Comments on: News 8/12/09

By: Ginger Plumbo

Ginger Plumbo — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:41:48 +0000

I’d like to respond regarding your note, ‘Mayo Clinic hires an online ad network to place consumer ads on MayoClinic.com. Seems like a really bad idea for Mayo to pimp itself out that way. There are lame excuses at how the ads will help consumers, but it looks to me like Mayo just wanted to cash in like a mini-WebMD.’

I’m sorry to hear that you see it that way. We have advertising on MayoClinic.com because we are a non-profit health care organization, and advertising allows us to offer MayoClinic.com as a free service to the public. Advertising dollars are used to offset the expenses of developing and maintaining our site, and any additional revenues are used to support education and research activities at Mayo Clinic. We have high standards for editorial and product development that reflect a sincere commitment to providing credible, high-quality health information. Advertising revenue helps us acheive this goal

[From Mr. HIStalk] From this article: “The deal with Waterfront’s Everyday Health Network is aimed at drawing more revenue into a site that Mayo says is already self-sustaining. Mayo makes most of its money off MayoClinic.com content by creating personalized portals for private organizations, which are charged on a per-employee, per-month basis, as well as for costs of design and related IT work. Mayo gains secondary revenue from licensing its health articles to media organizations, as well as selling online advertising.”

By: Rainy Day

Rainy Day — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:45:45 +0000

Then there are the “self developed” systems that organizations install. Those are the most nightmarish of them all. Who do they fire when THOSE don’t work right? To quote and old cosmetology instructor “quit your bitchin’ if you did it the kitchen.”

By: Tom Ebert

Tom Ebert — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:52:24 +0000

Excellent observation and comments!

A startup I worked for built a defect identification and management system.

After several usability studies we discovered that none of the outsourced vendors had any appetite for finding defects. They were all more interested in managing perception then actually resolving the underlying problems.

I agree with Baron de Cobray, most organizations have no appetite to fix “poor organizational habits or culture.”

By: MineoPie

MineoPie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:26:26 +0000

Re: Female Bass Players – Kim Deal with the Pixies should be included in your focus – she’s also an excellent vocalist particularly on “Gigantic”

By: Bar Code

Bar Code — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:12:33 +0000

I was surprised you showcased the quote “As long as you will pay every time I do that test, the incentive is to do that test as many times as I can.”

The person ordering the test is rarely the one who gets paid for it. Interventional cardiologists being a big exception, of course.