Tag: Uncategorized

Managing obesity, Japanese style

Jun 13, 2008• 11

By Matthew Holt

So after making cracks about Strength through Joy last week, it appears that plans to change the health of the nation are happening. Not here of course, but the NY Times tells us about Japan:

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.

To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check.

SNIP

Companies like Matsushita must measure the waistlines of at least 80 percent of their employees. Furthermore, they must get 10 percent of those deemed metabolic to lose weight by 2012, and 25 percent of them to lose weight by 2015.

NEC, Japan’s largest maker of personal computers, said that if it failed to meet its targets, it could incur as much as $19 million in penalties. The company has decided to nip metabo in the bud by starting to measure the waistlines of all its employees over 30 years old and by sponsoring metabo education days for the employees’ families.

Sounds like fairly vicious pay for performance to me!

Health wonk review

Jun 13, 2008

Jane Hiebert-White compiled it over at Health Affairs blog.

Lucas Merrow demos Eliza

Jun 12, 2008

By Jen McCabe Gorman

Lucas is demoing today’s flashiest presentation at The Center for Information Therapy’s Wired.

Thank goodness; it’s 4:30 and there’s been no audience bleed out the door since Merrow took to the podium.

I missed Eliza’s presentation at the Health 2.0 Spring Fling, so this
is the first time I’ve viewed the platform. Eliza has my interest when
Merrow describes "how we converse with people with diabetes" rather
than "diabetics."

Sometimes it is all about semantics; in this case, Eliza shows respect
for each person’s health/wellness goals via the details, right down to
terminology, not limiting our identity to powerless ‘patienthood’.

And it works. People respond to requests with respect. Lucas shares a
case study. When Eliza took over for a client – 23 percent prescription
refill rate. They saw an increase right off the bat – 10% early –
"primarily due to the conversational nature of the service."

Eliza has it right here – Healthcare is a conversation. Let’s keep talking.

PCHIT and patients online…

Jun 12, 2008• 1

By Matthew Holt

Josh Seidman & Ted Eytan (he of the latest, latest Health 2.0 definition) have written a piece for CHCF called Helping Patients Plug In: Lessons in the Adoption of Online Consumer Tools.

Susannah Fox@Wired 002

Susannah Fox (all hail!) from Pew is talking about patients online. She gave some neat data Broadband is about 20 points below basic Internet access….at about 54% overall (up from 5% in 2000). It’s only pockets (those over 70s, Spanish speaking Hispanics). Health care is stuck in broadcast, not interactive. Susannah thinks that the option is to go mobile—especially for low income young minority males. I asked her about broadband….it’s growing but slowing she says, but there’s lots of potential to copy what’s happening elsewhere. Susannah’s quote of the day “Online banking may be softening people up for PHRs…”

Sapping VistA’s soul

Jun 9, 2008• 8

By Niko Karvounis

Niko Karvounis tracks the healthcare system for the Century Foundation. This post first appeared on the increasingly influential Healthbeat blog, one of our favorite healthcare reads.

In the past I’ve spoken highly of VistA, the Veteran’s Administration computerized
health records system, — and with good reason. VistA has a lot going for it. In 2006, it won an “Innovations in American Government Award” from Harvard. Studies show that use of VistA has improved VA productivity by 6 percent a year since national implementation was achieved in 1999. In a time of sky rocketing health care costs, VA care has become 32 percent less expensive than it was in 1996 in part thanks to VistA. The computerized system also has helped the VA reach an amazing prescription accuracy rate of over 99.997 percent. And last — but certainly not least — VistA is a flexible program that allows for much independent tinkering in the name of improvement, both by techies outside of the VA and those within the administration.

Given all these pluses, you’d think that the government would be happily throwing its weight behind VistA and ensuring that the system is firmly institutionalized for the long term. But in fact, just the opposite is happening. VistA is under attack; and it’s the federal government that’s leading the assault.

Until the middle class truly cares, forget about health reform

Jun 9, 2008• 9

By THCB Staff

Regular THCB contributor Michael Millenson published an op-ed piece in Sunday’s Washington Post, in which he says that until health insurance truly becomes an issue of the white middle-class, politically, nothing will happen.

Michael’s words:

"Here’s a cold truth: Despite much media hand-wringing on the subject, most of us give about as much thought to those who lack health coverage as we do to soybean subsidies.The major obstacle to change? Those of us with insurance simply don’t care very much about those without it. It’s only when health care costs spike sharply, the economy totters or private employers begin to cut back on benefits that the lack of universal health care comes into focus. Noticing the steadily growing ranks of the uninsured, the broad American public — ‘us’ — begins to worry that we’ll soon be joining the ranks of ‘them.’"

"The responses I’ve gotten by putting my personal email on the page have certainly been … educational," Michael told us. You won’t get his personal email here — you’ll have to visit the Post for that.

Optimism about the baby boomers

Jun 8, 2008• 1

By Jeff Goldsmith Ijeff

Jeff Goldsmith is President of Health Futures, Inc, and a professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia. His new book, "The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation," will be released shortly, and Johns Hopkins University Press granted THCB permission to print the introduction in full.

Fresh from liberating the world from the Axis powers, America’s Greatest Generation came home from World War II and brought forth a baby boom. Seventy-six million children emerged from this remarkable postwar celebration, almost four children per family. American society has not been the same since.

The baby boom increased the U.S. population 44 percent in just eighteen years! American society had to re-create itself to accommodate the new arrivals. Each social institution the baby boomers touched, from elementary schools to university to the family and the work world, they fundamentally reshaped, not only by the press of their sheer numbers but also by their unique, high-maintenance approach to the world. At each turn in their lives, baby boomers have torn up the script and started afresh.

Today, the advance guard of this generation’s legions is within four years of reaching a bristling societal Maginot Line: age 65. According to many pundits and forecasters, the aging baby boom threatens the U.S. economic future.

How the mainstream media hypes health news

Jun 7, 2008• 3

By Maggie Mahar

“False Hopes, Unwarranted Fears: The Trouble with Medical News Stories.” If you find the headline alarming, you should read the editorial, published just last week in PLoS Medicine. There, the journal’s editors summarize what the Health News Review has discovered over the past two years while evaluating medical stories about new products and procedures throughout the mainstream media.

“It’s not a pretty picture,” says Gary Schwitzer, the University of Minnesota School of Journalism professor who publishes the online project.

Brian May, PhD

Jun 7, 2008• 1

By Matthew Holt

My favorite rock guitarist of all time, Brian May never quite finished his PhD in Astronomy before going off and becoming a big star with Queen. But this year, he finally did. Here’s an interview with him in the Los Angeles Times.

But for pure enjoyment, here’s 9 minutes of him rocking out at Wembley in 1986. (I’m in the audience somewhere). Think about the complexity of playing everything once and hearing it three times…amazing.

Stupid cancer: Young cancer survivors find a voice of their own

Jun 6, 2008• 1

By Matthew Zachary

Matthew Zachary, the founder of I’m too Young For This community and
advocacy web site for young cancer survivors, is no stranger to THCB or Health 2.0, but he has never before told us his story at length. So here it is. Also, Zachary wants to invite survivors, friends and family to join him for i[2]y’s 2nd Annual Stupid Cancer Gala complete with complimentary cocktails, door prizes, DJ survivors and special guests! Come one come all. Stupid cancer! Go here for tickets and more information, visit . Discount web-only ticket prices and sponsorships still available.

Whether for good or for bad, I remember it all too well. December 27th, 1995.

Al Gore had just barely invented the Internet, movie trailers for Independence Day shocked people to the core and we were all making fun of Bob Dole as he tried to become president with his codgery monotone.

I was 21 and six months away from my College graduation en route to film school with ambitions to become the next John Williams. I’d been classically trained for over 10 years with a romp through Jazz, new age, electronica and pop/rock. I wanted nothing more than to be creative and write music for film and television.

But first, something had to explain why my speech was slurring, why I kept fainting uncontrollably, why I had crippling headaches and – most importantly – why my left hand, my dominant hand, had lost all of it’s fine motor coordination, rendering me unable to sit at the piano and play, grip a pen or type on the computer.