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Malpractices of the multitude revisited: "An outstanding job of educating themselves about clinical issues"

At numerous posts at Healthcare Renewal, we have pointed out what we feel to be a serious gap in the credentials of many in biomedical leadership roles. The gaps are in the form of a near complete lack of any scientific or biomedical education and experience, except perhaps a high school chemistry and biology class or two. We often receive comments back, usually from "anonymous" posters such as <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9551150&postID=5185319720165437636&isPopup=true">here</a> to our opinions that this expertise gap impairs the judgment of such leaders on medical matters: <blockquote>... No. I've met individuals with management training who do an outstanding job of educating themselves about clinical issues. And I've met individuals with clinical training who do an outstanding job of educating themselves about management and business issues.</blockquote> I feel this "anyone can be an expert" sentiment is an important issue to bring outside of the comments section of our posts. I raised probing questions in response to such messages <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-on-healthcare-management-by-domain.html#comments">here</a> in my post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-on-healthcare-management-by-domain.html">More On Healthcare Management By Domain Neutral Generalists: CIO's Running Hospital Pharmacies and Home Healthcare Divisions?</a>" Here are my most recent questions to the above anonymous medical self-education proponent: Re: "I've met individuals with management training who do an outstanding job of educating themselves about clinical issues." <blockquote>What, exactly, is it that individuals with management training who do an outstanding job of "educating themselves about clinical issues" are professionally or even reasonably qualified to do? Could they pass medical boards? Could they reasonably interpret a complex medical article in, say, The Annals, and make truly informed, wise decisions based on that reading? Could they reasonably evaluate therapeutic alternatives in complex cases, say, someone with a new heart valve who's just developed fever and a lower GI bleed? In an emergency could they provide medical care? (mot in the legal sense, just in the skills sense.) If not, why not, and what do you mean by "outstanding job?" In comparison, I have no MBA or formal business training (other than working for years in my father's pharmacy as a stocker and cashier) but did a good job managing a department of 50+ and a budget of $13 million for an international pharma, solving severe business problems that had been impairing R&D and managing my budget consistently to within 0.5% of EA. Is there perhaps an asymmetry between medicine and business? </blockquote> Finally, I ask: <blockquote>What percentage of a typical medical training curriculum (such as for a Pharm.D. <a href="http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/sop/students/Curriculum/Curriculum2011_2012_2013_fall2009.htm">here</a> or a physician <a href="http://www.bumc.bu.edu/admissions/curriculum/">here</a>) can a person with a management background absorb through self-education, and is the medical training curriculum therefore irrelevant? Should we just go back to the days of self-trained practitioners? If not, why not? </blockquote> The critically thought-out answers to these questions expose the territorial invasion of medicine by ill-suited outsiders and dilettantes quite well. Echoing an observation I wrote about once before in my <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/malpractices-of-multitudes-mission.html">eight part series on mission hostile EMR's</a>, but addressing it to medical administration where it also applies: Medical administration reminds me of dentistry in its early days, especially when medical administrators lacking biomedical expertise refer to themselves as "medical professionals." B.T. Longbothom, author of the second dentistry book published in the U.S. ("A Treatise on Dentistry", 1802), gave an excellent description in his preface of problems at the time. His observations apply to medical administration in our present age: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;">The word "dentist" has been so infamously abused by ignorant pretenders, and is in general so indifferently understood, that I cannot forbear giving what I conceive to be its original meaning: viz, the profession of one who undertakes and is capable not only of cleaning, extracting, replacing by transplantation and making artificial teeth, but can also from his knowledge of dentistry, preserve those that remain in good condition, prevent in a very great degree, those that are loose, or those that are in a decayed state, from being further injured, and can guard against the several diseases, to which the teeth, gums and mouth are liable, a knowledge none but those regularly instructed, and who have had a long, and extensive practice, can possibly attain, but which is absolutely necessary, to complete the character of a Surgeon Dentist.</blockquote> Hardly anyone spoke out. More than thirty years later, untrained practitioners were as prevalent as ever. One of the leading dentists of the time, Shearjashub Spooner, in his "Guide to Sound Teeth, or, A Popular Treatise on the Teeth" (1836) warned the public of a phenomenon I believe now applies to medical administration: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;"> One thing is certain, this profession must either rise or sink. If means are not taken to suppress and discountenance the malpractices of the multitude of incompetent persons, who are pressing into it, merely for the sake of its emoluments, it must sink, - for the few competent and well educated men, who are now upholding it, will abandon a disreputable profession, in a country of enterprise like ours, and turn their attention to some other calling more congenial to the feelings of honorable and enlightened men.</blockquote> I understand that point of view. -- SS

Malpractices of the multitude revisited: "An outstanding job of educating themselves about clinical issues"

At numerous posts at Healthcare Renewal, we have pointed out what we feel to be a serious gap in the credentials of many in biomedical leade...

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Congress expects physicians to implement EHR's when they can't post a PDF on the web?

Congress expects physicians to implement EHR's and review patient histories in detail, when they can't even review their own bills before acting, and post a PDF on the web? This has to be the lamest, most inept, and/or most patronizing Congress in history (with approval ratings to match, 16% as of Sept. 25 according to <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance">Rasmussen</a>): <blockquote>Washington Examiner <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Baucus-claims-its-too-difficult-to-put-health-care-bill-online-61246377.html">Baucus claims it's too difficult to put health care bill online</a> By: BARBARA HOLLINGSWORTH 09/24/09 A proposal by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., that would have required the Senate Finance Committee to post the final language of the $900 billion health care reform bill, as well as a Congressional Budget Office cost analysis, on the committee’s website for 72 hours prior to a vote was rejected 12-11. ... Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., himself admitted that “This probably sounds a little crazy to some people that we are voting on something before we have seen legislative language.” Indeed. Baucus’ excuse - that it would take his committee staff two weeks to post the bill online – sounds a little crazy too. </blockquote>This very same Congress is pushing physicians to implement EHR's under penalty of Medicare payment reductions, while they claim an inability to post a PDF or Word document online. Implementing EHR's is only <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/medinfo.htm">several orders of magnitude more complex</a>... Or, perhaps the "inability" to post the text has to do with text that appears at pages 80-81 of the bill: <blockquote> "Beginning in 2015, payment [under Medicare] would be reduced by five percent if an aggregation of the physician's resource use is at or above the 90th percentile of national utilization." Thus, in any year in which a particular doctor's average per-patient Medicare costs are in the top 10 percent in the nation, the feds will cut the doctor's payments by 5 percent."</blockquote> As in the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/25/death-panels-by-proxy/">Washington Times</a>: <blockquote> This provision makes no account for the results of care, its quality or even its efficiency. It just says that if a doctor authorizes expensive care, no matter how successfully, the government will punish him by scrimping on what already is a low reimbursement rate for treating Medicare patients. The incentive, therefore, is for the doctor always to provide less care for his patients for fear of having his payments docked. And because no doctor will know who falls in the top 10 percent until year's end, or what total average costs will break the 10 percent threshold, the pressure will be intense to withhold care, and withhold care again, and then withhold it some more. Or at least to prescribe cheaper care, no matter how much less effective, in order to avoid the penalties. </blockquote> No metrics on quality of care, outcomes, patient satisfaction, or other aspects of the complex process of medical care are apparently involved. Just an "aggregation of the physician's resource use." May I use the words "capricious and arbitrary" to describe this metric? Now, we should ask: <ul><li>Is this what our government means by "data driven healthcare?"</li><li>Do they realize the likely adverse consequences of such half-baked measures?</li><li>Are those who would propose such a bill friends of patients, and friends of physicians?</li></ul> Where have I seen this before? (How about: biomedical dilettantes helping <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=pharma">impair R&D</a> at a pharmaceutical company, now in sale mode due to a poor pipeline of new drugs, through cutting drug discovery resources on the simplistic metric of "cost per user per database?") Ultimately, this Medicare strategy is the end result of allowing medical dilettantes (no matter how well they've "self educated" themselves about medicine) to control the playing field. It is a poster example of a perverse incentive in direct conflict with the obligation of physicians to provide the best care. In the end, patients and physicians get screwed. -- SS

Congress expects physicians to implement EHR's when they can't post a PDF on the web?

Congress expects physicians to implement EHR's and review patient histories in detail, when they can't even review their own bills b...

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GHOSTING MATILDA

The fall season is upon us and the markets are filled with advertising for Halloween, so our thoughts naturally turn to the recent stories of ghostwriting in medical journals. Here is a lighthearted take on that topic. This parody began on <a href="http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=17582">Margaret Soltan’s blog</a> a few days ago, and it has just kept growing. GHOSTING MATILDA Once a jolly bagman signed on to some articles. Corporate ghosts even promised him a fee. And he sang as he watched and waited till they were in print, These will be grand right up there on my CV. Ghosting Matilda, ghosting Matilda, Who’ll come a-ghosting Matilda with me? And he sang as he watched and waited till they were in print, These will be grand right up there on my CV. This month it’s Janssen, next it’s Bristol-Myers Squibb. Wyeth and Lilly soon might want to talk to me. Novartis might sign me up, also AstraZeneca ─ Soon I’ll be famous like that guy at Emory. Ghosting Matilda, ghosting Matilda, Who’ll come a-ghosting Matilda with me? Novartis might sign me up, also AstraZeneca ─ Soon I’ll be famous like that guy at Emory. Up came an editor, looking for the telltale signs. Ghost writing’s hard to cover up, you see. And he found them in the documents: metadata do not lie ─ Bagman just sold his name and passed these off on me. Ghosting Matilda, ghosting Matilda, Who’ll come a-ghosting Matilda with me? And he found them in the documents: metadata do not lie ─ Bagman just sold his name and passed these off on me. Up jumped the bagman, pointing fingers right and left, You’ll never prove that I lied, said he. I will say that underlings failed to send disclosure forms; Let them be blamed instead, while I get off scot-free. Ghosting Matilda, ghosting Matilda, Who’ll come a-ghosting Matilda with me? I will say that underlings failed to send disclosure forms; Let them be blamed instead, while I get off scot-free. Out! said the editor, you’re now persona non grata. So, too, the Dean and the Provost agreed. Bagman’s ghost may be heard now, sighing in the library ─ Could have been grand right up there on my CV. Ghosting Matilda, ghosting Matilda, Who’ll come a-ghosting Matilda with me? Bagman’s ghost may be heard now, sighing in the library ─ Could have been grand right up there on my CV.

GHOSTING MATILDA

The fall season is upon us and the markets are filled with advertising for Halloween, so our thoughts naturally turn to the recent stories o...

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Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets

For most search results, Google shows you a few lines of text to give you an idea of what the page is about — we call this a "search snippet." Recently, we've enhanced the search snippet with two new features that make it easier to find information buried deep within a page. Normally, a search snippet shows how a page, as a whole, relates to a your query by excerpting content that appears near and around where your query terms show on the page. But what if only one section of the page is relevant to your search? That's where these new features can help, by providing links within the snippet to relevant sections of the page, making it faster and easier to find what you're looking for. Imagine, for example, that we're researching trans fats and cholesterol, and their effects on the body. If we start with a generic query like [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=trans+fats">trans fats</a>], Google returns several results with lots of information about trans fats in general, including this result from Wikipedia: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQMZqrLTIR6bluy9LnoE6oBiFK-lpahwM01JqKdG7utOmY6kZf9jZLbGw_MBdTCt_AmBTE8XzohjMrk5KnVHUPv2fiXVmSA2T0TGpkS-dPCIdkfcLkqVcnwkv8w8bzD0Kfxi7atu7KV6ub/s1600-h/sp1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385463367921356546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQMZqrLTIR6bluy9LnoE6oBiFK-lpahwM01JqKdG7utOmY6kZf9jZLbGw_MBdTCt_AmBTE8XzohjMrk5KnVHUPv2fiXVmSA2T0TGpkS-dPCIdkfcLkqVcnwkv8w8bzD0Kfxi7atu7KV6ub/s400/sp1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 62px;" /></a>Now, included with the snippet are links to specific sections within the page, covering different subtopics of trans fats. Since we're particularly interested in what's healthy and what's not, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat#Nutritional_guidelines">Nutritional guidelines</a>" is probably where the most relevant information is. Clicking this link will take you directly to that section, midway down the page. Now imagine we're particularly interested in learning about good cholesterol and what levels of it are healthy, so we try a more specific query, [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=good+cholesterol+level">good cholesterol level</a>]. The top result is from the American Heart Association and has tons of information about cholesterol levels. The specific information about good (HDL) cholesterol, however, is contained in one section titled "Your HDL (good) cholesterol level"‎. Since the query was more specific, the snippet for this result now provides the option to "jump to" just this section of the website. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5VcPPQbqIlfOURqVafhHRRyLk3CWV2RrtC0ZnUgopbRBiA3VokfA1yAYuO1SE9ULD70VNq5fqrANHhhD1TCH1uYJWcdERAFtiP96UWfAsJTG4T2RKsKPxDWx5IWeOPvOpP5rUr4Nq5UEI/s1600-h/sp2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385463377597364946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5VcPPQbqIlfOURqVafhHRRyLk3CWV2RrtC0ZnUgopbRBiA3VokfA1yAYuO1SE9ULD70VNq5fqrANHhhD1TCH1uYJWcdERAFtiP96UWfAsJTG4T2RKsKPxDWx5IWeOPvOpP5rUr4Nq5UEI/s400/sp2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 63px;" /></a> Clicking on "<a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml%3Fidentifier%3D183%23HDL&usg=AFQjCNEfCN2c_HMJHmvxopdKBvrfQ3avLA&ei=99q7SsvzJoPANYqxlMAL&sa=X&oi=section_link&resnum=1&ct=legacy">Jump to Your HDL (good) cholesterol level</a>‎" takes you directly to the most relevant information on the page: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq80a4lQpmThjfenE6Bei331kGrGxVna2QLOyOQWVusWkNv5oYsjPfd09zY8n54B-LE8ty15r9m8W8n4MALJsWE4PjleNac2mjaw_ATbovOjrFKM-zga0zCr2692h1CFoBWKMEXw54tInf/s1600-h/sp3.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385463382285453714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq80a4lQpmThjfenE6Bei331kGrGxVna2QLOyOQWVusWkNv5oYsjPfd09zY8n54B-LE8ty15r9m8W8n4MALJsWE4PjleNac2mjaw_ATbovOjrFKM-zga0zCr2692h1CFoBWKMEXw54tInf/s400/sp3.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 201px;" /></a> Clicking on the title of the snippet ("What Your Cholesterol Levels Mean") still takes you to the top of the page, as always. If you're a webmaster and would like to have these links appear for your webpages, take a look at the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/using-named-anchors-to-identify.html">Google Webmaster Central Blog</a> for info on some of the things you can do. And in the meantime, we hope these enhancements help you find the information you're looking for faster. Posted by Chris Kern, Snippets Team

Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets

For most search results, Google shows you a few lines of text to give you an idea of what the page is about — we call this a "search sn...

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The Reappearance of a Ghost of Seasons Past

About a year after we started Health Care Renewal, in late 2005, we wrote multiple posts about the complex and unfortunate case of Dr Aubrey Blumsohn's attempts to keep a research project honest. The early posts were <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/another-challenge-to-integrity-of.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-on-blumsohn-procter-gamble.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/no-protection-for-whistle-blowers.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/paying-for-silence-updating-blumsohn.html">here</a>. In <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-summary-and-much-documentation-of.html">this post</a>, we summarized the case thus: <ul><li>Dr Aubrey Blumsohn, a senior lecturer at Sheffield University, and Professor Richard Eastell performed a research project on the effects of the drug risedronate (<a href="http://www.actonel.com/index.jsp">Actonel</a>, made by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals [P&G]) under a <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/contract.pdf">contract</a> between P&G and the University.</li><li>Although the research contract designated Blumsohn and Eastell as "Investigators" under whose direction the project would be carried out, Blumsohn was not given access to the original data collected by the project.</li><li>Despite numerous requests, (like <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050525mckay.pdf">this one</a>), P&G <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030619email.htm">refused access </a>to this data <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/attorneyreq.pdf">repeatedly</a>. Blumsohn was concerned that he and Eastell could be accused of scientific fraud if they continued to make presentations and write articles and abstracts without access to the data which they were supposedly writing about.</li><li>Blumsohn became suspicious that some of the analyses done by P&G could be misleading, especially <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030909audio.htm">related to a graph shown to him that omitted 40% of patient data</a>.</li><li>Blumsohn objected to <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030424email.htm">P&G arranging for papers and abstracts to be written by a professional writer</a>, but with Blumsohn listed as first author. Blumsohn was concerned that such ghost-written documents were mainly meant to convey "key messages" in support of P&G's commercial interests.</li><li><a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030910audio.htm">Eastell warned Blumsohn </a>not to aggravate P&G, because the company was providing a grant to the University which "is a good source of income."</li><li>After repeated failed attempt to get the data, Blumsohn complained to numerous officials at Sheffield University, including <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20040526eastell.pdf">Eastell</a>, medical school Dean <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050708weetman.pdf">Tony Weetman</a>, University Vice-Chancellor <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050814bouche.pdf">Robert Boucher</a>, and the Head of the University's Department of Human Resources, <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050627boucha.pdf">Ms R Valerio</a>.</li><li>Still unable to get the data, he spoke with news reporters about his case. At this point, Sheffield suspended him, but then <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/gag.doc">offered him a severance agreement </a>if he signed a contract binding him not to make any detrimental or derogatory statements about the University and its leaders.</li></ul>So the case involved suppression and manipulation of research, ghost-writing, institutional conflicts of interest, and attempts to silence a whistle blower. It provides lessons about the downsides of letting commercial firms sponsor and hence control human research designed to evaluate the products or services they sell; and of academic medicine becoming dependent on research money from such firms for such research. Although Health Care Renewal, being US based, most often writes about such issues in the US, this case is a reminder that they are global. (Note that we posted more about this case in 2006, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/01/more-fall-out-from-blumsohn-procter.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/02/blumsohn-tours-washington-to-raise.html">here</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/05/dr-aubrey-blumsohn-on-north-american.html">here</a>, but since then it has not gotten much public attention.)Last weekend the (UK) Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/18/doctors-ghost-writing-pharmaceutical-research">returned</a> to it: <blockquote>The Guardian has learned that one of Britain's leading bone specialists is facing disciplinary action over accusations that he was involved in 'ghost writing'. The General Medical Council will call Professor Richard Eastell in front of a fitness to practice committee. Eastell, a bone expert at Sheffield University, has admitted he allowed his name to go forward as first author of a study on an osteoporosis drug even though he did not have access to all the data on which the study's conclusions were based. An employee of Proctor and Gamble, the US company making Actonel, was the only author who had all the figures. Experts believe the practice is widespread in Britain. In a letter published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, which carried the original study, he stated: 'In the original paper one of the authors, a statistician working for P&G, Ian Barton, had full access to all the data.' The authors had full access to all the analyses of the data that they requested, he said – but those analyses were carried out by the company. The letter, published in 2007, also acknowledged flaws in the study. A later independent analysis of the data 'identified some errors and poor practice', he wrote. The study was designed to show the strengths of Actonel which was in fierce competition with a rival bone-strengthening drug called Fosamax, made by Merck. Eastell's paper concerned a study carried out on behalf of Proctor and Gamble, comparing the bone density of women prescribed Actonel with others who were not. Only the company knew which women were on the drug and which were taking something else. Eastell's colleague, Dr Aubrey Blumsohn, wanted the codes which would say which of the patients who suffered fractures had been on the drug. The company refused. Blumsohn took his concerns to Eastell, but in a conversation which Blumsohn says he taped , Eastell said he was concerned that persistent requests might damage the relationship they had with the company. Eastell is said to have told him: 'The only thing that we have to watch all the time is our relationship with P&G. Because … we have the big Sheffield Centre Grant [from P&G] which is a good source of income, we have got to really watch it.' . </blockquote> So, after four years, this case has generated an official hearing of sorts. The hearing is obviously late, and seemingly will only be devoted to only one aspect of this case (ghost writing). However, at least our friends in the UK are doing something. I cannot recall a single case that resulted in any serious consideration of imposing negative consequences on anyone who was accused of suppressing research, manipulating research, endorsing ghost-writing, or intimidating a whistle-blower. In fact, many of the more troubling cases have never resulted in any sort of public discussion either at the institutions at which they occurred, or at any organization with relevant regulatory, or even just moral authority. So the GMC hearing is at least a step forward. Two cheers for the British GMC, and none for US universities, academic medical centers, professional societies, and government regulators. (If anyone can remind me of a case in which there was a public discussion at the relevant institution, or some public consideration of the case by a regulatory agency, professional society, or some group with moral authority, please remind me of it, and I would be happy to post about it.)

The Reappearance of a Ghost of Seasons Past

About a year after we started Health Care Renewal, in late 2005, we wrote multiple posts about the complex and unfortunate case of Dr Aubrey...

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Place Pages for Google Maps: There are places we remember!

<a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> is a great tool for exploring places — you can pan around the map, zoom in and see nearby places, look around in Street View and search for whatever you want. But what I always wanted to do is be able to get a clear understanding of what a place is all about. Instead of doing the research all over the web, wouldn’t it be great to see all the information about one place in...one place? Starting today, you can do that on Place Pages for Google Maps. A Place Page is a webpage for every place in the world, organizing all the relevant information about it. By every place, we really mean *every* place — there are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks and cities all over the world. You can get to a Place Page by clicking on "more info" in search results, or by clicking "more info" in the mini-bubble. Now, instead of just getting a slightly bigger bubble, you'll get an entire page of rich details, like photos, videos, a Street View preview, nearby transit, reviews and related websites. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcru4PXV7xifYteyyuAT0PQPtFvfc2BnVNTRGUetQZZJaTlP7j8lKgvndMyZcfzBX3bzmBHtWDz0K9JOTo4RyonxyyOYfKsr7WPKSzfrrx3Hc3181sYgJSolwbkPIhqohBM73O0rJmyuSb/s1600-h/placepageentry.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385153692246673890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcru4PXV7xifYteyyuAT0PQPtFvfc2BnVNTRGUetQZZJaTlP7j8lKgvndMyZcfzBX3bzmBHtWDz0K9JOTo4RyonxyyOYfKsr7WPKSzfrrx3Hc3181sYgJSolwbkPIhqohBM73O0rJmyuSb/s320/placepageentry.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 131px;" /></a> Here are some of my favorite places, and what you can discover about them using Place Pages: <a href="http://maps.google.com/places/us/san-francisco/guerrero-st/600/-tartine-bakery">Tartine Bakery</a>: My favorite bakery in the world. The "Place Summary" section compiles voices from all over the web praising the desserts but warning you about the lines. The "Details" section aggregates material from over 500 authoritative sources; for example, you can find the menu from Zagat.com. The "Related Maps" sections shows user-created maps that include this bakery, such as this delicious <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=104631940394313560320.0004390ad3794bfac38c0&ved=0CBEQkAUwAA&sa=X&ei=mt-5Soj3IYfijAOH3enyBg&sig2=ChZbEnS7J8Im92Jg1d_h8A">California dessert map</a>. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://maps.google.com/places/us/san-francisco/guerrero-st/600/-tartine-bakery"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385153689253711122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1bKLvriyG6jXe25bEPk_de6DGtaqzgZgSwnmDWSwIxxRdWkF_E2WQAeEPyqfZ9kPdtFRP9BdDzxjRrAPNqoPV_hfOHd3WQN1GquqKk28aEpYnZdc-KaVSDprrMPRFGYD86AbctcCAUs9p/s320/placepagetartine.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 316px; height: 320px;" /></a> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=10463731849571799424&q=yoda%2Bstatue%2Bsf">Yoda statue</a>: One of my childhood heroes in real size! The "User Content" section shows excerpts from all over the web describing this hidden little gem; "Nearby Transit" helps you find the best way to get there by public transport; and there’s even some useful local ads in case you want to get one of these at home. <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x60188b571aa41423:0x418522594924803e&q=tokyo">Tokyo</a>: I've spent a lot of time here lately as it's home to part of the Place Page team. On the city's Place Page, you can find out the most popular hotels, parks and major landmarks in Tokyo, browse local photos and videos, see what other people are searching for and access maps about the city from all over the web. <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=2442679245943293040">Zurich Hauptbahnhof</a>: I’ve traveled through the central train station in Zurich several times over the last year, visiting the local team that made Place Pages possible. Place pages for transit stations are particularly useful because they'll show you a list of all the lines serving that station, as well as provide a timetable of upcoming departures.  <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=2442679245943293040"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385163990499149874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPA9lsj-jh3_4R7KJFyws_3Xd2_oMTiU6N6Csr2mX5WNEDZXn5225rrwJTUJL1ga-OD0Q9wQsI1yZRyxvlkHpsaPqMSkDqPje68cxyTA8A84tryDY7WaiXZXfiAkr2wi60pO__SdZsnqm/s320/zurichfinal.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" /></a> As the <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHMB_enUS325US325&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=beatles+%22there+are+places+i+remember%22">Beatles' song</a> in this post's title suggests, we want to make it easy to remember places: pages will come with a friendly URL that is easy to remember and link to under google.com/places. For example, the San Francisco Place Page will be found at <a href="http://google.com/places/us/california/san-francisco-city">google.com/places/us/california/san-francisco-city</a>. Right now we include cities and most businesses, but we're working hard on bringing this to all Place Pages. We want there to be a Place Page for every place in the world, but we might be missing a few places here and there. If you're a business owner, you can add or update your business details through the <a href="http://www.google.com/lbc">Local Business Center</a>. This allows you to make sure your Place Page reflects the most accurate, authoritative and recent information about your business. And if you don’t have a business, but you discover a place that doesn’t have a Place Page, you can add it through <a href="http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=98014&cbid=1q5t41ccouhnp&src=cb&lev=topic">community edits</a> or <a href="http://google.com/mapmaker">Google Map Maker</a>, depending on the country you’re in. Whether you're searching for a great local florist or planning a trip across the globe, we hope Place Page for Google Maps makes your explorations easier and happier. Posted by Lior Ron, Senior Product Manager, Place Page team

Place Pages for Google Maps: There are places we remember!

Google Maps is a great tool for exploring places — you can pan around the map, zoom in and see nearby places, look around in Street View an...

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Announcing Project 10^100 idea themes

Late last year we announced <a href="http://www.project10tothe100.com/">Project 10^100</a>, a call for ideas to help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life with a total of $10 million. We hoped to capture the imagination of people around the world and offer a way to bring their best ideas to fruition. We were overwhelmed by the response — you sent us more than 150,000 ideas (approximately 10^5.2) in more than 25 languages and it took more than 3,000 Googlers in offices around the world to review the submissions. (The review process took us much longer than we expected and we appreciate your patience!) Some ideas we received suggested broad areas of investment, others were very specific technology or implementation proposals, and many of the ideas shared overlapping elements. So rather than posting individual idea submissions, we've decided to do something a little different. We've pooled similar ideas into a set of 16 top idea themes aimed at addressing some important common goals, from making government more transparent to driving innovation in public transport. Every theme has different possible implementations and we intend to consider all reasonable possibilities. But we need your help. Over the next two weeks we'll be gathering your votes to help inform an advisory board that will then choose up to five winning ideas that will receive funding. After that, we'll present the finalists and ask for proposals from individuals or organizations that can implement these ideas. It has been a long road for those of us who have worked on this from the beginning. Although it took a lot longer than we first planned, we're pleased with the outcome. In the end, we followed the tried-and-true Google method of "launch and iterate." We enjoyed going through so many interesting proposals and adapted to the massive volume of ideas. We are incredibly proud to be able to put these 16 ideas in front of you to see what you think. Let the <a href="http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html">voting</a> begin! Posted by the Project 10^100 Team

Announcing Project 10^100 idea themes

Late last year we announced Project 10^100 , a call for ideas to help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those i...

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