Photo courtesy of Cleveland Clinic

With its slogan ???Every life deserves world-class care,??? the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has staked out a distinctive role in consumer-centric, innovative healthcare ??? including the development and use of medical IT. Founded in 1921, the clinic is known for its high standards of research and practice and its ongoing role in fostering innovation and reducing costs. Since the late 1990s, U.S. News and World Report has ranked it number one in cardiac care. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a nonprofit organization that owns and operates the hospital system, has an entrepreneurial arm called Cleveland Clinic Innovations (CCI), which develops and commercializes products and services based on research and practice breakthroughs by physicians and other clinic employees. The clinic???s use of robotically assisted heart surgery and heart valve repair, for example, was initially developed through CCI. In total, more than 35 enterprises have been spun off from CCI activity, and the organization is currently helping other hospitals create similar initiatives. The Cleveland Clinic itself has a 41-building campus, 10 affiliated hospitals in Ohio, and a growing presence around the U.S. and the world, with a new affiliated hospital opening in Abu Dhabi and another planned for Singapore.

At the heart of all this is the clinic???s comprehensive use of information technology. The chief information officer is C. Martin Harris, MD; he also serves as a health technology advisor for President Barack Obama. The clinic is a pioneer in providing information to patients and linking patient involvement with medical records and healthcare practice improvement. It is also vigorously experimenting with medical IT in new forms of patient engagement and education, including social media. In this interview, conducted in 2011, Martin Harris explains his view of two rapidly changing arenas, information technology and healthcare, and how they could evolve together. This interview is also available in video format.

S B: Can you discuss your role at the Cleveland Clinic, and how you see this role changing?
HARRIS: Our strategy ??? to transform healthcare and to be able to deliver greater value to patients over time ??? is closely tied to our effective adoption of information technology, which is critical in improving the actual outcomes that we can deliver to patients. In my role as leader of the strategic planning process and of the information technology division, I really get to see the marriage of those two. The result of that truly is transformation ??? the ability to start thinking about delivering care in ways that we???ve never thought about before.

S B: What are the key components of the Cleveland Clinic???s care model ??? the secret sauce for its success?
HARRIS: We are focused on the patient first. Second, our model of care is physician-led, and we coordinate our services across a spectrum of related clinical specialties focused on the patient. Third, our group culture is really the secret sauce. For 90 years, we have worked in a collaborative fashion, and that is the greatest challenge for healthcare in the 21st century. It has become far more complex, and in order to deliver great outcomes for patients, our physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and administrative staff have to work as a team on behalf of the patient.

S B: Technology, and IT in particular, plays a strategic role in any healthcare institution. How is IT positioned at the Cleveland Clinic?
HARRIS: Ten years ago, as we were thinking about technology, we decided that we wouldn???t focus on delivering content over the Internet. We felt that there were other organizations that could do that well. Instead, we would focus on service over the Internet. What has been strategic about our application of technology is thinking about how we can use it to affect the care delivery model. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Tijdens de Google I/O keynote springt Sergey Brin uit een vliegtuig met Google Glasses op om een hangout via G+ te demonstreren…hoe cool is dat…
Ik weet even niet meer wie nu het hipste bedrijf is.

Glasses in een OK terwijl de rest van de wereld meekijkt bij een instructie operatie voor studenten. Ik zie wel mogelijkheden voor een echt teaching hospital op de cutting edge van technology

I can???t imagine living in a world without The Muppets. Those cuddly, felt critters are like best friends you???ve known your entire life. They???re fun, they???re goofy, and they just fill you up with a warm feeling inside???don???t they?

Thanks to Jason Segel and a host of other talented folks, the recent The Muppets movie was a big success for Disney, and Jim Henson???s fluffy family is back in the limelight. Henson???s creations started out as a fun way to teach children some basic ABCs, as well as important life lessons. But as with The Muppet Show, the craziness was kicked up a few notches.

Just because you???re too old for Sesame Street (and hopefully you already know your ABCs), that doesn???t mean you???re not too old to learn something. The Muppets are more than entertainers ??? they???re pretty good teachers too.

Here???s a look at 5 life lessons you can learn from The Muppets.

1. Have Fun

Being shot out of a cannon. Throwing boomerang fish. Telling awful knock-knock jokes. If nothing else, the Muppets sure know how to have a good time. As we get older, life seems to get more serious. And yes, more responsibility can do that to a person.

But never forget to take a deep breath and just live a little. Have some fun!

2. Hang in There

Before the recent success of their newest movie, The Muppets were in limbo for well over a decade. No hit movies, very little merchandising ??? no one seemed to care or even know who they were. But Disney took a shot with the latest film, and they???re back in the minds and hearts of fans everywhere.

Being persistent is a valuable trait. When life???s knocking you for a loop, just hang in there. Lean on your friends when the going gets real rough and know that the tough times will eventually pass. Before you know it, you???ll be back on your feet stronger than ever.

3. Be More Tolerant

If a pig and a frog can get along, then you and your neighbor can get along. Everyone can use a bit more tolerance and acceptance in the world. Stop worrying so much about how much money someone makes, or what kind of job they have, or even the color of their skin. Just accept people as people. Yes, you may not like them all but you can even learn to love annoying people.

If the whole world would just sit down together and watch a few episodes of The Muppet Show, maybe we???d see a lot more countries trading in their arms for whoopee cushions.

4. Music Makes Everything Better

The one thing you could always count on from The Muppets is that they could break into some huge song-and-dance number at any given moment. Whether it???s doing chores or working on some mundane task at work, crank up the tunes and you???ll see how much better you feel and how much faster time goes by.

5. Dream Big

They didn???t need to connect with any rainbows to follow their dreams. The Muppets always have a dream and they do whatever it takes to get there, no matter how big, crazy or unreachable it is. Heading to Hollywood to make a big picture or even putting on a telethon to raise 10 million dollars. They may not have always reached their goals, but they certainly gave it their all. Follow their lead. Dream often. Dream big. Perhaps someday you???ll make it.

You may not have ping pong balls for eyes or an awkwardly placed hand controlling your every movement, but you can still live your life the way The Muppets do. Have fun, spread the love and follow your dreams.

(Photo credit: Helga Esteb via Shutterstock)

Next Article: Stop Doing Meaningless Work???Today! ??

Six Sigma, Kaizen, Lean, and other variations on continuous improvement can be hazardous to your organization’s health. While it may be heresy to say this, recent evidence from Japan and elsewhere suggests that it’s time to question these methods.

Admittedly, continuous improvement once powered Japan’s economy. Japanese manufacturers in the 1950s had a reputation for poor quality, but through a culture of analytical and systematic change Japan was able to go from worst to first. Starting in the 1970s, the country’s ability to create low-cost, quality products helped them dominate key industries, such as automobiles, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. To compete with this miraculous turnaround, Western companies, starting with Motorola, began to adopt Japanese methods. Now, almost every large Western company, and many smaller ones, advocate for continuous improvement.

But what’s happened in Japan? In the past year Japan’s major electronics firms have lost an aggregated $21 billion and have been routinely displaced by competitors from China, South Korea, and elsewhere. As Fujio Ando, senior managing director at Chibagin Asset Management suggests, “Japan’s consumer electronics industry is facing defeat. “Similarly, Japan’s automobile industry has been plagued by a series of embarrassing quality problems and recalls, and has lost market share to companies from South Korea and even (gasp!) the United States.

Looking beyond Japan, iconic six sigma companies in the United States, such as Motorola and GE, have struggled in recent years to be innovation leaders. 3M, which invested heavily in continuous improvement, had to loosen its sigma methodology in order to increase the flow of innovation. As innovation thinker Vijay Govindarajan says, “The more you hardwire a company on total quality management, [the more] it is going to hurt breakthrough innovation. The mindset that is needed, the capabilities that are needed, the metrics that are needed, the whole culture that is needed for discontinuous innovation, are fundamentally different.”

So should we abandon continuous improvement? Absolutely not! It has created tremendous value and still drives competitive advantage in many companies and industries. But perhaps it’s time to nuance our approach in the following ways:

Customize how and where continuous improvement is applied. One size of continuous improvement doesn’t fit all parts of the organization. The kind of rigor required in a manufacturing environment may be unnecessary, or even destructive, in a research or design shop. Sure it’s important to inject discipline into product and service development, but not so much that it discourages creativity.

Question whether processes should be improved, eliminated, or disrupted. Too many continuous improvement projects focus so much on gaining efficiencies that they don’t challenge the basic assumptions of what’s being done. For example, a six sigma team in one global consumer products firm spent a great deal of time streamlining information flows between headquarters and the field sales force, but didn’t question how the information was ultimately used. Once they did, they were able to eliminate much of the data and free up thousands of hours that were redeployed to customer-facing activities.

Assess the impact on company culture. Take a hard look at the cultural implications of continuous improvement. How do they affect day-to-day behaviors? A data-driven mindset may encourage managers to ignore intuition or anomalous data that doesn’t fit preconceived notions. In other cases it causes managers to ask execution-oriented, cost-focused questions way too early, instead of percolating and exploring ideas through messy experimentation that can’t be justified through traditional metrics.

Continuous improvement doesn’t have to be incompatible with disruptive innovation. But unless we think about continuous improvement in more subtle, nuanced, and creative ways, we may force companies to choose between the two.

What are your views about continuous improvement and innovation?

Newsroom ?? Security Landschap ?? #Zembla meldt gigantisch datalek persoonsgegevens, maar wie is aansprakelijk?

#Zembla meldt gigantisch datalek persoonsgegevens, maar wie is aansprakelijk?

Categorie: Security Landschap  |  20/04/2012 om 22:55

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In de uitzending van Zembla van 20 april, wordt melding gemaakt van een datalek in het systeem Humannet. Dat systeem wordt gebruikt voor verzuimregistratie door afhandelaar VerzuimReductie. Het blijkt dat een grote hoeveelheid persoonsgegevens voor ongeoorloofde bezoekers inzichtelijk was. Dat betekent hoogstwaarschijnlijk een schending van de Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens, maar wie zou daar in dit geval aansprakelijk voor zijn?

De Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens behandelt in artikel 49 de rechtsbescherming. Daarin staat dus wie aansprakelijk is in geval van dataverlies. De volgende subartikelen zijn daarin opgenomen:

Artikel 49

• 1. Indien iemand schade lijdt doordat ten opzichte van hem in strijd wordt gehandeld met de bij of krachtens deze wet gegeven voorschriften zijn de volgende leden van toepassing, onverminderd de aanspraken op grond van andere wettelijke regels.
• 2. Voor nadeel dat niet in vermogensschade bestaat, heeft de benadeelde recht op een naar billijkheid vast te stellen schadevergoeding.
• 3. De verantwoordelijke is aansprakelijk voor de schade of het nadeel, voortvloeiende uit het niet-nakomen van de in het eerste lid bedoelde voorschriften. De bewerker is aansprakelijk voor die schade of dat nadeel, voor zover ontstaan door zijn werkzaamheid.
• 4. De verantwoordelijke of de bewerker kan geheel of gedeeltelijk worden ontheven van deze aansprakelijkheid, indien hij bewijst dat de schade hem niet kan worden toegerekend.

Belangrijk is dus wie in de context van deze wet de verantwoordelijke en de bewerker zijn. Dat is te vinden in de Algemene Bepalingen:

• d. verantwoordelijke: de natuurlijke persoon, rechtspersoon of ieder ander die of het bestuursorgaan dat, alleen of te zamen met anderen, het doel van en de middelen voor de verwerking van persoonsgegevens vaststelt;
• e. bewerker: degene die ten behoeve van de verantwoordelijke persoonsgegevens verwerkt, zonder aan zijn rechtstreeks gezag te zijn onderworpen;

(bron: wetten.nl)

Het is duidelijk dat de primaire verantwoordelijkheid bij datalekken ligt bij de werkgever. Dat is ook logisch, want het zou niet voor de hand liggen om een slachtoffer (de betrokkene) te verplichten om de hele keten van ict-dienstverleners af te moeten om iemand aansprakelijk te kunnen stellen. Het is gebruikelijk dat een wet het slachtoffer daarin beschermt en dus de werkgever in dit geval als direct aansprakelijke definieert.

De bewerker in deze is waarschijnlijk VerzuimReductie. Aan de uitzending te zien bereid deze partij bij monde van diens woordvoerder zich voor om zich te beroepen op artikel 49 lid 4. Daarmee zijn zij echter hooguit in staat zich te ontdoen van aansprakelijkheid, maar de wet bepaalt mijns inziens niet dat die aansprakelijkheid dan automatisch doorvloeit naar VCD, de leverancier van de Humannet software.

Kortom: een heleboel getroffen werknemers kunnen zich nu richten tot hun werkgevers. En die kan zich weer beroepen op VerzuimReductie. Waar dat uiteindelijk op uit zal komen is de vraag. Ik wacht zeer ge??nteresseerd af.

Kijk hier de Zembla uitzending terug.

Written by Erik Remmelzwaal

Algemeen Directeur van Medusoft BV. Sinds 2001 in dienst van Medusoft actief werkzaam in de Nederlandse IT Security branche.

View all posts by: Erik Remmelzwaal

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Dit is sinds 25 januari ook Europese wetgeving. http://www.nu.nl/internet/2721684/strenge-europese-privacywetgeving-snel-onth…
Wordt zeker ook voor de gezondheidszorg een issue om voor elkaar te gaan krijgen.