Caring Does Not Pay
BY KIM BELLARD Things are tough all over the job market. With a jobless rate at 3.5%, and with millions of people who left the […]
Kim Bellard
THCB Gang Episode 97, Thursday June 30, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday June 30 will be THCB regular writer and ponderer of odd juxtapositions Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); Principal of Worksite […]
THCB Gang Episode 95, Thursday June 9, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on Thursday June 9 at 1pm PT 4pm ET will be THCB regular writer and ponderer of odd juxtapositions […]
Hey, Old Guys!
BY KIM BELLARD OK, how many of you had on your women-in-power bingo cards that, in 2022, Sheryl Sandberg would be out at Facebook but […]
AI are (going to be) people too
BY KIM BELLARD My heart says I should write about Uvalde, but my head says, not yet; there are others more able to do that. […]
I Want to Believe
BY KIM BELLARD I know, I should be writing about hot topics like monkeypox or the baby formula shortage, but, c’mon, Congress held hearings last […]
What Do You Mean, “Innovation”?
BY KIM BELLARD One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride. Among the many great quotes is one from Inigo Montoya, who becomes frustrated […]
The Licensing Walls Come Tumbling Down
BY KIM BELLARD Abortion rights continue to be one of the most heated issues in American politics, super-fueled by last week’s leak of a draft […]
Healthcare Suffers from Patient Bias
By KIM BELLARD If you went to business school, or perhaps did graduate work in statistics, you may have heard of survivor bias (AKA, survivorship […]
THCB Gang Episode 89, Thursday April 28, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang on April 28 for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in health care are: […]
We Love Innovation. Don’t We?
BY KIM BELLARD America loves innovation. We prize creativity. We honor inventors. We are the nation of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Jonas Salk, Steve Jobs, […]
If You’ve Seen One Robot – Wait, What?
BY KIM BELLARD If You’ve Seen One Robot – Wait, What? We think we know robots, from the old school Robbie the Robot to the […]
THCB Gang Episode 86, Thursday March 24th, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in […]
THCB Gang Episode 84, Thursday March 3rd, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in […]
Raspberry Pi Health Care
By KIM BELLARD Like many of you, I have been intently following the war in Ukraine, cheering for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, while […]
Get Ready for (Healthcare) Microgrids
BY KIM BELLARD We depend on it. Indeed, our daily lives are unimaginable without it. The trouble is, it’s become unreliable. Lives have been lost […]
Imaging a Different Future
By KIM BELLARD Two articles have me thinking this week. One sets up the problem healthcare has (although healthcare is not explicitly mentioned), while the […]
THCB Gang Episode 82, Thursday Feb 10th, 1pm PT 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang for an hour of conversation on the happenings in health care and beyond will be writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), […]
Spotify, Joe Rogan, and Health Care
By KIM BELLARD Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d have to write: the most interesting discussion in healthcare in the past week has been […]
The Tests were a Test
By KIM BELLARD Raise your hand if you’ve gone out shopping for home COVID tests, only to find empty shelves and signs apologizing for the […]
DAOs May Rescue Healthcare
By KIM BELLARD You may have seen the news that Kaiser Permanente has signed on to be an organizing member of Graphite Health, joining SSM […]
What a Waste of a Healthcare System
By KIM BELLARD An essay in Aeon had me at the title: The Waste Age. The title was so evocative of the world we live […]
THCB Gang Episode 77, Jan 6 1pm PT – 4pm ET
After our Christmas break THCB Gang is back! Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical […]
THCB Gang Episode 76, Dec 23 1pm PT – 4pm ET
This is the last THCB Gang of what has been a long, grueling, but enthralling year. And every week (well almost every week) we have […]
Not Just Token Tokens
By KIM BELLARD I recently watched some of the recent Congressional hearings on cryptocurrency, and, boy, if there’s anything funnier than watching experts try to […]
The Eisenhower Principle
By KIM BELLARD I’ve finally come to understand why the U.S. healthcare system continues to be such a mess, and I have President Dwight Eisenhower […]
THCB Gang Episode 74, Dec 9 1pm PT – 4pm ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on #THCBGang at 1pm PT 4pm ET Thursday for an hour of topical and sometime combative conversation on what’s happening in […]
DNA Storage in a Yottabyte Era
By KIM BELLARD Did you know we are living in the Zettabyte Era? Honestly, did you even know what a zettabyte is? Kilobytes, gigabytes, maybe […]
The Kids Aren’t Alright
By KIM BELLARD America, like most cultures, claims to love and value children, but, gosh, the reality sure seems very different. Three recent reports help […]
Breaking Up is Good to Do
By KIM BELLARD Last week General Electric announced it was breaking itself up. GE is an American icon, part of America’s industrial landscape for the […]
Tech Can’t Fix the Problems in Healthcare
By KIM BELLARD Shira Ovide, who writes the On Tech newsletter for The New York Times, had a thoughtful column last week: Tech Can’t Fix […]
Quantum Computing’s Sputnik Moment
By KIM BELLARD General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently expressed grave concern about China’s reported test of a hypersonic […]
Medicine May Be an Art, but AI May Be Artists
By KIM BELLARD Six hundred years ago, Swiss physician/scientist/philosopher Paracelsus disclaimed: “Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art.” Medicine, most people […]
You Need a Cyber Team
By KIM BELLARD Maybe you, like me, are an Olympics fan (in my case: Summer Games, track & field). Most Americans look forward eagerly to […]
THCB Gang Episode 67 – Thurs October 14 1pm PT-4 ET
Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) on THCBGang today will be THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard); patient safety expert and all around wit Michael Millenson (@MLMillenson); […]
Get Ready for Deepfakes
By KIM BELLARD The Tom Cruise TikTok deepfakes last spring didn’t spur me into writing about deepfakes, not even when Justin Bieber fell so hard […]
You Want to 3D Print What
By KIM BELLARD You know we’re living in the 21st century when people are 3D printing chicken and cooking it with lasers. They had me […]
THCB Gang Episode 67 – Thurs September 30, 1pm PT- 4pm ET
It has been WAY too long and for too many reasons (conferences, travel, a hurricane flooding out 4 East Coast guests) we haven’t got together […]
THCB Gang Episode 65 – Thurs September 30, 1pm PT- 4pm ET
It has been WAY too long and for too many reasons (conferences, travel, a hurricane flooding out 4 East Coast guests) we haven’t got together […]
Never Waste a (Design) Crisis
By KIM BELLARD The Wall Street Journal reported that the American Dental Association (ADA) opposes expanding Medicare to include dental benefits. My reaction was, well, […]
Not Your Father’s Job Market
By KIM BELLARD If you, like me, continue to think that TikTok is mostly about dumb stunts (case in point: vandalizing school property in the […]
More Laughing, More Thinking
By KIM BELLARD There was a lot going on this week, as there always is, including the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the beginning of […]
Selfish Much?
By KIM BELLARD In a week where we’ve seen the bungled Afghan withdrawal, had Texas show us its contempt for all sorts of rights, watched […]
Health Care, Meet Gall’s Law
By KIM BELLARD I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without knowing about Gall’s Law (thanks to @niquola for tweeting it!). For those of you […]
I am Dr. Groot
By KIM BELLARD The healthcare world is abuzz with Dr. David Feinberg’s departure from Google Health – another tech giant is shocked to find healthcare […]
Health Care You Do Not See
By KIM BELLARD Within a mile from my home in one direction, there are two pharmacies and a primary care office. In another direction, there’s […]
Let’s Meet in the Metaverse
By KIM BELLARD I really wasn’t expecting to write about the Metaverse again so soon, after discussing it in the context of Roblox last March, […]
The Most Important Thing
By KIM BELLARD Jack Dorsey has some big hopes for bitcoin. In a webinar last week, he said: “My hope is that it creates world […]
Health Care Should Go (Micro) Nuclear
By KIM BELLARD I think of hospitals as the healthcare system’s nuclear power plants. They’re both big, complex, expensive to build, beset with heavy regulatory […]
Up, Please
By KIM BELLARD When I think of elevator operators, I think of health care. Now, it’s not likely that many people think about elevator operators […]
THCB Gang Episode 61 – Thurs July 8 1pm PT – 4pm ET
On Thursday’s #THCBGang Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by regulars, employer health expert Jennifer Benz (@jenbenz); patient safety expert and all around wit Michael […]
Make Mine Bioresorbable
By KIM BELLARD I learned a new word this week: bioresorbable. It means pretty much what you might infer — materials that can be broken […]
Go Ahead, AI—Surprise Us
By KIM BELLARD Last week I was on a fun podcast with a bunch of people who were, as usual, smarter than me, and, in […]
Twins For Everyone!
By KIM BELLARD I have lived my entire life as a twin, and, while it isn’t an unalloyed blessing, on balance I’d recommend it. Most […]
THCB Gang Episode 57 – Thurs June 10
Episode 57 of “The THCB Gang” will be live on Thursday, June 10, 1pm PT 4pm ET. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will joined by regulars: medical […]
Hey, How About Starship Earth?
By KIM BELLARD I missed the job announcement on the company website. I missed it again when the company posted the job on Linkedin. I […]
Make Some Microbe Friends
By KIM BELLARD It’s the coolest story I’ve seen in the past few days: The New York Times reported how an Italian museum cleaned its […]
Holograms to the Rescue
By KIM BELLARD Google is getting much (deserved) publicity for its Project Starline, announced at last week’s I/O conference. Project Starline is a new 3D […]
Death, Taxes — and Paperwork
By KIM BELLARD Tuesday, in case you missed it, was the deadline for filing your 2020 federal taxes (it was postponed from its usual April […]
THCB Gang Episode 54, Thursday May 13. 1pm PT – 4pm ET
Episode 54 of “The THCB Gang” is live on Thursday, May 13 at 1pm PT -4PM ET. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by regulars: […]
A Timex Healthcare System
By KIM BELLARD Those of us of a certain age remember the Timex slogan that bragged about its watches’ durability: “It takes a licking and […]
THCB Gang Episode 53, Thursday May 6
Episode 53 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, May 5 at 1pm PT -4PM ET. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by […]
We Are All Designers
By KIM BELLARD Raise your hand if you had to go through the Hunger Games labyrinth to score a COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year – […]
Healthcare’s Million Dollar Blocks
By KIM BELLARD Since I first heard about them, I have been fascinated, and dismayed, by the concept of “million dollar blocks.” For those of […]
Let’s Build Some LTC Infrastructure!
By KIM BELLARD Quick now: what’s the biggest single component of President Biden’s infrastructure plan (a.k.a The American Jobs Plan)? Fixing roads and bridges? Upgrading […]
To Add is Expected, To Subtract is Design
By KIM BELLARD A couple years ago I wrote about how healthcare should take customer experience guru Dan Gingiss’s advice: do simple better. Now new […]
Some Discord Could Be Good for Health Care
By KIM BELLARD By the time you read this, Microsoft may have already struck a deal with the messaging service Discord. VentureBeat reported two weeks […]
We Are the Ever Given
By KIM BELLARD The Ever Given is free! Admit it: you’ve been following the story about the huge container ship stuck in the Suez Canal. […]
THCB Gang Episode 48, Friday March 26, 1pm PT – 4pm ET
This week (for one week only) #THCB Gang will be on Friday March 26. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by regulars medical historian Mike […]
Nanoparticles On My Mind
By KIM BELLARD Nanoparticles are everywhere! By that I mean, of course, that there seems to be a lot of news about them lately, particularly […]
Roblox and Healthcare’s Metaverse
By KIM BELLARD As neither a gamer nor the parent of a gamer, I’ve been proud that I’ve stayed even mildly in touch with the […]
Your Health Data May Be a NFT
By KIM BELLARD I must admit, after I wrote about digital currency last week, I did not expect to be writing about crypto anytime soon. […]
THCB Gang Episode 45, Thursday March 4, 1pm PT – 4pm ET
Joining me, Matthew Holt (@boltyboy), on this week’s THCB Gang will be THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), medical historian Mike Magee (@drmikemagee), policy & tech […]
Wanna Buy Some Bitcoin
By KIM BELLARD To healthcare organizations, digital currency is the thing you’re forced to deal with when your systems are held for ransomware. To the […]
THCB Gang Episode 43, Thursday Feb 18, 1pm PT – 4pm ET
THCB Gang was broadcast live on Thurs Feb 18 Joining me, Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) were THCB regular writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), patient advocates Grace Cordovano […]
Health Care Needs Its Mary Barra
By KIM BELLARD With all that has been going on, I’ve been remiss in reflecting on General Motor’s big announcement a couple weeks ago: it […]
Health Care: Don’t Be Evil
By KIM BELLARD Google’s corporate motto – written in its original Code of Conduct — was once “Don’t be evil.” That softened over time; Alphabet […]
No Names, Please
By KIM BELLARD Feeling good about your holiday spending? You’ve made it through most of this mostly horrible 2020, maybe lost a job or even […]
THCB Gang Episode 34 Live Dec 10, 1pm PT/4pm ET
Episode 35 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed TODAY Thursday, Dec 10, 1pm PT/4pm ET. You can watch it below. Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will […]
This is Your Brain on Microwaves
By KIM BELLARD Those of us of a certain age well remember the 1987 ad campaign from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. It equated […]
Healthcare on the Edge
By KIM BELLARD Perhaps you read about, or were directly impacted by, the massive, multi-hour Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage last week. Ironically, AWS’s effort […]
What, Us Worry
By KIM BELLARD 2020 has been an awful year. Hurricanes, wildfires, murder hornets, unjustified shootings, a divisive Presidential election, and, of course, a pandemic. Most […]
Healthcare’s Bridge Fire
By KIM BELLARD We had a bridge fire here in Cincinnati last week. Two semis collided in the overnight hours. The collision ignited a blaze […]
In Praise of Unsung Heroes
By KIM BELLARD Even in this extraordinary year, this has been an extraordinary week. Last Tuesday we had what many believe to have been the […]
THCB Gang Episode 31 11/5 1PM PT/4PM ET
Episode 30 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, November 5th. Tune in below! Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by our regulars: CEO […]
It’s (Cyber)Criminal
By KIM BELLARD One of the redeeming aspects of crises is that, amidst all the confusion, suffering, and loss, there are usually moments of grace, […]
THCB “SPOOKY” Gang: Episode 30 10/29 LIVE 1PM/4PM ET
Episode 30 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, October 28th! Tune in below! Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) will be joined by some of our […]
Can You Say “Chemputer”?
By KIM BELLARD I learned a new word this week: “chemputer.” It’s not a new word – it’s been around since at least 2012 — […]
Not Just Faxes
By KIM BELLARD I missed it when it was first announced in Japan, but fortunately the U.S. mainstream media has finally picked up on the […]
A War on Science is a War on Us
By KIM BELLARD We’re in the midst of a major U.S. election, as well as hearings on a Supreme Court vacancy, so people are thinking […]
A War on Science is a War on Us
By KIM BELLARD We’re in the midst of a major U.S. election, as well as hearings on a Supreme Court vacancy, so people are thinking […]
THCB Gang Episode 27, 10/8 1PM PT/4PM ET
Episode 27 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, October 7th! Tune in below! Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) are some of our regulars: […]
Attention, Walmart Patients
By KIM BELLARD When Walmart announced earlier this summer that it was opening an insurance agency to sell Medicare-related products and services plans, I thought, […]
Trying to Make AI Less Squirrelly
By KIM BELLARD You may have missed it, but the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) just announced its first annual Squirrel AI […]
Thriving in COVID Times
By KIM BELLARD These are, no question, hard times, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the U.S., we’re closing in on 180,000 deaths in the […]
THCB Gang Episode 22 LIVE 8/20 From 1PM PT/4PM ET
Episode 22 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, August 20th! Watch it below. Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) today are some of our […]
An Epic Fight for the Metaverse
By KIM BELLARD You might have missed it amongst all the headlines about the U.S.P.S., the 2020 elections, and, of course, that little thing we […]
Take Your Mom to Work
By KIM BELLARD If you are a working mom, or married to one, or simply know one, you know that it is tough to balance […]
Health Insurance Needs to Grow Up
By KIM BELLARD I’ve been covered by private insurance my entire life. Even more telling, I worked in the health insurance industry for — gasp! […]
LIVE: THCB GANG, Episode 20, July 30, 2020 From 1PM PT/4PM ET
Episode 20 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, July 30th! Tune in below. Joining Matthew Holt are some of our regulars: writer […]
Too Many Small Steps, Not Enough Leaps
By KIM BELLARD I was driving home the other day, noticed all the above-ground telephone/power lines, and thought to myself: this is not the 21st […]
Healthcare Should Get Into Some #GoodTrouble
By KIM BELLARD As hopefully most of you know, Rep. John Lewis, civil right icon and longtime member of Congress, died this past Friday. Rep. Lewis […]
THCB Gang, Episode 18 LIVE 7/16 from 1PM PT/4PM ET
Episode 18 of “The THCB Gang” will be live-streamed on Thursday, July 16th from 1PM PT/4PM ET! Join us below! Joining Matthew Holt are some […]
Virtually Better
By KIM BELLARD The COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t have come at a better time for virtual reality. It has caused many workers to work remotely, introducing […]
Goodbye Glasses, Hello Smartglasses
By KIM BELLARD It’s been a few months since I last wrote about augmented reality (AR), and, if anything, AR activity has only picked up since then […]
