2009 September | David Chan

Weighing In On the Obama Education Speech

September 5th, 2009 By DavidChan 4 Comments

The Obama education speech scheduled for Tue, Sep 8th, 2009 is one that needs to be said and heard by our nation’s young and old alike. Education is one of the areas where the U.S. has lost significant leadership to many other countries worldwide. In fact, it’s embarrassing that the “richest” country in the world puts so little emphasis on education. As stated by researcher Gary Phillips of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2007, “We’re kind of in the middle of the pack [with the rest of the world]. Being in the middle of the pack is really a mediocre place to be.”

The debate about the message of the Obama education speech is the wrong place to spend one’s energy. I find it hard to believe that any politician can be accused of “spreading their political agenda” through a topic on ensuring that our children stay in school and taking responsibility for their success.

Let’s evaluate the opposite approach taken by some people who oppose President Obama’s speech. They are recommending that parents keep their children home and not listen to the President’s speech. What kind of message does that send to our children, “that education is not important or that our nation’s leader is one not to be trusted?”

At a time of unprecedented turmoil within the U.S. and abroad, we need to bring some sanity and stability back into our culture. Education at every level is a cornerstone to keeping our country from slipping into a third world state. It’s been proven that education elevates countries from the depths of poverty.

I recently finished Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, wherein he discusses the characteristics of success and how that success does not just come from the individual, but also the culture, community and family around him or her. The Obama education speech speaks right to the facts to which Mr. Gladwell reports.

Malcolm Gladwell states, “The only problem with school, for the kids who aren’t achieving, is that there isn’t enough of it. He goes on to say that the Japanese go to school for 243 days a year and the South Koreans 220 days. There are many other countries with school years far exceeding America’s 180 school days. Mr. Gladwell points to the fact that summer vacation is so indoctrinated into our society that we may never be able to make the shift to more education.

Couple this cultural problem with the fact that education is often the first thing cut during economic downturns … for example $1.3 Billion in California school budget cuts in 2009 and a proposed $4 Billion in cuts in 2010. The Chief of California State Schools, Jack O’Connell, once wrote in a press release “We can talk about courage until we’re blue in the face, but courage is just a word until it is supported by the right kind of action. And the right kind of action in this case means protecting education and investing in the future.”

The Obama education speech addresses the point to which Mr. O’connell speaks. Investing in the future means ensuring that our school age students are stimulated and encouraged to fully participate in their own education. Let’s all hope that the cards are not stacked against them.

Preparing for H1N1 Swine Flu the Google Way

September 3rd, 2009 By DavidChan Leave a Comment

I recently stumbled upon a site called, www.Google.org, while searching for something completely unrelated. What I found led me to an amazing discovery of how Google is leveraging its enormous data to help us prepare for H1N1 Swine Flu and many other diseases and possible pandemics.

We all know that data turned into useful information is a powerful tool for projecting population growth, tracking the trajectory of hurricanes and even predicting pandemic outbreaks. And what company has the pulse of global data collection better than Google?

Google is clearly on to something big with www.Google.org. The tagline on this website reads “Google.org aspires to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age.” Essentially, Google is taking the data that people key into their search engine to map out where outbreaks of diseases are occurring. This is an effort to help people prepare for H1N1 swine flu and other infections. This, in essence is the Google way, indeed.

Let’s take a simple chart from their Flu Trends tab. Google believes that certain terms keyed into their search engine could be “good indicators of flu activity.” Armed with this data they can estimate flu activity up to two weeks faster than the old, traditional ways. Google has compared their results with those of traditional surveillance systems and found a precise correlation between them.

On this page from Google.org, http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_us, US flu activity is shown as minimal in most of the US, except for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alaska, where the flu activity is registered as low. This same interactive chart also allows you to drill down state by state. This data, of course, will become increasingly more populated as the flu season gets into full swing.

Interestingly, this page, http://www.google.org/flutrends/intl/en_nz/, shows New Zealand as having a high flu activity, with a higher concentration of flu in the North Island. The Ministry of Health has recommended seasonal influenza immunization.

Now preparing for H1N1 swine flu the Google way is really more than just charts, graphs and pretty numbers. The purpose of the Google.org organization is to provide grants to people with innovative ideas in the area of disease control, green initiatives and much more. One of the recipients of a grant from Google is HealthMap. Among other things, they’ve launched an iPhone app called “Outbreaks Near Me.” This free app allows you to see what outbreaks have been reported near your neighborhood, work place or vacation destination.

Imagine the implications of this data collection and representation to the end users? This type of collaboration is one of the keys to building a better informed and prepared population. Of course, there are also other preventative measures against H1N1 swine flu, such as washing hands, eating right, and keeping your hands away from your face. But, who knows … preparing for H1N1 Swine flu the Google way just might keep you from venturing into an infected region in the first place!

What the Obama Health Care Plan Means To You

September 1st, 2009 By DavidChan 3 Comments

There’s a lot of information and mis-information swirling around the Obama Health Care Plan. You should really take some time to understand the components of the plan in order to decide whether the plan is of substantive value or not. As a small business owner in the technology business development sector, I believe we all owe it to ourselves to understand some important issues.

It’s true that our health care system has some serious problems. For example, when my elderly father was recently admitted to the hospital for 5 days, the cost was a whopping $64,000. How many uninsured or under-insured people could afford that? Or, my colleague who recently lost his job had to pay $2,000 a month just to cover his family of 4. How is that possible when the single wage earner is making ZERO income?

On the flip side of the coin, employers are struggling under the weight of the economic downturn. Is it possible that they can continue to subsidize the cost of health care insurance when they have increased over 110 percent?

THIS is why the Obama health care plan is so important. NOT necessarily because there is any one RIGHT answer … there never is. But, the reality of doing nothing means we move the burden of health care reform to our children and our children’s children. Why? Because there are so many families going into bankruptcy for example just because they can’t afford health care. And, still more are straining the system by just going to the emergency room and NOT practicing preventative care.

The Obama health care plan / reform is really focused on a few key issues. One of the main tenets of Mr. Obama’s plan is preventative care. For example, ensuring people get the right cancer screening and nutritional education. This is one of my hot buttons, in fact. Instead of treating the problem, let’s get right down to preventing it in the first place. I have yet to visit a doctor who gave me a plan for eating right, exercising more and to get regular screening, for example. It’s usually, “let’s see what’s wrong with you.”

The second important piece of President Obama’s plan is to increase spending in technology WHERE and WHEN it makes sense. For example, I believe that it’s absurd that medical records are not easily transferrable between doctors, let alone medical institutions. We live in the 21st century. Technology, integration, data exchange and collaboration has never been easier. The Obama health care plan is to invest in these solutions so that the one doctor who sees you today will know what your doctor prescribed for you ten years ago or even as recent as last year. What an improvement that would be to ensuring nothing was missed!

Transparency related to quality and costs is of utmost importance. If we learned anything about debacle of the last couple of years on Wall Street, we learned that too many hidden agendas and costs are buried in order to protect the fraudulent and excesses. As I mentioned in the 2nd paragraph, $64,000 for a 5 day stay in the hospital. And, the food is terrible! No steaks here. Where does all this money go? How much does an X-ray really cost?

One of the components of the Obama health care plan that I really like is competition in the insurance area. There is a serious flaw in any system when a few companies make the bulk of the money. Sounds a lot like AT&T in the old days or Comcast today. Without competition, there is no way to ensure that the rates charged are competitive and worse, whether the quality of care is at its highest! Just think about the ramifications of that one statement. When was the last time you saw your premiums and deductibles go down, while waiting lines and quality of care have gone up?

This sure sounds like Enron all over again.

Whether you believe in the Obama health care plan or not, the solution is NOT inaction. The health care system here in America is broken. Until someone comes up with a better plan, we need to move in a direction that gets us some positive step forward.