300 pounds + 45 pound suitcase

I get charged a hefty weight fine because my suitcase is 5 pounds overweight. If airlines are going to charge us for the weight of our luggage, they should assess our total weight, not just the weight of our luggage. It’s only fair.

I took a trip to Philadelphia yesterday to take a tour of...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:15:00 -0500

I took a trip to Philadelphia yesterday to take a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary. It was built in 1829 and became known as the most influential prison in both design and strategy in the entire world. It was the first large building in the United States to have central heating and running water. Of course, neither worked really well— toilets were flushed by the guards only a few times a week. One guard could see down all seven of the hallways at one time due to it’s hub and spoke design and mirrors. It looks like a castle and was built 2 and a half miles outside of Philadelphia’s city center at the time. The spooky castle on a hill was designed to intimate the population into behaving well.

It housed 250 prisoners in 250 cells, in solitary confinement for typical sentences of 2 to 6 years. The most common crime was horse theft. The root word of penitentiary is penance. It was thought that if you put criminals in solitary confinement in a church-like setting, they will have nothing else to think about but remorse and Jesus. They also taught the criminals a trade, like boot-making, so when they got out they could be productive members of society. It even had its own hospital. Contraband was typically smuggled in from outsiders throwing hollowed out baseballs over the walls.

As time went by the penitentiary suffered from overcrowding, riots, disease, and encroachment by the city. It was finally shut down in 1971.

The designers of this prison tried to solve multiple societal problems— how to rehabilitate criminals, how to design a physical place that would foster rehabilitation, and how to prevent criminality. The person that designed this was a genius— not because of his theories on criminality, but because he actually got this thing built. The White House in 1829 didn’t even have running water. But the prison on a hill for 250 criminals outside Philadelphia did. Imagine the politics of that simple statement.

It’s almost 200 years later, and our solution is to throw 3% of our population in privatized prisons and expect that they’ll just get better. In 1829, the entire state of Pennsylvania had 1.35 million people. And only 250 people in its state prison, most doing time for horse theft. Given today’s rate of 3%, they should have built a prison for 40,500 people.

The issue that hit me the hardest was that in 1829 criminologists were dealing with the exact same issues as we are today— how best to rehabilitate criminals. We’ve got the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, but have very little idea how to fix crime. It’s a big fat hairy problem. And 200 years later, we’re really no closer to the solution than we were in 1829. In fact, it’s worse. The rates of criminality needing rehabilitation are astronomically higher.

How many other problems in our society will we be no closer to the solution 200 years from now? How to deliver equitable healthcare to a population of diverse people? How to educate our children? As an optimistic curmudgeon, I’ve always believed in humans’ ability to solve problems. But what if the last 20% of big fat hairy problems are unsolveable because they’re politically motivated human behavior problems?

The real issue is that these issues can’t be solved with theories. They can only be moved along every so often with politics and cultural changes. Two hundred years, on the grand scale of things, isn’t that long. It’s a few generations. We, hopefully, all play our part in helping society progress. But our lives are just so, so short. I recently talked with someone who said, if you’re an entrepreneur, you should find an idea, build it out, and spend at least 5 years fully dedicated to that idea. At the end of five years, if the idea is working or not working, move on to the next big one. That means, if a typical person works 45 years, they have nine ideas they will work on in their lifetime.

Nine. It isn’t that large of a number. And of those nine, how many of your ideas will truly impact society for the better?

Molecular visualizations of DNA. Stunning. Especially...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:35:43 -0500

Molecular visualizations of DNA. Stunning. Especially replication, which begins at 1:42.

thingsorganizedneatly: SUBMISSION: physician paraphernalia,...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:20:45 -0500

thingsorganizedneatly:

SUBMISSION: physician paraphernalia, circa 1940