Walmart in U.S. has 140 million visitors per week, healthcare solutions?

Here is an article about Walmart pondering what its role might be in stopping a H1N1 flu outbreak.

Dr. John Agwunobi, president of health and wellness for Wal-Mart says that: "140 million people walk through the doors of its 4,000 U.S. stores each week."

So what if we pay Walmart USD 10 per person per year to administer flu vaccines. That sound like a market based solution for some of our healthcare problems:


Wal-Mart weighs role in U.S. H1N1 vaccination plans

Jeff Bezos video 'Everything I know' - ideas for climate, healthcare

I found this video by Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, that he made as part of his company's acquisition of Zappos. Found it via Mark Hurst's Good Experience Blog.

Good to watch, Bezos is a great innovator. In watching his short list of 'Everything I know', it struck me that his point that a company needs to innovate in behalf of its customers is a path that I think that companies need to do as part of solving the big problems of climate/energy and healthcare. His statement is that the customer does not always know the solution they need. You must listen to the customer, but also invest and invent in solutions for them. Those things that they are yet conscious of needing. Some of the business biggies have already started to do some of this, I think it just needs to accelerate.

On a second point, Amazon is moving one step closer to the total revamp of the retail industry that is needs but will be painful. In the next few years, we will see the same things that are happening to the newspaper industry happen in retail. The traditional channels will dry up quickly. This is going to be a painful change, like the news business, but necessary and right. It will be interesting to see the kinds of 'store fronts' that will be created by Amazon to support these shopping changes. Some neat ideas and innovations are clearly around the corner.

We use 40 billion disposable batteries per year, Witricity shows wireless device charging

Invented by a MIT physicist, Marin Soljacic, this method of moving the two coils in an electric transformer far apart to allow wireless charging look like very neat technology. In devices the next 2 to 5 years, I hope it can take off. This BBC interview gives a good intro. Here is Witricity's web site

Tom Stitt thinks about how this could be useful for medical applications. I think he is on to something, for home based medical monitoring one of the problems to solve keeping devices running with minimal maintenance.

From the New Scientist: Could u txt me ur blood sample?

We are not to the 'Tricorder' yet but this application, 'Could u txt me ur blood sample?', of using a mobile's camera and ability to send images seems to be a great low cost advancement in remote medicine. It will be good to see continued progress in the use of these type technologies; remote blood testing, EKG and others... ReadWriteWeb points to a list of other interesting medical projects that are leveraging mobile phones at Net Squared.

Thank to ReadWriteWeb and AppAfrica for tracking this technology.

Richard Feynman 1964 Cornell Messenger Lectures on Physics

Microsoft Research has a enhanced video project called Tuva. Interesting technology to provide a very rich set of surrounding material to the core video. They have put five of Richard Feynman's physics lectures online. Have a look both at an amazing man, Dr. Feynman, and some interesting technology. There is a reason why he is called the 'Great Explainer' as you will see in the videos. The name of the Microsoft project, Tuva, has a place in Feynman's wonderful life experiences as well, though he did not complete that journey.

Intelligent discussions on solutions for healthcare

The discussions on the U.S. healthcare issues, like those that are going on around the worlds climate/energy issues, are entering the mainstream and at an increasing velocity. These are fantastic discussions. I want to say they are 'better', but I think the discussions and the people having them have been around on for a while. It is just the rest of us catching up [I hope] with their topics.

I just read this posting 'Health Care vs. Risk Snare' by Doc Searls, and the referenced posts. Very interesting topics are risk and data flow/ownership. The removal of the non-health related risk mitigation factors and inverting the health aspect from the current 'I visit the doctor after I have a problem' to prevent oriented system [and attitude by the customer] are keys. Searls VRM [Vendor Relationship Management] is the superset of this second item, basic consumer empowerment and control. Inverting it from the vendor control model we allow ourselves in now for so many aspects of our lives still.

The discussion, TWiL 26: To Your Online Health, on this Week in Law, is a great expansion of the discussions above. Very good panel, Searls, Bob Coffield, Susannah Fox. The links cited are an excellent starting point to 'catch up' and engage in this critical topic: Fixing The Healthcare System!

There are a large number of topics touched on in the hour discussion, some of them highlight [to me] the hang ups we have and why these are keeping progress from occurring. I think the two core issues are cited in Searls post, but as with the energy issue the problems has many many variables to consider [and address so to let the 'train' move the packages forward].

Important topic for 2009, lets hope we make progress!

The Sixty One - interesting music web site for artists and listeners

I ran across The Sixty One web site, it is a interesting model for new artists to get their music heard, get a following and make money. It appears there is very little money 'lost' between the listener and the artist in this model. The site has been around since at least 2007, so not a new idea, but I am wondering if it is coming into its prime more with people able to listen to a site like this on their iPhone [or similar devices] and use services like Twitter to bring more people into the 'discussion' on The Sixty One web site very quickly.

The model that the site uses to promote songs and artists is an interesting one. Some complaints about the 'group think' and pyramid style of listeners increasing their reputation by bringing others into the site. But these complaints may be the true power of sites like this, like it or not, we are 'herd' driven.

The growth of the 'collective think' type web sites is going to be very big in the next year. The Sixty One may be on the leading edge of similar site for shopping. Give the site a try....

3-July-2009, 1 year anniversary of USD145.29 a barrel oil price

One year ago, oil prices hit a record [to date] of USD 145.29. Yesterday the price was USD 66.73 .

Historical oil prices via WolframAlpha

Virginia Gardiner's LooWatt composting toilet

Here is a video of a young designer and her work to create a composting toilet. A great idea and design. She is the type of innovator that are going to move the environment issues we have today into opportunities. Great job Virginia! The Royal College of Art/Imperial College of London Design London looks to be a place where fantastic ideas are being created, keep it up!