February 2010
26 posts
Watch
Watchsoupsoup:
Shep Smith destroys Sen. Thune’s false claim that Senate health bill will increase premiums: “That’s not true, Senator”
“Five out of every $6 in health care spending today is paid for by someone other...”
– Marketplace
The joy of the chase, the reality of slogging
Love this. First the glorious luster of the idea in finding the next big thing:
Google is famously creative at encouraging these breakthroughs; every year, it holds an internal demo fair called CSI — Crazy Search Ideas — in an attempt to spark offbeat but productive approaches.
And then the reality of improvement sets in:
But for the most part, the improvement process is a relentless slog,...
Lessons From a Blue-Collar Millionaire →
Companies that actually (actually!) mean what they say about the culture being most important always seem to be successful. But the thing that’s difficult for me to understand is why so many continue to pay lip service to culture’s importance. Naive on my part? I don’t think so. But I’m biased.
Enter Nick’s Pizza and Pub (they use checklists too!):
Sarillo has...
Designing Food
The Columbus Dispatch (emphasis added):
The nation’s largest pediatricians group wants warning labels on foods that pose choking risks, and it is asking companies to design safer foods and redesign those - such as the hot dog - that are known hazards.
Design solves problems.
“It’s close to 11 p.m., and the jet touches down in White Plains. Leaving the...”
– From a NY Times profile of Xerox’s CEO. She’s changing the company’s culture. And she’s doing it by being real.
MGH plans museum to showcase its story →
This is a uniquely cool idea. It’s not one that would work for all, a place has to have important history to open a museum, but flaunt it if you have it.
Hospital-Clean Hands, Without All the Scrubbing →
Results Unproven, Robotic Surgery Wins Converts →
Expecting a Surge in U.S. Medical Schools →
What goes around comes around
What got Billy Tauzin hired also got him fired.
(Tauzin is one of Washington’s trickier cats; he led Medicare expansion efforts, health reform if you will, that included a nice stream of cash for pharmaceutical companies and the industry lobby thanked him by appointing him president.)
Healthcare goes national
Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale has signed a partnership agreement with Mass General in Boston to provide cancer care services. Total miles between the institutions: 1,478.
Partnerships like this exist across the country, but most are local; for example, a community hospital offers access to physicians at the academic medical center nearby. It works for both organizations: the AMC widens...
Evidence
I’m pretty sure this post by Kevin MD is a call for design thinking.
What works?
If someone would just tell us what works:
a recent Brown University study found that, although higher co-pays keep older people from going to their physicians’ offices as often as they might, the practice also leads to more hospitalizations.
Or $78,333.34 per second... →
jayparkinsonmd:
Healthcare in America.
The U.S. spent $2.472 trillion on health care last year, according to a paper out today in the journal Health Affairs. That’s $282 million an hour. Health spending as a percent of GDP — a key metric that shows how much of all U.S. spending goes to health care — rose from 16.2% in 2008 to 17.3% in 2009, far higher than any other industrialized country....
WatchThe absolute first question I’d ask a potential surgeon: “Do you use the checklist?”
Hospitals failing
Now that we’ve embraced (rather, been forced to) government bailouts, will we soon be seeing them in healthcare at places like Jackson Health in Miami or St. Vincent’s in Manhattan?
Blaming medical technology
Fast Company has an article about the role of medical technology in sky-high healthcare costs. It even calls (the heretofore untouchable) designers enablers. An interesting excerpt offers the crux of the issue:
At $2 million apiece, with a monthly maintenance bill running around $20,000, [CT] scanners are bought in bunches by hospitals eager to lure patients and blue-chip doctors. In...
Hand washing compliance
Someone told me once that if a hospital was serious about people washing their hands, they would fire anyone who didn’t. It’s getting closer to that. From NPR:
… she washes her hands a lot; she guesses at least 100 times a day. But her hospital’s administrators aren’t guessing — they have installed new devices to keep track.
With information transmitted...
Learning on Mondays
Fred at A VC launches MBA Mondays where he’ll teach you everything you need to know. This week: an intro to present value of future cash flows. Last week is was calculating an ROI.
Healthcare can learn from Toyota's sticky gas...
For the past ten years (an aggressive estimate) healthcare has been trying to learn from Toyota’s lauded Toyota Production System. Applying Lean (TPS was the precursor to Lean) principles has made healthcare safer.
But Toyota is now offering another learning opportunity (though this one negative). The company that built its reputation upon the ideals of quality is feeling the pain of a...
Proactive healthcare
I love proactive healthcare, or, if you will, proactive health. New York City Department of Design + Construction:
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, architects and urban reformers helped to defeat infectious diseases, such as cholera and tuberculosis, by improving design of buildings, streets, neighborhoods, clean water systems and parks. In the 21st century, designers can again play a...