CIMIT Blog

Whole New Eye - One experiment that could help us communicate better

I don’t think I’ve ever read a comic book in my life, but I have read the entire 9/11 Commission Report… Well, kind of.  Whether you call it Comics, or Manga there is an art form permeating past the realm of basement collectors and prepubescent kids to the business world and it is giving us a new way to communicate. Here at CIMIT we spend a lot of time thinking about this.

I attended a class by Edward Tufte a few months back and the one thing I always think back to is: Simple. Meaning, how do we present complicated data or information with 1.) Clarity 2.) No manipulation/cherry-picking 3.) Creativity

Clarity Ever read a map or a bar graph? What is the first thing you look for? The legend, right? We need the key to know how to read and understand what you’re looking at and that key is off in the corner somewhere. So we’re going back and forth between that key in the corner and the actual presentation of data. What if we presented it so that anyone could see all of the information all in one place without having to shift around, without a key? And we did it all in an organized, neat and clean way.

Manipulation What if we gave all the data? Have you ever wanted to videotape or record someone’s presentation and they tell you: “I have unpublished data, no.” This is true, sometimes, but rarely. What they might mean is they aren’t sure of their data. In our work here at CIMIT I’ve noticed that the projects with the most excitement and incredible initial results don’t seem to go anywhere. It’s a factor of what data are we want to give.

Creativity Now, lets take it a step farther. It’s has to look good, it’s has to be interesting. The 9/11 Commission Report was possibly one of the most complicated documents in the history of the world, not for any real failing of the Commission, but because what happened was so complicated. And that is were Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon come in. They used their life in comic book illustration to make an essential piece of art for adults to understand what happened in their animated version (see link above) of the report. It’s not a new book, but it might just change the way you look at the world and the things you put in front of your face. Remember, comics have to present information and story in single cells and with simplicity, but they have incredible impact.

Graphic Adaptaion 9/11 Comission Report - click here for larger view

From there we go to The Adventures of Johnny Bunko the new business book by Dan Pink. This is the first animated book of Manga to help propel your career forward. Dan decided to start walking the talk and he presents to you career ideas as life and illustration. And it works.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko Trailer

To listen to Dan Pink talk about Manga development and impact in American Business click here

Finally, remember that great thinkers have been trying to accomplish these ideas for ages. Charles Joseph Minard created this work of art to show Napoleon's losses as he marched on Moscow. Possibly the greatest piece of statistical art in history.

Charles Joseph Minard Map of War Lost - click here for larger view

Best,

CIMIT blog

Minimally Invasive Surgery

 Minimally Invasive Surgery for GI Cancer

Ali Tavakkolizadeh, MB, BS, Instructor in Surgery, Harvard Medical School, atavakkolizadeh@partners.org

Moderator: David C. Brooks, MD, Director, Minimally Invasive Surgery and Senior Surgeon, Brigham and Women's Hospital, dbrooks@partners.org

 

Over the last 20 years minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has changed many aspects of general surgery. Many procedures that required large abdominal incisions to be completed are now done through small incisions resulting in a quicker recovery, less post-operative pain and lower complication rates. Despite these advantages and advances in laparoscopic surgery, many oncological surgeries continue to be performed through open surgery. The justification for this reluctance to use less invasive techniques to fight gastrointestinal (GI) cancers has been the perception that such approaches result in poor outcomes and inadequate surgical resection of the tumors. Recent studies have, however, demonstrated that laparoscopic approaches can result in equivalent surgical outcomes to open surgery with potential for quicker recovery for the patient. This presentation will review the data and the current status of MIS in GI malignancy and discuss the challenges ahead.

Single Port Laparoscopy or NOTES: A Form of Image Guided Therapy?

Dennis Fowler, MD, US Surgical Professor of Clinical Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Director, Minimal Access Surgery Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital; Vice President and Medical Director, Perioperative Services at the Columbia campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, dlf91@columbia.edu

Moderator: Daniel B. Jones, MD, FACS, Rabkin Fellow in Medical Education and Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, djones1@bidmc.harvard.edu

Laparoscopic approaches have become standard minimally invasive techniques. Image guided therapy is often considered to be even less invasive by using catheters and wires to deliver therapy using imaging with modalities other than white light. Many diseases in the abdomen still require surgical intervention that includes resection or a major reconstruction that is not yet possible with catheters and wires, and these procedures still require the use of multiple incisions and an actual telescope, which is a very old, limiting technology. White light “imaging” remains the primary imaging modality for both diagnosis and surgical treatment of many of these conditions. Future minimally invasive therapy to treat these “big” diseases of the GI tract and other abdominal organs will likely include an endoscopic approach through a single incision or through a natural orifice (Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery, or NOTES). Current designs of newer insertable, remotely controllable, computer guided robots may replace the laparoscope and its associated instrumentation. Single port laparoscopy (also called single incision laparoscopic surgery – SILS) and/or NOTES may provide better techniques for minimally invasive surgery. These new techniques will be ever more dependent on innovative, reliable technology in which the computer will be a critical component – image guided therapy using white light based imaging.

Social Networking and Innovation for Doctors

We recently had an interesting forum with Innocentive and Sermo. The session was moderated by John Abele and we were very well educated about the possibilities of how exclusive networks and competition, moderated by doctors, can provide tremendous solutions and innovations.

For me, the most interesting aspects of these talks come from one simple point: How did these two companies get doctors to love doing this? The answer rests in competition and collective intelligence.

Sermo breaks down how they work, why they work, and how they are impacting the lives of doctors, but more importantly, the lives of patients. We get a great case study of a real doctor who didn't know how to remove a saw blade from a patients thumb without causing serious damage. Well, the Sermo community of like-minded people did. And this man's thumb was saved by a plastic drinking straw and a social network. This talk is really key for anyone interested in being connected to the brightest minds in medicine. Or anyone interested in a key example of how collective intelligence, enabled by new media, can save lives and change the world.

Innocentive brings us the competition aspect and breaks down their business model for success. Fortune 500 companies have problems they don't have answers to, but you might. And Sermo pays you for those answers. $100,000 prizes await ANYONE interested in solving problems as diverse as "What's wrong with Healthcare" to "We need a hydro-carbon." Competition is clearly the fastest and most viral way to effect major change almost overnight.

We invited these two companies to come talk to us and educate us so we could expand how we think about the application of new technology.

Coming up in the next day we will be posting a study of Manga. No, we don't read comic books and we're not internet geeks, but we are interested in learning more about how you present data and excite people. Using the 9/11 Comission Report and Dan Pink's new book we will discuss how communication is being change by the eye, the imagaination and a greater sense of adventure.

Microfluidics in 5 Minutes! Podcast

Our annual Summer Education Series starts next week at Boston University. The subject this year is Microfluidics. Click here for more information on attending.

Today I spent 5 minutes with Dr. Mehmet Toner and Dr. Daniel Irimira both of MGH. Wikipedia has a great article on Microfluidics, but it couldn't hope to get as deep as we will on the subject all July. Most striking will be the ability to manage HIV treatment in developing nations and to identify cancer cells out of billions of healthy ones.

Some uses for Microfluidics:

• Gene-chips or DNA microarrays can probe at the expression level of genes       
• Lab-on-a-chip devices can perform precise biochemical reactions using tiny   amounts of reagents with exquisite sensitivity       
• Microdevices that probe cells in a massively parallel manner, at single cell resolutions, provide unmatched opportunity to investigate cells at the systems level
• Cell patterning approaches can create tissue engineered systems or probe into cell-cell interactions in complex tissue systems
• Point-of-care devices process minute amounts of whole blood to separate and count different lymphocyte populations or perform high-throughput, fine-time-resolution gene expression analysis in arrays of cells.

We are also webcasting all the sessions so if you're not in Boston you can still participate live. Please email me here for information on the webcast. (mwyoung@partners.org)

Enjoy this weeks podcast on Microfluidics in 5 Minutes!

Venture Capital Panel Update!

Our recent CIMIT Forum on Venture Capital in Healthcare given by Zen Chu (and panel) is consistently one of the most viewed blogs. Its impact never seems to be lost on anyone who views it and I am consistently fielding emails and requests for more information. So in an answer to everyone's interest we have produced a great new VC panel video, which expands on VC activity and where it is going in Healthcare.

Our goal for this program is to create an opportunity for the Principal Investigator, researcher and science community to be exposed to venture capital aspects of business and investment decisions.

Michael A. Greeley
    General Partner at IDG Ventures and     President of NEVCA

Panelists include:

Bruce Booth, D.Phil.
    Principal Atlas Venture

Graham Gardner, M.D.
    Senior Associate Highland Capital Partners

Johnathan P. Gertler, M.D.
    Managing Director Head of BioPharma Investment Banking Leerink Swann & Company

James E. Muller, M.D.
    CEO InfraReDx, Inc.

See the full video below or click here for the video divided into chapters by question

For Zen's Video Blog click here

And for Zen's Slides click here

The Future of Anesthesia and Critical Care

Multiple forces are affecting the role of the anesthesiologist in the United States and globally. The population of industrialized nations living longer and many more operations are performed on elderly individuals. This population is at risk from the low therapeutic ratios of the general anesthetics in current use and hence will dictate what operations will be performed using which anesthetic agents. The cost of medical care is increasing globally, but perhaps most rapidly in the United States. The increased cost will lead to more scrutiny regarding the need for operations, the quality, utilization and efficacy of care, changes in Medicare reimbursement, the ability of patients to pay and a demand for the use of less costly health care providers when possible. Technological advances are leading to less invasive procedures that can be done on patients who formerly would be ineligible for these surgical procedures.  The presenters and panelists will speculate as to what the practice of anesthesia will be like in the next ten years.

Moderator:  Jeffrey B. Cooper, PhD,  Director, Biomedical Engineering, Partners HealthCare System, Inc.; Associate Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Director, Center for Medical Simulation, jcooper@partners.org

Douglas Raines, MD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, MGH, draines@partners.org

Dr. Raines’ research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of anesthesia.  He will present the results of recent preclinical studies on a new intravenous anesthetic agent designed be ultra-short acting and to have minimal cardiovascular and respiratory side effects.  This agent is expected to be most useful for use in the elderly and critically ill and to allow more precise control of anesthetic effect.  

Panel will also include:

Emery Brown, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, MGH, ebrown@partners.org

Dr. Brown develops in his statistical research signal processing algorithms and statistical methods to study how the brain and nervous system represent and transmit information. His experimental research uses combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrophysiological recordings to study how anesthetic drugs induce the state of general anesthesia in the human brain.

Keith Miller, DPhil, Mallinckrodt Professor of Pharmacology in Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School; Director, Harvard Anaesthesia Center for Training and Research; Faculty Member, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Neurobiology and Biophysics Graduate Programs, Harvard Medical School; Pharmacologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, kwmiller@partners.org

Dr. Miller’s research interest is the molecular mechanisms by which general anesthetics produce both the state of anesthesia and their side effects. His current work focuses on locating the binding sites of general anesthetics on neuronal ligand-gated ion channels.

Celtic Ray Allen's Diabetes Message

Please Note: The following is posted under sections 1-4 of Fair Use under U.S. Copy Right Law

Last Sunday Ray Allen thanked the collaboration of hospitals around the country, including some here in Boston, for diagnosing and treating his son with Type I diabetes. The full page ad Allen took out in the June 22, 2008 Boston Sunday Globe is clickable below, as well as excerpts of his transcribed message applicable to healthcare. Reaction and critique are below.

(Click Image for Larger View)

Excerpts of Ray Allen's Message:

…Amidst the excitement of the past week, our 17 month old son, Walker, was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, a potentially life-threatening disease that often goes undiagnosed in young children. On behalf of my family, I would like to thank Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Joslin Diabetes Center for their quick action and exceptional care in treating out son…

…My family and I are committed to fighting this disease with the same level of passion and intensity I bring to the basketball counrt. We hope that you are never faced with the news that you or someone you love is threatened with diabetes. However, together we can raise the level of awareness of Type I diabetes and with our continued efforts and prayers we can help alert parents to the early warning signs and hopefully save the lives of childrens everywhere…

Type I Diabetes Warning Signs in Young Children*

• Excessive thirst
• Frequent urination, bedwetting
• Drowsiness
• Lethargy
• Increased Appetite
• Weight Loss

*Provided by Joslin Diabetes Center

I welcome any new readers visiting from Celtic blog to CIMIT and MGH. Please, feel free to comment as you wish.

I think that we can all commend Ray Allen for his actions in sponsoring this message. He is of course not the first athlete to use his personal life and notoriety to further a cause close to their heart in healthcare (Curt Schilling just to name one).

But for me he quietly touches upon one crucial point for healthcare: Competitive spirit. Competition and strategy excite people to accomplish great things and it doesn’t end at the court. If Ray Allen truly takes his competitive spirit into the fight against diabetes, along with collaboration in the field, he will certainly help to make great strides in a disease that is quietly becoming a major epidemic. It could be Allen's presence which will gell the cause to take on more competitive challenges to find solutions just as the X Prize has done.

What we need injected into healthcare, biotech, pharma, and all of the teaching hospitals (especially MGH) is a sense of competition to solve this problems. Competition breeds collaboration and that creates such success as Boston Scientific, Innocentive or FIRST.

Competition will be a driving factor in the solution to many of our greatest health challenges, but what we need is an infrastructure to establish the playing field and nurture that spirit. More thoughts on how to do this will come later. I will ask John Abele to follow up on this with his thoughts.

CIMIT

Future, Shift, Leadership - Change: Video Update

Now that we have our new servers up and running here is our newest video update. Last Tuesday John Abele and Elliott Masie discussed the future of technology, business and leadership in a changing global market. They deal with generational fear and how that conflicts with the instinct to move forward. There is no doubt that listening to these two will cause countless ideas to come pouring out of you, but what strikes me most is the tremendous sense of growth and the positive nature they bring to everything. These two love what they talk about and I think you will too. John is a great guy, self made, humble, caring and when he talks everyone stops to listen. Elliott always brings smiles and twists. He is possibly the most business creative industry learners going.

These videos are focused on healthcare, medicine, science and business, but their reach goes to any and all areas.

The first video is their discussion on future. Elliott decided to use the new iPhone 2.0 as an example. Elliott is obviously deeply connected with the inner workings of Apple and goes over the potential future impact of new feature on iPhone 2.0.

The second video is their overview and update to the viral web slides "Shift Happens" where they provide an updated commentary to the information.

More video updates to come and next will be a discussion on credibility in Healthcare with Andrew Webster.

How to Write Emails People Actually Read & Respond To!

Many times a day over here we write emails to people we don’t know asking them to do something that they don’t owe us. It’s a big part of CIMIT's general business practice and how we operate collaboratively. In this effect we have two goals: 1.) Get people to read the email 2.) Get people to act on the email.

I’m sure we’ve all sent emails before hoping for responses and we face that disappointment when no replies come. It is of course different when the person/people work for us, or with us, but what if they have little or no responsibility to us?

So here are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind while writing emails to people you might not know, who might not care much about your efforts and who might feel wonderfully anonymous in a large group of recipients.

1.) The body of the email must be less than 10 lines long
2.) It must be fully and easily readable on a blackberry or handheld (Meaning, text only)
3.) Include a link if appropriate, but only one and make sure it is valuable and easy to navigate
4.) Be honest! I can’t stress this enough. You are not marketing to anyone in an email like this even if you are marketing to them. So don’t speak in that manipulative business marketing speak we all do. Surprise people with your human, friendly voice. Think, how would you write to a friend?
5.) The first line of your email is the most important. People should read the first line and know exactly what the next 9 lines will tell them. Don’t make reading the email a mystery they are trying to unfold as to why they are reading it. The first line of your email should encapsulate the spirit a of the entire email
6.) Next you need to tell them exactly, in very honest terms, what you are asking of them
7.) Follow that immediately by telling them why you are asking this of them. State specifically what value it gives you that they help you. Be honest here as this is where most people start to feel guilty and fall into marketing speak as a way of hiding. People will respond if you are honest here
8.) Use a line or two to describe the details, but don’t keep going. Keep it as short as possible
9.) Finally, let them know what you will do with the action they take for you. Remind them what effect this will have

Finally, two important things to remember:

Don’t be afraid to commit MILD errors in spelling or small typos on purpose. Seriously, it’s fine when appropriate and used correctly. It makes things a little more unique when going out to many people, and it also means the marketing department doesn't have their claws into it (even if they do). It makes us human.

Lastly, combine as many of the steps above as possible. If you can write one line that does three of the major points, do it.

Here is a pretty good, not perfect, but solid example of what I'm talking about. It's something to get you started realistically because the more you do this the better you will get and the more you will hate your inbox. I lifted this from a friend and I have edited it slightly.

-----Original Message-----

From: XXXXX XXXXXXX
To: (Mass mailing list)
Subject: Presidential Leadership Competencies - Input Needed

As a Learning/Training professional, we need your perspectives and input on Leadership Competencies for the Next President of the United States http://www.masieweb.com/presidential

Next Monday, I will be attending a forum at the Center for Public
Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School with a small group of business, political, educational and civic leaders. It will be a focused discussion on the Leadership
Competencies that will be essential for the next President of the United
States.

Your input is extremely valuable to me. As a learning colleague,
would you please take 3 minutes to complete this anonymous survey:

http://www.masieweb.com/presidential

We will then publish a summary of the results, survey and the
discussion for you.

Best,

XXXXXXX

Okay, so coming up: Look for a multitude of media content updates. The servers are fully up and running and I'm getting the videos exported now.

Value Network Analysis

John Maloney wrote me the other day, prompted by an introduction through Andrew Webster of KindBridge Centre, to explain Value Network Analysis. This is admittedly a new concept to me, yet at the same time it is not entirely foreign to anyone in Health care.

John is an internationally respected thought leader in knowledge management and network analysis circles. I recommend reading the first paper on this resource site (A Value Networking Approach by Verna Allee) for a general understanding of Value Networks Analysis.

Here is an edited excerpt of the email John sent me with links added:

Healthcare (and big pharma) are popular ecosystems and established vertical domains for value network analysis (VNA).

There are many examples of excellent healthcare and pharma outcomes using VNA including:

• Reducing scheduling time for heart ablations at Mayo Clinic from 3.5 months to three weeks
• Helping York Hospital develop a patient/family outreach program
• Improving patient and provider communication for a major pharmaceutical company
• Identifying the innovation network that led to Viagra
• Improving distribution of medical research findings for a major government agency
• Reducing shift change errors for nursing staff at a Midwest University hospital
• Improving staff performance for a disease help line

Value network analysis is based on living systems theory. It is designed to address organizational complexity where human communication and interaction is critical for success. Healthcare & pharma is one of the most natural environments for VNA to flourish. It provides a whole system way of modeling the rigorous processes required for safety and service delivery along with the most critical human-to-human interactions and knowledge flows. It helps healthcare professionals monitor the “pulse points” of both internal and external value creating networks, much in the way one would monitor critical indicators for human health. The ValueNetworks.com application provides over 50 such indicators regarding the health of the network. It also easily creates “one touch” visualizations in PowerPoint and Visio to better communicate about organizational and systemic issues. In short, VNA is an x-ray for creating, nurturing and improving flourishing healthcare ecologies.

Important Links:

http://www.value-networks.com/

Here also is an example of how the European Union’s executive branch is using VNA to advance collaborative innovation continent-wide.

Cordially,

John

Well, it's a departure from what we usually supply here, but it's something high-level to chew on for a while. If you have questions comment here or visit John's Blog.

Coming up: Our next post is on how to write an email. Sound simple? Done it thousands of times? We'll see about that.