October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the U.S. and if you are a human being with breasts or a fan of same, be aware. About 226,000 new cases are diagnosed each year and nearly 40,000 women die of breast cancer annually. Just as a point of reference, about 32,000 Americans die in car […]
Employers and Health Innovation: Will They Go Long or Advance One Yard at a Time?

Last week I had the honor of being asked to moderate a panel on cardiology innovations at the first Innovation Day meeting of the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH). For those of you who don’t know PBGH, they are a San Francisco-based organization founded in 1989 that has 60 member companies comprised of large […]
Woe Is Me
What is worse than an unhealthy healthcare person? I am sure if you asked my current family, friends and acquaintances, the answer is a resounding “nothing!” And thus, here I sit, some alleged “expert” on various healthcare topics, and all I can think is that no one ever felt so yucky as I currently do […]
When "Cloud-based" Means Technology, Not Heaven: Report from AARP Health Innovation@50+
“Washington DC calls the needs of 100 million people an unaffordable cost, but for entrepreneurs, addressing the needs of 100 million people is called an opportunity.” That’s a quote from Jody Holtzman, Senior Vice President of Innovation at the AARP, an organization making an all-out push to connect the innovators of the nation with the […]
Get Up, Stand Up; Stand Up For Your Life
I and a few zillion of my fellow Americans watched, slack-jawed and awed, as Clint Eastwood held a lengthy conversation with a chair a few weeks back at the Republican National Convention. Clint, a hero or at least bad-ass role model to so many, looked a little off his rocker (pun intended) as he berated […]
We Are the 51%!
This story also ran in Xconomy on September 18, 2012 The organization called Medtech Women just held its second annual Medtech Vision Conference last week and it was another sold-out event. (You can see my story on the first year of the Medtech Vision conference here.) With a focus on the era of the “empowered […]
Healthcare IT BINGO!

Note: this post also ran 9/7/2012 in HealthcareIT News I was hanging out with David Shaywitz of Forbes the other day and he told me about a piece he wrote some time back about the buzzwords associated with the “innovation” culture that has emerged by name in Silicon Valley and Beyond. In the story, which […]
Release Yourself from Mental Slavery, or Could Technology Be the Very Thing That Makes Us Sicker?
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” – Bob Marley, Redemption Song In the July 16, 2012 issue of Newsweek there was an article called “Is the Onslaught Making Us Crazy?” The article is about mounting evidence that the connected world—the world that drives us to obsession in the pursuit […]
8 Mobile Health Apps I'd Like to See for Patients
When I'm 64…or Thereabouts
To all the healthcare entrepreneurs who will read this, I am encouraging you to give serious thought to applying for and attending AARP’s Health Innovation@50+ LivePitch, taking place Friday, September 21 at the New Orleans Convention Center. Here’s why: You may be under 50, but if you are looking to build a big company in […]