Looking forward from Katrina
Tuesday, of course, was the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Of all the news coverage examining what went wrong and how bad things still are in the Gulf Coast region, I haven’t seen anything forward-looking, at least in terms of healthcare.
Wait, I take that back. I did see one story: my own. And it wasn’t even published in the United States.
I wrote a fairly detailed commentary on post-Katrina rebuilding of healthcare for London-based E-Health Insider this week.
I hope every U.S. publication that passed on my services is embarrassed for missing this important side of the story. But it’s not too late. I have plenty more material from my five-day tour of Louisiana and Mississippi last month, pertaining to much more than just IT. Editors, I await your call.
I’m also slowly putting together a podcast with the hours worth of compelling audio I have from my trip. Most likely, you will only hear it right here on this blog.
Neil, congratulations on placing your thoughtful story on post-Katrina e-healthcare. As a former journalist myself, I think it’s an impressive piece of enterprising journalism – especially considering you went down there without an assignment. I’m frankly baffled why no one else picked it up, but don’t let that stop you from continuing your one-man HIT parade.
Thanks, Todd. (And thanks for adding your own HTML. Todd is a media rep for Allscripts, which is why his name links to that company’s home page.)I’ve had some shorter stories from my trip to the Gulf Coast published in Health-IT World, For The Record and Inside Healthcare Computing, including a commentary about Louisiana’s rebuilding plan. I’m expecting to write some more as the plan takes shape.What’s missing is something in the mainstream media. For that matter, it’s missing in the general healthcare media (other than IT) and the technology media (other than healthcare), but not for lack of me trying. The stories I’ve done so far have more than covered my travel expenses, so I can’t say it wasn’t a successful and worthwhile trip. Of course, you can’t put a price tag on being able to see the reality with your own eyes.