Indicium Brevis VIII

Impacting Policy – The Center for Public Integrity recently analyzed lobbying disclosure forms  the US Congress.  The results showed that 1,750 companies and organizations hired 4,525 lobbyists – or, eight lobbyists for each member of Congress – to influence healthcare reform bills in 2009.  Among those lining up to share their opinions were 207 hospitals, 105 insurance companies, and 85 manufacturing companies although an additional 745 trade, advocacy and professional organizations trumped those individual healthcare organization efforts.  And, the most visible groups?  The American Association of Retired People deployed 56 in-house lobbyists, the US Chamber, 47; the Business Roundtable, 40; and the American Medical Association, 33 – and, those numbers do not include the external lobbyists they hired nor the individuals who were mobilized for trips to Washington to share their opinions. 

Impacting the Web – China hosts the world's largest number of Internet users and their use soared nearly 30% last year to 384 million.  The reason?  Surfing the web by mobile phone more than doubled last year.  The 28.9% growth rate was below the incredible 2008 growth rate of 41% and, remains the world's highest despite all the government controls we keep hearing about.  Mobile phone use rose 106% to 233 million.  At more than 1.3 billion people, the Chinese are going to impact the use of all mobile technologies – regardless of what their government says…

Kevin Fickenscher, MD

The views and opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Dell Services or its affiliates.