September 15th, 2011 by KerriSparling in News
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I’m not hooked on Apple products (I refuse to get an iPhone because I’m addicted to my Blackberry), but Chris and I do love that foolish iPad. And I love seeing apps for diabetes devices stocking the virtual shelves in the iTunes store. Makes me feel like we’re busting in to the mainstream, as a community.
Which is why I’m excited to see the first app from Dexcom. (And it’s free … as these apps should be, in my opinion.) While I’m hopeful that future apps include a way for the Dexcom receiver to transfer data to Mac products (because running parallels on my Mac is wicked annoying), this is a great start for people who are looking for introductory information on the Dexcom system. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
September 10th, 2011 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Opinion
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I’ve been reading A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring written by famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden spends half of his book thanking the people who had a powerful influence on his life, coaching, philosophy, and outlook on life. Important people included his father, coaches, President Abraham Lincoln, and Mother Theresa.
Yes, President Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa.
Though clearly he could have never met the former and didn’t have the opportunity to meet the latter, Wooden correctly points out that as individuals we can be mentored by the writings, words, and thoughts of people we have never and will likely never meet.
Which seems like the most opportune time to thank one of my mentors, founder and former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs.
Now, I have never met nor will I ever meet Steve Jobs. Lest you think I’m a devoted Apple fan, I never bought anything from Apple until the spring of 2010. Their products though beautifully designed were always too expensive. I’m just a little too frugal. I know technology well enough that people have mistaken me for actually knowing what to do when a computer freezes or crashes. Yet, the value proposition was never compelling enough until the release of the first generation iPad. Then the iPhone 4. Finally the Macbook Air last Christmas.
No, thanking Steve Jobs isn’t about the amazing magical products that have changed my life as well as millions of others. It’s more than that. What he has mentored me on is vision, perspective, persistence, and leadership. Nowhere is this more important than the world I operate in, the world of medicine. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
September 4th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News
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Add Yale’s School of Medicine to the growing list of medical schools that are embracing the iPad as the primary source of medical teaching.
This upcoming year Yale will be giving their medical students, all 520 of them, an iPad 2 with an external wireless keyboard. We’ve covered with great depth the growing list of medical schools using iPads as the main tool for learning — such as Stanford, UC-Irvine, and many more.
“Yale School of Medicine this year will outfit all students with iPads and no longer provide printed course materials. The initiative, born out of a going-green effort, could Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
August 13th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News, Opinion
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Great blog piece in Forbes by Tom Gillis — VP of Cisco’s Security Technology Business Unit — on how hospital Chief Security Officers (CSOs) are having issues with managing physician use of mobile devices at work. He had dinner with the CSOs of five major healthcare providers, who stated their biggest headache is how Doctors love their iPads and want to use them for work.
Gillis is in the business of enterprise security, and he gives an insider’s perspective on mobile device use in the hospital setting. He writes about the fundamental shift in how physicians are consuming content. Before the proliferation of mobile devices, hospitals had complete control of managing the “endpoint” — how the content was consumed. This is no longer the case, and since these personal devices have created a new paradigm, IT teams are left playing catchup.
It was refreshing to hear Gillis talk about how the solution Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
April 21st, 2011 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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The future direction of American health care is unclear. Certainly the cost trend as it exists is unsustainable with health care costs being a major concern of the private sector, the government, and individuals. How does the nation manage costs while ensuring high quality medical care, access, and service? Proposals include increasing competition among insurers, providers, and hospitals to drive down prices or giving more financial responsibility to patients via higher deductibles and co-pays with the belief that they will demand price transparency, shop around for the best price, and as a result slow health care costs.
What if both ideas are wrong?
While it is possible these plans might work, I cannot help but notice the similarities in the challenges for patients in navigating the health care system and consumers figuring out how to purchase and use technology. Walk into your neighborhood electronics store. Individuals are overwhelmed with the number of product choices, manufacturers, differences in technical specifications and features. In the majority of situations, consumers are unsure of what they are purchasing. They want something that just works, whether surfing the internet, making home movies, or being connected with loved ones. The gap in knowledge between an expert and a consumer is great and often unintentional and unapparent. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
