Summer 2011

Nice Summary of Medicare …

Click to View Article: The Economics of Financing Medicare Katherine Baicker, Ph.D., and Michael E. Chernew, Ph.D.

Formatting Pages in Excel

The largest excel work I’ve created contains around 30 plys and is over 9 MB. Excel is not just a spreadsheet, but is also great for work that is really more properly done with a database, but is too small to justify the expense. Frequently, it’s used on a much smaller scale as a makeshift… [Read more…]

Street Fighting Math

…want this book! http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighting-Mathematics-Educated-Guessing-Opportunistic/dp/026251429X An earlier version is available for free download at MITOpenCourseware. The MITOpenCourseware site for the course: 18.098 / 6.099 Street-Fighting Mathematics / As taught in: January IAP 2008 http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-098-street-fighting-mathematics-january-iap-2008/readings/ The PDF itself: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-098-street-fighting-mathematics-january-iap-2008/readings/sf_math.pdf

HCFinNews: Health Execs report top priorities for the coming year

Survey shows health executives’ top 3 priorities for 2010-11 July 22, 2010 | Diana Manos, Senior Editor http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/survey-shows-health-executives-top-3-priorities-2010-11

Inspiration can come from anywhere

…including some random blog you’re reading that has links to photos of old, unused WWII British propaganda posters. I just made this poster (literally, just made it)–it took less than 30 minutes and is geometrically nearly identical to the original with the exception of the wording. I found the font, Underground, as a download from… [Read more…]

Deloitte’s 2010 Survey of Health Consumers

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GX/global/insights/focus-on-the-issues/dcc690a7aacd6210VgnVCM100000ba42f00aRCRD.htm Now available online: Deloitte 2010 Survey of Health Consumers. It covers the following countries: Canada France Germany Switzerland United Kingdom United States (alternatively, download the PDF)

Neat: The Mypressi “Twist”

The Mypressi Twist (filled with hot water from the stove and pressurized by a  nitrogen cartridge): http://mypressi.com/ Reviewed by T Magazine / Oliver Strand: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/ristretto-a-new-twist-on-espresso/?scp=1&sq=mypressi&st=Search

Logos

i recently designed a series of logos for a couple of student groups at the university. here they are in all of their splendor:    IGPI, the interdisciplinary graduate program in informatics     GISo, The Graduate Informatics Society (they later made me add an additional “o”)    Finally, the Data Mining at Iowa Group:

AP: “Doctor shortage? 28 states may expand nurses’ role”

via Available online: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_he_me/us_med_dr_nurse It’s a nice discussion (for AP, anyway) of the controversy surrounding DNPs (Doctors of Nursing Practice) and their inevitable entry into the world of primary care. (Please do ignore the comments section, as people apparently love to demonstrate their ignorance of the topic with vitriolic, rambling, partisan outbursts.) Even doubling the… [Read more…]

Realizing economic benefits from a college degree: need versus norm

via by FREAKONOMICS Jennie E. Brand and Yu Xie find that the unlikeliest male college graduates earned 30% more over their lifetimes than comparable men who earned only a high school degree. In contrast, male college graduates most likely to go to college earned only 10% more than their non-college-educated counterparts.  Brand and Xie observed a… [Read more…]

Clay Shirky’s “The collapse of complex business models”

Here’s a nice monday morning read–Clay Shirky‘s “The collapse of complex business models” from http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/04/the-collapse-of-complex-business-models/ It would be easy to regard this as short-sighted on their part, but that ignores the realities of culture. For a century, ATT’s culture had prized—insisted on—quality of service. Their HR Department worked to identify potential employees who would be… [Read more…]

Published!

Wow…I just found out–notices coming within one week of each other–that I’ve got second author on two papers that are being published in decently reputable journals. My involvement in both cases was literally years ago. What’s with the coincidence? “Solvated Electron in Organic Chemistry Laboratory” http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed800093n “How Physical Attractiveness and Endorser-Product Match-up Guide Selection of a… [Read more…]

Kaiser Health News

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org A description from their site: Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nonprofit news organization committed to in-depth coverage of health care policy and politics. KHN’s mission is to provide high-quality coverage of health policy issues and developments at the federal and state levels. In addition, KHN covers trends in the delivery of health care… [Read more…]

CBO: a preliminary analysis of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act

“…a preliminary analysis of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act…” (PDF) http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10688/hr3962Rangel.pdf   …and the text of the bill itself, for those of you who have plenty of time on your hands: http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

“What do providers need to start preparing for?” by John Toussaint

http://www.createhealthcarevalue.com/blog/post/?bid=107 What do providers need to start preparing for? Here is my opinion about the core elements of the 5 bills presently in the Senate and House and what it may mean for doctors and hospitals by John S. Toussaint, MD President and CEO, ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value. He writes: …I would estimate that… [Read more…]

want

Barnes and Noble Nook. Powered by Android, so apps are a possibility in the future…plus Wal-Mart’s now pricing books at $9.99, so titles should drop in price in the future. DRM details are sketchy and Apple’s supposed to be making a tablet, so I’ll wait this one out until more details emerge–but there’s no doubt… [Read more…]

Google Fusion Tables: An Example (embedded HTML)

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-fusion-tables.html Before: After: …plus lots of collaboration functionality. It’s apparently very slow to compute with large data sets, but I can’t wait to see where this goes. It should be great!

Interviews with Curtis Schroeder, Group CEO Bumrungrad Int’l

Bumrungrad International is one of the largest destinations for international healthcare services in the world. Bumrungrad Group CEO Curtis Schroeder has given several interviews, during which he discusses the business model, prospects for growth, and competitive advantages that exist within the field. http://health.scribemedia.org/2008/01/17/chw-medical-tourism-bumrungrad-international/ …from HealthDot.org (scribemedia): Ruben Toral sits down with Curtis Schroeder, CEO Bumrungrad… [Read more…]