Did you hear about that new diet? You know the one that will magically melt away the pounds without doing much? It is fabulous.

My last visit to the Doctor convinced me that my 20 year old heart is totally out of alignment with my 46 year old body. I can no longer eat at my favorite Burger joint. It’s just not healthy for me.

With middle age comes middle age diseases. Chronic disease is inevitable the older we get. Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and High Cholesterol are just a few of the most popular disease adopted by most. The result is a monthly donation to your favorite pharmaceutical to keep these diseases under control. They love middle age. Eat what you want! We have a pill to make it all better.

As I listened to my overweight Doctor give me the impending doom of my long term health and offer me more options to give to my favorite pharmaceutical company, I had to make a decision. Change or give away more money to a pharma company.

So, what is the secret to good health?

(Drum roll…………..) Diet and Exercise!

Yeah…not very sexy. Not the new diet fad. Not what any of us want to hear.

Here is the reality of being human and growing older. Our metabolism slows as we get older. I can no longer eat hamburgers, french fries and a chocolate shake and burn off the calories as quickly as I once could. My metabolism can’t keep up with it.

What am I doing to live healthier?

LoseIt - I picked up an application on iTunes for my iPhone called: LoseIt. It allows me to track my daily calorie intake and exercise. It has a restaurant database, so I can track restaurant food too – awesome. I call it my don’t make me think application. All I have to do is log what I eat and it does the thinking for me.

Today: BWW – Wing Tuesday – 803 Calories – Chicken/Celery/Bleu Cheese

Most important thing you can do. Shop on the outside of the grocery story. Fresh Food! Fruits, vegetables, lean meat. Get rid of the processed food. Take the McDonalds, Burger King, White Castle, etc out of your diet. It really is poison and the calories taken in, blow your daily budget.

Wii Fit – I bought a Wii Fit for Christmas. I use it each morning and try to burn 200 calories each morning. It has Yoga, Strength and Aerobic exercises. I totally suck at the balance games. I have had terrible balance my whole life. Wii Fit just confirms it. But the other workouts are great.

Body for Life – it is a program I started several years ago. It does work. You work out 6 days a week alternating weights with aerobic exercise. I do my Body for Life in the evenings. I am not try to rip my body. I am just trying to generate enough activity to help burn fat.

LoseIt has pretty much ever exercise and the associated calorie burn for the time you participate. My favorite exercise – Playing Drums – 45 minutes burns 214 calories and it was fun!

Walk more. Park at the furthest point in the parking lot and walk to the mall entrance.

What has been the result? I have lost 21 pounds. I have not reached my goal weight, but I am feeling so much better than before.

It is not just about losing weight. It is about understanding that my 20 year old heart just can’t eat in this 46 year old body.

Next…..go to the doctor to see if it is helping my vitals.

I spent 3 years at a startup company that built a software application that helped Doctors and Nurse Practitioners provide point of care disease management. The company’s name was Isprit. They are still in existence, but are having a hard time getting Doctors to consider automation. It was a great system because it re-engineered the patient-Doctor encounter to be more efficient, informative and patient driven.

When I took the job, a former Pharmaceutical Executive laughed and said, “Doctors will not buy it.” Unless you can show them how to make money with it, or keep them out of jail, they will never buy it.” He ended up being right about it.

I had a Doctor that was using an EMR (Electronic Medical Record). He dumped all his patients and went into research. I signed up with a Doctor who was recommended by our pharmacists. His office is still using pen and paper. It really sucks because nothing is in real time. Data is collected during the visit, but I am always waiting for the lab results.

So, I attended the “At the Top” networking event last Thursday at the Skyline Club. (Best networking even in Indianapolis by far). Tom Godby, a local entrepreneur and businessman gave the keynote presentation. He talked about one of his companies that has a point of care medical device that measures cholesterol.

Why are more Doctors not using this device? The product is Cardiochek. You can buy it for yourself, or your Doctor could use it for your cholesterol checks when you go in for a yearly exam.

The way my Doctor works. I go into his office, they take my blood and then send it to a lab. We have our appointment, then I get a phone call a couple of weeks later. He has me come into the office to discuss the results. The cost to me and my insurance company is too much. Cholesterol is something that can be done real time in his office before I even see him.

How the encounter should work using a device like Cardiochek.

Dr. Elaine Habig is a internal medicine doctor in Lebanon, Indiana. Here is how she works with her patients.

1. Patient gets their finger pricked using a device like Cardiocheck
2. Nurse puts the results into their Caretrack system
3. Dr. Habig reviews the results with the patient in the room on a screen that graphs out the current results and compares it to previous results.
4. They discuss treatment options right there, or diet adjustments
5. Patient gets a printout of the cholesterol readings right there.

No phone calls, no come back into the office and waste an hour of your time. No additional costs to the patient.

Why are more Doctors not doing this?

If we want real healthcare reform in this country, you and I need to become consumers of our healthcare. There is no reason my Doctor should not be using a point of care system or point of care device to measure basic blood work. They can provide better care with good data and be more consistent in their delivery, if they know the outcomes of their own work with patients. If data resides on paper only, it has not value to either the physician or the patient.

I was at Isprit about 3 years ago. With all the talk of reducing healthcare costs, it could start with a simple change in how we deliver it. Streamline patient encounters, use available technology for standard procedures, and make healthcare delivery as customer driven as other industries.