Harry MacCormack
Writing Samples
Healthcare Role Eyed For Google Glass Health Data Management4/2014 Since the release of smartphones and the iPad, the healthcare industry has taken a keen interest in adopting portable computing for a clinical environment. And just as quickly as mobility has arrived, those form factors may have to make space for another new gadget, Google Glass.
Over the past two years, clinical staffs have been dipping their toes in the water with a handful of small experiments using Glass, and recent successes have led to a greater interest in the product as a viable medical tool. Not only are doctors and hospitals intrigued by the prospect of Glass, a number of startups have emerged with the goal of building healthcarespecific software to make the most of Google’s hitech headgear.
Google Glass—from search engine giant Google Inc.comprises a pair of glasses equipped with a camera, microphone and small LCD display that connects to the user’s phone. Glass enables its users to record video and make gestural commands using the camera, as well as give voice commands over its builtin microphone, all while showing the user what they need through the display.
Social Media is Making Its Mark on EHRs, For Better or Worse Health Data Management2/2014 Slowly but surely, social media is creeping into the health care industry’s vocabulary. Generally speaking, providers have been squeamish about utilizing social media for a number of reasons, with privacy and public relations concerns being two of the most prominent gripes. Despite social media’s reputation as a doubleedged sword, its influence is becoming increasingly apparent throughout the industry, but primarily with software products for now. With information exchange and patient interaction being more important than ever under Stage 2 of the electronic health records meaningful use program, it’s no surprise that software is taking design cues from social media.
Practice Fusion, a webbased EHR vendor is excellent example of social media’s influence on health care. Funded by venture capital, all online, free to use, adsupported, and wrapped up in a slick multiplatform user interface, Practice Fusion has more in common with Facebook than it does with Epic. The similarity comes as no surprise to industry expert Vince Ciotti. “An EHR that looks like YouTube or Facebook will be more comfortable to 99.9 percent of users.” Practice Fusion’s social media flavor extends beyond the window dressing as well. The EHR’s biggest selling point (beyond being free) is its emphasis on sharing information. For providers, they focused on making the transfer of records and information between doctors as convenient as possible.
A New World at My Fingertips Empire State Insight (Blog)1/2013 "You're going to feel a little pinch."
Just as the word pinch passed my ears, dripping with professional nonchalance, a razor sharp bit of surgical steel found its way into the tip of my finger. The air rushed from my lungs, eager to carry out the expletives my brain was too distracted to form. As the scalpel drove in closer to its destination, the nerve cluster in my right ring finger, my cursing became increasingly coherent. Before long, the scalpel was out and Brian reached out to exchange the blade for a pair of tweezers. During my brief respite I looked back at my friends; each of their faces twisted into grimaces of morbid entertainment and sympathy. My attempt to explain what I was feeling was summarily interrupted by a metal cylinder making itself comfortable inside the tip of my finger. My ability to form words was lost as the nerves in my finger screamed in discontent for their new neighbor. The pain of the suture needle was almost soothing against the agony of the last two implements. As the procedure came to a close (pun intended), my suffering became a strange satisfaction, similar to the masochistic gratification described by first time tattoo recipients. So, stitches in and bleeding stanched, I got my first taste of what 150 dollars and a profoundly unique experience with pain had bought me. Brian held out his own finger and brought it close to mine. I winced as my freshly implanted magnet reached out towards Brian's from under my flesh. The twinge of pain on my face quickly melted away into an ear to ear grin as I felt a magnetic field for the first time. I now had a sixth sense.
The Price of Failure at the Olympic Games Empire State Insight (Blog)12/2012 Haengyong concentration camp, better known as Camp 22 is the most apparent example of such a camp. The most apt comparison to Camp 22 is the Nazi concentration camp Dachau. Both camps are composed primarily of political prisoners forced to live in total squalor, deprived of basic needs like food and water, subject to cruel torture, inhumane medical experimentation, and arbitrary summary execution.
However, there is one stark difference between Dachau and Camp 22. Dachau is only thought to have held around 3000 people. Camp 22 is currently believed to contain 50,000. There are a number of camps like this in North Korea, and all of them come with a life sentence.
Think about these Olympic performers. It is no surprise that North Korean athletes are performing so admirably considering the presumably limited resources and terrible conditions of their home nation. It is hard to imagine a more powerful motivator than coming home either a national hero or a prisoner in conditions similar to the Holocaust. If any part of this situation turns out to be true, this would be a terrible stain on the honor and reputation of the Olympics.
While that may seem like a petty point to make in the face of a person’s life hanging in the balance, the obvious human rights implications are plain enough that they do not need to be argued for. However, what this means for the Olympics is an entirely different matter which must be addressed.
The whole point of the Olympic Games to begin with is the celebration of human athletic challenge and competition. The motto of the games is Citius (Faster), Altius (Higher), and Fortius (Stronger), and those ideals are what the athletes participating are meant to strive for. The Olympics have never been about money or fame, rather it is about the love of the sport. No athlete who reaches a level of skill worthy of the Olympics is doing it solely for the material or personal gain. A person has to love their sport to devote his or her life to it the way Olympic athletes do, which often comes at great personal cost.
This ideal is what defines the Olympics and those who compete in them. The purity of ideal is something anyone from any nation can find significance in. That ability to bring the whole world together should be cherished and protected; right now, North Korea may be poisoning the very idea on which the Olympics stand.
If North Korean athletes are in fact faced with such a terrible punishment for failure, then their motives for competition are a sad corruption of the spirit of the Games. Any nation that is willing to completely fly in the face of such a noble gathering of men and women should not be allowed to participate.
I certainly hope that more is done to obtain hard facts and maybe even resolution on this issue. Not because the Olympics are the most important thing going on in the world right now, they hardly are, but instead because unity and cooperation among human beings beyond national or cultural borders is a rare and precious thing that must be safeguarded and perpetuated in any form in which it can be found.
Seidell Humors Crowd With Comedy Career Fordham Ram3/2011 If you had asked Streeter Seidell in his junior year if his tutelage at Fordham would be remembered, he would have confidently told you no. But now, seven years later, he has returned to his alma mater to speak as a part of Campus Activities Board's American Age lecture series.
For the uninitiated, Seidell graduated from Fordham with a degree in Communications and Media Studies in 2005. He wasted no time getting paid to be funny, giving himself just one day after graduation to rest before working at CollegeHumor.com, the popular comedy Web site which has spawned video series such as "Jake and Amir" and "Prank Wars." The latter series stars Seidell and his colleague Amir Blumenfeld as they engage in an everescalating prank war, which received serious attention as the pranks grew to extreme levels of complexity.
Over the course of the year, Seidell continued to write for CollegeHumor, eventually being brought on to write for a CollegeHumor book in his senior year, which led to his most cherished moment in college. He recalls having a professor in his senior year who was "the typical failed writer." Seidell spoke about his teacher with a kind of disgust, "I don't remember his name, maybe he was an adjunct or something." He remembered him as having no sense of humor, which did not work for Seidell who "tried to make everything I write funny."
Needless to say, he did not get along with this certain professor. It was with great relish that Seidell told this unnamed professor that "I'm going to have to miss class, I have meetings with publishers."