Archive for the 'Health' Category

What is Crystalline Fructose? | The Fit Shack <– Just learned that “crystalline fructose” is pretty much the same thing (slightly worse it looks like) as high-fructose corn syrup. No more vitaminwater for me (it has a small amount of arsenic in it too).

No, this isn’t about the health of your car, it is related to my last post – Continuous monitoring of your health. I guess it does relate to the health of cars a bit in that the idea is a bit like OnStar, save a little more complex of course.  After all, a car is quite simple compared to the human body.  “auto-health” will be the next “big thing” in the healthcare space.  It’s in the infancy stage, but will rapidly progress, especially if the feds keep driving HIT and if the X-Prize people keep coming up w/ fun contests.  The idea is a device companies using wireless-enabled devices to monitor your health, auto-upload it, and then have machines analyze it letting you know if the sense anything irregular compared to others your age, the massive databases (Ingenix-like) they’ll have at their disposal, etc.  Imagine: “Want to have the internet keep you healthy?  There’s an app for that.”  “Want to be notified of a new flu strain in your area?  There’s an app for that?”

As I was working this evening I began thinking of a device that would be wirelessly enabled (CDMA, GSM, etc.) and would basically continually monitor and upload info from a device such as a Polar watch, footpod, and heart rate monitor.  At the end of each week you could slice and dice the data however you’d like, but canned “health reports” would be available for review each week along with recommendations – e.g. “Try taking 10minutes in the morning for a run or walk to improve the strength of your heart and reduce…”.  Technology limitations right now: 1) batteries/power 2) the fact that Verizon et. al. still haven’t come up with what I’d call a “unlimited data device plan” whereby any customer can add any “cellular enabled device” to their plan up to x devices.  That is, the trends are for everything to go wireless, so why no offer a package like this?

I am tired of paying for high prices and decided to order my own glasses online and then submit the claim.  I get my eye exam on Tue, and then plan to order.  As I was researching this adventure a bit I read this: Adventures in $40 eyeglasses | 43 Folders It is a very useful overview of what you need to order online.  Being a healthcare consultant I am excited to see competition and the internet bring costs down.  I expect more and more consumers will start “shopping” online when it comes to healthcare… as long as price healthcare transparency efforts continue.

As I sit here in front of my computer looking at my MEGA work and personal to do list I realize that it is the thing I have been spending the most time with for many of the past years of my life.  Sad?  Perhaps… While my computer does free up more of my time.  That time of course is always filled with more.   Sometimes it is filled with a mountain bike ride, but more often it is filled with a big list of actions that I “need” to on the computer itself – e.g. choose paint for house, complete 360 reviews, prepare for upcoming biz dev meetings, book travel, prepare for work on Monday (i.e. deep thought on insights for client – this requires morning time – brain is sharpest then), check title for easements, fill out time and expense forms, ship eBay items, etc.  I still am not sure if this is “good” or “bad”, an generally gauge it all by my general mood over time.  I can say taking the time to consider the priority and dependencies of that long list is definitely “good”.  Prioritizing – what an important skill – I hope to continually improve on that…