July 24th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
Tags: Politics, Technology, Women's Health
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From July 26-29 I’ll be in Chicago at the annual BlogHer conference. BlogHer is a community of women bloggers determined to make the world a better place. Revolution Health is proud to be a sponsor of BlogHer this year, and I’ve been asked to moderate a break out session contained within the “Earn Our Votes: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?” session. Revolution Health is non-partisan, and my role as moderator is to facilitate sincere discussion.
The break out session is 25 minutes long, and the goal is to distill all the important healthcare questions into only 3 key questions that women would like to ask presidential hopefuls about healthcare. In order to get the discussion going, I’ll present a list of questions featured recently on YouTube and in the BlogHer blogs. Please feel free to add questions in the comments section of this blog, and we’ll discuss them in Chicago on Saturday. Hope to see you there!
References
The recent CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate featured the following healthcare questions:
- How will your healthcare plan address the needs of the aging population, specifically those with Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes?
- What will your healthcare plan do to address the need for affordable preventive medicine services?
- Does your healthcare plan cover undocumented workers?
- How do you intend to make sure that all Americans have some form of health insurance?
Various posts from the BlogHer conference blog:
Affordability / Universality
- How can we pay for healthcare in US sustainably?
- How can we make sure that anyone in the US not only has access to healthcare, but can afford it?
- How do we weed out those who choose not to have healthcare from those who desperately need it?
- How can we make healthcare a right, not a privilege, for every citizen?
- How can we mandate that all children in the US are insured?
- How do we protect families from insurance companies who deny claims in the face of a health crisis?
Women’s Issues
- How can we ensure increased access to family planning?
- How do we get birth control to be covered universally under health insurance policies?
- How do we achieve “scientific fairness” to women?
- How can we make women’s and children’s health issues a priority?
- How do we improve health education for women and children?
- How can we make childbirth and maternity leave less of a burden for working mothers? Especially as disability insurance is not offered to all nor is it usually enough. Women can afford to take time off after having a child.
- Can a woman’s reproductive rights be protected in US healthcare?
Ethics / Technology
- How can we ensure everyone has the same access to the same tests and treatments?
- How can we protect research, such as stem cell research, that has the possiblity to wipe out diseases?
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 16th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
Tags: Caregiving, Research, Technology
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Because Washington DC is the national headquarters for many heathcare professional organizations and advocacy groups, we host more than our fair share of medical conferences. Just a few weeks ago I attended Digestive Disease Week, where 16 thousand gastroenterologists descended upon our fair city from all over the globe. Sporting purple gift totes and oversized name tags, these docs moved like a great school of fish through the reefs of our convention center. At one point I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time – a lecture let out just before lunch, and I was almost flattened by the wave of hungry purple people on a frantic quest to be first in line at the refreshment counters (the song, “one eyed, one horned flying purple people eater” kept dancing in my head as I ran for cover).
And I started thinking – gee wouldn’t it be easier to have a virtual conference where you could attend from the comfort of your own home? You could navigate to the information booths that interest you, you could attend lectures via telecast, and you could even opt in for goodie bags that could be mailed to you. No need to be stressed out and jostled by well meaning, but frantic colleagues. You could sit in your PJs with kitty or puppy nearby and click your way through a much calmer version of the educational experience.
And so the Revolution Health team discussed this idea and came up with the Online Health Fair. We invited a small group of advocacy groups to set up booths on our website to show others all the exciting programs they have going, and to spark interest in getting involved. The fair just opened and I think it’s a pretty neat idea – Revolution Health is donating money to the groups, based on page clicks. So the more people who go to learn about their favorite advocacy groups, the more they benefit.
So I would encourage you to check this out and let us know what you think – do you like this online health fair concept, or are you more of a “flying purple people eater” kind of person?
Here are the advocacy group “booths” at the fair:
Autism Speaks
American Kidney Fund
National Alliance on Mental Illness
IBS Self Help and Support Group
National Family Caregivers Association
The Wellness Community
National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
National Sleep Foundation
Society for Women’s Health Research
If this online fair is popular, we can create many more of them in the future. I think it’s great to support these noble groups, and the Wall Street Journal agrees. Tell a friend. 🙂This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 15th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements, Expert Interviews
Tags: Consumer Directed Healthcare, Grand Rounds, Hospitals, Journalism, Medical Training, News, Relationships, Research, Technology
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I was recently interviewed about my blog (and this week’s edition of Grand Rounds) by Dr. Nick Genes at Medscape. For the curious among you – here is the full Medscape interview with Nick Genes (prior to editing). It gives you a little more information about Revolution Health…
1. You’ve
been involved in writing since medical school, for various audiences. Who are
you trying to reach with your new blog, and how have you found blogging to be
different than the other media you’ve worked in?
The best part about
blogging is that it’s a dialogue rather than a monologue. I find the interactive discussions and
heartfelt responses to be touching and engaging. My previous writing was more academic because
of the medium (medical journals) but now I’ve found that blogging is where I
can really be myself – there is no team of reviewers to scrub my words. So what you read is what you get!
2. I’m
very curious about Revolution Health, your role as Senior Medical Director, and
where you think this is all going. But all revolutions have their origins
somewhere, and yours seems to start… on a yogurt farm. Please share a little
of what that was like, and maybe what early influences have given you such an
interesting background. From small towns to New York City, from theology to medicine, it
seems like you’re living a very rich life.
Yes, I guess you could
say that my origins as a revolutionary are firmly rooted in dairy farming. Although it may not be immediately apparent
how the two are related, Internet startups and cattle herding have their similarities. First, you have to wear many hats – there is
no job too small or too large. If the
cows need milking, and the electric machines are broken, you do it by hand. If a cow breaks through the fence and wanders
off into town, you lure her back with short feed. If a large batch of yogurt curdles, you’ve
got yourself a gourmet meal for your pigs… you get the drift. In a large start up, all manner of unexpected
events happen – but the trick is to handle them quickly and efficiently, and
make sure the outcome is a win-win.
As far as my other
life detours… I guess you can say that I’ve been a victim of my own
curiosity. There are so many interesting
things going on, I just can’t help but want to try them out. In the past I’ve held jobs in the following
capacities:
A protestant minister,
NYC bartender, bank spy, food critic, doctor, cartoonist, computer sales
associate, yogurt mogul, nanny, motivational speaker, biophysics researcher,
graphic designer and revolutionary medical director.
So my life has
certainly been an adventure!
3. How did you get involved with this company? Did Steve
Case find you, or know you from before — or was there an application process?
Is the mingling of medical and computer technology folks going smoothly? Is it a
mix of hospital culture vs. laid-back internet start-up culture? (Foosball and
mountain bikes, or suits and meetings?) Can you make comparisons to your time
with MedGenMed?
A friend of mine had
interviewed at Revolution Health for an executive position and thought that the
company would be a great fit for me.
When I heard who was involved (including Colin Powell, Steve Case, Carly
Fiorina) and that the goal was to create a website to help patients navigate the health care
system, I thought – gee, this sounds serious, challenging and worthwhile. So I sent in my resume, got offered an
interview, put on a bright red suit and announced that I’d heard that there was
a revolution afoot and wondered where I could sign up. They hired me that same day (May 8, 2006) and
it’s been the most exciting job I’ve had to date!
About the “mingling”-
a very interesting question. There is a
hint of Foosball/mountain bike in the mix, but I think we’re a little more hard
driving than that. Since Revolution
Health is in its start up phase, there is simply too much work to do for people
to be playing Foosball. When I started,
there were 30 employees, now there are closer to 300. We are all working long hours on cutting edge
projects that I believe will make a big difference in supporting the
physician-patient relationship, streamlining the process of healthcare delivery
and improving accessibility to the uninsured and underinsured. Revolution has attracted some of the
brightest minds in the tech industry – and they are building products I could
never have dreamed of on my own. Since I have such an unusual background,
I’m bilingual in both techie speak and
physician speak, and this helps a great deal.
Because I understand what physicians and patients need, and can translate
that for the “creatives” we can build some really meaningful tools and products
together.
My time at MedGenMed
was wonderful, primarily because Dr. George Lundberg is a dear friend and
mentor. He has done fantastic work
creating a pure platform (no pharma influence or fees for readers or authors)
for open-access publishing. He taught me
to speak my mind, follow my gut and never compromise my ethics. His book, “Severed Trust” galvanized me into
action – to do my part to improve the damaged physician-patient relationship
that is at the core of our broken system (caused by middle men, volume
pressures and decreased time with patients).
After reading his book, I wanted to do something big – so I joined a
revolution.
3. Revolution
Health has some bold ideas about improving care for its members — getting
appointments with specialists, patient advocacy in dealing with insurance, and
of course, sharing information. What’s your job entail, as medical
director? Do you think you’ll find yourself making policy decisions that
could affect, directly or indirectly, chunks of the population? Could
you find yourself in a position where some specialists are not recommended
based on their insurance? Will Revolution Health have a formulary, will it
be evidence-based — or could could care be rationed ?
My job is incredibly
challenging and fun, and I rely on both halves of my brain for much of what I
do. We have 146 medical experts most of
whom I’ve personally recruited, I’m responsible for coordinating the medical
review of all the content on our portal (so that it conforms with
evidence-based standards), I facilitate relationships with major hospital
systems (such as Columbia University Medical Center), spearhead new product
initiatives (such as Health Pages for physicians), monitor and promote our 30+
expert bloggers, participate in writing press releases, creating podcasts, radio interviews,
identifying new partnership opportunities and much more.
I do think that
Revolution Health will greatly influence vast “chunks” of the population. And this is what’s particularly exciting
about working here. We really are
building a brand new navigational system for healthcare – and this will empower
patients to take control of their health and provide them with better
information and guidance in living their best.
I believe that Revolution Health will become the new virtual medical
home for physicians and patients, just the way that AOL grew to be America’s
Internet home. You log on first to AOL
to get your email, check your news, and get plugged in before surfing the
net. You’ll log in to Revolution Health
to track your health, connect with your lifestyle coach or physician guide, get
involved with a community of others like you, or track your loved ones’ health
issues through Care Pages. This is a 20
year project, so all of our plans and programming may not be apparent yet, but
the trajectory is amazing and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else as a
physician today.
5. What are some of your favorite posts — something that
struck a nerve with readers, or captured something you wanted to express?
Please provide links!
My absolute favorite
post is the story of how my mom, a strong patient advocate, saved my life as a
baby. She refused to accept the
misdiagnosis I was given, and continued to nag the medical team until they
realized what was wrong and took me to the O.R.
If it hadn’t been for her persistence (or the incredible skill of the
surgeon who ultimately took care of me), I wouldn’t be here today. And maybe that’s why I’m passionate about
both good medical care AND patient empowerment!
Other posts that have
been well received are true stories from my medical training days. Some are controversial (like this one about
end of life issues and my first day as a doctor),
and others are warmer reflections. But ultimately, I just share what’s on my
heart and let the audience take away what they can from it.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 11th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
Tags: Medical Training
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Not sure how many of you are aware of this touring
anatomical science exhibit – but it’s been making its rounds through major cities in the U.S. and Europe. I finally went to see it this weekend in DC, and it was both amazing and slightly disappointing.
It was amazing because of the meticulous dissection work done by the Chinese scientists. It was disappointing because, after months of viewing the awe-inspiring marketing photos of colorful cadavers playing soccer, football, conducting an orchestra, etc. I had some sort of unconscious expectation that there would be movement in the exhibit, or at least some medical animations and multi-media. Instead, the exhibit was flat – nothing moved, no multi-media, and much of it was comprised of cadaver slices and organ sections. The attractive, eye catching cadavers made up a very small portion of the exhibit.
Now, I wondered how these cadavers could be unscented (I was told beforehand that there was no odor problem – the way there was in anatomy lab in medical school), and as it turns out it’s because they are not cadavers at all. No, the Bodies are actually plasticized fossils. So the reason they don’t smell is the reason why dinosaur “bones” don’t smell – there are no bits of tissue left.
All that being said – I really have to tell you that seeing these meticulously dissected fossils made me realize how useless medical school anatomy lab really is. A surgeon once told me that he found anatomy lab “a total waste of time” since the anatomy of living flesh bears little resemblance to the greasy beef jerky (sorry to be so graphic – but it’s true) we poke through for months on end at medical school. These Bodies were incredibly beautiful – and I truly saw (and understood) for the first time the exact relationship of every nerve, muscle, tendon, artery and vein to the greater picture. How I wished I could take one of the bodies home with me to study it! Netter is great – but there’s nothing like 3-D to really understand the relationships.
So I can only hope that medical schools will seriously consider offering courses conducted on these beautifully dissected fossils, rather than the smelly, obese cadavers that we muck through today (no disrespect meant to the donors – they are kind to offer their bodies to science). Anatomy is critically important in medicine – but I’m not convinced that the current educational system is set up for maximum impact. Skip anatomy lab – spend some time at the Bodies Exhibit.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 8th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements
Tags: Psychiatry, Relationships
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This has been a really interesting week for me. My “Top 10 Tips for a Healthy Wedding” really struck a nerve – and in an unparalleled flurry of interest, I have been speaking to groups of people on the radio and in podcasts about weddings, marriage, and the medical angle on this wonderful celebration of human connectedness.
I was speaking with Gordon Deal from the Wall Street Journal Radio Show (Gordon is a truly affable interviewer) and I got a question that I had not anticipated but in retrospect makes a lot of sense. I was telling him about my decision to buy a wedding dress on the fly, picking one off the shelf in the first store I went to. He transitioned nicely to: would you say that your financial decisions follow your style for purchasing dresses? How have you and your husband worked through financial planning together?
Wow. I had to think on my feet on that one – leave it to a Wall Street journalist to get a financial angle on a story. My answer was truthful and brief – yes, my husband is more conservative than I am, but we have worked hard to get on the same page, thanks to a great financial advisor. (Squirm)
Kristi King at WTOP (partnered with the Washington Post) was up next – and we had a nice chat about the do’s and don’ts of wedding diets.
Then I got to speak to a Randy & Ken in Oklahoma City on KOKC. The weather report preceded my interview, and I couldn’t help but worry about the severe wind conditions down there. When asked about some good tips for a healthy wedding I mentioned that having a plan B is critical – especially if you’ve planned an outdoor wedding with a tent in Oklahoma!
On the eve of my second wedding anniversary I participated in a blogger call with Dr. Charles Foster (who is an amazingly insightful psychologist and relationship counselor – you should definitely listen to this podcast because it is very well worth it if you have any problems whatsoever with in-laws or your own family). We spoke with Rhonda from “Our Wedding Plus” blog and fielded questions from others remotely.
On I moved to a live show in Chicago with Theo & Gerrard at WVON (host to the Al Sharpton show) where we had a warm conversation about the meaning of marriage and the importance of a strong family nucleus for the fabric of American society.
There is at least one more interview awaiting (a contemporary music radio station in Hawaii) and I have to say that this has been one wild ride. As a physician I feel totally privileged to have been given the chance to speak with such a wide variety of Americans about a joyful, complicated subject that unites us all – the wedding.
Now if my taxi hijacking post sparks this sort of interest, I suppose I might need to hang up the stethoscope and focus on social commentary and relationships.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
