| peterb on 3 Oct 2009 10:35:13 -0700 |
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I was down in Bethesda this week talking to the other IDM folks, government people, DHS, Open ID, Kantara, and Bio-Pharma folks about identity attributes. There are currently big opportunities here with the stimulus funding, and if you want to do some of it, I can point you in the right direction in what some would term a "post standards" world to a faster level of collaboration. There's a lot of concern about health reform in general, to the point that people are doing inane things, http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/09/29/tomo/index.html, with their symbols. What's a penguin to do, when there's no talking truth to a corporation? There has to be some workable symbols that we can agree on. It means talking applying the cultural change we have learned on the net, to risk management in corporations that may feel they are immune to the changes that are taking place. They are not. Once the corruption starts taking place, there are opportunities to turn the ship around before it hits the iceberg, but there is lots of momentum to keep things going the way they are when it looks like the current path is making money. Why rock the boat? Well, if you don't, at least plan on bailing before hitting the penguins. And from the income perspective almost 18% of the GDP is going to healthcare. Got a resort to book? Fill it with doctors who go to a meeting, then play golf, and then prescribe a drug that costs a bundle, but works little better than aspirin. Get caught doing that? Pay the fine, and promise not to do it again, then do it again, it's the cost of doing business. It's not a sustainable business model for the economy, and since they can do the comparisons with other countries, it's obvious that some of the money is getting siphoned off in fraud and waste, or just plain unethical practices. And some of it is getting taken in by overhead of data complexity that is somewhat unwarranted (but still there, none the less), and represents a tremendous opportunity for the lean code writing and parsing skills of the mongers, when there's a push for open source in projects like NHIN Connect (which is all open source being developed by Brian B.), and the even leaner HDATA, which can pull in HL7 RIM, (you can twitter it #hdata to get in touch with the developers), good stuff. I grew up with many of the folks who owned and worked at one of these original pre-merger Pharma companies, and they were very ethical, my neighbor invested his life savings in stock in the company (generally a bad idea), lived a pretty humble existence, and when he died, ended up giving all the money to the community, which was multiple millions. That was good karma. There's huge possibility for good karma in Pharma and related industries but the approach has to be couched in the right terms that make it worthwhile for the directors of that company, since a whistleblower is in effect looking out for the interests of the company when other employees who are colluding, are not. I read those references, and the comments on /. it was very useful, because I don't think we have the appropriate tools yet to deconstruct these systems without getting harmed, even with whistleblowers. They do make some serious cash if successful, BTW, appropriate to the risk, which can be considerable. The ultimate effects of not listening to one's critics and continuing to push some idiotic agenda that makes money in the short term without considering the long term consequences, especially the systemic consequences, eventually just leads to collapse of that economic ecosystem. By then of course, it's the ones left who really suffer. Case in point Detroit, which had plenty of time to make cars that satisfied the requirements, and instead gamed the political system to pass laws to meet what they thought were actions appropriate for their industry. Remember when a dentist could essentially get a Hummer for free due to the advantageous tax write-offs? This is where the incentives get all screwed up, if companies are rewarded for doing the wrong thing. Then when they try to the right thing, it just may be too late. Time is doing a year long analysis of Detroit, why and how it failed, and what it might take to bring it back. Second case in point, AIG. Once the corruption begins, unless there are strong internal controls, it takes over. Enron, Worldcom, and so on. Did we think that CEOs of ISPs would be facing jail time? So let's do what we do right, continue the virtuous cycle, and not get too depressed about some aspects of the exploitative nature of the system which is getting rebuilt. Anyone who's interested, the welcome mat is still out, but the door is locked, and you have to go around, and through the small window of opportunity. -pb
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