2BL.org: Ted Chan's Blog for Business and Social Impact

When doctors rally...

2017-05-17T12:39:00.002-04:00

I'm going to write about some trends I find running a healthcare review website - they will be bite-sized, and probably as much for myself as anyone else. They are personal thoughts so I'm keeping them here. One of them is how quickly doctors can respond when they get a negative review. This OB/GYN Susan Mueller in Paducah, KY is an example. She received one negative review, but clearly has a lot of satisfied patients as well. This seems like a smart way to manage her reputation. We were able to validate all of the reviews were genuine residents of the area.

TARC Spring Classic 2017 Marathon Race Recap

2017-05-05T16:21:00.000-04:00

Going to start using this blog for better notes after races.

I ran the TARC Spring Classic Marathon in Weston on 4/26/17 as a training run. The race was 10K loops. I felt strong enough to run the 50K but since I'm focused on my BQ at Sugarloaf, I did not push it that hard. The weather was wet and cold. My hands were freezing at the end, but it wasn't bad weather for my body to be running.

Overall, it was a great course on semi-familiar trails for me. It was reasonably hilly and had a couple technical sections. There was one section where you had to climb on rocks to avoid deep mud, which was kind of fun, good for fitness/training, but not so good for the time. It was about 1400 feet in elevation change overall. https://www.strava.com/activities/953264929/overview I enjoyed the board crossings as well.

For the marathon group, we started with two extra .7 mile loops off to the side. This was actually a problem - it left us behind everyone else in the race. As a faster runner, this meant expending a lot of energy in the first lap and a half passing in tight quarters. Though this was kind of fun, it would have been super annoying if I was actually trying to run for time or place. I guess it serves me right for not doing the 50K given it was only 4.8 more miles.

My first five mile split averaged 8:04, but I was probably working at a 7:10-7:15 road pace to pass everyone. Since this is a training run, I dialed it way back and targeted running 10Ks in the 50-52 minute range. I felt some stomach distress during the 2nd lap (13.8 miles) stopped for a 2-3 minute potty and bathroom break. This would be crushing if it happened at Sugarloaf. I'd had a banana and PB&J for breakfast with water. Nothing out of the ordinary so I was surprised I had the stomach issue. Maybe it was the crappy pasta I had the night before. Thinking if I should stick to rice. Seems to be a bit better for me.

After 3 laps, I had a pretty good sense that the race leader in the marathon (Michael King) was way ahead of me. At the end of the 3rd lap I saw the 2nd place runner had pulled out. So I figured with a good pace, I'd safely cruise in for 2nd. There were some runners in the 50K who seemed to be flying who I'd see at the brief two way traffic session.

I basically cruised in the last two laps, slowing down to chat a few times with 50K runners (camaraderie was great).

Result: 2nd place in 3:43:38 for the marathon. 4th best time in the 7 years the race has been run. https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=42340

I think if I was focused on this race I could have run in the 3:30 range. But had a blast and it was the perfect long training run for a sturdy battler like me. I would love to come back and race the 50K next year.

I stupidly biked this race. The ride home was the most miserable 15 minutes of my life, LOL.

Equipment:

Garmin XT920 (did so-so in the woods - came out at 25.4 miles when I felt it was a fairly accurately measured 26.2 based on the GPS of others)

Hoka One One Clayton Red - These shoes are incredible. I couldn't believe they performed this well on a wet trail race with some technical/rocky sections.

Fluorescent Yellow Singlet (some arm chafing)

Blue nike shorts (A bit of groin area chafing)

8 Gus of mixed variety (Gu regular, Gu Roctane, Clif Espresso)

Hyrdation: Clif pink powder. Did not do a good job drinking enough and need a better bottle strategy. Lucky it wasn't warmer.

Craft waterproof windbreaker for the first lap only

CareDash is my latest project...

2016-10-02T17:34:00.000-04:00

Rapidly scaling our new site CareDash.com. Think of it as TripAdvisor for health care providers! Our goal is to redefine the health care review industry with a focus on transparency and inclusion. The idea is to create 100% honest review site where we don't accept payments to remove reviews. Long-term, we will integrate additional data on transparency such as analysis of medicare data. We'll also do our best to make booking integrated from our site. Baby steps.

I'll have more updates on it shortly, and I hope to get back to posting some more of my thoughts on the how we can improve the health care system in the US. It's been hard to keep this blog as updated as I would like with the two kiddos now!

Update on some new entrepreneurial projects

2014-09-19T10:30:00.000-04:00

I've got an update on a few things I've been working on.

We recently launched DynamicPath.com, another free test prep site. This one provides 50 free questions for about 100 topics.

One new project of mine is in the health, diet, and nutrition information space. The goal is to get trustworthy health and diet info out to the masses.

One associated property is this one on how to reduce sugar consumption. A bit less baked but coming is this wellness site.

Check them out and let me know what you think! And of course the big project.

Daughter not working hard enough...

2013-12-27T15:05:00.003-05:00

Trying to get my daughter to work entrepreneur hours is hard.

2013-10-29T15:53:00.000-04:00

For some family fun, check out our lobster in a pot baby Halloween costume that we did.

Bike Tour Reviews Site

2013-08-15T19:16:00.000-04:00

One of my nice recent successes is our bike trips reviews page. It's recently started ranking in Google and the reviews are flowing in. It fills a niche as TripAdvisor does a good job with local reviews, but international bike tour companies have been largely left without a good forum for feedback. We're now close to 100 reviews.

Bike tour reviews site is up!

2012-12-02T22:32:00.003-05:00

I've been working on the second leg of my bike tour information site, specifically a section for reviews of bike tour operators. I've gotten it up and now we're working on some reviews. We have a bunch for companies like DuVine and Meridien Ten. Check it out if you have the chance, I'd love your feedback.

Updated force rank of restaurants in Sydney

2012-11-05T10:03:00.006-05:00

Having spent six months out of the past year in Sydney on expense budget, I force ranked every restaurant I ate at. Just one person's thoughts!

Superstars

Medusa Greek Taverna
Tetsuya
Din Tai Fung
Fish at the Rocks
Bambini Trust
Pendolino
Longrain
Malaya
Golden Century
Madang

Very Good

Universal
Pony
Chinta Ria
Mure’s (Hobart)
Altitude at the Shangri-La
Jaime’s
Rockpool Bar and Grill
Billy Kwong’s
Chat Thai
Coolangatta Winery Restaurant (Shoalhaven)
Shiki
Garfish Manly
Cut
Meat & Wine Company
De Vine
Lord Nelson Brewery
Xage Surrey Hills
Mamak
Marigold
Sake Rocks
Yee King Noodles

Good / Fine

Selah
Doyle’s Waterfront – Watson Bay
Fusion Café Marsfield
Mad Cow / Ivy
Rockpool on George (A bit hit or miss for exorbitant price point)
Sailor Thai
Bistro Fax
La Cita King’s Wharf
Christie’s at the Fish Market
Zaaffran BBQ & Fine Indian
Delima Indonesian
Peace Harmony Thai
Emperor’s Choice CBD
Ventuno
Sambal
Conservation Hut – Wentworth Falls
Glenmore
Phillip’s Foote
Menya Noodle Bar
Shiyi
Nicholas’ Seafoods at the Fish Market
Malaysian Laksa House QVB
Goshu Ramen Tei
Vintage Cafe

Below My Bar

Pancakes on the Rocks
Smolt (Hobart)
Zozo Korean BBQ
Condor Japanese Restaurant
SwissHotel High Tea
Miga Korean BBQ
Giovanni’s Restaurant and Pizzeria
Doyle’s at the Fish Market
Wok on Inn Darling Harbour
Adria’s Darling Harbour
Xic Lo Vietnamese (Chatswood)
Treis-Elies (Katoomba)
Katselis (Katoomba)
The Winery at Culpitt Vineyard (Ulladulla)

Is Chitika a worthy alternative to Google Adsense?

2012-09-20T08:58:00.002-04:00

One question I've been getting recently from my business is whether Chitika is worth trying out as an alternative to Google Adsense. I tried out Chitika on PracticeQuiz.com to find out.

All of the numbers are well below Google Adsense, unfortunately. Granted, I don't have the Chitika units placed on a great place on the page, which limits the CTR. The CPC is what's disturbing. That isn't that affected by placement on a page typically. I'll be removing these and seeing what alternatives I can try out. So far I haven't had much success with Amazon Omakase either (116,000 impressions, one sale).

Maybe there are some contexts where Chitika works better, but it didn't for me because of the low CPCs. Anyone have any thoughts on other alternatives?

Update on a few of my projects

2012-09-20T08:06:00.003-04:00

Haven't posted much but it's a been busy and year.

I've launched three major initiatives:

A bike tour information and reviews site that's part of a larger experiential travel network I'm working on
Online courseware for EMT training
The rapidly scaling PracticeQuiz.com, a free test prep review site with a simulated test engine, something most of the other sites in this space don't have. I've been able to seed it with a lot of content and we're on track to do close to 4 million ad impression on an annualized basis

Check 'em out and let me know what you think.

Rock Salt Cheese

2012-09-20T07:55:00.000-04:00

This place Happy Lemon I stopped by today had something on top of their drinks called Rock Salt Cheese. It's some type of frothy foam they put on top of their disgustingly sweet teas (took one sip and threw it in the garbage can). I guess it's some type of fragrant cheese with rock salt.

2011 Best of Boston Mobile Scene on Boston.com

2012-01-17T11:13:00.005-05:00

See my 2011 Best of Boston Mobile, and 8 Boston Startups to watch in 2012:

For those of you who read this blog, I've been a bit busy, and I've also agreed to do some blog posts on Boston.com and VentureFizz. I'll be sure to be more diligent about posting them back here.

The new PracticeQuiz.com

2011-12-11T20:55:00.003-05:00

I've been working on a new site, PracticeQuiz.com, a site that provides free exam practice.

There are a number of free practice test sites out there. I've learned through my work with Upward Mobility the sources of a lot of content, contributed some myself, and then, loaded them into a testing engine we've program.

The list of exams will grow, but there are already a number of good ones for academic, medical and business subjects out there already.

Let's stop with the Silicon Valley diversity BS

2011-11-09T23:52:00.006-05:00

I just felt compelled to respond to the ridiculous use of data by some of the recent articles arguing about diversity in Silicon Valley. The problem of racial diversity in tech companies is systemic American problem, not a Silicon Valley specific one. We need to address the root cause of the problem, which is that not enough non-Asian minorities are going into Engineering related fields.

This chart on the left is from a CNNFN/Forbes article by Julie Pepitone. It accuses Silicon Valley of trying to hide a diversity secret.

It makes the workforce imbalance seem terrible skewed and that there's some type of severe discrimination problem going on in the valley.

Well, how about we compare this data to how specific racial demographics go into engineering according to 2008 NSF data?

% Engineers Enrolling in Undergraduate Programs (Data here)

Wait, so in Silicon Valley, a engineering centric business center has the exact same percentages of Whites, Blacks and Hispanics who go into the Engineering fields? And while Asians have double representation, California has 2.5x more Asians on percentage basis than the rest of the country.

Can we please stop wasting our time with this debate, and focus on building systems that get underrepresented minorities into math, science and engineering careers? Creating a false maelstrom over SV hiring practices is just going to help the problem.

42 meals in Sydney

2011-08-12T16:44:00.002-04:00

I did some serious dining during my time in Sydney - a truly amazing culinary city. I basically tried to do some exploring, and also went down the TripAdvisor rankings to find the very best.

I forced ranked all of the restaurants I ate at - it's not definitive, since at most places, I only got to try a couple of dishes in a single visit. I did make two trips to Medusa (6x!), Longrain, Golden Century and Madang, so I'm confident of my strong ranking for those.

Superstars

Medusa Greek Taverna
Tetsuya
Longrain
Fish at the Rocks
Golden Century
Madang

Very Good

Pony
Chinta Ria
Mure’s (Hobart)
Altitude at the Shangri-La
Billy Kwong’s
Garfish Manly
Cut
Lord Nelson Brewery
Xage Surrey Hills
Yee King Noodles

Good

Fusion Café Marsfield
Mad Cow / Ivy
Sailor Thai
Christie’s at the Fish Market
Zaaffran BBQ & Fine Indian
Delima Indonesian
Peace Harmony Thai
Emperor’s Choice CBD
Ventuno
Sambal
Chat Thai
Conservation Hut – Wentworth Falls
Glenmore
Phillip’s Foote
Menya Noodle Bar
Nicholas’ Seafoods at the Fish Market
Malaysian Laksa House QVB

Below My Bar

Smolt (Hobart)
Zozo Korean BBQ
Giovanni’s Restaurant and Pizzeria
Doyle’s at the Fish Market
Wok on Inn Darling Harbour
Adria’s Darling Harbour
Xic Lo Vietnamese (Chatswood)
Treis-Elies (Katoomba)
Katselis (Katoomba)

The Future of the American City

2011-06-24T21:19:00.001-04:00

My friend Bob Barancik sent along the following link, which I think hit home at a time where I've been thinking about topics like this. Few civilizations have been able to sustain a leading level of reinvestment into their cities, infrastructure, etc. That is true throughout history and will be true for America. Just as other great civilizations decayed, so will ours...it's just a matter of whether it happens in 100 or 400 years. I imagine our level of angst is something like Rome 375 AD....

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/audio-video/item/james_howard_kunstler_discusses_the_future_of_the_american_city/

Bob's Summary: Orion managing editor Andrew Blechman interviews author James Howard Kunstler about the future of cities in an age of peak oil and obligatory contraction. According to Kunstler, Phoenix and Las Vegas will be "toast," skyscrapers will become massive liabilities, suburbs will turn into salvage yards, and commerce will look very different. Kunstler is quite certain that civilization will remain intact, albeit retrofitted with slow trains, sailing ships, and other blasts from the past.

Economics of Mobile Apps Talk

2011-03-10T22:10:00.001-05:00

Here's the link to my presentation and talk on The Economics of Mobile Apps at MIT Sloan.

Brookline Price Segmentation for Boston Red Sox Tickets

2011-01-19T20:13:00.002-05:00

I think this is a brilliant little segmentation scheme that helps the City of Brookline maximize parking revenues. I'm pretty sure they've installed smart wireless meters that make this easy, which is a hot M2M topic I've been working on a lot at CSMG.

There's no way a Sox fan would leave in less than two hours to print a new ticket as a wireless meter would require. However, I suspect many will just pay the $22, which will still leave businesses without much parking. Either way, it's a better situation for the city than before.

From The Boston Globe:

Brookline will raise parking meter rates just in time to charge Red Sox fans $22 to park along a stretch of Beacon Street during the home-opening series against the New York Yankees in April.
Selectmen unanimously approved the special rates during Red Sox games near the St. Mary’s MBTA stop tonight, as well as other meter rate increases around the town that are expected to raise an additional $1 million a year in revenue.
The hikes approved by the board will charge motorists parking along the Beacon Street median from St. Mary’s to Hawes streets $1 per hour for the first two hours in a metered spot, and $10 per hour for an additional two hours, bringing the four-hour total to $22 on game nights. Motorists will also have to pay to park at the spots until 10 p.m.
The parking spots are a short walk from Fenway Park, and Brookline is making the move because merchants have complained that Red Sox fans take up all of the parking spots on game nights, leaving no where for other customers to park.
Selectmen also voted Tuesday to increase parking meter fees from 75 cents to $1 per hour in Brookline’s biggest commercial areas. The fee increases take effect April 1.
The special rates during the Red Sox games are expected to raise $35,000 a year for the town.

Some links to check out

2011-01-11T22:44:00.005-05:00

A couple links to check out:

An viewpoint I wrote on an out there, but real opportunity in advertising ringbacks. I know it sounds like it'd be the most annoying thing, but in some environments, it's a legitimate revenue or branding opportunity.

My brother Eric has a new blog on using lean in the Aerospace environment.

A couple friends of mine, Inaki and Andres, from MIT Sloan launched a cool new Facebook photosharing product at their startup Pixable.

Geek-dom

2010-12-07T19:26:00.001-05:00

According to this Venn Diagram, I am a geek. I think this is quite a good description of the difference between these words actually. I wear the badge proudly.

Social Media Primer

2010-09-19T14:44:00.002-04:00

My friend Areg wrote an award that won the Pepperdine MBA paper contest. He gave me permission to share it here. It's a useful primer/101 document for those who are new to social media and want to leverage it for there business.

GSBM - Social Media Paper - Bagdasarian - Tamehiro - Final Draft

Thought of the Day (on the iPad)

2010-04-11T21:11:00.003-04:00

If you say something is a giant version of one of the most innovative products of the past century, is that really an insult?

With that in mind, I bought an iPad today. I'm not really sold on it as anything other than a media consumption device, but, when you think about it, media consumption is pretty much what this world is about now...

I think we'll port our Upward Mobility apps over to it. I do think that we have something to offer i our format over content that can be found on the open web.

White paper on mobile health care

2010-03-21T01:46:00.003-04:00

It's been a ridiculously busy few months. One of the things I've been working on is a white paper on mobile health care. I contributed a lot in the early thought process and ideation, though my CSMG colleague Aaron Nutt gets credit for actually writing it. I think there's a lot of interesting insights, so check out.

Moca releases source code

2010-02-25T21:19:00.002-05:00

One of the projects I've been working on for the past two years, Moca released its source code.

Telemedicine in the Making: Moca Source Code Released

Moca, an MIT-based student organization, is pleased to announce the official release of the Moca source code, a set of foundational building blocks for telemedicine applications. This solution allows healthcare workers to digitally capture patient information using Google Android-based smartphones and transmit files via the cellular network to solicit feedback from urban-area specialists. Fully integrated into the OpenMRS electronic medical record system platform, the release of the Moca source code represents an important contribution to the nascent health care open source movement.

The components of the Moca end-to-end solution are now available for download by the public on the Moca website (www.mocamobile.org) and include:

Google Android Client Application: The interface with which a health care worker can document patient information and upload the medical data to OpenMRS. This application permits users to document information through text, images, and GPS location. Any user is welcome to demo the application on their own Android smartphone and upload their patient case to Moca's OpenMRS server for viewing.

Moca Dispatch Server: The intermediary layer between Moca's Android client and the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. The Moca Dispatch Server also provides flexibility to extend Moca to other cell phone platform devices and medical record system back-ends.

OpenMRS Moca Module: An OpenMRS plug-in that allows urban-area specialists to receive patient cases uploaded from the smartphone to the Moca Dispatch Server. The Moca Module creates a queue of patient cases in need of review and allows for SMS or e-mail messaging for specialists to send further instructions to healthcare workers.

OpenMRS Flash Media Viewer Module: Moca's open source contribution to the OpenMRS platform. The Media Viewer allows healthcare providers to view and manipulate patient images with contrast, zoom, brightness, and sharpness, in addition to playing audio and video media files. The Media Viewer is modular in design and can be used outside of Moca's remote medical diagnostics applications.

Documentation: Step-by-step instructions on how to demo the system and setup a development environment.

Sample Questionnaires: The application includes disease-targeted patient assessment questionnaires developed by ClickDiagnostics in collaboration with a network of doctors through extensive pilots in Africa and Asia. These assessment questionnaires showcase the potential impact of Moca for field health professionals.

The Moca team approaches this project mindful that a strong telemedicine solution needs to be made publically available and customizable. The Moca client application was written for the Google Android operating system, an open source operating system for smartphones, and is hardware agnostic to allow for flexible adoption and compatibility with current technological infrastructures.

The Moca team encourages health organizations to work with this platform and to customize the solution for their own development projects. As IT integrations into healthcare present immense challenges such as workflow re-design and worker acceptance, Moca provides assistance for deployment implementation and assessment. Developers are encouraged to contact Moca at questions@mocamobile.org to discuss potential collaborations. Technical questions about the software can be directed to the online forum: moca-users@googlegroups.com.

The team is currently in discussion to deploy the Moca solution in the Philippines, U.S., India, and Mexico. Future plans for the solution include the creation of an improved customization platform and the expansion of data input functionality to include video and audio. Moca also hopes to expand compatibility with plug-in medical devices for ultrasound and electrocardiographic review.

The release of the source code represents a major milestone in Moca's development. Moca began as a NextLab student project at MIT, and has since grown to a group within MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics. Group members include student volunteers from MIT, HarvardSchool of Public Health and Harvard Business School. Further, the maturity of the current source code was made possible through the advisory of field experts from a wide array of partners, both commercial corporations and NGOs.

To contact the Moca team, please write to questions@mocamobile.org.

Moca would like to acknowledge Asia Pacific College, ClickDiagnostics, Dimagi, Google SOC, IEEE, MIT Corporate Relations, MIT Industrial Liaison Program, MIT Public Service Center, National Telehealth Center of the University of the Philippines, Nokia, OpenMRS, Partners in Health, Regenstreif Institute & Telmex for their support.

Moca Mission Statement:

To revolutionize healthcare delivery in remote areas through innovative mobile information services that improve patient access to medical specialists for faster, higher quality, and more cost-effective diagnosis and intervention.

Based on the work and contributions of students, volunteers, partner organizations, and sponsors, to build and be recognized as a leading open source data collection and collaboration platforms for clinical research and best practice health care delivery for the underserved.