New Non Surgical Procedure “Zeutering” Sterilizes Male Dogs–Is This a Michelson Prize Contestant Or At Least an Honorable Mention From Dr. Gary Michelson?

I have written about Gary Michelson here a few times and he’s a bit of a hero as well as a wealthy man these days for taking on Medtronic years ago for violating his patents, and he won big.  When I read this article I immediately thought of his prize contest for non surgical sterilization of animals.

Dr. Gary K. Michelson With Philanthropy, Pets and One Who Won over Big Business

Here’s my original post from 2008 which at the time I found it entertaining as it came the day after the Wellpoint/Blue Cross X-Prize  farce wanting to hand out $10 Million to solve healthcare and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon today to see how much of a farce it was, but I did back then and thought the $25 million prize as Dr. Michelson offered was great and he said himself $10 million was not enough to get people interested but $25 million, they get interested:)  Here’s a link to the full criteria for the prize. 

$75 Million Prize for a way to sterilize pets – a one-time non-surgical means to sterilize male and female cats and dogs

Now this story says they only do male dogs so far so that leaves female dogs and both sexes of cats still needing a solution.  If these folks are not a full on winner they deserve something at least for their progress in this fields.  It mentions that the dogs may still show aggressive behavior and such though and I had dogs that have been neutered too where that doesn’t go away, both male and female so there’s no perfect answer on that one and it works the same way for humans come to think of it:)

The video below gives more details on how this works, good stuff and as the article states, the male dogs can cosmetically still look like they have balls so we have that side addressed with our pets now:)  BD

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A new non-surgical procedure to sterilize male dogs is gaining attention in the Inland Empire, but some say it may not offer the same benefits as surgical neutering.

CBS Los Angeles reports that the Humane Society of San Bernardino is the first place to offer the procedure called "Zeutering." It provides chemical sterilization to male dogs by injecting the chemical Zeuterin into their reproductive organs.

"The reason that we started using it here at the Humane Society and offering it to clients is for those clients who like the cosmetic appearance of an intact male dog," said Dr. Amy Raines.

The procedure is non-invasive, according to Dr. Raines, and dogs are lightly sedated but do not require general anesthesia. The procedure costs about the same as surgical neutering.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57601362/new-non-surgical-procedure-zeutering-offers-alternative-to-neutering-for-dogs/

Senator John McCain: Another Demonstration of Why Congress Should Reinstitute the Office of Technology Assessment, When Education Takes Place, Less Distractions With Boredom And More Respect for Consumers…

Yes it has been all over the news and yesterday when I saw the tweet, I tweeted and thought his Twitter account had been hacked..nope…it was him, bragging on how he got busted.  What a discourtesy to all of us and we keep seeing it but maybe not quite as outrageous as this, the response “bragging” is what the real impact was, like a kid who got busted, so what do we have in DC, a bunch of kids at heart?  Is this as good as it gets? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Office of Technology Assessment is non partisan tool that Gingrich and his bunch got rid of a number of years ago and now with complexities at an all time high and education being the focus, it boggles my mind why we have role models like this, you think?  This is why you can’t expect  more than “low tech partial band aid solutions” for high tech problems that need to be solved.  The folks are out of touch.  A good example of this is the Glass Steagall bill to bring it back and certainly it’s better than nothing but it’s low tech problem solving that is inadequate for high tech problems. These folks on the Hill are no competition for the thousands of Quants and Business Analytics experts out there modeling for profit, it shows big time.

Glass-Steagall Revival Presents a “Low Tech” Partial Solution for an Industry that Needs “High Tech” Regulation-Consumers Get 5 More Years of Bank Modeling For Inequality With Segmentation - No Real Regulation In Sight

Part of the issue too lies with what I call “non participation” and I have been using the term “non participants” for a number of years and it goes hand in hand with the old paradigm of “its for those guys over there”,  I read it loud and clear in the news all the time.  Might the fact that 84% of the Senators still use all paper methodologies for all their work when the Senate makes digital systems available?  I assume McCain is a “paper senator” from what I read.  This gets really interesting though when “Paper Senators” discuss doctors transitioning to electronic medical records…oh the gap shows big time:) 

We hear the conversation all the time about “paper doctors” who have not moved on to electronic medical records and now we have “paper senators” discussing “paper doctors” and how to improve things, sounds like big oxymoron to me:)

The Office of Technology restoration is a project of the Sunlight Foundation and boy have I written about it, tweeted it and more, because it’s needed and Congress could certainly entertain sharing it too with executive heads out there as it would be a huge tool to help educate those in DC.  Here’s where I first wrote about it back in February of this year.  Why overlook and discount such a valuable tool I ask? 

Congress Needs a Bigger Brain–Restore the Office of Technology Assessment And Truly Assess What is Useful And Remove The Algo Duping Permeating In Government–Fantasy Perceptions That Are Not Real Can Be A Dangerous Thing

I would like to see a government that doesn’t get Algo Duped as often as it affects all of us and the result is the Attack of the Killer Algorithms as I call it with every day examples of how it hurts consumers.  There is a reason for a lot this though as this PLOS One study pointed out and yes I published my opinion with a little satire in there just due to the nature of the study with math causing real physical pain to humans..full on study with MRI images and all.  I think there’s a lot of pain in Washington, do you?  I feel their pain everyday in how it affects me as a consumer:) 

“Algo Duping” – PLOS One Journal Publication Explains Why The Fear of Math Plays a Big Role As One Underlying Reason We All Get Duped And Those Who Don’t Fear Math Take All the Money, Gradually, Using “Mathematical Formulas & Algorithms”

This professor agrees with me about Algo Duping….a tweet…

If we could get some folks educated in DC maybe they would have a better understanding of how more sophisticated Algo Duping takes place..another PLOS One on the manipulation of “P” values with research…how many Senators know what a “P” value is..this explains a bit at the link below..do they need to know about what it is, sure they do as they make laws regarding such topics.

PLOS One Abstract–Methodology for Detecting Manipulation of “P Values” To Show Significant Statistical Value, “Inappropriate Fiddling” Which Can Lead to “Algo Duping” Situations And Numbers

This entire scenario is really sad as it was like school child that got caught..I would like to think that mentalities are higher in DC, but stuff like this kind of sets me back with my perceptions.  Let’s embed one of the best education videos I have on the Algo Duping page and take a look at this will explain how it works and how all get duped…the old saying of “throw numbers at them” still prevails, whether the numbers are correct or skewed either on purpose or by accident.  The topic of the video is it’s all about context and the context in DC is pretty scary as the duping continues in way too many areas. 

I always say education is the best cure and what’ wrong with more of that taking place with lawmakers?  We might see more interests in many topics discussed on the floors of the House and Senate if they were armed with more education instead of having to guess or get bored as again most lawmakers are no competition for all the Quants, analysts and other mathematical model builders employed by the banks and corporate structures..boy does it show, again just read the title of this blog post:) 

A long time ago and there are several posts on this blog about the idea of Congress using IBM Watson to search and get the information they need.  They didn’t see it as a tool to help them either, but Citibank did and is making more money than ever-see any correlation here with how data is used?  This post was from 2012 and there several more before that one on the same topic.  Watson would allow for speech recognition to let the paper senators and representatives to also participate and get them up to snuff even though they are still stuck on paper.  This post was Chapter 22 of my Attack of the Killer Algorithm series.

IBM Watson Going to Work At Citigroup on Wall Street–Congress Didn’t See Big Data As A Tool (Hadoop Framework) When They Had Their Chance…For Consumers The Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Chapter 22

IBM Watson Capabilities Being Pitched to Financial Industry-Congress Must Not Have Felt They Needed This So Further Behind We Fall With Effective Intelligent Lawmaking

In the footer of this blog I feature some basic education videos that explain the IT infrastructures used today and when you read the news, hardly any journalists discuss this intelligently from the education side, we just get the OMG, witch hunts, drama queens/kings, and soap opera versions, which I get as journalists today are graded on the read they get and this sucks people in so they need their jobs to meet those “hit” goals on their stories for a lot of it. 

So in summary I guess this is as good as it gets, right?  In my own heart of trying to help consumers with education material I look at what I saw yesterday as a real set back and basically exposed some attitudes and paradigms that get hidden from us most of the time.

Would it be nice if Senator McCain after this would drive an effort for better education in DC?  Again he was not even embarrassed and bragged about it…big disappointment to me as that’s not what I expect from the people we elect and appoint to represent us…kind of a slap in the face and the reality of what’s there it appears.  So we can count on a future of continued “low tech solutions for high tech problems” I guess.

Sad it has to be this way but the role models we have not been very effective, and that is non partisan.  Math models that “behave badly” (his book)to quote Emanuel Derman (former Goldman Sachs quant, now a university professor) and the “Weapons of Math Destruction” (Cathy O’Neil former quant for Larry Summers” will continue to prevail. 

It’s a fixable problem, education but nobody seems to be interested.  (Videos in the footer)  BD

United Protesting Yet Another Contract Award–State of Georgia Where They Claim “It Was Rigged”…

Here we go again and there sure seems to be quite a few of these contract stories in the news of late.  You know folks might be afraid to ask the company to bid?  The contract was awarded to Blue Cross, which by the way seems to be the competition where United seems to be protesting.  We all remember United sued the DOD to get the west coast Tri-Care contract a short while back and we have never heard as to why and what the outcome was other than DOD gave United the contract. 

Update: UnitedHealthcare Sues Department of Defense Over Tri-Care Contracts–They Said They Would Do This – Is This A Case Of My Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?

A couple weeks ago, they filed suit against the City of Birmingham.

United Healthcare Files Lawsuit Against the City of Birmingham Disputing Contract Award To Blue Cross

Louisiana rejected the United protest 

State of Louisiana Rejects United Healthcare’s Protest Over Awarding Blue Cross/Blue Shield Contract To Manage State Employee Health Insurance–Battle of the Insurance Algorithms Continues..

This case was different but it’s a dispute between a government contractor and United for non payment of premiums..

United Healthcare Sues Government Contractor, Paragon for Unpaid Health Insurance Premiums

Last year a protest in Texas over a contract award where Blue Cross was protesting as the contract gave members literally no out of Network with United

Blue Cross Protesting Award of Texas Employee Retirement Health Plan to United Healthcare–Price Cut by $25 Million With Little or No Out of Network Coverage for Members

This was from last year as well in Nebraska…

Blue Cross and United Healthcare Duking It Out In Nebraska Over State Health Insurance Contract–We Have More Subsidiaries My Cost Algorithms Are Better Than Yours?

This is interesting as United Contracts are tested all the time and complaints arise and AAFP found out that United  by use of complex contracts was paying doctors less than Medicare in several states.  BD

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UnitedHealthcare has filed a strongly worded protest of the awarding of a state employees benefits contract, alleging that Georgia officials “rigged’’ the bid in favor of a competitor.

A letter from United and its attorneys at law firms Alston & Bird and McKenna, Long & Aldridge asks the Department of Community Health’s commissioner to review the award made to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, which was formally announced Friday.

The attorneys’ letter, dated Monday, alleges the agency engaged in “state-sponsored bid-rigging.’’

Blue Cross was the single insurer selected to deliver health plan administration and medical management services to the more than 650,000 state employees, teachers, other school personnel, retirees and dependents in the State Health Benefit Plan.

United’s protest letter accuses the Department of Community Health (DCH) of engaging “in a biased, unfair, opaque, and uncompetitive process more like the ‘old Georgia’ of backroom deals and shady politics than a state government that, at least on the surface, claims to value free and open competition.

Separately, he said, United has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and an injunction in Fulton County Superior Court.

http://www.georgiahealthnews.com/2013/08/united-claims-blue-cross-special-favors/

Sebelius Has Bees in Her Bonnet–Giving A Contract to Good Data to Mine HHS Employees Data So We Can See What They Think? Who Cares…Algo Duping Strikes Again…

HHS is using Yammer, a good internal social networking program for sure and it’s very helpful, but this is waste of time and if you want to know, why not use Yammer’s analytics…oh well such is life when you have someone in charge with little or no tech in their background. Wonder how the 75,000 employees feel about this…silly.  She’s been over taken by the NSA stories and hopefully she doesn’t want a little bit of the action (grin), right?

I read stuff like this in the news while the pressure is tremendous for doctors and hospitals today and when see this nonsense, all I can say is it time for a change?  Back in June of 2012 we had this…oh gosh technology is going to save us type of new article..

HHS Secretary Sebelius Still Looking for Tech Breakthroughs To Save the Day

I’ve said it before and time to say it again we have no substantial role models at HHS, the old paradigm of “its for those guys over there” still permeates.  Don’t these folks think about public perception and images?

A couple years ago we had this big deal Facebook contest…for a “disaster app”…I said bees in the bonnet there too and at that time I don’t think she had a clue what Twitter was but has told us now it took her long enough to learn in tweets:)  Everyone else was well into using Twitter for disasters…it’s not that hard to figure out.

HHS Seems To Be Confused on Social Networks–Facebook for Disaster Support Contest, Give Me a Break Use Twitter Like Everyone Else Does

Then we had this the request to “hurry up Health IT”…everyone wants to do that but it takes time, as HHS has now learned with IT projects with the health insurance exchanges.  There were a lot of IT vendors in healthcare that rolled their eyes that bit of brilliance as every programmer and data project manage want to get done sooner but you can’t water board them to speed it up.

Speed Up Rate of Change in Health IT?–“Short Order Code Kitchen Burned Down a Few Years Ago and There Was No Fire Sale”..IT Infrastructure Chance and Revisions Takes a Lot of ”Code”, “Time” and “ Most Importantly Money”

Then we had this letter sent out to all the hospital associations insinuating all were cheating on their billing just before the election..a lot of people took offense to that with even dragging Holder in there too, I guess to show more teeth, best I could figure but it was an over all slap in the face to the industry, so I guess they don’t think about perception and how people view things as such.  Even some folks at Harvard complained on that one.   No example was brought to the table either, just kind of saying “you all better not lie”…sad.  Holder had his own issues with digital Illiterate Lanny going too and all you had to do listen for 5 minutes to the Untouchables and you could see and hear the lack of confidence as he was over his head with not knowing how to investigate high tech crimes. 

HHS and DOJ Send Letters to Hospital Trade Associations Warning of Gaming Billing System Via Use of Electronic Medical Records–Hospitals Just Learned How to Bill Better & Hired Consultants–Case of Being Algo Duped With Numbers?

In the meantime we had HCA bragging about their billing and how it was gaining profits for them…but nobody looking around over there though..

How is HCA a For Profit Hospital Chain, Making All That Money–Billing in the ER a Contributing Factor for Reimbursements–The Algorithms Move Money and Created Some Very Large Profits And Others Generated ER Care Parameters for the Facilities

Here’s what I said with my tiny observations back in 2010…this how I saw it and still see it…”no role models at HHS”…it is what it is..

HS National Plan to Improve Health Literacy – Not Going To Happen Until We Focus on Using Technology (The Tool for Literacy) Which Includes Role Models at HHS And Other Places in Government

This is kind of sad as I call it a lot of Algo Duping here to where folks get mislead or basically are just addicted to collecting data.  I questioned these 2 back in 2009 (link below) wondering if they had enough or just a tiny bit of tech or business intelligence to be able t determine what has value and what does not and in addition to the quantified self today, we also have the over quantified self.  Good data, the company chosen for analytics markets the fact that they can give you better analytics than Yammer itself, which is owned by Microsoft.  We all need cheerleaders but we also need logic and business intelligence as well. 

Nancy-Ann DeParle and Kathleen Sebelius – Business Intelligence?

This is nothing personal and tech folks besides me sit and shakes their heads too and just don’t talk about it.   I thought this rather proved that point with wanting an app to help with addictions, well internets and apps are addictions too..there you go and algo duped oxymoron for sure.  There is not app for internet/app addiction and 65 to 69% of mobile apps are dead anyway.

Hospital in Pennsylvania Opens First Inpatient Treatment for Internet Addiction–Was I Correct Back in 2010 When I Stated “Data Addiction Was The Next Upcoming 12 Step Program”

Apps Aps Everywhere But Nobody Cares–Way Too Many Software Programs and Contests For Programs That Only Do “One Thing” In Healthcare

When you look at the hundreds of quants and professional folks doing analytics to cut costs and save money, creating math models to do so by the minute, this kind of nonsense looks silly as we all know that all models don’t tell the truth and they hurt consumers and again this kind of stuff just points to the fact that all of this seems to way over their heads. Watch the 4 videos in the footer if you want to understand more of how that works, it’s just the flat out truth and reality and a bit about how we all get duped.  Some folks think every query, or piece of code has value, it does not, and that’s where the easy duping comes in.

With the insurance exchanges too I guess Deparle didn't find enough fun in healthcare either and wanted to go back to PE where the fun was according to the interview given.  It was embarrassing to hear her state in the news that “the IT work is all done for the exchanges”…see how out of touch.  When you don’t know, better to be quiet as it hurts credibility. 

Nancy DeParle Returns to What She Knows, Private Equity-Technology Experience, Knowledge And Being In Touch With Reality Is What Government Needs Today

Yes Indeed a new focus here, let’s dig in here and find some data…and you can see how the epidemic of data selling has it’s impact too, everyone thinks they need all this data…and nobody seeing the real damage done.  This HHS thing is a prime example of a lot of Algo Duping going on.

We have had other blunders too like John Kerry saying we have the right to be stupid…sounds like a George Bush comment…laughable yes, makes sense..nope.  On the hill we can’t even get the folks to educate themselves..and we have this bragging tweet today from John McCain that he got busted playing poker on his phone during a Senate hearing.  Is it all just about games in DC? 

This is pathetic and I don’t even think they care about how they are viewed and what they all really do in public service today.  This is what we are somewhat stuck with.   84% which is 84 senators still use all paper methodologies for this reporting and McCain must be one of the cavemen I guess.  The link below has a lot to say too as good suggestion to help educate Congress.  BD

Congress Needs a Bigger Brain–Restore the Office of Technology Assessment And Truly Assess What is Useful And Remove The Algo Duping Permeating In Government–Fantasy Perceptions That Are Not Real Can Be A Dangerous Thing

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The Health and Human Services Department plans to mine data from its internal social network, including deducing employee’s emotions and sentiments, contracting documents show.

Health and Human Services began using the internal social networking site Yammer in late 2012, according to a department blog post. The Facebook-like network is open to all the department’s 75,000 employees, the post said. It’s focused on helping employees better engage with each other across divisions and informally crowdsourcing solutions to workflow issues.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ office plans to award a three-month contract to the California-based business intelligence company GoodData to sift through information posted to Yammer to determine employees’ sentiment on particular topics and to learn which topics are trending on the site.

http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2013/09/what-do-hhs-employees-really-think-agency-will-pay-data-miners-find-out/69864/

Cigna Buys Alegis Care aka Home Physicians Management From Private Equity Firm Triton Pacific, Senior Home Care And Hospital Discharge Home Services

You can kind of figure out what this one is about as when you look at ACOs today the insurers are in the driver’s seat so Cigna is no different and the focus here is to also reduce readmissions to the hospital.  You can read on their website about their marketing targets for HMOs.  Their focus is the elderly to offer home service care. 

They also offer services to help with hospice care follow up so gee will they be working with United’s Hospice for profit along the line?  As you can see all the actions are taking place with insurer subsidiaries.  At some point one subsidiary of an insurers works with a subsidiary or more from another insurer these days.

Hospice In the “For Profit” Sector As Subsidiaries of Health Insurance Companies-Subsidiary Watch

The physicians are managed by Alegis and offer primary care, wound care, and a list of other chronic conditions.  I wonder how the contract are here and they might change with an insurer owning the company now, that’s what all the doctors are wondering.  From the website:

“Founded and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Alegis Care and its providers deliver direct patient care in the home from locations across the country, including Illinois, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennslyvania, Utah, Washington, Washington, D.C.,  and Wisconsin. Alegis Care is currently expanding to new locations.”

Back in 2011 Cigna purchased this group…

Cigna Buys HealthSpring Inc For $3.8 Billion, Who Bought Bravo Medicare HMO Who Had Profits of a Billion in 2010-Subsidiary Watch

And bought some business in Texas from Humana last year…and in 2011 they relocated their corporate offices to Connecticut. 

Cigna To Purchase Medicare Advantage Plans In Texas and Arkansas From Humana To Satisfy Purchase of Arcadian Medicare Advantage Business & More Plans Left To Sell –Subsidiary Watch

Alegis personnel  will also go to the home and provide a health assessment to work on keeping the costs down as well as providing care.  No mention of what Cigna paid.  BD 

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Cigna Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., has acquired Chicago-based Alegis Care, a portfolio company of private equity firm Triton Pacific Capital Partners since 2006.

Alegis Care, founded in 1995, specializes in serving chronically ill and elderly patients in their homes and will continue to do so as a Cigna company. This year, Alegis Care will provide physician services and comprehensive care coordination to nearly 31,000 seniors across 10 states, including customers in the Cigna-HealthSpring plan.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130903/NEWS/309039962/cigna-acquires-home-healthcare-company-alegis&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Cardiac Rhythm Bracelet Selling for $79 To Provide Digital Security for Computer Access, Opening Doors and More..

The bracelet uses Bluetooth and connects to your phone and you wear it around your wrist.  Wrists, necks, ankles, what’s next (grin) to be having some kind of visible device hanging on your body.

The video is very good and it even shows where transactions in the financial areas can be given solid ID protection.  Ok I’m going to mention this and probably everyone else will think of it too, what happens if you have heart issues…will it still work or what if you have a heart attack, do you get disconnected?  You can always have the passwords as a back up and I have not seen anything yet that replaces them fully as they still need to be around as a back up, interesting product. 

“The benefit of the Nymi's new and exciting ECG authentication is that it is highly secure without compromising convenience. The Nymi has a 3-Factor system ensures that you and only you have access to your Nymi, and control of your identity. To access the Nymi you must first have possession of the wristband. Second, you must possess your unique heart rhythm, and finally, you must have access to the secure application on a registered smartphone. Once you've authenticated, you will remain authenticated so long as the wristband is not removed.”

For their privacy policty they direct you to the website “Privacy by Design” which I looked at and will have dig a little deeper there as well.  You can see one of my favorite browsers on there as a supporter, Duck-DuckGo, which does not track your data. 

Here’s a little information on Privacy by Design and video that states their purpose. Just think if Edward Snowden would had one of these (grin)..just kidding.   BD 

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The sleek silicone bracelet you see above isn’t yet another fitness tracker. It’s a new “wearable authentication device” called Nymi, and its creators think it can replace your passwords and keys — or at least make them a whole lot more secure.

Clasp the Nymi around your wrist, press your fingertip to the sensor on the top, and it springs to life. Built-in LEDs and a vibration motor let you know it’s active, and you can also program them to deliver notifications from your smartphone (Nymi supports Bluetooth 4.0).

http://www.geek.com/mobile/79-nymi-bracelet-aims-to-replace-passwords-and-keys-with-your-heartbeat-1569351/

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