12-4-09 Community E-Newsletter/Call

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

We have quite a lot to be grateful for and look forward toi sharing recent developments with you all on our 30 minute call today at 2pm. Please join us.

Agenda / Talking Points: A: New Ideas for the OurMed Site B: New articles on OurMed - posting like 123! C: OurMed's Healthspottr Innovation Award among Finalists! D: Knight News Challenge - Rating requested E: Drug Makers Are Advocacy Group's Biggest Donors F: Doctor Consulting Website G: OurMed Pioneer Bios

Time: Friday (Today): 2 - 2:30pm

Call in Number : 712-775-7000 Passcode: 634011#

If you would like to opt out of these emails, please let me know. Thank you for your continued interest in the OurMed initiative--we couldn't make this happen without your participation and are grateful for you pitching in!

Greg Miller, ED at OurMed.Org (212) 740-1850 OurMed YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgYfFxEkLk

A: New ideas for the OurMed Site:

Now that we have new features on our homepage, we'd like to pause with the encyclopedic contentand gather feedback--It's really important that OurMed gets off the ground using a communities collaborative approach to building it, just as Wikipedia did 7 years ago.

Please click on this link to make a small post about whatever's on your mind. You can suggest articles, design or features that you'd like to see on the site.

If you don't have one, please create a new account. It'll take less than a minute!

B: New Articles on OurMed - Posting like 123!

As we look to spend more than $40,000 on the new site development, it will be important for our potential funders and the medical community to show that we are having growth in new articles and the numbers of edits. Changes or additions can be made easily with our WYSYWIG editor (what you see is what you get), making it much easier than Wikipedia and cutting the volume ramp up rate to the new site significantly faster.

At times posting new material my be difficult to give attributions for so it may be easier to publish previously published work.

Alternatively, you can choose content from one of the many free content ("copy left") sites such as much of the content on:

1) NIH's National Library of Medicine and PubMed 2) Wikipedia 3) Medpedia 4) GanFyd: (original medical wiki site that says Medpedia copied them and boasts 2000 site visitors per day) 5) Others?

C: OurMed's Healthspottr Innovation Award among Finalists!

I'm pleased to let you know that the OurMed project was nominated for the Healthspottr Fellowshipan, a $150,000 National Fellows Award for Healthcare Innovation--And we are among the top finalists!

Thank you to Dr Geoff Hayden, Professor Stan Kachnowski and Youme Landowne for their nominations of Greg Miller's proposal in September.

In the coming weeks, we will be positioning our proposal to go with interviews from a panel of the nation's top doctors. Even if we don't win the award, it will give OurMed much global attention!

D: Knight News Challenge - Rating Requested!

Similiar to Healthspottr and Ideablog, we have submitted a proposal for a nationwide award. The John J. and James L. Knight Foundation is putting up $7million for innovative ways to disseminate open source knowlege. We have until December 15th until the deadline and welcome reviews, feedback and importantly--reviews!

Just like the way YouTube videos are rated, the Knight News Challenge openly displays it's submissions--The higher we're rate with a larger number of reviews, the better positioned we are to win the $125,000 grant. Please pitch in to rate it with 5 stars!

Click here to review and give the OurMed Proposal 5 Stars on the Knight News Challenge

E: Drug Makers Are Advocacy Group's Biggest Donors

CBO Report Shows Hundreds Of Millions Spent On Direct Marketing Of Drugs To Consumers [Dec 03, 2009]

The Congressional Budget Office released an "interesting report" on on how "pharmaceutical companies market prescription drugs, a subject that has received some scrutiny during the debate on ways to control health care spending," The New York Times reports.

Among the most widely direct-to-consumer marketed medicines are erectile dysfunction aids, bone resorption inhibitors and a bevy of sleep aids, antidepressants, statins and antipsychotics. "Perhaps counterintuitively, the budget office also found that drugs with little competition are likely to be marketed to consumers far more aggressively than drugs with a lot of competition." Advertisements for one drug may benefit competitors making another in the same class, and having a monopoly on a drug means more control over its price, making advertising more effective with regards to cost (Rampell, 12/2).

F: Doctor Consulting Website

As US healthcare costs continue to go through the roof, more and more frequently, we are finding websites that are offering patients services from doctors online. Whether or not this would be a service on OurMed.Org is still TBD but we wanted to put it out there. Please share your thoughts on this one:

http://www.mdconsult.com/php/174284108-2/homepage

G: OURMED PIONEER BIOS:

Vincent Navarro (OURMED TECH) 212 444 2633 vnavarro@pipeline.com Research Specialist @ Weill Medical College Online Database Manager @ Scientists Without Borderd

I have done basic science research for over 15 years in the area of prostate cancer. During this time I have had the privilege of working on the development of monoclonal antibodies targeting prostate cancer from concept through clinical trials. This has afforded me a keen insight into development process of therapeutic drugs. In addition, a strong interest in computers has seen me pursue a graduate degree in computer science in addition to my undergraduate in Chemistry. As a result I have designed and developed a clinical trials management system in my laboratory. I am currently the Online Database Manager for Scientists Without Borders. There, I am responsible for the administration of the database and development of the web portal.

Eileen McGinn, MPH, Certificate in Aging (OURMED CONTENT) qedeileen@aol.com

Worked in international health and development for 25 years, including several years living in Africa and Asia. Currently PT Research Manager for Nathan Kline Institute, working on the interrelation of poverty and mental health and health equity for persons with disabilities. PT tutor for immigrant high school students at Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School. Volunteer work for many different agencies, including health, disability, immigrant, women's, peace, international. Have written for various websites on health issues. Especially interested in translating technical work into comprehensible language, community-based participatory research and the Capabilities Framework for development and justice.

Geoff Hayden, MD (OURMED CONTENT, RECRUITMENT) geoffhayden@gmail.com 615.479.6499 (Cell)

I am a practicing Emergency Physician, splitting time between NYC and South Carolina. I have been in academic practice since 2005 (Residency at Vanderbilt University, Fellowship at University of Pennsylvania), with an emphasis on resident education and emergency ultrasound. My interest in OurMed.org stems from a dissatisfaction regarding the abysmal state of preventive care and a general lack of health care coverage in the U.S. I see OurMed.org as an essential resource to connect patients to health information and health providers.

I imagine my role with OurMed.org in terms of producing content, recruiting other physicians for ongoing contribution, and assisting Greg with the development of a user-friendly, comprehensive clearinghouse of useful health care information.

-- Geoffrey E. Hayden, MD, FAAEM, FACEP Adjunct Clinical Professor Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine Nashville, TN Piedmont Medical Center Emergency Department Attending 222 South Herlong Ave Rock Hill, SC 29732

Vanessa Moore (OURMED RECRUITMENT) MVanellen@aol.com 914-665-4534 (home) 914-751-9758 (cell)

Vanessa Moore is a native New Yorker who brings 7 years recruiting experience to the Ourmed recruitment effort. She would like to leverage her experience recruiting volunteers to Ourmed, a forward thinking and progressive approach to disseminating unbiased healthcare information to the public. Sh914-665-4534 (home) 914-751-9758 (cell) MVanellen@aol.com e has worked in both corporate and nonprofit settings including a consulting engagement for the Department of Education and most recently at the Westchester Independent Living Center, an advocacy group for people with disabilities. She studied Social Sciences at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University.

John Volpe (OURMED TECH) johnvolpe1@yahoo.com 516-221-4692

My background is primarilyin accounting, finance and business operations, primarily in the financial services industry. While I'm not a technical professional, I have participated in and managed numerous technical and business projects, primarily involving financial systems. I also worked as a management consultant for a Virginia based company that I did consulting work for the federal and state governments. I am currently retired. In addition to playing tennis and engaging in other physical activities, I volunteer my time and an Account Director with an NYC based organization that provides service grants in the form of a volunteer project team that manages strategy, financial, marketing and development projects for non-profits. My interest in this project is really from the perspective of someone who is a consumer of medical information and is interested in the efficient delivery of medical information to the public.

Greg Miller, ED at OurMed greg.miller@ourmed.org 212-740-1850

Have 17 years of Corporate Finance and Marketing experience for Fortune 500 companies including nine years abroad (Germany, England and Japan). I've been here in New York since 1996, always passionate about developing new brands, ideas and products. Did Marketing Analysis for ANA, a Japanese Airline, Finance for Cablevision's HD Satellite business and Revlon. Since 2005, I've been inspired by non-profits, created New York's Dance Parade and have worked on OurMed since the Fall of 2008. I'm inspired by the transparent, non-profit approach to the democratization of healthcare. OurMed has a small office at Columbia Medical Center's Audubon Business and Technology Building--Come by and visit us!

3960 Broadway (Entrance on 166th Street) Suite 301 o (212) 740-1850 c (917) 627-7155 greg.miller@ourmed.org Watch the OurMed Presentation: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Ad4ohgeyfGzCZGRoNnFuNW1fMzljMmh2OW5jdw&amp;hl=en

OurMed's Board of Directors:

Florence Devouard, OurMed Board Member fdevouard@anthere.org Florence Devouard served as one of the elected representatives to the Board starting June 2004, and was the Chair of the Board from October 21, 2006 until July 16th, 2008. Florence was born in Versailles (France). She grew up in Grenoble, and has been living since then in several French cities, as well as Antwerpen in Belgium and Tempe in Arizona. She holds two masters, one in Agricultural Sciences (a 5-year degree in agronomical engineering (Diplome d'Ingénieur Grande Ecole) from ENSAIA and the other a postgraduate degree (DEA) in Genetics and Biotechnologies from INPL.She has been working in public research, first in flower plant genetic improvement, and second in microbiology to study the feasability of polluted soil bioremediation. She was employed until 2005 in a French company, to conceive decision-making tools in sustainable agriculture. She is now a consultant in Internet Communication Strategy. She joined the Wikipedia adventure in February 2002 and is known as a contributor under the pseudonym Anthere. Florence is 39, and lives in Clermont Ferrand with her husband Bertrand and her three children, Anne-Gaëlle aged nine, William eleven and Thomas two. On May 16 2008, Florence was made a knight in the French National Order of Merit, proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as "chair of an international foundation"

Alex Fotopoulos, OurMed Board Secretary alex@broadwaylawoffices.com

Alex Fotopoulos has served on the board since October 2008. He attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ and then received his Juris Doctorate degree from Southwestern Univesity in Los Angeles, California in 1990. He has experience as a litigation attorney and as an entrepreneur. He has held held positions as an attorney and as part of the management team of such high technology companies including AT&amp;T Wireless, T-mobile, Nextel, Metricom, GTE Internetworking as well as small local start-up ventures. He is a licensed Attorney in New York, New Jersey and California.

Stan Kachnowski, OurMed Board Chair swk16@hitlab.org

Stan Kachnowski is one of America’s distinguished scholars in healthcare information policy and management having taught e-health and healthcare e-business for nearly 20 years. He has authored over 100 scholarly papers and presentations for the world’s leading journals and societies in healthcare technology management, informatics and e-governance. In 2003 he was elected as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Medicine in the United Kingdom for his research with the National Health Service in using handhelds to track patient data. In 1996 he was elected to the US-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. Stan is currently a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India.

Oleta McHenry, OurMed Board Treasurer  Newsgirl_fl@hotmail.com

Oleta McHenry was born in Washington D.C. and grew up in Ohio. After graduating high school, she briefly attended Wright State University in Dayton, studying Political Science. She transferred to St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, FL and received her A.A. degree in Liberal Arts. Oleta earned her B.S. in Accounting from Florida Metropolitan University in Clearwater, FL in 2006.

Oleta worked for the Pulitzer prize winning newspaper, St. Petersburg Times as a circulation manager. After receiving her degree in accounting, she worked briefly in the insurance industry before joining the Wikimedia Foundation as the fulltime accountant of record. While at the Wikimedia Foundation, Oleta helped put in place accounting practices that would help the company in growth and development. She did not follow Wikimedia to San Francisco and now works for a large medical supply company managing the General Ledger for several regions within the United States. Oleta resides in St. Petersburg, FL with her two sons. Shawn age 17, and Dakota age 15. She also has a daughter Lindsey, age 19.