engage thinking

Dinner for 26 #FrontierLive on Flickr.

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:27:20 -0400

Dinner for 26 #FrontierLive on Flickr.

The Conch for this evening’s dinner. #FrontierLive on...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:25:14 -0400

The Conch for this evening’s dinner. #FrontierLive on Flickr.

Not best evening for an event. #FrontierLive on Flickr.

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:21:09 -0400

Not best evening for an event. #FrontierLive on Flickr.

Can We Summit the Growing Plastics Mountain?

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:12:36 -0400

How much do you know about the full life cycle of plastics? How much do you care?

Indeed, it is about time we had this conversation and at the second annual Plasticity 2013 forum, which kicks off today in Hong Kong, attendees will open the dialogue. By engaging industry experts, government officials, and even the madmen in the branding and marketing world, maybe we can all start to think big about the future of plastics.

Just think about your life. The smartphone on which you may be reading this column, the 3D glasses through which you may have seen Star Trek, and the waterproof boots that you wear on stormy days—they all use plastic. Even airplanes and cars are increasingly made from composite plastic materials.

Now think about your work. Most product prototyping relies on plastic because it is cheap. This is not just about 3D printers. To attain the look of stainless steel, one insider revealed, firms spray weighted plastic with chrome.

…. Read the rest HERE!

ibrahim

OMsignal’s video made me cry. As a recent new dad (for the...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:50:00 -0400

OMsignal’s video made me cry. As a recent new dad (for the second time) there are a lot of reasons and applications for wearable quantified self tech that seem clear. Imagine a maternity ward that does not have the mother constantly hooked up to so many wires to keep her and the baby’s vitals? That was enough for me to perk up and pay attention.

Looks like the VC’s are too.

ibrahim, nYc.

Patient-centered transparency: hospital to publish contractual rates, challenges others to do the same

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:58:40 -0400

Recent news of CMS’ release of hospital charges has prompted discussion among woks, patients and healthcare administrators. Although the reality is, charges don’t tell us much.

Contractual prices, however, do tell a lot about the cost of care.

This is where things start to get interesting.

Is your hospital considering a patient-centered price transparency option? We think it’s an emerging best practice. How those prices are presented will matter too.

Steven Sonenreich, chief executive of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, isn’t afraid of controversy. As the Miami Herald reported, this month he announced on a radio talk show that the hospital will start publishing what it charges insurers for procedures. “We will post our prices relative to Blue Cross, and Aetna, our contractual prices,” said Sonenreich, during an appearance on WLRN 91.3-FM. He challenged other hospitals to do the same.

A hospital competing on price? That’s virtually unheard of. And the impact is likely to be felt nationally.

{ Devin Leonard | Bloomberg Business Week }

-Nick

The Movie | Inside Out Project

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:26:00 -0400

The Movie | Inside Out Project:

Last night I watched Inside Out - the documentary on HBO - about JR the social instigator, wall-tagger, interventionist or just plain “artist” who is literally changing the world using wheat pasted portraits and a silly idea: that people actually CAN change their world —- totally blew my mind last night.

Inside Out’s impact on post revolution Tunisia transforming a wall that used to have only the omnipresent image of the king into a cascade of images of regular people was true political, artistic, and cultural transformation. His interactions with Haitian artists who may never see his level of fame and money but who were every bit his intellectual equal was astonishing. JR also exposed the sadness and hope at the very fringe, the frontier, of America by bringing you into the home of a Native American family whose son had ended his own life.

In each instance the Inside Out project created more discourse, shed more light, broke down barriers and inspired me to be better.

Simple and crude and elegant; his insistence on listening and getting ordinary people to see themselves as extraordinary has resurfaced in me a yearning to be more committed than ever before to the basics: find, in every client and every engagement, the net positive benefit. Expose ways to push people to be their full selves. Uncover the tools to remind them of what they already know but have somehow forgotten. Bring back community and fellowship around an idea… a feeling.

Above all, listen, you will be amazed at how much you need to learn.

ibrahim

scottxwayne: Meditation going mainstream? In Europe’s largest...

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:36:14 -0400

scottxwayne:

Meditation going mainstream? In Europe’s largest department store (Selfridges) on the UK’s busiest street (Oxford Street), the reintroduction of quiet space.

Cleveland Clinic makes it simple: nothing about me, without me!

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:37:00 -0400

And they didn’t just stop at medical record data… “To study [how] hospitals’ track records…”

They also focus on right relationships: “…to discover conflicts of interest among their caregivers.”

Way to go Cleveland Clinic - that’s a patient centered mission!

How transparency has become part of @clevelandclinic’s mission | ow.ly/l89mR twitter.com/ClevelandClini…

— Cleveland Clinic (@ClevelandClinic)

May 17, 2013

-Nick

Taking a clue from bananas, this pill bottle turns brown as meds expire.

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:15:06 -0400

How’s this for a very clever healthcare innovation: a pill bottle which turns brown when the medicine inside has expired just like a banana on the way out?

Bertrand immediately points out “Expired,” a colorful idea to repackage medication bottles that “ripen” with brown spots, indicating, just like a banana, whether the pills are still safe to consume.

{ Via FastCompany }

-Nick

Let's stop talking about patient activation until we can make our expectations clear.

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:25:00 -0400

Let's stop talking about patient activation until we can make our expectations clear.:

Sandra Boodman for Kaiser Health News

A 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Education found that 36 percent of adults have only basic or below-basic skills for dealing with health material. This means that 90 million Americans can understand discharge instructions written only at a fifth-grade level or lower.

There’s a lot of talk about patient activation and engagement. It’s a little hard to point the finger of accountability when we’re not setting very clear expectations. It’s also a source of dissatisfaction —nobody likes feeling confused or unclear.

Is your hospital starting to think about pricing transparency as a factor in patient satisfaction? Might be time....

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:56:03 -0400

{ from David Lazarus in the LA Times }

-Nick

The Wall Street Journal asks: How Well Does Your Doctor Communicate with You?

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:21:49 -0400

votes as of 8:18 AM May 10, 2013

From the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog:

With new Medicare payments tied to patient-satisfaction scores, and concern growing over malpractice costs, medical schools, health systems, malpractice insurers and hospitals are trying to help doctors bolster their bedside manner. They’re setting up education programs for everyone from medical students to seasoned pros who have spent years talking to patients.

Are you satisfied with how your doctor communicates with you and your family? If not, what is your biggest concern? Vote and let us know what you think. Your comment may be included in a special report we’ll be publishing in The Wall Street Journal.

Do you agree?

-Nick

an RX for PX (patient experience) - change your point of view. Three tips you can try

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:31:00 -0400

The PX RX — change your point of view

Periodically we like to share three quick things you can try to improve staff happiness and patient experience.

Change your point of view

Get out of your office - some of the most impactful observations and interactions happen in waiting rooms, lobbies and public spaces. Virtually none happen in an executive office. You’ve probably got a laptop or tablet. Why not work in a public space? The sound will stimulate your productivity like a coffee shop, and you can see and be seen.
Take a field trip - how does Starbucks create inviting spaces? Go study for yourself. We call it coffee with intent. With one sheet of paper, time yourself. In the time it takes to drink your coffee, how many things do you observe? Layout, colors, natural light, furniture….will you see something deeper?
Look up - remember, anyone lying on a bed or stretcher is looking at your ceilings and not the art on your walls. Are the tiles stained or missing? Or, what about an art project…on the celling‽

-Nick

A big step forward for healthcare consumerism and informed patients.

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:07:51 -0400

Huge news today for wonks and patients alike:

Interactive: See how much hospital prices vary in your home state. wapo.st/15oA1aS
— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) May 8, 2013

{ From New York Times }

Consumerism in healthcare is a loaded term. Some don’t care for healthcare being compared to consumer products and habits. Regardless, the stars are aligning for a more educated, informed and mobile population of healthcare consumers.

For instance, consider laptops. If one were shopping for a laptop, they’d compare features, perceived quality, cost and the opinions of other customers. Its why Amazon’s price sorting, star ratings and feedback make the online retail giant a first stop for many shoppers.

We have largely lacked many of those critical data points in making healthcare decisions; specifically cost, quality and customer opinion.

But that’s all changing. Today’s release from CMS is one huge falling domino.

One hospital charges $8,000 — another, $38,000 Posted by Sarah Kliff and Dan Keating on May 8, 2013 at 12:01 am Consumers on Wednesday will finally get some answers about one of modern life’s most persistent mysteries: how much medical care actually costs. For the first time, the federal government will release the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a health-care system with tremendous, seemingly random variation in the costs of services.

-via Sarah Kliff | Washington Post

-Nick

Your day is always better with a soundtrack. Here’s mine...

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:40:11 -0400

Your day is always better with a soundtrack. Here’s mine for today… the best of the Modern Motown Sound from a ridiculous producer that left Detroit for Los Angeles to find his green pastures.

This reminds me… A PR friend in NYC just told me a story of the revival of the music industry. He shared that after 9/11 his major music label job was in trouble. The company contracted. He moved to NYC where the industry still seemed viable.

Over a decade later the industry flourishes in the background of commercials, television, and movies and had he stayed in LA he would have been an early adopter instead of someone who had to leave the business.

listen up :)

ibrahim

I love how established and big food companies are learning from...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:20:14 -0400

I love how established and big food companies are learning from the rustic DIY (do it yourself) trends. It is a perfect intervention into “fast food” for our current “fast lives”.

What I love even more about this video? The cook, and she is a real food stylist, is my first cousin, Micah Morton :)

ibrahim

Crowdsourced app on Medstartr disrupts by giving patients their own EMR with notes and checklists for doc visits

Tue, 07 May 2013 09:31:00 -0400

People, it turns out, are pretty clever. When faced with unmet needs, eventually one of us will come up with a solution. We’re particularly good at innovating around road blocks. This is how things like the printing press took publication out of the elite ranks of those who could afford hand written copies and made the written word accessible to everyone.

Electronic Medical Records, ironically, like hand-copied books, have been in the hands of doctors and provider organizations. PatientPilot, an evolving app seeks to change that. PatientPilot is currently seeking crowdsourced funding on Medstartr, a site like kickstarter.com but with a healthcare focus.

PatientPilot is like an EMR for patients. It lets patients log notes and audio from a doctor’s visit. It prompts questions and helps explain test results. And, borrowing from a trend in quality improvement, it even has check lists.

PatientPilot, and even the use of Medstartr for funding, are ingenious workarounds. The app disrupts the idea of EMR-based patient portals by allowing patients and caregivers to generate and own their own data. (Traditionally, when patients have access to patient portals, information can be sporadic, delayed, or incomplete).

From the Medstartr page, PatientPilot v1 incldues features such as:

PatientPilot coaches patients on: - what questions to ask their doctors - when to seek a second opinion - how to understand test results - how to find reliable medical information on the Internet - how to understand treatment options & - how to make medical decisions It also allows patients to take notes, create medication lists and audio record doctor visits. PatientPilot is built around interactive checklists – a proven method of conveying critical information and fostering engagement and compliance.

Version 1 is currently available in the the iPhone app store.

Grant Perry, the creator of PatientPilot, is using Medstartr to raise capitol for version 2. Feature goals for version two include video chat, for conversations between caregivers and patients and medication side effect tracking.

PatientPilot for Families & Caregivers from PatientPilot on Vimeo.

-Nick

It's National Nurses Week. As nurses care for us, we have to ask, are we doing everything we can to take care of nurses?

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:29:54 -0400

“It may seem a strange principal to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm.”

Those words begin the preface in Florence Nightingale’s 1863 third printing of Notes on Hospitals. Nightingale’s directive applies not only to patients, but also nurses and other caregivers.

This week, starting today May 6th, is National Nurses Week. As we all take time to thank nurses for all they do to take care of others, we have to also ask, are we doing everything we can to take care of nurses?

In the final appendix of the book, she writes about the trend of the day: secular nurses working for secular healthcare institutions (prior to the mid-1800s, healthcare was still largely the domain of religious groups). In those cases, Nightingale writes, “nurses are destroyed bodily and morally, but the patients are generally, not always, better nursed.”

Nightingale was predicting a challenge in the changing healthcare landscape of the 1860s. She was fearful, even despite best intentions of managers, market forces would propel business structures which would take an emotional toll on nurses and caretakers.

Was she right?

According to a 2008 study published in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing: “nurses under 30 years of age were more likely to experience feelings of agitation and less likely to engage in techniques to manage these feelings.” The study’s authors further link emotional burnout to the current shortage of nursing.

There are also clinical implications

According to NBC’s JoNel Aleccia:

Heavy patient loads and chronic burnout have long been among the top complaints of nurses at the nation’s hospital bedsides. But a new study shows that those problems affect not only the nurses themselves, but also the number of infections in the people they care for.

And we have every reason to be hopeful

150 years have passed since the third printing of Nightingale’s Notes on Hospitals. We’re starting, as an industry, to have meaningful conversations about the happiness of healthcare workers.

At this year’s Healthcare Experience Design conference, Happiness Project author Gretchen Rubin spoke about the importance of fostering happiness as a foundation for meaningful experiences.

Several TEDMED speakers spoke about the importance of nurses, happiness and their emotional wellbeing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, aerobics evangelist, Richard Simmons made a very passionate plea for protecting emotional health. Lockheed Martin’s Chief Medical Officer Marleece Barber also spoke about taking care of employees.

To nurses…

I’ll leave you with our unquestionable, unending gratitude for the work you do.

“The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t.”

― Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

To managers, directors and administrators…

I encourage you to think differently about employee engagement. Look at the companies who provide the most meaningful customer experiences (Starbucks, Disney, Whole Foods). They all know the secret is to focus on employees first. They encourage individualism, they believe in Maslow and they actively protect emotional wellbeing.

-Nick

If you listen to one story today, make it this one

Sat, 04 May 2013 11:37:36 -0400

Tarleton, who was disfigured when her estranged husband poured Lye over her body, received a face transplant in February. This week, for the first time, Tarleton met Righter, the daughter of the face donor. Righter and Tarleton embraced and then Righter asked Tarleton if she could touch her face. “It was probably one of the best feelings I’ve had in my life,” Tarleton told Melissa. “It was like falling in love all over again,” Righter said.

Listen to the story, the conversation and —most importantly —the very end, here on NPR’s site.

TARLETON: Yes. I’ll Facebook you and stuff, OK? RIGHTER: I love it. Much love to you.

That just might be the most real, honest moment ever.

Marinda Snow is on twitter here.

-Nick