As we set forth on the Health Data Exploration project, we're being guided by a wonderful set of advisors. Here's a quick video post from one of them, Larry Smarr, the director of Calit2.  Larry's a pioneer who's exploring the frontiers of quantified self, as you can see from the extraordinary talk he gave at TEDMED earlier this year.

From: Paul Tarini

To: Christine Nieves, Beth Toner and Thomas Goetz

Date: June 7, 2013

Thomas, I agree with your description that Health Datapalooza is the place to be. For me, this year's conference was a great experience and offered a really rich environment for networking. At RWJF's booth and throughout the conference, I had conversation after conversation with a range of people who are interested in liberating data and using liberated data. I talked with researchers, entrepreneurs, health care providers, people from state and federal government, and representatives from large corporations. It was really quite impressive.

The big data hype cycle is playing out in predictable ways. Perhaps it’s inevitable that, after all the talk about how big data is going to save the world, we’re starting to see a similar rash of stories about how the promise of big data has been oversold. Microsoft Research’s Kate Crawford has been particularly outspoken as of late, with Quentin Hardy recounting her “six myths of big data” in The New York Times last weekend and Kate’s own Foreign Policy piece in May, which pointed out that big data put our privacy at risk, in addition to being susceptible to bias, misunderstanding, limitations and discriminatory outcomes.

I’m all for a little healthy skepticism. In fact, Pioneer seeks out those who are asking questions that others are not. But the potential of big data to take on some of health and health care’s most intractable problems is something we’re excited about here at RWJF. Too many Americans are unhealthy, our health care system isn’t working and I’m confident that effective analysis and use of big data has (at the very least a small) role to play in turning things around. I don’t want this backlash to stifle explorations into what that role could be.

Earlier this year, Fast Company released its list of the 50 most innovative companies and named Nike No. 1. In that article, Nike CEO Mark Parker noted, “One of my fears is being this big, slow, constipated, bureaucratic company that's happy with its success…. Companies fall apart when their model is so successful that it stifles thinking that challenges it.” Kaiser Permanente did not make the Fast Company list—this year.  But this nation-leading health care provider is working hard to ensure it’s not a big plugged-up company satisfied with its past success. KP works hard at innovating. KP's leaders and staff clearly do not take their past success and excellence for granted.

From: Thomas Goetz

To: Christine Nieves, Paul Tarini and Beth Toner

Date: June 2, 2013

Like you, Paul, this will be my third Datapalooza (I’m tempted to go all Woodstock and say I was there for the first, but… I wasn’t that cool).

I remember the second Datapalooza quite vividly. First, because I’d taken a red-eye from San Francisco and was fairly bleary, and second because I was completely unprepared for the passion and sense of potential that was on tap that day at the NIH auditorium. Frankly, I didn’t expect much; I figured a D.C. conference about data organized by the federal government wasn’t exactly going to be a hub of innovative ideas.

But my Bay Area provincialism was quickly scrubbed as Todd Park et al stunned me in the best possible way. In short, I remember that Datapalooza because it’s where I got a vibe that something was going on in D.C. around health care that was, if anything, more powerful and exciting than what was brewing in Silicon Valley.