btw2.net

The graying of the Web
By Matt Richtel, The New York Times, September 11, 2007
via Cnet news.com

Older people are sticky.

That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.

The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj and Boomertown. They look like Facebook–with wrinkles.

And they are seeking to capitalize on what investors say may be a profitable characteristic of older Internet users: they are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next….

Social networking has so far focused mainly on businesspeople and young people because they are tech-savvy and are treasured by Madison Avenue.

But there are 78 million boomers–roughly three times the number of teenagers–and most of them are Internet users who learned computer skills in the workplace. Indeed, the number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are aged 18 to 34, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a market research firm….

They are sticky. And the older they get, the stickier they get. One thing that will slow this down is that as they age they tend to lag on technology. They tend to have slower devices and connections.

I think the new sites take that into account some but perhaps not enough.

Kaiser Foundation study: Americans paying more for health care
By Mark Schwanhausser, The Mercury News, 09/11/2007

There’s only a bit of good news for workers and employers when it comes to rising health care costs: Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose just 6.1 percent in 2007, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s prominent national survey, being released today. This marks the fourth consecutive year that the rate of increase has slowed, and the rate is less than half the 13.9 percent mark set in 2003.
Despite that slight relief:
• Premiums still have vaulted 78 percent since 2001 - rising four times faster than wages or inflation….

“What this says to me is that health insurance is increasingly becoming unaffordable for many working people and small- and medium-size businesses,” said Drew Altman, the Kaiser foundation’s chief executive in Menlo Park. “They’re getting nicked whatever they do, and they have fewer choices.”…

The New York Times, Smaller Rise in Health Premiums
By Milt Freudenheim, September 11, 2007

The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums has increased 6.1 percent this year, well ahead of wage trends and consumer price inflation, but below the 7.7 percent increase in 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported today.

Because doctor and hospital costs continue to rise at an even faster rate, the modest slowdown in insurance inflation mainly reflects cutbacks in coverage by many health plans, which have found ways to make employees pay more for their care. Industry experts said that without those measures, premium costs would have risen by 9 percent or more.

The total average annual cost for family coverage premiums rose to $12,106.

World Health Care Blog has a post about A Chicken vs. Egg Issue in Medicine

A report yesterday indicated that there is a strange chicken or egg question about how at least one medical diagnosis is made. The issue is: Does the diagnosis precede the choice of treatment, or does the choice of treatment come first, then cause the diagnosis in order to justify the treatment?

It has long been known that physicians are idiosyncratic in their approach to diagnosing patients. In some cases, they prescribe a treatment in the hopes that it will show what the diagnosis was by either working or not working. The character “House” in that eponymous TV show is fond of this approach. And it makes sense when the risks and side effects of the treatment are minimal, and no other approach to diagnosis has worked….

He goes on to discuss how that can affect cycles in medication use as they work or don’t work for treating the symptoms.

As patients, we non-physicians may expect, and even prefer that diagnoses come first, and are based on something other than the need to justify a presumption or guess about the diagnosis. The fact that diagnoses of depression decreased so markedly, so fast, after increasing so dramatically before the FDA warning, at least suggests that diagnoses were being made on less than model criteria and using a variety of processes that may not fit “evidence-based medicine”.

Meanwhile Health as Human Capital has a post about Medical service coding and billing: a complicated system in need of nosy consumers.

Corporations often use health claims data to describe and understand the important health issues faced by their workforce. But medical services coding and billing have a business purpose: how doctors and hospitals get paid. We also recognize that claims data are powerful indicators of how reimbursement policies affect consumer and provider behavior. Depending on who pays, and what is paid for, the behavior of both consumers and providers changes, regardless of the actual health issues being treated.

The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog posts Treat the Patient–Not the Computer

Sure, there are lots of efficiencies offered by computerized medical records. But the computer can also present an unwelcome barrier between doctor and patient, Michael Hochman, a medical resident in Boston, writes in this morning’s Globe.

Which has a comment that begins:

I think this article is representative of a major misconception about modern EMR’s. Not all EMR’s require typing in order to enter discrete data. One that I am familiar with can take points and clicks and turn them into common english sentences. The other issue that the industry struggles with is the following….

There’s an article on CNN about Rethinking Retirement that mentions:

…”The baby boomers were the first generation to have a lot more career freedom, but it seems like [for] at least some of them, that ended up not being the case,” Randall Hansen, a career advice writer for the Web site Quintessential Careers, said.

“They fell into a job that they kind of hated or didn’t get as much satisfaction from but stayed in because of first mortgages, and then college tuitions, and now that their kids are out of college, now they finally feel like they have the freedom to change careers.”…

It isn’t retirement, its a career change. Freedom for one. Some freedom for one.

Ok, shall we the people get involved
or shall we leave it to the experts,
the insurance companies, the drug companies, the health care giants and politicians?

Cancer Society Takes on Health Care Policy
from the New York Times via Newser, Published Aug 31, 07

The American Cancer Society’s next ad campaign won’t tackle the tobacco wars or advocate mammograms, the Times reports. Instead, the group will devote its entire $15 million ad budget to the nation’s health care crisis. The move follows recent research linking detection delays with lack of coverage, which “will be a bigger cancer killer than tobacco,” the society predicts….

Both of my grandmothers lived to 99. Both grandfathers to 87. So I’ve thought my timeline was in between those numbers.

But my dad will be 90 this Saturday. My mom is 87 and still drives. My dad and I both talk to her about how to adapt her driving to her age.

I pickup my son this morning so we spend some vacation time before the weekend trip to my folks’ city, and the family festivities there. Then he and I will spend some vacation time there before he heads off to his town.

One of my dad’s sisters had Alzheimer’s. The paths of aging vary wildly. We plan. But we never really know what path may be before us.

Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer’s
The New York Times, Second Opinion, By Denise Grady, August 14, 2007

During the YouTube forum with the Democratic presidential candidates in July, the first question about health care came from two middle-age brothers in Iowa, who faced the camera with their elderly mother. Not everybody with Alzheimer’s disease has two loving sons to take care of them, they said, adding that a boom in dementia is expected in the next few decades….

Seniors not online can get help via phone, mail
The Arizona Republic, from the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Aug. 15, 2007

Old age can bring a number of challenges, including chronic illnesses, Medicare choices, limited incomes and caregiving duties.

Finding resources, accurate information and the latest updates on services and programs can be difficult, especially if senior citizens are not computer- savvy or don’t have access to the Internet.

Estimates are that as many as 21 million Americans 65 and older are not “wired,” says Tobey Dichter, founder of Generations Online, a nonprofit organization that encourages widespread computer literacy by providing software tutorials to senior centers, public libraries, retirement homes and other locations where older people congregate….

There’s help available, but you have to know where to look. Government agencies, nonprofit associations and health organizations still put topics of interest to older citizens in brochures and reports that can be obtained with a toll-free phone call or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

BenefitsCheckUp.org is a comprehensive online service provided by the National Council on Aging to help individuals 55 and older find more than 1,400 federal, state and local programs….

Top 9 Fitness Myths — Busted!

Think you know the facts about getting fit? You may be surprised to learn how many are really fiction.
By Colette Bouchez, WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Top 10 Fitness Time-Wasters

Avoid these time thieves and make the most of your trip to the gym.
By Barbara Russi Sarnataro, WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

both found under Healthy Aging Guide

Move It! New Exercise Guidelines

By Daniel J. DeNoon, Aug 8, 2007, WebMD Medical News

Fact vs. Fiction

Your heart, your brain – your entire body – benefits from exercise. In this chapter, we’ll bust the exercise myths that hold you back and help you set goals.

Acid Blockers Linked to Mental Decline