Upon Finishing My MBA (in a book)

I read a book called MBA in a Book, does that mean that I now have an MBA? Of course it does. I recommend this book to everyone who is concerned over a business and its models and success.

In an article entitled “Why Execution is the Source of Competitiveness” James Champy wrote, “The challenge today is for companies to adapt their processes to new technologies…”

This is true. And so is the converse, or reverse, or opposite, or whatever… that we must adapt our technologies to our new processes. It’s not that one supersedes of precedes the other. They inform one another to create, together, one whole that becomes the nature of your operations, thus the nature of your organization.

“…we focused on the wrong side of the equation - the technology itself, not what the technology could do for us. Technology invention is one thing. Technology application and value creation are quite another.” — Thornton May

We must capitalize on new technologies by examining ways we could integrate them into our processes. Sometimes we are making changes to the processes, sometimes we are making changes to the technologies.

I have many quotes from the book highlighted. Good stuff.

Another EHR day in Old Town Rock Hill

I’m meeting today with a man who has consulted for the health care industry for many moons. We’re meeting in Old Town Rock Hill. This Electronic Health Records initiative is really taking off. I’m just happy that Open Source technology is the order of the day, and that Old Town Rock Hill is becoming a hub for Open Sourcerers.

Check out OpenEHR.org for an interesting open source technology that has recently hit the airwaves.

From the horses mouth:

“openEHR provides many advantages for health information system and application vendors. Because it is a standardised computing platform it enables many vendors to avoid re-inventing their own back-end for EHR, demographics, data integration and so on, and instead use one of the high-quality implementations becoming available. All of the API and service specifications are already or will soon be publicly available.

“A prime source of efficiency when using the openEHR platform is the ability to use archetypes agreed formally elsewhere, ensuring genuine semantic interoperability of health records. This might be considered a form of cooperative clinical configuration. While such configuration is a source of income to vendors in the current environment, it is a waste for the health system as a whole and a source of many of the integration problems we are currently experiencing.”

Tinkering with a new model for an art gallery in Old Town Rock Hill

I’ve got the empty, refurbished space 125 Caldwell Street that has been affectionately named The Space at 125. I used to have an office user in it, but he actually purchased a building on Main Street and moved over there. So, the space has been empty for a while. So, I started letting ACE Projects and Wintrhop University use the space for art openings.

This has led to exploring some viable models to utilize the space. Any model has to be self-funding. I’d love to keep allowing it to be an Art Gallery for downtown, but if a paying tenant comes along, I’ll be remiss not to rent it to him or her. So, I’m happy that we have stumbled on a model that we can try to attempt to make a gallery self-sustaining from a cost standpoint.

It’s the DIY Art Gallery - to let any artist, anybody rent the space out for their event. To make showing art in downtown non-prohibitive, whether by cost or access. We’ll see how it goes I guess. We can’t really market the concept, so I guess we’ll just blog about it now and again

Learn more about the Space At 125!

Wheels for Web Conference in Rock Hill

We have the wheels in motion for a conference to be held in Old Town Rock Hill at City Club on October 23rd.

Keep up with progress here = www.OldTownNewWorld.net.

The theme for the event will be the Internet and Our Community. The three main topics (as they are shaping up) will be:

1. Your Own Electronic Health Record by 2015?
2. The knowledge worker and the local economy.
3. Organization transformation (including education, municipality, non-profits, and business)

The format will be modelled after TED (the annual conference). It will mostly be a day of rapid-fire 18-minute presentations. We want to include presenters from an array of disciplines who have their own take on one of the above three topics. Like TED, the presentations don’t segway into each other, but instead stand alone each one of them. Yet the sum effect is an overview of the theme in general through different angles on these three topics.

Our current speakers include:

• Jason Broadwater, of RevenFlo (me)
• Dr. Richard Patterson, CMO of Piedmont
• Stephen Turner, Director Economic and Urban Development City of Rock Hill

We will probably be selecting six more.

We will also have visual art as a significant part of the discourse. Just as we can respond to the Web and its effect on our lives academically, we can do so artistically. We may have one of our speakers be an artist or trainer of artists. But we will definitely have art on display intermingled with the experience of the day.

We are seeking a few more sponsors. Currently our sponsors include:

• RevenFlo
• CN2
• Arts Council of York County
• ACE Projects

We also thank Piedmont Medical for an early ticket purchase to show support.

We are currently selling tickets at $100 each with a 150 person limit. Tickets are currently available online at OldTownNewWorld.net.

Nominated to the Board of the RHEDC

I am proud to accept the nomination to the board of the Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation. Thank you for your vote of confidence! The RHEDC is doing some great things.

Electronic Health Records, another knowledge worker marketplace

The healthcare question is one of the greatest of our generation, and is currently top of the news. We embark upon a monumental challenge to address it and reform it. The electronic health record has been accepted as a huge part of that effort. Along with the existing mandate and funding, 36 federal agencies have come together and formed an Open Source platform and a “network of networks” that any practice or hospital can plug into and achieve nationwide interconnectivity. The software is free. But in order for the practice or hospital to do this, they will need to employ knowledge workers for consulting, logistics, interface design, LAMP development, IT implementation and support, hardware consulting and configuring, and more. This means jobs in many forms: staff, contracted workers, service providers with staff, service providers using contractors, and freelancers. Human activity, not proprietary solutions, is the nature of the technology services marketplace. It is a knowledge-worker marketplace. And this marketplace is about to be injected with billions of dollars in spending.

Electronic Health Records, One of Three main topics for Old Town New World Conference

Electronic health records, how they will affect us, how they will affect healthcare, how they will be achieved, how the federal stimulus plays into this, what adoption will look like, and more - EHR is one of the three major topics of the 2009 Old Town New World conference themed The Internet and Our Community. The conference will be at City Club of Rock Hill on October 23rd. Keep up with progress at OldTownNewWorld.net.

Doug Echols, Mayor of Rock Hill, SC

I believe that Doug Echols is excelling at serving our community as mayor. I believe it would be good for Rock Hill for him to stay at the helm of our stewardship.

Web Technology Consultation on Electronic Health Records

Chief Medical Officer Signs on to Speak at Old Town New World Conference

Dr. Richard Patterson, CMO of Piedmont Medical in Rock Hill, SC, has signed on to speak at the 2009 Old Town New World Conference held in Old Town Rock Hill. The theme of the conference is The Internet and Our Community. Dr. Patterson will speak on one of the major topics of the conference -  Your Own Electronic Health Record by 2015. Learn more about the conference at www.OldTownNewWorld.net.