Category: Uncategorized

No matter how hard we try to live well, and to be healthy, the quality of the air we breathe is pretty much beyond our individual control. But, we need to know more.

The American Lung Association annually publishes research on the State of the Air. These are among the air-related resources of the Association. Click the links for further information:

• • Key Findings. “More than four in 10 people live where pollution levels are too often dangerous to breathe.”
  • City Rankings. “Which cities have the highest levels of air pollution? Which are the cleanest? Check out the lists here.”
  • Health Risks. “Ozone and particle pollution are the most widespread pollutants — and among the most dangerous.”
  • For the Media. “Journalists can access press releases, experts available for interview, b-roll, the full ‘State of the Air’ report, and more.”
  • Join Our Fight. “The American Lung Association fights to clean up the air we breathe. We fight because dirty air harms our health and can threaten life itself. Would you join us in the fight for air?”
  • Shared Stories. “We all have a reason to fight for clean air. People just like you have shared some personal stories that highlight the need for healthy, safe air. Read the stories they have shared or share your own.”

Click the image below to access the full 2019 167-page report.

As we noted yesterday, artificial intelligence (AI) is entering the medical diagnosis field in a big way. Now, let’s look further.

Recently, Garbuio and Lin published an article in California Management Review, “Artificial Intelligence as a Growth Engine for Health Care Startups”:

“The future of health care may change dramatically as entrepreneurs offer solutions that change how we prevent, diagnose, and cure health conditions, using artificial intelligence (AI). This article provides a timely and critical analysis of AI-driven health care startups and identifies emerging business model archetypes that entrepreneurs from around the world are using to bring AI solutions to the marketplace. It identifies areas of value creation for the application of AI in health care and proposes an approach to designing business models for AI health care startups.”

Learn more from this YouTube video.

Do we visit our primary care physician (or other physicians) often enough? Or do we tend to let things slide? In particular, millennials may be very picky.

Recently, a Business Intelligence E-mail newsletter dealt with this topic.  [Note: The link requires a paid subscription]

“Forty-five percent of millennials don’t have a primary care physician. And that’s largely due to providers’ failure to create a consumer-oriented healthcare experience. Millennials’ avoidance of primary care is representative of the generation’s preference for a more retail-like healthcare service that emphasizes speed and personalization, which is threatening providers’ bottom lines.”

“Here are some other key points from our study: Providers’ inability to offer a consumer-oriented healthcare experience drives millennials to more convenient services.  Thirty percent of millennials have used a walk-in clinic, versus 18% of Gen Xers and 14% of baby boomers. 
But most providers don’t deliver on these expectations. For example, the average wait time to schedule a new physician appointment was 24 days in large US cities in 2017, up from 18.5 days in 2014. Unsatisfied millennials will not be loyal their healthcare providers. Ninety-two percent of them say they’d switch providers ‘without hesitation’ if they weren’t satisfied with the level of care they were receiving.’