Featured Physician Executive: Jonathan Leviss, MD

This week's featured physician executive is Dr. Jonathan Leviss. 

Jonathan Leviss, MD
Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Sentillion (a Microsoft Company)
Author of "H.I.T. or Miss: Lessons Learned from Health Information Technology Implementations"
 

Dr. Jonathan Leviss is the Vice President, Chief Medical Officer at Sentillion (A Microsoft company), and a practicing internist at the Thundermist Health Center in Rhode Island.  Dr. Leviss has been using advanced health care technologies for over 15 years and was the first CMIO at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.  He co-chairs the Rhode Island HIT Physician Advisory Committee which advises the Rhode Island Quality Institute on key statewide HIT initiatives.  Dr. Leviss regularly writes and presents on health information technology and edited the recently published book, “HIT or Miss:  lessons learned from health information technology implementations.”

"WIBGI"

WIBGI = wouldn't it be great if...

On the airplane the other day, I was reading a very interesting article on Harvard Business Review about a company called Intellectual Ventures. This is a company started by Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft and Edward Jung (a colleague from Microsoft).

Here's a brief description of Intellectual Ventures:

Founded in 2000, Intellectual Ventures is built on the belief that combining capitalism and invention will benefit the world with more and better inventions as well as create financial rewards for investors.

So, where does WIBGI fit in? In this article, there's a story where an invention session involved heart, chest, bone, and brain surgeons. These surgeons were asked to draft a WIBGI wish list and they came up with some innovative product ideas including new designs for surgical toos that are self-sterilizing... tools that can snake their way around delicate areas of the brain rather than passing through them...  novel ways to make implantable devices that can intelligently dispense medicines... smart shunts that signal when they are clogged or that can clean themselves... and much more.  That's innovation!

If you've been thinking about inventing something in the biomedical field, do you know how to get started? Do you know how to secure a patent? I love these types of articles in Harvard Business Review. They really get my creative juices flowing.

Enhancing Computer Skills to Become a Better Job Candidate

If you're considering a career switch into the non-clinical world of healthcare, I'd encourage you to invest some time and energy to enhance your computer skills. We now live in a mobile era where digital technology is ubiquitous and you will be expected to keep up with everyone else in the office. This means that you should get comfortable working on a laptop (or notebook) computer. If you've always had a desktop PC at home, consider getting a laptop so that you're familiar with some of the basics:

• How do you turn on/off the wireless radio?
  
• How do you connect it to a projector?

Of course, you'll also want to brush up on Microsoft Office. Office 2007 is quite different from the earlier versions (like Office 2003, Office XP, etc.). Finally, get very proficient with e-mail. You may not have an iPhone or BlackBerry now, but be prepared to use one if you join the corporate world of pharma/biotech/medical devices and other major healthcare industries. You may not carry a pager, but you'll probably be carrying something that's even worse (you may have no idea if you've never carried a PDA/smartphone).

UltraMobileHealth.com

I secured a new URL today: http://www.UltraMobileHealth.com/

I've been writing about UMPCs (ultra-mobile PCs), netbooks, MIDs, PDAs, Smartphones, iPhones, iPods, tablet PCs, and other mobile devices for a while now. I thought it was time to get a new URL for my old blog that focuses on these gadgets and mobile technology in healthcare. Welcome to the world of cloud computing.

HIMSS 2009 Chicago

How many of you are enjoying HIMSS in Chicago? Microsoft is heavily involved at HIMSS (have you checked out Microsoft Surface yet?)

There are some great topics this year, especially with so much buzz around health IT driven by talks about economic stimulus. We've heard so much about this from President Obama. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Obama on February 17, includes $19.2 billion for healthcare information technology (health IT). This means that there are many pieces to this gigantic pie for different companies raning from small and large corporations. How do you plan to contribute to the health IT revolution?

Mobile Google Health

Anvita will provide a mobile platform for Google Health. Apparently this was announced the Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR+) conference earlier this month. Google is really taking off with this and I wonder what Microsoft is doing with HealthVault to maintain a competitive edge.

Google and IBM Joining Forces

Looks like Google is working with IBM to add health data from personal monitoring devices like glucose meters and blood pressure monitors. After all, if all this electronic data is being captured, why not integrate it with your PHR? Weight scales, heart rate monitors, pacemakers, defibrillators, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters, etc.

Soon, all these home devices will be integrated via wireless networks. Whether it's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or some other technology, it will all integrate together. The importance of future home network security can't be underscored. After all, people will want to protect their health data.

So will Google Health consume the marketplace? Or will Microsoft Health Vault be the industry leader? Will they all get integrated somehow?