Simple can be harder than complex. That’s a Steve Jobs quote. When you go to HLTH in Las Vegas, where you witness so many smart people trying to do good things for our healthcare system, it can be overwhelming. (The drinking/ reconnecting with old friends/it stays in Vegas activity didn’t help.) The good information / party atmosphere also came at the same time of horrific, soul-sucking news from Gaza. So the resulting mental hangover means you watch the dumbest movies on the plane on the way back. One line from The Book Club: The Next Chapter that we will steal someday: “Hello, you’ve reached the home of the retired and gifted.” In the One Thoughtful Paragraph, we explain how we are trying — before we retire — to keep things simple in the health information policy space.
This is just some of the news that came out of HLTH23:
- A new group that wants to work on simplifying the hard parts of generative AI in health care launched at HLTH23. It is called “VALID AI” — and the health systems, health plans, and other stakeholders that created it will focus on a shared Vision, Alignment on standards, Learning from each other and research, Implementation via an “AI sandbox” and Dissemination to share what the group learned.
- Google and Microsoft and NextGen launched their respective platforms to allow AI to simplify the lives of providers.
- Oura, the maker of the “smart ring” that people wear to simplify information about sleep patterns and exercise activity, partnered with Headspace to simplify how people can monitor and manage their stress levels.
Walter Isaacson wrote several biographies about geniuses. All of them emphasized the importance of simplifying. We led with the Steve Jobs quote above, but Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Love that… so much so that Maverick Health Policy just launched a simple-as-possible way of understanding health IT policy. It’s called MyMaverick. If you need to know what’s going on in the crazy-fast-paced world of digital health policy [insert your favorite modernize-the-healthcare-system-topic here], we invite you to take a look. Sign up for the waiting list and we will be in touch. We think you will be impressed with how much it doesn’t cost to get consulting information on difficult-to-find federal health policy information without hiring a consulting firm. You never need to wait for a meeting or endlessly research the internet — you’ve got 24/7 access to a searchable tool. After you realize how easy this will make your life, and how great this is for your executive team and everyone who supports them — you will have at least one reason to be happy. Walter Isaacson’s latest book is about Elon Musk, who described the 3rd step of his 5-step production process: “Simplify and optimize the design.” Sure, we also like the quote from the genius played by Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber: “According to the map, we’ve only gone 4 inches.”