Google Will Discontinue PHR Next Year

courtesy of ihealthbeat.org

Last week, Google announced that it will shut down its personal health record system Google Health less than four years after its launch, the New York Times reports.

In 2008, Google introduced Google Health, which the company hoped would attract millions of regular users.

Reasons for Decision

According to Aaron Brown -- Google Health's senior product manager -- the company intended to "translate our successful consumer-centered approach from other domains to health care and have a real impact on the day-to-day health experiences of millions of our users." Unlike electronic health records kept by physicians or hospitals, PHR systems allow consumers to directly input, monitor and alter their health information (Lohr, New York Times, 6/24).

At first, Google Health attracted several well-known health care provider and drug outlet partners (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 6/24).

However, PHR systems long have struggled to engage regular users because they rely heavily on individual motivation and effort, according to the Times. A recent survey by research firm IDC Health Insights found that 7% of consumers had tested online PHRs but that fewer than half continued to use them (New York Times, 6/24).

The company said Google Health did not "catch on the way we would have hoped" (Hoeksma, E-Health Insider, 6/27).

Dealing With the Data

Google plans to shut down Google Health on Jan. 1, 2012, but will keep data available for consumers until Jan. 1, 2013 (Modern Healthcare, 6/24).

Consumers will be able to download Google Health data to related services such as Microsoft HealthVault (Gohring, Computerworld, 6/24). The company also will offer the capability to transfer data using the Direct Project protocol for health information exchange (Claburn, InformationWeek, 6/24).

Any data remaining in January 2013 will be permanently deleted (E-Health Insider, 6/27).

Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/6/27/google-will-discontinue-phr-service-at-start-of-next-year.aspx#ixzz1QZvtsuQp

How to Explain Transferable Skills

Here's an interesting article on how to highlight your skills and make a successful career transition from the folks at The Ladders: How to Explain Transferable Skills.

Why Take A Recruiter's Call If You Are Not In A Job Hunt?

by Michael K. Burroughs from The Recruiter's Lounge

Does this situation apply to you? You are content where you now work, totally focused on accomplishing great things in your current position when the phone rings and an executive recruiter is calling. You’re busy. What do you do? If you are like most people in your situation you end the call quickly and get back to work.

What should you do?

Hearing from a recruiter is a career management moment. Here are some reasons why you should take that call:

• Get to know an executive recruiter for the future. You never know when you or someone you know will be interested in a career change. The more executive recruiters you know the better off you are. Recruiters want to get to know you and your capabilities. The next call they make to you could be the opportunity of your dreams.
• Obtain an outsider’s view of the marketplace. It is a great opportunity to check the pulse of the marketplace. Recruiters know about three months in advance when there will be a downturn and also three months in advance when things will begin to improve. When the market is sinking many of the recruiter’s clients cancel searches they had planned or even stop searches underway about three months in advance of “the news.” Likewise, when the market begins to turn for the better there is typically some pent-up demand and clients begin to go to search firms to fill positions long needed. At any time a recruiter should be able to tell you where the market is on that continuum.
• It is an opportunity to help a friend, mentor, colleague or protege’. A question asked early in a recruiter’s call, after telling you briefly what he or she is looking for, is: “Do you know anyone who might be interested in this opportunity?” Most recruiters will tell you that the greatest source of good candidates is through referrals. By doing so you have already vetted the candidate for the recruiter. Put yourself in the place of the person you would be referring. Wouldn’t you appreciate that someone is looking out for your career besides yourself? It is a good opportunity to recommend that individual whom you know would benefit from this call at this time.
• You can’t turn down an offer that has never been extended to you. Many candidates I have placed were not even remotely interested in a career change when they took my call. Some will say that the job sounds attractive but they are happy where they are. That’s fair. My comment is usually that, “You can’t turn down an offer that has never been extended to you.” At this stage we are simply having a conversation. I haven’t decided yet that you are right for the job and you have not decided that you are even interested. It is not until a candidate has interviewed and been extended an offer that a decision has to be made. Once you have an offer in hand the decision is yours to make, not the recruiter or the employer anymore.

The next time a recruiter calls take a few minutes to have a conversation with that person. Let your administrative assistant know that unless you are extremely busy, you would like to take all recruiter calls, if for no other reason than it is a great way to obtain some market intelligence and look out for people you know. The statistics are in your favor. Most of the time when you get a call like this you are either not suitable for the job or you remain uninterested. But almost all of us know somebody who would benefit from an informed referral. Remember that the next time that recruiter reaches out to you. It may very well be that the reason you got the call in the first place was that someone was looking out for you.

Test Your Cover Letter

By Lisa Vaas of theladders.com

Before you submit your cover letter to recruiters and hiring managers, run through this battery of questions to gauge its readiness.

Q: How is your cover letter addressed?

A. Personally addressed to the person responsible for vetting job candidates

B. “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To Whom it May Concern”

C. “Yo, wassup?”

Troy Harrison, president of sales training and development company SalesForce Solutions, told TheLadders "ho-hum" cover letters are overly generic. Letters addressed "Dear Hiring Manager" or that reference "the open position," suggest the job seeker isn’t taking the time to personalize his application. “I hire salespeople, so I assume that how the applicant pursues a job will be the way an applicant pursues a customer. If an applicant doesn't care enough to personalize a cover letter, they're really better off not even including one.”

Q: How does your cover letter show you’re the right fit for a job opening?

A. Mentions one or more stated qualifications from the job posting and outlines how you meet them.

B. Highlights your accomplishments regardless of whether they correspond to the job posting’s list of qualifications.

C. It’s the same letter I send for all job openings. Why tinker?

Cheryl E. Palmer, CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer) and president of Call to Career, said she counsels her clients to “take [the] guesswork out of the equation. If the vacancy announcement states that the candidate needs to have 10 years of experience in executive sales management in an IT organization, the cover letter needs to be clear that the job seeker meets this qualification.”

Q: How does your cover letter show the employer that you’ve read the job posting?

A. Follows instructions regarding how to apply, specifically mentions qualifications listed in posting, specifically mentions the job listed in the posting.

B. Talks about what a great job you do and why any employer would be lucky to hire you.

C. Well duh, of course I read the posting. I’m responding to the proper e-mail address!

“I tire quickly of ‛blast’ letters that are sent out 20 at a throw, just hoping something will stick to the wall,” Harrison said. “Let me know that you've read and understood the ad, and that you're a real, live candidate for it, and why.”

Q: What job opportunity does your cover letter say you’re interested in?

A. The specific job mentioned in the job posting.

B. The specific job for which your skills and experience have made you a perfect fit.

C. Any potential openings.

“The worst cover letters are the ones that are very specific — to a job that is nothing like the one I'm hiring for,” Harrison said. “It's great that you want to be a top-notch computer programmer; why are you telling me this when I'm hiring for an industrial salesperson?”

Q: Which most closes matches your writing style?

A. Standard business English with correct spelling, punctuation and grammar.

B. You totally should have a Facebook page for one, and for two you need to like lighten up, for a window frame company you guys are like a total drag, you have to see through your product, be more transparent, get it?

C. Im wrtng 2 u 4 the job.

Thanks to Catharine Bramkamp, adjunct professor and Writing Coach, for her example (B) of what college students tend to write and say in correspondence and the inappropriately casual tone they tend to take.

SCORING

Give yourself 2 points for all As, 1 point for Bs and 0 point for Cs.

10: Congratulations! You’re reading job postings carefully, customizing your cover letter to address what you see, and doing your homework to ensure your correspondence doesn’t sound like form letters.

5–10: You’re doing a fair job and might be interesting employers enough to interview you. To up the chances of an interview, focus on customizing your cover letters to make sure they fit the position.

0–5: Your cover letters are hitting the slush pile. Do more research on jobs; customize your cover letter for openings; and acquire a more businesslike, professional tone.