0812.7
09:47:46
A Message from President-elect Ben Lamb
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I mean, seriously! I go to that change.gov site this morning for poops and giggles, and it suddenly turns out that there’s the Obama in a youtube video essentially laying out what always has been the non-economic portions of the Ben Lamb party platform. (Yeah, the economics has changed over the years as I’ve learned more about it, but, still, I mean, these are positions I’ve had since high school):
Obama essentially evokes Ike in everything but name when he fulfills platform point 2. I’m not sure about the “use it or lose it” line, I’m afraid that might lead to “oh, crap, we have some highway money that expires next week so… let’s build a bridge… to nowhere.”
He promises to increase computers in schools and is not happy about the crappiness of the state of the tubes here in America, thus at least heading down a path towards fulfilling point 3. Though “every child should have the chance to get online” is rather vague in addressing whether or not he will be rolling out a 21st century version of Rural Electrification.
Last is “We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records.” You know who does this sort of thing the best? General freaking Electric.
The winner, it’s me (and the American people presumably).
- Stop wasting electricity (namely, end DST)
- Public works oh my goodness
- I like Ike (and his Interstates, which are a series of superhighways).
- Speaking of series of things, the freaking Internet(s)
- You mean other peoples’ schools don’t have a bunch of computers like Zionsville? Well that sucks.
- General Electric? GENERAL ELECTRIC.
- (This one is a little more obscure, but I’ll show you what I mean later.)
Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.So, for platform point 1, we have “making federal buildings more energy-efficient.” This falls short of what I hope he’ll announce someday, namely “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Daylight Saving Time forever. We begin bombing Mitch Daniels’ house in five minutes.” However, it is certainly a start.
Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.
Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.
As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m President – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.
In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.
Obama essentially evokes Ike in everything but name when he fulfills platform point 2. I’m not sure about the “use it or lose it” line, I’m afraid that might lead to “oh, crap, we have some highway money that expires next week so… let’s build a bridge… to nowhere.”
He promises to increase computers in schools and is not happy about the crappiness of the state of the tubes here in America, thus at least heading down a path towards fulfilling point 3. Though “every child should have the chance to get online” is rather vague in addressing whether or not he will be rolling out a 21st century version of Rural Electrification.
Last is “We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records.” You know who does this sort of thing the best? General freaking Electric.
The winner, it’s me (and the American people presumably).
3 Comments
GMT-0500 00:24:09 0812.8 (Mon)
There’s a big Pro/Con debate going on right now about electronic medical records amongst medical professionals (e.g. doctors and nurses). To make a long story short (’cause I just deleted it 🙂 ), the pro is efficiency but the con is that (for many reasons I went into) a lot of doctors remember specific patients’ information better (both in the short term and in the long term) with the old-fashioned method. In other words, paradoxically, electronic medical records are meant to make things more efficient but in many cases they make things less efficient.
To put it to you in a metaphor, let’s say we have two doctors. Doctor A rides the subway to work and gets there in 20 minutes. Doctor B has a personal car and gets to work in 10 minutes. They are next-door neighbors and work at the same hospital. One day President Obama asks Doctor A to consider driving to work instead of taking the subway. The President says, “Doctor A, we want to increase your efficiency at no cost to you. Here are the keys to your new Volvo. Enjoy. :)” But Doctor A pushes the keys back to the President and says, “Mr. President, I apologize but I am going to have to decline your offer.” Doctor A explains to President Obama that the moment he sets foot in the hospital he is put to work and has no time of his own. President Obama nods his head, understanding this. Doctor A continues, “But you see, when I take the subway, I have 10 minutes to myself each way. 10 minutes where my hands are free and I can sit down and clear my mind. And you know something, Mr. President?” “No, what?” asks Obama. Doctor A smiles and says, “I don’t clear my mind, actually: I go back over the case files for the patients I’m about to see today.” He smiles and says, “I see 1000 patients a year and cure 900 of them. Doctor B sees 1100 patients a year — because he is at the hospital longer than me — but he only cures 850 of them. His percent cure rate is much lower than mine, and even his gross cure # is 50 patients less than mine.” As Doctor A makes to leave, he stops and turns around and asks the President one last question. “Do you know why I do a better job than Doctor B, Mr. President?” Obama answers, “Yes, I think I understand why. You take the time to know their files better, and so when it comes down to it, you’re the better doctor. If you started driving to work instead of taking the subway, your hands would be tied up behind the wheel and you would lose that extra 10 minutes in the morning to mull things over.”
The solution in a world with electronic medical records ought to be fairly simple — “even though they’re digital, require doctors to fill them out the same way they used to have to fill out paper forms” — but if you carry this out to its extreme then it begs the question of why we make the switch at all. Electronic medical records are meant to be readily accessible, yet is precisely because they are so easily accessible that many doctors do not commit to memory the details of patients’ case files nearly as well as they used to when they were faced with the unpleasant dilemma of either carrying 30 manilla folders with them at all times or else killing patients left and right — assuming that (in either situation) they didn’t memorize the data, of course. That’s what doctors used to do — short-term memorize the data. Now they don’t have to, so they don’t. But because they don’t, they’ve paradoxically become less efficient at their jobs.
Or something. It’s a really contentious debate, with tons of evidence being heatedly cited by both sides.
GMT-0500 00:28:31 0812.8 (Mon)
I understand the issue: I really like paper and can remember things better when that way too, and plus paper forms usually look better than some interface on windows.
However, I think the solution to this is tablet PCs. I miss mine so much, even though Mac OS X is a lot better than Windows even with GIOS installed.
GMT-0500 01:53:04 0812.9 (Tue)
What doctors need is a tablet PC which is similar to a doctor’s clipboard w/ paper (in terms of physical dimensions), maybe a little smaller if the doctor prefers it that way, but above all else it would need to be lightweight and have long battery life. If it’s going to require a recharge more frequently than every 16 hours, most doctors won’t be interested. (Hence why smaller things like Blackberries and iTouches are popular.) Also, no doctor will be happy with it being more than 3 lbs — and even the slimmest of laptops like Apple’s MacBook Air thingy are, what, 4 lbs?
Really, I think this is the magic technology doctors want but aren’t going to get (whiny babies ;p). They want something with the battery life and light weight and small size of an iTouch, but the large size (what!? lol) and the superior UI of a tablet PC, stylus and all.
One possible compromise would be interfacing doctors’ Blackberries and iTouches with the hospital’s network such that:
1) if the doctor so desires, he can view charts on his portable -OR- he can pull it up for viewing on the nearest big screen (i.e. the terminals they currently use with 15″ or 17″ monitors)
2) regardless of his viewing preference, in either case he can use his touchable portable (e.g. like a DS or iTouch) to fill in the charts. (in the case of doing it on a small screen, perhaps clicking on each form field on the paper would, like on the Nintendo Wii, zoom you in to that specific field until you hit OK or Back, e.g. when you set up WiFi on your Wii or DS).
That, or doctors (and all human beings, for that matter) could quit blaming their problems on technology and the outside world and start looking in the mirror. Mirrors! We need more mirrors in this society, seriously.