Another HIMSS conference is in the books. Amidst the craziness that HIMSS can be, it is always a pleasure to spend time running into friends, collaborators, and former colleagues. There have been lots of great pieces written about 2018 HIMSS, including by Chrissy Farr and by Lisa Suennen. Here are some of my thoughts and takeaways: 1 – Where’s the Peds? HIMSS pretty much has a little something for anybody. However, walking the exhibition hall and seeing vendor booths, attend

I went in to the dermatologist last week for an annual skin check and, instead of a humiliating, cold, and uncomfortable paper gown, this cotton spa robe was instead waiting for me to change into.  My experience of whether I was working with an empathetic and caring physician was shaped before she even set foot in the exam room.  Small touches like this robe can make a dramatic difference in the patient experience.  This does not mean that “luxury” can or should replace high-

I am just finishing up a packed few days at TEDMED 2013 as a FrontLine Scholar.  There were over 1,800 people there, from a broad spectrum of occupational backgrounds, countries, skills, and areas of interest within healthcare.  This made for an unending cascade of “unexpected connections,” the theme of the conference.  Indeed, though there were many engaging speakers who told stories about turning personal tragedies into discoveries and new passions, to me, the real action a

To quote Mugatu, Will Farrell’s character in Zoolander, mHealth is “so hot right now.”  In this spirit, nearly 4,000 people came together for the past several days outside of Washington DC for the 2012 mHealth Summit organized by mHIMSS. For anyone who was sitting at home and playing buzzword bingo during the conference, here are the words that would have comprised the winning row: interoperability, gamification, wellness, big data, social, consumer, adherence, re-admission.

I’ll admit that I’ve not yet read this journal article to form my own conclusions, but I found the headline interesting nonetheless.  Here is a link to the NY Times article and a link to the original journal article in the Journal of Academic Medicine.  It makes intuitive sense… if your physician has a higher level of empathy, you are more likely to form a positive treatment relationship, and the patient is thus more likely to find meaningful and useful treatment recommendati

It was a true honor and a pleasure to be invited to be part of the UCSF Unusual Thinkers panel at Dreamforce 2012 yesterday in San Francisco.  Jenise Wong and I joined the panel to talk about our plans to help revolutionize the way diabetes data is used.  I’ve noticed several reoccurring themes in the last year that came up again yesterday: 1) People are ready for patient empowerment.  This sounds obvious, but that is just the point!  This is no longer an upstart idea or some