Indiana innovative company dives deep into medical informatics

Despite the political ramifications, few would question that health care reform advocates and an aging Baby Boomer market will evoke dramatic change in American health care delivery over the coming months. However the reforms or market changes turn out, one element is for certain: the health care market is hot for actionable medical data.

When change does come, PearlDiver Technologies in northeast Indiana is set to cash in with deep-diving data-mining algorithms and multiple millions of HIPAA-compliant data sets.

The 3-year-old Fort Wayne, Ind.-based company (which recently opened an office in Washington, D.C.) has already achieved recognition as the nation’s largest publicly available and searchable database of patient, charge, product and outcome records, according to PearlDiver CEO Robin Young.

Read more on Midwest Business in Chicago.

Reality Strikes - 2010 Strategic Planning in Uncertain Times

INDIANAPOLIS – Incomprehensible Excel spreadsheets. New government regulations (real or potential). Sleepless nights.

For thousands of companies, August and September traditionally represent a critical time when conflict resolution skills come to fore. Business planning departments send out performance files with 2009 budgetary data and ask executives, directors and managers to come up with some kind of meaningful 2010 forecast and operational goals.

Given limited financial resources and a conservative outlook at best for 2010, interdepartmental quarrels can break into open corporate warfare.

For many – and particularly in a time where the Fed is making vague comments about how they think the economy is “stabilizing” – strategic planning and budgeting can be a nightmare. As one executive told me recently in an expression of dark humor: “Which would I prefer: planning for post-recession growth with no money or getting a root canal? That’s a tough choice.”

With a trimmed-down work force, weak customer demand and anxiety about new government regulation resulting in additional costs, strategists can’t just trot out their 2009 spreadsheets, overlay a 5 percent multiplier and send them back to the accounting department. What’s the new reality? Documented performance.

Read more here.

"Nobody cares about your new Web design" - Ragan

Your customers couldn’t care less about your new design or whether your dog just had kittens.

So leads off the reality check from Ragan Communications, a long-time corporate communications consultancy. Columnist Gerry McGovern takes issue with an automated personalized e-mail that he received from Air New Zealand, touting in part the newly re-designed format of the newsletter. Here's an excerpt:

"Back to the Air New Zealand marketing e-mail that I don't remember signing up for. (I've had pretty good experiences flying with Air New Zealand by the way.)
"'Welcome to the second edition of our new look monthly e-mail.'" There are two fatal mistakes in the first sentence. Welcome? Hello? What's with the welcome? I don't want your welcome. If I want anything from you it's your deals, and hot deals at that. When you think of your customer, imagine Tony Soprano. Nothing personal, just business. Cut the crap. Get straight to the point."

What exactly was McGovern's point? In sum, this is a content age. If you're going to take the time (and the risk) to intrude into someone's personal space -- whether in person or in digital format -- make sure what you're intruding has potential value and relevancy.

Top U.S. "Clunkers"

In the recent federal "cash for clunkers" Stimulus program, multiple thousands of low-MPG vehicles were traded in, ostensibly both improving our air quality potential as well as stuffing some much-needed cash into America's automotive industry.
However, seven out of the top 10 "clunkers" traded in where FORDs, the rest being Chrysler products and no GM clunkers.
If GM products were so bad, why were consumers apparently hanging on to their GM potential low-MPG "clunkers"? Or, given that the vehicles traded in were all basically 10 years old or older, does that mean equivalent GM vehicles had rusted out and are no longer even road-worthy enough to be traded in?
This is especially interesting, given that Ford is the only major U.S. auto maker that didn't declare bankruptcy.
If I were in Ford's PR department (or more to the point, Ford's engineering design department), I'd be wondering about this one.