Feedback come first so...
No I haven't gone nuts and/or emumurate on you. The missing episode numbers on this blog are not caused by my lesions or by gaps in continuity. The whole shmeer, the whole schmegeggy, the whole magillah, is on tap MSBPodcast.com. This is my writing blog.
Its not in here if a podcast episode involves something else or something from somewhere else (like, let say, an ad, [
I got an e-mail from Sherry telling me that she wasn't able to enter comments on my site. Hmm. Which site? Was it on MSBPodcast.com, a.k.a. msb.libsyn.com, or was it on multiplesclerosisblog.blogspot.com . I know that blogger was down for a few hours and even I was left waiting for it to come back.
We're about to play a few "Best Of..." shows to tide us over until new years because I'm going to spend time with my sister and the relations. Hoo-freakin'-ray. (I'm probably going to go through DTs from not recording this show for the holidays. I'll miss doing it, like you wouldn't believe.)
----
I just went to the monthly meeting of the MSers' support group. It was a little pre-Christmas bash; a real blow out riot full of booze and babes.
Okay. There was no booze and the babes were all fellow MSers. We were home by 20:30 (8:30 PM) after having some Popeye's chicken, my wifes' salad and some delicious homemade deserts.
Its was a fun little meeting to wrap up the year with.
I got to meet some other MSers who hadn't been at the last meet up. (I discussed this in msb-0077)
----
On Wednesday December 6, 2006, I was sitting in my favorite hang-out when I heard, (well I actually saw it because the sound was off and the transcription of MSNBC was scrolling across the top of the screen,) that some major corporations and the gummint are actually thinking about my idea of having everybody's medical information be web accessible. (Actually, lets be honest, I am on about the $150 laptop for empowering the disabled, and keeping the records straight. It looks like "ol' grinchy" is going to screw us out of the laptop. Fuckin' great!)
This morning new.com.com had an article about it. (Which heans that C-NET will be podcasting it shortly.) The gyst of it is:
Five major companies have joined forces and invested in what appears to be the ultimate personal medical-records database.
Applied Materials, BP America, Intel, Pitney Bowes and Wal-Mart Stores have sunk an undisclosed amount of money into the Omnimedix Institute, a nonprofit organization that developed and will manage the database, called "Dossia." (From: http://news.com.com/Medical+records+mashup+would+span+a+lifetime/2100-1022_3-6141601.html?tag=nefd.top)
If those five companies see the benefits (pardon the pun) of reducing their benefits, you can bet the gummint sees that this would definitely be of, uh, benefit.
Remember what I was on about in msb-0088?
Ri-i-i-ight!
Told you that if we saw any benefits, they would occur as a fringe, uh, benefit, of the need for keeping accurate record keeping. (I know ... I know ... "Wipe that smug grin off your face.")
The HMOs and health care providers are not exactly on board with the idea but they can see some cost reduction benefits, not least of which are the avoidance of duplication of medical records and the clerical errors that creep in with every entry and re-entry and re-re-entry.
They're thinking of creating a secure separate internet (or at least a secure, [viz. encrypted, ] virtual web,) to handle the traffic.
That has some implications for the connection and IP providers and for the thousands of doctors, clinics, hospitals and so on. For one thing, if the records are going to be stored in a secure centralized database, possibly national and possibly international, that will free up the data storage space at the point facilities (and its going to be a great time to invest in data storage hardware makers.)
I'll miss listening to the modem at my GPs practice as he is still in the dial up age... NOT!
In the mean time, I expect some "intense" lobbying from the larger drug and medical supply companies to try and kill this and "nip in the bud" any attempts to discover the shenanigans that they are up to, and that have been driving the cost of health care through the stratosphere.
Great! I feel prescient.
Maybe they'll even be forced to discover podcasts like this one, laser focused on their respective market, to use as a far more efficient means of reaching their audience.
(Its yet another systemantic axiom that people don't experiment with anything unless it doesn't cost them anything now, or in the future.
They will "stay the course" at any cost as long as they're not the ones paying it.
But if you want to see them innovate, there's nothing like a huge cost saving, or a prison term, to motivate their stupid, fat, lazy, obstructionist asses. Even then its like watching a demolition derby with steam rollers.)
----
According to an article from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6210068.stm) most of world's disabled webbies are being poorly served by the web.
"The World Health Organization estimates that there are around 600 million disabled people worldwide, which represents about 10% of the world's population. Of these, around 80% are believed to live in developing countries.That still leaves 120 million people in developed countries, that's us folks, who are being poorly served by sites which are poorly designed.
Its not that they couldn't be designed properly, its just that the website designers are all healthy little pricks who don't even realize that their lovely, flash enabled creations are pains in our collective butts.
They just don't know how to do their jobs.
They need checklists which would guide them in building the darn things. Stuff like "Designing More Usable Web Sites" ( http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/ )
----
For no particular reason, the title for this episode is from "WarGames" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/) a movie starring Mathew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, Ally Sheedy and others, shot back in 1983. (Before a few of you were even born, I'll bet.)
I've been mentioned on the Pacific Coast Hellway, by Mark Yashimoto Nemcoff, because I bid $510 to be the top bidder (a temporary state I can assure you, but for the moment, I'm enjoying a few day's free publicity, :-) on the charity auction for the David Foster Foundation (http://www.davidfosterfoundation.org/) of his time slot for a day.
I sincerely hope that is not the end of the auction, but you know I'm going to do a fantasy show about this next. :-)
----
I've been learning different things about how to get advertisers on board. And my business model keep us out of each other's way.
The trick, if trick it be, is that I have to sell them a relationship. (I'd go on about this but that would be giving things away. :-)
Posts
3 comments:
Regarding those drug companies...I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.
Nor should you.
My father worked for one and they were known as snake oil salesmen for a reason.
But they do have to comply with the FDA, which sort of chopped them down to size about outright lying in the claims they make about drug efficacies.
That said, don't trust 'em.
The drugs they make won't exactly kill you (thanks to the FDA) but the side effects are sometimes murder, literally.
By the way, have you found out about using a chair in your Tai Chi? (I do every week for at least part of the session.)z
"shot back in 1983. (Before a few of you were even born, I'll bet.)"
Heh, saw that in the theater ... for $2.50USD.
Post a Comment