Docnotes

Ten things to do when your kids leave for college.

1) Walk the dog(s). SOMEONE still loves you! (if you don't have a dog, buy or borrow one).
2) Go for a run. You're not old.
3) Walk around the house in your underwear. No - the neighbors can't see.
4) Put the bread in the fridge. This prevents it from getting modly - since it will be consumed in days (not hours).
5) Work more. So you have a purpose (and can pay for that college tuition).
6) Clean the living room. (Remarkably - it will STAY clean!)
7) Be kind to your spouse. He/She feels sad.
8) Go running again.
9) Resist the temptation to adopt or borrow small children to fill the void.
10) send care packages.

Geeks getting too big?

Population health data is everywhere.  You just have to look for it.

Winning/winning

“Winning” is hard for me to write about.  When I applied to medical schools – I didn’t say “I want to win” – I said that I wanted to help keep/make people healthy and successful.  “Medicine isn’t a competition” I would say – and certainly that is true.  But then again – which doctor doesn’t want to be “the best?"

So – yes – I was honored in 2008 when a survey of doctors in my region voted me to be one of the best family physicians.

And I am thrilled to me a member of the “winning” team of Allscripts.

But winning still feels like a silly goal – and yesterday I won twice and now I think I know what’s different.

a) I won a half-marathon yesterday.  No – I didn’t beat everyone.  I was #108 out of about 650.  But I ran my fastest time ever.  I beat the goal that I had set for myself – and ran the same race 32 minutes faster than I had one year before.  When I finished, I felt like a winner.  15+ months of training, with slow, deliberate progress.  My stride was better, my conditioning was better.  As George Leonard writes in Mastery, the key to success is NOT about seeking finish line – it’s about the plateau of slow progress we make on the long path toward our goal.

b) I won a raffle for a brand new pair of Newton running shoes.  Yay.  I won! No training, no long road.  I just won!  It felt empty and cheap.  I win raffles like this a lot.  Really – I do.  How?  I significantly increase my chances of winning with a simple trick.  Do you know my trick?  Post a comment if you do.  :-)

More on soccer headgear and concussions in soccer

I did some follow-up research today on this … 

2008 consensus statement on concussions.  (pdf)

Sport Concussion Assessment Tool – version 2 (SCAT2) (pdf) – very useful

NY Times article (2004)

My post from May, 2009 with other references.

The Presentation that I made today on this topic.

Running in Winter: Saran Wrap?

It's cold out there in Smallbany, NY these days - which is making it extra-hard to put on them the running shoes and get out there.  Combine that with something that I think my mom gave me (thanks, mom) .. and it's awfully uncomfortable to run - especially when it's windy.  Yesterday I wrapped my toes with plastic wrap ..and they were MUCH happier.  A quick Internet search on this - and I didn't find much .. but this guy posted a few weeks ago on how it helped on a rainy day:

Sotally Tober is Runnin' to the Finish Line: Saran Wrap on my feet?.

Maybe I need to try some of those "winter" running shoes.  Hmm.

I signed up for my first 1/2 marathon of 2010 .. March 7th in Florida.  Sam and I will be there for our annual Red Sox Spring Training Pilgrimage.  My goal is to beat my 2009 time by 45 minutes.  I should be able to do this - if I don't get too lazy/cold over the next 10 weeks.

Enoch commented on my post about exercise tracking .. and .. well .. I ALMOST agree. For some people - "exergaming" may work. But for some reason -- I am certain that it won't work for me. Despite some fascination with / addiction to Riven circa .. 1997 .. I've never had any interest in computer games. I TRIED to use the WII Fit - but it was too slow and too silly. For me - it's just easier & better to go run outside. I think the OUTSIDE part is important.

Ten years of blogging

Yep - this blog has been around for over ten years.

Here's a link to the Internet Archive for one of my first posts.  There were actually a few other iterations before this - but I can't find them.  The site was initially created with Manila - a tool based on Dave Winer's Userland Frontier.  A while later - a kid named Evan Williams and his team created a great tool called Pyra - which had a "daughter" product called "blogger."  You know the rest of the story.

What's interesting is that both tools provided a successful user experience that was LESS than the designers initially intended.  "edit this page" was a small part of Manila - but that is what worked.  "Blogger" was a tiny part of Pyra.  Evan has gone on to smaller things - and (surprise) .. that is yet another factor more successful than Blogging/blogger. 

What's the next decade have in store for us?  Smaller, simpler, yet more complex systems.  Yes - smaller (like twitter) and simpler (like the ipod) yet more complex (like the ipod).  John Maeda writes well about this paradox.  To the user - it needs to be simple.  Behind the scenes - it will be more complex - since the user's needs are understood and in fact anticipated.  So when I want to log my exercise, I should be able to use a device that I own (perhaps even something that comes with me!) ... that will track my exercise for me - and report it for me - to all of the right places:  My insurance company, my physician .. my running coach? (if I had one) ..  sure! .. wherever I decide I want it to go.  Why not?  The technology here is easy.  

It's all about connecting. 

That's what the blogs were a decade ago:  A  handful of signposts - meant to help connect the dots. Now there are certainly more than a handful.   Yet (see my other post from today) .. there are far more examples of where we remain another decade away from thinking about these connections properly. 

Can an insurance company motivate people to exercise?

Short answer? Not very well.

 

My health insurance company has a program called "blue points" which is supposed to motivate me and my co-workers to exercise.  It's a great idea - very poorly applied.  Yet another example of the "what " and the "how" being too far apart from each other.  

 

Senior Executive:  "Hey - let's motivate people to exercise more - by giving them free stuff if they exercise - let's develop a program that lets them log they activity.  When they log activities - we give them points .. and at the end of the year - they can cash in the points for free stuff." 

 

Development project manager: "OK .. we'll make a website that they can use to log in and log their points"

 

But they missed the part where they think carefully about the user experience.  Primary goal: encourage exercise.  So we want to enable the application to capture the fact that exercise happened in a manner that is very easy for the end-user.  Core principle:  meet the user where they live - don't make the user jump through too many hoops to achieve the goal.

 

I exercise often.  As often as I should?  No - but at least three days a week - and usually more.  In the past year - I ran two half-marathons, one full marathon, and several shorter races.  Training for all of this required that I run as much as 40 miles/week.  So I should have plenty of "blue points" - right?  well .. no - because I would rather spend my valuable time exercising rather than logging my exercise.

 

Let's see what it takes to log exercise with Blue Points.

 

Log in to the Blue Cross website:

 

 

9:26  AM - find the Blue Points link:

 

 

9:27   .. ahh here it is .. 

 

 

Next screen ... 

 

 

New window ... logged in .. pick an activity .. 

 

 

9:28   ... log my activity .. 

 

 

9:29  ... type type .. click .. 

 

 

Check the log to make sure it was saved.

 

 

9:30.

 

Total time = 4 minutes.  Not much, you say?  What if I was exercising instead of sitting on my butt during these 4 minutes!

 

so .. five days a week (optimal case .. bear with me) .. exercise for 4 minutes  .. = 20 minutes of exercise.. for 50 weeks .. = ~ 15,000 calories I'd spend over a year .. if I didn't have to navigate this maze of a website every time.

 

Is there an alternative?

 

Of course. I can think of a handful … But I won't lead the witness. Click here and let me know what you think is a better way. I'll add some of the best of our ideas to mine in a follow-up post. We'll then see if we can get their attention and get this implemented. J ..

FairSoftware

The pitch: Start Your Online App with FairSoftware; Find iPhone Developers; Share Revenue .. an interesting idea.

Google Wave Invites

Update:  I have eight  zero of them left  .. happy to share to the first eight people who contact me in some way. Sorry they went so fast.