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

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'!

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

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.




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

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.

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