November 9, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
Tucked in Monday’s e-mail, I found an oxymoronic invitation: “Dear Mark, Tuesday morning, November 3, at 9:30, Amazon Books will open its doors. These aren’t metaphorical doors; these real, wooden doors are the entrance to our new store.” Struck...
November 1, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
Whoever concluded we are direct descendants of apes must have missed Solomon’s advice about considering ants. Seriously, nonhuman primates travel light. More like ants, we humans spend our days schlepping stuff around. We pack suitcases and...
September 2, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
There is little pedestrian about being a pedestrian in the UK. It pays to heed the painted warnings underfoot between the platforms and trains throughout the color-coded labyrinth of the famed Underground—“MIND THE GAP.” It is paramount,...
July 23, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
This afternoon, I received an e-mail from my friend George Laurer (to my right), the inventor of the UPC bar code—the very same code scanned on the items I purchased this morning at Costco and Trader Joe’s. It arrived on the anniversary (June...
June 1, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a frequent flier—United 1K. Last week, I was chatting with a fellow passenger who holds the airline’s highest status—Global Services. You can guess what two road warriors who’ve endured a hundred...
March 1, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
SOS is the worldwide signal for distress. When originally used in 1908, the letters did not represent words. Rather, the characters were chosen for the ease with which they could be telegraphed and deciphered via Morse Code. The signal employs perhaps the...
February 2, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
My first ASHP was Miami in 1995—the same year the society announced that the “h” in its abbreviated name would henceforth stand for Health-System rather than Hospital as documented on its birth certificate. Recognizing that its core membership...
January 28, 2015 | In: Healthcare Barcoding Influencers
The tragic death of a hospitalized patient in Oregon [1] has once again put a spotlight on pharmacy i.v. rooms. Unfortunately this isn’t the first i.v. error to harm, or kill a patient and I’m sad to say that it probably won’t be the last. We know...
January 7, 2015 | In: I've Been Thinking
On my daily walks, I’ve been listening to Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I’m at Christmas of 1943—the year Bing Crosby’s newly recorded “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” began tugging...