2 Anne F. Weiss (@annefweiss), a director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, tweeted an interesting idea from WebMD founder Jeff Arnold. Mr. Arnold proposes that we “look outside health tech for what attracts and engages users. Imagine making a doc appointment on OpenTable! #AspenIdeas.” Convenience is indeed crucial for patients when choosing among qualified specialists. Apps like this could easily limit these searches to availability among specialists who accept a patient’s particular health care plan. This idea is so simple that I can’t imagine it not being part of business as usual within a few years, but remember, you heard it here first.

3 I attended a debate about Colorado’s new Right to Try law. This recently passed law gives terminally ill patients the right to try experimental drugs that have not yet received FDA approval. The law further opens access to investigational drugs even beyond the FDA’s expanded-access (compassionate-use) regulations, which were enacted in 2009. This debate was unique in that both participants appeared to be undecided on the issue. Colorado Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia (@LtGovGarcia) voiced some support for the law but seemed concerned that the law might have passed not because of careful debate but rather because of the emotional impact of the recent film Dallas Buyers Club about access to HIV/AIDS medication that predates the expanded-access law. He noted that the Right to Try law passed unanimously. Co-panelist Diane E. Meier, MD (@DianeEMeier), director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, a palliative care leader, and a MacArthur Fellow, at first seemed cautiously in favor of the law. By the end, she, too, began to express concern as tough questions from the audience poured in. I later tweeted at Dr. Meier that I had been “undecided on Right to Try law prior to [this discussion]; now I’d say I’m somewhat opposed. @Aspenideas.” Dr. Meier later replied, “me too!” More conferences should be this way: with true debates that move opinions and where audience interaction both in person and via Twitter changes the conversation.

4 Finally, I added a few health care–associated Twitter accounts to my feed. From the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation (@KaiserFamFound) comes, “How is the Affordable Care Act impacting #Medicaid enrollment? http://kaiserf.am/1qH4glN #ACA.” In short, the ACA is increasing Medicaid enrollment. That’s good news if you believe in expanding such programs. The Kaiser account provides consistently high-quality health care data. I also added @NPRHealth: “Got questions about the #ACA? There’s a new @NPR app for that. http://n.pr/1kUZScC.” And if you are having trouble just keeping it all straight, then the new venture, Vox.com (@voxdotcom), from journalist Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) may be perfect for you. The site uses short slide decks to explain complicated news topics, including health care. It promises “everything you need to know, in two minutes.” Its 33-slide deck explaining the nuts and bolts of the ACA by Vox senior editor Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) is among the best you’ll find for describing the legislation and how it is supposed to work: www.vox.com/cards/obamacare/what-is-obamacare.