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# Mighty Casey Media

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## Posts

- [Blog](https://mightycasey.com/blog/)
- [Gimme my DaM data!](https://mightycasey.com/gimme-my-dam-data/) - The American College of Medical Informatimusicology (ACMiMiMi) has launched a hit! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gpk-fbfg4Y
- [Do not fear dragons](https://mightycasey.com/do-not-fear-dragons/) - I was born in one of the Chinese zodiac’s Years of the Dragon. I am a fire sign – Leo – in western astrology. I’m fierce, and I roar frequently. I have often been accused of being a fire-breathing dragon. Those who said that aimed at criticism. I took it as praise. #HAWMC Day 24
- [Madlibs poems: way cool](https://mightycasey.com/madlibs-poems-way-cool/) - I have taken both of my #post #fail days for #HAWMC, so I gotta really slave to the grind thru the next 10 days. That said, today’s prompt involved going to Madlibs Poem generator, filling in the blanks (be prepared, there are many!), and hitting “go!”. I went. This was the result. I surrender I spread
- [5 Dream Team dinner guests](https://mightycasey.com/5-dream-team-dinner-guests/) - There are five people for whom I would walk over broken glass, if on the other side of said glass was a dinner table set for six, with them waiting for me. Here they are, in no particular order: Marie Curie My mother was a stone-cold science geek. One of her inspirations was Madame Curie,
- [I learned about patient advocacy the hard way](https://mightycasey.com/i-learned-about-patient-advocacy-the-hard-way/) - Well, maybe it wasn’t the hard way for *me*, but it was a hard lesson nonetheless. When I was in my early 20s, my maternal grandmother (the Admiral’s wife) had a serious health event that involved hospitalization, and fear that she was at death’s door. The cause turned out to be not heart failure, not
- [Pin THIS!](https://mightycasey.com/pin-this/) - #HAWMC Day 16: Pinterest! Have a Pinterest page. Have yet to figger out its highest and best use, but today’s prompt tells me to create a board for my health focus and pin three things on it. Well, in typical over-achiever fashion, I’ve pinned four images to my brand spanking new Health Activism board: Why
- [Got style? Why, yes I do …](https://mightycasey.com/got-style-why-yes-i-do/) - #HAWMC Day 15 – half-way home. Hallelujah. Maybe. Writing with style. That makes me think fondly of E.B. White’s Elements of Style, the first book about writing I ever read. I know that Bill Strunk co-authored EoS, but since E.B. also wrote Charlotte’s Web, he gets to mostly-solo when I’m in charge. My dad gave me my 1st
- [The perfect day(s) …](https://mightycasey.com/the-perfect-days/) - #HAWMC day 14 (almost half-way there!) – the prompt we’re given is “describe your ideal day – how would you spend your time? Who would be with you? Have you ever had this day? There are two versions. #1: perfect day, vacation version I wake up to early-morning light coming through the forward hatch on
- [10 things I won’t live without](https://mightycasey.com/10-things-i-wont-live-without/) - #HAWMC Day 13 (Friday the 13th – kewl!), and I’m prompted to share 10 things I won’t live without. Well, they say “couldn’t” and I say “won’t” – I’m much more definitive and fierce by nature, as we’ve already established. #1: Common sense This has saved my ass more than once. #2: My very widespread
- [Scream of consciousness](https://mightycasey.com/scream-of-consciousness/) - #hawmc Day 12 says stream of consciousness. i say scream. here goes. i frankly don’t care if you find my language offensive. i grew up with a fighter pilot as a father, he taught me ferocity and i’ve never un-learned it. i worked and lived in new-york-city for manymany years, including manymany years in live/national/international
- [Burning Down The House (my theme song)](https://mightycasey.com/burning-down-the-house-my-theme-song/) - For better or worse, I’ve always been willing to start a fire, or a riot, or a fight, to move a cause or idea forward. So why on earth would I not have The Talking Heads’ epic anthem “Burning Down The House” as a theme song? Here’s a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhD5WnrLBC8 The lyrics:
- [Dear 16-year-old me. #HAWMC Day 10.](https://mightycasey.com/dear-16-year-old-me-hawmc-day-10/) - Dear 16-year-old Mary-now-called-Casey: Mom & dad never meant for you to think, all your life, that you were a hideous fat pig. You had that chunky phase, 12 thru 13, and they did get pretty fierce about your weight. They were operating out of fear combined with love, though, and didn’t ever intend for you
- [#HAWMC Day 9: Keep Calm](https://mightycasey.com/hawmc-day-9-keep-calm/) - This says it all:
- [Best. Conversation. Ever. (Take 1)](https://mightycasey.com/best-conversation-ever-take-1/) - Time: Friday, March 30, 2012, about 1:30pm EDT Scene: a restaurant Players: 1 woman, 1 man, 2 male extras The woman and two male extras are having lunch and discussing a business project. The woman’s phone buzzes, she looks at the screen Woman: Oh, it’s my sister in law. My brother had brain surgery yesterday,
- [The Checklist](https://mightycasey.com/the-checklist/) - This document has its own page on the site as of yesterday, so I thought I’d take advantage of #HAWMC to pimp it toward the e-patient and health activist community. It was debuted during my talk “Dating Tips for Doctors & Patients” for internal medicine grand rounds at Walter Reed/Bethesda Naval Hospital on March 29. I put the Checklist together
- [Haiku. You?](https://mightycasey.com/haiku-you/) - The brain creates thoughts Yet rarely thinks of itself Un-self-seeing sentience - Cancer cells creep in No light cat’s feet involved here Only crawling death’s hands - Some say health is wealth Yet wealth can be penury If health is absent - Breasts are beautiful Yet can become pure terror At a small cell’s whim
- [Lighten up. Take flight.](https://mightycasey.com/lighten-up-take-flight/) - I was almost 11 years old when my brother was born. I’m the one of the three of us (me, middle sis, little bro) who has had the biggest health adventure (cancer) … at least until early March of 2012. One of my favorite memories of my brother as a little boy centers on a
- [Life is 100% fatal. Let’s have fun while we’re here.](https://mightycasey.com/life-is-100-fatal-lets-have-fun-while-were-here/) - Day 4 of #hawmc. Prompt is “I write about my health because … ” I don’t write about just my health because … well, how boring would *that* be? Very. I write about health and healthcare for all of us: me, you, ever’body. Health is our life, it’s what we do, it’s how we behave,
- [“There are no guarantees in medicine.”](https://mightycasey.com/there-are-no-guarantees-in-medicine/) - “There are no guarantees in medicine, other than that there are no guarantees in medicine.” That’s actually my own quote. Today in the WEGO Health #hawmc challenge – 30 days of posts on health activism, one each day in April – the prompt sheet says “Quotation Inspiration”. I’m sharing one of my central tenets, something I say
- [DNA: it’s not just for cop shows any more](https://mightycasey.com/dna-its-not-just-for-cop-shows-any-more/) - “It’s in my DNA.” You hear people say that all the time about something they love to do, a passion, an attitude. There are things that actually are in your DNA that could save you money, and even save your life. Those things are the P-450 enzymes CYP-2C19, CYP-2C6, CYP-2D9 - pay attention, there’ll be a test later
- [Things that make you go “thanks”](https://mightycasey.com/things-that-make-you-go-thanks/) - Let’s not be turkeys this Thanksgiving. Let’s not start fights with the relatives while we’re together for the weekend. Don’t let it matter that someone voted for Obama, or is backing Newt. Let it ride that somebody’s a Dallas Cowboys fan (that’s work for me) or passionate about defending Penn State (it’s a great school,
- [Mobile medicine: movable feast or meaningless motion?](https://mightycasey.com/mobile-medicine-movable-feast-or-meaningless-motion/) - The concept of mobile health and mobile medicine is enticing. “There’s an app for that” when applied to managing a chronic condition like diabetes, or navigating cancer treatment, sounds like real 21st century healthcare, doesn’t it? Tomorrow (Dec. 1, 2011) I’m on a panel that’s part of mHealthCon at Rutgers University, a conference where a plethora of
- [More motion on mobile health](https://mightycasey.com/more-motion-on-mobile-health/) - I spent a day last week at Rutgers University in the company of some heavy hitters in mobile healthcare. I’ll be posting a full report soon on Disruptive Women in Health Care, but in the meantime, here are some highlights: “More people have mobile phones than have toothbrushes,” said Tom Wheeler of the mHealth Alliance (not good news if you
- [From the “Who knew?” desk here at C4C Enterprises](https://mightycasey.com/from-the-who-knew-desk-here-at-c4c-enterprises/) - I read a lot. I read a lot of healthcare-tech stories, since what will save healthcare in the US (and everywhere else) is technology that eases and facilitates communication between clinicians and patients, clinicians and clinicians, and patients and patients. A virtuous cycle of open communication, where individual patient data is secure from viewing by
- [I have … great news!](https://mightycasey.com/i-have-great-news/) - My good friend Andrew Spong posted something today on his blog that I took one look at and said, “STEALING THIS!” It’s not really theft if you give 100% credit, though, is it? Andrew talks about his “I have” project, and uses this image to drive the point home: What is the “I have” project, exactly? It’s crowd-sourcing
- [Paula Deen + Diabetes = Missed Opportunity](https://mightycasey.com/paula-deen-diabetes-missed-opportunity/) - Paula Deen did what every middle-aged woman who’s just been diagnosed with diabetes does: she went on the Today Show to announce that she’d still be cooking with plenty of butter, salt, and sugar. She’d just be practicing moderation. Yeah, I’m kidding. About the Everywoman part, but not about the rest of it. To top it off, the
- [Is it warm in here?](https://mightycasey.com/is-it-warm-in-here/) - I’ve been quiet for a while. Been doing my one-armed paper-hanger imitation – in a good way – which has taken up too much of my time and attention. She’s baaaaaaaaack! And she’s almost 4 months overdue for her annual mammogram. Yep, a breast cancer survivor is late for her mammo – but it isn’t
- [#epatient - Are Millennials Born That Way?](https://mightycasey.com/epatient-are-millennials-born-that-way/) - Most of the people I meet in my voyages 'round healthcare system transformation, grassroots edition, arrived at the portal of #epatient via a trip through the medical-industrial complex. Either they, or someone they cared for, wound up getting "a thing" - cancer, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, player to be named later - and they found themselves
- [The State of Health Information Exchange: Benefits and Challenges](https://mightycasey.com/the-state-of-health-information-exchange-benefits-and-challenges/) - This is a guest post by TechnologyAdvice.com writer Jesse Jacobsen. TechnologyAdvice.com is based in Nashville, TN, and their stated mission is to provide valuable insight to business technology buyers, while creating connections with the products and vendors that best meet those buyers' needs. Their site is a goldmine of industry-specific intel on current software and
- [What’s in a Bowl of Rice?](https://mightycasey.com/whats-in-a-bowl-of-rice/) - This is a guest post by Patricia Dean-Escoto, a nutrition coach and consultant who learned, in her own cancer journey, the impact of food on cancer prevention - she's got a new Android app, My Breast Cancer Advocate, that's available in the Google Play store. The other day I was visiting with a good friend
- [Deja vu all over again](https://mightycasey.com/deja-vu-all-over-again/) - Long ago and far away ... well, OK, from 1979 to 2008, I had health insurance. Started with employer group insurance, moved to rolling my own (individual) in '89, then negotiated small business group insurance for the micro-enterprise I ran with my 2nd husband in the '00s. Then came the Cancer for Christmas adventure, during
- ["How much is that?" is a critical question in healthcare](https://mightycasey.com/how-much-is-that-is-a-critical-question-in-healthcare/) - This story from PBS Newshour clearly shows how important it is to ask questions, and shop around, when it comes to prescription drug prices. Think a generic drug guarantees a lower price? Not so much. Watch this story, and learn how the same generic drug can cost anywhere from $11 to $455. The best way
- [Firehose of healthcare cost resources for #billesq](https://mightycasey.com/firehose-of-healthcare-cost-resources-for-billesq/) - I attended the 2nd edition of the bill conference in Richmond VA today (for the record, that's Saturday, April 6, 2013), and wound up kicking off the talks with what's become my core topic: #howmuchisthat, healthcare edition. That link goes to the hashtag's home on Symplur, the healthcare hashtag registry that's also a veritable time-sink of
- [Medicine has a major image problem](https://mightycasey.com/medicine-has-a-major-image-problem/) - When you hear the word "monopoly," does it fill you with a warm and fuzzy feeling? (Unless you're Hasbro, you really should say no, unless you're a cyborg.) Healthcare is a monopoly. We can't DIY cancer treatment, or surgically repair a broken hip for ourselves, so we have to go to the medical-industrial complex to regain
- [Immediate Jeopardy: I'll take Medical Errors for $100,000!](https://mightycasey.com/immediate-jeopardy-ill-take-medical-errors-for-100000/) - Accountable care. That’s one of the central pillars of healthcare reform/Obamacare/the Affordable Care Act. Given that Obamacare is built on transforming Medicare, the payment system from which all Holy Billing Codes and the pricing attached thereto flow, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) would seem, given their name, to be about accountability for care, right? Not so
- ["How much is that?" = quest for VALUE](https://mightycasey.com/how-much-is-that-quest-for-value/) - When you're shopping for something, sometimes price is the only consideration. Yet think about the times when price matters, but you've already determined the only brand or brands you're interested in buying. Let's say you're buying a car. You've done plenty of research, using the criteria that are important to you. Fuel economy, vehicle safety
- [HealthWorksCollective video interview series ... and me](https://mightycasey.com/healthworkscollective-video-interview-series-and-me/) - I had the privilege of talking to Joan Justice, who's heading up the new HealthWorksCollective channel, which is part of the Social Media Today online media empire. My topic is the one that is becoming my tagline: healthcare costs, and "how much IS that?"
- [Comedy writer way-back machine: That ****ing tree](https://mightycasey.com/comedy-writer-way-back-machine-that-ing-tree/) - I spent 20+ years working for NBC at 30 Rock. When I started exploring stand-up comedy, the first bit I wrote was based on my experiences working in the building behind what has become "America's Christmas Tree" - or, as I came to call it, "that fucking tree". Since the thing was lit last night,
- [Healthcare a passion of yours? Win an award!](https://mightycasey.com/healthcare-a-passion-of-yours-win-an-award/) - WEGO Health is an online network of people from across the globe who use the internet and social media to connect around health and share health information. WEGO calls us Health Activists, and they've created a special awards program to recognize those Health Activists who are making a real difference in the online health community:
- [athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush on EHR & HIE (e-i-e-i-o)](https://mightycasey.com/athenahealth-ceo-jonathan-bush-on-ehr-hie-e-i-e-i-o/) - Jonathan Bush of athenahealth has long been a provocateur in health IT. His take on EHR tech, and the build-out of health information exchanges, is worth a listen. He stops short of talking about any open API or open source, though, which means that EHR tech is still in legacy-IT-thinking mode to a degree. Perhaps
- [Social Media Lunch & Learn resources](https://mightycasey.com/social-media-lunch-learn-resources/) - Slides: If for some reason the embed doesn't work for you, here's a direct link to the deck on Slideshare. -
- [Silly Season Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/silly-season-storytelling/) - We're deep into the silly season - also known as the race for the White House - and the number of candidates has reduced itself from the two rugby teams of January to the ping-pong match vs. the old soldier of February. What kind of stories are they telling? First and foremost, they're all saying
- [Paranoia: American as apple pie. And gunpowder.](https://mightycasey.com/paranoia-american-as-apple-pie-and-gunpowder/) - Yesterday (Monday, April 2, 2012) the US Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision on the legality of strip searches in jails and prisons. The news is not good for anyone who gets arrested - guilty or not - and proves that the precept of "innocent until proven guilty" is sinking beneath the surf of
- [Did Warren Buffett really say THAT?](https://mightycasey.com/did-warren-buffett-really-say-that/) - Well, it turns out he did. What did he say? Hang on. I'll get there in a sec. First, I've been silent here for a while (holy crap, I haven't posted since Jan. 31!) - my only excuse is that I've started blogging for clients, and ran out of words. Not really, but that's my
- [FDA paranoia - who knew?](https://mightycasey.com/fda-paranoia-who-knew/) - In its rigorous search for food & drug safety, the FDA added searching through the personal emails of agency employees who questioned FDA decisions. That would be an oops - for both sides of that story. Here's the lowdown: on Sunday (Jan. 29, 2012) the Washington Post reported that the FDA was being sued by
- [It's the education, stupid ...](https://mightycasey.com/its-the-education-stupid/) - The headline on this post is inspired by both the 1992 Clinton campaign meme, and by my personal belief - shared by many - that education in the U.S. is in trouble, and will sink us if we don't act decisively and quickly to change a broken system. The infographic tells the story. You can
- [Does voting still matter in the wake of Citizens United?](https://mightycasey.com/does-voting-still-matter-in-the-wake-of-citizens-united/) - It's [still] the silly season - which seems like it's been going on forever, even though it's only been a little over a YEAR now - and the field of Republicans jockeying for the chance to run against Barack Obama in November is shrinking by the day. Off the list are Tim Pawlenty, Gary Johnson,
- [Patient Engagement. You're doing it wrong.](https://mightycasey.com/patient-engagement-youre-doing-it-wrong-2/) - Now that I have, for my sins, been tagged as a patient engagement expert, I figure that entitles me to the occasional rant on the topic of the healthcare system - particularly the US iteration thereof - and its utter inability to understand how to connect and communicate effectively with its customer base: patients. If
- [UPDATE: Patients ARE smarter (and louder) ... here's proof](https://mightycasey.com/update-patients-are-smarter-and-louder-heres-proof-2/) - It's been a fun week here in Mighty Casey Media Land. We kicked off the week a little early (on Sunday) - the 411 on that is available here, and some of the social exhaust is available on Storify here and here. One member of the e-patient posse worried that the guy was gon' have
- [The 9 Rules of Media Relations Crisis Management](https://mightycasey.com/the-9-rules-of-media-relations-crisis-management/) - As the tragedy at the Sago mine in West Virginia unfolded on our televisions and front pages in January of 2006, I’m certain we all wondered how the story could have become such a terrific example of corporate media-relations bungling. Perhaps I was in the minority thinking the bungling was terrific, but I’m in the
- [Help us, IBM-Dell-Apple. You're our only hope.](https://mightycasey.com/help-us-ibm-dell-apple-youre-our-only-hope-2/) - I've been on the road a lot over the last six months, getting the chance to interact with (and, I hope, influence), audiences in health tech and health policy. There's so much desire for change, search for innovation, and just straight up "desperately seeking [something]" out there, it's almost hilarious that no real change/shift/what-have-you has yet
- [Human systems start with ... humans.](https://mightycasey.com/human-systems-start-with-humans/) - Guess who got invited to WHO? No, really. The World Health Organization (WHO) invited yours truly to its First Global Experts' Consultation in service of building a WHO framework for patient and family engagement. This is all due to my part in the ongoing anvil chorus that is the new Patient & Family Engagement Roadmap,
- [Dear kids: school is your job. Act accordingly.](https://mightycasey.com/dear-kids-school-is-your-job-act-accordingly/) - It has become accepted wisdom that public schools in the US are failing their students. I confess to believing some of that conventional wisdom: I think we're losing generation after generation of inner-city and rural kids with sub-par schools and technology. I also think that inner-city schools have become both a dumping ground for teachers
- [Got succession planning?](https://mightycasey.com/got-succession-planning/) - If you're over 55, you've been getting junk mail for at least a few years advising you to think ahead about what will happen when you're gone. Plain-speaking version: after you're dead. That's a topic that every business owner, and business leader, needs to examine closely, too. What will happen when you're gone? When you
- [Mighty Mouth 5-Point Manifesto for 2012](https://mightycasey.com/mighty-mouth-5-point-manifesto-for-2012/) - OK, I'll admit that it's highly hackneyed of me to publish a manifesto on New Year's Eve. I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions - who even keeps the things into February? - and this is not a set of resolutions. My inspiration(s) for this post are vast and varied. Some are between my
- [Make Congress work? I'm in!](https://mightycasey.com/make-congress-work-im-in/) - After spending [redacted] years in network news, covering every Presidential race from 1980 to 2004, my level of exhaustion and cynicism when it comes to politics is ... epic. I vote in every election, because dammit-that's-my-right-as-a-citizen, but often it's a case of holding my nose and doing the best I can with the (rotten) choices
- [Year-end career-end in review](https://mightycasey.com/year-end-career-end-in-review/) - This year has seen some really stunning examples of how to completely screw oneself, and one’s career, in public. Here’s a review of some of my favorites: Anthony Weiner’s wiener: Do not take a picture of your package and post it on Twitter. This is a rule for everyone. If you do this, be prepared
- [Don't wind up on the least-wanted list](https://mightycasey.com/dont-wind-up-on-the-least-wanted-list/) - Yes, kids, it's that time of year again. ChristmaHanaKwanzaKah is once again in the hearts and on the minds of everyone from sea to shining sea - and beyond - so it's time for a remedial lesson on How to Succeed in Business Without Really Lying. Here are the Mighty Casey Media rules for surviving
- [Forget Wall Street. Occupy K Street.](https://mightycasey.com/forget-wall-street-occupy-k-street/) - Heaving scrums from coast to coast are occupying public squares to protest what seems to be the greatest concentration of personal wealth since the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century. Their ire is directed at Wall Street, which does bear some of the blame for the epic meltdown of the US -
- [Change management lessons from Congress. Who knew?](https://mightycasey.com/change-management-lessons-from-congress-who-knew/) - OK. So they're not really managing change on Capitol Hill. They're resisting change, hard, on both sides of the aisle. Therein lies the lesson. In order for any organization, from the corner grocery to the US Congress, to successfully transform itself to meet a changing environment, there are a few don'ts. Here they are, in
- [New Golden Rule: See something? SAY SOMETHING.](https://mightycasey.com/new-golden-rule-see-something-say-something/) - Recent events have led me to believe that the world is populated by blind people. Or at least people who are easily sold on crazy. One of those recent developments is the unfolding drama at Penn State, where icons of college sports - both the college and the coach - have been revealed to have
- [Raising Cain ... then lowering him. 3 tips to avoid his mistake.](https://mightycasey.com/raising-cain-then-lowering-him-3-tips-to-avoid-his-mistake/) - The quadrennial silly season known as the US Presidential race has been in full cry on the Republican side for about six months now, with some highly entertaining spectacle already on display. Unfortunately, a popular favorite, Herman Cain, who had built up quite a head of steam as a leading contender, has been somewhat sidelined
- [Why is business expected to pay for healthcare in the US?](https://mightycasey.com/why-is-business-expected-to-pay-for-healthcare-in-the-us/) - I've asked this question frequently over the years, starting in the '80s, continuing to today … and I'll keep it up until someone realizes that it's a failed paradigm. What we have here, kidz, is what happens when a society decides that socialism is anathema, but doesn't empower and educate its citizens about how to
- [#1 patient rule in #occupyhealthcare: be responsible for yourself](https://mightycasey.com/1-patient-rule-in-occupyhealthcare-be-responsible-for-yourself/) - Healthcare providers are waking up and realizing that they need to partner with their patients to get better outcomes for their facilities and practices, and for their patients. As Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) get more and more press, the healthcare delivery side is the entity being held accountable. Patients must step up to the bumper
- [Healthcare: It's time for us to #arabspring this b*tch](https://mightycasey.com/healthcare-its-time-for-us-to-arabspring-this-btch/) - I had the opportunity to speak at a digital pharma marketing conference - DTC Perspectives' Marketing to the Digital Consumer - last week. "DTC" is Direct To Consumer, by the way. I was representing the patient voice, at the invitation of my friends at the health activist community WEGO Health. It was terrific for several
- [My #1 social media rule: be human first. Then be a brand.](https://mightycasey.com/my-1-social-media-rule-be-human-first-then-be-a-brand/) - I've noticed a huge increase in friend requests on Facebook and invitations to connect on LinkedIn that come from logos, not faces. I don't accept any of them, and here's why: the word "social" precedes the word "media" for a reason. Social media is social. My Oxford American dictionary defines social thus: 1. of or
- [Digital Patient Bill of Rights: check!](https://mightycasey.com/digital-patients-rights/) - A group of about 20 passionate e-patients, including e-Patient Dave his own self and yours truly, gathered around a biiiiig table on Monday in Philadelphia to talk about what an e-patient Bill of Rights might look like. I have to give a shout-out to my buddies at WEGO Health, particularly Jack Barrette, Bob Brooks, and Natalia Forsyth One conclusion: don’t call
- [Being in business means you'll ALWAYS have to say you're sorry.](https://mightycasey.com/being-in-business-means-youll-always-have-to-say-youre-sorry/) - I don't care what being in love means regarding saying you're sorry. Personally, I think Erich Segal's book sucks, but I digress. If you're in business - running one, managing one, working for one - you're in the apology business. In fact, being human puts you in the apology business 24/7/365. And business always needs
- ["Screw it, let's do it."](https://mightycasey.com/screw-it-lets-do-it/) - The headline on this post is the title of Richard Branson's business memoir. The full title: Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life and Business. The link will take you to the book on Amazon, so you can just do it and buy the book. I had the opportunity to literally see Branson in
- [The Powerful + Multifaceted Story That Is Temple Grandin](https://mightycasey.com/the-powerful-multifaceted-story-that-is-temple-grandin/) - Temple Grandin is a cross-species hero. Her appearance at TED makes me wonder: what took them so long to invite her? Her work with animals, particularly in the design of slaughterhouses, revolutionized the cattle industry. As an autistic, she is the living representation of what's possible with what she calls "unique minds" - her passion
- [Are Afghan Papers the 21st Century's Pentagon Papers?](https://mightycasey.com/are-afghan-papers-the-21st-centurys-pentagon-papers/) - Daily Beast's lead story today reveals that the Justice Dept. and the Pentagon have expanded their investigation of Bradley Manning, the US Army analyst who handed over what I'm calling the Afghan Papers to Wikileaks. As someone who is, um, experienced enough to remember the Pentagon Papers dust-up in 1967 when the war in Vietnam
- [Dear Google: It Ain't a Free Trial If You Charge Me](https://mightycasey.com/dear-google-it-aint-a-free-trial-if-you-charge-me/) - I have been a Google brand advocate for over a decade. Fell on their search engine like a starving dog when it launched in beta in '98 (even then, they really were better than everybody else), and have enthusiastically jumped in on all their web-based tools as they've rolled out. Since I switched to an
- [When Jet Blue's Ship Came In, They Were At the Airport](https://mightycasey.com/when-jet-blues-ship-came-in-they-were-at-the-airport/) - Well, of course they were at the airport. They're an airline. My point is that by not responding quickly to the Steven Slater Beer-Slide incident, they've really missed the boat on kicking off a great conversation about and among an entire industry and its customers. The conversation is kicked off, and JetBlue is a major
- [Why Your LinkedIn Profile Sucks & What To Do About It](https://mightycasey.com/why-your-linkedin-profile-sucks-what-to-do-about-it/) - You can spend a lot of worthwhile time on LinkedIn - it's a great place to study industry trends, listen to meaningful conversations, and keep an eye on your competitors. What does your LinkedIn profile say about YOU? Sure, it's got a chronological list of all the great companies you've worked for, and the degree(s)
- [Rapturous PR News & Notes From All Over](https://mightycasey.com/rapturous-pr-news-notes-from-all-over/) - It's been a busy month, and it's not even over ... yet. First, we had the highly anticipated LinkedIn IPO last Friday, May 19. Analysts initially recommended a share price of $32-35, but the stock was priced at $45 at the open, roared up to $108+, and then closed the day just above $94. Today
- [Event PR: Plan or #fail](https://mightycasey.com/event-pr-plan-or-fail/) - One of the best arrows in an organization's business-building quiver is a well-executed event. Doesn't matter if it's a seminar featuring your company's expertise, or a massive trade show effort in Vegas - planning is critical to achieving that "well-executed" tag. And, other than the actual value-delivered-in-the-room, nothing matters more than your PR strategy and
- [#1 thing NOT to do on LinkedIn](https://mightycasey.com/1-thing-not-to-do-on-linkedin/) - The #1-with-a-bullet rule of social media, no matter what platform, is: be authentic. This does not mean that you should be an authentic idiot, however. I had a troubling conversation on LinkedIn a few days ago, with someone who sent me a connection request. I'm a pretty open networker - my only rules are Have
- [How to de-power your PR in a crisis](https://mightycasey.com/how-to-de-power-your-pr-in-a-crisis/) - On August 27, a very angry Hurricane Irene came calling all up and down the east coast, including Virginia - which is where I live. I have plenty of hurricane experience, including a sojourn 500 miles offshore in a schooner during a Category 1 hurricane. I don't recommend that experience unless you really want to
- [How far would you go for medical treatment?](https://mightycasey.com/how-far-would-you-go-for-medical-treatment/) - No, not how far you'd go in the Denzel Washington/John Q/hold-a-hospital-hostage sense. In the get-on-a-plane-toward-care sense. Medical tourism has seen an exponential rise with patients in the US as health care costs and the number of uninsured patients have risen over the last 15 years. In a TIME magazine piece in 2006, Curtis Schroeder, CEO
- [From viral to vicious can be a short trip](https://mightycasey.com/from-viral-to-vicious-can-be-a-short-trip/) - I consider London to be one of my home-towns - I grew up in a government-service family, we moved frequently, and one of the places we called home was London in the '60s and '70s. I watched, with deep sorrow, as large parts of Greater London, and then Birmingham, fell under the torches and bricks
- [A funny thing happened on the way to the dairy counter](https://mightycasey.com/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-dairy-counter/) - When I was still doing stand-up, one of my compadres had a regular bit where her punchline was "women: we make milk. We make eggs. We're a dairy!" I'm a big fan of the dairy. No, not the human variety, the kind you find in grocery & gourmet stores. So imagine my surprise when I
- [Want to add humor to your message? Hire a comedy writer. Really.](https://mightycasey.com/want-to-add-humor-to-your-message-hire-a-comedy-writer-really/) - It's fascinating to watch something take hold in the zeitgeist (look it up). Particularly when it's something that has been solidly planted in one's own personal zeitgeist for ... ever. The hot topic in business social media right now is humor. As in "bring the funny to get attention and customers" - which is true,
- [Jumping the Shark. And Jumping the Gun. Both bad ideas.](https://mightycasey.com/jumping-the-shark-and-jumping-the-gun-both-bad-ideas/) - Netflix jumps the gun When you announce a price increase, timing is everything. Netflix learned that the hard way when they broadcast a 62% price hike – from $9.99 to $15.98 – on their basic discs-and-streaming subscription package. The screaming was heard everywhere from backyard barbeques to CNN. Netflix’s earning call was today – Monday,
- [Tabloids, Noise, and Handcuffs. Film at 11.](https://mightycasey.com/tabloids-noise-and-handcuffs-film-at-11/) - I started my career in network news around the same time the space shuttle Columbia made its first trip into low-earth orbit. Also around that same time, CNN (acronym for Cable News Network, was referred to as Chicken Noodle News by those of us in "establishment" TV news at the time) brought the 24-hour TV
- [Freedom (of Responsiblity) on the Fourth of July](https://mightycasey.com/freedom-of-responsiblity-on-the-fourth-of-july/) - Independence Day marks the birth of the United States of America, originating on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia when the Founding Fathers stopped arguing long enough to sign the Declaration of Independence. As a nation, we've been arguing ever since. About what "freedom" means - am I free to shoot my neighbor's dog because it's
- [Geography = Health. Really.](https://mightycasey.com/geography-health-really/) - After [readacted] years on the planet, I have the great good fortune to have a huge coterie of friends and colleagues, and a lengthened view of all manner of topics. A convergence popped up to demonstrate that yesterday when a friend (and, full disclosure, a member of my extended family) shared this TED-MED Talk by
- [Failure to Study History Leads to Lather, Rinse...Repeat](https://mightycasey.com/failure-to-study-history-leads-to-lather-rinse-repeat/) - The 24-hour news cycle guarantees that the old truism “Don’t [expletive deleted] up on a slow news day” remains evergreen. Just ask Gilbert Gottfried – or, on second thought, don’t ask him, so we don’t have to hear that nails-on-blackboard voice. Aflac got an "F" in history by not studying Mr. Gottfried’s history - particularly
- [We've Come a Long Way, Baby (not)](https://mightycasey.com/weve-come-a-long-way-baby-not/) - In a piece on NPR's All Things Considered on Valentine's Day (irony is our favorite thing at Mighty Casey Media), it was revealed that women still lag behind men in pay equity, often leaving $1M or more on the table over an entire career due to their inability to negotiate pay raises. A complicating factor
- [Etsy: When Grassroots Burst Into Flame](https://mightycasey.com/etsy-when-grassroots-burst-into-flame/) - Etsy, the site that lets producers and consumers of all sorts of stuff buy and sell directly to their customers, has a terrific little business model. Talented folks from around the world can sell their arts, and crafts, without having to go thru a middleman: retail stores. That said, not every item on Etsy is
- [Enterprise's Honors Boldly Goes...Overboard](https://mightycasey.com/enterprises-honors-boldly-goes-overboard/) - How very ironic that the just-relieved-of-command USS Enterprise skipper's last name is Honors, particularly since the end of his career in the US Navy (trust me, kids - he's through) demonstrates a singular lack of honor, and of common sense. If you haven't been paying attention, here are the basic facts: Capt. Owen Honors, who
- [Wikileaks, Clay Shirky, and the Thinkiness of It All](https://mightycasey.com/wikileaks-clay-shirky-and-the-thinkiness-of-it-all/) - I've been fascinated by the Wikileaks/Afghan Papers story since it started to gain traction in June 2010. One of my gurus, the endlessly entertaining and thought-provoking Clay Shirky, posted a New Year's Eve gift on his blog looking at the differences between the Pentagon Papers case and its 21st century doppelganger, Wikileaks. Clay's most cogent
- [Did someone say "disruptive"?](https://mightycasey.com/did-someone-say-disruptive/) - I've been a disruptive woman for most of my life. Now I get to own that tag officially - I've joined the blogroll over at Disruptive Women in Healthcare. As of today, I'm the headline story ;) It IS my story. And I'm stickin' to it...
- [The Story on Healthcare Reform...After 11/2/2010](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-healthcare-reform-after-11-2-2010/) - I attended a great Disruptive Women in Health Care event last week: Health Reform After the 2010 Election - Assessing the Viability of Health Insurance in the Aftermath of the Mid-Term Elections. A big title, but it's a big topic. In a series of panel discussions, a varied group of healthcare policy wonks and a
- [The Story on Healthcare IT: Creating Connections](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-healthcare-it-creating-connections/) - The highest and best use of IT in healthcare is to create strong, healthy connections between doctors and their patients. One of the most critical pieces of that is giving patients access - both to their health data, and to their healthcare providers - along with permission to engage. I wear two hats in the
- [Healthcare Social Media: the Conversation Continues](https://mightycasey.com/healthcare-social-media-the-conversation-continues/) - I had the pleasure of meeting some great people yesterday at Johnson & Johnson. The conversation, which ran for a few hours, was about social media and healthcare brands. Facilitated by Jack Barrette of WEGO Health, it was an exciting afternoon. Read all about it here.
- [HACKED: The Douche Is Out There](https://mightycasey.com/hacked-the-douche-is-out-there/) - This site - the main presence on the web for my business - was hacked by a group of losers who fly under the banner h4ck-y0u. They replaced my deathless prose (well, some of it is, at least IMO) with a handprint graphic and the theme from the X Files. Jeez, kids, bored much? I
- [The (Real) Story on "Mad Men"](https://mightycasey.com/the-real-story-on-mad-men/) - First, let me make this clear: I'm a big fan of the Emmy-winning AMC series Mad Men. That said, I go through a veritable buffet of reactions during each episode - fear, loathing, fear AND loathing, and occasionally PTSD. The PTSD and the fear/loathing are inextricably intertwined, due to the fact that I started my
- [The Sad Story About Joint Replacement (in the US, at least)](https://mightycasey.com/the-sad-story-about-joint-replacement-in-the-us-at-least/) - A hip or knee replacement can offer people with chronic joint pain the chance to return to an active life. The potential promise of being pain-free, in some cases after decades of restricted movement, is a powerful incentive to arthritis sufferers around the world. I know from direct observation that not all joint replacements result
- [A Modest Proposal (on Health Insurance Reform)](https://mightycasey.com/all-i-wanted-for-christmas/) - ~ Casey Quinlan © 2010 [originally posted on the now-defunct Disruptive Women in Health Care blog, posted here for posterity.] I will admit to a bias on the subject of health insurance, and healthcare reform: I’m one of the millions of America’s uninsured. I’m female, over 50 (I told you, now I’ll have to kill
- [Last Pitch Standing: Comedy Writing Tips for Speakers](https://mightycasey.com/last-pitch-standing-comedy-writing-tips-for-speakers/) - I've been doing the short-form intro version of my "Last Pitch Standing" workshop pretty frequently of late. Here are PDFs of the two handouts - they can get you started on opening your comedy writing chakras. If you'd like some personal coaching, you know who to call! MightyCaseyMedia's Comedy Writing Tips Mighty Casey Media comedy
- [Health Care Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/health-care-storytelling/) - In all the sturm und drang over the US health care system in the last couple of years - and the last many decades - one voice seems to be largely missing in the discussion. We've heard from health care providers - hospitals, doctors, et al. We've heard from insurance companies. We've certainly heard from
- [Looking for the Union Label in the 21st Century](https://mightycasey.com/looking-for-the-union-label-in-the-21st-century/) - American Airlines, going against the tide of US carriers outsourcing aircraft maintenance to hangers in Mexico and Central America, has discovered a new partner in reducing costs and creating efficiencies: their own mechanics' union, Transport Workers Local 514. The only US airline that has not sent its jets to foreign hangars is American - they've
- [Another Story for Job Seekers](https://mightycasey.com/another-story-for-job-seekers/) - One of the things I most enjoy doing is talking to groups of people who are looking for a new customer. They call it "looking for a job", I think customer and employer are synonyms - don't you? Here's another share of my take on personal branding and social media for those looking for their
- [Make America Sick Again!](https://mightycasey.com/make-america-sick-again/) - The Insane Clown Car Posse (hat tip to my buddy Robb Fulks for that lovely turn of phrase) that’s currently at the helm of the ship of state here in the good old USA has started to give us a peek at their plans for US healthcare. The phrase “shit show” seems to have been
- [The Story on Richmond's Entrepreneurs](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-richmonds-entrepreneurs/) - Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Richmond, VA - you'd know that already if you were at the Venture Forum's Entrepeneur Fair today @ Capital One Town Center. Rich Reinecke, President of the Forum and founder of Career Quest, led the charge on making the Fair a really stellar event. Of course there were sponsors
- [The Story on Leading with Intention](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-leading-with-intention/) - I had the privilege of hearing my friend Marta Wilson, CEO of Transformation Systems Inc., talk about that very subject this past Friday at a Chamber of Commerce lunch. Marta's on the circuit in support of her terrific new book, "Leaders in Motion: Winning the Race for Organizational Health, Wealth, and Creative Power" - the
- [Get Yer Entrepreneur On](https://mightycasey.com/get-yer-entrepreneur-on/) - If you've been, um, "evaluating your options" lately (translation: looking for a j-o-b after getting downsized to the curb), there's an event coming up that could help you open up your entrepreneurial chakras. I've been singing the Don't Think J-O-B, Think B-I-Z song for over a year now, and it seems as if the rest
- [My 15 Minutes…on BusinessWeek.com](https://mightycasey.com/my-15-minuteson-businessweek-com/) - I had my 15 minutes of internet fame recently, with a "My Take" essay on BusinessWeek.com. To say that made my month would be an understatement! Social media played a part in bringing me this opportunity. If you're not a believer in the power of the Holy Trinity of SM (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook)...you need
- [Bathroom Stall Advertising…Why?](https://mightycasey.com/bathroom-stall-advertisingwhy/) - I don't know about you, but I prefer to visit the bathroom alone. Given that preference, I've felt, for over a decade now, like I've been under attack by advertising in public restrooms. The brain trusts who decided that ads on bathroom stall walls were a smokin' good way to get their message across have
- [What's Your Story?](https://mightycasey.com/whats-your-story-2/) - Ever hear of a little company called Google? What are they famous for? How about the Mayo Clinic? What are they famous for? What's your company famous for? If you're not sure - or worse, your answer is something like "technology solutions" or "IT services" - I can help. Mighty Casey Media helps you create
- [The Story on Social Media: One Mouth, Two Ears](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-social-media-one-mouth-two-ears/) - The always-full-of-great-information Sarah Evans, @PRSarahEvans on Twitter, and one of my favorite Tweeps, shared some really stunning stats today from Adam Singer's The Future Buzz blog. One mindblower of a statistic, among a buffet of them, is that there are 346,000,000 global citizens who read blogs. Wow, I'd be happy to have .1% of that
- [The Story on Twitter and #daniela – Only Connect](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-twitter-and-daniela-only-connect/) - Only connect. When E.M. Forster wrote that in 'Howards End' in 1910, the first iteration of wireless - radio - was in its infancy. We've come a long way, baby. In many ways, the complexity and scope of modern communication - connection - mean that there's lots of the former, but not much, at least
- [Mistake? I Don't Think So…](https://mightycasey.com/mistake-i-dont-think-so/) - Ever hit 'send' and then screamed 'noooooooo!' Come on, we've all done it. Gmail has even created a feature called 'Mail Goggles' to prevent what used to be called 'drink and dial' - initiate the feature, and Gmail will make you do math problems before you can send an email. Highly useful tool for those
- [A Great Story On Healthcare IT](https://mightycasey.com/a-great-story-on-healthcare-it/) - In today's Health Care Blog, David Kibbe MD and Brian Klepper PhD continue a discussion that they kicked off with an open letter to the incoming Obama administration in December about health care IT and electronic medical records (EMR/EHRs). Patients think that EMR/EHRs are the answer to their prayers - no more forms to fill
- [Cancer for Christmas - One Year Later](https://mightycasey.com/cancer-for-christmas-one-year-later/) - I had my annual mammogram this last Tuesday - remembering how last year’s formerly routine event wound up, to say I was a little nervous is a vast understatement. Here’s the news: I’m now officially a survivor. Looking back at the last 372 days, I have to say it’s been quite a ride. So many
- [Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain (If You’d Like to Stay Blissfully Ignorant)](https://mightycasey.com/pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain-if-youd-like-to-stay-blissfully-ignorant/) - I lost my health insurance the other day - and I'm not going to look for it. I have reason to be very glad this didn't happen last year, given the cancer-for-Christmas gift I received at my mammogram last December. Now that I'm in the self-pay column, I called the imaging practice where my next
- [The Story (& the Song) Remain the Same](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-the-song-remain-the-same/) - I think I'm on to something. Not that this is entirely a surprise, but it's nice when the universe sends you positive feedback fast. Today, the Greater Richmond Technology Council had an IT recruiter + candidate mixer called TechNOW. Given the current landscape locally, with Qimonda closing its chip plant, Genworth dealing with a mortgage-market
- [The Story on the Whole Jobs Thing (at Least AFAIC…)](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-the-whole-jobs-thing-at-least-afaic/) - Jobs numbers have, to quote Forbes Magazine, fallen "off the table". Everyone knows at least a dozen people who are un-, or at least under, employed. And several more who are decidedly nervous about their continued employment. Here's what I've been thinking for quite a long time now: jobs are dead. Long live daily individual
- [Sustainability Story Will Be Written By Technologists](https://mightycasey.com/sustainability-story-will-be-written-by-technologists/) - The Greater Richmond Technology Council’s Sustainability Summit on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 led a series of conversations about a variety of sustainability/green topics, from carbon footprint and energy resource management to implementing and best practices for ‘going green’. The discussions, led by business technology experts, touched on IT issues, but were really driven by the
- [The Story on Cancer for Christmas - Direct from the Mighty Mouth](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-cancer-for-christmas-direct-from-the-mighty-mouth/) - My girlfriends Susie Galvez & Mary Foley have posted their most recent Girlfriend We Gotta Talk radio show on their website. This week's guest is yours truly, the Mighty Mouth herself, talking about what it's like to get cancer for Christmas. It's quick, it's fun, and it's funny - give a listen!
- [The Story on Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Nail Color, and Life in General](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-breast-cancer-awareness-month-nail-color-and-life-in-general/) - Below is something that my good friend Mary Foley sent out to her Live Like Your Nail Color Club this week. First, let me say this: Grrlz, get your mammograms. Guyz, encourage the women you love to get their mammos. Trust me, it's a very good thing. Also, check out Mary's radio show with Susie
- [Today's Story on Venture Capital (It'll Still Be True Tomorrow, Too)](https://mightycasey.com/todays-story-on-venture-capital-itll-still-be-true-tomorrow-too/) - My friend Tom Lawrence of The Equity Companies offered this answer to the question "Are investors fleeing traditional investments and looking for alternative places to stick their cash (like T-bills that pay nothing, but aren't going anywhere) and might they pour cash into VC funding? Or are they hoarding cash and not investing in any
- [The Ego Has Landed – What a Shock. Not.](https://mightycasey.com/the-ego-has-landed-what-a-shock-not/) - Back in early '07 (prehistory, in the current Prez race), John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced that her breast cancer had come back. Incurable, but treatable, was the statement. Edwards said he would not halt his campaign. At the time, that seemed to be a mutual decision. In light of recent revelations it would
- [The Story on Girl Talk](https://mightycasey.com/the-story-on-girl-talk/) - Mary Foley (author of "Bodacious Woman: Outrageously In Charge of Your Life & Loving It") & Susie Galvez (author of several books, including "The Thrifty Girl's Guide to Glamor") have a new radio show, Girlfriend We Gotta Talk, in metro Richmond VA, Thursdays @ 5:30pm on WHAN 1430. Not in metro Richmond? You can listen
- [One of the Most Effective Sales Tools Ever – Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/one-of-the-most-effective-sales-tools-ever-storytelling/) - I just watched the July 1 edition of The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, and I just stopped jumping around and cheering. Hey, I'm an enthusiastic girl - what can I say? Why the excessive enthusiasm? Every single person on the show said that there was one fail-safe tool that was always part of their
- [How an Old Story Can Become New Again](https://mightycasey.com/how-an-old-story-can-become-new-again/) - Over at Ford Motor Company, all sorts of great stuff is going on - first and foremost, the car company that started an industry made a profit for the first quarter of 2008. This is good news indeed for Ford, who has seen its revenues slide, and its losses slide further, every year in the
- [If All Politics Is Local, Then All Business Is…](https://mightycasey.com/if-all-politics-is-local-then-all-business-is/) - Retail. Look at it this way: the current crop of presidential candidates are marketing themselves wide, via the national news media. They're also marketing themselves locally (particularly in Pennsylvania, where I am very glad I do not live this month), tailoring their messages to local concerns. National political messaging, tailored to a locality-based group of
- [Beeting Up On Oneself](https://mightycasey.com/beeting-up-on-oneself/) - As a person participating in the fun-filled romp known as chemotherapy, your 'umble correspondent has been able to make all sorts of wonderful discoveries. There was "anorexia", wherein our heroine was introduced to the practice of picky eating. Not something she had been familiar with previously, at all. There was "chemo brain", wherein she learned
- [So…What If Your Story Doesn’t Get Told?](https://mightycasey.com/sowhat-if-your-story-doesnt-get-told/) - What if your story never gets told? Impossible, you say? What if you were a woman in the 17th, or even the early 20th, century? What if you were black, in the South, in 1930? Or black in the projects in the South Bronx, or the South Side of Chicago, today? This question has been
- [Can My Story, Um, Be a Big Fat Lie?](https://mightycasey.com/can-my-story-um-be-a-big-fat-lie/) - The word "story" and the word "lie" - or, less in-your-face, "prevaricate" - are often thought to be synonymous. They often ARE synonymous. The marketing & advertising world is full of all sorts of examples: skin lightening creams; all the, um, "enhancement" products for one's "masculinity" that keep spammers in business; bait-and-switch electronics ads in
- [Why Is Storytelling So Important?](https://mightycasey.com/why-is-storytelling-so-important/) - I've been hammering away at this storytelling thing for quite some time, and you might be asking yourself by now why I think it's so important. Good question. Best answer? Stories are how we - and by 'we' I mean humans - connect with and make sense out of the world around us, and what's
- [The Stories We Tell Ourselves](https://mightycasey.com/the-stories-we-tell-ourselves/) - Last week, I discovered just what the storied chemotherapy side-effect called "chemo-brain" feels like. Stupid. On the short bus. Intellectually disabled. Whatever you call it, it sucks. Now that I'm emerging from the fog, I find myself reflecting on the stories we tell ourselves - the internal monologue of our lives, if you will. The
- [YouTube Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/youtube-storytelling/) - I've hit the big-time. I'm on YouTube. Several moments from my How To Use Improv Skills To Be Brilliant In The Moment workshop.
- [Stories from the Kitchen](https://mightycasey.com/stories-from-the-kitchen/) - I was highly entertained this week by the news that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO)> has eaten up - literally - Emeril Lagasse. No, she didn't go at him with a knife and fork. She did, however, buy his brand and image, adding a second personality - and story - with at least as much
- [60 Second Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/60-second-storytelling/) - When you're speaking to a group - of two or two hundred - can you hold their attention? With the average adult attention span at 5 to 7 minutes (and falling), this is a challenge. Personally, I blame the microwave oven - until we stood in front of a countdown clock, waiting for food, who
- [Stand-up Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/stand-up-storytelling/) - This post is not about stand-up comedy. I know this is a huge disappointment to those of you who know I spent over five years doing stand-up. Sorry, folks - this is about standing up and telling your story. The particular storytelling opportunities I'm talking about here are networking events and organization meetings like Business
- [David & Goliath…and Storytelling](https://mightycasey.com/david-goliathand-storytelling/) - David and Goliath - the little guy vs. the behemoth. Every small electronics retailer looks at Best Buy and wishes for a good slingshot. Wal-Mart opens down the street, and even Food Lion can start to feel like a small player. You're a small business owner. Definitely a David. You believe you've uncovered and crafted
- [Chemo-rama](https://mightycasey.com/chemo-rama/) - For those of you who have been paying attention, you know I got breast cancer for Christmas. I had my first chemo treatment on Monday, 2/11 (in keeping with that holiday theme - Happy Valentine’s Day, early!), and so far the after-effects have been weird, but manageable. I keep thinking of cartoons where some character
- [Features & Benefits?](https://mightycasey.com/features-benefits/) - You've got a phenomenal product or service. You're passionate about what you do. You want to start selling the bejabbers out of what you've got. You study sales. You learn that you need to communicate the features & benefits of your stuff. You develop a nice list of features, and a terrific little list of
- [Why Should Your Business Care About Storytelling?](https://mightycasey.com/why-should-your-business-care-about-storytelling/) - I am often asked why I call myself a storyteller. It's a good question, especially considering the number of people who also call themselves storytellers and operate in a vastly different arena than I do. My preferred operating area, the place where I most want to communicate the value, the necessity, of good storytelling, is
- [Dispatch from Cancer Camp](https://mightycasey.com/dispatch-from-cancer-camp/) - It's been a while, so let's catch up: got cancer for Christmas (whoopee!), and then a New Year lumpectomy, followed by Valentine's Day chemo. Coming up later this year - Fourth of July radiation, in which I'll get beamed up by the mother-ship. Enough of that. Back to another story already in progress. I'm sure
- [What I Got for Christmas](https://mightycasey.com/what-i-got-for-christmas/) - Remember that old song, “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”? A sincere cry, albeit with a lack-of-dentition lisp, for a physical transformation. Just in time for Christmas. I’ve had occasion to recall that song in the last few days, as well as one of my favorite Jules Pfeiffer cartoons. In the
- [What Recession?](https://mightycasey.com/what-recession/) - I found myself listening to a pretty powerful group of people talk yesterday about the economic trends in my hometown, Richmond VA. Jim Bacon, Jeff Cooke, Michael Sesnowitz, and Greg Wingfield all sat around - well, on stage - and talked about whether or not events like the Wachovia Securities move from RVA to St.
- [Faking It Can Mean Real Trouble](https://mightycasey.com/faking-it-can-mean-real-trouble/) - Comcast has gotten itself into some deep kimchee - $4000 worth, to be exact - with the FCC over a video news release (VNR) it aired in September 2006 as a news piece on CN8's "All About You" segment. CN8 is Comcast's "news" station, and is a good example of how the intersection of a
- [Keepin' It Real...Real Stupid](https://mightycasey.com/keepin-it-real-real-stupid/) - I haven't weighed in on this before because...well, because I was utterly sick of hearing about it. No, I'm not talking about Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan. I'm talking about Michael Vick and his alleged dog-fighting operation in Surry County, VA, which led to Mr. Vick being indicted on federal conspiracy charges in July. I'm
- [How Technology Is Revolutionizing the Trucking Industry – GetLoaded.com](https://mightycasey.com/how-technology-is-revolutionizing-the-trucking-industry-getloaded-com/) - Here's an example of what I mean when I say "tell a story" - this is a press release I wrote last week in advance of an event that took place this morning. Please notice that at no time during this release is anyone "pleased to announce" anything- that phrase literally makes me grind my
- [Now, who will you tell your story TO?](https://mightycasey.com/now-who-will-you-tell-your-story-to/) - In this week's New York Magazine cover article - the one that has Katie Couric on the cover saying, "Some days I'm like, oh my God, what did I do?" - the core of the issue, the a-ha, that's why they've got a problem revelation, was right there at the top of page four: At
- [What's YOUR story?](https://mightycasey.com/whats-your-story/) - Do you talk to panhandlers? How about the compulsory car-wash - you know, the guys at the corner who swarm your car at red lights and “wash” (actually, smear) your windshield? The panhandler and the compulsory car-wash guy are both interruption marketers. They spring out at you as you pass by, simply because you’re in
- [Please release me…](https://mightycasey.com/please-release-me/) - I read a lot of press releases. I also write a fair number of them. Most of the ones I read - the ones I didn't write, at least - lead me to wonder what the purpose of the exercise was. Dateline: Anywhere, USA, Today XYZ, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Fred
- [Ending not with a bang, but a whimper](https://mightycasey.com/ending-not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper/) - One of the most anticipated events in recent television history, the final episode of The Sopranos on HBO, apparently left legions of fans (including this one) staring at their television sets in dumb wonder at 10:05pm on June 10. An anguished outcry ensued (including Nikki Finke's whining screed, with side commentary on how much HBO
- [And now for something completely different…](https://mightycasey.com/and-now-for-something-completely-different/) - Jim Cramer, Mister "Booyah" himself, is bloody brilliant. In an effort to clear up the tottering piles of print magazines that are always accumulating in this writer's garret, I was going through said piles and tossing any that didn't grab me with their cover. (Magazine 101 - gotta grab 'em with your cover.) And there
- [Are you the genuine article?](https://mightycasey.com/are-you-the-genuine-article/) - No, I'm not asking if you pass the Windows Genuine Advantage test. What I'm asking is...do you fake it? No, I'm not referring to the famous "I'll have what she's having" corned-beef-gasm that Meg Ryan made famous in When Harry Met Sally. What I'm asking is...are you authentic? It's easy to fake it - to
- [The new version of the Bataan Death March…](https://mightycasey.com/the-new-version-of-the-bataan-death-march/) - I'm speaking, of course, of what looks to be a long, deadly slog over the next FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE DAYS (oy...) as we struggle to choose our next Commander in Chief. The three recent fashion shows, one Democrat and two Rebublican, can't really be called debates. Too many players. What they were and
- [Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi](https://mightycasey.com/hokie-hokie-hokie-hi/) - I haven't weighed in on this before because...well, frankly, the blogosphere and the freakin' airwaves are blanketed with babbling about Monday's unspeakable horror at VA Tech. But here goes. I've been listening to what seems like a building chant of "Where were the cops?" "Where was the university administration?" "How could they let this happen?"
- [Requiem](https://mightycasey.com/requiem/) - Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest, with Billy Pilgrim on backup. Often hilarious and occasionally either brilliant or impenetrable, Vonnegut's novels were and are talismans for my generation. His best work? Slaugherhouse-Five. His weirdest and most hopeful? God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. His website currently shows just a line
- [Take this job and…](https://mightycasey.com/take-this-job-and/) - Long ago and far away, or maybe it was just 30 years ago, Johnny Paycheck recorded David Allan Coe's "Take This Job And Shove It", which became an anthem for the workin' man. And woman. Recent events have me wondering if the word "job" is on the verge of becoming, if not obsolete, at least
- [Long-term care?  Conseco thinks it's Long-Term Blowoff](https://mightycasey.com/long-term-care-conseco-thinks-its-long-term-blowoff/) - Working my way through the NY Times today, I was brought up short by a headline alleging systematic Long Term Care (LTC) denial-of-claim problems, particularly with Conseco. For those of you not familiar with LTC, this is a policy that one purchases long before (ideally) one approaches the age of infirmity, paying regular premiums that,
- [It's the Self-Respect, Stupid](https://mightycasey.com/its-the-self-respect-stupid/) - I've seen several pieces in print and on various TV news outlets recently about "the new spring break" - college kids heading off for a week to drink 'til they puke, hook up indiscriminately, flash their...oh, wait, that's the OLD spring break. The new spring break involves volunteering, doing something like building a Habitat for
- [Media Relations – It’s All About Relationships](https://mightycasey.com/media-relations-its-all-about-relationships/) - Your company is about to launch a new product or service that will raise the achievement bar in your industry. You want to make sure that every customer for your innovative offering hears the buzz, and acts on it by buying it – in droves. You write a press release announcing your exciting news, and
- [What the….?](https://mightycasey.com/what-the/) - Wow. Who knew that Anna Nicole had so much to offer a tired, cold, mid-winter media scrum? What a terrific window into the glories of Western Civ, that citadel of freedom of thought, the free exchange of ideas, the elevating power of art. Whyever would anyone think we were corrupt? The Great Satan? As the
- [What a Difference 30 Years (Doesn't) Make…](https://mightycasey.com/what-a-difference-30-years-doesnt-make/) - OK, I'm slow, I admit it. I completely missed the whole Jessica Cutler/Washingtonienne blog scandale back in 2004 when it was actually going on. I must have been doing something else right then, like...oh, working for a living outside DC? Now that I've emerged from my Cutler coma, I'm shocked, shocked, to discover that a
- [Oh, Jerusalem!](https://mightycasey.com/oh-jerusalem/) - My life at times feels like one long experiment in whatever the reverse of "aversion therapy" is in regard to bugs. Particularly spiders. I can tolerate spiders up to 3/4" in span, but once they get bigger than that I start to hyperventilate. Which makes orb weaver season here in Virginia a challenge. One of
- [My ISP Is a Bad Boyfriend](https://mightycasey.com/my-isp-is-a-bad-boyfriend/) - They don't call. They make promises they know they'll never keep. They stand you up, repeatedly. Bad boyfriend! Bad! But they're charming, and their promise-making is so very seductive that you forget, in the moment, that what they're telling you is lies, damn lies. But they lie so very well. I came to the heartbreaking realization
- [Firehose of healthcare cost resources](https://mightycasey.com/firehose-of-healthcare-cost-resources-2/) - I attended the 2nd edition of the bill conference in Richmond VA today (for the record, that's Saturday, April 6, 2013), and wound up kicking off the talks with what's become my core topic: #howmuchisthat, healthcare edition. That link goes to the hashtag's home on Symplur, the healthcare hashtag registry that's also a veritable time-sink of
- [Healthcare.gov and me: I win!](https://mightycasey.com/i-win-healthcare/) - Unless you've been living under a rock since October 1, you've heard that Healthcare.gov, the site where Americans can shop for health insurance, had a rocky start in life. OK, it was an epic mess. I was one of the people who was eager to jump on the site on October 1, since I haven't had
- ["How much is that?" is a critical question in healthcare](https://mightycasey.com/critical-cost-question/) - This story from PBS Newshour clearly shows how important it is to ask questions, and shop around, when it comes to prescription drug prices. Think a generic drug guarantees a lower price? Not so much. Watch this story, and learn how the same generic drug can cost anywhere from $11 to $455. The best way
- [Healthcare Talk: Patients with Power](https://mightycasey.com/healthcare-talk-patients-with-power/) - I had the chance to participate in a Hangout on Air with Kathi Browne, who is the founder/moderator of the Google+ Healthcare Talk community. If you're on G+ and in the healthcare industry, that community is one you want to join - lots of discussion on topics from healthcare policy to social media to patient
- [“Patients included.” On ‘roids. In a good way.](https://mightycasey.com/patients-included-on-roids-in-a-good-way/) - I had the great good fortune of being tagged as an ePatient Scholar for the 2013 edition of Stanford Medicine X. That allowed me to sit at the feet – literally, since the ePatients were the mosh-pit for the three day conference plenary stage – of some of the best and brightest minds in healthcare. And
- [#HCSM Review 36: Exploring healthcare costs, access, e-patients as experts](https://mightycasey.com/hcw-hcsm-review-36/) - Welcome to the MightyCasey-hosted edition of the HealthWorksCollective #HCSM Review, a peer-reviewed compendium of timely, on-topic writing about healthcare from across the web. Last Friday, I put out a call for posts about healthcare costs and/or health insurance innovation for the HCSM community. Here's the brain candy that flew over the MightyCaseyMedia transom: First up: an
- [Did someone say “palooza”?](https://mightycasey.com/palooza-this/) - I'm still recovering from the month of May. I was all up in the healthcare, pretty much 24/7, which differs not-much from my usual roll, other than that in the period of three weeks, I was in DC for eight of 21 days, May 14 through June 5, attending HM13 (the annual meeting of the
- [Stetho-Snopes: Time for some rigorous myth-busting in healthcare?](https://mightycasey.com/stetho-snopes-time-for-some-rigorous-myth-busting-in-healthcare/) - It was recently revealed that an Excel error contributed to the European fiscal crisis, and a continuing global economic recession/depression. Paul Krugman called the revelation the Excel Depression in the NY Times. Certainly lives are at stake when the success or failure of large economies are at risk, but not nearly as many lives as are at stake
- [Employer-backed health insurance plans on life support?](https://mightycasey.com/employer-backed-health-insurance-plans-on-life-support-2/) - I’ve been heard in these precincts and elsewhere on the topic of employer-backed group health insurance, and the reasons why I believe it’s an idea whose time has gone. Granted, I’ve felt like a little voice crying in the wilderness, but with a firm conviction that I was just an early adopter of this opinion. So imagine my glee
- [Snowflakes and bitch-slaps at the ePharma Summit](https://mightycasey.com/snowflakes-and-bitch-slaps-at-the-epharma-summit-2/) - I had the great good fortune of being asked (by WEGO Health) to participate on a panel titled Social Media for Pharma: A Match Made in Heaven or Hell?at the ePharma Summit in New York (#epharma) earlier this week. When the opportunity presented itself, I asked to be registered for the whole event so I
- [More medical Monopoly: How Steve Brill got it wrong](https://mightycasey.com/more-medical-monopoly/) - I talked about Steve Brill’s epic TIMEpiece Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us last week. I’m still absorbing the cost data he uncovered in that piece, and the graphics and images alone are worth the $5.99 cover price to get a physical copy of the magazine. The stories he shares about the healthcare industry’s Great
- [The black box that caused the crash (of healthcare)](https://mightycasey.com/black-box-healthcare/) - This week, NPR's Marketplace aired a piece on what I have taken to calling the "black box of healthcare" - pricing. There is a committee, called the RUC, set up and run by the American Medical Association, that reports to CMS (the federal unit that runs Medicare and Medicaid) on relative value numbers for the
- [Medical Monopoly: Medicine has a major image problem](https://mightycasey.com/medical-monopoly/) - When you hear the word "monopoly," does it fill you with a warm and fuzzy feeling? (Unless you're Hasbro, you really should say no, unless you're a cyborg.) Healthcare is a monopoly. We can't DIY cancer treatment, or surgically repair a broken hip for ourselves, so we have to go to the medical-industrial complex to regain
- [More Medical Monopoly [hotels everywhere!]](https://mightycasey.com/more-medical-monopoly-hotels-everywhere/) - Last week's post called medicine in the U.S. a monopoly. I took some heat for using that metaphor from some of my economist and journo colleagues, and realized that I needed to make a clarification: Medicine is a game of Monopoly, not a true economic monopoly. My very-snark-infested point was, and always is, that the
- [2013 Manifesto: short and salty-sweet](https://mightycasey.com/2013-manifesto-short-and-salty-sweet/) - Last year's look-ahead for 2012 was a 5-point manifesto. Reviewing progress against that list, I see that I did pretty well, with only #2 falling a little short - which is not a bad track record. This year, I'm keeping it tight. I'm going with a 2-rule manifesto. Rule #1: Be accountable We've all got
- [How Health Insurance Design Affects Access to Care and Costs](https://mightycasey.com/how-health-insurance-design-affects-access-to-care-and-costs/) - This is a guest post by Wendy Dessler from The Real Awards. Weighing The Pros And Cons Health insurance comes in many forms, some more popular than others. Essentially, it’s not always the rate you pay; sometimes the sort of coverage you get, the network where your coverage applies, and other collateral benefits may be
- [Keeping Patients in the Dark](https://mightycasey.com/keeping-patients-in-the-dark-2/) - Back when I slaved in the depths of Hunter Thompson’s “shallow money trench,” we had a phrase we deployed whenever we thought the grownups were keeping us in the dark. We would say we’d been sent to Mushroom Land, where one is kept in the dark and fed sh*t, the better to keep us from making, or
- [Patient Engagement. You’re doing it wrong.](https://mightycasey.com/patient-engagement-youre-doing-it-wrong/) - Now that I have, for my sins, been tagged as a patient engagement expert, I figure that entitles me to the occasional rant on the topic of the healthcare system – particularly the US iteration thereof – and its utter inability to understand how to connect and communicate effectively with its customer base: patients. If you’ve
- [Does the doctor-patient relationship need marriage counseling?](https://mightycasey.com/does-the-doctor-patient-relationship-need-marriage-counseling/) - The healthcare system is all about building patient engagement lately. Which makes me ask: if we get to engagement, will we ever get married? And if we do … will we wind up needing marriage counseling? Short answer: we already need marriage counseling, and we’re not even officially engaged yet. Herewith is the evidence that the doctor
- [EHR technology: Match.com without a happy ending?](https://mightycasey.com/ehr-technology-match-com-without-a-happy-ending/) - My last two posts explored the question of the doctor/patient relationship in the context of romantic relationships. The first one asked if we were anywhere close to getting engaged, the second looked at the possibility that the whole enchilada needed some intervention-level relationship counseling. In the couple of weeks since, I’ve had some interesting digital and face to face
- [Shared decision making, please](https://mightycasey.com/shared-decision-making-please/) - You’ve heard me before on the subject of shared decision making (SDM). Short version: I’m an advocate for partnership in medical care. Partnership that includes the values, outcome goals, and cost considerations of THE. PATIENT. Which means shared decision making. My buddies over at Software Advice have just published the results of a survey* they did in collaboration
- [Report from the front lines: Technology, engagement, and killing paternalism](https://mightycasey.com/report-from-the-front-lines-technology-engagement-and-killing-paternalism/) - I’ve spent a good portion of the last two months on the healthcare equivalent of the political stump – called the “rubber chicken circuit” in political circles. Thankfully, there was no actual rubber chicken served during these sojourns, although there was the incident of the seductive breakfast sausage, followed by my solo re-enactment (off stage)
- [World on fire. Film at 11.](https://mightycasey.com/world-on-fire-film-at-11/) - I wasn’t lucky enough to get a press pass, or a scholarship, to HIMSS15 this year. Given events of the last few days, I’m really sorry I can’t be on the ground in Chicago for what feels like a grassroots revolt brewing in protest of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) dropping an announcement, on
- [Security vs. access: threading the needle](https://mightycasey.com/security-vs-access-threading-the-needle/) - The annual big-data party known as the HIMSS conference played out in Chicago – and online – last week. During the event, one of the central issues that arose in the social media conversation under the #HIMSS15 tag involved the one facing patients trying to access their health records, either digitally or on old-school paper: the security/access conundrum. Data
- [From the Patients Are Smarter Than You Think Desk …](https://mightycasey.com/from-the-patients-are-smarter-than-you-think-desk/) - See this UPDATE, too. Sundays are pretty quiet here in Mighty Casey Media Land. Yeah, there are those Sundays where I read my wall calendar without my glasses on, and totally think it’s Father’s Day when it’s really Flag Day … but that’s about as exciting as it gets most weeks. Today is one of the latter Sundays, where
- [UPDATE: Patients ARE smarter (and louder) … here’s proof](https://mightycasey.com/update-patients-are-smarter-and-louder-heres-proof/) - It’s been a fun week here in Mighty Casey Media Land. We kicked off the week a little early (on Sunday) – the 411 on that is available here, and some of the social exhaust is available on Storify here and here. One member of the e-patient posse worried that the guy was gon’ have to enter witness protection,
- [Elephants, middlemen, and systems – oh, my!](https://mightycasey.com/elephants-middlemen-and-systems-oh-my/) - I’ve been MIA here, but I’ve been loud/proud pretty much everywhere else in the last few months. Including here and here. What follows is a rant based on what I’ve been seeing/doing since last seen on this page. Elephants There’s an old joke that goes like this: “What’s an elephant?” “It’s a mouse designed by a government committee.” There’s
- [Internet of Things (IoT) + healthcare = what, exactly?](https://mightycasey.com/internet-of-things-iot-healthcare-what-exactly/) - You can’t turn around these days without running into a headline about the Internet of Things (IoT). It seems as if everything from your car to your cardiac pacemaker is talking to everything else on the internet, and we’re all about to Die (because hackers) Live longer (because hackers) If you’re confused about the whole IoT
- [Help us, IBM-Dell-Apple. You’re our only hope.](https://mightycasey.com/help-us-ibm-dell-apple-youre-our-only-hope/) - I’ve been on the road a lot over the last six months, getting the chance to interact with (and, I hope, influence), audiences in health tech and health policy. There’s so much desire for change, search for innovation, and just straight up “desperately seeking [something]” out there, it’s almost hilarious that no real change/shift/what-have-you has yet
- [An open letter to Pres. Bill Clinton](https://mightycasey.com/an-open-letter-to-pres-bill-clinton/) - Dear Bill, I think I can call you Bill, since we’ve known each other since early 1989, the first time I actually met you, at the Democratic Governor’s Conference at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Oh, you don’t remember me? No surprise, I was buried in the front row of the press gaggle, helping cover
- [Primary + People/Patients = Winning?](https://mightycasey.com/primary-people-patients-winning/) - I’ve been all over ever’where so far this year, invited to participate in a number of events that, taken together, seem to indicate there’s some progress being made on “healthcare system transformation,” even if it’s still happening at a glacial pace. One of these events was the Starfield Summit, put together by the Robert Graham Center, which
- [Democratization of knowledge, healthcare edition](https://mightycasey.com/democratization-of-knowledge-healthcare-edition/) - I was lucky enough to be asked to write the foreword to the 3rd edition of Shared Decision Making in Health Care: Achieving evidence-based patient choice, from Oxford University Press. Here’s the text of that forward. We are at what appears to be a Copernican moment in healthcare, where everything that learned minds thought was true
- [When it comes to healthcare policy, I’m “Occupation: Foole”](https://mightycasey.com/when-it-comes-to-healthcare-policy-im-occupation-foole/) - From HX Refactored in Boston in June 2017, this – “Jeopardy Meets The Price Is Right, Healthcare Edition” HXR 2017: Casey Quinlan: Jeopardy + The Price Is Right: Health Care Mashup Edition from HxRefactored on Vimeo.
- [Selling my health data? CUT. ME. IN. BITCHES.](https://mightycasey.com/selling-my-health-data-cut-me-in-bitches/) - Remember when American taxpayers spent over $25B(that’s billion) on digitizing medical records? If you don’t … well, we did. The last time you went to the doctor, how easy was it for you to see your aftercare instructions online, or follow up on your prescriptions, or get your lab results in the online patient portal? My guess
- [#CochraneForAll + #BeyondTheRoom = #PatientsIncluded on blast](https://mightycasey.com/cochraneforall-beyondtheroom-patientsincluded-on-blast/) - I won the big platinum #PatientsIncluded ring (much better than brass) this year with an opportunity to attend the Cochrane Colloquium, the global health science and health services research meeting that happens somewhere on Planet Earth every year. This year it was hosted by Cochrane UK, with the venue in the heart of Edinburgh, one of the best little
- [Whither Cochrane, for e-patients and everyone else?](https://mightycasey.com/whither-cochrane-for-e-patients-and-everyone-else/) - This will be the third, and last, in my short series on attending the Cochrane Colloquium in Edinburgh in September of this year. In the first post, I talked about what that conference was like; in the second, I shared an overview of Cochrane as a global movement to make medical evidence work better for clinicians, patients,
- [Pay people for their data – yes, or no?](https://mightycasey.com/pay-people-for-their-data-yes-or-no/) - I was recently part of a trinity of folks debating the idea of paying people for the data they contribute to the digital economy, in healthcare and in all other sectors. Here’s the full version of the conversation on YouTube, with yours truly taking the “yes” side, Brookings Institution non-resident fellow and UConn professor Niam Yaraghi taking the “no” side,
- [Surprise medical bills = stress on blast](https://mightycasey.com/surprise-medical-bills-stress-on-blast/) - In case you missed it, getting a Really Big Diagnosis like, say, cancer, is a big whack to the wallet. Even if you have titanium-plated insurance (spoiler: there is no such animal in the US healthcare payment system), there will be bills for many, many things. If you have a deductible, be prepared to build
- [Tear gas, neoliberalism, and #PatientsIncluded — will it blend?](https://mightycasey.com/tear-gas-neoliberalism-and-patientsincluded-will-it-blend-2/) - The Tear Gas I traveled to Santiago, Chile recently. My timing was auspicious, since my news-puke bingo card still had an open slot preventing me from screaming BINGO at the top of my lungs. That open square was “get tear gassed” — it got filled at around 11am Atlantic Time on Monday, October 21, as
- [The who, what, when, where, and why of Cochrane](https://mightycasey.com/the-who-what-when-where-and-why-of-cochrane/) - If you’ve been paying attention, you know that yours truly got the chance to attend the annual Cochrane Colloquium in Edinburgh in September this year, thanks to a travel stipend from SPM, a #PatientsIncluded bursary from Cochrane UK, the hosts of the 2018 Colloquium, and a stipend from the NHS for the #BeyondTheRoom project to help cover the event for the
- [Patients are Pigs? Wow. Thanks, Medrio!](https://mightycasey.com/patients-are-pigs-wow-thanks-medrio/) - The infographic below popped up in my Twitter feed when an e-patient colleague from the multiple sclerosis community tagged me with a “what the HELL is this!?!” … and the excrescence below. Let me set the scene for you – this is digital collateral from a software company, Medrio, that on its website landing page says
- [Triple aim shoots wide, film at 11?](https://mightycasey.com/triple-aim-shoots-wide-film-at-11/) - Paul Levy, the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, put up a post last week saying that the Triple Aim – improving population health, improving the experience of care, improving per capita healthcare cost – was poorly aimed, and totally missing its “make healthcare better” mark. It’s a chewy, tasty read, with an
- [Advocacy, trolls, and threats – oh, my!](https://mightycasey.com/advocacy-trolls-and-threats-oh-my/) - Spending one’s days on the advocacy beat out here on the Wild Wild Web can be hugely rewarding. Like, say, when you start getting recognized by organizations like the WHO as a strong voice for people-who-are-patients. Then there are the days when you get called f***ing a**hole by strangers for simply speaking up. This is not a unique
- [Human Health. It's . . . Human.](https://mightycasey.com/human-health-its-human/) - Guess who got invited to WHO? No, really. The World Health Organization (WHO) invited yours truly to its First Global Experts’ Consultation in service of building a WHO framework for patient and family engagement. This is all due to my part in the ongoing anvil chorus that is the new Patient & Family Engagement Roadmap, developed by a
- [GM recalls are bad. Medical device recalls are worse.](https://mightycasey.com/gm-recalls-are-bad-medical-device-recalls-are-worse/) - It’s bad enough when your GM SUV turns into a rolling fire hazard. Imagine needing, and getting, a hysterectomy, only to discover that the surgical procedure itself turned you into an advanced stage cancer patient? That’s exactly what’s been going on since power morcellators became common in laparoscopic uterine surgery to remove fibroids. In morcellation, the fibroid
- [Myriad Finds a Myriad of Ways to be Total Trolls](https://mightycasey.com/myriad-finds-a-myriad-of-ways-to-be-total-trolls/) - As the author of a rabble-rousing call to action, with a heavy dose of humor, on managing medical care called Cancer for Christmas, I have some street cred on both cancer and on dealing with tough personal health conversations over a Christmas standing rib roast dinner. My hair has been on fire since I heard that Myriad Genetics had
- [MEDX: Persistence of Vision](https://mightycasey.com/medx-persistence-of-vision/) - The firehose of amazeballs ideas and connections that was Stanford MedicineX is now over two weeks back in my rear-view mirror. That does not mean that my head has not been on fire ever since, chewing on all the data that got packed into my cranium in those three days. If you want to read a recap
- [We Pay More. We get less. That's US healthcare costs in a nutshell.](https://mightycasey.com/we-pay-more-we-get-less-thats-us-healthcare-costs-in-a-nutshell/) - John Green of vlogbrothers breaks down why healthcare costs in the US are so crazy. (Hey, John – I feel dizzy, too!) https://youtu.be/qSjGouBmo0M?feature=shared
- [HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GET IRRETRIEVABLY PISSED OFF?](https://mightycasey.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-get-irretrievably-pissed-off/) - Nothing. It’s free. Just costs a little of your time. First, a piece from the New York Times magazine on the science of making addictive foods. Second, a post on the TIME Healthland blog about the insanity that is medical billing. Go ahead.
- [Medical Error: Numbers Don't Lie](https://mightycasey.com/medical-error-numbers-dont-lie/) - Res ipsa loquitor:
- [2013: The Year of Healthcare Emancipation?](https://mightycasey.com/2013-the-year-of-healthcare-emancipation/) - Hang on to your hats – this one might wade into controversy. As I write this (3:30pm EST on January 1, 2013), I’m listening to a conversation on NPR about the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago today. I’m also reflecting on a couple of movies I’ve seen in the
- [NOTHING ABOUT ME WITHOUT ME](https://mightycasey.com/nothing-about-me-without-me/) - The last few weeks have been a cluster-dance of activity in the e-patient community. Actually, pretty much any week is a fast dance in the participatory medicine world, given the drive toward healthcare reform in the US. The loudest dance orchestra has tuned up around the controversy created when the American Hospital Association (AHA) posted its
- [Why I got a QR code tattooed on my sternum](https://mightycasey.com/why-i-got-a-qr-code-tattooed-on-my-sternum/) - I’ve been heard here on the topic of getting a barcode tattooed on my neck to avoid having to fill out another one of those damned forms-on-a-clipboard at a medical provider’s office. I’ve also been heard all over the interwebz (mostly Twitter) on the excrescence that is poly-portalitis syndrome (PPS), caused by the plethora of portals presented
- [Data, Data, Who’s Got My Data?](https://mightycasey.com/data-data-whos-got-my-data/) - I confess that I’d happily get a barcode tattooed on my neck if it meant I’d never have to fill out another ****ing health history form in a doctor’s office. I’m totally serious. Paper records are so … 19th century. With the advent of the current iteration of “health care reform” (which is really “health

## Pages

- [Home](https://mightycasey.com/) - Mighty Casey (M Casey Quinlan) was born in 1952 and died on April 25th, 2023. On May 24th, 2024, family and friends spread Casey’s ashes in the Gulfstream of the Atlantic Ocean near Stuart, Florida. You can learn much about Casey in the Journal of Participatory Medicine’s tribute, An Extraordinary Voice Expressed Through Humor: A
- [Videos](https://mightycasey.com/videos/) - Video Playlist
- [My Story](https://mightycasey.com/my-story/) - I’ve been busy. I’m a storyteller, speaker, media strategist, and writer with an extensive background in broadcasting, theater, and stand-up comedy. I believe that it – business, and life – is all about the story. Telling a great story attracts and engages your target market, driving the growth of your enterprise – whether your “enterprise” is a Fortune 500 or a small community health center. Your organization is
- [Cancer for Christmas](https://mightycasey.com/cancer-for-christmas/) - Cancer for Christmas Cancer for Christmas: Making the Most of a Daunting Gift became an Amazon Bestseller on Friday, Oct. 30, 2009. December 2019 – it’s in its 3rd edition! Now available on Kindle! I got cancer for Christmas in 2007 and lived to tell the tale, which has made me passionate about helping people become active participants in their medical care. Whether
- [Portfolio](https://mightycasey.com/portfolio/) - Current CV (2021) Writing /content creation samples: Patient Empowerment Network health literacy posts Everything You Needed to Know About Health Literacy, You Learned in Kindergarten Society for Participatory Medicine ePatients blog posts Mighty Casey Mighty Mouth blog Cancer for Christmas blog My Medium page White paper: Social Media in the Medical Practice (2010) Big4.com 2010

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