PWeR Blog

Sign up today for the latest PWeR development announcement!

4Feb, 2016

Healthcare and Economics; Pt. 1

By: | Tags: , , , , ,

Today we are going to recognize something that has been apparent to anyone who reads this modest blog. In the last 3 blogs I admitted that my favorite subjects are healthcare, technology and demographics, with a not so small dose of economics. To me, they are hugely influential, and in my world, they are interconnected. An industry that is as large as healthcare has its own economic dynamics, and like a Red Giant star, it seemingly affects everything around it. Previously mentioned, I once read that in the mid-2000s General […]
READ MORE

28Jan, 2016

The NEW Trancession

By: | Tags: , , , , ,

Two weeks ago, we discussed the lack of investment in healthcare technology, Monstrous Digital Healthcare Gap in the U.S. In last week’s Blog, we discussed a few items that lead away from, and then back to, healthcare and technology, The Next Digital Revolution. Today, I will try to bring both ideas together, and more importantly, get a little deeper in to the economics of our generations, and where healthcare is. Next week we will do the big numbers. First, I am no economist, and for sure I am no financial analyst; but there […]
READ MORE

21Jan, 2016

The Next Digital Revolution; Life, Health and Jobs

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Once again, I find myself sliding some topics I selected to discuss to the back burner. The daily headlines are so amazing to an innovation and technology addict, such as myself. This past week, a friend of mine sent me a link to a website, and the title just hit me and gave me a “Back to the Future” moment. The site was SingularityHub.com and the title was “Digital Diagnosis: Intelligent Machines Do a Better Job than Humans.” It was not a question, but a statement. They had me hooked. […]
READ MORE

13Jan, 2016

Monstrous Digital Healthcare Gap in the U.S, and Beyond.

By: | Tags: , , , , , , ,

I have addressed this subject previously in numerous presentations and speeches going back to the late 1990’s, and at a university healthcare forum in 2008. Last month the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) published a report that reminded me of the problem, and prompted me to move half a dozen other blog discussions to the back burner. In the April 24, 2008 university healthcare forum, I discussed that the per capita investment in technology by healthcare ranks 9 out of 10 industries with only the food processing industry lower. This MGI […]
READ MORE

6Jan, 2016

U.S. Drug Cost, A State of Emergency?

By: | Tags: , , , , ,

This blog follows the prior blogs regarding pharmaceutical costs. This will be the last blog on this subject for now. We want to talk about the exiting things 2016 holds for healthcare and technology and, it is possible to write about the pharmaceutical issues in the U.S non-stop. We have previously discussed the incredibly innovative, lifesaving and life extending drugs, typically originated on American soil. The facts are, as mentioned in the previous blog, the U.S. government/taxpayer, insurance company and patient, pay more for most pharmaceuticals than in any other […]
READ MORE

28Dec, 2015

America’s Unique Drug Problem

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We in the U.S. spend more on prescription drugs than any other country on earth. Put another way, we spend per capita more on pharmaceuticals alone than the following countries spend in TOTAL on healthcare (normalized in U.S. dollars) – Ukraine, Peru, Iran, Columbia, South Africa, Mexico, Poland and Russia. This brings an interesting perspective. In 2014, U.S. drug spending was up 12.2%; however, actual out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs is actually down 14% since 2007. Where is this difference being spent? Government and private insurance programs. The argument is […]
READ MORE

9Dec, 2015

U.S. Spending on RX 2014

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The United States Spends $297 Billion (USD) on Prescription Drugs, is that fair? As the headline read, in 2014 the United States spent $297,700,000,000 on prescription drugs. This is not only a staggering amount, but what is even more disturbing is we in the U.S. pay the greatest for the most advance drugs in the world. I come to this subject from many angles. One angle is my decade’s long use of prescriptions for chronic problems, the consumer whose life has been saved by those same innovative and revolutionary drugs. […]
READ MORE

2Dec, 2015

Who Pays For Healthcare?

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

As I reach another personal birthday, I look back at over half a century of personal experiences. Not so out of reach is my passion for healthcare, and that is prompting this discussion of what has happened to healthcare in the U.S. over that period. Recently the California Healthcare Foundation (www.chcf.org) published an incredibly interesting dynamic and informative report on healthcare cost, and the changes in cost and payments from 1960 to 2013 with some projections in to our current year. Wow! I urge anyone interested this industry to check […]
READ MORE

23Nov, 2015

Free Trade in Healthcare?

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

For the last few months, we in the US, have been witnessing the discussion on the national stage of The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) . The TTP is a 12 nation agreement lead by the US Government, and potentially a landmark deal for President Obama and his administration. This agreement, subject to Congressional approval, was negotiated between the US and 11 other Pacific Rim nations – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan – and have been negotiating the TTP Free Trade Agreement since […]
READ MORE

16Nov, 2015

Consumerism in Healthcare 2016 and Beyond Pt. 4

By: | Tags: , , , , ,

Part 4 / Final Over the first three parts of this series (I will admit here I would enjoy writing about this subject) we have explored the changes being driven by the emergence of Consumerism in Healthcare based around my experiences, more as a healthcare consumer than as a healthcare executive. This transformation is moving the center of healthcare from the provider and facility to the patient or consumer – the “patient centric” healthcare. I believe this trend is driven by several factors including demographics, the use and content of […]
READ MORE