A blog covering the health/care ecosystem and people.

This week’s Forbes magazine features a story on Americas Most Sedentary Cities. Translation: which cities in America have the highest levels of obesity, and why? The answer to “why?” is a complex but understandable interaction between several factors: suburban sprawl, lifestyles of convenience, and some local factors that vary city-by-city.It turns out that transportation planning and the larger context of urban planning — or lack thereof — are contributing mightily to our lack of exercise and communities’ ‘walkability.’ Research is finding that the lack of greenspace and parkland in a community contributes to sedentary lifestyles and, thus, obesity. The Forbes

Iowa gained early-bird status for primary season as it set the date for its caucus as early in the new year as it could: January 3, 2008. A new survey indicates that Iowans are restless about health care. CodeBlueNow!, a consumer-led health advocacy group, sponsored the Iowa survey as part of its “Pulse” research program. Iowans believe that (1) health care services should stress disease prevention over high-technology cures, (2) more public accountability is needed in how health care dollars are spent, and, (3) “basic” health services should include access to any licensed health care professional. While the survey results

No one doubts whether Johnson & Johnson is a crackerjack consumer health marketer; can this expertise inform how well the company does going direct-to-consumer (DTC) with medical devices? Now that DTC advertising has matured for the pharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry has begun to stick its toe in those promotional waters. Earlier this week, I saw an ad for a medical device — one of the first I can recall. The specific ad was for a stent. This is intriguing because stents have come under tremendous scrutiny since the FDA began re-examining the safety of drug eluting stents in

By 2010, nearly 50% of doctors between 50 and 65 years of age will be cutting down on doctoring – choosing to retire, work in non-clinical jobs, go part-time, or close their doors to new patients. The loss of this wise cadre of clinicians to the physician supply could exacerbate a forecasted shortage of doctors in the U.S. Overall, 24% of the older physicians will opt out of patient care within one to three years, and 14% will completely retire. These sobering results were published in the 14th annual survey of Merritt Hawkins & Associates, a physician recruiting firm, in

Yesterday was one of those days you want to bottle: perfect, crisp-as-an-apple autumn temperature, long walks through New York City between meetings, meaningful discussions, on-time trains. I spent most of the day talking and thinking about home and hearth and health. I savored lunch at the delectable and health-ful Josie’s East restaurant in Murray Hill, NYC, with a client/colleague who values home, hearth and health as much as I do.On the train ride home, I delved into the latest (November/December 2007) issue of Blueprint, part of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The magazine’s tagline is Design Your Life. While I had

/Health20%2010-12.pptBefore you start reading, download the document above. It’s a single PowerPoint slide that’s animated to build. Go into presentation mode, then read along with the narrative below.A Broad Vision of Health 2.0Reformulating Data for Transparency, Decision Support & Revitalized Health Care Markets Brian Klepper and Jane Sarasohn-KahnThe term Health 2.0 refers to the concept, described by O’Reilly, of Web-based platforms that allow users to reformulate data for their own purposes. The Health 2.0 movement is rapidly gaining steam and traction, propelled by established and startup firms. The efforts displayed at the recent Health 2.0 meeting in San Francisco, convened

The population of adults living with a disability or chronic disease comprises a relatively higher proportion of people over age 50 and people who do not use a computer on a regular basis. New insights from the great researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project find that adults living with a disability or chronic illness are less likely than others to go online. However, once they go online, these people become what the Pew calls, “avid health consumers.” Their latest health report, E-patients With a Disability or Chronic Disease, offers a lot of data into this overlooked group

It is no surprise that chronic disease costs, but the burden of chronic disease is staggering: pegged at $1 trillion, according to the Milken Institute’s latest report, An Unhealthy America: the Economic Burden of Chronic Disease. This report highlights the sobering statistics about this critical cost driver in our system. The chronic diseases most burdensome to the economy including pulmonary conditions, hypertension, mental disorders, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. What factors are contributing to America’s heavy chronic disease burden? The Milken team identifies them as: > Air quality > Alcohol > Cholesterol > Illicit drug use > Obesity (BMI ?

While we Americans might personify a kinder, gentler nation if we believed in health equity, it’s really health insecurity that’s driving current health reform efforts in the U.S. The lead op-ed in the 1st October Financial Times (FT) editorial page forecasts, “Reform is coming to US healthcare.” The column discusses last week’s Congressional vote on the state children’s health insurance program (S-CHIP). The FT editors then talk about how all of the Democratic presidential candidates have plans for, at a minimum, near-universal health care, an issue that was “considered toxic for the (Democratic) party” just a few years ago. Although

In the quest for enhancing consumer sovereignty and improving online experiences, The Ratings Guy evaluates every sort of website imaginable. Categories include all conceivable aspects of daily living from travel and food (even a dedicated “spicy foods” channel) to shopping and pets. Health and wellness rounds out the offerings. This week, The Ratings Guy published their Top 20 Health Plan websites. Let’s learn a bit about The Ratings Guy before we launch into The List. The mission of The Ratings Guy (which is actually a husband-and-wife tag team) is “to help consumers get to the great sites sooner.” Their criteria

There is an ad on page F2 of today’s New York Times promoting Samsung’s Healthy Living‘s product line. A question is posed, “Can you find the blood pressure monitor in this picture?” The picture is of a feng shui’d living room decorated with a comfy chaise, floor plant, and a chaise-side table featuring photos, a tea cup, a lamp, and what looks like a small flat-screen clock. It is, in fact, a blood pressure monitor. That reminds me of the Magritte painting, asserting that the image “is not a pipe.”The importance of good design in health cannot be overstated. We

Health care bloggers, news reporters, physician entrepreneurs, and the brilliant founder of Commerce.net were there. Venture capitalists, technology developers, genomic gurus and pharmaceutical strategists came. Esther Dyson had a front-row seat and asked some of the hardest questions. And passionate developers of consumer-facing health communities, driven by personal stories, shared their work with us.Welcome to the first Health 2.0 conference, assembled by Matthew Holt, the Health Care Blog meister, strategy consultant and (disclosure) my dear friend; and Indu Subaiya, MD, of Etude Scientific (and my new friend).Matthew and Indu worked hard, with colleagues John and Sara, to bring together over

The average income for a family of four in America reached $48,200 in 2006, which was good news from the Census Bureau released last month. The bad news is that the average cost of health insurance for a family of four will hit $12,106 this year, according to the annual report on employer-sponsored benefits from the Kaiser Family Foundation. While the cost increase was lower this year than last — at 6.1% — this is still more than twice the rate of general infaltion, which was 2.6%. And workers’ wages increased only 3.7%. Thus, health insurance costs continue to rise

We’re losing ground on drug safety. This is sobering news, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, based on a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The number of serious adverse drug events more than doubled between 1998 and 2005 in the United States, as did the number of related deaths. The FDA says that an adverse drug event is, “an injury resulting from the use of a drug….” including: • Harm caused by the drug (adverse drug reactions and overdoses) • Harm from the use of the drug (including dose reductions and discontinuations of