The Best and Brightest

Over the weekend, I attended Yale commencement exercises to see my daughter graduate (the reason I haven’t updated my blog in a while as we prepared for family & friends from several states attending her graduation, her celebration activities, moving her out of the dorm into an apartment, etc.). I was surprised at the number of graduates that were continuing on to get their MPH, Masters in Public Health, degree. During my college days, obtaining a MPH automatically meant you aspired to be a hospital administrator or work for a state agency, not exactly a “glam” job that attracts the young, best, and brightest minds.

According to my daughter, a graduating senior that’s continuing on to get a MPH degree, the increased interest in this degree begin during the past presidential election campaign, healthcare reform was at the top of each candidate's list of issues that must be addressed my the next President. In addition, the sparkle of Wall Street was becoming dull. As promised, the current administration made healthcare reform a top priority. Now that the current administration is widely popular, young, cool, and hip, "public health" is now vogue.

Albeit, most of the young and talented minds have dreams of working in the Oval office, walking on the Whitehouse lawn with a slight swagger, and riding Air Force One advising the President but for now if the “best and brightest” could just settle the debate on what “meaningful use” means in the ARRA stipulations for receipt of funds for EHR implementation would be “cool” enough for me. But who knows, I may have unknowingly met our next Health and Human Services secretary this past weekend.

A Gadget Kind of Day

In the words of Ice Cube, "today was a good day." One of the most anticipated apps for the iPhone was finally released, SlingPlayer Mobile [read complete story in InfoWorld]. I've had my SlingBox since Decemember 2007, about 10 months later I purchased my iPod Touch for one reason, and one reason only, so I could Sling live TV on-the-go (a Wi-Fi connection is required). I'm giddy because today is the day that my “tech-toys” can finally merged. Prior to today, the only way to get SlingPlayer mobile on my Touch was to jailbreak it. Since I'm not one to "jailbreak" anything, I had to wait it out.

What does this have to do with Healthcare IT? Not a doggone thing! Wait a minute, maybe I spoke too fast. I remember my days as a system integrator when I supported small physician’s practices. There appeared to be a level of envy, or maybe jealousy, that existed among them. Such that if one brought a new BMW, the others would buy a new Mercedes or Lexus. If one hung a $5,000 piece of fine art in their office, the others would put pieces of fine art into their office. When we installed a wired network with Internet access in one doctor’s office, the others followed suit soon thereafter. You see where I going with this, right? If you're a system integrator, show off this "way cool" app to the doctor that must have all the latest gadgets, trust me, he will want this. Of course, you offer to set this all up for him. Then once he shows it off to his physician pals, the others will follow….cha-ching!!

If you have no idea what a SlingBox and/or SlingPlayer is check out the YouTube video posted by PhoneDog.com.

Open Source, Un-American

I’ve said in several blog posts that I’m a huge fan of Open Source apps, but the bill introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia on April 24 to fast track open-source electronic records, is not a good idea. Not that the use of Open Source code is bad, but to nudge everyone into using Open Source code is not the answer. The benefits outlined for using Open Source code is right on the money, but capitalism is still king in the American marketplace. To force an Open Source solution seems inherently, un-American. All the government needs to do is define the standards and then let the providers choose which vendor and/or application to implement those standards. Read more..

The only thing that’s more ridiculous than this is the legislation introduced by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas that would prevent the NCAA from calling a game a national championship unless it’s the outcome of a playoff. As much as I would like to see a NCAA football playoff, I’m sure the country has more pressing matters to be concerned with.