Scott Mace on Health Care

Social networks accelerate medical research

My Opening Move podcast is back, with guest Lance Hill of Within3, talking about how the right kind of social networks can accelerate the year-round pace of medical research commonly shared at annual conferences. I recorded this at the Health 2.0 conference.

Money-Driven Medicine

A new documentary, Money-Driven Medicine, based on the book of the same name, is currently available for screening for free on the Internet via a digital stream. The free stream is available until November 10. I haven't watched it yet but plan to soon. I learned about this through an article in yesterday's Oakland Tribune.

As I pursue medical writing work, this sort of context informs me greatly.

The sad state of interoper(ating room)ability

This Investors.com story nicely sums up a press tour I attended Monday at Kaiser Permanente's Sidney Garfield Health Care Innovation Center in San Leandro, California. One of the doctors quoted, Jim Lewis, also had a telling insight into the sad state of operating room interoperability. To paraphrase, Dr. Lewis noted that it was now possible for someone to purchase a breathalyzer gadget at Radio Shack that could, properly configured, prevent me from starting my car if I were to get behind the wheel with sufficient alcohol on my breath; and yet, in the operating room, when a ventilator device needs to start supporting breathing for a patient, other critical devices in the room aren't able to signal the ventilator to begin its work. Instead, human intervention is still required.

This is the strongest call yet for interoperability between medical devices. Dr. Lewis put it in plainer language than I just did, and I'll try to follow up with him to record a podcast at some point. He's an articulate spokesman on the issue, and the Garfield Center is a true outpost of advocacy, demanding change, on behalf of all us patients.