On the Road Again: Health 2.0 Motorcycle Tour

By David Kibbe

In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," Robert Pirsig writes about the different reactions  to our experiences living with modern technology, which he describes as romantic, classic, and a third and completely separate element and perspective, which he calls Quality.

I'm finding that there is a bit of all three in my Health 2.0 motorcycle tour and the interviews along the way. It's a curious revelation, and I'm somewhat awestruck by the relevance of his musings about how we lived during the 1970's to our situation here in the new century with health, wellness, and the Internet.

The journey from Chicago, where I picked up my slightly used 2007 Honda Goldwing from Cecil, a straight up guy who works for a local bus company, is clear weather traveling, filled with blue skies and very hot.

In the hills past Nashville I encountered a traffic back-up due to a tractor trailer that has overturned, and stopped under a train bridge where other motorcyclists parked to wait out the delay.

I chatted for a while with two guys from Boston who were on BMWs and traveling south to the Florida Keys despite the hurricanes, and another guy who is making his way back to Indiana after a two month trip through Alaska. He suffered several break downs, and is very much looking forward to getting home.

I know the feeling. My bike is handling just fine, a very smooth and comfortable ride, but I will have to make a few minor adjustments, like a slightly taller windshield. I'll worry about that when I get back to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Right now I have other things on my mind, like my interviews and filming in Chattanooga.

It might not be expected that the quiet, southern town of Chattanooga, Tennessee, nestled in the hills up against a bend in the Tennessee River, would be a place where Health 2.0 is alive and thriving. But as my interviews with Jana Skewes, CEO of Shared Health, Heather Stanfield, a nurse practitioner at a CVS MinuteClinic, and Christopher Parks, CEO of Change:Healthcare, clearly illustrate, Health 2.0 is just as important here as anywhere else in the country. In fact, it's vibrant.

In their different and very separate ways, all three Tennessee interviewees told me that people are ready for change in the way health care is delivered, and that Health 2.0 is moving from the margins to the mainstream. Getting my cholesterol and HDL checked at the local CVS MinuteClinic seems routine, but transferring my MinuteClinic medical record, lab results and all, to my Google Heath account with a few keystrokes of the computer? Well, in Chattanooga, that's becoming routine, too.

Working with the film crew from ScribeMedia is a pleasure. What a fine and hard working group they are! After our interviews for the day, I shared a glass of wine at the Hilton Garden Inn in Chattanooga with Jason and Heather. We were tired, but pleased with the day's shoot. Then, they're off to their rooms to download film files, and I'm out to the parking lot to change the oil on the Goldwing, check the coolant level and tire pressures, and prepare for tomorrow's drive across the Smokey Mountains and back home to North Carolina. What a great country.