B-Time with Beth Bierbower

There are more than 35 million unpaid caregivers who provide unpaid services to an adult age 50 or older in the US.  According to the AARP Public Policy Institute, the economic value of unpaid caregiving exceeds $470B.  According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Family caregivers spend an average of 24.4 hours per week providing care and nearly 1 in 4 caregivers spends 41 hours or more per week providing care.  And 24% of caregivers provide care for more than 5 years.  These numbers are astonishing.

The caregiver is the unsung hero who often suffers physically, emotionally and financially while putting others first.  Today we are going to hear from my good friend, Alexandra Drane who is the co-founder and CEO of Archangel.  Alex will tell us about the impact of caregiving on the caregiver and what she and others at Archangel are doing about it. 

Show notes: Book Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson

When I was perusing my library app for my next book, the title Surrounded By Idiots immediately grabbed my attention.  The book was written by Thomas Erikson and explains the four types of human behavior through the use of the colors red, yellow, green and blue.  When I took the test many years ago, it was called DISC which stands for Dominance, Influence, Submission and Compliance but the author also refers to the DISA system switching the term Compliance with Analytical.

As for the human behaviors, reds are driven, competitive and set high expectations.  They view themselves as big picture and don’t like to dive into the details but they have a strong need to get things done.  Yellows are social butterflies who love change – often for the sake of change and don’t appreciate others who whine about so much change.  While the yellow likes change, they aren’t necessarily the best at execution.  Greens are introverts who are reliable but often wait for clear direction to motivate them into action.  They also need time alone to recover from socializing with others.  Blues are very analytical, logical and ask many questions.  Typically people exhibit behaviors of two colors for example, red/yellow.

The book explains these behaviors in detail and includes many examples that resonated with me having dealt with someone else’s behavior or having exhibited many of the behaviors myself.  The book also equips the reader with tools to use when dealing with each of these behavioral types.  Having insights into these behaviors really does help me better interact with others – especially in tense situations.  Surrounded by Idiots is worth reading.  And yes, if you haven’t yet guessed, reds are the ones that believe they are “surrounded by idiots”. 

Every 17 seconds an American is diagnosed with diabetes.  This statistic is from the American Journal of Managed Care (2018).  Also, according to the CDC, 34 million Americans have diabetes which represents 11% of the population.  And another 85 million Americans are considered “pre-diabetes”  It’s no wonder that Diabetes continues to high in the rankings for healthcare spend. 

We have been told for decades that Type 2 diabetes can be prevented only through better diet and exercise.  In recent years we have begun to hear claims that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed and this is a gamechanger for people living with Type 2 diabetes.  Here to speak with us today about Type 2 diabetes and what his company is doing to reverse this dreaded disease is Sami Inkinen, the CEO & Founder of Virta Health.  As with most entrepreneurs, Sami has his own healthcare journey that inspired him to create Virta Health.  I am excited to hear what he will share with us today. 

Show notes:  Podcast:  How I Built This with Guy Raz; Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

Dr. Adaeze Enekwechi is a leading voice in health equity and evidence-based health policy making who is committed to meaningfully improve access to equitable, quality healthcare for all Americans.

Dr. Enekwechi is currently an operating partner with Private Equity firm Welsch, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and serves on the Boards of several companies.  She is also currently a Research Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University and is an Executive in Residence at The Health Academy.  Her research areas cover the aging population and Medicare, health equity for vulnerable populations, and evidence-based policymaking all of which are important topics that I look forward to covering today.

Show notes: Books:  The Love Songs of w.e.b. du bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers; When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole;  I Alone Can Fix IT: Donald J. Trump’s Final Catastrophic Year by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.

I was a little surprised when I began reading The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning.  Elevate Your Life by Robin S. Sharma.  I thought I was going to get a textbook like account of each of the steps required to becoming more productive.  Instead, the reader gets a story about a spellbinder, a billionaire initially mistaken for a homeless person, a struggling entrepreneur and an artist who isn’t doing his best work.  Initially, I wanted the story to end so I could get to the “good stuff.”  From some of the mixed reviews of the book I see that I was not the only one anxious to move beyond the story.

However, I was patient and, eventually got into the story and began to wonder.  Where would the characters travel to next?  What would the billionaire teach his two students?  What quote or bit of wisdom would the reader learn? I really enjoyed this book.  While it is a compilation of many different personal improvement theories, I feel that the author pulled this information together nicely through the story.  My only criticism is that it took a little too long to get into the tactics.  While I am sure that was intentional on the part of the author, it was a little off putting to me but I stuck with it.

As I read the book, I was on a five-week respite from the Florida heat.  As much as I tried to retain my routine, I was off track.  Reading The 5 AM Club gave me renewed energy and focus to get back on track when I returned home the following week.

As I mentioned, there are mixed reviews of the book but mostly because people were put off by the story format.  If you enjoyed any of Patrick Lencioni’s books that impart wisdom through a story then you will enjoy The 5 AM Club. 

eVisit CTO Miles Romney shares his vision of how Telehealth can be leveraged to support and optimize the concept of Integrated healthcare delivery.  The use of telehealth increased significantly during the pandemic but the need exists to ensure that this technology is used to support an integrated care team. 

Show Notes:   Favorite Books:  The Castrato by Martha Feldman; Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella; Cash & Dash: How ATMS And Computers Changed Banking by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo; The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos And The Age Of Amazon by Brad Stone.  Favorite Podcasts:  Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist; Stuff to Blow Your Mind; Soft Skills Engineering; This American Life.

Remote patient monitoring is the early monitoring concept that many are counting on to help providers get to the right patients faster and diagnose and treat issues earlier to improve health outcomes.  Remote patient monitoring – or RPM for short - is one of those broad industry terms that can mean many things.  I am looking forward to gaining a better understanding of what RPM is and how it can lead to better outcomes and lower costs in our discussion today with Jarrett Bauer the CEO & Co-founder of Healthcare Recovery Solutions a nationally recognized healthcare remote monitoring company.  Jarrett holds an MBA from the Johns Hopkins Care School of Business and has been focused on RPM for the last ten years. 

Show notes:  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey.  Podcasts:  The Wall Street Journal & Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman & The B-Time Podcast with Beth Bierbower

It’s a bit ironic that I used my iPad to listen to a book about digital minimalism.  The book Digital Minimalism is by Cal Newport who is also the author of Deep Work.  He’s an MIT educated computer scientist who believes that for most people, use of social media is an addiction that is ruining our ability to connect as a society. 

Newport reminds us that social media companies want to capture as much of our attention as possible – and at all costs.  He tells us to refrain from “likes”, put our devices away when we are not using them for work, to embrace solitude and find other enjoyable hobbies. 

As someone who embraced Digital Detox in the workplace, I agree with much of what Newport says.  I was traveling while listening to this book and I took the time to observe other travelers in the airport.  Virtually no one was having a conversation. When people were talking to each other, at least one of them was simultaneously checking their phone. 

Newport provides some tips on how to digitally declutter – but truly, we know what to do.  The book is a good reminder that there are many other things we can do with our time that are more meaningful than posting on Facebook.  If you are on digital overload, download a copy of Digital Minimalism, at least it will keep you from checking Facebook for a while. 

Pocket Health is a Canadian based company that offers an online, automated process for transferring images.  No CD burning.  No physical transport of the CD required by the patient.  Rishi Nayyar is the CEO and co-founder of Pocket Health.  Rishi and his brother founded the company after his brother experienced an injury and encountered the labor intensive and cumbersome process I just described.

Pocket Health wants to put patients in control of their images and in this episode Rishi explains how Pocket Health is meeting this objective. 

Show notes:  Favorite books: The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov; The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni.  Podcasts:  The All in Podcast, B-Time with Beth Bierbower

Did you know that more people are caring for an elderly loved one than are caring for a child?  It’s tough to be a caregiver for an elderly loved one and many of you have firsthand experience with caregiving.  Here’s a quote that says it all.  “Everything is fine with your aging parent until it’s not.  Then everything falls apart.”  This quote is from one of the co-founders of Homethrive, and we are lucky to have both gentlemen with us today.  Dave Jacobs and David Greenberg are not only the co-founders they are co-CEOs of the company.  Both men were previously executives in the health industry and personal experiences led them to develop Homethrive which will learn more about today. 

Show notes:  Books: Educated by Tara Westover and Thirty Days With A Navy Seal by Jesse Itzler.  Podcasts: Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist Historyand Smartless with Sean Hayes, Justin Bateman, Will Arnett.