Your Nurse Is On

What I Did at Summer Camp... I Mean at a Summer HealthCamp in Florida :-)

2011-08-01T10:21:00.003-04:00

Out of the blue, I received a direct message on Twitter from “HealthCampFLA” telling me that they had spoken to the founder of The HealthCamp Foundation, Mark Scrimshire, and that would like me to call them regarding HealthCampFLA. Until that point in time, I was fairly certain that I was not going to be able to attend this particular HealthCamp being held in Tampa, Florida on July 30, 2011, due to time constraints. As soon as I was able, I phoned both Joel Lopez and Brenda Young who, along with Tracy Ingram, were the local co-organizers for this Florida HealthCamp with the Twitter hashtag #hcFLA. I could tell immediately, during our initial conference call, that these two people were very serious about executing a world-class event there in Tampa. As a veteran of many HealthCamps I was intrigued by this relatively isolated, local group and the incredible speakers that had committed to participating. The opportunity to interact with the awesome folks at the facility sponsor, Kforce, coupled with a great speaker line up began to tilt the scale towards attending. I must say though, it was the opportunity for lunch with my Grandmother in Sarasota that sealed the deal :-).

I may have forgotten to mention that the final decision to attend this HealthCamp was made a scant 24 hours before I needed to board the flight to attend. After a frantic scramble to arrange flight, car, hotel, etc., I was sitting in a big ol' jetliner heading to DC to get to Tampa, thinking how incredible it was to be part of this amazing movement that brings together people from all industries associated with healthcare: Innovators, Patients, Providers, Payors, Technologists, “BrainHackers”, Quantified Self participants, Artists, Writers, Marketers and Social Media mavericks. What more can a healthcare Geek wish for?

Landing in Tampa, we headed to check out the “unconference” space at Kforce with the organizers. There we met Shelby and Hernan, who were our point people at Kforce, to review the facility, layout ans plan for the next day. Awesome people, awesome place and we left there excited for the event. The proximity to downtown Ybor City lent itself to the group going out for an excellent Greek dinner at the incredible Akropolis restaurant. The grilled octopus and tsatziki were no match for this hungry crowd but handily beat any such delicacy I've had stateside and swept me back to Rhodes in my mind. A nice healthy evening of eating, laughing and drinking- all in moderation- turned a group of strangers into lifelong friends ready for the next day's HealthCamp.

Waking up late, from an incredible night's sleep, I dropped the top on the rental Mustang and hit the gas pedal. We had people to meet and things to learn! Moments later, I wheeled into the KForce parking lot ready to rock. It was obvious that the team had been hard at work, tables set up, registration organized, wireless setup and A/V in place. Another magical HealthCamp transformation of a blank canvas space was ready to go. Waves of attendees filtered through registration and into a Health Geeks disneyland; smart people, great topics and entertaining, informative speakers. The day was shaping up nicely. As usual, I wished that I could participate in almost every session but was physically able to attend only a quarter of the discussions. Four rooms were organized with a wide variety of topics, suggested and presented by the attendees, and the show began. I, like many of the hardcore Health Geeks present, HAD to attend Dr. Joe Francis' “BrainHacking” discussion- I mean, come on- Neuron spikes, nail guns, brain to machine interfaces and memory erasure- If THAT is NOT breakfast discussion, I don't know what is :-).

Following the first session on BrainHacking (which I tweeted about on #hcfla) I proceeded to the forum on presenting Innovation and technology to hospitals, presented by the entertaining and knowledgable Ford Kyes (cheered on by his better half, Barb). OK, so you THINK you know how the healthcare purchasing decisions are made...I'd wager you could learn A LOT from Ford when he speaks about the influence and motivation of a hospital's Board, C-suite, Physicians, Customers and Managers...a WHOLE lot! If you ever need a coach, call Ford Kyes, and tell him I sent you. If he can't help you...you must be REALLY skilled, savvy and experienced. If you get a chance to learn from this man, take it!

After that presentation, I needed to reflect, took a few minutes to meet some participants (like Carlos Garcia from Orlando) and forgot to remember, that I forgot meeting, @MissDestructo in between seminars... must have been that BrainHacking memory erasure going viral ;-) (a twitter joke for those confused). Afterwards, for lunch, we went for some amazing Cuban food a retro-swanky club next door and met even more remarkable people doing innovative “stuff”- Coders, coding. Innovators, Innovating. Busy Business types with their busy business buzz and some Healthcamp sponsors, initiates and old friends, as well. Yum, Yum, and did I mention YUM!! The food was good, too! After lunch, we looked like a pack of sweltering penguins waddling back to the Pole, full, ready for more HealthCamp- or a well-timed siesta. I had strategically picked the after lunch slot to present about the use of communications technology (like YourNurseIsOn.com) to effect better healthcare outcomes for patients. I figured if the idea could capture, awaken and inspire HealthCampers in a Cubano Coma- then, and only then, could it have a shot on the open market. Right?

Well, let me say that the interest, feedback and interaction was beyond reaffirming, the excitement was palpable and the possibilities presented by the attendees for the use of this technology were nothing short of revolutionary! The possibility of immediate inter-connectivity between healthcare facilities and their staff by two-way phone, text and email had made our lunchtime lethargy a distant memory. The potential for future applications of this technology, in various arenas, had sparked the organic synthesis and interplay of complex use cases, integrations and adaptations from a group of participants who had never heard of the technology. THAT, to me, is what HealthCamp is all about- WE are a much more powerful force than YOU or I alone - I firmly believe that the collective WE has the power, ingenuity, determination and desire to not only change healthcare for the better- but to change ourselves, individually, and collectively for the better- and THAT is why WE are here.

After my interactive presentation, demo and brainstorming session, I was fortunate enough to meet several more inspiring attendees. This included the quietly powerful, and moving, Oliver DeSofi who, ironically, was presenting the next discussion I was going to attend. Oliver is a simple man with a simple mission- to share his moving story- and to make sure others can learn from his experience. And learn we did! Oliver related his life to us; from a story book of dreams, a life of adventure and intrigue, of successes and failures and of his eternal Love and compassion for his wife. When she was diagnosed with severe MS, Oliver changed his career from CEO to part-time self-employment and became the primary caregiver for his beloved. He experienced the inhumanity, incompetence and injustice of American “Healthcare” first-hand, with his own experiences, and second-hand through the suffering of his wife at the hands of the “establishment”. The healthcare system treated Oliver and his wife like insignificant specks on the face of humanity, like ignorant consumer peons who were simply some figures on a spreadsheet, unworthy of respect, dignity and compassionate, competent care. Like all of us, Oliver knew better and navigated this morass to find, and provide, the very best care for his wife.

What I saw was a giant of a man, unabashedly sharing the depth of his love, respect and concern for for his spouse with a room full of strangers while recounting his ingenuity in navigating the system to achieve the best results for his better half. I was moved to tears as he recounted the imaginary “vacations” he would re-create for his wife when she became to ill to travel, as they loved to do. He would talk her through the journey to the airport, through check-in, security and onto the “airplane”. He would then pour first-class champagne, request first-class appetizers and settle in with his sweetie for an “in-flight” movie. They would then imagine that they had landed in some new, exotic travel destination, see the sights and talk her into a peaceful, fulfilled slumber. Oliver may not know this, but I'll never forget what my many years as a nurse (and his story) have taught me- there is no greater strength than genuine love, compassion and caring- THAT is what makes a male into a Man, and Oliver is one hell of a man. Check out his book “Caregiving: MyStory, Your Guide”” and be prepared to laugh, and cry, your cynicism away. I will be sure to introduce Oliver to Regina Holliday, ePatientDave, Trisha Torrey and Chuck Denham because THEIR story MUST be heard!

Brain teased and highly stimulated, I simply HAD to end the day with another BrainHacking session that took us another level down the rabbit hole. Presented by the tireless Tracy Ingram we explored “bio-rhythm resonance and the diurnal beats” (great band name?) Imagine if we could reset our body's rhythm using sub-audible auditory stimulation? Who do what??? Imagine if your heartbeat was irregular and you were exposed to a diurnal beat that approximated a healthy heartbeat. Is it possible that your body would seek resonance with the health rhythm? If it did would it be considered “fixed”? If it was “fixed” would it stay that way? Why or Why not? Too much? OK, how about a little energy balancing- say a body meridian out of whack- could it be re-tuned to a more harmonious state via aural stimulation? If it could, would this have health benefits to the one “re-tuned”? Wanna drive the FDA nuts? Simply “prove” these treatments work and you'd be well on the way. Biofeedback, BrainHacking, Auditory Rebalancing, and Diurnal beats...When was the last time you were “BrainHacked”? See, you simply HAVE to go to a HealthCamp near you- Better yet, contact the HealthCamp Foundation and organize YOUR OWN HealthCamp in YOUR town!! I challenge ANYONE to be fully involved in a day at HealthCamp and to leave unchanged...it simply cannot happen. I would like to thank the attendees, sponsors and organizers (Brenda, Joel & Tracy ROCKED!) of HealthCamp Florida- You have changed me forever, in ways that I likely don't fully understand, yet, and I thank you for that...NOW, if I could just remember how to un-hack my brain again.... ;-)

P.S- My MVP award is shared this time- The ever awesome orchestrator of operations, Maumi Chatterton with the HealthCamp Foundation and Shelby from KForce dynamic attention to detail helped set the tone for this event. Joel, Brenda, Tracy and Mark- Kudos! Thanks for having us.

"Walkers" keep on walkin', Talkers get to talkin' and Mover's & Shakers- yep, you guessed it- Get to Movin' and Shakin'!

2011-06-09T17:19:00.000-04:00

Rolling home on Metro North from NYC to New Haven on a blistering hot afternoon with my mind on fire from a combination of Healthcare and Heat- ON FIRE! I tell ya!

What a week. Healthcare will NEVER be the same after this one week. The needle has been moved, the ground has been shaken and the old paradigms shattered forever. The sloths of enterprise and legacy, the paternal guardians of "our" health, the protectors of inefficiencies, dangerous practices and refusal to change now sniff danger in the air…they sense that their very survival is at stake, that the future of healthcare has made itself present, and that the winds of change have become the "winds of changed". Exciting times, indeed. The nimble ones will prosper, the sloths will not.

Why? What could happen in one short week? Ever read Genesis ;-) This is the week of #DCHealth and this baby is growing up quickly! We are way past "Alpha" here, and no where near" Omega"- maybe somewhere around "Delta"? Again, Why? Let share some thoughts with you.

The big picture, as I understand it, is that after YEARS of trying to bring the Healthcare horse to water- It has finally approached the trough and is VERY thirsty. Without the life saving elixir of Innovation, Healthcare runs the very real risk of an agonizing, slow death- taking all the profits with it and stranding its precious cargo of reliant patients and consumers. Umm, Huh?

Plainly, Big Brother has stepped in and is playing the tune. That tune is "Data Liberacion, Application Innovacion and Healthcare Revolucion". Seeing the need to spur innovation in healthcare (with the foresight of an historian), the government (HHS, IOM, NIH, EPA) have joined forces (no, really!) to liberate the troves of data that we have payed them to collect, and that they have been collecting since, well, Genesis… This data is being provided in easily accessible formats for innovators, entrepreneurs, institutions to avail themselves of in the creation of healthcare, wellness, health maintenance, and health data applications. In that spirit they helped change agents like Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya from Health 2.0 join with grassroots healthcare ninjas like Mark Scrimshire and Maumi Chatterton from The HealthCamp Foundation and powerful Patient Advocates like Regina Holliday, ePatient Dave and Trisha Torrey to come together in DC to put the world on notice- The status quo is dead, change is ALREADY occurring and it is futile to resist.

The week kicked off with #TheWalkingGallery. In a word, it was Awesome- no, Spectacular, no, Sublime, no Transformational, no, …um… How about AwsTacLimAtional?? Naw, but it was WAY cool. Sorry? Oh yes, what WAS it? The Walking Gallery was the brainchild of one of the most effective, compassionate and talented Patient Advocates on this planet- The quintessential "Little Miss Type-A", Shepherdess of Stories, Interpretive Artiste Extraordinaire and kick-ass Mom- Regina Holliday. She envisioned a gallery of Walking Canvases sharing the successes, failures, shortcomings and possibilities of the HealthCare system through paintings of the powerful stories of individuals involved in healthcare. Simple, right? Simply Incredible! Over 50 "Walkers" each and every one with a moving healthcare experience visage, in the open, bared to all, carried upon their back- literally- in the form of a jacket with their painting portraying their stories on their backs. As they walked, sauntered, skipped and limped around the room, living, breathing testaments to the unvarnished truth of our current healthcare system- Warts and all. They say a picture is worth a thousands words…well, these paintings take that a whole magnitude higher. The stories represented, matched with the faces of those who experienced them, floated by haunting, healing, hoping to be evocative, provocative and freed to be shared with the world, dared us to deny our humanity. Awareness of this TRUTH was no longer optional, it would NOT be denied, and it refused to SHUT UP! What we've seen can never be unseen and it is from this new place of understanding, confusion, awareness that we will venture forth, sure in our need to change the system for the better, resolute in our determination to SPEAK UP for what is right in our current system and to no longer shirk our DUTY to expose it's dirty little secrets to sunshine. We are all Patient Advocates now, and many of us are impatient for change. This incredible event happened at Kaiser's futuristic "Hub" of Healthcare "The Center for Total Healthcare".

The Kaiser location was the setting for the next event in #DCHealth week, as well.

The HealthCamp Foundation organized another hugely successful HealthCampDC. Remember I mentioned that we are no longer in "Alpha"? WOW! HealthCamp is all grown up now. It has its own opinions, agendas and personality now and , I've got to say, I LOVE IT! Did I say WOW already? Mark Scrimshire will go down in the history books as a true pioneer for husbanding HealthCamp from concept to a powerhouse playground of healthcare innovation, patient empowerment, participatory healthcare and human voice. The general concept brings together people of all backgrounds to discuss possibilities, problems, experiences and plans for healthcare. Think Brainstorming meets Speed-dating meets Empowered Patients meets Innovators and they all run into Action, Desire and Determination. Sounds like a party, right? Well, let's say it is a party with a purpose- The Human Party running on a platform of Patient-focused Participatory Medicine. We were proud to sponsor another HealthCamp and even more pleased to participate. We had a session on the #GreenButton as a method for patients and healthcare consumers to voluntarily donate THEIR healthcare data for research to allow for the crowd-sourcing of real-time patient data, allow the study and analysis of that data, leading to the establishing of evidence and outcome based practice to improve patient outcomes. HealthCamp could really needs its own full, detailed blog post, so consider that a VERY brief overview.

A bit of whirlwind travel later and I'd arrived home, late Wednesday, and was in NYC at 7am for the unNiched Satellite presentation of the Datapalooza event in DC. Now, not being there in DC but viewing from NYC limits my ability to share too much, but from what we saw Todd Park and team have created a monster :-) A morning of high profile speakers, high-powered announcements and highly caffeinated innovators lead to demonstrations of healthcare applications that utilize the vast amounts of data that the government has made available. It was promised that 45 applications would be demonstrated by the end of the day- Wow! The unNiched event in NYC kicked off with keynotes by Fard Johnmar from Enspektos and Dr. Jaime Torres the Regional Director of Region II for HHS, comments by Krissy Goelz and myself and then a Ustream broadcast of the DC #HealthApps event. This was followed by a robust discussion of what we had seen, the government's role in Healthcare innovation, the participation of healthcare consumers and the general realization for many in attendance that the line has been drawn, the bar has been moved and that it was time to take off the gloves.

#DCHealth week will continue on Friday and culminate on Saturday with a HUGE Hackathon for Healthcare Apps- Unfortunately I will be unable to attend.

"Healthcare" consider your self notified- The future is here! It includes technologies, data, providers, institutions, pharm, devices and, MOST importantly, a newly empowered, engaged and exceptional patient population that DEMANDS to be participants in THEIR own healthcare, to OWN their own data and to use THAT data to discern the TRUTH about effective healthcare, efficacious treatments and to Effect Change. And I tell you what, you'd be foolish to disregard them- THEY have SPOKEN!!

I am honored an humbled to be here, on this precipice with all of YOU, as we change our future as individuals, communities and as a society. I am privileged to know many of these change agents personally, I promise to do my part and will treat our cumulative and individual successes as springboards to continued improvement, as steps to a healthier Healthcare system and as markers of change from our tenuous beginnings. "Walkers" keep on walkin', Talkers get to talkin' and Mover's & Shakers- yep, you guessed it- Get to Movin' and Shakin'!

"A 'Date' With Innovation" The BluePrintHIT Innovation Summit Series

2011-05-29T09:22:00.001-04:00

Last week, the senior management of YourNurseIsOn.com was in Philadelphia for a "date", actually for ten dates, with hospitals and health systems on the cutting edge of healthcare innovation. How does a healthcare IT start-up arrange ten 15-minute "dates" with such prestigious institutions such as Beth Israel Deaconess, Penn Medicine, Saint Barnabas, Geisinger, Christiana, CentraState, MainLine Health, Bucktail Medical Center and others? It is easy! Simply create a world-changing healthcare start-up, like YourNurseIsOn.com, apply to BluePrintHIT's Innovation Summit with dozens of other innovators and hope that you are one of the ten innovative companies chosen from the applicants. If you are chosen, you then have the opportunity for ten 15-minute "dates" with hospitals that are actively seeking innovative solutions.

Let me explain, BluePrintHIT teamed up with perennial change agents Wil Yu from the ONC and John Moore from Chilmark Research and created a world-class advisory board to bring innovators and hospitals together with the intent of generating real pilots, contracts and healthcare change. Now when I say world class advisory panel, I mean world-class! From the relatively unknown John Halamka ;-) to other CIO, Entrepreneur and academic healthcare leaders, BluePrint has assembled a team of dedicated experts committed to spreading healthcare innovations into practice. Let's not forget BluePrintHIT's incredible team of Mike Squires, Mark Stevens, Rebecca Goldberg and the indefatigable Pam Kaur, all lead by the genius of Vikas Khosla- with the powerful mission to facilitate the adoption healthcare technologies by healthcare institutions. Kudos, to the team!

As for any good "date", there was a lot of preparation: Who are they?; Where are they from?; What could we possibly have in common?; Am I sure about this? LOL!

And, like many "dates" there was a bit of sacrifice: We are driving how far? How much time do we need away? Do I have a baby-sitter? and How much is all of this going to cost?? (We went "dutch" and split the bill ;-).

Finally, there are the concerns…What if they just don't 'get us'? ; What if they don't like us?; What if they DO?; How do I look?; Anything in my teeth?? And, like most "dates", all of this was needless worry and it all went just fine- heck, it was quite enjoyable even :-)

The general premise of the BluePrintHIT Innovation Summit Series is to bring 10 innovative healthcare IT start-ups together with ten innovative healthcare systems. These companies all enjoy a couple of groundwork-laying sessions about how pilot programs may be structured, expectation setting and progressing through next steps. Throw in a success story or two and everyone is ready to begin looking for a match of their own. Five 15-minute sessions with five "dates" passes quickly and soon it is time for lunch, after which we have five more "dates". At the end of all of the speed-dating, preferences are prioritized and the "super-secret, highly accurate BluePrint algorithms" are employed to find the two best matches for each innovator and healthcare system. This leads to two 30-minute sessions or follow-up "dates" to get to know each other better, decide if there may be a fit and to plan the next steps.

Like this overview video shows:

I am happy to say that they LOVED us! And the feelings were mutual :-) We were matched with two very progressive healthcare systems and look forward to exploring the possibilities of working together with both of them. In true entrepreneur style, we also "got the digits" of a couple of other attractive institutions with a promise to "give them a call sometime" and look forward to doing just that. Without a doubt we would participate again and can highly recommend that any interested innovators and healthcare systems not hesitate, to apply to, and to attend these events…Innovators must remember that you may ONLY be selected for ONE of the summits in the series. Progressive healthcare institutions and systems would be well advised to sponsor and participate in this event…if truly serious about innovation in your organizations.

A heartfelt "Thank You!!" to all of the organizers, participants and, especially, our "dates" at this inaugural BluePrintHIT Innovation Summit. We cherish our participation in this summit, relish the thoughts of future business relationships and heartily endorse the concept of Healthcare IT start-ups "playing the field" to find suitable partners for sharing our innovations. So check out the BluePrintHIT Innovation Summit Series which is coming soon to the Mid-West and the West Coast, if the Mid-Atlantic Summit was any indicator of future success- You'd better put the date for your "dates" on the calendar ASAP!

If this TweetReach Report is any indicator...This is going to catch on!

Learn more about BluePrintHIT Innovation Summit HERE

Learn more about YourNurseIsOn.com HERE

HealthCampCT@Yale: HealthCamp goes to the Ivy Leagues

2011-04-04T10:22:00.001-04:00

On April 2. 2011 the future of healthcare descended upon the Yale School of Nursing in New Haven, CT. In the form of an un-conference called HealthCampCT@Yale, forty healthcare visionaries, technologists, academics, patients and providers came together to explore challenges, successes and failures of our current healthcare system in an open-sourced, collaborative environment. Hosted by the venerable Yale School of Nursing, a world leader in Nursing education and healthcare leadership, and produced by the HealthCamp Foundation, HealthCampCT@Yale was the very first HealthCamp held in CT and a wonderful start it was! Months of planning and logistics culminated in an event that was world-class in its attendees, presenters, audience and participation. One measure of its success was the reach of the event on the internet and through social media. A "TweetReach" report of the event showed that they reached over 85,000 people with nearly 1.1 MILLION internet "impressions" in a single day!! This is a remarkable amount of impact from a inaugural event and bodes well for the future of HealthCamps in Connecticut. This was accomplished in spite of traditional media outlets such as the New Haven Register and WTNH television providing no coverage of the event (despite repeated requests :-(. The success of events, such as this one, despite the lack of traditional media involvement is a net positive for social media, Connecticut's citizenry and for grassroots initiatives world-wide and clearly demonstrates that their is a new way to share information that doesn't require approval, ad revenue or corporate censorship. WooHoo!

The local organizing team consisted of forward thinking Yale School of Nursing (YSN)Faculty members Judy Kunich and Margaret Moss, incredible leadership by Veronica Goode from YSN Dean Margaret Grey's office, and Yale Alumni Joseph Cerro and Matthew Browning. This team was augmented by the founders of the HealthCamp Foundation Mark Scrimshire and Maumi JC Chatterton. Further invaluable support was provided by YSN's Frank Grosso, Steve Varley, John Powers, Adam Humme and Neal Greene. After several meetings, piles of paper and complex coordination, the framework for bringing HealthCamp to the Ivy League was completed. With YSN now hosting the event at their facility, we were free to find sponsors for the event. Sponsors included Independent Software, Global Entertainment & Media, The Donaghue Foundation, Health 2.0, The Yale Rudd Center, FairCareMD, Family Medicine Rocks, and even support from RWJF and The Future of Nursing. This was augmented with support from many "Friends of HealthCamp" and my company, YourNurseIsOn.com. No conference can run without food and our incredible, healthy catering was provided by Jenelle's of New Haven.

Finally, April 2nd arrived and HealthCampers began to arrive at YSN as early as 7 a.m. to begin the set-up of the topic board, the food and the all important coffee. With the help of our AWESOME volunteers Phoebe Browning, Christopher Adams, Ann Marie Adams and others, we made quick work of it and settled into our breakfast and networking. Soon, Mark issued a call for topics and attendees wrote their ideas and interests on index cards which were then added to the schedule board for the day. Rooms and time slots quickly filled up and we even added a lunchtime walking tour of the neighborhood's revitalization, tree-planting, organic gardening and urban farm. The completed schedule can be found here- HealthCampCT Schedule

The sessions were lively and engaging, the presentees and attendees collaborated and sparred on different ideas, possibilities and solutions to complex healthcare challenges and issues. At times consensus was reached, agreements achieved and solutions created and at other times disagreements were aired, parochial paradigms deconstructed and agreements to agree to disagree were the outcome. Overall many important ideas were shared and explored, many new friends were made and many possibilities for next steps embraced by those in attendance. There was a non-stop stream of commentary on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and YouTube- We even had live-streaming on the internet accessible through the HealthCamp Foundations site via Ustream. Did I mention over 1 MILLION internet impressions for this event in a SINGLE day?? WOW!

Two morning time slots with 4 sessions each brought us to that incredible lunch from Jenelle's in New Haven!! YUM! Three salads, two main courses and one wonderful dessert later it was definitely time for the walking tour. A quick trip around 2 blocks near Yale showed the concepts of HealthCamp in action; houses rehabilitated and lived in, perennial flower gardens, organic inner-city food plots, urban chickens, renewed tree planting and the fostering of a healthy community for area residents as the very real results of one HealthCamper's vision and dedication to the neighborhood. The invigorating walk cleared the lunchtime lethargy and prepared HealthCampers for a rigorous afternoon of eight more sessions followed by a debriefing for the day's events and reluctant goodbyes. For those who couldn't yet part ways, the Camp continued at Kelly's on Crown with our wonderful host Patrick for some cold drinks, warm food and hot conversations. HealthCamp@Yale was a wonderful introduction for Connecticut to the amazing, grassroots work of the HealthCamp Foundation and we eagerly look forward to next year's event!

A big "THANK YOU!!" to all of the Yale School of Nursing, the organizing team, our incredible sponsors, dedicated volunteers, amazing attendees and, of course, to the HealthCamp Foundation for turning this concept from a potential possibility to a redefining reality. Kudos!

For more information about Yale School Of Nursing - Click Here

For More Information about HealthCamp - http://healthca.mp/

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning receives the Shorty Award for "Nurse of the Year" from Nurse Jackie's Stephen Wallem (Nurse Thor)

2011-03-29T10:44:00.001-04:00

WOW!! We just won a Shorty Award for "Nurse of the Year"! And, it was presented by Stephen Wallem from Showtime's Nurse Jackie series!! Thank You to all of you who voted for us!!

This was my 140 character acceptance speech-

I THANK my Family, Team, Tweeps, the "Academy" & YourNurseIsOn.com for allowing me to serve #Nurses & #Healthcare providers around the World!

.

YourNurseIsOn.com gets a "spark"

2011-03-08T08:54:00.000-05:00

This is a very cool video tool from our friends at Call2Action- Thanks Tristan!

YourNurseIsOn.com at HIMSS11 - Gaining Global Attention (Thanks Schwartz Communications & Twitter!)

2011-02-26T08:27:00.000-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com was chosen as the winner of Schwartz Communications Twitter Contest and won a professionally produced video, as seen below. If you'd like to gain GLOBAL attention simply create an awesome product, build a great company, work with world-reknowned customers and use Schwartz Communications to help get the word out at a world-class event like HIMSS11 !! WOW!

Please share your thoughts, your comments and this post below.

,

YourNurseIsOn.com at HIMSS11 - The Journey Begins

2011-02-25T01:08:00.003-05:00

The “Olympics” of Healthcare IT is the huge annual HIMSS conference and YourNurseIsOn.com was excited to go to HIMSS11 in Orlando. Like any start-up company, our people wear a number of hats, are busy and occasionally, make mistakes. I recount this story as an example of logistical challenges, flexible responses, dogged determination and perseverance in pursuit the mission. To attend HIMSS11, I needed to depart Hartford, CT on February 19 and would return February 24th. My plan was to attend the HIT Investor Forum on Sunday, we had been selected as a contestant in the HIT X.0 “Geeks Got Challenge” for Monday, hoped to make it to the finals for Tuesday and also expected to spend considerable time at booth #1331 which we shared with Intelligent Insites, our newest integration partners. Simple enough, right?

Wrong! To be more efficient, my executive assistant (me), attempted to book the hotels and travel for two conferences simultaneously and was quite satisfied to have found great deals for both HIMSS11 and the upcoming ACHE Congress in Chicago. The error in my ways became evident on the way to the airport when my lovely wife, Phoebe, began to call the airport to confirm our timely departure during a very windy afternoon. “MATTHEW!,” she shouted from the passenger seat, startling me from my “did I forget to pack anything” thought process, “THESE tickets are for MARCH 19th...”.

Now showing up to your flight without a valid ticket is rather frowned upon in this country, and can lead to a lovely discussion with various customer service “overlords.”

The very “helpful” woman on JetBlue’s “help” line nicely reminded me that ONLY an ignoramus would not bother to check his reservation 42 times before leaving the house to depart on the aforementioned non-existent flight. “Really?” I enquired, imagine for a second that you worked 80 hours per week for the last 3 years, hadn’t had a “day off” in month’s and gave up sleep for Lent so that you could facilitate a new integration, a new pilot implementation, prepare for a worldwide IT competition and , of course, arrange your travel... none of that lends itself to being perfect and may have even contributed to my glaring oversight. So, I askedfar to nicely, when you are done lecturing me on proper flight reservation review protocol, would you please tell me how I can fix this major faux pas?

Oh that would be easy, she let me know, it is nothing that $750 dollars ADDITIONAL couldn’t fix. Is there no other way I implored, as she wallowed in her customer service power trip. “No!” was all I heard. Now, I know that any well-meaning organization can mistakenly hire an anti-social troglodyte ;-) ( or more likely she was just having her own struggles that day), but having flown JetBlue many times, I hoped there might be a better way. So, I thanked her for her abuse and hung up in disgust, almost believing her about how dumb I had been to not check my reservation 42 times! This had never happened to me in 30 years of solo air travel. How the heck was I going to get to Orlando? by tomorrow morning? should I go at all? should I fly out tomorrow? how about from NYC or?? and how the hell did I do this? A few deep breaths later, I realized it is a mistake, decided it will be remedied and proceeded to the airport to beg for mercy. Did I mention logistical challenges?

At the Hartford airport, I proceeded to the JetBlue counter, without my bags, to see if there was ANYTHING that could be done. I was helped by two incredible customer service dynamos, Julie and Juan. “Night and day” could not even begin to describe the contrast between the telephone “service” we’d received and the exemplary service provided by these two. I explained by plight, and explained my needs. They apologized to me for the inconvenience and proceeded to squeeze me onto the next flight with the slightest of penalties for my incorrect reservation, and my eternal gratitude. They absolutely gained a customer for life and my respect for their professionalism, which I immediately conveyed to their manager and the world. This is the type of flexible response that we will model for our own customer service.

Upon landing in Orlando I went to the hotel to find that I had, of course, booked the hotel at the same time as the flight- with the same incorrect dates... unbelievable! The Days Inn “convention center” informed me that they had NO room for me that evening but that they COULD accommodate me for Sunday through Thursday. Whew! Lucky me, I got a room across the street form HIMSS11 at the very last minute. However, that left me stuck in Orlando, with no rooms available anywhere in town, at 9 pm on a Saturday evening. Tired, hungry, and needing a place to crash, we went into our creative, problem-solving, startup company mode...How do we accomplish the objective with the resources at hand? I had web-access and 30,000 friends, or soon to be friends, attending HIMSS11 with me- maybe one of them could help? A simple twitter request was re-tweeted by friends and lead to a wonderful late night discussion with a doctor friend from NYC before retiring to his extra hotel bed (Thanks again, Doc!). Lying down, exhausted, in the dark before visiting the sandman, I reflected on the day and decided that my dogged determination not only got me to HIMSS11 in time for Sunday’s kick-off, but was largely responsible for YourNurseIsOn.com’s amazing success at reinventing healthcare staff communications by creating an entirely new way to communicate, from a simple sketch on a napkin to an effective software as a service.

Perseverance plus presence equals opportunity, and our ability to rally, be flexible and to adapt to rapidly changing terrain allowed us to persevere through our travel challenges, to be present at HIMSS11 for the HIT Investor Forum on Sunday and to avail ourselves of the numerous opportunities present in a room full of HIT movers and shakers. The challenges that we overcame en-route lent perspective and clarity to the mission of the trip. This wasn’t optional, debatable or impossible- period! It was going to happen, had to happen and in true start-up fashion it did happen. I don’t present this story to wave my mistake to the world, but rather as an example of the “never say quit” spirit of new entrepreneurs worldwide who go “all in” to innovate, disrupt and change paradigms, possibilities and potential. The obstacles are “barriers to entry” and if you allow them to stop your mission, you will certainly fail. My advice to those visionaries, change agents and disruptors is simple- If you experience an adversarial customer “service” person, a logistical nightmare or seemingly insurmountable odds- don’t despair! Work the plan, be creative, solve the problems, side step and keep on dancing to your own tune. If you are true to your “music”, your vision is unclouded, and your motives are pure- your chances of success increase greatly. No one but yourself can make you stop pursuing the dream and, I don’t know about you, but nothing (and I mean NOTHING) is going to stop me from sharing YourNurseIsOn.com with the world! Good luck with YOUR journey! I believe you can do it, and look forward to your successes.

Thank You.

YourNurseIsOn.com and Pecha Kucha - Interconnectivity as a Way of Life

2010-11-03T09:58:00.000-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning will be presenting "Interconnectivity" in New Haven, CT at Bentara Restaurant on Wednesday November 3rd at 6pm as part of the Pecha Kucha Event. Pecha Kucha means "chit chat" and is a presentation formatted with 20 slides presented for 20 seconds each slide. "Chit chat" is as is as ancient and traditional as "Interconnectivity" between humans; Pecha Kucha and YourNurseIsOn.com just give them a kiss of modernity with a disruptive twist. Please join us for an evening of wonderful presenters and novel ideas. YourNurseisOn.com is pleased to have been invited to participate in the wonderful event and looks forward to an incredible evening.

Learn more about YourNurseIsOn.com's patent-pending communications revolution here at

YourNurseIsOn.com

Learn more about Pecha Kucha New Haven here- Pech Kucha New Haven, CT

Health 2.0 Week, HealthCamp SFBay and Health 2.0 Conference 2010

2010-10-12T05:45:00.000-04:00

San Francisco is celebrated world-wide for its historic architecture, multi-cultural heritage and glorious past. It has gracefully transitioned into the modern era, embracing human rights and equality, energy conservation and mass-transit and has become a de-facto mecca for technology with its valley of Silicon being ogled, and “Googled,” from both near and afar. The sanctity of that sureness advanced this week as the future of healthcare, in the form of the Health 2.0 week, stormed the Golden Gates and announced an new era of collaboration, exploration, innovation and wellness.

Never has the world seen such a conflux of disrupters, advocates, patients, technologists, writers, social media experts, investors, wizards, sages, gurus and staunch defenders of the old paradigms in an open, transparent, and international forum. They came to directly address, and begin to change, real and perceived challenges that are present within our existing healthcare system. An eclectic group of savvy cats herded by the indefatigable and prescient founders of the Health 2.0 Conferences, Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, gathered to scratch the surface of healthcare’s future, hiss at existing inefficiencies and purr about interoperability with full access to our own data. The legacy providers were very busy, demonstrating surprising nimbleness, or were left licking their wounds in the cat box.

The rapid and dominant ascendence of the Health 2.0 conference, now a week-long affair, into a major international healthcare event lead San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to declare it “Health 2.0 Week” in San Francisco on Friday. Saturday, cleverly maneuvering to not be outdone by Friday, included a major Health 2.0 Developer’s challenge to create useful healthcare applications while newly accessible government data. This was a clearly overreaching, shattering all boundaries and expectations, rallying the diligent disciples and vibrant visionaries of Health 2.0 technology and relative unknowns, like Google, who hosted the event. We loved the idea, the execution, the attention and the winning apps! Unfortunately, we did not attended. It was only fitting that the ascendent to the uber-throne of healthcare application coding should be Alan Viars, of Videntity fame, who won the Health 2.0 Developer challenge.

On Wednesday, some attention switched to Kaiser’s Garfield Center in San Leandro for a very well organized and executed “unconference” called HealthCamp SFBay. Two hundred and fifty healthcare change agents converging at a world-class, world renown innovation center for a loosely structured, vibrant adventure into healthcare’s possibilities and potential. Envision a pinball machine of intriguing ideas bouncing around, setting off chain reactions of other remarkable possibilities- some leading to high scores, bright lights and high-fiving, while others spiral down to disappear out of play. A spectacular machine topped with a process as transparent as glass, where attendees may watch events unfolding as spectators, or effortlessly slip into play. A finely tuned mechanism that enable one to modify the future with a slight nudge or bump of an idea, or to abruptly end the play with a “tilt.” Constructed on four sturdy legs of Healthcare, Technology, People and Collaboration, HealthCamp allows participants to actualize imagination in a supportive exploratory environment to gauge reaction, interest, need and potential of ideas and concepts.

“A bunch of smart cookies, cooking up some smart things” would be an accurate description.

It was now time for the main event, a scheduled two-rounder with heavyweights, lightweights, successful producers and “soon to be, too-ers.” There was hardware, software, vaporware, “some day, somewhere”, everywhere and anywhere. There were common themes and uncommon dreams, free-miums and premiums, open sourced, crowd sourced, and poorly sourced ideas in abundance. Collaborators, instigators, perpetuators, and their haters, were present as well, complaining to high heaven about our “hell”thcare hell. There were prognosticators, with their indicators and their data in tow. Trailblazers with case studies, analysis, white papers and and facts were seen frolicking with dreamers making something, for someone unknown. The were names of Fame centered on stage, many worthy of praise, alternately expecting us to provide all of our data to them, or empowering us to access our information, needed healthcare research and locating healthcare providers. Indu and Matthew did a spectacular job at harnessing the creative chaos and channeling it into a substantive program replete with sex, drugs, rock and roll and, oh yeah, a whole lot of new and actionable information. Attendees were afforded incredible access to organizers, sponsors, presenters and other attendees. Heck, you can even invite Todd Parks to participate in your demo on-stage ;-).

Let’s call this the pre-amble, if you will. I look forward to summarizing our experiences at the Health 2 conference as soon as possible. Enjoy! And remember, talk health to me, Baby...

When Porter Research talks...Kaiser, Mayo, Siemens, Medtronic & YourNurseIsOn.com

2010-08-21T12:55:00.001-04:00

A wonderful write-up by Jennifer Dennard for Porter Research entitled "Innovation: The Common Ground in the Healthcare Vendor/Provider Space" that discusses the leaders in healthcare innovation today can be found HERE .

It explores how healthcare leaders such a Kaiser, Mayo, Siemens, Medtronic and YourNurseIsOn.com are innovating solutions to today's, and tomorrow's, healthcare challenges.

We are proud to be nationally recognized as leaders in healthcare communications innovation by Porter Research and will continue to work with these and other leading healthcare systems to improve their real-time communication abilities.

YourNurseIsOn.com provides real-time, two-way, multi-channel communications capabilities to healthcare organizations nation-wide. Hardware agnostic communications by phone, text and email for effortless shift fulfillment, routine and emergency communication are now a reality.

We put your organization's needs into your providers hands...instantly and collaboratively.

.

Innovation, Kaiser's Garfield Center, YourNurseIsOn.com & Human-Centered Design

2010-08-09T10:25:00.000-04:00

On August 3, 2010 excitement, enthusiasm and anticipation descended upon Kaiser Permanente’s Sidney R. Garfield Innovation Center in San Leandro, California cleverly disguised as an early morning group of healthcare innovators and leaders. As our invitations read, our group had assembled:

“At the Sidney R. Garfield Innovation Center (Directed by the awesome Jennifer Liebermann), Kaiser Permanente's patients, doctors, nurses, architects and engineers use elements of human-centered design to improve and to innovate physical spaces, technologies and clinical operations in a unique, “movie-set” warehouse. Many of our innovations have been spread throughout Kaiser Permanente as well as to organizations nationally and internationally.”

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, RN, and approximately fifty other healthcare leaders, attended the inaugural Innovation Workshop for non-Kaiser employees. Entitled “Innovation and Improvement in Process, Space and Planning” the innovation workshop featured Human-Centered Design principles and explored Kaiser’s methodology for finding and fostering innovation in healthcare. These principles were taught to workshop participants during an intensive “two-day inaugural session that introduces our unique methodology and prototyping capabilities at the Garfield Center led by Kaiser Permanente innovators from our own Innovation Consultancy, Innovation and Advanced Technology and National Facilities departments.” The workshop was further explained as “during this highly interactive session, participants will focus on improving medication safety as a case study and actively prototype new spaces, technologies and processes that improve medication safety.”

I am happy to say it exceeded my high expectations and proved to be a highly informative, very educational and unquestionably valuable workshop for all of the participants.

Highlights of the program included:

•Experiencing first-hand how Kaiser understands their users’ needs and then ideates and prototypes new processes, spaces and technologies

•Learning how we can engage end-users (patients, doctors and nurses) and how they can impact the successful spread and sustainability of innovation

•Understanding how we can learn from failure and embrace it as part of our culture

•Learning how to build your own Innovation Center and process

•Collaborating with other like-minded innovators on real world cases

Through expert instruction, example and interaction we were able to achieve the following learning objectives:

•Understanding of human-centered design & collaboration as powerful tools for innovation

•Extrapolating case study learnings to real world problems

•Understanding of different innovation centers and their similarities and differences

Participants were engaged in learning exercises to: identify potential areas for innovation; practice brainstorming techniques to capture possibilities, learn how to group, rank and rate ideas; act out, or “bodystorm’ ideas to clarify utility; and, finally, utilize processes to encourage the adoption or “spread” of an innovation. These ideas are summed up in the phrase “storming, forming and norming,” and are incredibly effective in facilitating a “fail quickly and cheaply” mindset that is essential to innovation prototyping. Acting out of scenarios using a new idea, product or processes should occur in “low-fidelity” mode to save time, money and effort in the beginning. “Low-fidelity” includes using items like chairs, cardboard and other inexpensive, readily available props to “simulate” the innovation. Using real life humans (our teams) to act out these scenarios in our hastily created low-fidelity simulations allowed us to quickly examine an ideas feasibility and decide to refine it or reject it immediately, or to “fail fast.” This was an invaluable exercise and allows an organization to quickly and easily decide where it may best use its limited resources.

Everything about this workshop was world-class. We had a diverse group of widely respected professionals as facilitators, teachers, speakers and participants. The Garfield Innovation Center is exemplary setting for an innovative space that is effective and efficient. Extraordinary efforts were taken to ensure a successful program as evidenced by the smooth registration process, the convenient lodging, the delicious catering, the excellent networking event and the obvious preparation of the instructors, facilitators and collateral. Discussions about an “Advanced Innovation Workshop” and a LinkedIn community where innovators and Garfield Center “graduates” could remain in contact and contribute occurred and may lead to amazing things from incredible connected community.

As a leading healthcare innovation technology company, YourNurseIsOn.com was pleased to attend and participate in Kaiser’s inaugural innovation workshop and looks forward to working with progressive innovators from around the world. We anticipate Kaiser’s continued success in the fostering of innovation and await word of the LinkedIn group and Advanced Programs so we can continue to be involved. We would also like to thank the attendees at this workshop for sharing your wisdom, knowledge and experiences with us all- without you all, it would have been just another seminar...

And finally, a big THANK YOU to the tireless Kaiser crew at the Garfield Innovation Center, Collective Invention’s consultants, KP’s Innovation Consultancy Group, KP’s Innovation & Advanced Technology Group and KP’s National Facilities Group. Individual recognition must be given to Jennifer Liebermann, Christi Zuber, Chris McCarthy, Deanna Konrath, Sherry Fry, W. Scott Heisler and Kent Yoshiwara from Kaiser’s various groups and to Collective Invention’s Erika Gregory, Fiona Hovenden and Arnold Wasserman. Individually you are all awesome and as a group “You ROCK!!.”

Thank you to all of you for sharing your wisdom, your experiences, your teaching, your friendship and your time.

Health 2.0 Goes To Washington- A summary

2010-06-19T10:29:00.003-04:00

Health 2.0 goes to Washington was held on June 7, 2010 in Washington, DC at The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. YourNurseIsOn.com was in attendance along with hundreds of other Health 2.0 companies, entrepreneurs, ePatients, advocates and government officials for this exciting day of events. Once again, I left a Health 2.0 event feeling as though I had learned many things, met some wonderful people and had reinforced our collective vision of quality healthcare that is available for all people.

Our “conference calculus” is always performed before we spend a single dollar of our start-up budget to attend any of the myriad events in the “healthcare space.” As CEO of YourNurseIsOn.com it is my job to constantly introduce our company and it’s instant, 2-way, healthcare staff communications system to potential customers, possible investors, government movers and shakers and the healthcare business media. When performing our “conference calculus” on the various conferences we could attend, I am always impressed that Matthew Holt and Dr. Indu Subaiya’s Health 2.0 conferences rate so highly.

The DC event was my second Health 2.0 event, the first was in San Francisco in October 2009 when YourNurseIsOn.com was selected to present for 3.5 minutes live on-stage to an international audience. The board of directors of YourNurseIsOn.com, including myself, was incredulous that we would even consider buying a plane ticket, a hotel room and flying across the USA to present for a few minutes at a “newer” health conference. However, after speaking with Matthew and Indu, several previous presenters and participants, and much homework, we decided to attend. It was, without a doubt, on of the best business decisions made by our company. During a whirlwind couple of days we met corporate leaders, healthcare investors, fellow entrepreneurs, ePatients with moving stories and hundreds of people figuring out a “better way” to deliver care and participate in our healthcare system.

“Health 2.0 Goes to Washington” was all of that and much more. Connecting with old friends, meeting familiar social media faces in real life, and the magical chaos of sponsors, entreprenuers, patient advocates, ePatients and investors made for a high energy, action packed day. The addition of prominent government officials, who are striving to encourage participation in the future of healthcare design and delivery, added an official “we’ve arrived” feeling to the event. Once again, all the ingredients needed for an action packed day where present and accounted for.

The unofficial kick-off was the Tweetup held Sunday night at Vaviano’s near DuPont Circle in DC. Organized by the ever supportive Cindy Throop (@CindyThroop) and attended by Phil Baumann (@PhilBaumann or @RNChat), Trisha Torrey (@TrishaTorrey), Barbara Ficarra (@BarbaraFicarra), Carlos Rizo (@CarlosRizo), Amy Romano (@midwifeamy), Gilles Frydman (@gfry), Mark Schrimshire (@ekivemark), Francisco Grajales (@CiscoGiii) and several others was a great way to connect, reconnect and kick-off Health 2.0 Goes to Washington.

The next morning, bright and early, registration and breakfast began. I met Carol Torgan (@CTorgan) as she checked me in to the event and we both commented on the excitement in the air for the day’s events. At breakfast, we became reacquainted with old friends and made new ones. I even met the world famous investor Esther Dyson (@edyson) and said a brief “Hello.” We then headed to the auditorium for the morning’d events which began with an introduction by Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) and Indu Subaiya (@BlueTopaz) to ONC initiatives by the ever-helpful Wil Yu, Director of Innovation for the ONC’s Health IT program.

Then came the Health 2.0 tools showcase with presentations by Greg Fitzgerald of HealthCentral, Howard Steinberg of dLife, Ellen Baldinelli of ScanAvert, Alexandra Drane of Eliza, Mike Kirkwood of Polka, Matt Parker of DestinationRx and the inimitable Erick Von Schweber with his entertaining SurveyorHEALTH demonstration all moderated by Health 2.0 Accelerator’s Julie Murchinson.

Next up was our panel discussion “The Role of Consumers in Health 2.0” moderated by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn (@healthythinker) and included Linda Harris from the HHS, Carol Diamond of the Markle Foundation, Gordan Norman of Alere, and Trisha Torrey of About.com. It was a lively discussion about the role of consumers in healthcare with great points made by all. And to think, it was only 10 am.

Our coffee break include opportunities to see the Cisco ‘Deep Dive” with Dr. Danny Sands (@DrDannySands) or check out the exhibition hall. The WebEx for Healthcare seemed like a good idea from the Cisco Deep Dive. After this break we returned for the ‘Data drives Decisions” part of the showcase. David Hale from the National Library of Medicine showed us their amazing Pillbox software that can ID medication tablets over the phone. Hugo Stephenson showed us iGuard to notify of recalls (and gave away an Ipad), Mark Walinske explained Boundary Medical and Daniel Palestrant discussed Sermo.

A Todd Park keynote on data liberation lead to a panel discussion with Kenneth Buetow from the National Cancer Institute, Patrick Soon-Shiong the amazing Chairman of Abraxis Health and Josh Sommer of The Chordoma Foundation. All of them had remarkable stories to share and plenty of inspiration to go around. This lead to lunch.

Lunch demonstrated some of the magic that happens at a Health 2.0 event. I was in discussions with a well-known media personality about a story on YourNurseIsOn.com, while being approached to partner with a newer firm that wants to be able to instantly communicate with their customers and, momentarily interrupting both of them, I tried for the third time that day to share what YourNurseIsOn.com is and does with Esther Dyson. As she was hurrrying past to another important meeting, I asked her for a moment of her time to tell her what YourNurseIsOn.com does. Mid-way through her practiced, polite brush-off she suddenly stopped, faced me full-on, squared her shoulders as she squinted her appraisal of me and said, “You’ve got 1 minute.” An entreprenuer’s dream come true! Without hesitation those hundreds and hundreds of repeated 60 second and 90 second “elevator pitches” produced a clear, precise explanation of what YourNurseIsOn.com is and does- We help hospitals and healthcare systems contact and confirm their providers and other staff by 2-way text, phone and email communications- to put the right people in the right place at the right time. She graciously stated, “it sounds like a great idea” and asked for my card. I gladly provided one, thanked her for her time, and said I’d be in touch and shook her hand “goodbye.” I then returned to my table of my now amazed colleagues, shook hands on exploring the partnership with our new Health 2.0 company friend, agreed to do a piece with my journalist friend and then went back to the auditorium, riding on cloud nine, and proceeded to shake hands and converse with Wil Yu from the ONC. Man!, I love these events :-)

The afternoon was a wonderful blur of new introductions, Dr. Danny Sands, Patrick Soon-Shiong, Jamie Heywood of Patients Like Me, Erik Von Schweber, Ted Eytan (@TedEytan), Regina Holliday (@reginaholliday), Gilles Frydman, David Hale (@lostonroute66), Kevin Walsh (@KWalsh30) and many more. In addition we participated in “Moving the Needle of Innovation Together” a great breakout session hosted by Wil Yu and Julie Murchinson that grouped participants together to try and brainstorm solutions to specific health 2.0 challenges. It was beneficial and enlightening and many of the participants felt we could do a full day session of just this type of problem-solving.

Back to the auditorium for an energetic keynote, the HHS announced the freeing of enormous amounts of HHS data for developers and announced a “Developer’s Challenge” that you can find out more about on the Health 2.0 website. We then had the last panel of the day with Esther Dyson, Chris Schroeder and Wil Yu that clearly summed up the day- Health 2.0’s challenges are our opportunities for business, growth, health and enlightenment. Together we can address this challenge successfully with a combination of technology and common sense.

When I do my “conference calculus” on which events to spend our marketing and education dollars, Health 2.0 events always seem to come out on top. The amazing blend of industry, government, providers, payors, patients and entrepreneurs is unrivaled, unparalleled, and undoubtably worth the time, effort and expense to attend.

To Matthew Holt, Indu Subaiya and the entire Health 2.0 crew and community, Kudos! on another job well done!

YourNurseIsOn.com and myself, Matthew Browning (@matthewbrowning) will see you in San Francisco this October!! Keep up the great work!!

.

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning interviewed for ManageMyPractice.com

2010-05-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

We had a great time with Mary Pat Whaley doing this interview for ManageMyPractice.com

Thanks Mary Pat!!

Chronic Nursing Shortage Syndrome ?? Now There is a Cure ;-) Happy Nurses' Week 2010

2010-05-11T09:15:00.000-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com with a bit of tongue-in-cheek for Nurses' Week 2010!

Thank You Nurses! for all you do for all of us- EVERYDAY!

.

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning featured in Healthcare IT Today for Nurses' Week 2010

2010-05-07T08:12:00.001-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning is featured in Healthcare IT Today for Nurses' Week 2010.

Mr. Browning thanks the wonderful team at Healthcare IT Today for this honor and wishes all nurses a Happy National Nurses' Week 2010!!

The article can be seen HERE

More info can be found HERE

YourNurseIsOn.com Helps With Healthcare Workforce Retention and Flex Scheduling

2010-04-26T07:48:00.000-04:00

Here is our new marketing piece- comments??

SBIR 2010, Connecticut's Governor Jodi Rell, IntelliBlast and YourNurseIsOn.com

2010-04-23T07:41:00.000-04:00

An amazing second day at the national 2010 SBIR Conference in Hartford, CT through today.

Supporting Small Business Innovation and Research, The SBIR conference attracted an amazing mix of technology entrepreneurs, researchers, government officials, media and investors. Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell spoke at the luncheon and was gracious enough to meet with several attendees to intently listen to their possible solutions to existing problems and their visions for the future. Her wonderful and supportive colleagues were busy exchanging business cards and meeting with attendees.

Later in the evening the SBIR Poster Exhibit opened and we were fortunate to have the opportunity to exhibit along with dozens of other technology companies.

So far we have had an excellent time and met many wonderful folks! This is an abbreviated post because I am running out the door to, and I never imagined I'd say this, "have a meeting with the Department of Homeland Security." SBIR is a great way to interact with our government and, possibly, do business together.

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, MSN, RN to Present the IntelliBlast Communications Platform at the National SBIR Conference in Hartford, CT on April 22, 2010

2010-04-21T06:20:00.004-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning will present the IntelliBlast Communications Platform at The National Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) National Conference being held in Hartford, CT from April 21 to April 23, 2010.

Mr. Browning calls the IntelliBlast Communications Platform “the brains behind the beauty” of YourNurseIsOn.com.

A sophisticated, yet easy to use, intelligent, 2-way, multi-channel communications modality that increases productivity, streamlines operations and improves outcomes, IntelliBlast has applications to any real-time business. The ability to instantly allocate a distributed workforce is just one amazing function of the IntelliBlast system, it can also instantly disperse perishable resources, initiate by human, sensor and software inputs, and can effortlessly handle and monitor your routine, emergency and continuity of operations communications.

“It is easy to see why we selected the patent-pending IntelliBlast platform as our communications engine- Instant, 2-way, intelligent and automatic- the way communications should be today, and will be in the future,” continued Browning, “the applications for the Veteran’s Administration and National Institute of Health are obvious but IntteliBlast could easily help Homeland Security, FEMA, the CDC and others respond more effectively to routine and emergency situations.”

Please stop by and visit us during the Poster Presentations on Thursday April 22, 2010 at 5:30 - 7:30 pm in Hartford, CT

More Information Here- HERE

More on Targeted Instant Communications, Inc- Click HERE

To Learn More about YourNurseIsOn.com - Click HERE

For more info on the SBIR Conference - Click HERE

For More on Matthew Browning, CEO - Click HERE

Media Enquiries - Media@YourNurseIsOn.com

YourNurseIsOn.com CFO Phoebe Browning Receives a Connecticut Senate Citation for Entrepreneurship

2010-04-15T20:32:00.002-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com would like to congratulate our CFO Phoebe Browning who has been recognized with a Connecticut State Senate Citation, by Senator Bob Duff, for her activism and involvement with Connecticut’s Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC). Mrs. Browning is a leading proponent of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the state of Connecticut and a proud supporter of science education for young women and girls. Phoebe also completed their ‘Fast Trac Growth Venture Entrepreneurial Training Program’ successfully.

Congratulations Phoebe on a job well done!

The Women's Business Development Center (WBDC) is a 501 © 3 non-profit micro-enterprise development organization whose goal is to increase economic independence for women. This is accomplished through entrepreneurial education, small business training and promotion as well as access to applicable resources and support.

To learn more about WBDC www.ctwbdc.org

Yale HealthCare 2010 and YourNurseisOn.com : Healthcare Re-Formed

2010-04-13T11:34:00.003-04:00

On the early spring morning of April 9, 2010, thousands of hours of preparations, years of healthcare experience and ideas for the future of healthcare trickled into the Omni Hotel, located in New Haven, CT, for Yale Healthcare 2010. Presented by Yale’s School of Management and titled “Re-Forming Healthcare: Excelling in a Transforming System,” it was chaired by students from The School of Management (Randi Wiggins), The School of Public Health (Diwen Chen) and The School of Medicine (Sachin Shah). It must be said that these co-chairs of the event, and their legion of student volunteers, organized an amazing event that was very well produced, kudos to the team.

Nearly 500 attendees from numerous industries arrived from their many home bases to begin the day with a healthy breakfast and some equally healthy networking. As a part of YourNurseIsOn.com, I was excited to be there as an alumnus, an attendee and a panelist contributor and met many wonderful people in the process. A warm welcome was extended by the Yale School Of Management Dean, Sharon Oster, to get things started. The morning keynote was delivered by the knowledgeable and witty Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project Hope. Her clever insight into the recently passed ‘Health Reform Bill’ was well received by the audience, and was a great start to the day.

This lead to a quick morning break that was followed by morning breakout sessions

which can be found HERE.

The session titled “#8: Financing Innovation in Healthcare” was led by Christine Gallagher of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Chip Skowron of Morgan Stanley. It was a well attended session that set out to determine the next “billion dollar products” in the healthcare arena, with a focus on pharmaceutical ‘innovations’, new medical devices and novel treatments. Cheap genome scanning seemed to be one of the few consensuses arrived at, with ‘nano-technologies’ in a generic sense, a close second.

Medical device advances will also be interesting to watch in the near future with joint replacements and cardiac technologies shining brightly. I wouldn’t expect to much investment from these larger firms in the popular wellness software and social media space within healthcare at this time- they seem stuck in the Big Pharma model of investing for now. Also, a disturbing sub-trend of big investors ‘chasing growth’ in developing countries with ‘huge markets’ by firms that benefit directly from US taxpayers bailouts was touched upon repeatedly. That trend could prove harmful to American healthcare innovation.

After the morning breakout sessions were finished, many lively lunchtime discussions could be heard in the Grand Ballroom. New acquaintances were made and information from the morning discussions was shared by all. After lunch was finished we transitioned into the Executive Panel discussion with Robert Galvin (General Electric), Michael Chernow (Harvard Med School), Sam Ho (UnitedHealthCare), Harlan Krumholz (Yale Med School) and Wendy Warring (CT Children’s Med Center). Having met Bob, Michael and Sam, I was looking forward to their insights and contributions. As expected, they were wonderful participants, but Harlan and Wendy were shining stars. Harlan’s encyclopedic knowledge and Wendy’s charming and fresh perspective (JD not MD) were excellent additions to the discussion. I look forward to meeting them both.

The afternoon breakout sessions can be found HERE (scroll down).

As CEO of YourNurseIsOn.com, I was invited to participate in breakout discussion #10 titled “Front-line Providers: Increasing Supply, Incentives and Utility.” Joining me on the panel was Mary Warner from the Physician’s Associate program at Yale’s School of Medicine and Bernadette Thomas who started Community Health Center’s Nurse Practitioner Residency Program. Moderated by the wonderful Taffany Hwang, our discussion led off with Mary discussing the background of education and practice for nurse practitioners and physician’s associates as well as their current utilization and future needs. Bernadette followed with CHC’s excellent nurse practitioner residency program to transition new providers into competent practicing professionals that stay in practice. My contributions were focused on the utilization, recruitment and retention of healthcare providers. Instant allocation of a distributed workforce, flex scheduling for recruitment and retention, role transitioning and multi-generational workforces were the themes.

Below you'll find my handout for the presentation:

The audience participants had many insightful contributions, an acute awareness of the challenges we are facing and an enthusiasm to address these issues head on. YourNurseIsOn.com, as a company and myself, personally, were honored to participate in this discussion and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.

The afternoon keynote was by Robert Galvin of GE and touched on low price point innovations, developing countries, six sigma, industrial healthcare, measurable outcomes, change management, corporate culture, bottom-line, incentives and insurance costs- for a start. The breadth of the topics exposes but a glimpse of the issues and complexities involved in ‘Re-Forming Healthcare’ and merely begins the deluge of questions about ‘Excelling in a Transforming System.’

Yale Healthcare 2010 was an excellent event, many were met, much was learned, and the next one remains anticipated.

Thank you to all who contributed to and made this event a success.

YourNurseIsOn.com would like to extend a special thanks to Taffany Hwang and Mark Schlangel for all of their assistance.

.

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, MSN, RN will speak at Yale HealthCare 2010 on April 9, 2010

2010-04-07T07:10:00.001-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning has been invited as a panelist at Yale HealthCare 2010 to discuss "Frontline Providers: Increasing Supply, Incentives and Utility." Mr. Browning is pleased to join such a distinguished panel to discuss the linchpin of healthcare delivery- Frontline Providers.

The interactive panel will explore the supply of providers such as doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners and nurses; incentives to encourage more providers and our current utilization and retention strategies. This panel is Breakout Session #10 in the afternoon.

Please Join us on April 9, 2010 at The Omni Hotel in New Haven, CT for a great event!

For more information click HERE!

.

Hospitals to Review Joint Commission Standards in Wake of DC Nurse Firings

2010-03-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

Matthew Browning, RN, MSN, CEO (3/9/2010 at 3:38 PM)

It is during the operational challenges that present themselves in an emergency situation that a facility's level of preparedness becomes evident. During any natural disaster or emergency we expect a significant percentage of 'essential staff' to be unavailable.

YourNurseIsOn.com customers have a unique advantage during these crisis situations in that they can INSTANTLY contact and confirm any replacement staff in just seconds to fill the absences and to maintain 'Continuity Of Operations.'

Full Article HERE

YourNurseIsOn.com photos from HIMSS10

2010-03-09T08:05:00.004-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, RN, MSN and CFO Phoebe Browning, MBA putting the Mmmmm in the HIMSS10 sign in Atlanta, Georgia 2010.

YourNurseIsOn.com and John Shire of Blank Rome on the floor at HIMSS10 - Thanks John!

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, RN, MSN meets Dr. David Blumenthal at HIMSS10

YourNurseIsOn.com at Health IT Venture Fair with Wil Yu of the ONC and John Shire at HIMSS10

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning RN, MSN presenting at HIMSS10 Health IT Venture Fair!

Todd Parker, CIO of the USA and Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the USA met YNIO at HIMSS10 !

And that was HIMSS10 for YourNurseIsOn.com in Atlanta, Georgia for March 2010

.

What is YourNurseIsOn.com? HIMSS10 Wants to Know!! CEO Matthew Browning, RN Explains

2010-03-04T16:12:00.003-05:00

HIMSS10 is hosting YourNurseIsOn.com on Monday 3/1/2010 - Here is our Booth #3606

2010-03-01T12:24:00.001-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com is pleased to share our revolutionary healthcare communications system at HIMSS10

Here is a view from the inside 10 minutes before opening Expo doors!

HIMSS, YourNurseIsOn.com and the HIMSS10 Health IT Venture Fair- A Review

2010-03-01T08:14:00.000-05:00

The HIMSS10 Health IT Venture Fair was held on Sunday February 28, 2010 at the 2010 HIMSS conference in Atlanta. The event was possible due to invaluable assistance from Blank Rome, LLP and Howard Burke’s Health Law, LLC. The organizer for the show was Deborah Caruso and she did an awesome job! The event location was beautifully laid out, the morning program was informative and the new company showcase was exciting.

Held in the remote outpost of C307 at HIMSS, the event attracted a wonderful blend of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and media. The day began with a continential breakfast enjoyed during presentations on “Building Your Health IT Business” with topics such as:

“Challenges and Creative Ideas from the Entreprenuer’s and Investor’s perspective” with an expert panel including Ned Moore, David St.Clair, Rick Toren, Jonathan Phillips, Richard Davis, Beth Cohen, Kristi Remmington and moderated by Howard Burke;

“Key Business and Legal Issues in Building a Healthcare IT Business” moderated by John Shire, and with panelists Simmi Singh, Jim Gibson, Doug Friel, Jennifer Daniels and Lenard Marcus” and, lastly, “Raising Early Stage Capital -What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know” with panelists Patti Weber, Nina Saczuk, Jim Wiseman, Bob McHugh, Rick Berberman and Stephen Krupa, once again hosted by John Shire.

The Lunch Program featured a one on one discussion between John Shire and the the Office of the National Coordinator’s Wil Yu. This discussion focused on the new transparency of the ONC, ways for entrepreneurs to interact with the ONC and some great insights about the missions and objectives of the ONC. As with the rest of the program, it was a great addition to the day and, personally, it was nice to meet such a great slate of speakers that we look forward to continuing dialogue with after HIMSS.

Twenty-one companies were selected to present during the afternoon program and YourNurseIsOn.com was pleased to be one of them. Multiple ten minute presentations were done in succession and presenters then left the room to meet with potential investors, partners, customers and media. The amazing array of possible solutions to pressing problems in healthcare was refreshing to see, wonderful to hear and even better to be a part of. The hosts were gracious, the sponsors appropriate and the attendees were insightful and participated in meaningful ways.

The HIMSS10 Health IT Venture fair was a success, hundreds were in attendance and the consensus was it was an excellent way to begin HIMSS10. YourNurseIsOn.com offers a well earned ‘thank you’ and ‘kudos’ to the events organizers, sponsors, presenters, panelists, attendees and all presenting companies. We were proud to be selected to participate and present, and we look forward to next year’s event!

Now off to HIMSS10 for the Monday opening day, we hope to see you there!

YourNurseIsOn.com has a booth, #3606, on 3/1/10 ONLY! in building “C”- come on down and say “Hi.” We look forward to meeting you and hearing your stories :-)

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO, Matthew Browning, is available for discussions, interviews and meetings- email Matthew@yournurseison.com for more info- THANKS!!

YourNurseIsOn.com Selected to Present at HIMSS10 Health IT Venture Fair 2/28/2010 in Atlanta, GA

2010-02-10T23:02:00.001-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning is pleased to announce that YourNurseIsOn.com has been selected to present at the HIMSS10 Health IT Venture Fair in Atlanta, GA on February 28, 2010.

YourNurseIsOn.com helps hospitals and healthcare facilities instantly contact and confirm their staff by 2-way text, phone and email to save thousands of hours and millions of dollars.

YourNurseIsOn.com would like to congratulate all selectees and looks

forward to meeting everyone at HIMSS10

HIMSS10 Atendees- Please feel free to contact our CEO in advance of HIMSS10 to arrange to arrange meetings, demonstrations and interviews- or for more information- at matthew@yournurseison.com or on- LinkedIn

Learn more about the HIMSS 10 Health IT Venture Fair - HERE

YourNurseIsOn.com CFO Phoebe Browning at 2010 'Women of Innovation' Awards on Fox News

2010-01-28T13:08:00.002-05:00

Congratulations Phoebe!! YourNurseIsOn.com supports women in technology and advocates for increased math, science and engineering education opportunities for our young women!!! Good Job Phoebe!!

.

YourNurseIsOn.com Congratulates CFO Phoebe Browning And Wishes Her Good Luck at Tonight's 2010 'Women of Innovation' Awards!

2010-01-20T08:49:00.001-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com congratulates CFO Phoebe Browning and wishes her the best of luck at tonight's 2010 'Women of Innovation" awards. All of tonight's nominees are exceptional women and we are proud to have Phoebe amongst them. Phoebe has been instrumental in bringing YourNurseisOn.com from a mere conceptual inkling to a full fledged healthcare staff communications powerhouse. Her expertise, dedication, intuition and leadership have been instrumental in the success of YourNurseIsOn.com, and we are honored to have her as an integral part of our team.

Learn more about tonight's event CTC 2010 Women of Innovation

We would like to thank the Connecticut Technology Council for their tireless work supporting technology companies in Connecticut.

Learn more here- Connecticut Technology Council

.

Donna Cardillo and 'Nursing Connections' Spotlight YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning RN, MSN

2010-01-13T16:59:00.001-05:00

What do you say when one of the most well-respected names in the Nursing profession spotlights your CEO as their lead-off Entrepreneur Spotlight for 2010 the "International Year of the Nurse"??

You say "Thanks Donna!" to Donna Cardillo, RN a tireless advocate for nurses around the world- and then you subscribe to her her wonderful 'Nursing Connections' Newsletter:

You can read the entire Newsletter here- Nursing Connections Jan 2010

and you can Learn more about Donna Cardillo here- Cardillo & Associates

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, MSN, RN to Present at New York City Health 2.0 Meetup on January 13, 2010

2010-01-10T07:03:00.005-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, MSN, RN to present at the New York City Health 2.0 Meetup on January 13, 2010.

As the kick-off presentation for 2010 for NYC's Health 2.0 Meetup, YourNurseIsOn.com will present their award-winning Healthcare Staff Communications System to New York City!

Join the Meetup Group or just come on by to see the "next thing" in healthcare communications.

YourNurseIsOn.com helps Hospitals, Healthcare Facilities and Nursing Agencies contact AND confirm their healthcare providers, and other staff, INSTANTLY- by two-way text, email, and phone communications.

YourNurseIsOn.com increases your channels of communication, your reach and your chances of finding the right nurse, for the right shift, right now- where THEY are.

YourNurseIsOn.com simplifies finding staffing coverage, communicating with your organization and demonstrating compliance with our easy, and thorough reporting.

Resolve, for 2010, to hang-up on calling staff one at a time, and you'll have a Happier New Year!

We can do over 8 hours of calling in under 40 minutes and add two-way text and email channels to your instant communications needs.

To learn more about the NYC Meetup please go HERE

RSVP! We look forward to seeing YOU there!!

.

Happy New Year to all of our YourNurseIsOn.com families, friends, staff, customers, vendors and investors!

2010-01-03T08:36:00.000-05:00

We would like to take a moment to thank all of our YourNurseIsOn.com families. friends, staff, customers, vendors and investors for you all you have done this past year and to wish ALL OF YOU the very best year that 2010 can be.

We have achieved many milestones this year and are prepared to help many more clients during this coming year.

We have achieved international recognition, incredible market awareness and acceptance, done demonstrations nationwide, participated in major events, been mentioned in prominent media and helped many wonderful clients. None of this would have been possible without you all!

We look forward to continuing to serve our clients, respond to their needs, solve challenges together and to continue to build mutually beneficial relationships with our customers, vendors, investors and staff.

Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

From all of us at YourNurseIsOn.com

Matthew Browning- President

YourNurseIsOn.com CFO Phoebe Browning is a finalist for the "2010 Women of Innovation" award as seen in Forbes

2009-12-16T13:52:00.000-05:00

WOW!!

YourNurseIsOn.com CFO Phoebe Browning has been honored as a finalist in the Connecticut Technology Council's 2010 "Women of Innovation" awards. As a founding member of YourNurseIsOn.com, Mrs. Browning's leadership, team building skills, financial acumen and vision have been instrumental to the incredible success of YourNurseIsOn.com .

Her vision and belief in a modern healthcare communications method have resulted in rapid market acceptance and the quick deployment of the YourNurseIsOn.com healthcare staff communications platform across the nation. YourNurseIsOn.com is lucky and honored to have Phoebe as an integral member of our team-

Congratulations! -Phoebe Browning, on an honor well deserved!

For more information click HERE

To see Forbes.com Article- click HERE

2010 is shaping up to be a GREAT YEAR for YourNurseIsOn.com !!

YourNurseIsOn.com is Honored to Speak at the CT Tech Council- New Haven on November 5, 2009

2009-11-02T07:29:00.001-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning will be speaking on trends in Health 2.0 at the New Haven chapter of the Connecticut Technology Council on November 5, 2009. YourNurseIsOn.com is helping hospitals, nursing facilities and agencies realize increased efficiencies and cost savings when contacting and confirming their health care staff. YourNurseIsOn.com is excited to work with the Connecticut Technology Council to share innovative healthcare technologies with its members and thankful to Independent Software and the EDC of New Haven for hosting this event.

Come on down and see us!!

YourNurseIsOn.com is Nationwide!! Now sponsoring HealthCampNYC on Nov 7, 2009 at Columbia!!

2009-10-30T13:17:00.000-04:00

OK- These HealthCamp folks have got it figured out! Put a bunch of innovative Health 2.0 types into a room and ask them what they have to share- Sounds simple? Constructively Chaotic maybe?

YES!! to all of that! We are excited to be sponsoring HealthCampNYC and hope to see you all there :-)

For more info-YNIO and HealthCampNYC

To Register- HealthcampNYC Register

A list of Sponsors- HealthCamp NYC Sponsors

And, Finally, If you are going drop me a line ahead of time :-)

Matthew@YourNurseIsOn.com

YourNurseIsOn.com found this HealthCamp SFBay Schedule- Check it out

2009-10-22T07:33:00.002-04:00

We had so much fun at this HealthCamp that we have to do it again!! YourNurseIsOn.com is sponsoring HealthCamp NYC and we will be blogging on it soon!!

YourNurseIsOn.com Presented at the 2009 Annual Planetree Conference October 2009

2009-10-20T21:31:00.001-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com had an excellent time at the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference in Maryland and we would like to thank Lisa Donnarumma and her wonderful team at Planetree for inviting us and for being such wonderful hosts.

The Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, Md is a beautiful location and the conference attendees were from around the world and committed to patient-centered care.

The interest in instant, collaborative, 2-way communications between hospitals and their providers and staff was pronounced and nearly universal.

YourNurseIsOn.com was glad to be there to answer questions, conduct numerous demonstrations and to present "Staff Communications 3.0" on the final day.

YourNurseIsOn.com had three winners of $5,000 dollars each that will be announced this week!!
(for YNIO services)

More on YourNurseIsOn.com and Planetree HERE- YourNurseIsOn.com + Planetree

A BIG THANKS to Melanie and Derek for all of their hard work!!

And here are some more photos from the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference

YourNurseIsOn.com Selected to Present at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

2009-10-17T19:42:00.000-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com had a great time today at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute today as a presenter in their business plan competition- it was an amazing location and our hosts were wonderful.

We look forward to returning visit them soon :-)

Thanks to all who made it possible!

Check it out HERE- WPI Venture Forum

What do Masonicare, Qualidigm and CANPFA All Have In Common?? They All Heard About YourNurseIsOn.com and INSTANT Staff Communications TODAY!!

2009-10-16T12:26:00.000-04:00

It is truly wonderful to be at the "Ban The Bug (pdf)" Continuation Of Operations Planning (COOP) seminar TODAY (right now :-) presented by Qualidigm and our friends at the Connecticut Association of Not-for-profit Providers for the Aging (CANPFA) and hosted by Masonicare .

YourNurseIsOn.com is happy to share our incredible 2-way, instant staff communications platform with these wonderful organizations and grateful for the opportunity.

Here is a photo of our table

For more information please feel free to contact us at info@YourNurseIsOn.com

Some Photos From Health 2.0 and YourNurseIsOn.com

2009-10-14T09:12:00.001-04:00

Some Photos from the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco October 2009

Sitting on the panel with Ted Dagnal

Mixing with the crowd after our presentations

All miked up and ready to go!

WOW!! YourNurseIsOn.com rang phone in under 15 seconds LIVE ON STAGE!! Could've called 50 nurses just as fast and confirmed one!!

A Special Thanks to Brian Klepper for Moderating

Where did we get "Those AMAZING Graphics" we had at Planetree??

2009-10-09T13:54:00.003-04:00

Since our blog post about the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference with the picture of our wonderful black popup background and our provocative graphics we have been repeatedly asked

"Where did you get those AMAZING graphics?"

Our wonderful team at Independent Software did the wonderful design work!

And our Conference Display Maestro - Dave Graham- from Blazer Graphics did the printing, provided a rental popup background, handled shipping for us to the event and smiled the WHOLE TIME :-) - along with his EXCELLENT TEAM!!

So there is your answer- for our "AMAZING Graphics" we used Blazer Graphics and good design!

HealthCamp SFBay was a HUGE success!! YNIO was glad to be part of it!

2009-10-07T10:24:00.002-04:00

HealthCamp SFBay was held this week at Kaiser Permanente's Garfield Innovation Center in San Leandro, CA.

WOW! What an incredible facility! 35,000 sq ft of innovation location- full clinical work-study stations that can be rearranged in minutes to study the effects of work environment on efficiency, safetey and patient experience and outcomes. GENIUS!! Kudos to KP and their forward thinking innovators!

The HealthCamp itself was a wonderfully eclectic mix of E-Patients, Healthcare aficionados, care product innovators and industry types all coming together to explore new ideas in healthcare and to revisit some old assumptions.

The blend of Kaiser Permanente and the Health 2.0 accelerator as sponsors was a refreshing blend of visionaries and practitioners in the same room- on the same page.

A big thanks to Dr. Yan Chow and his amazing team at Kaiser for hosting us and a big round of applause for Julie Murchinson of the Health 2.0 Accelerator for organizing another successful HealthCamp. Julie's team was incredible and a big thanks to all who helped run the show!! Go Green Shirts!!

YourNurseIsOn.com was pleased and proud to sponsor such an important event and will cherish our new friends and ways of thinking.

YourNurseIsOn.com is at the 2009 Annual Planetree Conference TODAY thru WED 10/7/09- Here is our booth photo!!

2009-10-05T08:48:00.000-04:00

The team has made the trek to Baltimore, Maryland as a sponsor of the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD for 10/5/09 until 10/7/09.

Stop by and see us!! Remember to ask about our special Planetree Conference Discount!!

YourNurseIson.com + Planetree + "Patient-centered care month" + The VA = ?????

2009-10-04T13:31:00.002-04:00

A Blog post form an airplane at 30,000 feet!!

YourNurseIsOn.com is happy to celebrate "Patient-centered Care Month" with our good friends from Planetree and The Veteran's Administration at the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference!!

Check out this great article to learn more- YourNurseIsOn.com, Planetree and The VA

If attending the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference visit our booth and ask about our special Planetree discount!!

Click. Contact. Confirm. Healthcare Providers in seconds!!

YourNurseIsOn.com is on YouTube!!

2009-10-01T10:43:00.002-04:00

Staff Communications During Flu Outbreaks with YourNurseIsOn.com

2009-09-29T07:20:00.000-04:00

Many of our clients have expressed concern about how to contact their staff with important information or to fill mass illness-related callouts during this disconcerting flu season.

What would you do if faced with 5-10 callouts when walking in the door?? That 2-10 hours of work can be handled in under 15 minutes with YourNurseIsOn.com

How do you notify 1000 employees that there are known cases of "Swine Flu" in your facility, warn pregnant women to stay away, or request all personnel bring their protective equipment ?? YourNurseIsOn.com can notify ALL OF THEM in minutes and require a confirmation response, if needed, for your compliance records.

Calling healthcare staff, one at a time, by telephone, is NOT an efficient way to handle your hospital or healthcare facility's communications any longer.

YourNurseIsOn.com - Click. Contact. Confirm.

Rethinking Staff Communications

As seen on Fox 61 News, Hartford, CT HERE!

Please contact us for a free demonstration MBrowning@YourNurseIsOn.com

Watch YourNurseIsOn.com on Fox 61 News in Hartford, CT- Right Here! Right Now!!

2009-09-27T09:00:00.005-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com on TV!! Check it out here-

YourNurseIsOn.com on TV!!

A BIG THANKS!! to Rick Hancock for doing a GREAT JOB!!

YourNurseIsOn.com Will Be On Fox 61 Hartford, CT THIS Friday 9/25 at 1030 pm

2009-09-24T15:37:00.000-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com will be on Fox News Channel 61 in Hartford, CT on Friday 9/25/09 at 1030pm give or take a few minutes! "We are excited to spread the message of YourNurseIsOn.com to the people and healthcare providers of Connecticut. In these times of healthcare turbulence it is gratifying to be able to save hospitals and healthcare facilities time and money in contacting and confirming their staff," states CEO Matthew Browning. "We would also like to thank Rick Hancock for his devotion to technology reporting and his showcase 'Rick's RSS' television show for interviewing us."

So watch Fox 61 Hartford this Friday evening at approx 1030pm and share your thoughts with us!!

http://www.fox61.com/news/ricksrss/

YourNurseIsOn.com To Host Breakfast for Director's of Nursing at CANPFA

2009-09-21T14:21:00.001-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com is hosting a breakfast for Connecticut Director's of Nursing at CANPFA's
(Connecticut Association of Not-for-Profit Providers for the Aging) Berlin, CT headquarters on September 24, 2009. YourNurseIsOn.com sales manager Jon Sullivan will be discussing staff communications technologies that can save healthcare facilities time and money.

YourNurseIsOn.com is an internet based staff communications system that allows healthcare facilities to contact and confirm their nurses in seconds. Healthcare facilities can improve patient outcomes, increase staff morale and save time and money with YourNurseIsOn.com

We look forward to the breakfast at CANPFA on September 24, 2009!!

More Info Here- CANPFA

POSTPONED!-YourNurseIsOn.com To Host Luncheon for Director's of Nursing at CANPFA

2009-09-15T12:27:00.000-04:00

This event has been postponed until 9/24/09- Thank You!!

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, MSN, RN to Keynote at Yale Annual Reunion 2009

2009-09-14T16:28:00.002-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning MSN, RN will be a keynote speaker at Yale University's School of Nursing's 2009 Reunion Weekend. Speaking on "Ideas Into Action: New Visions From Yale Nurses," Mr. Browning will be speaking along with Tara Walsh Malbasa , founder of the Sibling Outreach Program at The Cleveland Clinic, and Brian Geyser, founder of CareNetworks.com .

Mr. Browning will be discussing changes in healthcare staff communications technologies and how these technologies can be harnessed by hospitals and healthcare facilities to realize better patient outcomes, increased staff morale, decreased overtime costs and improved operational efficiencies. Browning will also focus on how nurse entrepreneurs are changing the face of healthcare and explore the myriad opportunities for change available to aspiring business professionals.

October 3, 2009 at 9:30 am at Yale University's West Campus in Orange, CT

Learn More Here-

YourNurseIsOn.com To Host Luncheon for Director's of Nursing at CANPFA

2009-09-10T15:39:00.000-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com is hosting a luncheon for Connecticut Director's of Nursing at CANPFA's
(Connecticut Association of Not-for-Profit Providers for the Aging) Berlin, CT headquarters on September 16, 2009. YourNurseIsOn.com sales manager Jon Sullivan will be discussing staff communications technologies that can save healthcare facilities time and money.

YourNurseIsOn.com is an internet based staff communications system that allows healthcare facilities to contact and confirm their nurses in seconds. Healthcare facilities can improve patient outcomes, increase staff morale and save time and money with YourNurseIsOn.com

We look forward to the luncheon at CANPFA on September 16, 2009!!

More info here- CANPFA.Org

YourNurseIsOn.com To Co-Sponsor HealthCamp SFBay with Kaiser Permanente and The Health 2.0 Accelerator on October 5, 2009 !!!!

2009-09-09T08:14:00.000-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com is proud to announce that they are co-sponsoring the HealthCamp SFBay "unconference" with Kaiser Permanente and The Health 2.0 Accelerator on October 5, 2009!
We are pleased to gather with such a wonderful group of healthcare innovators and leaders to discuss healthcare and technology in a freely structured setting. Many changes are on the horizon for healthcare and YourNurseIsOn.com is excited to be a part of them. We look forward to seeing you there!

For More Info- HealthCamp SFBay

CTC-New Haven appearance for 9/10/2009 has been POSTPONED

2009-09-08T08:41:00.000-04:00

Sorry but YourNurseIsOn.com will NOT be presenting at the Connecticut Technology Council- New Haven's Health 2.0 meeting on September 10, 2009.

It has been POSTPONED!!

More Info Here- CTC-New Haven POSTPONED

Congratulations to Griffin Hospital on 8th "Top 100 Companies to Work For" award from Fortune Magazine

2009-09-07T08:55:00.000-04:00

Griffin Hospital has done it again! They have placed 8th in the "Top 100 Companies to Work For" award from Fortune Magazine. YourNurseIsOn.com thanks them for their patient-centered care, their respect for their employees and their embrace of technological innovation that keeps them ahead of the pack!

Read More Here

YourNurseIsOn.com To Sponsor and Present at The 2009 Planetree Annual Conference in Baltimore on October 5, 2009

2009-09-02T12:50:00.001-04:00

Continuing our streak of high profile speaking engagements and recognition as a game changing healthcare staff communications technology company, YourNurseIsOn.com is both sponsoring and presenting at the 2009 Planetree Annual Conference. YourNurseisOn.com is the leader in efficient healthcare staff communications saving hospitals and healthcare facilities thousands of hours and millions of dollars by contacting and confirming their staff in seconds instead of hours.

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, MSN, RN, stated " YourNurseIsOn.com is committed to helping Planetree hospitals continue to innovate and adopt technologies that increase employee satisfaction, improve patient outcomes and that result in increased efficiencies and cost savings. The adoption of real-time, interactive, collaborative staff communications systems such as YourNurseisOn.com can help Planetree Healthcare Organizations do all of this and more. We are excited to sponsor this 2009 Planetree Annual Conference and to work with such forward thinking healthcare leaders."

All attendees at our "Staff Communications 3.0 - Maximizing Outcomes, Efficiencies and Savings for Planetree Facilities" will be entered to win one of three $5,000 gift certificates to be given away during the conference!!!

We will see YOU there!!

To Learn More Visit Here-2009 Planetree Annual Conference

YourNurseIsOn.com Demonstration at The Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco on Oct 6, 2009!!

2009-09-02T07:43:00.001-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com will be demonstrating their revolutionary staffing communications software service at the 2009 Health 2.0 Conference being held in San Francisco this October 6, 2009 at 3:40 pm. During the breakout session "Health 2.0 Tools for Administrative Efficiency," YourNurseisOn.com will exhibit their patent-pending technology that saves hospitals and healthcare facilities thousands of hours and millions of dollars. YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning said of the event "Matthew Holt, Indu Subaiya and their Health 2.0 conferences are bringing innovative technologies in healthcare to the forefront of public discussion and all of us at YourNurseisOn.com are excited to be part of bringing these changes to modern healthcare."

To see more click here- 2009 Health 2.0 Conference Agenda

Targeted Instant Communications, Inc Designated a "2009 Company to Watch" by the CT Tech Council

2009-08-28T07:56:00.000-04:00

Targeted Instant Communications, Inc. (Parent Company of YourNurseIsOn.com) has been Designated a "2009 Company to Watch" by the CT Tech Council. TIC, Inc. is a finalist for 2 awards during their Cantor Colburn Innovation Pipeline Awards ceremony on September 17, 2009. Tic, Inc. will also be presenting a company poster and an elevator pitch during the evening's competition.

Learn More Here-TIC, Inc. and Cantor Colburn Awards

YourNurseIsOn.com to speak at the CT Tech Council- New Haven on September 10, 2009

2009-08-28T07:31:00.001-04:00

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning will be speaking on trends in Health 2.0 at the New Haven chapter of the Connecticut Technology Council on September 10th, 2009. YourNurseIsOn.com is helping hospitals, nursing facilities and agencies realize increased efficiencies and cost savings when contacting and confirming their health care staff. YourNurseIsOn.com is excited to work with the Connecticut Technology Council to share innovative healthcare technologies with its members.

Learn more here- CTC-New Haven

Your Nurse Is On at YourNurseIsOn.com- our second press release!

2009-01-19T12:58:00.003-05:00

Your Nurse Is On at YourNurseIsOn.com. We have another press release written up. Please take a look and feel free to contact us to contact your nurses faster or to leave a comment- Thanks, M

The press release is HERE

YourNurseIsOn.com supports Women's right to breastfeed

2009-01-09T05:50:00.005-05:00

YourNurseIsOn.com supports Women and their right to breastfeed their children when and where needed. This is a completely natural act between Mother and Child. A woman has the legally protected right to nurse her child wherever needed. Is discretion advised? Sure. But do we have the right to demonize such behavior? I think not. Can she post pictures of it?? We remember Freedom of Expression in America and continue to support it as well. Tolerance, respect and manners... could they be making a comeback? Let us hope.

Facebook has made a mistake here. We at YourNurseIsOn.com hope they remedy it-quickly.

Our public position on this matter can be seen in the comments HERE

LinkedIn and Your Nurse Is On . Com

2009-01-05T19:35:00.003-05:00

While researching how to start a YourNurseIsOn.com LinkedIn page I found their wonderful learning center HERE . It has lots of GREAT ideas on how to use LinkedIn to network, share, learn and discuss. You can view my LinkedIn profile HERE and Link In with me. I will notify everyone when our Company Page is up for YourNurseIsOn.com where Your Nurse Is On .

Happy New Year's Eve to all !!

2008-12-31T13:56:00.002-05:00

May 2009 be all you wish it to be!!

Did I mention our first Press Release?? HERE

See Y'all Next Year !!

Check Out the FIRST Press release for YourNurseIsOn.com

2008-12-29T14:59:00.003-05:00

Your Nurse Is On !!! YourNurseIsOn.com... The press release :-) Very exciting. It looks like 2009 is going to be quite a year for YourNurseIsOn.com. We are looking forward to helping all of our clients contact their nurses as fast as possible to fill open shifts before their competition. Like Warren Buffet says, "you must have a durable competitive advantage." YourNurseIsOn.com uses the Intelliblast intelligent blast communications system to give YOUR company a "durable competitive advantage." Happy New Year to all of our friends, Matthew

LinkedIn for the Holidays - 100+ ways to use LinkedIn

2008-12-26T09:21:00.003-05:00

With an Internet Presence and Social Networking as givens in today's business world, many of us are now on LinkedIn. I found an amazing site called Linked Intelligence , run by Scott Allen, that shows many different ways to leverage the power of LinkedIn to help increase your Internet Presence and fully utilize your Social Networks. Take a look and send us an invite to your own LinkedIn presence. Enjoy, M http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbrowning

IntelliBlast and GOOGLE !!!!

2008-12-23T15:21:00.002-05:00

So went to GOOGLE today and entered IntelliBlast - which is the patent-pending technology that powers YourNurseIsOn.com - and here is what I found- WOW Go to YourNurseIsOn.com and try the free demo to see some of the remarkable IntelliBlast platform solving an everyday problem. Your Nurse Is On YourNurseIsOn.com.

You can follow us on Twitter

2008-12-20T07:31:00.002-05:00

Now we are on Twitter - come see what we are up to :-) Internet marketing has many facets and we are learning new ones every day. Any suggestions or comments on the best ways to show the world what YourNurseIsOn.com can do to save them time and money?? Peace, M

Mahalo Answers

2008-12-18T21:09:00.003-05:00

Found a neat search website built on the Korean model of asking others for their feedback or answers to a question- with a twist- the best answer can be eligible for a cash payment. An interesting model... kind of like paying staff to fill positions- the fastest payers have plenty of players :-) Click Here to see Mahalo Answers

Learn More About IntelliBlast

2008-12-08T14:39:00.003-05:00

Learn more about the incredible IntelliBlast system that powers YourNurseIsOn.com. Simple. Quick. Communications. Learn more HERE

YourNurseIsOn.com is on Squidoo

2008-12-06T10:12:00.004-05:00

Check out our new lens at Squidoo- http://www.squidoo.com/nurse-staffing

Rate it if you like it, leave a comment, suggest a link :-)

How YourNurseIsOn.com Came To Be

2008-12-04T06:02:00.001-05:00

As a Registered Nurse supervisor, I was often responsible for replacing callouts for the next shift or two. Sometimes, this is an easy task- someone has requested an extra shift and you can just make a single phone call. More often, however, it involved numerous phone calls, working from a paper list with no information except the nurse's name, date of hire and phone numbers. After many phone calls, to nurses who are not available, we may or may not have located an appropriate nurse for the shift. This lead myself, and countless others, to declare "There has got to be a better way". There wasn't. So we created it.

In nursing school we learned a mnemonic for the nursing process - ADPIE- Assessment, Diagnosis, Plan, Implement and Evaluate. It works well with people, so we tried it here.

Assessment- Making phone calls one-at-a-time is inefficient. We do not know who is available, we leave unanswered messages, we call wrong/disconnected numbers, we waste HUGE amounts of time and we bother many nurses who are off for the day.

Diagnosis- The use of only a telephone, manually calling one nurse at a time, is 19th century technology being applied to a 21st century problem. With our increased demand for nurses, a shortage of qualified nurses, an increasingly mobile workforce and advances in technology- We need a technology that is faster, more efficient and can save time while increasing revenues.

Plan- Make a better mousetrap- could we use the Internet to our advantage? Could advances in Internet telephony help us? Could we use a database that is continuously updated by us and/or the nurses? Could we increase our odds of contacting the right nurse by using email, text and instant message in addition to just phone calls? And, finally, could we make this easy to use, extremely fast and affordable?

Intervention- We invented the Intelliblast™ Internet-based, patent-pending, intelligent communications platform which allows for targeted, instant communications with the right people, right now. YourNurseIsOn.com uses the IntelliBlast™ system to match the proper, available health care provider with your shift need; then contacts that provider on ANY communications device of THEIR choosing- phone, pda, cellphone, pager, computer, etc. The provider may then RESPOND immediately to this contact and the system will log the response. If the response is to accept the shift, the IntelliBlast™ system AUTOMATICALLY confirms with your provider and notifies the agency and/or facility that the nurse has been confirmed.

Evaluation- Our alpha-tester response has been overwhelmingly positive. YourNurseIsOn.com can make the 25-30 calls, that a good scheduler can make in one hour, in under five minutes. For about five bucks. If you have a full-time equivalent making eight hours of phone calls- YourNurseIsOn.com can make those same calls in less than forty minutes. Our alpha-testers have found that they can use this extra time to manage more nurses, prospect for more business, create and manage new marketing campaigns, collect accounts receivable, and grow their businesses much more efficiently. During our transition from Alpha product to commercial Beta we look forward to helping our clients fill shifts faster, manage nurse communications more efficiently, save money and increase revenues. This Evaluation process is ongoing and refinements and improvements to the system will continue.

Please feel free to visit YourNurseIsOn.com to learn more about how we can help your healthcare facility or nurse agency to more efficiently manage your communication needs.

Thank You and Peace,

Matthew Browning-CEO

Targeted Instant Communications, Inc.

YNIO division

matthew@tic2u.com