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Category: Health Tech

Alexandra Drane, fabulous, poacher, with PODCAST

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By Matthew Holt

One of my favorite people has the (first of) her (several) 15 minutes of fame in the NY Times today. Alex Drane tells all about growing a small business into a pretty big one (although it’s in the NY Times art of running a small business section as I guess Eliza isn’t General Motors). Most interesting thing they print is that she recruited her team by stealing them from her competitors. Her technique was to call them up and ask the person they wanted if anyone they knew needed a new job! And apparently she wants all her employees to leave and run their company (or maybe she was misquoted!)

But don’t forget that besides her day job Alex is the force behind Engage with Grace which she’s taking to TedMed this Fall (yes we know the TedMedsters are two years behind Health 2.0, but we’ll forgive them in this case).

But most importantly, look at that smile….

ATT00002 

And you’ll see Alex at Health 2.0 Goes to Washington if we can just wrestle her to get her demo in order later this week!

CODA–And as an added bonus I got to record a podcast with Alex this very afternoon! (Click on the dark bar below and it turns into a player)

Alex Drane interview

DrChrono shows their iPad chops

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By Matthew Holt

The guys from DrChrono have come a long way since we saw them first just last summer. They have a SaaS based practice management system, but at Health 2.0 at the Doctor’s Office they introduced an iPad-based tool for physicians. Here’s a quick video I took of them last month, with a live fake demo of what it might look like in a real encounter between a real doctor, and a fake patient.

Nancy Turett on Health Engagement

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By Matthew Holt

One of the more interesting surveys about health care in recent years has been the Edelman Health Engagement Barometer (HEB) first done in 2008 when I was tangentially involved—I wasn’t involved this year). Recently Edelman the global communications giant has redone the survey and it really pushed the boat out this year—doing the survey in 11 countries with a big oversample in the US.

A week or so ago I grabbed a few minutes with Nancy Turett who runs Edelman’s global health practice to get the overview of the new Health Engagement Barometer.

You can also hear more about all of this on Tuesday May 25 at 11 am EST when Nancy and a gang including the ever wonderful Jane Sarasohn-Kahn will be talking more about the HEB. You can get an invite to that by emailing hi***********@*****an.com

Are older patients ready for the personal healthcare revolution?

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By Matthew Holt

Our friend Michael Yuan at Ringful is working with some students in the business honors program at the University of Texas at Austin. They write:

As part of our class project, we are conducting a survey to understand how individuals and corporations are adopting new personal healthcare technologies. We need your help!

If you are managing a wellness or disease management program for an employer or insurer or hospital, we’d love to hear from you. Our goal is to survey members in your wellness / health plan on their perceptions of those potentially disruptive healthcare technologies. After the survey, we will share with you the aggregated results from your own employee/member population.

If you are able to help, please take 5 minutes to fill out a questionnaire. At the end of the questionnaire, we will ask for your email address. We will then get in touch via email and send you the link for your employees/members to fill out the consumer survey. Thank you so much!

 

Truly CA

By Matthew Holt

KQED, local PBS in San Francisco writes to tell me that a new series of Truly CA is beginning Sunday, May 16 at 6pm on KQED Public Television 9. The independent documentary series about life in the Golden State kicks off its sixth season with Firestorm, a timely film about the role firefighters play in the current medical system. The film coincides with the first day of National EMS Week (May 16-22, 2010).

Why You Ought To Be On Twitter

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By MATTHEW HOLTMatthew Holt

Today we’re introducing a new feature on THCB.  Every two weeks I’ll be broadcasting a brief segment with the folks at ReachMD, the radio station for doctors that broadcasts on XM satellite radio.  If you like, you can have a listen to the inaugural broadcast here. (You’ll need to sign up first, but the process is quick and painless.) You’ll also probably want to take a minute to contribute to the quick web-based poll tied to the broadcast. Today’s, which can be found at the foot of this post, asks how healthcare professionals are using Twitter.

More than 100 million people now have a Twitter account and millions of Tweets are sent daily. The Library of Congress is archiving every tweet ever sent!

If you need catching up, Twitter is a service that lets you send very short messages called “tweets”. Anyone can “follow” your tweets, that is subscribe to your messages, and you can subscribe to anyone else’s Tweets.

Some hospitals have already started tweeting, including a few sending minute by minute updates from the OR. That may generate publicity, but it’s not the most worthwhile use of Twitter.

But what’s the use of tweeting? Should you be doing it?

The magic of Twitter is that it extends your reach. There are two ways to use Twitter – one is inbound. One of the things you can tweet is a web link. Almost all journals, media companies, and medical leaders tweet links to their articles and opinions. And other people and organizations you’re following are also tweeting articles and opinions from people and organizations they’re following. …. Now you’re seeing what a whole community of experts is looking at —with virtually no effort.

Continue reading…

THCB CEO denies improper relationships, payoffs

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By THCB Staff

The Health Care Blog’s Founder & CEO Matthew Holt today announced a policy of absolute transparency concerning the rash of “inappropriate relationships” apparently infecting the health care blogging community. Holt released this statement:

I can categorically deny the truth of any rumors suggesting that anything inappropriate has been going on in the relationships between myself and any THCB staff members. While anonymous contributors may have uploaded perhaps unseemly photographic evidence to Facebook of such a relationship, I’m here to stamp out any rumors that the employee concerned was getting more than special treatment in other areas. I’d also like to state for the record that he is still on the THCB staff, and also that any treats he receives around the neighborhood are direct gifts from the giftees concerned over which I have no influence, and I am not paying off Maria at the Java House for her bacon treats.

Matthew Charley

Reached while sneaking off early on a Friday to coach Little League, THCB Managing Editor John Irvine was said to be quote “Extremely relieved” that Holt was not having any inappropriate relationships with staff members, as “there aren’t any other staff other than me!” and he “didn’t think I’d enjoy it very much."

Upon being informed that apparently other inappropriate relationships have led to large pay-offs and bonuses, Irvine changed his tune somewhat and started inquiring exactly what level of inappropriateness he’d have to put up with, and how big the bonuses were.

ProPublica’s Pulitzer piss-take

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By Matthew Holt

In a decade when there are countless really, really important issues to investigate in health care, ProPublica took more than $400,000 and spent it on a rehash of a well known story. The story was about a completely exceptional circumstance that will likely never happen again. The original criminal investigation against the alleged perpetrator of the “crime” was abandoned. And the big important result that this new investigation caused in our health care system? Nothing.

This was a complete waste of resources in an era when very few are available to investigate the major issues in our health care system which cause so many problems for so many people. Could ProPublica really not think of any other major investigative health care story to pursue? Like one that impacts millions of people? They could have asked me for a few suggestions. Instead they went looking for something that was purely sensationalist, akin to the National Enquirer chasing down Tiger Woods.

And now whoever awards Pulitzer prizes has decided that this is the best investigative reporting of any kind done last year. Pathetic.

I repeat–where the hell is Lisa Girion‘s Pulitzer?

Lisa Girion is a hero

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By Matthew Holt

One reporter changed the behavior of every health plan in California all by herself.

Even before Tuesday’s announcements, however, health insurers in California had all but stopped the number of policy cancellations, state records show. Last year, only four such cancellations were reported to the managed healthcare department, down from 1,552 in 2005.

Where the hell is her Pulitzer prize?

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