A few weeks ago, I gave a speech during the Sage Bionetworks Commons Congress discussing the importance of social media in health care (and not just having a Facebook page for your clinic). Below is the video and an approximate transcript: When I finished grad school in Chicago a few years ago, I moved back home [...]
http://john.mn/2012/05/is-it-bad-that-i-get-all-of-my-medical-advice-from-reddit/
I’ve been using Foursquare for almost two years now, and have amassed nearly 2000 checkins, 40 badges, and (at my peak) nearly 20 mayorships. As a result, Foursquare knows where I’ve been, how often I go out to bars, my favorite restaurants, where I work, and what I do for fun. It knows more about [...]
http://john.mn/2011/09/health-care-meet-foursquar/
Well, it’s kinda like porn: I know it when I see it. And, also like porn, not everything is going to work. And again, like porn, things work differently for different people. So, in a way, health innovation is porn. Porn analogies aside, I’ve spent the past two months in San Francisco working for a health [...]
http://john.mn/2011/09/what-is-health-innovation/
HIV rates have increased over 300% in the last 5 years. Syphilis rates have increased 87% in the last year (PDF). The traditional approach to addressing these problems has been to run a media campaign, remind people to use condoms, trace contacts of partners, and maybe hand out a brochure. These are the same approaches [...]
http://john.mn/2011/09/redefining-how-you-have-sex/
I’ve sat on a fair amount of boards and committees over the past decade. I’m often the youngest, most technologically savvy, and probably the only one who actually enjoys Robert’s Rules of Order. Out of this, I have come to strongly believe that government transparency is essential to address most public health issues. I could argue [...]
http://john.mn/2011/09/open-government-is-public-health/
I have spent the last decade preparing to go to medical school and become a physician. Four years ago, after finishing graduate school, I was rejected across the board from the 12 medical schools I applied to. I was told (actual quotes): “you have too much public health experience and not enough clinical medicine experience” [...]
http://john.mn/2011/08/fresh-start/
The American Public Health Association posted the video of Dr. Cornel West’s opening speech tonight. I’ve listened to it twice now, and am still in awe. I strongly recommend watching it. Today was a much more relaxed day, as I have finally bought into the “marathon not a sprint” mentality for this conference. I also [...]
http://john.mn/2010/11/apha-day-3-the-home-stretch/
I woke up way earlier than I intended, but thought I should take advantage of this and head to the convention early. Today, by intention or coincidence, I almost exclusively went to HIV/AIDS presentations. Most interestingly, there were a few themes that I realized in the presentations: Everyone is the same, but different. There was [...]
http://john.mn/2010/11/apha-day-2-so-much-sex/
I arrived yesterday at the American Public Health Association meeting in Denver, CO, after a brief and intimate experience with Jon from the Transportation Security Administration (not unlike other’s experiences), and just in time for the opening ceremony. Dr. Bill Jenkins, one of the people instrumental in ending the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, gave an opening [...]
http://john.mn/2010/11/apha-day-1-people-not-papers/
A little over a week ago, a letter I co-authored ended up in the Star Tribune. As a follow-up to that letter, the strib wrote an editorial endorsing the need to utilize new, online methods as part of HIV prevention programs. The editorial was well written, and made a good point. Of course, I’m probably [...]
http://john.mn/2010/07/more-hiv-prevention/