Archive for September 19th, 2008

e-patients: Safety Net Populations

September 19th, 2008 | Popularity: 30%
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e-patients: Safety Net Populations

The nice thing about the blogosphere is that when you get behind in your blogging, someone else will help you out. Thanks to Susannah Fox for writing about her experience with us in Oakland, California, around the sharing of Pew Research Data with safety net health care organizations.

The comments on the post are especially heartening, in that they support that involving the audience in the presentation of information is meaningful. In this case, they presented just as much information back, which is as it should be.

If I can have one claim to fame in the convening world, besides audience involvement, it is that internet access, checking e-mail, using the Web is allowed at the discretion of attendees. At the last two meetings where I suggested this, people seemed a little caught off guard that this is okay. I want to change that. Just as in the Results-Only Work Environment, in the Results-Only Meeting Environment, respect for people deciding what is most important to them creates the pressure I like, that I/we need to be more interesting than an e-mail inbox.

Photo Friday: Healthcare Business Should Be Like Frozen Yogurt

September 19th, 2008 | Popularity: 11%
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TangySweet

This week’s photograph comes from one of the hottest spots in most cities these days, the frozen yogurt shop. They’re popping up everywhere. As I ordered my green-tea mini with white chocolate chips, strawberries, and pineapple, I asked if this particular store was associated with the other hotspot just a few blocks away in lovely Dupont Circle, and the answer impressed me so much I tweeted it on the spot.

What if the mental model in health care was “co-investment,” just like in yogurt competition? It would go something like this – “we discovered a new workflow/process/patient safety issue in our care delivery. We’d like our peers/competitors to co-invest in it with us to make it even better/make it not happen again.” In this situation, the winners are the ones who can innovate and adapt others’ ideas as quickly as possible, not the ones who have the best firewalls.

Think about it what this would do for health care. It definitely makes for a tastier cup of 25-calories-per-ounce over time.