I recently spent an afternoon with a dear relative who is being treated for cancer. Her medication regimen is so complicated that my mom, an experienced caregiver, visits her daily to help sort all the different pills into all the various boxes (and make sure they get swallowed). They showed off three health care hacks […]
peer-to-peer health care
Extremely rare, incredibly typical
After nearly 15 years tracking the cultural shifts happening at the intersection of health and the internet, I know a few things. #1 – don’t get between a parent and a piece of information he or she needs to make a decision about the health of a child. #2 – from 28.8 modems to the latest smartphones, […]
Hacking home health care
We need to fix the “solved problems” crisis in home health care. Let me explain. At the start of Health Foo* in December, everyone introduced themselves in 6 words or less. Row by row, person by person, 100+ people talked in turn. In the back row, nearly the last to speak, Laura Baldwin stood and […]
The network is our superpower
My kids love to talk about superpowers — the ability to fly, to heal, to be in two places at once, or to have super-strength. We debate the merits of each one, which combinations we would choose if we could have two, etc. I’ve come to realize that I have a superpower. We all do. […]
Oversharing is in the eye of the beholder
I got to quote Thomas Jefferson in an essay I wrote for the Pew Research Center’s FactTank blog today: “Who then can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the same wound himself?” It’s about Lisa Bonchek Adams and the spotlight that has been thrown on the use of […]
The Lake Wobegon effect in health care — and how to fight it
Humans have a tendency to overestimate our abilities and those of people we trust. It’s been called the Lake Wobegon effect, after a mythical place where “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” It’s a punchline with a dark edge. Consider the following: According to […]
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