A Bridge in Brooklyn and an Electronic Medical Records Bargain: Only One Hundred Nineteen Million Dollars Per User - Tolls Included

One of the favorite debates people involved in IT seem to like to have is over the meaning of "failure" of IT projects.<br /><br /><blockquote>Merriam-Webster dictionary:<br /><br /><div mwref="http://www.m-w.com/mwref" id="mwEntryData" hw="failure" code="PI-1b(1)#MD-1b(1)#BZ-2b#EC-2b"><div>Main Entry: <strong>fail·ure</strong><br />Pronunciation: <span class="pr">\<span class="unicode">ˈ</span>fāl-yər\</span></div><div>Function: <em>noun</em> </div><div>Etymology: alteration of earlier <em>failer,</em> from Anglo-French, from Old French <em>faillir</em> to fail</div><div>Date: 1643</div><p class="d"> <strong>1 a</strong> <strong>:</strong> omission of occurrence or performance; <em>specifically</em> <strong>:</strong> a failing to perform a duty or expected action <span class="vi"><failure></failure></span> <em class="sn">b </em><em class="su">(1)</em> <strong>:</strong> a state of inability to perform a normal function <span class="vi"><<a itxtdid="14277878" target="_blank" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/failure#" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: none ! important; padding-bottom: 0px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important; background-image: none; padding-top: 0pt; padding-right: 0pt; padding-left: 0pt;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">kidney <nobr style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; color: darkgreen;" id="itxt_nobr_4_0">failure</nobr></a>></span> — compare <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heart+failure">heart failure</a> <em class="su">(2)</em> <strong>:</strong> an abrupt cessation of normal functioning <span class="vi"><a></a></span><a> <strong>c</strong> <strong>:</strong> a fracturing or giving way under </a><a itxtdid="13978570" target="_blank" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/failure#" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; font-size: 100% ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; color: darkgreen ! important; background-color: transparent ! important; background-image: none; padding-top: 0pt; padding-right: 0pt; padding-left: 0pt;" classname="iAs" class="iAs">stress</a> <span class="vi"><structural></structural></span><br /><strong>2 a</strong> <strong>:</strong> lack of success <strong>b</strong> <strong>:</strong> a failing in business <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bankruptcy">bankruptcy</a><br /><strong>3 a</strong> <strong>:</strong> a falling short <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deficiency">deficiency</a> <span class="vi"><a></a></span><a> <strong>b</strong> <strong>:</strong> </a><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deterioration">deterioration</a>, <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decay">decay</a><br /><strong>4</strong> <strong>:</strong> one that has failed</p></div></blockquote><div mwref="http://www.m-w.com/mwref" id="mwEntryData" hw="failure" code="PI-1b(1)#MD-1b(1)#BZ-2b#EC-2b"><p class="d"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" ><b style=""><span style="color:red;"><span style=""></span></span></b></span>The UK House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report on disastrous problems in their £12.7 billion national EMR program is <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/153/15304.htm">here</a>.<br /></p><p class="d">Only the most stubborn would argue that this case and the latest data is not representative of a "failure" in the truest sense of that word:<br /></p></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><blockquote><a href="http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2252287/175-people-lorenzo-government"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Only 175 people using flagship NHS software, says minister</span></a> <p>Lorenzo care records system is likely to be costing taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds per user per year</p> <p class="author">Written by <a class="" target="" href="http://www.computing.co.uk/articles/authorprofile/2252287">Tom Young</a></p> <p class="postMetaData"><a href="http://www.computing.co.uk/">Computing.co.uk</a>, 30 Oct 2009</p><div id="post"> <div class="content"> <p><span style="font-weight: bold;">There are only 174 clinicians using Lorenzo patient software across the five early adopter trusts</span>, according to Mike O'Brien, minister for the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).</p> <p>Five Boroughs Partnership, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay, Hereford Hospitals and South Birmingham have only ever had <span style="font-weight: bold;">19 clinicians using the systems at the same time.</span></p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">Lorenzo is one of two software packages being used to set up centralised electronic health records as part of the £12.7bn National Programme for IT. This part of the programme is already running four years late.</p> <p>Lorenzo is being supplied by services company CSC to trusts in the north of England and by its developer <a href="http://www.isoftplc.com/">iSoft</a> directly to trusts in the south after Fujitsu was fired from the programme.</p> <p>The other patient software package is Cerner Millennium, being supplied by BT in London and a handful of trusts in the south.</p></div></div></blockquote><div id="post"><div class="content"><p></p> <p><br /></p><p>By Google:<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">£12,700,000,000 = USD $20,770,850,000<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>By my calculations, that works out to:</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">£72,571,429 or USD $118,690,571 per user </span>of this software.</p><p>While a somewhat satirical and sardonic calculation, that's about <span style="font-weight: bold;">73 million pounds</span> or <span style="font-weight: bold;">119 million dollars</span> per user, after almost a decade of work.<br /></p><p>What more can be said than "stunning?"<br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p>The information came from a parliamentary question tabled by Richard Bacon MP.</p> <p>Last week in the Commons he said:</p> <p>"I tabled a question yesterday about the number of hospital trusts where Lorenzo has been partially deployed, asking how many users — how many concurrent users — of Lorenzo there are.</p> <p>"It is literally just a handful, which means that the cost per user is not what one would expect… the cost is going to be many hundreds of thousands — possibly even more than a million — pounds per user per year."</p> <p>Bacon said there has not been a single deployment of Lorenzo in 2009 because these early adopter trusts were having such problems.</p> <p>"The reason is that the <span style="font-weight: bold;">handful of deployments attempted have been an absolute mess, causing chaos in the hospitals where they were tried</span>," he said.</p></blockquote><p> </p> <p><br /></p><p>Operations of entire hospitals were disrupted by software. This represents unconsented IT experiments on human subjects gone massively awry. Whether the "chaos" caused anyone harm seems never to be stated.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Deployments of Cerner Millennium have also caused problems, with St Barts in London now <span style="font-weight: bold;">facing fines of £400,000 a month for missing patient care targets as a result of problems with the system.</span></p> <p>Bacon also points out that the recently signed contracts with BT to deploy Cerner Millennium at hospitals in the south require BT to be paid even if the hospitals refuse the systems – a possibility if they think they will not work. </p></blockquote><p></p> <p><br /></p><p>I would suggest someone in the UK provide screen shots and/or a YouTube video of these systems in operation so others can understand how such results can occur. (Oh, wait: the vendor contracts probably prohibit that, the hospital executives having signed such contracts also having <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/failurecases/?loc=cases&sloc=koppel_kreda">signed away their fiduciary responsibilities to patients and clinicians</a>.)</p><p><br /></p> <p></p><blockquote><p>... Junior Treasury minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry defended The NPfIT in the debate. </p> <p>She said: "We all acknowledge that the NHS IT project is <span style="font-weight: bold;">hugely ambitious</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">[profoundly overambitious would perhaps be more accurate - ed.] </span>and that it is <span style="font-weight: bold;">essential that we get it right</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">[The Minister appears to be a master of the obvious - ed.]</span> It is obvious to everybody that many challenges remain.</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">"We still believe that Cerner Millennium and Lorenzo will be able to support the NHS in the long term."</p></blockquote><p></p> </div> </div><br />Right.<br /><br />I have a bridge in Brooklyn, NY for sale. Perhaps the UK teams responsible for this debacle would be interested. After all, the cost per user of the bridge would be remarkably low, far less than USD $118 million - and the users could even be made to pay a toll for each use:<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidccRyHqPvrCi-f8a4FwEwqYJH4DCu6EaOs0pm7QemIo6M-3SZqk1c0zMFj0PuHOSy-yahQ8VoZ-hBdDqH9eHAGM60FJxaNMd1q0o586YVLzZPdCmDWVyZfFfz7B07MHbkJJwjyqAkf2kO/s1600-h/brooklynbridge.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399538790921155026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidccRyHqPvrCi-f8a4FwEwqYJH4DCu6EaOs0pm7QemIo6M-3SZqk1c0zMFj0PuHOSy-yahQ8VoZ-hBdDqH9eHAGM60FJxaNMd1q0o586YVLzZPdCmDWVyZfFfz7B07MHbkJJwjyqAkf2kO/s320/brooklynbridge.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 285px; height: 214px;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">For sale: a bridge in Brooklyn.<br /></span></div><br /><br />Perhaps in our own U.S. national health IT initiative, we'll come in at a lower cost per user than <span>$118,690,571</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>- <span>perhaps about $118,690,570.99 ?</span><br /><br />After all, those Medical Informatics specialists <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/medical-informatics-pharma-health-it.html">act like know-it-alls about healthcare IT</a>, and since domain-specific education and expertise are irrelevant in healthcare management, why should anyone listen to them?<br /><br />-- SS

A Bridge in Brooklyn and an Electronic Medical Records Bargain: Only One Hundred Nineteen Million Dollars Per User - Tolls Included

One of the favorite debates people involved in IT seem to like to have is over the meaning of "failure" of IT projects. Merriam-We...

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This week in search 10/30/09

<i>This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label "This week in search" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.</i><br /><br />The week leading up to Halloween has brought a flood of new treats for you.<br /><br /><b>Music Search</b><br />On Wednesday, we rolled out our new music search feature, fully integrated into Google's web search. Now, when you search for a band, singer, song name, or album title, Google will recognize it and return a special music result on the top of the page. These new special music results do exactly what you want - they let you listen to the full song. To provide this feature, we have partnered with Lala and MySpace (formerly iLike) to bring you full-song streaming. That's not all, however. The real "wow" in this new music feature is that you can type in phrases of lyrics, we recognize the song - and bring you the song for full play. You can listen, verify it's the one you were looking for, and then continue on to buy the song on iMeem, iLike, Lala, Pandora, or Rhapsody.<br /><br />Example searches (singers): <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=lady+gaga" id="nm13" title="Lady Gaga">Lady Gaga</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=taylor+swift&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="gd36" title="Taylor Swift">Taylor Swift</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=jay-z&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g6g-s1g3" id="nr67" title="Jay-Z">Jay-Z</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=jack+johnson" id="qn.v" title="Jack Johnson">Jack Johnson</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=michael+jackson&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g-p1g9" id="l.8u" title="Michael Jackson">Michael Jackson</a><br />Example searches (band): <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=coldplay&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="tim-" title="Coldplay">Coldplay</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=tv+on+the+radio&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="u2yy" title="TV on the Radio">TV on the Radio</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=the+killers">The Killers</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=mgmt" id="i4-8" title="MGMT">MGMT</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=the+rolling+stones&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="lops" title="Rolling Stones">The Rolling Stones</a><div>Example searches (song): <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=sample+in+a+jar&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="dx8." title="Sample in a Jar">Sample in a Jar</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=waiting+for+the+world+to+change&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="jvlj" title="Waiting for the World to Change">Waiting for the World to Change</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=when+doves+cry&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="h_pz" title="When Doves Cry">When Doves Cry</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=all+i+want+for+christmas+is+you&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="osq2" title="All I Want for Christmas is You">All I Want for Christmas is You</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=walking+on+sunshine&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="d.xi" title="Walking on Sunshine">Walking on Sunshine</a><br />Example searches (album): <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=dark+side+of+the+moon&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="x3f4" title="Dark Side of the Moon">Dark Side of the Moon</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=achtung+baby&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10" id="olsu" title="Achtung, Baby">Achtung Baby</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=aqualung" id="ynbi" title="Aqualung">Aqualung</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=evil+urges&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g7g-s1g2" id="xjcg" title="Evil Urges">Evil Urges</a><br />Example searches (lyrics): <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=gonna+be+a+good+night+tonight&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1g-ms1g-m1g-ms2g-m3" id="az_b" title="gonna be a good night tonight">gonna be a good night tonight</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=can+feel+the+hand+of+fate" id="nk7s" title="can feel the hand of fate">can feel the hand of fate</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=lucky+we're+in+love+in+every+way&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1" id="py9t" title="lucky we're in love in every way">lucky we're in love in every way</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&q=take+away+this+ball+and+chain&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g4g-m5" id="vlgy" title="take away this ball and chain">take away this ball and chain</a><br /><br /><b>Social Search</b><br />On Monday, we introduced <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-google-social-search-i.html">Social Search on Google Labs and Google Experimental</a>. Social Search finds relevant content that your social circle has published and returns that content with your web search results. What defines your social circle? To use Social Search, you need to be logged in to your Google Account and opted in to the Social Search experiment. We then analyze your Gmail contacts (if you have a Gmail account) and the connections on your social networks (if you have a Google Profile and have listed public social networks like Twitter and FriendFeed). What kind of results do we find? Our Social Search results include blogs, photo albums, web pages, and reviews. This way, you not only seeing the most relevant content on the web globally, but you also see the content most relevant and personal to you.<br /><br />To try Google Social Search, go to Google Experimental and click the "Join the experiment" button pertaining to social search. Then try searching on Google for something your friends may have written about. Example searches like 'restaurant' or 'vacation' tend to occur in people's personal writings. Social Search results always occur at the bottom of the page, so scroll to the end of the page to see these results. You can also trigger Social Search results explicitly by opening the Search Options panel and clicking on 'Social'. This will cause all of your results to be from your social circle.<br /><br /><b>Similar Images on Image Search</b><br />In addition to our new features on core web search this week, we introduced a new and revolutionary way to refine image searches to our main image search functionality this week. The feature is called "Similar Images". We've had it for a while as a separate site, but it has proved so useful and interesting that we decided to make it part of our core image search. The idea here is to find an image that you like and then click the "Find similar images" link below it. This may seem simple, but think about all the complicated things you can express. For example, if I wanted a picture of a single turtle swimming, and I wanted the turtle to be headed to the left rather than the right, it would be almost impossible to express as a keyword search. Now with "Similar Images" features, I can simply do an image search for <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=turtles&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10">turtles</a>, then find an image that meets my requirements, like the seventh image on that results page, and by clicking the "Find similar images" underneath it, I get a <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=turtles&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&imgtype=i_similar&sa=X&ei=So7sSoXBMpLmsAOE28D1Aw&ct=img-sim-l&oi=image_sil&resnum=7&tbnid=AaHhvUV38LhU0M:">page composed of solo turtles actively swimming</a>.<br /><br />Example search: <a href="http://images.google.com/images?tbnid=71swG2gR-OhOuM:&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&tbnh=0&tbnw=0&um=1&q=jack-o-lanterns&revid=739716832&ei=mLXsSqG2H5fatAPB-9n1Aw&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&resnum=0&ct=broad-revision&cd=3&start=0">jack-o-lanterns</a>, then click on "Find similar images" under the fifth image to get <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&tbnh=0&tbnw=0&um=1&q=jack-o-lanterns&revid=739716832&imgtype=i_similar&sa=X&ei=p7XsSrWYE6W6tAPshdn1Aw&ct=img-sim-l&oi=image_sil&resnum=5&tbnid=KltpLc7PnS0RlM:">jack-o-lanterns lit from within in night-time settings</a><br />Example search: <a href="http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=birthday+hat&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g5g-m5&start=0">birthday hat</a>, then click on "Find similar images" under the second image to get <a href="http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=birthday+hat&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g5g-m5&imgtype=i_similar&sa=X&ei=TbPsSrHMGZ3OswPwzu31Aw&ct=img-sim-l&oi=image_sil&resnum=2&tbnid=-8pV4iqQrRUorM:">multi-colored birthday hats</a><br />Example search: <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&um=1&sa=1&q=peacock&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&start=0">peacock</a>, then select "Find similar images" on the third image to get <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US304&um=1&q=peacock&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&imgtype=i_similar&sa=X&ei=KrXsSpGLHpfatAPB-9n1Aw&ct=img-sim-l&oi=image_sil&resnum=3&tbnid=71swG2gR-OhOuM:">white peacocks with their feathers displayed</a><br /><br /><b>Personalized Search on Mobile</b><br />This week we also introduced personalized search for the mobile phone. Personalized search has been available on our website for some time. Now, when you are logged in on your phone, you get the same personalized search results on your mobile phone as well.<br /><br /><b>Google Suggest now global</b><br />Internationally, we also rolled out Google Suggest on our search results pages. Now, the helpful suggestions that you see when you begin typing on our homepage and results page are available on 156 country domains and in 52 more languages.<br /><br />And to wish you a Happy Halloween, trick-or-treat us by visiting the homepage (<a href="http://www.google.com/">www.google.com</a>) today and clicking on the Google logo.<br /><br />Hope you enjoyed this week's features. Stay tuned for what's next!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience</span></div>

This week in search 10/30/09

This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label "This week in search...

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AstraZeneca Settles

Here is the latest in the parade of legal settlements of cases of alleged wrong-doing by health care organizations.  As reported <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/business/30drug.html">by Duff Wilson in the New York Times</a>, <br /><blockquote>The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Thursday that it had reached a <em>$520 million agreement to settle two federal investigations and two whistle-blower lawsuits over the sale and marketing of its blockbuster psychiatric drug Seroquel.</em><br /><br />One of the investigations related to 'selected physicians who participated in clinical trials involving Seroquel,' AstraZeneca disclosed in a government filing. The other case related to off-label promotion of the drug. <br /><br />Seroquel was the top-selling antipsychotic drug in America. It had <em>$17 billion</em> in sales in the United States since 2004, according to IMS Health, a research firm. <br /><br />Tony Jewell, a company spokesman, declined to be more specific about the physicians or clinical trials under investigation. He said the company was in final negotiations to settle the whistle-blower suits and reach a corporate integrity agreement with the Justice Department.<br /><br />The name of the whistle-blowers and other details of the suits remained sealed in federal court. Stephen A. Sheller, a lawyer in Philadelphia for the whistle-blowers, and Patricia Hartman, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney in Philadelphia, both declined to comment.<br /></blockquote><br />Here we go again. As the Times article noted,<br /><blockquote>AstraZeneca, based in Britain, joins a list of drug makers that have paid billions to settle inquiries initiated by complaints from former company insiders.<br /><br />Earlier this year, Eli Lilly & Company paid $1.4 billion over its marketing of Zyprexa, another antipsychotic drug. And Pfizer announced it would pay $2.3 billion, including a record $1.195 billion criminal fine, mostly over its painkiller Bextra, which has been withdrawn from the market.<br /></blockquote><br />Does anyone really still believe that integrity agreements, and settlements assessed against huge corporations deter such profitable bad behavior? A half a billion dollar one-time settlement is just a small cost of doing business for a company that sold $17 billion worth of the offending drug in the last five years. As in the case of many other previously announced <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/legal%20settlements">settlements</a>, it appears that nobody who authorized, directed, or implemented the bad behavior that led to the settlement will suffer any sort of negative consequences. <br /><br />We previously discussed allegations that AstraZeneca manipulated and suppressed clinical research, and organized deceptive marketing campaigns in support of Seroquel sales (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-on-misleading-promotion-of.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/nemeroff-seroquel-and-accme.html">here</a>).  If we do not discourage such practices, they will continue to bias the clinical evidence making expensive drugs and devices seem more effective and less dangerous than they really are.  Is it any wonder that we over-use and over-pay for these products?  Anyone seriously interested in reforming health care to improve quality and access while moderating costs ought to pay attention to behavior that leads to such over-use and over-payment.  <br /><br />(However, there may be hope.  Perhaps in the future there will be more effective deterrence.  A recent indictment named not only the device company Stryker Biotech (a subsidiary of Stryker Corporation), but also its former CEO and three managers.)

AstraZeneca Settles

Here is the latest in the parade of legal settlements of cases of alleged wrong-doing by health care organizations.  As reported by Duff Wil...

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A ghooooulish Googleween

When it comes to holidays, Halloween is one of our favorites. You get candy corn, creepy crawlies, ghosts and goblins, blustery weather and the goopy joys of pumpkin carving all crammed into one glorious fall fun-fest. It's also the one holiday where you can dress up as whatever you want — your favorite <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=bjork">celebrity</a>, your favorite <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=owl">animal</a> or even, like <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/gblogphotos/Googleween2008#5263450162978470722">one Googler last year</a>, your favorite gadget.<br /><br /><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-are-you-going-to-be-for-halloween.html">As usual</a>, we're in the process of devising brilliant last-minute costumes, and we got curious about what others around the globe have been searching for in preparation for Halloween.<br /><br />We used Insights for Search to track the <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=costume&geo=US&date=1%2F2009%2012m&cmpt=q">fastest-rising searches related to [costume] in the U.S. in 2009</a>. The query at the top of the charts is [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=lady+gaga+costume">lady gaga costume</a>] — no surprise, as the star wears quite a few costumes on a regular basis herself:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOiSsBKzooz9zgQqy1f1Qcr7GnxrA-DvSb35v1Xu-UOjJxuCZ4nVinGK6ILeMVjLKuvuR4m8HYSeV3N96XuJO7yans7PSBbluyM2YI0s8QvYMKZ2Xkdtbv-Cp2bcLcKxHTzh23Pvxyjo/s1600-h/je1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398468788053364946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOiSsBKzooz9zgQqy1f1Qcr7GnxrA-DvSb35v1Xu-UOjJxuCZ4nVinGK6ILeMVjLKuvuR4m8HYSeV3N96XuJO7yans7PSBbluyM2YI0s8QvYMKZ2Xkdtbv-Cp2bcLcKxHTzh23Pvxyjo/s400/je1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 329px; height: 306px;" /></a><br />And many people seem to be planning a tribute to the late pop star Michael Jackson — searches for [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=michael+jackson+costume">michael jackson costume</a>] started spiking in June of this year and have increased steadily since then:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5tudD9TwdLKHQFbmuesNgAzJaCN0ehKBkuFAB4-edVY-4oq8T0tV-6xPqQHvXvaieM27KLFyJ1iGpEZeB2uBunMcxvLdaShrvtL7VFQSkI-p0x2o5sealQ_lkOlXW6NqdiKYpH1mO31c/s1600-h/je2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398468790732007826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5tudD9TwdLKHQFbmuesNgAzJaCN0ehKBkuFAB4-edVY-4oq8T0tV-6xPqQHvXvaieM27KLFyJ1iGpEZeB2uBunMcxvLdaShrvtL7VFQSkI-p0x2o5sealQ_lkOlXW6NqdiKYpH1mO31c/s400/je2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 153px;" /></a><br />Since Halloween is most popular in the U.S., we focused on queries there — but we did investigate searches in <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=costume&geo=CA&date=1%2F2009%2012m&cmpt=q">Canada</a> and the <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=costume&geo=GB&date=1%2F2009%2012m&cmpt=q">U.K.</a> for good measure. In Canada, people are overwhelmingly searching for costumes for two — variations on [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=couples+costumes">couples costumes</a>] dominate the top 10. Both in Canada and across the pond, searchers are looking for costumes based on Lewis Carroll's classic story <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Alice in Wonderland</span>, with [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=mad+hatter+costume">mad hatter costume</a>] in the top 10 in the U.K. and [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=alice+in+wonderland">alice in wonderland</a>] in Canada.<br /><br />Since [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=vampire+costume">vampire costume</a>] was one of the top 10 searches this year, we figured we'd check in with the various vampire TV shows and movies to see which is, um, making a killing in the costume race. The query [<a href="http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=twilight+costume&aq=f&aqi=g10&oq=&fp=b8148470ea1f7ec2">twilight costume</a>] has the most search volume, with [<a href="http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&ei=gD_rSrrDPI6OMdi2lIQM&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAkQBSgA&q=true+blood+costume&spell=1&fp=b8148470ea1f7ec2">true blood costume</a>] not far behind. (Pointy teeth and body glitter — done!)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9e7OsOG90ezgVzF93OVgNPGeSuGLHfaqDmnnFSjYp8MIBikwkCZzf_GkXxBI3G43Ya-fnwDS827V8cv8rHnyKogJw3cpAz9Ydy7-F3WnaOlw7ArPZsanqeU4ACgTuOQEyxOx9qfnwF8/s1600-h/je3.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398468795151057682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9e7OsOG90ezgVzF93OVgNPGeSuGLHfaqDmnnFSjYp8MIBikwkCZzf_GkXxBI3G43Ya-fnwDS827V8cv8rHnyKogJw3cpAz9Ydy7-F3WnaOlw7ArPZsanqeU4ACgTuOQEyxOx9qfnwF8/s400/je3.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 155px;" /></a><br />Thinking of dressing up your little ones? Popular queries in the U.S. related to [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=kids+costume">kids costume</a>] <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=kids%20costume&geo=US&date=1%2F2009%2012m&cmpt=q">include</a> [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=ladybug">ladybug</a>], [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=minnie+mouse">minnie mouse</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=tinkerbell">tinkerbell</a>].<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoOhf0jwEaVVmgjmbKHDrfxFRefK3EVKNvur0h1gpPmVcAiAe236wh6Qs_ig4LVtb-ptqYYrKRbx7gZzK3hlM_7nYmviQSgp-wNDMpnGU73BLZRbwfvG3461ASJkOVSl8z_MAGU71Fgg/s1600-h/je4.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398468798365632226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoOhf0jwEaVVmgjmbKHDrfxFRefK3EVKNvur0h1gpPmVcAiAe236wh6Qs_ig4LVtb-ptqYYrKRbx7gZzK3hlM_7nYmviQSgp-wNDMpnGU73BLZRbwfvG3461ASJkOVSl8z_MAGU71Fgg/s400/je4.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 304px;" /></a><br />We also did some <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=max%20costume&geo=US&date=1%2F2009%2012m&cmpt=q">digging</a> to see if people were taking inspiration from the movie <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Where the Wild Things Are</span> and wearing a [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=max+costume">max costume</a>] this year. Based on the fastest-rising related terms [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=footie+pajamas">footie pajamas</a>], [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=footed+pajamas">footed pajamas</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=max+costume+pattern">max costume pattern</a>], it seems like at least a few folks are choosing to make [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=max+wolf+suit">max wolf suit</a>] costumes at home:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_C2q8HGsOlauOdJ5Tc2dWXHz-lj4xwpcA2ukWp_7LdHtFaQODPxHCja8rtM3SsGnlWw3ILGPf2VzXCjQCI47vM2pyHis0QMyudVa1lVA4SNQdMo9EROp7d1g7OVykrXrAZg95snmC3E/s1600-h/je5.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398468803981784082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf_C2q8HGsOlauOdJ5Tc2dWXHz-lj4xwpcA2ukWp_7LdHtFaQODPxHCja8rtM3SsGnlWw3ILGPf2VzXCjQCI47vM2pyHis0QMyudVa1lVA4SNQdMo9EROp7d1g7OVykrXrAZg95snmC3E/s400/je5.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 322px; height: 301px;" /></a><br />As a dog-friendly company, we share the <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=dog%20costume&geo=US&date=1%2F2009%2012m&cmpt=q">country-wide impulse</a> to dress up our dogs for the holiday. Related searches for [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=taco+dog">taco dog costume</a>], [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=dog+shark">dog shark costume</a>] and [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=banana+costume">banana costume</a>] (so cute!) all rank high.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjayaLiA-i7eVFQgR7AEyfmbcvKHPfZP5sdalzsSJUZv5MBS58TuGeqvSSe20ieij7xweG73rORfvZaFOG5pq-yjIsLMmZOkO8__vAlG6rOddaI5lGN5-2-69k6DUiLyjAtaxqMtqlWjBY/s1600-h/je6.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398469661940210082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjayaLiA-i7eVFQgR7AEyfmbcvKHPfZP5sdalzsSJUZv5MBS58TuGeqvSSe20ieij7xweG73rORfvZaFOG5pq-yjIsLMmZOkO8__vAlG6rOddaI5lGN5-2-69k6DUiLyjAtaxqMtqlWjBY/s400/je6.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 308px; height: 301px;" /></a><br />At Google, we've been gearing up for tomorrow's real deal with festivities on our Mountain View campus, complete with Halloween crafts for visiting kids and a haunted house. Googlers are also pulling out all the stops for the costume contest:<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F116887554964117158278%2Falbumid%2F5398455116874395617%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br />We hope you have a happy Googleween!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jordan Newman and Emily Wood, Editors, Google Blog team</span>

A ghooooulish Googleween

When it comes to holidays, Halloween is one of our favorites. You get candy corn, creepy crawlies, ghosts and goblins, blustery weather and ...

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An Alliance on Mental Illness or for Pharmaceutical Companies?

A recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/health/22nami.html">article</a> by Gardner Harris in the New York Times focused on the financial links among health care corporations and not-for-profit disease (or patient) advocacy groups.<br /><blockquote><em>A majority of the donations made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one of the nation’s most influential disease advocacy groups, have come from drug makers</em> in recent years, according to Congressional investigators.<br /><br />The alliance, known as NAMI, has long been criticized for coordinating some of its lobbying efforts with drug makers and for pushing legislation that also benefits industry. <br /><br />Last spring, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, sent letters to the alliance and about a dozen other influential disease and patient advocacy organizations asking about their ties to drug and device makers. The request was part of his investigation into the drug industry’s influence on the practice of medicine.<br /><br />The mental health alliance, which is hugely influential in many state capitols, has <em>refused for years to disclose specifics of its fund-raising, saying the details were private.</em><br /><br />But according to investigators in Mr. Grassley’s office and documents obtained by The New York Times, <em>drug makers from 2006 to 2008 contributed nearly $23 million to the alliance, about three-quarters of its donations</em>.<br /><br />Even the group’s executive director, Michael Fitzpatrick, said in an interview that the drug companies’ donations were excessive and that things would change.<br /></blockquote><br />However, he tried to downplay the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the Alliance.<br /><blockquote>'I understand that NAMI gets painted as being in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies, and somehow that <em>all we care about is pharmaceuticals</em>,' Mr. Fitzpatrick said. 'It’s simply not true.'<br /></blockquote><br />Note the careful wording of this denial, though. He did not deny that most of what NAMI cares about is pharmaceuticals. <br /><br />Moreover, the article suggested how cozy pharmaceutical companies and the Alliance's leadership have become.<br /><blockquote>The close ties between the alliance and drug makers were on stark display last week, when the organization held its annual gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Avenue in Washington. Tickets were $300 each. Before a dinner of roasted red bell pepper soup, beef tenderloin and tilapia, Dr. Stephen H. Feinstein, president of the alliance’s board, thanked Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharmaceutical company. <br /><br />'For the past five years, Bristol-Myers has sponsored this dinner at the highest level,' Dr. Feinstein said.<br /><br />He then introduced Dr. Fred Grossman, chief of neuroscience research at Bristol-Myers, who told the audience that 'now, more than ever, <em>our enduring relationship with NAMI must remain strong.</em>'<br /><br />Documents obtained by The New York Times show that drug makers have over the years given the mental health alliance — along with millions of dollars in donations — <em>direct advice about how to advocate forcefully for issues that affect industry profits.</em><br /></blockquote><br />In a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/l30donors.html">letter today </a>to the NY Times, NAMI Executive Director Fitzpatrick tried again to correct "misimpressions."<br /><blockquote>First, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, has always disclosed corporate and foundation sources of revenue. Until this year, <em>specific amounts remained private</em> for competitive fund-raising reasons. <br /><br />Second, your estimate that pharmaceutical companies account for three-quarters of “donations” has been misinterpreted as a share of NAMI’s total annual budget — <em>which is actually about <strong>50 percent</strong>. </em><br /></blockquote><br />Perusal of the <a href="http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Inform_Yourself/About_NAMI/Annual_Reports/NAMIAnnualReport2008.pdf">2008 NAMI Annual Report</a> does include this impressive list of "Corporate Partners":<br /><blockquote>Abbott<br />Alexza Pharmaceuticals<br />Amazon<br />AstraZeneca<br />Blue Cross Blue Shield<br />Bristol-Myers Squibb<br />College of Psychiatric and Neurologic<br />Pharmacists<br />Corcept Therapeutics<br />Cyberonics<br />Delivery Agent, Inc.<br />Forest Laboratories<br />GEO Care<br />GoodSearch.com<br />The Health Central Network<br />Janssen Pharmaceutica<br />Eli Lilly and Company<br />Magellan Health Services<br />McNeil Pediatrics<br />Neuronetics<br />Novartis<br />Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals<br />Pfizer<br />PhRMA<br />RF Binder<br />Sanofi-Aventis<br />Shire<br />Solvay<br />Validus Pharmaceuticals<br />WellPoint<br />Wyeth<br />YTB Travel Network<br /></blockquote><br />The NAMI web-site now includes <a href="http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Major_Foundation_and_Corporate_Support">lists of specific corporate donations</a> that individually exceeded $5000 since the beginning of 2009. So far this year, the biggest pharmaceutical corporate donors appear to be AstraZeneca ($350,000), Bristol-Myers-Squibb ($506,205), and Eli Lilly ($675,500).  <br /><br />Looking at the latest Form 990 filed on behalf of NAMI with the US Internal Revenue Service (available from GuideStar <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2008/431/201/2008-431201653-0469e087-9.pdf">here</a>)  provides more interesting detail. (Keep in mind that the 2008 form covers July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.)   This form listed the organization's total revenue as $13,788,288, and expenses as $12,796,205.  These expenses included $1,785,060 (13.9%) for management and $1,520,637 (11.9% ) for fund-raising.  The form listed eight NAMI executives who made more than $100,00 a year, including Mr Fitzpatrick ($210,685 total compensation).<br /><br />So, in summary, it appears that corporate donations, mainly from a few large pharmaceutical companies, supply a substantial portion, (maybe half, if I read the letter by Mr Fitzpatrick correctly) of the annual budget of NAMI. About one-quarter of that budget is spent on administration and fund-raising, including six-figure salaries for at least eight executives.  So who do you expect would more easily get access to the $200K+/year NAMI Executive Director, an executive of a pharmaceutical firm that supplies more than $500,000 a year, or a NAMI member who pays $35 dues?<br /><br />Here we have another example of a respected patient advocacy organization which gets a substantial portion of its revenue from (presumably the marketing departments of) a few large pharmaceutical companies.  (See another example <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-supports-fibromyalgia-patient.html">here</a>.)  Its well-paid executive director can at best bring himself to deny that the <em>only</em> purpose of the organization is to support pharmaceutical marketing and lobbying.  It seems reasonable that for supplying half the budget, the pharmaceutical companies expect considerable help not only with marketing but also with advocacy of policies that favor their corporate goals.  <br /><br />As I have said before, I do not have a problem with pharmaceutical and other health care corporations marketing their products, and expressing their views on policy. I do have a problem with corporate marketing or policy advocacy is disguised as grass-roots, not-for-profit education and advocacy.  If ostensibly not-for-profit disease (or patient) advocacy organizations like NAMI want to continue to accept corporate money, they should make it clear that they speak for their corporate donors as well as, and probably with priority over their members and patients with the diseases of interest.  Well-intentioned people who pay their dues, and/or make small contributions to NAMI to help the mentally ill might want to consider whether they are likely to have any influence compared to the individual pharmaceutical executives who oversee $500,000+ a year corporate donations.<br /><br />ADDENDUM (2 November, 2009) - See also <a href="http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2009/10/nami_lies_in_nyt_letter_to_the_editor.html">comments</a> on the Furious Seasons blog.

An Alliance on Mental Illness or for Pharmaceutical Companies?

A recent article by Gardner Harris in the New York Times focused on the financial links among health care corporations and not-for-profit d...

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Three contest winners making their way to television

<span style="font-style: italic;">(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://google-tmads.blogspot.com/2009/10/three-contest-winners-making-their-way.html">Google TV Ads Blog</a>)</span><br /><br />Small businesses often think that television advertising is too expensive and cumbersome for them to use. They assume that they need a fancy, expensive commercial to use in their TV campaign. But <a href="http://google.com/tvads">Google TV Ads</a> changes all of that — we make it easy and affordable for you to make a TV ad, plan a campaign and reach your customers through the power of television. We launched the <a href="http://google-tmads.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-tv-ads-announces-tv-for-all.html">TV for All</a> contest two months ago to prove just that.<br /><br />More than 200 companies submitted commercials for the opportunity to win $25,000 worth of free national advertising on cable channels such as CNBC, Hallmark and Bloomberg using Google TV Ads. Today, we're happy to announce the three winners of the TV for All contest based on votes from the YouTube community.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2TC_ot2aFU">Amazing Gates</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bcgAFfTaZM">Owners.com</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKJxgMNt48o">ZAGG.com</a> received the largest number of votes among the 10 finalists. Each of these businesses will receive $25,000 in free national advertising through Google TV Ads advertising.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKJxgMNt48o"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398201225432639890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgerW8AsbDi_KGc1i7jlxnCqpZBygmnq5GDgTKUNS2mSAGw2-RqFFZAvhrFr4ni6zGWWKS8UqFcxbvnnPN_WDQBgdswKPMITIWvIRSaY6R3s8b6xJ7teAFOQE8GorzhvPbMowPEsMB4hHc/s200/tv3.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 182px;" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bcgAFfTaZM"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398201217906373522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyYRpCJt_FfLXJQ5vpTqd_z6dOJ99QaqTdFPWHoekeHJAIMCHGWXjSRtIn_Y2RpL4GjGwCvp9ENeZF9GAdNiGJFCKGzYFeYo-WVd0EupUJCzHVL_ubICqM0_Mo4KEZNy3SfO20yb-Gm6A/s200/tv2.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 182px;" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2TC_ot2aFU"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398201217117755154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bmb6gMA17-xEjA67EaQiWDFTNmUaOEmsex3SGQhr9SQcddUUfrEkfDSuen86VptX77KultyF7iMwMnSGsGCIp0slcwsjSgrUbCm7v1OvDBPXFalpUxJr9G14KmILQCdLBs43aUiIQ3k/s200/tv1.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 182px;" /></a><br />Check out the three winners and all entries at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest">www.youtube.com/tvforallcontest</a>. For more information on Google TV Ads and how it can help your small business succeed, visit our website at <a href="http://google.com/tvads">google.com/tvads</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Deeksha Hebbar, Associate Marketing Manager, Google TV Ads</span>

Three contest winners making their way to television

(Cross-posted from the Google TV Ads Blog ) Small businesses often think that television advertising is too expensive and cumbersome for the...

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Making search more musical

Every day we get millions of search queries about music. You want to know more about your favorite artists, find that new album or iconic song or figure out the name of that tune stuck in your head. In fact, according to Insights for Search, two of the <a href="http://www.google.com/insights/search/#geo=US&cmpt=q">top 10 queries</a> in the U.S. are music-related. But often, if your answer is in a song, it can take a while to get there. We call this "time to result" — and we're always looking for ways to reduce it.<br /><br />Today, we're rolling out a search feature that does just that by enabling you to search and more easily discover millions of songs, all via a simple Google web search. If you're searching for music, "time to result" is really "time to music." Now, when you enter a music-related query — like the name of a song, artist or album — your search results will include links to an audio preview of those songs provided by our music search partners <a href="http://www.myspace.com/">MySpace</a> (which just acquired <a href="http://www.ilike.com/">iLike</a>) or <a href="http://www.lala.com/">Lala</a>. When you click the result you'll be able to listen to an audio preview of the song directly from one of those partners. For example, if I search for [21st century breakdown], the first results provide links to songs from Green Day's new album. MySpace and Lala also provide links to purchase the full song.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC9qcUsWfSVknDN0F7SzomgfsTnSxjFrQOQZSbkmxYMJXz1SArG9ewM0hEIv26QPdM1z3z_kuU7-6JzOOvSQTRVZfxEp2tgCdHN229m9wlF6xZXiypuVBUM1rriKBwGIT9XNAUDXd2qzw/s1600-h/ms1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397774682044699730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC9qcUsWfSVknDN0F7SzomgfsTnSxjFrQOQZSbkmxYMJXz1SArG9ewM0hEIv26QPdM1z3z_kuU7-6JzOOvSQTRVZfxEp2tgCdHN229m9wlF6xZXiypuVBUM1rriKBwGIT9XNAUDXd2qzw/s400/ms1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 202px;" /></a><br />Many times, though, you don't know the name of the song or the artist who sings it. Maybe you remember only the chorus — or maybe you remember who sang it, but you forgot the exact name of the song. If you've ever heard a catchy song in a car or cafe, but just can't figure out the name of the song, you'll know what I'm talking about. This search feature also helps you find many of those songs by entering a search containing a line or two of lyrics. So if I search for [static silhouette somehow], I'll get results for Phoenix's song "Rome."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgthIzumW2VtpyhJGgJ1kP1VYQBye1g_0vK-2D6HbqwF6-OYqcxY3HNv65L1qMqF2KuiVX9L1sFLlFp42XjdBD8PQo64C2f-W6WfD3bwTY2Lwy7vCF3WbJt2aQaOirXgjmY2yst_O2nhUI/s1600-h/ms2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397774715885577426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgthIzumW2VtpyhJGgJ1kP1VYQBye1g_0vK-2D6HbqwF6-OYqcxY3HNv65L1qMqF2KuiVX9L1sFLlFp42XjdBD8PQo64C2f-W6WfD3bwTY2Lwy7vCF3WbJt2aQaOirXgjmY2yst_O2nhUI/s400/ms2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 185px;" /></a><br />Finally, a search engine should also be able to help you discover music you'll like, even if you can't tell it what exactly you want to hear. We've partnered with <a href="http://www.pandora.com/#/stations/create/">Pandora</a>, <a href="http://www.imeem.com/">imeem</a> and <a href="http://www.rhapsody.com/home.html">Rhapsody</a> to include links to their sites where you can discover music related to your queries as well.<br /><br />This feature doesn't just make search better. It also helps people discover new sources of licensed music online while helping artists to discover new generations of fans and reconnect with longtime listeners. Our users love music, and this tool introduces millions of music seekers in the U.S. to a new generation of licensed online music services, from MySpace and Lala to Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody.<br /><br />Of course, this is just a first step toward making search more musical. There's a lot of music out there in the world, and in some instances, we may not return links to the song you're looking for. But by combining the strength of Google's search algorithms with our music search partners' efforts to increase the comprehensiveness of their music content, we're on track to answer more of your rhymes with the right rhythms.<br /><br />We'll be rolling this feature out gradually to users across the U.S. over the next day. To learn more, check out <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/music/">this page</a> or watch the video below. As we said back when we first announced <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/universal-search-best-answer-is-still.html">universal search</a>, the best answer is still the best answer, whether it's in the form of a video, an image, a magazine — or a song. And of course, the best way to know you've found the music you were looking for is to hear it. Well, let the music begin!<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DV24RBmy-2I&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DV24RBmy-2I&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Murali Viswanathan, Product Manager and Ganesh Ramanarayanan, Software Engineer</span>

Making search more musical

Every day we get millions of search queries about music. You want to know more about your favorite artists, find that new album or iconic so...

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