As described, the setup violates HIPAA regs by compromising patient
privacy. Medical information is sent unencrypted over the net, and
third (commercial) parties are involved. Those third parties,
especially Google, have privacy policies that allow them to use the
info commercially. Would you really want Google and your ISP to
know about your Gonorrhea treatments?

The system he describes could be made to work, but it would require
more security and patient protection than current commercial
entitities provide.

What a shame he shut down. This is a fantastic idea. Should be a model more follow.

@Ron: "The system he describes could be made to work, but it would require more security and patient protection than current commercial entitities provide."

Wonder how long it will take for somebody to come up with a secure solution like you've just described? I wonder if such a system already exists, or could be adapted easily from current medical record software applications? Just something to think about...

I call BS. Summary: "I tried something new, navigated through a brief inquiry, gave up for some reason, and now Im indicting the whole medical field." He sure does scare easily for such a rogue thinker.

I suspect this is someone who wants the public eye far more than a new practice model.

Which is too bad, because his idea seems pretty good. If he's right, why the need to tear down his colleagues?

Sorry, but the HIPAA thing about security is a red herring. We already do banking on-line, and the good Doctor's Web presence can be adjusted.

House calls are valuable. The doctor can spot environmental contributors to many ailments.

What a fanatastic idea. Almost every parent I know would pay more for house calls. You take a kid to the dr, and they catch something else while there. It's frustrating as all heck. There was a housecall pratice in austin for a time-white glove health care. They sent NP's, and you had to pay a monthly membership fee on top of the copay, but they also brought soup. Not sure if they're still around. But I would use a Dr like this one in a heartbeat!

Business models are changing, but some established practitioners don't want to change.

Like record companies and movie studios, doctors with established practices (with high overhead) are stuck with their current set up and, so, try to tear down new ideas because they cannot readily adjust their current models to compete with newer models.

====================

And secure remote Internet communications do exist. That's how we do remote banking online, remote shopping online, etc.

Of course, this isn't about patients or health anymore than Obamacare is. It's about protecting a cartel.

I attended a healthcare conference at which Jay spoke about his practice, and I do have to say that while he was a dynamic speaker, I got the vibe that he was pretty much full of it. It was a conference about innovations in care, so the audience was really excited, but he was unable to elaborate on his business plan when asked questions and could not really give many details about this thing would actually work. I am not at all surprised by this result.

When I lived in Belgium, I could get house calls. Socialized medicine!!!!! Friggin' commies!!!!!

It was nice. Just sayin'.

The problem with "Obamacare" is that it didn't go nearly far enough.

For the record, I'm totally with Snakeman on this one.

Reminds me of the vacation doctor I called a couple years ago. My son appeared to have strep throat, called this guy and he came in the morning. It was a quick $125 cash for him, and I didnt have to fool with driving somewhere and waiting an hour, or postponing my drive home. He had a day job as a neurolosurgeon! and this was his summer/island gig.

I read about this before. Was this doctor not aware that lawsuits, complaints to officials, etc. are part of *any* business? And if officials dismissed the case, why didn't he take it that he was complying with the law? Either he's quite the delicate flower, or there's more to this story.

> I suspect this is someone who wants the
> public eye far more than a new
> practice model.

That's just a fantastically goofy thing to say. We've discussed that attitude recently, but this comment is truly off the charts.

It's built on a timid schoolboy's hatred of attention-getters. It's not bashful about that hatred; it's right there on the label of the can, with a color picture of a serving on a dinner plate. You think we all feel the same way, sharing your crayon-colored, Playdoh-scented envy of those who happen to catch the attention of the classroom on a random schoolday.

Or not? Are you merely offended that someone might market a service that does something, y'know, unusual?

Because I gotta tell ya, when I read a comment like that, I have to wonder how you think human progress is EVER going to happen. Are there any fortunes out there that you admire? Did you back any of the successes in your own generation?

In my generation, it was all about microcomputers, and not showbiz (though I've spent my own career in Hollywood). Would you have told Bill Gates to stop being such a showoff? Would you have said Steve Jobs was getting a little big for his britches? Or how about Andy Grove, or this new kid Zuckerberg? Are they just in it for the "public eye"?

With an attitude like yours, who in the WORLD is admirable?

And what must you think of our hostess?

Heartfelt message:

Dear Amy Alkon— We've never met, but I read your blog. I think a lot of the stuff you link to isn't interesting, but that's not important. If you happen to come across the next Ipad or the next Steve Jobs, please put a piece in your blog about it, even if you think they're only making noise so they can enjoy the "public eye." OK? Great! Thanks. —Cridmo

Snake, you very BADLY need to read this book.

________________________


> The problem with "Obamacare" is that it didn't
> go nearly far enough.

Yeah, there it is: Europeans pursue all sorts of socialist idiocy while America pays for their international security... And they pretend to have generated that wealth themselves! At this hour, on Drudge, we see that that Europe's IMF leader is demanding a bailout.

Who do you think will be asked to carry the largest burden? Care to guess?

But you say Obamacare "didn't go nearly far enough."


You people seriously believe that health care can roll on to even greater performance without innovation, let alone financial investment.

Your planet must have great parties. The open-bar ones, I mean. Wish I could attend.

C'mon, it's my Tuesday night. Will indulgence of a mixed metaphor KILL you or something? Get over yourself.....

Perhaps he should move to a state where the government knows its limits? Maybe one not so deep blue as New York?

Snakeman writes: "I call BS. Summary: "I tried something new, navigated through a brief inquiry, gave up for some reason, and now Im indicting the whole medical field." He sure does scare easily for such a rogue thinker."

Yes. The author goes on and on about the inquiry. Only much farther down the article do we find the results of the inquiry: everything was fine, and then "the board members lightened up and asked me about my practice. Both of them were in their late 60’s. They whipped out their iPhones and told me how their grandkids were teaching them to text and how the internet has a real potential to change healthcare. ... They loved my practice and congratulated me on being innovative."

Then the very next paragraph - with no explanation whatsoever: "As of today, I haven’t seen a patient in over three years."

Something else is going on. The inquiry ended stunningly well. So what is this guy's real problem?

Regarding data security - there are numerous solutions being developed, not just for the medical and financial industries.

New legislation in the US and Europe requires government agencies and private corporations to document how they secure data they receive from you.

This is a huge market - and hospitals are already sharing info over the internet, so there must be products already available.

@crid - reread please. You'll find my comment addressed how easily (and inexplicaby) he folded. I liked his idea. Which is why I want to know more about why it didn't work. Despite the author's implications, his failure was pretty clearly not attributable to the inquiry or the supposed jealousy/myopia of other doctors.

Coda: his article states that he began his practice in September 2007 and folded it less than one year later ("As of today, I haven’t seen a patient in over three years.").

Pretty sure Bill Gates hung on a little bit longer.

> Despite the author's implications, his failure
> was pretty clearly not attributable to the
> inquiry or the supposed jealousy/myopia of
> other doctors.

So what's with the "public eye"? Nobody's putting words in your mouth. If he'd offered an innovation only because he "wants the public eye", would it be a problem?

Go read about Kildall. Emerging markets are populated by players with malnourished ambition or narrow perspective, especially in retrospect. Again, do you WANT to have to judge motives so preciously in the present? Who's left to admire?

Does an innovator have to declare every ambition before he starts? If you'd asked Zuck, as he launched his project, how big a slice of the social market he'd be ready to settle for, what would he have said? Would it have been more than a 10th of Myspace's share?

No... Let's not ask until it's over. If you REALLY knew who had the magic and who was just a braggart, you'd have a better portfolio that Buffett.

I remember how Ross Perot was approached, years after he'd turned EDS into a powerhouse, by an IBM executive who asked whether he'd known software services was going to be such an explosive market. The Texan answer: No, he would have been content to glean a living from Big Blue's droppings.

It's good that no one made him say so at the time.

So what's with the "public eye"?

Well, based on his blog, it seems he's spent the last THREE years talking about his ONE year actually practicing. All the innovators you mention, Crid, have a much higher substance to discourse ratio.

> the innovators you mention, Crid, have a much
> higher substance to discourse ratio.

ONLY IN (distant) RETROSPECT.

(And only when they don't. There are plenty of gasbags who have a small but certain piece of a great event, then dine contentedly on the notoriety for the rest of their lives. Sparks ignite fires.)

You don't know, you don't know, you don't know.

Crid, I think it would be awesome if he proved me wrong.

Dude... It would be awesome if folks understood that we weren't measuring the vectors of comets, forces long in motion and unaffected by our rhetoric about them. (Especially in health care.) Innovation deserves patience and encouragement.

It's the first rule of Hollywood. Nobody knows anything: There are three simple rules for making a successful film, and nobody knows what any of them are.

Innovation can't be anticipated, or packaged by Al Gore for unthreatening, reasonably-priced, sustainable delivery. It wasn't meant to be accusatory, so let me be perfectly clear: We don't know, we don't know, we don't know. The anecdote is from Sagan, and it's sweet because telegrams are charged per word:

[A] celebrated newspaper publisher sent a telegram to a noted astronomer: "Wire collect immediately five hundred words on whether there is life on Mars." The astronomer dutifully replied: "Nobody knows, nobody knows, nobody knows...250 times.

"There are three simple rules for making a successful film, and nobody knows what any of them are."

Um Big tits, fast cars and massed firepower?

Let's do lunch.

Whenever someone relates a tale, the one certainty is that he/she is telling the story from his/her point of view. And it's almost a certainty that relevant details are being omitted and that embellishment or exaggeration occurs.

Keeping that in mind, I'd certainly love to know the entire story behind this young doctor's experiment. Having been involved in medical warfare in two different Texas towns between competing hospitals and physician groups, I know firsthand how vicious and cut-throat some of the players can be. Sad, but then that's humanity.

And I have a son in med school...