Jay Parkinson + MD + MPH = a doctor in NYC

A young man plunged 39 stories Tuesday from a West Side...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:27:00 -0400

A young man plunged 39 stories Tuesday from a West Side high-rise, crashed through the windshield of a sports car - and lived to tell about it.

“My leg! My leg!” Thomas Magill, 22, screamed after an apparent suicide attempt ended with his landing in the red 2008 Dodge Charger, witnesses said.

The things you learn throughout medical school, residency, and practicing is never say never…anything and everything can and will happen if it involves the human body.

Reminds me of this.

A New Insurance Company for the New Workforce This is exactly...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:03:48 -0400

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.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:56:00 -0400

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...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:21:09 -0400

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?

laughingsquid: Artificial Right Arm, Europe, 1850-1910

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:39:34 -0400

laughingsquid:

Artificial Right Arm, Europe, 1850-1910

Available on Etsy: Custom, acrylic painting done on canvas board...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:47:27 -0400

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.

redesignrelated: Crispin Porter + Bogusky gives baby carrots...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:34:59 -0400

redesignrelated:

Crispin Porter + Bogusky gives baby carrots the junk food treatment.

“…Just in time for the battle over what’s gonna be in millions of back-to-school lunches, Bolthouse Farms and nearly 50 other carrot growers today will unveil plans for the industry’s first-ever marketing campaign. The $25 million effort sets its sights on a giant, big-spending rival: junk food…”
—via USA Today

It’s about time.

Flagrant self-promotion: Me in the latest GQ Japan. I have no...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:53:00 -0400

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

I have no idea what it says!

nephrolithiasis: The new classes of expert professionals have...

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:32:31 -0400

nephrolithiasis:

The new classes of expert professionals have been trained to focus on narrow, specialized knowledge independent of social ideas or conceptions of the common good. A doctor, lawyer, or engineer may become wealthy, but the real meaning of their work is that they sustain health, justice, good government, or safety. The flight from humanities has become a flight from conscience. It has created an elite class of experts who seldom look beyond their tasks and disciplines to put what they do in a wider, social context. And by absenting themselves from the moral and social questions raised by the humanities, they have opted to serve a corporate structure that has destroyed the culture around them.

- Chris Hedges

(via brucehopperjrmd)

Bruce Hopper’s Hello Health practice is going strong down in Philadelphia, partly because he’s so conscious of the fact that the doctor patient relationship needs to be deinstitutionalized and brought back to the neighborhood. If you’re in Philly, I can’t recommend a better doctor.

Physician Free Thyself - The Hello Health Doctor Blog

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:24:24 -0400

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

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:39:47 -0400

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

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:14:41 -0400

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...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:33:21 -0400

Takes me back to the days of being a pediatrician…

Sketchy Ice Creams

Federal judge rules executing an innocent person would be unconstitutional

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:50:37 -0400

Federal judge rules executing an innocent person would be unconstitutional:

savingpaper:

Well, it’s about time?

Best line from last night’s Mad Men: Faye:...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:32:00 -0400

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?”

So I just stepped out for a slice of pizza (vegetarian) at...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:49:00 -0400

So I just stepped out for a slice of pizza (vegetarian) at Vinnie’s around the corner from my apartment. They’re a bit famous due to their pizza and also for their trash can.

I ordered a slice and sat down inside to eat it. There are seats on both sides of the shop. It just so happened that there were 6 skinny people with one slice each on one side and 6 overweight people on the other with two slices each. It was odd that the restaurant was split up like that, but not that odd when it comes to portion size and weight. It just made me think…what is it about skinny people’s brains that tell them to limit the quantity of food they eat? What happened in their lives that instilled in them this behavior? Is it something they were born with? Or did they have to rewire their understanding and relationship with food? How much did their friend ordering one slice have to do with their decision to order one slice? Nature, nurture, and in-the-moment social cues…

Prescribing a medication with an iPad. When doctors use...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:57:00 -0400

Prescribing a medication with an iPad.

When doctors use computers, their productivity decreases by 18%. Here’s a perfect example why. Watch this video and then imagine how long it takes for a doctor to whip out their prescription pad, scribble a name, a drug, a signature, and hand it to the patient. And for the record, I love these guys who built the app…I know them personally and they do great work. They’re pushing the boundaries on how doctors use computers.

Electronic Medical Records won’t save healthcare when the competition is productivity and paper.

My take over at The Future Well about What if health solutions...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:13:00 -0400

My take over at The Future Well about What if health solutions are unmeasurable?:

Almost every Sunday night, I walk to this one restaurant in my neighborhood for some comfort food (we’re creatures of habit aren’t we?). I pass a church on my way where an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is held almost every night. As I walk through the crowd of smokers, I look at them and they look at me. They don’t know that I know they’re recovering addicts. And they put a smile on my face. They’ve taken the initiative to change their lives, restructure their lifestyle, and improve their health. They’ve realized that overcoming bad lifestyle takes friends, family, and professionals…

Read the rest.

photo by Bill Henson.

Just stumbled across this photo of my brother (look at him...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:12:00 -0400

Just stumbled across this photo of my brother (look at him now…so proud!), my mom, and me (left) circa 1980. Aww…

(via hazal, jonathan-deamer)

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:23:41 -0400

(via hazal, jonathan-deamer)