Look No Further Than Wisconsin To See the Connection Between “Digital Illiterate Lawmakers” With New Law “No Web Cams During a Non Surgical Abortion Procedure” - This Says It All!

I talk a lot about digital illiteracy with many lawmakers, why?  Because it’s true and all you have to do is read the news.  It’s amazing that in the rapidly developing world of technology we have today that you still see these throw backs to the 70s.  They haven’t quite figured it out yet that technology in healthcare is here and is developing and changing rapidly.  Those of us in technology literally “laugh” at laws as such as we see right to the point here and scratch our heads as to “why” laws as such are created.  Even those who are not big techs scratch their heads too as web cams are like part of every part of life.  One wonders if these folks use smart phones too?  Outside the US when news of such is read I kind of wonder what other countries have to say about some of this too? 

We all know the governor is not too smart if you go back to the phone call to where a radio personality sucked him in to a “fake” call from one of the Koch brothers, which was really hysterical, but in another way very sad as that’s’ the level of intelligence sitting in that office, scary.  These folks that put so much effort into controlling abortions could really re-direct themselves to work on some very serious issues by all means. Back in 2011, about a year ago I wrote on this topic and it was bringing to the forefront how digital illiteracy was leading back to this “default” topic of abortions and as far as I can tell, it’s about all they can muster up to control and talk about as laws dealing with technology certainly seem to be over their heads.  So even a year ago the connection I made between digital literacy and lawmakers was pretty much on target. 

Digital Illiteracy Still Plagues Law Makers–Severe Focus on Abortion Rights Proves It–Is This Where Our Lawmaking Knowledge Leaves Off or Even Begins? Scary…

 

I just wonder if they even think about how they look to the rest of the world, and seriously it’s like a bunch of “loose cannons” running around and of course a “digital formatted law” would probably even be a bigger crime <grin>.

In a time when everyone else is looking at big data and have the ability to better sort large amounts of data, do you think lawmakers have thought this could be a good idea to help them?  So far I have not seen any evidence in that direction either, and on a federal level too.

IBM Watson Capabilities Being Pitched to Financial Industry-Congress Must Not Have Felt They Needed This So Further Behind We Fall With Effective Intelligent Lawmaking

So now we have a “no web cam” consultation law…when the rest of the world is moving forward with telehealth, I swear others looking in too have to just be rolling over laughing at such a law as it saves money and gives people better access to care.  I guess they don’t read the news and are not too concerned over better healthcare because this is related to that “default topic of abortions for the digitally illiterates”.  Last year a federal judge blocked abortion rules in Kansas, so I mean what is up with these out of touch folks as there’s yet another bunch of digital illiterates in lawmaking. 

Kansas Health Abortion Rules Blocked by Federal Judge Who Put The “Digital Illiterate Whack Job” Lawmakers” In Their Place And Maybe That is the 70s

 

In a round about way even the Vatican is getting tired of the digital illiterates in office even though they have their beliefs regarding abortions, they are not out trying create laws and they too see a need for better digital literacy, especially in the financial world, so again these folks in Wisconsin and their “web cam” law are really looking pathetic and the link below fell into one of my posts about “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”, which basically again talks about digital illiteracy of lawmakers and how banks and big business control all with servers running 24/7 making life impacting decisions about all of us, and the lawmakers in Wisconsin can’t see this and continue this battle on abortions with huge amounts of time and money spent on this.  This is really sad that this is what is in office today.

“Attack of the Killer Algorithms” Part 3–Vatican Doesn’t Like It Either–Occupy Wall Street Belongs in New York As They Don’t Do Code or Algorithms in Washington–Only Find time To Talk Abortions

 

The time and money spent here even made it’s way to Washington and a couple months ago there was a hearing on women’s health and no women were invited.  I have respect for all their views but please keep it out of lawmaking and respect the views of others.  Again the latest on no web cams has more than just me looking at the severe digital literacy and mental capacities of those in office for sure as how in the world can this be controlled? 

How is one going to determine that an “illegal web cam” consult was done?  These folks just don’t get technology at all and are looking “dumber” all the time as I would rather have them jump on the band wagon and get up to speed with where many already are.  I took my link for the Komen foundation off my page and replaced it with Planned Parenthood when the analytics of where to best spend their money became a big political issue for the “digital illiterates” as they don’t realize how analytics are moving the money around, see the picture below at the post on how this intertwines too with the big even on Wall Street as some of philanthropy today has gotten out of touch too.  The analytic folks though are smart and know the digital illiterates can be manipulated and they do that, get their money where they want it and I wonder if corporate US sits back and somewhat laughs at the fact that they can manipulate the digital illiterate lawmakers too?  Komen also last year got a little out of bounds for suing other charities for the use of the word “Cure”, so what’s that tell you, big business and business intelligence analytics at work. 

Komen Foundation Cuts of Funds to Planned Parenthood - Wall Street Was Lit up in “Pink” Last Week For Fund Raising from Hedge Funds and Other Financial Companies

 

Poor Planned Parenthood is once again in the middle of this battle so again who’s going to monitor those dastardly web cams in the potential case that one might be doing a consult for an abortion?  Clearly they have no clue what this would entail with data trails and so forth…hysterically sad on on the levels of digital literacy.  In addition physicians can face felonies if violating the law.  The web cam phrase really takes the cake though and shows how far behind these lawmakers are and how they need to somehow attach themselves to “real” world out there as they are looking “dumb” and “dumber” every day when the need for “control” forces them into a box to where they think they can control “web cams” and how they are used, while the rest of the world moves forward. I don’t know how else to say this but these folks just look plain stupid and in my opinion are the “whack jobs” that somehow work on the emotions of the public when we all know the math and the algorithms are controlling who gets what today.   BD

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MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has suspended non-surgical abortions in response to a new state law that makes it harder for women to have the procedure, a move that followed anti-abortion measures in several Republican-controlled states.

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he law, which took effect on Friday, requires women visit a doctor at least three times before having a drug-induced abortion, forces physicians to determine whether women are being coerced into having an abortion and prohibits women and doctors from using web cams during the procedure.

http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsins-planned-parenthood-suspends-non-surgical-abortions-175324214.html

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Mislabeling Work in Labs Sends Years of Cancer Research Down the Drain With Misidentified Contaminated Cells

Can you imagine being a scientist and then finding out later that the cells given for research were contaminated?  This is also hidden at times with researchers and journal publications have been in error as well and have had to be rescinded.  According to the article here there’s not much being done to ensure labeling is correct.  Researchers end up studying the wrong cancer cells and of course this directly impacts finding cures and treatments.

Some researchers have tried to bring this to light but are ignored by others they work with in fear that the errors, if brought forward would discredit an entire lab operation.  One doctor states that cell banks reported that 20% of cell lines for use in research are not properly identified and that’s a pretty large number.  When researching a specific tumor with misidentified cells, it becomes a waste of time, money an so on.

Cell lines are stored for years in freezers and the cells are what researchers study and are even shared  with other scientists so one mislabel can have a bit of a daisy chain effect.  One of the noted mix ups has been between breast cancer cells and melanoma and when it was further researched in one case the breast cancer cells were melanoma and not from a patient who had both. 

The cell lines uses are also published in journals so they can be identified for their point of origin.  One big concern is the financial end where many who donate and contribute money could possibly learn of such mistakes and the donation rates would drop.  With biotech financing being so tough to get, this is the last thing anyone would want to have hit with contaminated cell lines.  BD

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Cancer experts seeking to solve the problem have found that a fifth to a third or more of cancer cell lines tested were mistakenly identified—with researchers unwittingly studying the wrong cancers, slowing progress toward new treatments and wasting precious time and money.

In hundreds of documented cases that undermine a broad swath of research, cancer samples that were supposed to be one type of tumor have turned out to be another, through either careless laboratory handling, mislabeling or other mistakes.

It is a problem hiding in plain sight. Warnings to properly test cancer cell lines have sounded since the 1960s, a decade after scientists started making human cancer cell lines.

Much of cancer research seeks answers to questions of basic biology, so the proper identification of cell lines may be less important, said Dr. Masters. But when seeking cancer treatment for a specific tumor, he said, such mistakes "are an utter waste of public money, charity money and time."

These mix-ups are maddeningly difficult to pinpoint: an improperly sterilized pipette, a lab worker momentarily distracted, a misread label or a typo on a record sheet.

Cell repositories in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan have estimated that 18% to 36% of cancer cell lines are incorrectly identified. Researchers at Glasgow University and CellBank Australia found more than 360 such mistaken cell lines, including 100 that turned out to be the late Ms. Lack's cervical cancer cells.

Other scientists, following up on the observations at Stanford, demonstrated that MDA-MB-435 behaved like melanoma because it likely was melanoma—in particular, a skin-cancer cell line called M14.

Osamu Tetsu, a head-and-neck cancer researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, did a study in 2009 that concluded all six known cell lines used by researchers studying adenoid cystic carcinoma were contaminated.

All of the work done on the rare cancer—published papers, research, drug studies—had been conducted with mislabeled cell lines, Dr. Tetsu concluded. He called the findings "catastrophic."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204571404577257513760102538.html

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Medical Marijuana Machine Gets Busted in Orange County–Battle Still Continues Over Access

 

 

The medical marijuana business still has issues over laws that don’t agree with one another.  In this case the city of Santa Ana closed down this dispensary and the machine too.  A couple years ago there was a machine installed in downtown Los Angeles that coincided with the “pot cards” that are now issued in California, also saying it was a safer way for patients to get their medications.  The machine also came with an “armed guard” and was only accessible during business hours.  In the news lately we have had law enforcement carrying out what laws I guess apply to their particular areas and the federal laws.  Banks are afraid to take the gamble in many areas. 

U.S. Medical Marijuana Business Having Issues With Banks–Is This Going to be a Cash Only Business?

In addition we had the raid in northern California on the school that teaches how to work with medical marijuana.

Medical Marijuana in the Picture Again As DEA Raids Oakland Oaksterdam University

In addition some coupons have tried to make it easier to help patients with getting access. 

Medical Marijuana Sellers Offering Online Coupons To Attract Patients

You can watch the vide below for the full story on what happened in Santa Ana.



Dispense Labs, a division of  the Dispensary Group, unveiled  Autospense  Friday, an automated dispensary that distributes medical marijuana and looks like a vending machine.

All that is needed to tap an Autospense machine is a registration card and unique PIN number, said Joe DeRobbio, Dispense Labs’ founder and CEO.

During after hours, Autospense is open only to patients who have agreed to the fingerprint option – they run their prints  through a scanner and swipe a registration card, DeRobbio said.

Autospense offers a secure, “businesslike” way to distribute and obtain medical marijuana,  said DeRobbio. With cameras, locks and sensors, the machines are difficult to break into.

Although Dispense Labs supplies the machines, it is not involved in growing the product, DeRobbio said.

“We are not associated with the industry,” he said. “We do not provide the medicine that goes in the machine.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/marijuana-vending-machine-by-calif-company/

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Microsoft Research–Where News Ideas Develop to Include Solving Big Problems Like the HIV Virus By Working With Email Spam Filters And Kinect

This is pretty wild that some of the same coding techniques that we use to identify spam mail can also be applied to identify HIV virus mutations and this is a great way to use “machine learning” for better research and knowledge.  Today there’s so much code written that you can in fact see what parts or portions of existing queries, etc. are built in and use those for another industry outside of the original design.  Mashable does some good coverage on this and also you have to love the video when you look at how they are working with augmented reality and the race car.

Of course there’s no better device and technology than Kinect that makes a lot of this happen.  In the video they are using the “Beamatron” technology as it is called to control a virtual race car that sees stuff in it’s path and having a virtual toy car as such might put some of the other folks out of business, maybe?  They also continue on to the demonstration of using Power Point in the same fashion.  We all know that Kinect is coming to Windows and developers are hard at work to make more of this happen. It is very interesting to see a million dollar surgical robot working with the $150 Kinect device, link below at what Johns Hopkins was working with. 

Kinect And daVinci Surgical Robot Do Simulated Surgery Suturing Together (Video)

If that isn’t enough you can see another use of Kinect with radiology taking the need to “touch” out of the picture.  Last year I attended the Israel Conference and had quite a bit of time to speak with Microsoft/XBOX Corporate VP Ilan Spillinger and of course he was also very high on medical solutions with Kinect. 

Microsoft Kinect Working with a PACS Server-Images on Steroids Via Gestures (Video)

When you watch the video with the car and passing the virtual “ball” around you get all kinds of ideas on how lighting, or other information could be shared like even in an operating room or the ER for that matter.  BD

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24 year Microsoft vet and Microsoft Research General Manager Kevin Schofield told me Microsoft Research is also focused, at least in part, on “solving big problems” like the HIV virus.

Medical Research would seem an odd fit for Microsoft, but the research group is filled with all kinds of experts, including a couple of MDs. One of them is also a computer scientist and became fascinated with how doctors make crucial decisions in high-pressure situations when they have incomplete information (think emergency room visits). This led to work in machine learning (Microsoft Research does a lot of work in this area), which uses what’s known to figure out the unknown. Spam filters work this way. They can look at email and if the word “Viagra” is in it, decide with some degree of certainty that it’s spam. Now, that research is being applied to HIV vaccine research.

The HIV virus is known for its tendency to mutate, which makes it hard for people to develop an immunity. A spam-like filter can find the known in the unknown — in this case the core, recognizable virus.

I asked Schofield, who began his carrier at Microsoft in the OS group, if Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates used the legendary Bell Labs as a model for Microsoft Research. “At a 30,000 foot level,” Schofield said, “Bell Labs was the model, but on the ground it was more Carnegie Mellon.” There are, apparently, two styles of research lab: The Xerox Parc model, where you isolate research from the business and the other model, where you basically have business fund and drive research. Both approaches can hinder tech transfer. The second method, in particular, said Schofield, tends to guide research too strongly so that most of the work is spent delivering product enhancements. Schofield said Microsoft took the middle road.

Like any true research facility, Microsoft Research has its share of duds. I asked Schofield if there was a room where Microsoft Research keeps its failed experiments. “Failures would be a big room,” Schofield said, laughing. But he also counts some of those failures among Microsoft Research’s successes.

http://mashable.com/2012/04/21/microsoft-sexy-peek/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Ftech+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Tech%29#59981Microsoft-Logo-on-Wall

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We Pay Gasoline Tax to Keep Up the US Highway Infrastructure–Why Not Tax the Data Selling Companies and Banks to Keep Up the US Government IT Infrastructure? A “Buffett Tax” Alternative

It’s time for another one of these posts since the Buffett Law on taxes is sinking or is sunk.  If you have followed any of the news in the last few years about the SEC (Madoff) and other government departments needing IT infrastructure updates, let’s face it, we need a tax for that. 

Corporations, Banks, High Frequency Traders, Social Networks, etc. all make Billions, that’s with a big “B” selling data they mine and most of the time get it for free.  States already license data miners but now their costs are going up as they have to install software to keep some of the “bots” out as they have tremendously grown in numbers and who pays for that?   Taxes are supposed to but they are all running short.  This was discussed before under Chapter 17 of “The Attack of the Killer Algorithms”.  They have teeth and make money and this is what you can’t see, touch or talk to running on servers 24/7 behind the scenes. 

Start Licensing and Taxing the Data Sellers of the Internet Making Billions of Profit Dollars Mining “Free Taxpayer Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 17 - “Occupy Algorithms”– Help Stop Inequality in the US

I actually started out calling it the “Alternative Millionaires Tax a while back.  Not too long ago I saw somewhere that Google was offering a “tiny” bit of money for those to agree to let them use their data.  I can’t remember where but it was out there. 

The Alternative Millionaire’s Tax–License and Tax Big Corporations Who Mine and Sell Taxpayer Data They Get for Free From the Internet-Phase One to Restore Middle Class With Transparency, Disclosure and Money

CoreLogic, one of the data miners for credit information  has formed a partnership with FICO who is already in the process of selling algorithms with mismatched data which connects public information about you and combines it with your credit score to tell if you as a medical patient will take your prescriptions.  Somebody needs to start calling some of these folks on “mis matched data” that discriminates as now we have “Discrimination by the Algorithm” and it’s showing in more places all the time.   Others actually say it a lot better than I do, video below.

You Are the Product–Privacy Anonymity and Net Neutrality On the Internet - Excellent Stanford University Lecture (Video)

So the next time you are out there buying that tire to keep your car rolling, and pay a federal excise tax, give this some thought on the millions and billions being made by corporate US today from the “free taxpayer data” they mind and scrape for free and all the money they make off the backs of taxpayers, and this should be a way of corporations giving some of it back and would add some real transparency as we don’t know what all they are selling and to who? 

Walgreens said in their 2010 SEC statement that they made short of $800 million, just from selling data, so one has to wonder if filling prescriptions is a side business to collect that data and how much profit would they show without this source of income?  It’s large enough to be taxed and for them to have a license to mine and sell data.  So far I have not had anyone “not” like this idea and separate it from Income Tax and require quarterly payments and an updated license every quarter so we know all are compliant.  Here’s a little hindsight or foresight, a post I made back in August of 2009 and we need this now with the amount of “flawed data” and software out there. 

“Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?

As consumers we have become data chasers to fix everything that has been put in data files that for the most part we had nothing to do with, unless you give it all away on Facebook and other social networks. 

Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 6–Discrimination With Consumer Credit-Same As Health Insurance Wanting Consumers to Reconstruct Records From Many Years Past As Middle Class Turns Into Data Chasers-Days of Taking Risks to Get Ahead Will Be Limited For Most…Occupy Algorithms

So again, where’s the tax in the US to keep up the IT Infrastructure, I don’t think there is one and we certainly could use it as big business runs over government all day long and we as consumers suffer with the Attacks of the Killer Algorithms as there’s no system and balance to protect us as the government is outdone over and over in most areas, with the exception of the military for the most part. 

When folks get out of the military we hear one story after another though too and how they are not getting their proper benefits either and join the rank and file of the rest of us not protected by an adequate IT Infrastructure.  The SEC and the FDA come to mind as 2 departments that could really use the support with IT infrastructure and they are 2 agencies that are supposed to help and protect consumers. 

So again where is this IT Infrastructure tax?  We can certainly use one as without it inequality will continue to thrive as big business continues to reign without much regulation.  This is an area where big business benefits and the cost should be reflected from that side of the fence and not more tossed upon the consumer.  Consumers also need a federal disclosure page in the name of transparency so we can see who sells what kind of data to who, as right now we are all at the mercy of the crafty written legal privacy statements on websites that are very difficult to interpret for the most part and confuse all and that may be the plan so as not to give out too much information as to what is really happening on servers operating 24/7 making life impacting decisions about all of us.  Our lawmakers seem to be out of touch with all of what goes on behind the scenes as well. 

IBM Watson Going to Work At Citigroup on Wall Street–Congress Didn’t See Big Data As A Tool (Hadoop Framework) When They Had Their Chance…For Consumers The Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Chapter 22

The government needs to keep up with with the IT infrastructure of big business today and big business should foot that bill, not the consumer.  BD

 

The Quiet Rise of Machine Learning-Like IBM Watson Offers With Speed and Learned Analytics-Congress Needs Technology This To Make Better Laws & Collaborate

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UnitedHealthCare 1st Quarter of 2012 Yields over $1 Billion in Net Profits–25% of the Nation Still Remains Uninsured

The Los Angeles Times ran this article today about the “holes in health insurance coverage” and is that where some of the profits lie?   Also noted in the growth was the DOD contract award.  Did this lawsuit have anything to do with the award mentioned in the article as well as hiring the former US Assistant Attorney General from Minnesota as general counsel?   One does have to ask when you see flurries of legal activities. 

Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?

 

In addition the company either directly or through subsidiaries is buying up more physician’s practices, HMOs and IPAs so that would seem to leverage greater control on reimbursement to the the doctors. 

United Healthcare Buys Two HMOs in Florida–More Cheap or Free Hearing Aids for Seniors Perhaps–Subsidiary Watch

Meanwhile the AMA put an article out that the United lawsuit checks are in the mail.  Nobody is getting tons of money as they never really do on a class action suit.

”Neither United nor any of the health plans that used its Ingenix databases admitted to any wrongdoing, but they did reach a settlement in the federal lawsuit in 2009, agreeing to pay physicians and patients $350 million.

United and other insurers also reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General's Office, which had investigated the use of UCR to set payment rates and concluded that the system cheated patients and their physicians. The insurers agreed to change the way they set out-of-network payment rates and pay to establish a new database”

In the Health IT business they have about 3 different medical records programs offered through subsidiaries and have enough analytics to cure what ever ails a doctor, hospital or corporation.  Contract lowered, they have the algorithms to help one function with less.   

Subsidiary Watch-Corporate Conglomerate Insurers Reduce Compensation Contracts Using One Subsidiary Then Market Same MDs With Another Subsidiary in Health IT

 

Here’s a couple other subsidiaries that add to their bottom line, although I believe some of the I3 folks are no longer a part but they still have ChinaGate as a subsidiary in China and maybe this is part of the cheap hearing aides they offer through yet one more subsidiary they set up to distribute them.   More information about the hearing aids at the links above. 

United Healthcare (Optum) Owns A Consulting Firm for FDA Drug and Device Approvals, Clinical Trials–CanReg - Subsidiary Watch

UnitedHealth subsidiary (Ingenix Subsidiary I3) Acquires ChinaGate – Working to Sell Chinese Products Globally

Other insurers are due to come out with their numbers soon, but nobody has the huge daily chain of subsidiaries to compile revenue as does United and they don’t have a bank as United does with over $1 billion on deposit.  BD 

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First-quarter net income rose 3.1 percent to $1.39 billion, or $1.31 a share, UnitedHealth said in its statement. The results beat the $1.17-a-share average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue climbed to $27.3 billion from $25.4 billion a year earlier.

UnitedHealth spent 81 percent of premiums collected on medical care, down from 81.4 percent a year earlier.

Hemsley has been bulking up with acquisitions of smaller health plans as President Barack Obama’s health-care law puts pressure on profit margins. UnitedHealth completed its $2 billion purchase of XL Health Corp. in February, gaining membership in plans administered for Medicare, the U.S. backed program for the elderly. Last month, the Pentagon announced it had chosen the company for a $20.5 billion, five-year contract to provide benefits to military personnel and their families.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-19/unitedhealth-profit-rises-as-medical-costs-lag-behind-recovery.html

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Jackson Memorial Hospital Begins Major Layoffs to Save Money–Around 1000 Expected and Some Can Return to Work as Part Time, Some Benefits (Video)

The math in the article goes like this, 1115 get cut and 350 part time jobs get added so the folks getting laid off get a chance to return part time, so I’m guessing this is 30 hours or less a week.  $70 million is the dollar amount to be saved.  The video did not say what the “benefits” were for the part time employees but one might guess they may not be the same as full time employees get.


Over 900 pink slips have already gone out.  One doctor states it was already affecting patient care as there are less people.  The transplant floor and the burn units are two departments that have been affected.  Patient volume has been decreasing. BD

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MIAMI (CBS4) – More than 920 Jackson Memorial Hospital employees could be out of a job by the end of the month. The hospital gave out pink slips last week and some employees argue the affects are already apparent.

“At least in Jackson it’s getting everybody’s morale down,” said Dr. Morad Askari, a plastic surgeon. “It is in some regards definitely affecting patient care.”

O’Dell said the patient volume has been declining steadily over the past few years and the cutbacks are an effort to operate more efficiently.

JMH believes it will save nearly $70 million by cutting a total of 1115 positions, some of them currently vacant, and adding in 350 part-time jobs.

“Part-time employees come and they don’t have anything invested in to the hospital and what our mission is and what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Dr. Askari.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/04/16/jmh-layoffs-sparking-more-questions-than-answers/

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Heart Disease Is Not An Indicator of Heart Problems States Doctors Who Want to Set the Record Straight at the American Heart Association–Killer Algorithms Chapter 27 Flawed Math and Studies

How many times have we heard this over the last few years, many if you read the news.  Having an infection though, just like anywhere else in your body could lead the infection to go anywhere in your body so as far as bacteria though the American Heart Association says all the information is flawed.  This goes right along with I talk about all the time, “flawed data” and it’s amongst us.  Good thing we have folks that find it too and let us know.  I can’t wait for the day that I have my teeth regrow themselves with stem cells!  What great way for dental work and getting a tooth replaced.  I just wondered though if the stem cells would grow cavities back but was told “that is a good question”.  Rats are getting new teeth.

Rats Are Getting Teeth Re-Implanted With Stem Cells and Same Technology Can Be Used for Replacement Teeth

This goes back to how studies are done and anyone can crank out numbers and I talk about that and how sometimes we have marketing folks that will spin report numbers or we have a very small study in which there’s not enough proof to speak of and everyone thinks it’s the gospel.  So brushing your teeth is not going to help you avoid heart trouble but it will help your oral hygiene and clean the bacteria out of your mouth.  We still have the same old problem of negative studies not being published as well so journals still struggle at times to have all the information included. 

Scroll down on the left hand side and watch this fantastic video about how naïve we are are and how we get fooled.  You wont think the same about studies again.  There are good ones out there but the challenge is to tell the difference sometimes. 

Look for the Attack of the Killer Algorithms as that’s exactly what we have here with crunching numbers sometimes.  

What is very cool though of late is that I have the National Institute of Statistical Sciences following the Killer Algorithm series and they wrote to me recently and said “keep it up” we like and agree.  BD   

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(Reuters) - For 20 years, researchers have reported a link between gum disease and heart attacks or stroke, but a new analysis finds that claim seriously flawed - so much so that the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a rare "scientific statement" on Wednesday concluding that gum disease has not been shown to raise the risk of, let alone cause, cardiovascular illness

AAP President Pamela McClain, a periodontist in Aurora, Colorado, agreed that research has "not been able to say that periodontal disease causes cardiovascular disease." Gum disease "is a risk factor, and observational studies have supported an association but not a causal one." She said she did not see a need to revise the group's website.

Besides correcting the scientific record, the AHA panel hopes that publicizing its conclusion will help people. Most important, said Bolger, if people understand that periodontal disease does not raise their risk of heart attack and stroke they can focus on what does, such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, and stress.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/04/18/us-usa-health-gums-idINBRE83H1AC20120418?feedType=RSS&feedName=health&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=309303

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Johns Hopkins Ready To Open $1 Billion Dollar Facility and Michael Bloomberg Was On Hand for the Dedication Ceremony

This is one big building to say the least with 500 rooms.  The adult tower was named after the President of the United Arab emirates who also gave a big gift.  There’s only one patient per room and the technology is brought to the patient bedside.

The video below has a a short tour of one of the new cardiology rooms.  He says technology lives here.  You can see all the screens and roll out beds for family members who want to stay over.  They even got everything down to the art with art that has maps to study and look at.  The building was 10 years in the planning and building. 

In 2006, they entered into an agreement to have a 10-year affiliation with the General Health Authority for Health Services in the United Arab Emirates, giving Johns Hopkins the opportunity to manage the more than 400-bed Tawam Hospital in Abu Dhabi so big healthcare facilities have gone global as well.  BD 




The second video goes over the pediatric units and this is interesting with the patient being in the “middle” of the room, not up against the wall with pediatric intensive care.  The technology in each room is staggering, but it’s good thing for sure. 

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Officials from around Maryland and the Mayor of New York City were on hand Thursday afternoon as Johns Hopkins Hospital dedicated its new building.

The new $1 billion building along Orleans Street will feature more than 500 private rooms, dozens of operating rooms, 28 elevators and new emergency rooms for children and adults

The state of Maryland contributed $100 million to the construction of the building and 36 percent of the cost came from philanthropic contributors like Michael Bloomberg and The President of the UAE according to Hopkins officials.

The private rooms help with patient safety according to Dr. Ed Kasper, clinical director of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "Because of patient safety issues, particularly infection control you want one patient in one room. The old days of wards are over. And even the days of two beds will shortly be over," says Kasper.

http://wbal.com/article/88700/2/template-story/See-Video-Hopkins-Dedicates-1B-Hospital-Building

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Safe Shepherd–Privacy Web Service To Remove Records That Violate Your Privacy on Internet And Remove Access “Data Brokers” Making Billions In Profits Selling Data With Little Overhead

Being a privacy person advocate I thought I would give this a try and see how it works and keep in mind the company is brand new so I’m sure they will develop more services.  Right now they have a free basic service which I tried and by using a friend referral service you can upgrade to their professional version for free, or you can just pay. 

I put in my email and very basic information and found my email attached to a few others out there and selected “remove”.  The service states it will tell me when I am removed.  I have a few email addresses, and for now I am testing it on one as it appears the address is the common denominator here. 


Robert Scoble did an introductory video which offers a bit more information on how it works.  By the way this looks to be in the new YouTube HTML5 format too.  The service states I’ll be notified via email when the connections have been removed from the web, so I will watch for them and see what I get.




Again with the “data selling” business growing to such a large proportion and the billions being made here by drugs stores, banks, retail stores, social networks, insurance companies and their subsidiaries it was certainly time for such a service to emerge.  Again I still stand with licensing and taxing the “data sellers” as big business makes billions from selling data and sometimes the date gets used against you and that’s why I wrote my “Killer Algorithm” series to help folks understand how this occurs.  If Walgreens made just under $800 million selling data in 2010 according to their SEC statement, just think of how much is out there and the “huge” profits, again in the “billions” that are made with “intangible” services that have little overhead.  When I get sick though and need a cure I can’t use an algorithm to get well, still need something from the drug store, over the counter or prescription, and that’s a tangible. 

This is why it is difficult for manufacturing in some areas to get going as why would a company build a factory and hire employees when they can grab a few programmers, get a cloud or two and set up the “data mining” algorithms, grab the data, query it into “saleable” data tables and go off marketing.  This is especially true in the “predictive behavior” area as everyone wants to know where and how to market and how consumers will react and intertwine before it hits the road. 

Start Licensing and Taxing the Data Sellers of the Internet Making Billions of Profit Dollars Mining “Free Taxpayer Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 17 - “Occupy Algorithms”– Help Stop Inequality in the US

Also check out “PatientPrivacyRights” which goes a bit deeper into getting permission from Patients on sharing information.  I decided after all the articles I have written here to put permanent links for those looking for privacy information as it is updated and it’s tied in with the series on the Killer Algorithms.  It takes a bunch of algorithms to go in and get your information with all the bots out there today and now it looks like we have new algorithms being developed to go in and remove it.  BD

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”We'll scan across the internet for your personal information which has been made public or is being sold.”

• Remove unwanted information

  Easily remove records which violate your privacy, are risky, or are inaccurate. We'll do all the work.

• Be the first to know

  Receive real-time alerts when your personal info appears on the web, whether you put it there or not.
  

https://safeshepherd.com/

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Medicare Agrees to Settle Hospital Reimbursement Dispute With 2,200 Hospitals in the US To Receive Approximately $3 Billion–Hospitals Paid Short–Killer Algorithms Chapter 26

Most of my posts on the Killer Algorithms have been about consumers and patients being the victims, but this time it was hospitals with bad algos short paying them.  If you scroll on down on the left hand side you can find links to the digest and couple really neat videos that will explain how algorithms deny when the math is bad as well as some great explanations on how this happens to this is Chapter 26.

This was a suit I was not aware of and it has been around for a while and it will help a “little” as does any money for hospitals who are trying to stay alive out there today.  Tenet Healthcare stands to get about $84 million.  There are still some hospitals that could have been affected that could also file suit, which is around 1200 hospitals. 

This goes back to changed Medicare made in 1998 to adjust for inpatient care that were to reflect area wages.  The error “aka the algorithm” that was calculating the reimbursement was noticed in 2006 and kept occurring and hospitals were being paid short and was not corrected until last year.  CMS was the holder of the “bad algos” this time.

The formulas were finally corrected for the year 2012 forward and it must have taken a big group of developers to nail this one down, either that or it was ignored.  The American Hospital Association had been all over this as well.  We have story after story about medical billing software and the money exchange goes back and forth as hospitals also get fined for billing errors and after this one coming from CMS, it does make one wonder if anyone really gets it right with our complicated system as there are plenty of hold to fall in.   

Bad Algorithms in Healthcare Payment Systems and Risk Assessments–Did the Hospital Bill Fraudulently or Were They Sold Formulas That Did Not Conform

There’s a lot of “flawed data” accumulating out there and a little more than a year ago I found my own bunch on the web with doctor information on the web being flawed as well with dead doctors, retired doctors and so forth listed on the grading sites.  If they weren’t dead, the listings had doctors affiliated with hospitals they had never set foot in.  This is where I found my former MD who had been deceased for 8 years still listed and was taking HealthNet insurance.

HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor

We are definitely going to have to clean up the data and the algorithms we rely on today. 

You can scream and holler all you want but until the algorithms on the servers that run about 90% of what we do anymore get changed, then nothing happens and this was the case with CMS on this one.   The same process with algorithmic formulas is also affecting smaller pharmacies and testing their existence for the future as well as they don’t even have time to calculate what their income will be when the formulas change so quickly.   BD 

Independent Pharmacies Not Able to Compete with Big Chains and Fear Going Out of Business–They Don’t Have Same High Levels of Data To Sell to Profit- Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 23

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Medicare agreed to settle a dispute with about 2,200 hospitals nationwide over a decade-long error in reimbursement rates, offering what could amount to a $3-billion infusion to hospitals already bracing for funding cuts under the federal healthcare law.

More than 200 California hospitals are included in three similar agreements reached April 5, and they stand to share a total of more than $310 million. For instance, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said it would receive $14.3 million and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center said it was due about $6 million.

Analysts say this case won't drastically improve the fortunes of hospitals facing those fiscal pressures. "It doesn't change our financial picture," said John Bishop, chief financial officer at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, "but it helps put a little salve on the wound."

Hospitals argued that Medicare committed a mathematical error and it kept recurring through last year, resulting in significant underpayments to thousands of hospitals. A group of hospitals complained about the error in 2007 and sought repayment. According to court records, the error came to light in a May 2006 email exchange between a Medicare employee and a hospital consultant.

In August, Medicare corrected the payment rates for fiscal year 2012. Federal officials didn't agree to settle the matter for prior years until last week.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0413-medicare-settlement-20120412,0,704796.story

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Melinda Gates Talks Birth Control and Contraception–Giving Women the Option To Control When They Want to Have Children–TED Video

This is a great video and yes it is directed toward education and choices outside the US, it somehow is pretty timely with our own folks in Congress right now with this war on women’s healthcare.  She shares her own feelings too about how she chose when to start her own family. 
When the Komen/Planned Parenthood issue came up a few months ago this ugly topic surfaced and we saw our own supposedly educated and forward moving men in the US going backwards, over the same old topic and problem with men, “control”. One good thing here is that Melinda Gates draws the line and talks about how contraception and abortion are not the same. She was raised Catholic and plans to share this TED video with the nuns where she went to school. This is well worth the watch. BD

http://www.ted.com/talks/melinda_gates_let_s_put_birth_control_back_on_the_agenda.html

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Some Hospitals Are Creating “Geriatric Emergency Rooms” for Patients 65 and Older

I didn’t even know these existed and it sounds like the services and the centers are like a cross between a full ER and part nursing home characteristics as all the beeping machines are not present.  The article in the Times states the Geriatric ER rooms are more like clinics and they have some special features like non skid floors.


The part that they all talk about here though as far as aesthetics is the ceiling light that looks like a skylight that does day and night.  I think anyone could appreciate that to know what time of day it is.  I have seen the skylight in a couple hospitals here in California as well but not necessarily in the ER room and think they would be welcome anywhere.  The patients have a touch screen tablet to where they can call the nurse or listen to music too. 

Falling in the ER room was a big problem and thus this lead the doctors to try something different.  BD

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Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md., opened one of the first geriatric emergency departments, which it calls a seniors emergency center, in 2008, and its parent organization, Trinity Health System, runs 12 nationwide, primarily in the Midwest, and plans to open six or seven more by June, a spokeswoman said.

Dr. Mark Rosenberg, chairman of emergency medicine at St. Joseph’s, said he had consulted on more than 50 geriatric emergency rooms to be opened across the country, from Princeton, N.J., to California, overcoming initial resistance from doctors and nurses who saw assignments to the units as scut work.

“

They thought it was a bedpan unit, focused on nursing home patients,” Dr. Rosenberg said. “When they finally realized this was the unit that gave better health care to their parents and grandparents, they jumped onboard.”

At Mount Sinai, all arrivals go through triage in the regular emergency department and are sent to the geriatric department if they are over 65, know their name, were able to walk before the day of the hospital visit and are ranked 3, 4 or 5 on a standard emergency severity index of 1 to 5, with 1 being the sickest. Someone with a broken hip would probably qualify, but someone with an acute heart attack would most likely have to be stabilized in the regular emergency room first, said Dr. Kevin M. Baumlin, the vice chairman of emergency medicine, who founded the geriatric emergency room.

Volunteers interact with patients to keep them alert. The artificial skylight, which turns dark at night, is intended to combat “sundowning” — agitation and confusion at the end of the day. “I have to say I thought it was the hokiest thing I ever heard of, but it turns out it’s a big satisfier,” Dr. Jagoda said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/nyregion/geriatric-emergency-units-opening-at-us-hospitals.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

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Newt Gingrich Group Goes Bankrupt–This Includes the Center for Health Transformation (aka CHT)–This Guy Really Has Issues With Math and Formulas…

The CHT was an early promoter of Health IT, but as the members of the GOP quit learning and become more digitally illiterate so when the group.  Did they go bankrupt because Newt left to run for office?  Some seem to think so and maybe their top money generator was gone.  My favorite Newt story was the doctor scam and it was funny as an MD wrote in here to the Quack and told me all about it in the comments of the post below. 

Newt Gingrich Scams Doctors With Fake Prize Awards That Costs $5000

Old Newt did his one big promotion on how paper kills which was good but then it was downhill from there.  I said back in the summer of 2010 that he had no clue.  He can’t talk math except when it comes to raising money it seems and again after the one speech there’s was nothing else to hear as he truly lives in the past.  This is about the time I really started talking about the math and formulas in healthcare and I still do today and call those on the carpet who have to go back to default topics like abortions. 

Newt Gingrich Gets Healthcare Value Bass Ackwards–It’s All About Those Algorithms

My personal opinion, he grew dumb as he did not keep up with the times and way back in his career he had a listening ear but as technology moved in he just flat out didn’t keep up and worked on raising money, mostly for Newt.  BD 

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The Gingrich Group, which includes Newt Gingrich's think tank, the Center for Health Transformation (CHT), has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Gingrich severed ties with CHT when he began seeking the Republican presidential nomination in May 2011, and a Gingrich campaign spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that CHT's bankruptcy is a result of its founder's departure.

Last November, The Washington Post reported that CHT had collected $37 million from member healthcare and insurance companies between 2003 and 2011. CHT charged participating firms as much as $200,000 each, the Post said. Among the biggest sponsors were AstraZeneca, Merck, Novo Nordisk, BlueCross BlueShield Association, and UnitedHealth Group.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/leadership/232800452?cid=InformationWeek-Twitter

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Doctor Who Co-Wrote Beach Boys Classic Song “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” Gives up Medical License–Accused of Prescribing Medications for Himself And Suffers From Drug Abuse

This is actually a very sad story and he has had a psychiatric evaluation and had been living in dirty hotel room so now maybe he can get some help on getting his life back together.  A pharmacist at a Target store refused to fill one of his prescriptions as something was just not right.

He had been taking Xanax and Norco and the Medical Board wrote up a 17 page report on their decision and since July of 2011 the medical board he was mentally ill and not able to practice medicine safely.  BD

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Two days after a Target pharmacist in Ventura refused to fill a prescription in July 2010 that Altfeld called in for himself, he asked a patient to take a prescription, written in the patient’s name, to that Target to obtain medications for Altfeld’s use, according to the decision.

In July 2011, Altfeld was examined by a psychiatrist appointed by the medical board and determined to be a drug abuser, mentally ill and unable to “practice medicine safely,” the decision states.

Altfeld was hospitalized multiple times for mental illness, according to the board. During one hospital admission in 2010, “he was bizarre and illogical; he was rambling, intrusive and very paranoid,” the decision states.

Altfeld was interviewed by medical board investigators in a Ventura motel room in which he lived last year. The room smelled, and the bed mattress was stained with blood, according to the board.

Altfeld, who has been licensed in California since 1991, represented himself during the medical board proceedings. He could not be reached for comment.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/doctor-who-co-wrote-beach-boys-classic-gives-up-license.html

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Fortune 500 Companies That Make Money From Taxes–Tenet Ranked #10 On The List

As the article explains this is the “effective” tax rate  and it is at 12.1 percent o

f profits, lowest level since 1972.  The companies end up having negative income tax rates and if you look at the list, GE, is on there and there have been many articles on the web recently about how they pay very little taxes in the US. Rounding out at number 10 is Tenet and of all companies on there, they probably need the break as hospitals all over the US today are struggling to stay alive and profitable. 

Last year Community Health tried an unsuccessful take over of Tenet.  BD

Tenet Tells Community Health Thanks But No Thanks in Response to Their Submission of 10 Nominees for Tenet’s Board of Directors

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Instead of giving money to the government, it turns out more than a few U.S. companies are actually making money off their income taxes.

In a recent report by the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 26 of 30 Fortune 500 companies examined had negative income tax rates on profits made in the U.S. between 2008 and 2011 (h/t Think Progress).

Due to these tax breaks, companies such as General Electric, Boeing and Verizon made more money after taxes from 2008 to 2011 than they did before filing them, according to the report. The 30 companies in the report made almost $6.5 billion on their taxes over the same time period. Conversely, if they had paid a tax rate of just 35 percent during that time, they would have provided the federal government with $78.3 billion in corporate tax revenue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/corporate-tax-rates_n_1413268.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#s853413&title=10_Tenet_Healthcare

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Texas Hospital Hiring Policy–New Employees With BMI Higher Than 35 Won’t Be Hired–But Once Hired You Can Pack on the Pounds

This one of those bizarre stories and the legality of it appears to be all over the place as if you read further with one legal interpretation that says if one is denied a job because they are “morbidly obese” and not just “fat” then you might have a case.  I would guess there might be some morbidly obese folks that might be willing to try it out and see.  The hospital also says if an applicant is obese, they will help you lose the weight to quality for a job there.

I am assuming the help offered by the hospital is not a “free lap band” surgical procedure:) 
How far will all of this go one has to wonder.  From the screenshot below it appears that fat people are now “distracting” according to this hospital?   BD
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A Texas hospital has reportedly instituted a hiring policy barring potential employees who are obese -- and officials at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tell FoxNews.com that the practice is not explicitly discriminatory.

The policy, which was instituted last year at the Citizens Medical Center in Victoria, requires potential employees to have a body mass index of less than 35. That equates to roughly 210 pounds for someone who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall or 245 pounds for someone who is 5 feet, 10 inches, the Texas Tribune reports.

"While our laws may not cover people who are overweight but not morbidly obese, the entire thrust of EEOC's mission is to have people considered for employment based on their qualifications and experience -- not on irrelevant factors," Lisser's email concluded.

Michigan is the only state that bans weight discrimination, although six cities -- Birmingham, N.Y.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Madison, Wis.; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and Urbana, Ill. -- have also enacted weight discrimination laws. Madison first enacted its laws banning discrimination based on weight or personal appearance on March 13, 1975.

Lance Lunford, a spokesman for the Texas Hospital Association, said hospitals have the right to utilize policies to ensure the best business.

Key continued: "However, if a morbidly obese was denied employment, I would expect they would have a successful case … So we have this weird situation where you can discriminated against if you're fat, but not if you're morbidly obese."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/05/eeoc-texas-hospital-that-bars-obese-workers-not-necessarily-discriminatory/

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Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for All Chapters–How Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You–Updated 4-06-2012

If you have not caught up with this yet, I started this series by accident as an awareness outreach, I know just like everyone else has out there, but having been a former software writer, hopefully some of this will explain in layman’s terms how some of this works behind the scenes it may offer some answers.  It’s not going to make you happy but it will open your eyes as to how the world of technology functions today with decision making and perhaps give you an idea of where it’s headed too.

I like technology and how it makes me smarter and more observant but as with everything today, there’s the dark side of how formulas and math are used for profit with some very intelligent and crafty programmers and developers out there and we get fooled.  Everything in here is all public knowledge so there was no digging for any exclusive interviews and so forth, just stuff you can find on the web as well and I’m just connecting some “big dots” to where you may not see this otherwise. 

This blog can be a source of discomfort at times as along with years ago in learning about math, code and formulas, it transitioned me into something very scary indeed, a female that uses logic <grin>. 

So if you have wondered why the Medical Quack is different, there you have it and I have to laugh at myself too as I never intended to become logical and think back quite bit of the days before logic entered the picture and those are some fine memories too.  So there you have it, what’s wrong with this blog…<grin> a female using logic.  I have also been pondering this question since August of 2009….this is a “one duck” think tank <grin>.

 

“Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?

So without further chat, here’

  

s

  

the Attacks as I see them as it’s all in the math and formulas…Nothing will happen until new code runs through those servers and I feel this is truly the backbone of what started the “Occupy” movement, frustration and nowhere to go for answers as we have leaders in denial that don’t have a clue of how all of this works.

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Occupying Wall Street–It’s All About the “Attack of the Killer Algorithms”–The Unfair and Marketing Exploit of Ethics Using Math–This Could be a Subject for Michael Moore to Explore and Document In a Movie

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“Killer Algorithms: Part 2” Disturbing News for Consumers With Credit Scoring Adding New Data Analytics–Some of the Same Methodologies Used by Insurers With Flawed/Potential Erroneous Data–One More Reason to Continue Occupying Wall Street

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“Attack of the Killer Algorithms” Part 3–Vatican Doesn’t Like It Either–Occupy Wall Street Belongs in New York As They Don’t Do Code or Algorithms in Washington–Only Find time To Talk Abortions

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Attack of the Killer Algorithms-Occupy Wall Street Part 4 Health Insurance Style - One More App For Folks Who Are Tired of Flawed Algorithms That Require A Ton of Work and Research Time To Create “Perfect” Data Files for Insurers And Others Analytics Processes

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“Occupy Algorithms”–”The Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 5” - Nothing Will Improve Until Audits and Actions Takes Place To Correct Formulas Built for Profit Only by Corporations And We Battle Back With Math

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Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 6–Discrimination With Consumer Credit-Same As Health Insurance Wanting Consumers to Reconstruct Records From Many Years Past As Middle Class Turns Into Data Chasers-Days of Taking Risks to Get Ahead Will Be Limited For Most…Occupy Algorithms

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Flawed Data–Mined by Corporations Online Provides Background Checks Riddled With Errors–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 7

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Consumers Lose More Privacy With New CoreLogic Credit Reporting–”Score” Marketed For Insurers and Employers To Gain Information-California Prohibits Potential Employers – From Using As Jan 1 - Killer Algorithms Part 8

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Freddie Mac Found to be Betting Against Home Owners Being Able to Refinance - “Attack of the Killer Algorithms” On Consumers Part Nine–Home Mortgage Style

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Komen Reverses Decision With Planned Parenthood–Hard Lesson on How Business Analytics Are Misunderstood And/Or Abused–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 10

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Gamification–You Have Won and Now We Know All About You - It Didn’t Cost One Cent-Insurance Companies Have Games To Find Out More About You Too– “Attack of Killer Algorithms” Chapter 11

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Colonoscopies–The Bait and Switch on Screenings–If Polyps Are Found You Get A Bill-Some Other Screenings Too–Killer Algorithms Part 12–Medical Billing Codes Style

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Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 13–Bank of America Style - Flawed Data With Credit Scoring Agencies–Dead Man Banking And Currently A Consumer Under Attack

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Insurers to Provide User Friendly Summaries of What’s Covered–Good Luck As Constant Revisions Will Be Required as Business Intelligence Algorithms For Profit Change–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 14

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Story of Duke University - The Sad Case of Flawed Data Published in Medical Journals That Was Declared Inaccurate 60 Minutes –Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 15

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Medicare Low Safety Rankings At Harvard Teaching Hospitals Disputed and Flawed–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 16

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Start Licensing and Taxing the Data Sellers of the Internet Making Billions of Profit Dollars Mining “Free Taxpayer Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 17 - “Occupy Algorithms”– Help Stop Inequality in the US

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Pharmacies File Suit Against Texas Human and Health Services Commission - Managed Care Contracts Begin Delegating Reimbursements Too Soon – Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 18

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AMA Announces Doctors And Patients Can Expect To See the UnitedHealthCare/Ingenix Class Action Settlement Checks In the Mail Soon - Out of Network Short Payments–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 19

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Healthcare Blogger Gets Spammed by Hedge Fund Using Internet “Reputation Restore” With Some Really Bad Algos–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 20

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Senator Introduces Bill to Prohibit Companies From Using Medical Debt With Assessing Consumer Credit Scores–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 21 With Flawed Data

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IBM Watson Going to Work At Citigroup on Wall Street–Congress Didn’t See Big Data As A Tool (Hadoop Framework) When They Had Their Chance…For Consumers The Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Chapter 22

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Independent Pharmacies Not Able to Compete with Big Chains and Fear Going Out of Business–They Don’t Have Same High Levels of Data To Sell to Profit- Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 23

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CVS/Caremark Sends Letters to Tufts Members Containing Personal Information Like Medical Conditions/Meds Info to Wrong Patients–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 24

 

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I think there’s a little bit of something in here for everyone and again I do this as an awareness and how we and our government moves forward with this reality, it remains to be seen if we can scoot around the big white elephant in the living room that nobody can see, touch or talk to <grin> but it roars.  Richard Cordray has his work cut out for him and that is an understatement.   

Also because it belongs here and is on the same topic, when you have time listen in here and see how someone with greater intelligence than myself will help explain how this process works too with marketing, media and flawed data as simple math is no longer 100% credible for proving accuracy.  This is a great lecture given at Google’s offices in New York.  It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes between the good stuff and the algorithms created solely for profit as again their crafters are very good and collaborate with media to ensure we have a full diet every day.  BD 

Context is Everything–More About the Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception–Professor Siefe Lecture Given at Google’s New York Office–Big Healthcare Focus

NYU Siefe talks at Google

Technorati Tags: algoirthms,mathmatics,12 step addictions,healthcare,desired results,rogue algorithm,Charles Seife,books,numbers,analytics,journalism,Google,drugs

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