The Kaiser-Permanente Online Health Team-Producers
of www.kponline.org

While many organizations are cutting back on tech spending, health plan giant Kaiser-Permanente is pushing ahead. Kaiser recently launched a $2 billion initiative to use the Internet to serve its members more effectively. The results of the Kaiser IT team's devoted efforts are already quite apparent: More than 100,000 of Kaiser's 8.2 million members currently log on to Kaiser's online patient services site, kponline.org, where they can consult a massive self-care database, request a non-urgent appointment, ask a nurse or pharmacist a question, or join a discussion group on one of a hundred health-related topics with other Kaiser members. Future offerings will include online test results, interactive health education, preventive health prompts, live online scheduling, real time chat, provider-patient e-mail, and an online personal medical record. kponline.org is a members only site-but you can take a tour of the site at:

http://www.kaiserpermanente.org/membersonly/hometour.htm

John Lester's FAQ

Q. Who is John Lester?

A. John Lester is the Information Systems Director for the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and the creator of the online support mega-community Braintalk.org, the only family of support communities for neurological conditions hosted by a major university medical center. Braintalk.org offers support groups for 173 different neurological conditions, from Achalasia to Visual Impairment. In addition, there are 55 support communities devoted to topics ranging from "Adoptive Parents of Children with Special Needs," to "Widows, Widowers, and their Families." John is truly one of the unsung pioneers of Information Age healthcare.

Q. If he's so great, how come I've never heard of him before?

A. Though little known in real life-even to some members of his own department. But John is deservedly famous on the Net. Plug "John Lester" into google.com and here's the #1 link:

John Lester's Biosketch Page
John Lester's Biosketch Page. ... Here's my official Harvard CV. Atomic Robot Man!
FergusonReport.com Awards John Lester the "Distinguished Achievement Award". ...
neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/me.html - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

That is so like John! He has a photo of his Ferguson Report Award Robot up on his home page even before I've officially given him the award--and it comes up #1 on a Google search!

Q. Where can I find out more about John Lester?

A. At any or all of the following brainchat.org (live chat on neurological conditions) braintalk.org (asynchronous messaging communities) neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/me.html (John's Personal Home Page) Or just do a google.com search for John Lester.

Published in The Ferguson Report, Number 8, January 2002

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