Businessweek: The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit

This week’s cover of Businesweek appears to triumphantly announce Apple, Inc.’s comeback (sort of) into the enterprise, even if Apple isn’t actually marketing to that sector.

For Mac afficionados, this is a big change from Businesweek’s former pronunciation of near-death (see The Fall of An American Icon, from 1996, or the Apple Death Knell Counter from Mac Observer).

Okay, so Apple is back; however, the opportunity here for enterprise IT is not so much to bring on a new platform, it’s to explore more thoroughly the idea of “employee asset ownership.” I didn’t find much searching for this idea on Google (maybe there’s a more official name for this? If there is, please add it in your comments), except that a few companies like BP and Unisys are experimenting with it.


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I have been intrigued by EMC’s work in managing an employee personal health record - it seems above and beyond (in a good way) how an human resources function and grow and support talent. Also, time to upgrade Office for Mac. It went OK. I’ll update “my own CIO” tools list in the near future.

• Employers Find Benefits with PHRs - More info about EMC and its employee PHR
• News - - Gainesville.com: Dean admits student without backing - It’s interesting that this is posted in the entertainment section. That aside, this looks concerning. I don’t understand how a student is admitted to medical school on a personal recommendation, and without taking the MCAT. How will we have a diverse medi
• Event Calendar - A way to put upcoming events on a wordpress blog
• TimeDriver - Coming Soon! A revolutionary online personal appointment scheduler - A very high potential meeting scheduling package. Given that Timebridge only allows 5 slots to be determined, this looks very interesting.
• GE Healthcare-Press Release-NCHL and GE’s Institute for Transformational Leadership - I didn’t know about GE’s work in this area. It looks like they are doing work in LEAN as well as Six-Sigma, which they are known for.
• Report cites UA med school crisis | www.azstarnet.com ® - Sad news from my alma mater, related to the difficulties medical schools are having balancing revenue and their mission.
• D.C. Not-for-Profit Offers Model for IT Adoption - iHealthBeat - More progress in DCPCA’s EHR adoption efforts
• Burlington Free Press.com | Fletcher Allen’s new EHR - Fletcher Allen in Vermont gets approval to go ahead. I believe this is an Epic Systems install, bringing with it the possibility for excellent patient engagement with their health system as a result.
• Database Problem with Office 2008 for Mac - Office 2008 Install problems, just in case

• Emerging Technology | Computers | DISCOVER Magazine - Article on Valdis Krebs’ social networking mapping tool
• orgnet.com - Social network analysis software & services for organizations, communities, and their consultants - This came up today, a reminder of past explorations
• Regional Health Education Online Learning - The Permanente Medical Group - Online, freely available training around patient self-management, provided by the Kaiser Permanente Community benefit. I took a look at the video on chronic conditions. I think this is a good direction in terms of training. I think there are also opportunities, though, to better demonstrate patient-centered care in this medium, including use of the electronic health record (I’m supposed to think that, it’s what I do, after all).
• Portrait Professional - amazing photo enhancer - Could this be the next Internet maps craze?
• Rite Aid adds clinics in Washington, Baltimore - Washington Business Journal: - Rite Aid adds clinics in Washington, Baltimore, working with Medstar Health

April 5th through April 8th:

• Headzoo » WP Anti-Wares - Now it looks like we have to worry about insecure wordpress themes, too.
• Electronic Prevention - washingtonpost.com - Nice writeup of the New York PCIP program. What the writer doesn’t realize, is that a patient portal is coming, so a visit isn’t always going to be required….
• Jack and Suzy Welch: Leader vs. Manager - ‘We’d wager it only comes into play when you don’t want to offend an employee who crosses t’s and dots i’s but couldn’t excite a busload of kids bound for Disney World. In such a case, what do you say? You got it. “You’re a good manager.”‘
• Generation Y’s Bad Rap - It’s not really that bad, according to Jack Welch. I agree.
• The National Physicians Alliance encourages all doctors to join our Unbranded Doctor Campaign — a national network of physicians committed to reducing the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on our profession. - NPA appears to be a grown up version of AMSA. They include consumers in their governance
• Macworld | Mac OS X Hints | Add more power to 10.5’s screen sharing - Economical screen sharing alternatives using Leopard
• Total Value, Total Return: Invest in Health Management Programs -
• Office 2004 for Mac Solution Center - Office 2004 downloads for Mac. Time to upgrade

• Safari 3.1 includes hidden one-window preference - This is the holy grail of Safari as the browser of choice. That plus compatibility with blog authoring tools.
• Mac BU promises bibliography improvements to Office 2008 - Interesting discussion somewhat unrelated to the article’s title about the state of bibliographic software. I would look forward to further refinements of Zotero, and maybe a server version.
• QLPlugins - Quick Look Plugins - Great efficiency improver of one of my favorite Leopard features.
• Aetna Smartsource Demo - Aetna’s latest information tailoring system for patients. Getting closer to supporting the patient-provider relationship?
• Apple - Support - Discussions - Unresponsive Keyboard and Trackpad … - This is a real issue for MacBookPro owners - prepare yourself just in case this happens to you.
• A new snapshot of health consumerism from EBRI and The Commonwealth Fund - Nice overview from Jane Sarsohn-Kahn
• Roblog » Batch Categories - Another category management plugin, for Wordpress 2.3 and 2.5
• uwMike » WP-Cats - More preparation to migration to WP 2.5
• Disk Inventory X - Map your hard drive to avoid wasting space
• How to Fly Without ID and Skip Lines | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Just in case this happens to you, here is how you can fly and recover.

March 28th through March 29th:

• WordPress ? Search and Replace « WordPress Plugins - Wordpress 2.5 is out. I have a feeling this plugin will be useful to have handy
• JAMA — Preserving Confidentiality in the Peer Review Process, March 24, 2008, DeAngelis and Thornton 0 (2008): 299.16.jed80000 - With tremendous respect for Catherine DeAngelis’ leadership during a tough situation. I am left wondering if the best place to hide is out in the open - if peer review became more Web2.0 like. What would happen in a situation like this?
• Findings From the 2007 EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Survey - EBRI - About 2 percent of the population is enrolled in a consumer directed health plans. Significant points for me: (1) almost half of the population with a chronic condition reports not filling medications or skipping doses or delaying care due to cost. Sobering reminder that patients can and do choose to do what we doctors prescribe. (2) “There have been no significant gains int he provision of information on provider cost and quality by any health plan type over the three years of the survey. There has been no increase in the share of CDHP or HDHP enrollees who say their health plans provide them with quality and cost information about their providers, and they remain no more likely to receive such information than enrollees in more comprehensive plans.” Okay, one more point - they did not ask about the impact of involvement in care in choosing a health plan - no mention of medical records access or involvement in information sharing at the level of the encounter.
• My Starbucks Idea - How about doing this for a health care org?
• Bronson Beta - Mail.appetizer - Nice Mail notification tool, Leopard

A lot of stuff going on this week…

• Apple Digital Fitness Companion System? - Mac Rumors - It was/is only a matter of time. Hello Health2.0, courtesy of iPhone
• The computer will see you now | Economist.com - A nice biographical piece about Larry Weed, father of the problem oriented medical record.
• EMC, Partners collaborate on hypertension program - Daily Business Update - The Boston Globe - An employer that thinks about population health and sets up a PHR in concert with a health system. Interesting…..
• Subscribe to ringtones via iTunes - Easy way to get ringtones - a ringcast?
• Mashable?s Guide to Upcoming Web 2.0 Conferences - A plethora of get togethers to get up to speed on the latest in Web 2.0.
• leanblog.org | Lean Blog: The Waste of Handwritten Notes | Lean Manufacturing | Lean Healthcare | Toyota Production System - Yes, Leadership. From patients and their families too. The kind of leadership that brings the patient perspective into every conversation.
• Apple - Support - Downloads - MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1 - Help with keyboard freezing issues caused by Leopard
• Healthcare 360 -
• GHI - GHI Medical Home Pilot - I think this is very promising for supporting EHR adoption and patient access to their own clinical information. Ties in very nicely with NYC’s PCIP project.
• Public health system struggles to reach gay ?hidden population? - Washington Blade - Another vulnerable population that could benefit from outreach - many are underserved even when well insured.
• Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - The resource for programming on MacOSX, and iPhone as well

February 18th through February 19th:

• Graffletopia - Nice set of stencils for Mac users of diagramming software
• Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei - Primer on Hoshin and SMART goals
• Life as a Healthcare CIO: Rapid Application Development with Facebook - Looking at innovative consumer technologies as an opportunity in the CIO role is a great thing. I’m a fan.
• Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma: Institutional Conflicts of Interest Policies: Some Assembly Required - This tracks back to medical schools’ support of community health…
• Health Care Renewal: Medical Schools to Faculty: “Show Me the Money” - The contribution of medical education to fostering patient centered care is challenged by the current system.

December 24th through December 26th:

• iMedix - Find Health Information, Share Symptoms & Discuss Treatments - Israeli startup that connects patients to each other with the same condition(s). Imagine if their doctors could be part of the conversation.
• Metropolitan Police Department Crime Search, Washington DC - A handy tool for looking at crime statistics in your area. All the information is there.
• Customer Experience Index Snapshot: Health Plans by Bruce D. Temkin - Forrester Research - There’s an enormous opportunity for health plans to radically improve their customer experience ? and go after the majority of consumers that are interested in switching plans.
• gladwell dot com - personality plus - Malcolm Gladwell writes about corporate use of personality tests. I have not really been a fan of Myers-Briggs myself.
• Unicru Test Items - A potential employee posts the Unicru personality test used by many retailers.
• Rock Creek Park - Monuments, Statues and Memorials (U.S. National Park Service) - Descriptions of memorials in the Mount Pleasant / Columbia Heights area
• macosxhints.com - 10.5: Move apps between spaces with the app switcher - For Mac users out there, this is a tip that makes the new Spaces feature very usable. I’ve had it turned on for a few months now and getting the hang of it (I always try new things for a bit, but know when to stop trying them, this is why I am early major

I wouldn’t normally devote a whole blog post to one feature of Mac OS X Leopard, but this one really deserves it.

Data detectors is a huge innovation and something I would love to see in all kind of systems. The blog below beat me to laying out how they work. They really are incredible, though. Imagine having these in an electronic health record, where an abnormal finding or the result of a patient’s entry into a health risk appraisal could be detected automatically and advise on next steps based on evidence.

Marc Liyanage - Blog - Mac OS X - Leopard: Data Detectors - Awesome!