Archive for December 2nd, 2007

I deactivated my Facebook Account. Is LinkedIn next?

December 2nd, 2007 | Popularity: 21%
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I am a big fan of everything Web 2.0, including social networking. I just decided that the negatives of Facebook outweighed the positives and deactivated my account. Why? First, what I liked about Facebook was that it was a “professional” social networking community. A person used their real name and real interests. Facebook at the same time did a very nice job of creating exquisite privacy controls, so that your friends could know about what they needed to know, and professional contacts could know what they needed to know.

Then Facebook opened up the world of applications, which was interesting enough. Except that applications begat applications. I couldn’t find someone’s Wall to write on. I had to find the super-duper-neon-Wall 3.0. And then the requests came from friends to add application x or application y to my account so I could rate them, compare myself to them, etc etc. I think we need to get back to a time and place where we sit down and tell each other how we feel in person. Perhaps I am revealing my GenX-ness in that comment. But maybe not.

And finally, the news that maybe the monetizing application isn’t going so well made the decision a relatively easy one.

I have an identity here that people can find just by Google-ing me. All the applications I need I have added.

I’m a little worried that there’s going to be a bump in the social-networking road at this point.

And I’m still trying to figure out what the value of LinkedIn is.

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“I want my doctors to meet me half way” : Lifelong Medical Care, Part I

December 2nd, 2007 | Popularity: 7%
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Berkeley Primary Care

Lifelong Medical Care, Berkeley Primary Care, Berkeley, California

These were the words of a young man who stayed for a few minutes after his primary care visit at Downtown Berkeley Primary Care, to talk to me about his care experience. In fact, this was a new experience for me, too, because it was the first time that a physician whom I was shadowing asked me to do more than observe the visit. Pete Lovett, MD, is the Associate Medical Director of the Berkeley Primary Care Clinic and my guide during the visit.

A little background, first, and a good illustration of why there is more to an organization than their Web site. I am going to break this description into 2 posts for readability.

I was connected to Lifelong Medical via the California Healthcare Foundation, which has a strong interest in supporting the safety net medical providers in the communities it serves. On lifelongmedical.org, it says, “LifeLong is known as the primary “safety net” provider of medical services to the uninsured and those with complex health needs in Berkeley, North Oakland, Albany and Emeryville. In 2004, LifeLong provided approximately 101,000 primary care visits to over 17,000 people, nearly half of whom were uninsured.” I knew prior to visiting that LifeLong does most of its charting on paper, and does not have an online personal health record for its patients. My presumption then, was that I would be here as a comparison for other safety net medical centers I am working with on the East Coast, many of whom I am working with because they have full EHRs or who are in the process of getting them.

Pete is a family physician trained in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, with experience as Family Practice Faculty at University of California, San Francisco. As a physician in the NHS, he has experience with paperless practices, and in fact told me that his work in the United States has meant a return to less developed ways of moving information around. It turns out that LifeLong Medical does have experience with an EHR that it uses exclusively for its HIV patients.

» Read more: “I want my doctors to meet me half way” : Lifelong Medical Care, Part I

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