It Isn't Nice

Kudos to NPR and Hugo Campos for airing this story on Hugo's quest to get the data from his Implanted Cardiac Device (ICD). The story highlights the importance of putting the patient in the center and giving them full access to what is already their data. Hugo's original blog post with his song video and lyrics is here.

Money Machine

Went to see my therapist in North Carolina, "Dr. Dave" Wilcox at the Wilcox Weekend last weekend. I was hoping he would offer some of his musical medicine for a dilemma I'm facing. He did in a way, but just gave me an idea for and an assignment to write a song instead of writing one for me. So I penned the lyrics this weekend. Still working out the guitar part, but it has a groove something like Cat Stevens' "It's a Wild World" or Michael Buble's "Haven't Met You Yet" (or, if you're a Wilcox fan, something like "Rule #1" or "Start with the Ending".  Let me know what you think!

Money Machine

Tired of living in fear of the repo man?
Wishing you could tear up all those bills?
Dreaming of vacations in Milan?
Or having a mansion in the Hollywood Hills?
Why keep slogging through that old McJob?
You can quit today and have it all
No need to scout out a bank to rob
Achieve your dreams with just one call

Introducing the Money Machine
Just a turn of the crank and you'll be rolling in green
Three easy installments of nine ninety-nine
And watch your future start to shine
(plus shipping and handling)

You blink you eyes and can't believe your luck
As you dial the number on the TV screen
Who knew it was so easy to make a buck
Soon you'll own your very own Money Machine
Next-day deliv'ry just a ten-dollar fee
Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back
Sign up today as a VIP
We'll throw in the super-size drying rack

Get yours today -- it's the Money Machine
Just a turn of the crank and you'll be rolling in green
Comes with everything that you see here
You'll be making millions within the year
(some assembly required)

BRIDGE
Truck rolls in and deposits your dream
You didn't expect such a massive machine
Doesn't fit the den, but that's okay
An industrial park's a couple miles away

Make your dreams come true with the Money Machine
Just a turn of the crank and you'll be rolling in green
Get the coupon add-on to save even more
A brighter future is in store
(void where prohibited)

It takes some time, now you're finally on line
You're still in the red but it's too early to tell
You tell all your friends that it's all going fine
Besides after a while you get used to the smell
Now that China's in the game the dollar is low
If you're going to survive you need to double in size
Your capacity's peaked, but you still need to grow
You can make your alimony if you start a franchise

Come and join in the fun -- get the Money Machine
Just a turn of the crank and you'll be rolling in green
Three easy installments of nine ninety-nine
And watch your future start to shine
(your results may vary)

(c)2012 Ross D. Martin
www.ACMImimi.org

e-Patient Dave’s PHR

Dave deBronkart (aka, e-Patient Dave) inspired our President and Founder Dr. Ross Martin, MD, MHA, FACMImimi to write this little ditty, which we pitched as a TED Talk submission to this year's TEDMED conference at the Kennedy Center. It would have been the pinnacle of any Medical Informatimusicologist's career to play the Kennedy Center, but sadly, this did not come to pass. So here are the lyrics. You can listen to the demo version of the song by clicking on the ReverbNation box on the right or by visiting Dr. Martin's ReverbNation playlist. The College would be delighted to entertain requests to perform this at a live venue where thousands join in on the chorus.

E-Patient Dave's PHR

This song is called "e-Patient Dave's PHR." It is more or less based on the actual and true story of Dave and his PHR -- which is short for "personal health record" -- and about how Dave came to be known by the name of e-Patient Dave.

All I want is a PHR
Just like e-Patient Dave
All I want is a PHR
Just like e-Patient Dave
All my information
In the right configuration
So I can choose to share it
Anywhere across the nation
All I want is a PHR
Just like e-Patient Dave

Now some of you out there listening to this song who are of a certain age and who may have partaken of certain mind-altering botanicals in your youths will perhaps note that this particular song about Dave and his PHR is somewhat reminiscent of another song about Alice and her restaurant. I cannot tell a lie -- your song association abilities may have been adversely affected by the partaking of those mind-altering botanicals.

Okay, the truth of the matter is that it seemed high time for a revival of that fine song by Mr. Arlo Guthrie seeing as it was so successful in ending the Vietnam War and all. But starting that war all over again just so this song could have a revival seemed a bit excessive. So I figured it would be easier just to find a new cause to sing about and getting folks electronic access to their personal health records seemed about as good a cause as any.

Now some others of you out there listening to this song whose powers of observation have not been adversely affected by the use of certain mind-altering botanicals may have noted that, while the guitar part of this song has repeated unabated, my actual playing of the guitar itself has not. Truth be told, I am using what is known as a "stomp box looper" – that black box sitting there at my feet – and I have recorded a single bar of the guitar part, which is now repeating courtesy of the aforementioned stomp box looper. And having thus freed myself of the burden of playing the guitar, I am able to put my mind to other things… things like the things I am saying to you right now.

It is curious to note that, while I have, over the course of many years of singing and playing the guitar, grown fairly comfortable with singing and playing at the very same time, I have never mastered the art of talking and playing at the very same time, a feat which seems to employ parts of my brain that don't in my experience particularly enjoy working together.

This curious situation is not unlike the situation that Dave -- you remember Dave? This is a song about Dave. And this particular situation of using a stomp box looper so I can focus on talking -- instead of playing and talking -- is very similar to the situation in which Dave found himself back in 2007 when he learned that his body was all full of cancer and that, more than likely, he would be dead within six months.

All of a sudden, he had a whole lot of things to think about -- things like answering the WTF question -- you know, “Where's this from?” -- as in “Where did this cancer in my brain and bones actually start off?” so he could find  the right doctors and the right treatments.  And other things like what he wanted to tell his daughter so she wouldn't hurry up and marry her promising but not-yet-betrothed boyfriend just so her dyin’ Daddy could walk her down the aisle.

Well Dave didn't have a lot of time and he needed the little time he did have to think about and do all the things that only he could think about and do instead of all those things plus all the things that a computer could think about and do at least as well as -- if not better than -- he could do himself. Things like remembering all of his lab values or sharing radiology images with experts hundreds of miles away or keeping track of every single doctor's visit, drug or medical procedure he'd ever had.

And so Dave used his above average intelligence and skills to cobble together a personal health record that he shared with pretty much everybody on the planet through his blogs and tweets.

Because Dave was able to use a computer for all the things a computer does well so he could focus on the things only he could do well, Dave was able to find an infrequently considered treatment that saved his life.

And so Dave lived to tell his story to the world, advocate for the rights of patients to get electronic copies of their personal health data, and walk his daughter down the aisle so she could marry her still promising and now betrothed fiancé.

And somewhere along the way, Dave came to be known as e-Patient Dave. But I didn't come here to talk about Dave -- I came here to talk about getting folks empowered, engaged, equipped and enabled with electronic personal health records as a first step in getting involved in all kinds of groovy things like sending messages to your doctors and connecting with other folks with conditions like your own and taking care of your aging parents back in their own homes instead of sticking ’em in some facility just ’cause they need a little help with their meds and appointments. And the only reason I'm singing you this song today is ’cause you may know someone in a similar situation or perhaps you yourself may be in a similar situation.

And if you're in a situation like that, there's only one thing you should do and that's walk into your doctor's office and sing – ”All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave”-- and walk out.

You know, if just one person does it, they might think he’s a crazed terrorist and they'll send the records so he won’t blow the place up. And if two people do it--two people--in harmony,

they'll think they’re door-to-door missionaries and they'll give 'em their records just to get rid of ’em. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day walking in and singing a bar of “e-Patient Dave's PHR” and walking out, they'll think it's a revolution. And that's what it is -- “The e-Patient Dave's PHR Revolution” -- and all you have to do to join is sing the chorus the next time it comes around on the guitar.

With feeling. Here it comes now...

All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave
All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave
All my information in the right configuration
So I can choose to share it anywhere across the nation
All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave

Once more, in harmony now...

All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave
(A personal health record)
All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave
All my information in the right configuration
So I can choose to share it anywhere across the nation
All I want is a PHR just like e-Patient Dave

Why don’t you give me my data and I’ll sing you a song

©2012 Ross D. Martin, MD, MHA

The American College of Medical Informatimusicology