Figuring out Google Wave

by John on October 18, 2009

I find myself in that odd position again, one foot in a world that hasn’t heard a thing about Wave “…you mean gmail??”, and a social media/tech world on fire about this thing.  So this is for the first camp.

You should learn about this thing.  Oh, sure, it has many detractors, but the core intent behind it is revolutionary; what would happen if we reinvented email, to incorporate the new technologies we have today?  What would email+IM+shared documents+wikis look like?

If your response is “…huh?” check out this brilliant little explanation:

Ohhhhh, right.  Good, now you get it.  Group conversations that actually work. A collaborative working environment, in your inbox.

[read more…]

{ 9 comments }

“Meaningful Use” Recommendations Harm Rural Hospitals

by John on June 17, 2009

This is a guest post by Louis Wenzlow, Director of Health Information Technology at the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative (RWHC). The RWHC is a cooperative of 35 rural hospitals (including 28 Critical Access Hospitals) that promotes regional collaboration for health and health care services on behalf of rural communities.  The post below is commentary on the preliminary definition of “Meaningful Use” as presented to the HIT Policy Committee on June 16, 2009. The title was added by the blog editor, John Eich.
——————————

As an organization with significant experience in rural electronic health record (EHR) implementation, we believe that the meaningful use definition, as drafted, will make it impossible for the average small rural hospital, including critical access hospitals (CAHs), to meet the meaningful use standard.

The result will be that the vast majority of an entire sector of providers will be excluded from receiving ARRA HIT incentive funds and, consequently, will lack the tools required to engage the challenges of healthcare reform.

[read more…]

{ 5 comments }

Getting Started with Twitter

by John on June 5, 2009

Oh, finally! Thanks to a great post, I discovered this four-minute video, “How to use Twitter in 10 easy steps.”

Now you can stop scratching your head and check out Twitter!

A few notes I’d add for those getting started:

- The group of people you choose to follow completely defines your experience: if you follow people who post where they’re eating lunch, you’ll find Twitter to be bland and shallow. If you follow people who love to share great articles they’ve read, interesting pictures or videos and insights into current events, then you’ll be amazed at Twitter’s depth and interest.

- If spammers follow you, don’t freak out. Unlike email, they can’t fill your inbox. As long as you don’t follow them back, you only see messages from those fascinating people you chose to follow. It’s like you’re rubber and they’re glue! [third grade reference] If they “creep you out” sitting there, as a friend of mine put it, you can always “block” them on your followers list. Buh-bye, spammy.

- To find interesting people to follow, ‘search’ is your friend: search twitter on key topics that interest you, browse those who talk about it, click their profile to see what they tweet, and if you like them, give ‘em a try. If they start talking about lunch…well, un-follow – no message to them, no dividing up your cd collection, just a quiet sigh of relief.

- Or check out whom your favorite ‘tweeples’ follow – birds of a feather, as they say…

Well, that’s enough for now. Enjoy!

{ 4 comments }

Rural Medicine – serving more, with less, over huge distances

by John on May 26, 2009

Just saw this stunning statistic in an article in the Nebraska Journal Star:

…rural America—where just 9 percent of the nation’s doctors serve 17 percent of its citizens scattered across 80 percent of its geography—is not an ideal place to find medical care.

I’m not sure if anything captures the current situation better than that snapshot.  Sadly, with impending retirements of significant percentages of existing physicians, steadily decreasing enrollments in primary care residencies, and an upcoming workforce that places more value on quality of non-work life than in the past – we’re looking at this statistic getting much worse.

Perhaps we should rewrite a verse from the Bob Dylan song . . . “Where have all the doctors gone – long time passing..?”

{ 2 comments }

Figuring out why you’re using social media

by John on May 22, 2009

Just saw a great quote on the distinction between “Social Media” and “Social Networking”:

Social Media are tools for sharing and discussing information. Social Networking is the use of communities of interest to connect to others. You can use Social Media to facilitate Social Networking. Or, your can network by leveraging Social Media.

But why, you ask, is this distinction important?

Because to use these new tools effectively, you have to know why you’re using them.  Are you an individual looking to connect with others outside your everyday circle?  Then you’re looking for social networking, and now you can start wading through the dozens of tools that offer it to find the right tool for your speed, your need, and your feed (people/info you want to follow).

Are you an organization that is seeking to get your message out?  Then you’re looking at the media tools, and again, to pick the right one(s), look at where your target audience is online, and start joining them there.  Are they younger and informal?  Create a Facebook page.  Are they over 30 and information-sharers?  Find them on Twitter.  Purely professional crowd? LinkedIn is your arena.

It gets tricky because Social Media is by nature conversational, so “getting your message out” is often about building relationships, which is Social Networking’s core territory.  Welcome to the blurry overlap.

But, if you had to choose, which of these factors is your core goal – messaging, or networking? Pick one, lean towards tools that do that best, and expect a lot of overlap.  Because in this new media world, messaging without connecting is doomed.  Picking the core goal just helps you decide where to allocate your time most effectively in a universe of options.

{ 1 comment }

I’m on the way – see for yourself!

May 19, 2009

Wow…I think this new application has hit on something that’s game-changing for location-awareness.  Most people think location programs are a little creepy, but some genius may have just solved that. Say you and the family are headed over to a friend’s house. You’d planned a brunch at 10 am, but packing the kids’ stuff and [...]

Read the full article →

Rural Health Discovers Social Media

May 13, 2009

Last week I presented this slideshow to the National Rural Health Association at their annual conference in Miami.  (Don’t even get me started on how beautiful the beach was there…)  I’ve uploaded it to SlideShare as I’d like to see it spread around in rural and healthcare circles – hope you find it useful! I’ll [...]

Read the full article →

Mapping Wisconsin’s Unemployment

March 4, 2009

Great mapping application from the NYTimes – worth a look, as you can zoom in on any region, see stats for every county, and zoom back out to see the disparate impacts on the country…

Read the full article →

Physicians Using “Mouse Calls” to Streamline their Practice

February 9, 2009

Nice article in Freep.com on Michigan doctors embracing electronic communications as tool in their delivery of care: In a glimpse at how the practice of medicine is changing, Michigan’s doctor practices are adding electronic programs to cut telephone tag and unnecessary office visits for routine health questions, prescription refills, lab results and appointment requests. Patients [...]

Read the full article →

Cloud-Based EHRs + PHRs

February 8, 2009

David Kibbe describes an interesting idea today on The Health Care Blog, an EHR service that providers can subscribe to, and allow data sharing with the patients. A hybridized EHR+PHR, if you will. Here’s his description: I call this Clinical Groupware. The term captures the basic notion that he primary purpose for using these IT [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries