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Good afternoon. Healthcare is complicated. You'll learn a little more today so let's get started. If you were forwarded this, get your own by signing up here.

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ONE HEALTHCARE ARTICLE

Rideshare vs. Ambulances

In the United States, over 20 million ambulance rides occur per year. Here’s why they matter.

I wrote a piece talking about surprise billing and the current state of ambulance bills in the US. It also considers the implications of Uber and Lyft as health-related services that could combat these high costs.

Here are some excerpts:

Surprise gifts are nice. Surprise bills are not. They’re unpleasant and no one likes them. Yet, surprise medical bills are an unfortunate reality for many in the US and will likely affect you too if you’re not careful.

Surprise bills happen when a patient unwittingly gets treatment from a healthcare provider who isn’t part of their insurance network. Surprise bills also happen when you’re not at fault at all–an ambulance that’s not part of your network transports you to the hospital. Since they aren’t contracted with the system, your insurance pays little if any of that bill, shunting the rest to you...

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...A Health Affairs report found that 71% of all ambulance rides risked surprise bills. On top of that, out-of-network charges were found to be a lot higher than in-network ones. Most of the rides are ground ambulances, while the rest are air ambulances...

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...Now imagine someone in a life threatening situation. They’re incapacitated and someone else calls for help. The person getting the emergency care does not have the ability to shop around for the “best price” in-network ambulance ride. In these matters, time is the difference between survival or fatality. Patients can’t provide consent. Whatever ambulance is closest and can get to the person fastest–will get to save them critical time, but also get to bill them for ambulance fees...

​Read the whole article.​

Topic tags: Medical bills, rural healthcare, ambulances, rideshare

TWO PATENTS

Smaller Implants and Conductive Fabric

This week, I'd like to introduce you to two patents. One is by Verily Life Science and the other is from Apple.

Oh look, an image.

Let me break this down. The black rectangle marked by the number 110 is a small electronic implant. The rest of the diagram is showing the outer barrier capsule–this houses and protects the electronic device. It's made of a bunch of different elements.

In short, this patent covers the production of smaller electronic devices for implantation. Traditional methods of making an implantable electronic device is challenged by our bodies' harsh conditions. Those moist and oxygen-rich environments within rapidly deteriorate micro electronic devices. Verily’s patent essentially makes a case for obtaining a longer lasting implant while reducing the footprint of these protection capsules around implants.

I imagine this is especially relevant when you have individuals with implants who wouldn't need to go as often or be at risk of implants degrading. This could potentially free up some stress on the overall system by reducing implant replacement visits!

Apple's Conductive Fabric

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Wearables have slowly become more and more commonplace. Smart watches or bands can track our moods, blood oxygen and heart rate. They can tell when we’re working out, standing up enough times during the day and even remind us to breathe. It only seems natural that the next phase of wearables involves clothing.

It’s a vastly under realized area that has great implications for personal health. Imagine if your clothes could provide statistical input on your body’s conditions and interface with other devices and tech.

Think of it as a super cool advanced version of those gloves that let you use your phone when you wear them.

Apple filed a patent that looks at fabric based items, claiming that “it may be desirable to form electrical devices, enclosures, and other items from fabric.” The fabric could have weaved in conductive strands and would need to withstand bending and motion.

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This patent specifically considers that an improved technique could result in forming the strands that would allow for conductive fabric based things. From my understanding, this would be really interesting in the scope of accessories to Apple products and devices but I wouldn’t rule out partnerships with sportswear and other apparel companies to get this into the mainstream.

THREE CURATED LINKS

Broad Spectrum

Medicine and Art, Friendly Nerds, and How Vaccines are Developed

Link 1: https://medicalbill.art (MSCHF)
​Speaking of medical billing, one of my favorite things to follow as of late are MSCHF drops. This time around, they did something genius.

MSCHF turned 3 people's medical bills into paintings and sold them to erase $73,460.36 of medical debt.

Link 2: The Most Comprehensive Hawaii COVID-19 Maps Come From This ‘Data Geek’ (CIVIL BEAT)
​Believe in play. One guy was behind the most comprehensive map of COVID-19 in Hawaii. And no, he doesn’t work for the state health department.

“My daughter makes fun of me for all of the stuff I do for free,” he says as he freely donates his findings to organizations and makes registries of where to buy face masks. Self described "nerd" Ryan Ozawa was spurred to action by the Department of Health's lack of transparency with COVID-19 cases.

He painstakenly worked with zip codes boundaries and the Hawaii's county-level data to create maps. This later evolved into an app that uses crowdsourced information to illustrate local outbreaks. I love this guy's initiative and how all of his projects are beneficial to our understanding. It's inspiring!

Link 3: The First Shot: Inside the Covid Vaccine Fast Track (WIRED)
​Ever wonder what a vaccine volunteer goes through? Ever wonder how we design vaccines that work? If so, you have to read this article.

It’s a comprehensive and accessible explanation of how vaccines work and describes the process that vaccine volunteers go through when new vaccines enter their trial phases. Not to mention that this speed of development for COVID-19 is unprecedented.

END NOTE

Wrapping Up

Thanks for joining me for this first release of the MKSTN newsletter. I'm super excited to go on this learning path with you. If you spot anything inaccurate or just want to leave a comment, let me know here or just hit reply.

Feel free to share this with a coworker or friend. I'd love it if you did. :)

Cheers,
Eashan Kotha