For over a year I’ve been the accidental manager of a community garden. All I did — I swear — is point out an open plot of land and people started pitching in, planting, asking friends to join them. All of a sudden we’d transformed a bare patch into something beautiful. I thought for sure […]
positive patterns
What if we could hack happiness?
One of the best phone calls I had in 2012 was with John Havens, who has written about the value of a happiness economy and how big data can make us happier and healthier. It reminded me of the “what if health care…?” conversations I was part of on Twitter this year: dreaming big, wishing […]
Keeping it real
Two high-tech health events were held last week — an East Coast-West Coast data-driven smackdown. I chose East, but my eyes kept straying West, and I am very thankful that the organizers for both are archiving the videos online. Here are a couple of stand-outs, first from Living By Numbers in New York City: Jennifer […]
The magic of Medicine X
Stanford Medicine X ended on Sunday after three (very) full days. Larry Chu deserves much of the credit for what I like about Medicine X, an “academic conference designed for everyone.” E-patients made up 10% of the audience and I appreciated their participation on stage, at the microphones, and on Twitter. There were also clinicians, […]
Watson: a love story
Before you read this post, think of a time when you had a crush on someone. Think about that swirl of emotions, the highs and the lows. That’s where I was a couple weeks ago, except it wasn’t about a person. I fell hard for Watson, IBM’s hot new outboard brain. I’d heard he was […]
Health, Technology, and Communities of Color
Serendipity brought me two opportunities this week to present Pew Internet’s data on communities of color and young people, particularly as it relates to health. On Wednesday I was a guest of the Federal HIV/AIDS Web Council and on Thursday I spoke at a meeting convened by CommonHealth ACTION. I’ll share some insights I picked […]
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