The Integrative Stream

Healthcare CEO Blogs, Revisited

A few days ago I wrote a post on Healthcare CEO Blogs, in which I expressed my disappointment in Steve Case’s Revolution Manifesto blog at Revolution Health. My main complaint was that it simply wasn’t all that interesting, particularly compared to two of the other (arguably) most prominent CEO blogs in the healthcare area.

In this case, disappointment was a function of expectations. I heard Hillary Clinton speak at Yale shortly after she was elected to the Senate. I know she has interesting things to say – on the dynamics of Washington, if nothing else – but she was playing things safe and her speech was boring. My reaction to Case’s blog was similar. Here’s a very smart guy, who built one of the iconic late 20th century companies and is now taking on a very complex healthcare industry. That’s a recipe for interesting discussions, provided one has the time and inclination to go ahead with actually producing the content.

I was up in Boston for meetings much of this week, and when I finally got back to Washington yesterday morning I was somewhat surprised to see a comment from Steve Case. Even more surprising was that he concurred that the blog had been a little dull of late. He also confirmed that he did, in fact, write it himself, and fair’s fair, so I apologize for the insinuation that he didn’t. Reading my RSS feed this morning, I saw not one but two new entries in the blog–and they’re increasingly interesting. I’m not so hubristic as to actually take any credit for this, since with the launch of the Revolution Health web site I suspect he has some more time on his hands.

So what’s the wrap-up here? I’m not entirely sure. The response to my post was spot on, if not necessarily economically efficient given that I’m the definition of micro market media. I’m looking forward to reading Case’s blog over the next few months, and hopefully learning something. And my advice is to follow Levy and Baker’s examples: write about whatever is interesting, wherever you have a unique insight, and without obvious spin – better to admit you can’t write about something than to write about it disingenuously (not that I’ve observed such in this case). The combination builds traffic, but it also builds trust, and trust is a vital corporate asset, especially in healthcare.