This is my iPhone 1.1.3 edition blog post. The upgrade went flawlessly. I think this is a good time to reflect on how things are going in terms of being my own CIO. Green light here. I think technology is lightweight and standards based enough that it is enjoyable to e-mail, calendar, and content manage with a few simple tools that sync well with each other, in fixed locations and on the go. The software lineup I mentioned in my first post has not changed - it has only gotten better. Data detectors in Leopard work amazingly well and are a huge time saver. I recalled about 2 years ago that I could look down at my Macintosh dock and find all 4 Microsoft Office apps running on it. Since this experience, there usually aren’t any, as they have been handily replaced by Mail, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. This is not to say that I have a goal of replacing Microsoft apps on my desktop. I am really looking forward to purchasing Office 2008 and seeing what it has to offer. The Macintosh Business Unit there always does a great job with their products and are a good example of the benefit of having an in house innovation unit.

All of that aside, the next question for me has to be - how to get this lightweight technology into the enterprise, because this is what people are learning outside of work. Why not make it what they use at work? What is the cost of acquiring and supporting the monolithic suite of applications that most enterprises use? This is especially relevant for the next generation of leaders and staff (GenX and Y). Are there examples of CIO’s out there who are pioneering in this regard. Worthy of exploration…

Links for January 14-15:

• Flickr DNA: Discover someone new. Rediscover someone anew. - Another interesting social networking app based on Flickr
• flickr graph - marcos weskamp - A great visualization of a social network, this time using Flickr. This could be very useful in the enterprise - “Who is good at X?”
• The 2007 Medical Weblog Awards Nominees - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com - As the title says. The ranks are growing bigger…
• Is Enterprise 2.0 Bad for Business? - Yahoo! News - Lotus Notes the same as a Wiki? I don’t tihnk so….the issue is about lightweight technology that’s standards based and easy to deploy. This is what the enterprise needs.
• Report: EMI Records To Cut Workforce By 36% -
• Health Beat: Who Decides How Much Specialists Are Paid? - Historical commentary on RBRVS and its update committee. It would be interesting to see possible solutions proposed to support a more patient-centered health care world.
• PR Newswire - Healthcare/Hospitals News - Regence members in the Pacific Northwest to be able to provide feedback on their experience with providers to each other. Does this need to sit within the health plan’s web site, though?
• Report lauds VA’s focus on quality care, health IT -

January 12th through January 13th:

• Prometheus Payment, Inc. - A new payment model that supports outcomes, evidence-based care, and transparency
• The music industry | From major to minor | Economist.com - “Then they had the money and could have built the competence by buying concert agencies and merchandise companies,”…Now it may be too late.
• Coverity Incorporated Scan - Company working with the US Govt to harden open source code for use by agencies including Homeland Security. They are finding bugs and the bugs are being fixed.
• Online Real Estate Sites Work To Get A Listing Standard - Another industry that is seeing the benefits of standards, and the challenges of disruption
• Gone Indie ? Thought Palace - Interesting insight on the work environment at Apple. LEAN production? You decide. I will say, though, that even though Apple is not embracing Web 2.0 like other companies are, I have solved many problems using their hosted discussions. These actually work well on Apple’s site I think because they do a great job of leveraging their loyal customer base. Yet another blog “goodbye” to an employer.
• Lean Manufacturing Blog: 1 Hour Kaizen - Excellent template and approach to small improvements. Just takes an hour. Can we have physicians shadowing nurses and vice versa?

• RSS Web 2.0 Suite for Individuals - NewsGator - Big news - FeedDeemon and NetNewsWire are now FREE. RSS readers can now go mainstream. Highly recommended.
• Seth’s Blog: Music lessons - Important lessons, from one industry to perhaps many others
• Mamaherb ? What actually works in natural health - Social networking meets word of mouth for herbal treatments
• Computerworld: Can Macs conquer the enterprise? The time is ripe … - 28% of IT managers say they will migrate to Macs instead of Vista. Wow.

• RIAA Unfairly Maligned? Give Me a Break. - More on the RIAA and attempts to manage disruption, from Mashable.
• Characteristics of Recipients of Free Prescription Drug Samples: A Nationally Representative Analysis — Cutrona et al., 10.2105/AJPH.2007.114249 — American Journal of Public Health - Study demonstrating that free drug samples are not a safety net. In my practice career I have never used samples (and I’ve never prescribed celecoxib or rofecoxib, either).
• Health Affairs — eLetters for Walker et al., 0 (2005) 5101 - Comment on interoperable HIT being a net gain/loss for physicians, by Peter Basch, MD, of Medstar Health. I agree that we have to be cautious of theorized benefit in this case.
• Health Affairs — eLetters for Adler-Milstein et al., 0 (2007) 271601 - Comment from Peter Basch, MD, about the sequencing and business case for RHIOs not being ready yet.
• Dupont Circle Citizens Association - Learning more about my community. There has been an uptick in crime, unfortunately.

I’m starting to track the disruption of other industries, like music and real estate….

December 29th through December 31st:

• The Fleecing of the Avatars - The downsides of virtual worlds are starting to match the physical world.
• The Battle for Radio Royalties - Picture two dinosaurs. Both are wounded. And both are grappling with climate change that has weakened their ability to compete. Once they coexisted. Now they’ll do whatever it takes to survive?even if it means turning on one another.
• The RIAA Will Die in 2008 - Forecasting hard times for this industry protector.
• Number of Jobs Held, Labor Market Activity, and Earnings Growth Among the Youngest Baby Boomers: Results From a Longitudinal Survey Summary - Individuals born from 1957 to 1964 held an average of 10.5 jobs from ages 18 to 40.
• 12 Filtering Tips for Better Information in Half the Time | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss - Nice overview of information management tools from the guru of efficiency. Tim Ferriss’ blog.