IKONA, the Startup Using VR to Improve Health Literacy, Starting with Dialysis

CEO and founder Tim Fitzpatrick is leveraging the latest in neuroscience research and VR filmmaking to radically improve health education and patient confidence. 

Kidney disease is a large and growing health challenge, in the United States and globally, thanks in part to rising rates of diabetes and high blood pressure. A full 37 million Americans (15% of the adult population) suffer from kidney disease, according to the National Kidney Foundation, and in 2016, more than half a million people had to be put on dialysis at least 3 times a week just to survive. 

This represents a huge cost to Medicare ($114B in 2016) and efforts are now underway to transition dialysis patients to in-home care, a cheaper and more comfortable alternative. This need for this transition to home became even more acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, but how can resource-strapped dialysis clinics — which currently only spend a few minutes on patient education through paper pamphlets — safely and efficiently transition hundreds of thousands of patients to home care?

Levin is a former CEO of Time Warner

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Jerry Levin, ex CEO of Time-Warner shares his own personal experience with dialysis. Following a severe injury from a fall, with multiple injuries he eventually was placed on hemodialysis while rehabilitating in a skilled nursing facility.  The experience was an eye-opener and less than optimal for his condition and many others.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also provided specific guidelines to address a similar deathtrap: dialysis centers, due to their comparable high volume of older patients (50% of all dialysis patients are over 65) and their history of infections are a very high risk for heightening the spread. More than 725,000 Americans suffer from kidney failure, otherwise known as end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Of these, at least 500,000 individuals are on dialysis.

Receiving home dialysis treatments in a nursing home is not something that is only available to people like me (former CEOs). It could be provided to any patient who needs it. Unfortunately, right now it’s not available to many, which is mainly a function of the red tape and bureaucracy in healthcare. Our current system is characterized by slow decision making, limited willingness to try new and innovative therapies, and stubborn adherence to the status quo of where and how healthcare should be delivered.

But there is a safer way to administer this lifesaving care, and we must urgently make plans to deliver dialysis within nursing home and long-term care facilities, and further to accelerate the provision of dialysis for those able to do it in their home. We must save our elderly and our broader population from this deadly blind spot.

Say Hello to IKONA, the Startup Using VR to Improve Health Literacy, Starting with Dialysis

Will the Affordable Care Act overwhelm the Health System?

In the midst of the fury, anger, and frustration with the Affordable Care Act we have been focused on chronic care, outcomes, meaningful use, accountable care organizations, HIT, and coming changes in reimbursement paradigms.

The increasing rates of obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, breast cancer. colon cancer sits in stark opposition to acute illnesses, such as flu, otitis media, pharyngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, infectious gastroenteritis,  and the tsunami of routine care, skin rashes, exanthems, pregnancy and it's secondary consequences as well.

Raising the bar for excellence in chronic disease management as measured by somewhat subjective criteria does not occur in isolation. This will have an effect on the system's ability to deal with the 'walking ill".   The overwhelming majority of health care takes place in an outpatient environment.  Monitoring this segment will require extensive monitoring and a means to encourage clinicians to use evidence based medicine. EBM at

it's best can be questionable and subject to clinical judgment and years of experience. Given the recent experience with screening for prostate cancer and breast cancer imaging standards were reversed after controversy erupted, and the USPHS did a quick reversal of it's stand on prevention of breast cancer and prostate cancer.

While the majority of health costs occur in the population above 55 years of age, this portion of the population is not as active in the economy.  Younger patients illnesses effect their attendance and ability to participate in the workforce, at times.  This is a  'hidden expense; to the system which is difficult to measure.

The initial phases of the Affordable Care Act have caused employers to look carefully at their full-time work force, and will shift to more part-time employment.  This will in turn stimulate the Individual Family  Plans not tied to an employer group plan.  History reveals these IFPs are more expensive to administrate than GHPs.

It has been a more than decade long crusade to develop a plan such as the ACA. Some are ecstatic and even euphoric about the ACA to the point of an unrealistic assessment of what the ACA can accomplish.  The very worthwhile plan  has caused a deep divide between fiscal conservatives, and liberals. What we need is more 'reaching across the aisle and open minds.  Both sides must lower the volume.

Celebrities and Public Health.

Whether your  favorite celebrity knows anything about health may be open to question.

However given the visibility of celebs such as Angelina Jolie and the topic of breast cancer; or  type II diabetes (such as Tom Hanks) many want to contribute their celebrity either due to a personal involvement with the disease or for charitable purposes.

Somewhat open to question are those who endorse a specific treatment,rather than elevating the public awareness of the disease or treatments.

Amy Orbach and Breast Cancer

Katherine Zeta-Jones and Bipolar Disorder

Tom Hanks and Type II Diabetes




Celebrities can use their enormous stage presence and visibility to the general public far more than millions of dollars spent by government in public health advertising or announcements.
Who does not know more about HIV and AIDS due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or Michael J. Foxx and Parkinsonism. The list goes
on.






Kim Kardashian and the HIPAA Scandal at Cedar-Sinai



Actress Angelina Jolie explained her decision to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy to significantly reduce her risk of inherited breast cancer,

   




 The effects of the so-called "Angelina Jolie effect" even have reached across the pond, where breast cancer charities have reported a four-fold surge in women asking about having their breasts removed since Jolie announced she'd had the procedure, according to Daily Mail. And the number of calls Cancer Research UK's helpline received about a family history of breast cancer increased from 13 in April to 88 in May, the article noted.
In response to Jolie's breast cancer media bombshell, doctors acknowledged not all women need genetic testing but all women should discuss it with their doctors, FierceHealthcare previously reported.

Kim Kardashian brought to light the importance of privacy and confidentiality in the health space and protected information by HIPAA.Some hospital employees in Los Angeles may have gone too far in their quest to "Keep Up with the Kardashians" and now have to face the consequences.

Five workers and a student research assistant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Calif.) were fired over privacy breaches involving patient medical records--and there is speculation that the patient was Kardashian, who gave birth to her daughter with rapper Kanye West in a birthing suite at the hospital on June 15, the Los Angeles Times reports. This event publicized HIPAA rules for the public and providers.

News correspondent Amy Robach announced that she has breast cancer and would undergo a double mastectomy--after reluctantly agreeing to have a mammogram live on-air for Good Morning America. Had she followed the United States Preventive Services Task Force 2009 guidelines for screening, it's likely she wouldn't have undergone her first mammogram until a decade later. Robach is just 40 years old and has little history of breast cancer. This brought to life the controversy of statistical evidence for screening for many diseases.

     Obama's camp took to popular comedy site Funny or Die to get the word out about the Affordable Care Act, with skits featuring Jennifer Hudson, Amy Poehler and Olivia Wilde. Parodying TV's Scandal, Jennifer Hudson plays a "fixer" who offers up the simple (well, it should be simple) solution of signing up for coverage on Healthcare.gov to clients presenting their problems.

     The first lady stepped into the public health spotlight with her "Let's Move" campaign, encouraging schoolchildren to eat healthier foods and exercise daily--she even enlisted Sesame Street characters Elmo and Rosita to help her promote eating fruits and vegetables during an official press conference

    In fact the Obama campaign used many celebs to raise awareness of Health.gov the national website to enroll in the Affordable Care Act. As health care professionals we should not take for granted our knowledge base as compared to the public.  The Obama effort has some very funny videos that made even me laugh, and the ACA is no laughing matter.

Katherine Zeta-Jones revealed she had bipolar disorder back in 2011, shortly after husband Michael Douglas was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Zeta Jones commented on her struggle with bipolar ll (which is less severe than bipolar l), in 2011,

Yet there is a conflicting report that her disclosure had little if any effect on the number of BCRA tests following her announcement

And then there have been comments from people such as Jenny McCarthy when McCarthy told Oprah Winfrey she "graduated from the University of Google," to come to this idea, but she's been spreading her view that vaccinating young children for diseases like mumps results in autism in books, newspapers and on TV--much to the dismay of doctors, scientists, researchers and other celebrities.