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Photo by Layna Hendrich of PhotographyLayn

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Hunt of a Lifetime- Extreme Wheelchair Hunting

Since I was introduced to hunting in 2009, I have always envied Russ' stories of being up in the mountains listening to the elk bugling, stalking the bulls, and strategizing to make that perfect shot. While I was very thankful for the opportunity to hunt in a blind in a "wheelchair accessible" area, and I had greatly enjoyed it in my archery hunts in the past, I dreamed of the full-fledged, all-terrain hunting experience.

When I drew my first bull tag this spring, I soon realized that my crossbow would not give me the yardage I would need to make an accurate shot on a bull elk in the area where I would be hunting. Once I knew I would have to shoot a rifle, the panic set in.

My first experience shooting a rifle was when Russ and I were dating in 2005. He told me he couldn't marry me until he knew I could shoot, so off to the range we went. When Russ set me up on the shooting bench and handed me his .30-06 rifle, I didn't know enough to realize I was in for quite a punch from the recoil. After taking the first shot, I knew my shoulder stung, but I was cocky after making a decent mark on the target and didn't hold it tightly for my next shot. Needless to say, shot #2 nearly knocked me off of the bench and bruised my shoulder badly. If you add my poor balance from my spinal cord injury and my daily dose of clot-preventing blood thinner, I quickly realized that shooting a rifle was not only a bad idea, but also a dangerous one.

Fast forward to 2013, and you can start to understand why I was nervous about my impending elk hunt. Fortunately, one of our Wyoming Disabled Hunters board members, Myles Haines, had struck up a friendship with a local Cody company, The Best of the West. BOTW is known for their long range rifle system with Huskemaw scopes, which can be seen in action on their hunting shows on the Outdoor Channel. They heard about my dilemma and asked that I come in to the shop to talk about a possible solution to my rifle problem, as well as the possibility of filming my hunt for their show.

When I went in to meet everyone, I was quickly put at ease by their kindness, confidence, and knowledge of their product. The rifle systems they produce are built with muzzle breaks, which minimize the recoil until it is virtually non-existent. You can actually spot your own shot through the scope because there is no movement after your shot. I was able to handle one of the rifles and see how the scope worked. I was told, with practice, I would be able to shoot at long range accurately and with minimal recoil. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Getting comfortable with the rifle at The Best of the West.

 I left the shop that day skeptical but slightly optimistic. We made plans to go to the local shooting range to try out the rifle, and Russ arranged to use his lunch break to go as well. We met back at the shop so that he could be introduced to the staff and crew, and we headed out to the range with Latt, a pro staffer, and Nate and Matt from the camera team. I was nervous and excited at the same time.

I was used to hearing people talk about making shots at 300 yards and under, so when they said they would start me at a target at 550 yards, I laughed a little. Surely I was about to make a fool of myself. What would make me cry first- the pain of the recoil or the humiliation of missing the target? So I put on my ear protection, got comfortable at the shooting bench, and listened to Latt as he instructed me on the rifle and scope. Once I was ready, I took a deep breath, released it slowly, and squeezed off my first shot.

I felt nothing- absolutely nothing. Addison hugs me harder than that rifle kicked. I was shocked. And I had only missed the target by about four inches. Latt showed me how to adjust the scope for the slight wind/snow we were experiencing, and the next shot was a bull's eye. At 550 yards. With no recoil. A fluke, right? We spend the next two hours having the time of our lives shooting at long range targets with different rifles, including Latt's 7 mm Mag. By the end of the morning, I was hitting within four inches of the target at 1120 yards (for those of you that don't shoot- that's really far- visualize 11 football fields...). And Russ got in on the action as well. We both left the range that day as believers in the BOTW rifle system. I had just shot for two hours and my shoulder didn't feel any different than when I had started. I was ready for my hunt.

I had been fortunate enough to draw my bull elk tag in Area 45, and our organization had been working with John & Carolyn Alm with Paint Rock Canyon Enterprises on the Hyatt Ranch. The Alms founded Camp Paintrock, which allows 72 “underprivileged, at-risk, but high-potential” ninth graders from the Los Angeles inner city area to spend five weeks during the summer at the ranch. They are amazing, incredibly generous people, and WDH is very grateful to bring our hunters, including many Wounded Warriors, to Hyattville to hunt. The ranch staff have built several accessible hunting blinds on the ranch, and the housing accommodations are also accessible.

Russ and I, along with Latt and Nate, arrived at the ranch on Wednesday night. We came in after dark, so we didn't get a good look at the place until the next day. We settled in for a quick night's sleep before leaving the next morning under cover of darkness. We met Terry Jeffers, who is a contract employee for the ranch, and would be our guide for my hunt. Terry has been involved with the ranch for over 14 years, and he knows the land like the back of his hand. He also knows the elk herds that live on the ranch and can predict their movements- at least as well as you can predict the movements of wild animals!

We set up in the first blind Thursday morning. There were several elk trails leading down to a creek, so we hoped to see some action. The blind was large- 8'x 12'- so we had adequate room for the five of us and the portable shooting table. We waited for a few hours, but never saw a thing. Terry mentioned that some cows had been moved down off of the mountain a few days before, and that it may have upset the elk herds. I mentioned to him that I was comfortable being outside the blind, and that I was willing and able to be anywhere on the ranch that he thought we could get to. Terry's response- "That changes everything." When I told him I was also comfortable taking a shot anywhere between 500-800 yards, he said, "That really changes everything." And so my extreme wheelchair hunting experience began.

We headed back to the ranch house to have lunch and restock with plans to be picked up by Terry around 4:00 p.m. We spent the afternoon drooling over a massive bull elk on the side of a hill across from the ranch house. Russ had spotted him through his binoculars, but he was in the ranch's safety zone, where we can't hunt. Smart elk! This just got us even more excited to head out, and when Terry arrived, we were ready to go.

We headed out on a different trail this time, out in to the heart of the ranch. We drove for a while and then Terry stopped the truck, and the guys bailed out to do some spotting. After seeing a small herd, we loaded back up and headed to where we could get into a better location. We all unloaded this time, and Terry tied a tow rope to the front of my chair. With Russ pushing and Terry pulling, we started off cross country. Nate started filming and Latt hauled all of our gear. I held on for dear life and tried not to look too crazy with the huge grin splitting my face. This is what I had always wanted, but had never dreamt possible.

Once we got close to our location, I got out of my chair and onto the ground. We wanted to be out on a rock ledge looking down on the elk, but once we left the cover of the juniper trees, we would be exposed. Latt crawled forward to get the rifle set up, and I followed him, pulling myself with my elbows while Russ pushed my feet. We got out on the ledge and starting getting comfortable. I had never shot lying prone on the ground, only from the shooting table, so this was a new position for me. The guys started spotting, and before long, they found a bull elk with a few cows. I got him in my scope and realized that although he was a decent 5x5, he had broken off his two front tines on one side. I felt comfortable letting him go, especially since he was the first bull we had seen. He hung out for a few more minutes, and then he and the cows ran up over the ridge and disappeared. We heard other bulls bugling, but never saw anything within range. It was starting to get dark, so Terry left to go and get the truck. We stretched out on the rock ledge for a while and just enjoyed listening to the bugling. There were several bulls blowing by this time- we think they might have caught our scent and were making their displeasure known. It was such an amazing moment; this was what Russ had told me about, and I was actually experiencing it for myself. I could have ended everything right there and been happy, but fortunately, my hunt was only just beginning.

We headed back home for dinner. Now that Terry knew that I had been serious about being hauled around, he had plenty of ideas for the next morning. I was a little sore, but it was so worth it. I fell sleep that night with a feeling of pure contentment. We headed out the next morning in John Alm's Toyota Land Cruiser, which quickly lived up to its legendary off-road reputation. Over the next few hours, we repeated a cycle of events. We would stop at a location, unload, and start off towing me in the chair. When we would get close to the elk, Russ and Terry would either drag me or carry me between them. Once we were within view of the herd, I would scoot or army crawl to where Latt would have the rifle set up and see if I could get the right angle for a shot. I learned several things very quickly:
  • Elk are very unpredictable creatures
  • Shooting prone on the ground is much different that shooting from my chair at a table
  • When there are large bull elk involved, grown men start talking in very high-pitched voices
To be honest, after doing this multiple times, and never feeling comfortable enough to take a shot, I was getting frustrated. My legs were not cooperating, and I couldn't hold my shooting position for very long without my muscles spasming.  I was determined to only take a shot if I was completely sure of myself, but I saw that possibility slowly slipping away. This was the hunting experience I had always wanted, but what if my body just couldn't do what I needed it to do? I felt so bad about all of the work my hunting team had put into making this work for me- I knew I had to keep trying. I was getting sore, and I was pretty sure I had separated something between my shoulder blades. Add that to the cactus I had crawled through and I could have called it a day without feeling completely ashamed, but I really wanted that bull elk.

Terry had one more spot that he thought might be a place where some of the elk might be. We headed that way in the Land Cruiser and unloaded. This time, Russ decided that carrying me piggy back might be our best option to cover the most ground. I don't think he realized how far we would have to go. Latt, Nate, and Terry went ahead of us to get everything set up and see if they could find the herd. Russ loaded me on his back and we started after the guys. We quickly realized just how far he would have to carry me. It's hard to explain to people what it's like to tote dead weight- especially when the person is over six feet tall. And let's be honest- I don't think anyone is worried about me being anorexic. Luckily, I married a very burly man, and we made it a lot farther than I thought we would before my arms gave out. At that point, Russ lowered me to the ground and he and Terry drug/carried me closer to the ledge. The guys had spotted several bull elk running around in the juniper trees below, I scooted/crawled the remainder of the way in order to stay out of view, and after resting for a few moments, got set up with the rifle.

Below me, multiple bulls were moving in and out of the trees. They were fighting, chasing the cows, and generally making complete fools of their male selves. What woman in her right mind wouldn't take a shot at that? For once, my body cooperated and after several attempts, I was able to settle in to a comfortable position. Unfortunately, the bulls were moving all around and in and out of the trees. I would follow one in my scope only to lose him again, and I was starting to get confused about which bull I had been following. To further complicate things, I had several pairs of eyes spotting bulls from their own, separate locations, and each was frantically whispering that a bigger one was to the left, or a real beast was to the right. It was hunting at its finest.

I finally focused in on a nice 6x6 with great symmetry. He might not have been the biggest bull down there, but he was a beautiful elk and he was staying out in the open. Latt verified my yardage, and I sighted in on him. I tightened my grip on the rifle, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. The bull stopped broad side, and I pulled the trigger. I watched through the scope as he went down. I started to chamber another round if needed, but he died quickly, which I am always thankful for. 545 yards with no recoil- I was beyond thrilled.

And then the celebration began. Everyone had invested so much to make this hunt possible for me. There were some tears, a lot of laughing, and smiles all around. The relief was palpable- I didn't realize just how much I had wanted it to be a successful hunt until that moment. I felt like I had been wrung out like a dish cloth, but it was so worth it. It had been the perfect combination of the right terrain, the amazing rifle system, and my awesome hunting team. We headed down to the elk for pictures and video, and then my four burly guys somehow managed to load the 800+ pound bull into the back of the Land Cruiser. It was the most redneck thing I have ever seen. Terry in the driver seat, Russ in the passenger seat holding my wheelchair frame, Latt, Nate and I in the back seat holding the rifle, my wheelchair cushion, and the camera, with a bull elk in the trunk, head hanging out over the tailgate with his rack tied up on the roof. It was amazing. We headed back to the ranch house in great spirits., thankful for the successful harvest and the bountiful meat it would provide.

Russ, Me, and Latt

Nate, Terry, Me, and Latt
Words cannot express how thankful I am for everyone involved in this hunt. To John and Carolyn Alm, for being so generous with their land and vehicle. To Terry, for hauling me all over the mountain and being willing to share his knowledge of the land and the elk. To Latt, for allowing me to use his amazing rifle, teaching me how to shoot it effectively, and coaching me through the entire process. To Nate, for following us on our insanely wonderful hunt and getting some amazing footage and proof of all of the craziness. And to my amazing husband, Russ, for being my best friend and partner in crime through all of our adventures together. He never doubted that I could do this, and it was his confidence in my ability that pushed me to finish when I wanted to give up. He would haul me to the ends of the earth without complaining, and I couldn't ask for a better man.

I never dreamed that a hunting experience like this would be possible for someone in a wheelchair. I am exhausted, incredibly sore, bruised, and scraped, and I will be picking cactus out of my body for a while, but it is such a sweet pain. I haven't worked that hard for something in my entire life, and it was all worth it. It just goes to show you that with the right support team, awesome adaptive equipment, a little creativity, and a lot of man power, you can do the seemingly impossible. I am officially ruined for life on any other type of hunting. Once you have experienced Extreme Wheelchair Hunting, you can't ever go back. It was definitely the hunt of a lifetime.

For more information on hunting with Wyoming Disabled Hunters, visit our website at, or call Corey McGregor at 307-899-0790.

To learn about The Best of the West long range rifle system and Huskemaw scopes, visit The footage from my hunt will appear on the Outdoor Channel sometime next year. I will post more information as it becomes available.

If you know an eligible child in the LA area, please visit for more information on Camp Paintrock.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

TEDx Central Wyoming College

I had the most amazing experience speaking at the TEDx event at Central Wyoming College in Riverton this past Wednesday. I had heard about TED Talks briefly before, but didn't really know a lot about them until I was approached about this opportunity. If you would like to know more about the organization, you can visit their website here.

I drove down to Riverton Tuesday night and checked in to my hotel. Dress rehearsal began at 10:00 Wednesday morning. When I arrived, I got to meet the awesome staff that I had been emailing and conference calling in the weeks prior to the event, as well as the other speakers. We ran through our speeches while working on timing, lighting, and other aspects of a stage production. After lunch I went to the public library (my all-time favorite place to hang out when I'm away from home), put my feet up in a comfy chair, and read for a few hours before we had to be back to get ready for the evening.

The night in Riverton was an independent ("x") event hosted by the CWC Workforce Development & Training office, and the theme was "Innovation: Bringing Ideas to Life." Ted Talks are different than other speaking events; they encourage an informal setting, with speakers addressing the audience like they were talking to a group of friends. Presenters come up on to the stage from seats in the audience, and they are encouraged to mingle and visit with attendees before the event, during intermission, and after the event. There were several speakers, and I will give you a brief bio on each, as well as a summary their topic.

The first speakers were a trio of young men who are currently making a film, Far From Home, based on the life of their friend, Brolin Mawejje, who came to the US from Uganda when he was 12 years old. Brolin faced incredible odds and is now working towards a doctorate in Neuro-Oncology at Westminster College. Additionally, he is also training to represent Uganda in the 2018 Winter Olympics in snowboarding; he will be the first person from his home country to participate in this event.

Galen Knowles, Director, Philip Hessler, Producer, and Adam Schellenberg, Producer, were amazing speakers- and they are so professional for being so young (Although Adam thinks I am old enough to have a 18-year old daughter. Adam, if you are reading this, I am still seriously considering putting tire tracks up your back :) ). Their presentation of this film, as well as Brolin's story, made me definitely want to follow their progress and see and support this documentary when it premiers next year.

The next speaker, Maxwell Wessel, is a genius. After reading his bio, I had two thoughts. The first was that I was way out of my league speaking at an event with this guy. My second thought was that no one that intelligent would be able to hold my attention for long because everything he said would be way over my head. Thankfully, my second thought was wrong. (The verdict is still out on my first thought. I haven't seen the full playback of my speech yet...)

Maxwell spoke on innovation and failure, and why the creation of new, brilliant ideas are often not repeated. He used understandable examples and gave us all great tips on how to be fresh and innovative while pursuing our ideas. Very informative and held my attention- I felt smarter just being in his presence. Osmosis? Fingers crossed...

The final speaker before intermission was one of my personal favorites, Anne Even. I loved Anne for many reasons, but mostly because she was the only other female speaker, because she is a Mom of twins, and because she is a Tough Mudder. If you don't know anything about these events, you have got to check out their website. She's amazing.

Anne talked about labels and forcing yourself outside of your comfort zone. She was always labeled as a "non-athlete," a title she has completely obliterated. Anne was real and open and honest, and she was the only speaker that made me cry, which is a big deal for me. She was inspiring that night because she was completely outside of her own comfort zone speaking at the event, and it really made me take a look at my own life and challenged me to push the boundaries on my comfort levels. I may just have to look in to this Tough Mudder thing...

After intermission, I spoke. I usually don't get nervous when I speak, but something about this event had my stomach in knots. I don't know if it was the other amazing speakers, the time limit, or the cameras, but I was a hot mess while I waited in the wings with my student ambassador, Amber (who was an amazing assistant all night!). But something happened when I was introduced and got out on stage. I think it was a mix of peace that only could have come from the Lord (thank you to my friends and family who were praying for me!), the incredibly receptive, amazing audience, and the knowledge that the sooner I got out there the sooner I would be out of the spotlight! Either way, I felt good about how it went, and once the video is available, I will post the link for those who want to watch it.

Jason Kintzler was up next. Jason is the Founder and CEO of PitchEngine, a website that gets ideas out to the world. This platform completely transformed how PR departments share information. The best part is that Jason's company was founded and remains right here in Wyoming. How great is that?

Jason spoke about attainable innovation, and how we all have the ability within ourselves to make a difference in the world. He also talked about community and shared stories about the impact we can make when we have the vision and courage to push boundaries and innovate.

The final speaker of the evening was John Kanengieter. John has many years of experience training on leadership and team work- he has even worked with the astronauts at NASA! He is one of those guys that just exudes calmness- I wish he had spoken right before me!

John talked to us about taking risks with our minds, our hearts, and ourselves through showing kindness to others.  Only through taking a risk can we innovate and grow. By living our lives without a safety net, we can experience true relationships with those around us. He continually asked the question, "When is the last time you took a real risk?" It was very thought-provoking and a great way to end the evening.

I can't forget the MC for the night, Chris Jones. Chris is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Riverton, and he was perfect for the job of host for the event. He was funny, he put the speakers at ease, and he had a great rapport with the audience. We all loved Chris!

After the event was over, we were given a final opportunity to talk to people in the lobby. I was able to speak with a 12-year old girl who had come to the event after her Dad read about it in the paper. She was excited to learn about coming up to Cody next year to hunt with Wyoming Disabled Hunters. We are going to have a lot of female representation in the 2014 hunt!

I am so grateful and humbled to have been a part of this extraordinary event. It is definitely something I will never forget. As I mentioned before, as soon as the video becomes available, I will share the link with everyone.

Speakers at the TEDx CentralWyomingCollege event gathered for a group photo afterwards. (Ernie Over photo)

I am leaving next week for my bull elk hunt. I will hopefully have something exciting to blog about when I return!


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Photo by Layna Hendrich of PhotographyLayn

Monday, August 11, 2014

The Challenged Athletes Foundation & Friends of Pathways

For some time, I have wanted to get involved in handcycling. Addison loves to ride her bike, and I thought it would be a great family activity, as well as good exercise. And I am always looking for more ways to enjoy accessible outdoor recreation! I am also interested in eventually participating in some kind of organized cycle race, so I thought I should try out the sport and see how it went recreationally before I made the jump to competitions.

I had known about The Challenged Athletes Foundation for many years, but had never hit the application deadlines at the right time.  Founded in 1997, their mission is to "provide opportunities and support to people with physical disabilities so they can pursue active lifestyles through physical fitness and competitive athletics. The Challenged Athletes Foundation believes that involvement in sports at any level increases self-esteem, encourages independence and enhances quality of life." It doesn't get much better than that!

I applied for funding for a handcycle last fall, and found out in April that I had been chosen to receive the grant- wahoo! This great organization awarded nearly 1500 grants totaling over $3 million in 2014. If you would like more information, please visit their website here. The 2015 application process will open September 1, 2014.

Being awarded my handcycle couldn't have come at a better time, as I received an invitation from Friends of Pathways to participate in their annual Access August event in Jackson, Wyoming. Friends of Pathways is a non-profit organization created in 1994 that "supports a vibrant community by advocating the completion of a safe and sustainable pathways system for healthy recreation and transportation opportunities in Jackson Hole." The pathway system that has been created between Jackson and Grand Teton National Park is amazing- such a great way to actively enjoy God's creation.

This two-part event includes a Celebration Ride followed by a BBQ at Dornan's Resort. The ride is held every year in memory of Gabriella Axelrad, a 13-year old who was tragically struck and killed while cycling with her family in Grand Teton in 1999. Gabriella's family was involved in the ride as well as the program that followed. They are amazing people, and have chosen extraordinary ways to honor the memory of their daughter and continue her legacy. You can learn more about the Axelrads here.

Russ, Addison and I took off on Friday evening and drove through Yellowstone to get to Jackson. Our room for the weekend was provided by The Lexington at Jackson Hole, and it was beautiful. More importantly, it was very accessible, which is always a plus! We spent Saturday kayaking on Jenny Lake, which was a special way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of my accident. We love to kayak, and I am glad to be passing on the enjoyment to Addison. Russ also got in some fly fishing, and Addison and I splashed around in the crystal clear water. We enjoyed a double-anniversary dinner at Nani's, as Russ and I celebrated 8 years of marriage on July 29th. I have a weakness for good gnocchi alfredo, and Nani's did not disappoint!

Sunday dawned as a bright and beautiful day for the ride. We started from Windy Point right inside Grand Teton National Park. I rode my handcycle while Russ pushed Addison in the jogging stroller. This was my first official ride on my cycle, and after some minor adjustments in the parking lot before we took off, it was a great inaugural ride! I ended up getting an Invacare TopEnd XLT handcycle, and I am very happy with it. It is a great way to experience recreational handcycling, and I know it will allow me to enjoy countless hours riding with my family.

After the ride, we headed to Dornan's for a delicious BBQ. The program that followed involved various speakers, including Wyoming Senators John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, GTNP Superintendent David Vela, Gabriella's father, David Axelrad, and myself. I was so honored to be a part of this amazing group of people that are passionate about safe and accessible pathways in Wyoming. I spoke about the importance of allowing people of all abilities the opportunity to enjoy Wyoming as active participants as opposed to passive observers, something that is at the top of my priority list.

It was an incredible weekend, and we are all excited about continued involvement in this annual event. I was also invited to return this winter for the adaptive skiing program in Jackson, and I am very much looking forward to that opportunity. If you ever have the chance to visit Wyoming, don't miss the gorgeous Jackson area with its amazing, accessible pathway system!

She loves the water!
Kayaking at Jenny Lake

My two favorite people
After the ride
Had a blast! CREDIT: David J Swift. ©2014 David J Swift

L to R, Charlie Winlow, Pat Winlow, Hank Phibbs, Jake Winlow, Leland Christensen, Senator John Barrasso, Ashlee Lundvall, David Vela, David Axelrad, Katharine Dowson, Liza Bercovici and Senator Mike Enzi. CREDIT: David J Swift. ©2014 David J Swift

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The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. CC Scott

Friday, November 1, 2013

Gratitude is good for us!

Time to put Tom Turkey on the fridge with grateful feathers. Thanksgiving ... family ... friends ... love this month!  It can be a yearlong practice. I love how it is all around us in November. The idea of thankfulness seems easy enough.  Researchers have found it to be powerful:  People who actively try to become more grateful in their everyday lives are happier.  On facebook (Resilient Solutions, Inc.), in our office, and around we are featuring Gratitude thoughts this month.  Join us and share your favorites!

Today Cricket and I are in Portland with our dear friend, Debi, enjoying the Guide Dogs for the Blind Fall Luncheon.  So very grateful for this wonderful friendship.  So very grateful for this wonderful, annual tradition and experience.  Grateful Cricket is happy and healthy.  So grateful for a supportive husband cheering me on to go.  Last year Debi and I had the opportunity to share our story at this luncheon.  You can listen to it here.

1 comment:

Grandma & Grandpa said...

We were at Kim's in St. Paul when the luncheon was going on and saw a news item on TV about it. I said to the kids to look for Becky because she just could be there and be one of the speakers! We didn't see you, but apparently you were like, just like I said. (Smart mom, ha) Glad you had a good trip and that Cricket is up and going again!


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Monday, March 16, 2009

Could it really actually be Monday again, already?  I'm really surprised to see Mr. Monday here so soon...

Boy, I tell ya:  what with my cousin Grace here, overlapped by a lovely visit from David's folks, pre-empted by David and my own natural leaning toward a "hang out first, clean up later" regard toward life, our house was virtually in shambles.  You know the kind when you don't even feeling like spending a single waking moment in your house because its so chaotic?  That's how I felt, which resulted in one of the funnest(?) nights I've had in a loooong time.  I felt like I was seventeen again and full of passion and excitement about life.  Here is my recipe:

iPod (or similar device)
Some music that's rockin'
A massive mess

Put the headphones in your ears good and tight.
Crank up some rockin' music.
Get to work scrubbing and straightening.
Dance around while putting dishes away and occasionally slap your leg along with the beat.
Feel the music inside your soul so much so that you want to jump out of your skin and dance around.
Sing very loudly without regard to pitch or lyrics. (like yell them if you you have to)
Never mind what your howling probably sounds like to the other grown ups who might also be cohabitating with you.
Rock out.
Feel the passion.
Use this passion and energy to clean every corner of your house till it shines like a brand new, bright and shiny, copper penny.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

The Montgomerys said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Montgomerys said...

Nice idea Cryn. I will for sure try rockin' out today as I try to make sense of the mess that is our house :)

What were you listening to?

cute jammies pic.

Corynne Escalante said...

the montgomerys: i was listening to jeremy enigk from his album "world waits" first and then leeland. gotta crank it up loud, though... that's the key.


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Working with startups and leaders in the tech space, but also in my daily job of running a product line and two product teams, I find myself looking for leadership advice (and giving it) quite frequently. I went on a journey to explore what is out there for young tech leaders with regards to actionable, crisp, useful leadership advice. But most of the blogs I have been able to find are very fluffy.

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I have been practicing Zen meditation and koan practice for not quite a decade yet. I am by no means a Zen expert, but have been fortunate to acquire a treasure chest of insights that I would like to share with you in the context of your own leadership journey.

In case you are curious who this guy is who writes this blog, check out my homepage.


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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Any Book Suggestions?

I'm always looking for book suggestions. Especially since I will have plenty of free time during the summer.

Please list some of your favorite books in the comments, who knows I might end up reading it and writing a review on this site.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's Fate

This is another trilogy by Robin Hobb, about the same characters as the Farseer Trilogy. While these stories aren't as fast paced and exciting as the first set, the characters' relationships and personalities are explored more. These books are also very good, even if I didn't like the ending. If you read the Farseer trilogy, you will love revisiting the characters in this trilogy.

Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest

This trilogy by Robin Hobb is the best of her work. In this world, some people have the ability to bond with the living world around him, including animals, called the Wit. Other people have the Skill, which is a telepathic power. Few have both powers.

A young man with the Wit and the Skill is the subject of this trilogy. He is a half member of the royal family (born out of wedlock) who is brought to the royal palace to become an assassin.

Hobb's best attribute is her ability to make characters that you love, care about, and remember. This trilogy is extremely well written, never boring (rare for a series), and worth reading again.

The Alchemist

Another book that educated people read.

This is the story of a young man who goes on a journey and ends up learning about the universe, God, and himself. The first half is actually pretty good. But, towards the end, when the man is having his spiritual awakening, the book becomes preachy. Ugh.

This book only took about an hour to read, so I think it's worth it. I just prefer to make my own insights about man's soul and the heavens while enjoying a good story, instead of being preached to in a book.

Anna Karenina

I decided to tackle this book because I know that educated people are supposed to have read this. It was a long long book, and I'm just not sure it was worth the time, except for bragging rights of course.

Anna is a young woman living in Russia, and all kinds of things happen to her. People get married, have affairs, fall in and out of love, get killed, betray each other, and the like. The many many story lines in this book are much like those in any good Bronte book; however, there are so many characters to keep track of over such a long period of time that I stopped caring about the characters. Then, at the end, a corrupt person finds church, and the book turns preachy--which I do not like at all.

So, if you have hours and hours of time to read a book and want to be able to brag about it, go for it. If you want the same time period and type of story line, go for Pride and Prejudice.

Angels and Demons

This book was a really fun read. The story is well written and goes by quickly. If you've seen the Da Vinci code, this book is about the same premise--solving a mystery using ancient clues left by famous old people.

Brown says that his facts about Rome, Vatican City, the art and artists, and the Catholic church's rules and customs are all correct, which is what made this book so interesting to me. I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in the origins of the early Catholic church or Roman history.

The Reader

I read this book because of the movie, which I didn't see. The writing was excellent--just the right amount of description without losing the pace of the story. However, the story was a little slow and a little puzzling--why on earth are we reading this story?

The book is about a woman who worked for the Nazi's, then moves away. She ends up living next door to an adolescent boy, whom she seduces. And that's about it for the story. Maybe I'm just not intellectual enough to get this book.


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A glossary of terms, applicable to fluid-injection induced seismicity in oil and gas operations, is compiled from various sources. Creation, adoption and widespread use of standard definitions for induced seismicity and related terms will promote consistency and uniformity and will help to avoid confusion that may arise if different definitions are used in different jurisdictions. A modified scheme is introduced here for magnitude-based classification of seismic activity, with the intent of reconciling the term microseismic, as commonly used within the oil and gas industry, with existing earthquake classifications.

Induced seismicity refers to earthquakes or other seismic events that are attributed to human activities (e.g., BCOGC, 2012; CAPP, 2013). Induced seismicity has been extensively studied for a number of different types of human activities, such as impoundment of water reservoirs (Talwani and Acree, 1984; Gupta, 1992), mining (McGarr et al., 2002; Li et al, 2007) and geothermal applications (Majer et al., 2007). There are also documented cases of earthquakes that have been triggered by poroelastic stress changes associated with withdrawal of hydrocarbons (Segall, 1989; Baranova et al., 1999).

Several different types of fluid injection processes are considered here. Hydraulic fracturing is a process of injecting fracturing fluids into a rock formation at a force exceeding the fracture pressure of the rock, thus inducing a network of fractures through which oil or natural gas can flow to the wellbore (CCA, 2014). Enhanced oil and gas recovery may include injection of CO2 or salt water (brine) into a partially depleted reservoir (e.g. Horner et al., 1994). Wastewater injection includes the disposal into an underground formation of produced water associated with the production of oil, bitumen, gas or coaled methane, as well as fluids from solution mining operations, water containing polymers or other chemicals for enhanced recovery and waste fluids from circulation during well cementing.

It has long been understood that injection of fluids into the subsurface can activate slip on a fault (Healy et al., 1968); however, seismicity induced by fluid injection in association with oil gas operations has come into sharper focus in recent years (Ellsworth, 2013; Keranen et al., 2013). With this sharpened focus has come an urgent need to ensure that terminology is carefully defined (Cypser and Davis, 1998).

Although induced seismicity is defined here to imply that an event is anthropogenic, it is worth noting that an alternative school of thought distinguishes between the terms induced versus triggered seismicity as a means to differentiate between the amount of stress required to cause a seismic event (McGarr et al., 2002). In this view, given here for the sake of completeness, the term induced seismicity refers to earthquake activity that is caused by stress changes that are comparable to the ambient stress field, whereas the term triggered seismicity implies earthquake activity that arises from stress changes that are only a fraction of the ambient stress change.

Legal Context

The definition of “induced seismicity” can have significant implications when courts evaluate negligence claims of plaintiffs that allege oil and gas wastewater injection and/or hydraulic fracturing (HF) operations created vibrations that caused property damage. To prove negligence, a plaintiff must establish that the defendant caused foreseeable damage and that the operator’s conduct falls below the standard of care expected. An industry operator will not be liable in negligence for damage caused solely by a natural seismic event. The definition of “induced seismicity” incorporated into legislation or regulations can be applied by the courts when evaluating whether an industry operator has met the standard of care expected in the legal system and when deciding whether the operator is liable for failing to meet the expected standard of conduct.

In addition to courts assessing liability, the definition of induced seismicity and related terminology should be an important consideration for regulators monitoring the potential seismic risks from HF operations and/or wastewater injection. In North America some regulators are in the process of evaluating the risks from HF and wastewater injection activities and identifying risk mitigative practices that can be incorporated into the permitting/approvals process and monitoring programs. The following questions based on work completed by Nicholson and Wesson (1990) and Davis and Frohlich (1993), recently discussed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in November 2014, provide a starting point to for the courts to evaluate negligence, causation and “induced seismicity” and for policy maker and regulators interested in risk mitigation practices:

  1. Are the earthquakes the first reported ones in the area?
  2. Is there a clear correlation between injection and seismicity?
  3. Are the changes in fluid pressure at well bottoms enough to facilitate seismicity?
  4. Are the changes in fluid pressure at hypocenter locations enough to facilitate seismicity?v
  5. Do some earthquakes occur at or near injection depths?
  6. If not, are there subsurface structures that can channel flow to the earthquake sites?
  7. Are earthquake epicenters located within 3 to 5 km of injection wells?

Ambiguity will prompt additional “induced seismicity” lawsuits. Carefully considered definitions of “induced seismicity” incorporated by regulators into industry best practices will reduce the number of lawsuits and minimize the resources incurred by industry, government and landowners to resolve disputes.

Seismicity size categories: what does “micro” mean?

Bohnoff et al. (2010) proposed a classification scheme for earthquake size categories based on magnitude, or equivalently, seismic moment. Their scheme is modified in Table 1, which also provides a summary of approximate scales for rupture length, displacement and dominant frequency. This classification adapts prefixes micro, nano, pico, femto, atto, zepto, etc. from the SI system, for application to low-magnitude seismic events. For larger events, standard terminology from earthquake seismology is adopted. Since moment magnitude is proportional to two thirds of the logarithm (base 10) of the seismic moment, the prefixes micro, nano, etc. go by 102 rather than the SI standard increment of 103. Noting that the term “microearthquake” traditionally refers to earthquakes with M < 3, Bohnhoff et al. (2010) suggested a compromise such that it applies to the magnitude range from 0 to 2 instead, to adapt this term to their proposed SI naming conventions.

Here, we propose the use of the prefix milli to cover the moment magnitude range from 0 to 2. Our proposal is largely motivated by the fact that, within the engineering and applied geophysics literature as well as in industry, the term “microseismic” is very established in reference to events that are generally below magnitude 0. Accordingly, in our revised scheme, magnitude ranges associated with the prefixes “micro”, “nano”, “pico” and “femto” are each reduced by 2 magnitude units from the scheme proposed by Bohnhoff et al. (2010). In addition to making the scheme more consistent with established usage in the oil and gas industry, the “milliseismic” range from 0 – 2 is emerging as a potentially significant observational gap for monitoring of hydraulic fracturing. Baig and Urbancic (2014) show that this apparent gap may simply be an artifact of instrumentation (geophones) that arguably saturate above magnitude zero.

This new scheme also suggests a broader phenomenological subdivision:

  • “Earthquakes” for M > 2 (where the lower magnitude limit corresponds roughly with the minimum threshold for felt natural events)
  • “Seismic events” for M < 2 (magnitudes for which it is unlikely that natural events would be felt at the surface)
Magnitude Range Class Length Scale Displacement Scale Frequency Scale Seismic Moment3
Table 1. Classes of seismic activity (modified from Bohnhoff et al., 2010). Length and displacement scales are approximate and are based on an assumed stress drop of 3 MPa.
8 to 10 Great earthquake 100-1,000 km 4-40 m 0.001-0.1 Hz 1 kAk – 1 MAk
6 to 8 Large earthquake 10-100 km 0.4-4 m 0.01-1 Hz 1 Ak – 1 kAk
4 to 6 Moderate earthquake 1-10 km 4-40 cm 0.1-10 Hz 1 mAk – 1Ak
2 to 4 Small earthquake 0.1-1 km 4-40 mm 1-100 Hz 1 μAk – 1 mAk
0 to 2 milliseism1 or Microearthquake 10-100 m 0.4-4 mm 10-1,000 Hz 1 nAk – 1 μAk
-2 to 0 microseism2 1-10 m 40-400 μm 0.1-10 kHz 1 pAk – 1 nAk
-4 to -2 nanoseism 0.1-1 m 4-40 μm 1-100 kHz 1 fAk – 1 pAk
-6 to -4 picoseism 1-10 cm 0.4-4 μm 10-1,000 kHz 1 aAk – 1 fAk
-8 to -6 femtoseism 1-10 mm 0.04-0.4 μm 1-100 MHz 1 zAk – aAk
1 Proposed new term, approximately equivalent to the legacy term microearthquake that has been variously applied in the seismological literature in reference to earthquakes with magnitude less than 2, 2.5 or 3 (Bohnhoff et al., 2010).
2 Prefixes micro, nano, pico and femto have each been decremented by one level, compared to Bohnhoff et al. (2010), in order to accommodate the new proposed term milliseism. The term microseism should not be confused with microtremor (see below).
3 One Aki (Ak), named for Keiiti Aki, is defined as 1018 Nm. This unit is recommended by the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior as the standard unit of earthquake size.

Glossary of Terms

Aftershock: Aftershocks are earthquakes that follow the largest shock of an earthquake sequence. They are smaller than the mainshock and located within 1-2 rupture lengths distance from the mainshock. Aftershocks can continue over a period of weeks, months, or years. In general, the larger the mainshock, the larger and more numerous the aftershocks, and the longer they will continue (USGS, 2015).

Anomalous seismicity: Seismicity above a moment magnitude range of approximately -3 to 0 that is normally expected when performing hydraulic fracture completions (CAPP, 2013).

b-value: The slope of the magnitude-frequency distribution for the Gutenberg-Richter relation, which describes the relative size distribution of earthquakes. Most earthquake fault systems have a b-value close to unity, implying that for each unit increase in magnitude there are ten times fewer earthquakes (El Isa and Eaton, 2014).

Class II injection well: Defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as wells that inject fluids associated with oil and natural gas production. Most of the injected fluid is salt water (brine), which is brought to the surface in the process of producing oil and gas. Well types include disposal wells, enhanced recovery wells and hydrocarbon storage wells (EPA, 2015).

Disposal well: A type of class II injection well used to inject brines or other fluids associated with the production of hydrocarbons. In the U.S., disposal wells represent about 20% of 151,000 class II injection wells (EPA, 2015).

Earthquake: A term used to describe both sudden slip on a fault, as well as the resulting ground shaking and radiated seismic energy caused by the slip, or by volcanic or magmatic activity, or other sudden stress changes in the earth (USGS, 2015). The threshold magnitude for felt effects is approximately 2.

Earthquake sequence: A series of earthquakes in a given area with a well-defined mainshock-aftershock, or foreshock-mainshockaftershock events.

Earthquake swarm: A series of earthquakes in a given area that lacks a well-defined mainshock-aftershock pattern.

Enhanced recovery well: A well used to inject brine, water, steam, polymer, or carbon dioxide into oil-bearing formations to recover residual hydrocarbons (EPA, 2015). In the U.S. approximately 80% of 151,000 Class II wells are enhanced recovery wells.

Epicenter: The point on the surface vertically above an earthquake’s focus (USGS, 2015).

Fault: A discontinuity in the subsurface that has accommodated displacement between rock masses on either side of the discontinuity. Sometimes the term geologic fault is used to describe a surface where displacement occurred in the geologic past.

Faulting mechanism: Description of the rupture processes of an earthquake, including the style of faulting (i.e., normal, reverse or strikeslip) and the rupture fault plane on which it occurs (Majer et al., 2012).

Focal depth: Depth below the surface of an earthquake’s focus.

Focal mechanism: A graphical representation of the faulting mechanism of an earthquake. Typically, this is represented as a lower-hemisphere projection of P-wave first motion polarity, also known as a beachball diagram.

Focus: The point in the subsurface where earthquake rupture initiates.

Foreshock: A relatively smaller earthquake that precedes the largest earthquake in a sequence, which is termed the mainshock. Not all mainshocks have foreshocks (USGS, 2015).

Ground motion prediction model: A relationship that predicts the amplitude of a specified ground-motion parameter (e.g. PGA, PGV) as a function of magnitude, distance, focal depth and site conditions (Majer et al., 2012).

Gutenberg-Richter relation: An empirical power-law formula that describes the magnitude-frequency relationship for a region. It has the form log10 N = a – bM, where N is the number of earthquakes whose magnitude is greater than or equal to M, and a and b are constants.

Hazard: The probability that a given event will produce damage or harm. Hazard (H) is related to Risk (R) and Vulnerability (V) by the risk equation: R = H*V.

Hydraulic fracturing: Injecting fracturing fluids into a rock formation at a force exceeding the fracture pressure of the rock, thus inducing a network of fractures through which oil or natural gas can flow to the wellbore (CCA, 2014).

Hydrocarbon storage wells: Wells used to inject liquid hydrocarbons in underground formations such as salt caverns where they are stored. In the U.S. there are over 100 liquid hydrocarbon storage wells in operation (EPA, 2015).

Hypocenter: The estimated location of an earthquake’s focus.

Induced Seismicity: Seismic events that can be attributed to human activities (BCOGC, 2012; CAPP 2013). Examples of activities that can cause induced seismicity include geothermal development, mining, reservoir impoundment and subsurface fluid injection and withdrawal.

Instrument response: The response of an instrument such as a geophone or seismometer to a unit input ground motion. The instrument response needs to be corrected in order to estimate magnitude

Intensity: The effects of earthquake ground motion on the natural or built environment. In North America, intensity is usually quantified using the Modified Mercalli Scale. Intensity is specified in Roman numerals and ranges from I (not felt except by a very few under especially favourable conditions) to XII (total damage) (NRCan, 2015).

Magnitude: A quantitative measure of the size of an earthquake based on seismograph recordings. Several scales have been defined, but the most commonly used are (1) local magnitude (ML), also referred to as “Richter magnitude,” (2) surfacewave magnitude (Ms), (3) body-wave magnitude (mb), and (4) moment magnitude (Mw) (USGS, 2015).

Mainshock: The largest earthquake in a sequence, sometimes preceded by one or more foreshocks, and almost always followed by many aftershocks (USGS, 2015).

Microseismicity: Defined here as seismicity of magnitude less than 0.

Microtremor (aka Microseism): A more or less continuous motion in the Earth that is unrelated to an earthquake and that has a period of 1.0 to 9.0 seconds. It is caused by a variety of natural and artificial agents (modified from NRCan, 2015).

Moment tensor: A mathematical representation of the movement on a fault during an earthquake, comprising of nine generalized couples, or nine sets of two vectors. The tensor depends of the source strength and fault orientation (USGS, 2015).

Operationally induced seismicity: Defined here as weak (nano-, micro- and milli-) seismicity that occurs in close proximity (up to 100’s m) from tensile fractures that are created during hydraulic fracture completions. The distribution of operationally induced events is often used as a proxy for the extent (height, length) of a hydraulic fracture. Unlike earthquake fault systems, the b-value for operationally induced events is usually much greater than unity (Eaton et al., 2014).

Peak ground acceleration (PGA): Maximum instantaneous amplitude of the absolute value of the acceleration of the ground (Majer et al., 2012)

Peak ground velocity (PGV): Maximum instantaneous amplitude of the absolute value of the velocity of the ground (Majer et al., 2012)

Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA): Estimation of the probability of ground motions that are expected to occur or be exceeded within a specified time interval (Majer et al., 2012).

Probability of exceedance: Probability, or more accurately the frequency, at which the value of a specified parameter (e.g. PGA, PGV) is equalled or exceeded (Majer et al., 2012).

Unconventional resource: Oil and gas resources whose porosity, permeability, fluid trapping mechanism or other characteristics differ from conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs (CCA, 2014)

Rupture area: The surface area of a fault that is affected by sudden slip during a seismic event.

Seismic moment: A measure of the size of an earthquake based on the product of the rupture area, the average amount of slip, and the force that was required to overcome fault friction. Seismic moment can also be calculated from the amplitude spectra of seismic waves. (USGS, 2015).

Seismicity: Earthquakes or other seismic activity within a given area.

Tectonic stresses: Stresses in the Earth due to geologic processes such as movement of the tectonic plates (Majer et al., 2012)

Triggered seismic event: A seismic event that is the result of failure along a preexisting zone of weakness, e.g. a fault that is already critically stressed and is pushed to failure by a stress perturbation from natural or manmade activities (Majer et al., 2012). In earthquake seismology, natural triggering has been recognized due to both static stress changes (i.e. long-term changes to the stress field caused by an earthquake) and dynamic stress changes (e.g., transient stress changes from a propagating seismic wave).

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from sponsors of the Microseismic Industry Consortium, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the University of Calgary through seed funding provided by the office of the VP (Research) through its Energy Research strategy.

About the Author(s)

David Eaton is NSERC/Chevron Industrial Research Chair in Microseismic System Dynamics, Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary. David received his B.Sc. from Queen’s University in 1984 and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Calgary in 1988 and 1992. He rejoined the University of Calgary in 2007 after an 11-year academic career at the University of Western Ontario. His postdoctoral research experience included work at Arco’s Research and Technical Services (Plano, Texas) and the Geological Survey of Canada (Ottawa). He is presently co-director of the Microseismic Industry Consortium, a novel, applied research geophysical initiative dedicated to the advancement of research, education and technological innovations in microseismic methods and their practical applications for resource development. In addition to microseismic monitoring and induced seismicity, his current research is also focused on the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary beneath continents. He has over 115 peer-reviewed publications.

Mirko van der Bann is a professor at the University of Alberta in the Department of Physics, specializing in Exploration Seismology. He graduated in 1996 from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, obtained a PhD with honors in 1999 from the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, and then joined the University of Leeds, UK, where he became the Reader of Exploration Seismology. He also holds an HDR (Habilitation) from University Denis Diderot, Paris, France.

Mirko is currently the Director of the Microseismic Industry Consortium, a collaborative venture with the University of Calgary, dedicated to research in microseismicity. He is a member of the editorial board of Geophysics and the Research Committee of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Allan Ingelson is the Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Resources Law and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He holds LL.M., J.D. and B.Sc. degrees and was admitted to the Law Society of Alberta in 1991. His current research program focuses on the regulation of hydraulic fracturing in unconventional oil and gas development. He is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and American Energy Society. Professor Ingelson has published numerous articles in a variety of scholarly energy and environmental law journals. He lectures in the Faculty of Law and in Executive MBA courses on energy and environmental regulation offered to energy executives in Houston, Texas, Lima, Peru, Delhi, India and Beijing, China.

Baig, A. and Urbancic, T. 2014. Hydraulic fracturing-induced seismicity: an overview of recent observations and implications on development, First Break, 32: 61-66.

Baranova, V., Mustaqeem, A. and Bell, Sl., 1999. A model for induced seismicity caused by hydrocarbon production in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 36: 47-64.

BC Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC) 2012. Investigation of observed seismicity in the Horn River basin. http://www.bcogc.ca/node/8046/download. Accessed 2013/11/20.

Bohnhoff, M., Dresen, G., Wellsworth, W.L. and Ito, H., 2010. Passive seismic monitoring of natural and induced earthquakes: Case studies, future directions and socio-economic relevance. In, Cloetingh, S. and Jegendank, J. (eds), New Frontiers in Integrated Solid Earth Sciences, International Year of Plaent Earth, DOI 10.10007/978-90-481-2737-5_7.

Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), 2013. CAPP Hydraulic fracturing operating practice: Anomalous induced seismicity: Assessment, monitoring, mitigation and response. http://www.capp.ca/publications-and-statistics/publications/217532. Accessed 2013/11/20 and 2016/02/19.

Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), 2014. Environmental impacts of shale gas extraction in Canada. http://www.scienceadvice.ca/uploads/eng/assessments and publications and news releases/shale gas/shalegas_fullreporten.pdf. Accessed 2015/02/08.pdf.

Cypser, D.A. and Davis, S.D., 1998. Induced seismicity and the potential for liability under U.S. law. Tectonophysics, 289: 239-255.

Davis, S.D. and C. Frohlilich, 1993, Did (or will) fluid injection cause earthquakes? Criteria for a rational assessment: Seismological Research Letters, 64: 207-224.

Eaton, D, Davidsen, J., Pedersn, P. and Boroumand, N., 2014. Breakdown of the Gutenberg- Richter relation for microearthquakes induced by hydraulic fracturing: influence of stratabound fractures. Geophysical Prospecting, 62: 806-818.

El-Isa, Z and Eaton, D.W., 2014. Spatiotemporal variations in the b-value of earthquake magnitude-frequency distributions: Classification and causes. Tectonophysics, 615-616: 1-11.

Ellsworth, W. L., 2013, Injection-induced earthquakes: Science, 341.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2015. Class II Wells – Oil and gas related injection wells (Class II). https://www.epa.gov/uic/class-ii-oil-and-gas-related-injection-wells. Accessed on 2015/02/08.

Healy, J. H., W. W. Rubey, D. T. Griggs, and C. B. Raleigh, 1968, The Denver earthquakes: Science, 161, 1301-1310.

Horner, R.B., Barclay, J.E. and MacRae, J.M. 1994. Earthquakes and hydrocarbon production in the Fort St. John area of northeastern British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Exploration Geophysics, 30: 39-50.

Gupta, H.K., 1992. Reservoir induced earthquakes. Elsevier, New York.

Keranen, K., H. Savage, G. Abers, and E. S. Cochran, 2013, Potentially induced earthquake in Oklahoma, USA: links between wastewater injection and the 2011 M 5.7 earthquake sequence: Geology, 41, 699-702.

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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

TypeScript 1.8 to Future-Proof JavaScript Apps

There is no denying the trend to deliver critical business apps through the browser using Single Page Application frameworks that rely heavily on JavaScript. Traditionally frowned upon as a loosely typed language not fit for large scale development or teams, JavaScript is rapidly evolving with the latest ECMAScript 2015/6 specifications. TypeScript is a technology that can help teams future proof their applications and build them at scale.

By serving as a superset of JavaScript and enabling definition files to describe existing JavaScript libraries, TypeScript can be integrated seamlessly into existing projects. It provides syntax that aligns with the current specifications and will compile to various versions of JavaScript and leverage different libraries that provide module support. Learn how TypeScript improves the development experience by providing development and compile-time checks, type safety, interfaces, true class inheritance, and other features that accelerate delivery and improve the quality and stability of Single Page Applications.

Watch the full video from a recent webinar I gave with Kliant covering TypeScript 1.8:

You can download the code examples and deck here.

Until next time,

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Lessons Learned (Re) Writing a 6502 Emulator in TypeScript with Angular 2 and RxJs

In preparation for an upcoming webinar I decided to build a sizeable Angular 2 project. I’ve always been fascinated with the Commodore 64 and the 6502 chipset is not a tough one to emulate. I also wrote it the first time several years back, so I had a good baseline of code to draw from. Thus the Angular 2 6502 emulator was born.

Want to see it in action? Here is the running version.

Building a Console that Works

The first thing I needed was a decent console to give information to the user. The console itself isn’t too difficult. A service holds an array of strings, splices them when it gets beyond a certain size, and exposes a method to clear them.

Here is the basic code:

Now you may notice there is a new class (to some) for notifying subscribers when a console message is sent. Angular 2 relies heavily on Reactive Extensions for JavaScript (RxJS).

In a nutshell, this library provides a different mechanism for dealing with asynchronous workflows and streams. You essentially end up observing a collection and are handed off “items” like an iterator and then can deal with it as you choose.

You can see that emitting an event is easy, but what does it look like consuming it?

Interacting with the DOM

The component for the console simply data-binds the console messages to a bunch of text contained inside of a div element. If that’s all it had to do there would be no need for an event emitter. Unfortunately because new items are appended at the bottom, the div can quickly fill up with scroll bars and new messages are no longer in view.

Fixing this is simple. First, the component needs to know when the contents of the div may have changed (via the event fired from the service). Second, it simply needs to interact with the DOM element so it can scroll into view.

How do we reference the element associated with an Angular component? Take a look at this source:

There are just two steps needed to reference the element. First, import the ElementRef class. Second, include it on the constructor so it is injected. You probably noticed that the component doesn’t do anything with it in the constructor. This is because the constructor is called before the UI has been wired up and rendered, so there is nothing inside of the element.

So how do you know when the element is ready?

Angular 2 Lifecycle

Angular 2 components have a lifecycle and if certain methods are present, they are called during a specific phase. I provided a high level list at an Angular 2 talk I gave. In this case, the component implements a method that is called after the view is initialized. Once initialized, it’s possible to grab the child div because it’s rendered.

A nice feature of TypeScript is auto-completion and documentation. By casting the element to the HTMLDivElement type I get a clearly typed list of APIs available for that element. The component subscribes to the console events (notice it uses a de-bounce rate of 100ms so if a ton of messages are sent at once, it will still only fire 10 times a second to avoid locking the UI). When the event fires, a property on the div is set and that will force it to scroll to the most recent message.

A similar lifecycle method is used in the main app to indicate everything is initialized.

Creating the Display

The next challenge was creating a graphical display. I decided to implement the emulator using a memory-mapped, palette-based display. This means a block of memory is reserved to represent “pixels” of the display, and when a value is set on a specific address, the number corresponds to a palette entry of red, green and blue values.

If you’re curious you can see the code for the algorithm I use to generate the palette. It basically builds up a distinct set of red, green, and blue values and then sorts them based on their luminosity based on a well known equation. Each item has a hexadecimal rendition and the last five palette slots are manually built as shades of gray.

The display service simply keeps track of a pixel buffer that represents the display, then makes a callback to the component when a value changes.

The display component is a little more involved. It holds an array of values that represent rectangles that will be drawn as a “pixel.” These are literally scalable vector graphics-based rectangles inside an svg element. The entries hold x and y offsets from the upper corner of the display, the width and height (you can adjust this if you like), and the current fill color for that pixel.

The component sets a callback on the display service to be notified of any changes. In this case, a callback is used because it is up to 50x faster than using an event emitter (I tested this). The callback ensures the request is in the valid range of memory and is a byte of data, then cross-references the palette to set the proper fill value.

Finally, this is all rendered by Angular as an array of rectangles. Angular’s dirty tracking will check when the fill is updated and update the attribute. Here is the HTML for the display:

The CPU State

The emulator CPU provides the simplest possible mechanism for emulating the operation of instructions. It contains the memory registers, the stack, a program counter (the area of memory that the next machine instruction will be read from), and tracks things like how many instructions per second it is able to execute.

I decided to take a straightforward approach, and have the CPU manage memory, registers, stack, and program counter but create “self-aware” operation classes that would actually “do work.”

For that reason the CPU itself doesn’t have any logic like loading or adding accumulators. Instead, it knows how to look at memory, update memory (including triggering a call to the display service), set and reset flags, pop addresses and handle various modes for addressing memory.

It has instructions to run, step through code line-by-line for the debug mode, and can be halted. When halted or in an error state, the only recovery is to reset it. Basically the workflow for the cpu is to look at the operation at the program counter, ask it to execute itself, then update the program counter and grab the next instruction.

The executeBatch() function is where I did most of the optimization. Running the program until it stops would lock the UI, and running a single instruction per event loop was slow. The CPU therefore compromises by running up to 255 instructions before it uses setTimeout to allow other events to queue.

(This is an area where using animation frames might make sense, but I haven’t explored that avenue yet).

Angular 1.x users will note I can call setTimeout directly and not rely on a $timeout service. Angular 2 is able to detect when I’ve modified the data model even from within an asynchronous function due to the magic of ZoneJS.

Loading Op Codes

An operation is fairly simple. It exposes how it handles addresses, the numeric value of the instruction, the name, how many bytes the instruction and any parameters take up, and can compile itself to text.

There is an execute method that uses the CPU to do work.

Operation codes derive from a base class:

And then implement themselves like this:

The example snippet is an operation that adds a value to the accumulator (a special memory register) with a value. It will set the carry bit if there is an overflow, and it is in immediate mode which means the byte after the instruction contains the value to add (as opposed to obtaining it from a memory location, for example). When executed, it uses the utility methods on the OpCodes class to add with carry and passes in the instance of the cpu and the address it is at.

The OpCodes utility will pop the instruction, inspect the address mode, pull the value, perform the add, and update the program counter with the cpu’s help.

Because each operation has multiple addressing modes, and there is one class per combination of op code and address mode, there end up being several hundred classes. This presents a challenge from the perspective of wiring up the op codes into an array unless they “self-register.” In my original emulator, that’s exactly what they did, but with modern TypeScript there’s an even better way!

TypeScript Decorators

TypeScript decorators are heavily used by Angular 2. I decided to create one of my own. First, I created an array of operations to export and make available to the CPU, compiler, and other components that need it. Next, I created a function to serve as a class decorator. It simply takes the target (which is the class, or more precisely the function constructor) then creates the instance and stores it in an array.

With that simple step, because the signature is correct, I can now use that function as a decorator and simply adorn each class that should register as an op code with the @IsOpCode attribute.

Take a look and see for yourself! Now when I implement the other op codes I haven’t finished yet, they will be automatically registered if I decorate them.

The Compiler

Aside from the individual op code definitions, the most logic exists in the compiler class. This is because it is a full two-pass assembly compiler that parses labels and handles both decimal and hexadecimal entries as well as label addition and memory syntax.

The compiler has to be able to take a pass and lay out how much memory each instruction takes so it can assign memory addresses to labels, then use that for “label math” (when the programmer adds or subtracts and offset from a label), then parse the code and get the instructions and memory addresses written out correctly.

Needless to say, a lot of regular expressions are involved. You can look at the source code linked earlier to see how I used interfaces and broke the compiler steps into methods to make it easier to organize all of the steps required.

The CPU Display

The CPU was the easiest component to build. It simply exposes the CPU service:

And then binds to values and cpu methods directly:

There is a compiler component that interacts with the compiler class, and uses forms to collect data. If you go beyond straight data-binding, forms are actually quite interesting.

Forms in Angular 2

The compiler component uses Angular 2’s form builder to expose the form for entering code, loading code, and setting the program counter. The form builder is used to create a group of controls. Each has a name, an initial value, and a set of validators. In the case of the program counter, a “required” validator is combined with a customer validator that parses to ensure it is a valid hexadecimal address.

You can see that in the “pcValidator” method. Passed validations return null, failed return … well, whatever you want except null. I reference the control group to create individual references for each control, so I can use the value of the control for compiling, setting the program counter, etc.

The controls have their own method to update values (such as loading the decompiled code into the corresponding control). I also use it to load source code for some of the pre-built programs I included. Unlike Angular 1.x, the Http service uses RxJS to return its results.

HTTP in Angular 2

There are a few steps to interact with HTTP in Angular 2 apps. First, you must include a JavaScript file if you are using bundles and not loading all of Angular 2 at once. In your app bootstrapper you’ll want to import HTTP_PROVIDERS and bootstrap them.

The component will import Http and should also import the Rx library to handle the special observable results. After that, it’s fairly straightforward.

The get call is issued and returns an observable that you can begin chaining methods onto. In this example, I’ve mapped the result to text (I’m not getting a JSON object but the entire contents of a text file) and then I subscribe.

The subscription has methods for when the next item appears, when an exception is thrown, and when the observable stream reaches the end. I leverage this to grab the loaded data and set it onto the control and then send a console message when it’s loaded.

The Final Results

After everything is said and done I was very pleased with how quickly I was able to leverage the existing code and migrate it to Angular 2 and the more current version of TypeScript. A few things I noted along the way:

  • Dynamic static properties like arrays aren’t really a good idea in the modular/asynchronous world – instead of having a static array for the op codes, I made an instance and exported it so it could be imported by other modules
  • Interfaces are useful for annotations but not very useful for dependency injection in Angular 2 – I found if I didn’t want to use magic strings, I had to still reference the implementation and use the @Inject decorator to make it work if I wanted to declare variables by their interface type
  • Performance surprised me (in a good way)

I’d like to elaborate on that last bullet. In the original implementation, I had a display service that explicitly held an array of svg elements and set the fill attribute on them directly when a value changed. With the Angular 2 version, I rely completely on Angular’s dirty tracking and let Angular re-render the element (or set the attribute) when the values change. Despite that difference, the improved data-binding is incredible and the new app keeps pace with the old one based on instructions per second.

Over all it was a great and fun experience. I still have some op codes to add to the mix and my binary coded decimal (BDC) mode is broken, so if you want to tinker, I do accept pull requests.

Until next time,

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Angular 2 Change Detection and HTTP Services, ASP.NET Core Authentication, VS 2005 End of Life on Tue Mar 15 2016

Understand change detection in Angular 2, look at authentication in the cross-platform ASP.NET Core, sign up for a webinar to discuss the changes to .NET and understand how to create specialized HTTP services in Angular 2.

Until next time,

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Angular NG2, NodeJS on Raspberry Pi, Skype Collaboration and JavaScript on Wed Mar 9 2016

Angular 2 run blocks, a new level of collaboration, NodeJS on Raspberry Pi and a proposal for weak references in JavaScript.

Until next time,


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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Week 2 Recap and Week 3 Plan

Here is an overview of how Week 2 of training went:

Even though the mileage was a little less again that I want to try to run, I was OK with how the week went.  I keep looking back to compare each of these weeks to how many miles and what type of runs I was doing before the Columbus Marathon in 2010 and I'm running considerably more than I was then.  I only had 5 runs over 10 miles the entire time I was training for that marathon (2 of which were the 19 and 20 mile runs), so as long as I get a long run in each week, I think I'll be happy that I'm in a better place than I was then.  I do still want to really try to get the rest of the weekly mileage up though and get that speed workout in each week because that should hopefully help improve my time.

I was frustrated the tempo run didn't go quite according to plan, but it was still a hard workout and better for me than just doing a normal run I guess.  I did a decent amount of core work last week and I could tell that is helping already.  I'll give a recap of Friday's long run and the rest of the wedding weekend in another post later  :)

And here is the plan for Week 3:

I already missed Monday...I was so tired from the weekend that I couldn't get up early Monday morning, and it just didn't happen after work.  I also didn't run this morning (Tuesday), but I definitely plan to after work - just hoping the rain holds off or maybe I'll suck it up and use the treadmill.

I'd like to hit 40 miles this week.  I will have to run on Sunday (at The 2nd Annual Joe Marathon!!) to make up for not running Monday, so that will hopefully work out nicely.  I'm also thinking Wednesday's workout will be better than last week's since I will take a short break between each mile at tempo pace.

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Saturday, September 21, 2013

I Made It 20 Miles, My Technology Didn't

Two 20 miles runs in one week!  That's probably not recommended, but it happened.  So now I've done 3 runs of about 20 miles in this marathon training cycle.  You can read about the other two here and here.

Overall, yesterday's 20 miler felt physically better than Monday's but mentally harder.  If I was not running with Mac, I definitely don't think I would have finished it on my own.  It's Saturday evening as I write this, and as of now I don't think I'll be nearly as sore as I was on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, especially because of the foam rolling I did right afterwards.

I met the Old St. Pat's Crossroads Runners/Coach Brendan Running group at the Running Away Multisport store.  Coach Brendan's plan for today was:

20 Miles - 8 "uncomfortably easy" + 10 at goal marathon pace + 2 cool-down

I ran the first 8 miles with Mac and another guy, Greg, hitting these paces:

8:25, 8:26, 8:27, 8:08, 8:20, 8:08, 8:05, 7:53

Greg left us to run faster for the "goal marathon pace" segment, but Mac and I successfully picked up our pace after stopping at one of the Fleet Feet aid stations to take our Gu gel.  OF COURSE, the Garmin lost reception during our first mile of faster running.  But we guessed about 7:25.  At some point, the Garmin finally kept reception for an entire mile, somewhere around 12-13 miles into the run and said 7:35.  I think we still held on to that pace a little longer, but slowed back down to 8 minute pace around mile 14-15.

Also, I had my iPod during this run which allowed for the following things:
  • I got to listen to music
  • I made Mac and Greg play a game called Guess What Song I'm Listening to Right Now
  • I could take a few pictures along the way for your enjoyment
However, I think I jinxed myself when I wrote a few weeks ago about how surprised I am that my iPod is still functional given how much I've ran with it and has been sweated on.  At some point during the run, it just stopped playing music, but was still on.  When I got home, it would not start, even when plugged it.  Sooo that's an issue I'll need to deal with.  For now, no pictures :(

Oh and technology failed me another way yesterday.  I tried to download the new iPhone software but my phone is being silly.  It does seem to be downloading on my iPad though.

Mac and I went to Nookie's for breakfast, which was delicious as breakfast always is.  And then the madre came downtown and we went out to eat at Vapiano in Lincoln Park in the mid-afternoon.  And here's what we ate (and brought home for dad since obviously this was way too much food for just us)...I couldn't not take pictures, the presentation was so high qual.

Since I finished Desperate Housewives on Netflix a few weeks ago, I have been trying to figure out a new show to watch.  Andddd I just found out that SVU is on Netflix.  This is a bad idea, Colleen.  Why?  Because it's scary and makes me think I'm going to be raped...just as we are hitting winter and it's dark out when I have to run if I want to run outside.  It's just so good though.  Dun dun.

  1. Hahaha I just decided to turn SVU off because it's not a good show for me to fall asleep on. I don't have Netflix, but good news is you can literally watch SVU on some station at most times of the day.

    1. haha I agree! Definitely not a good one to watch before bedtime. I love when there are SVU marathons on TV!


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Saturday, October 30, 2010

CSS Specificity And Inheritance

CSS’ barrier to entry is extremely low, mainly due to the nature of its syntax. Being clear and easy to understand, the syntax makes sense even to the inexperienced Web designer. It’s so simple, in fact, that you could style a simple CSS-based website within a few hours of learning it.

But this apparent simplicity is deceitful. If after a few hours of work, your perfectly crafted website looks great in Safari, all hell might break loose if you haven’t taken the necessary measures to make it work in Internet Explorer. In a panic, you add hacks and filters where only a few tweaks or a different approach might do. Knowing how to deal with these issues comes with experience, with trial and error and with failing massively and then learning the correct way.

Understanding a few often overlooked concepts is also important. The concepts may be hard to grasp and look boring at first, but understanding them and knowing how to take advantage of them is important.

Two of these concepts are specificity and inheritance. Not very common words among Web designers, are they? Talking about border-radius and text-shadow is a lot more fun; but specificity and inheritance are fundamental concepts that any person who wants to be good at CSS should understand. They will help you create clean, maintainable and flexible style sheets. Let’s look at what they mean and how they work.

The notion of a “cascade” is at the heart of CSS (just look at its name). It ultimately determines which properties will modify a given element. The cascade is tied to three main concepts: importance, specificity and source order. The cascade follows these three steps to determine which properties to assign to an element. By the end of this process, the cascade has assigned a weight to each rule, and this weight determines which rule takes precedence, when more than one applies.

Please consider reading our previous related article:

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Office Relocation

Herb sent this one in to me. He was nice enough to help one of his co-workers move his office. A great idea, I'm sure he was surprised!

Matthew left the office for a couple of days. He came back to find that he no longer worked in a cube, but a brand new office... in the Men’s bathroom. He actually worked for a day in his new "office" (computer and everything was working).

Bathroom Office Photo #2

At 11:46 AM, Anonymous Charles said...

That's awesome! They pulled this prank on the Office a few weeks ago.

At 1:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Imagine the smell! I'd barf when lunchtime rolled around.

At 6:58 AM, Anonymous Blackarino Marindarin said...

How about the bottle of Kahlua in the bookshelf. I'm sure that's not for his monring coffee

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March, 2015:

Improving Patient Satisfaction

Improving the patient experience can be of benefit to patients, staff, leadership and providers.  There are many reasons to solicit feedback from the patient experience.     Some of the reasons include identifying strategic planning issues, differentiating your practice from its competition, confirming skills which staff need more training and reducing patient complaints.    Feedback can come from a formal tool, a conversation or a short exit survey.  All methods provide valuable insight to the “voice” of the patient.      Put yourself in the “shoes of the patient.”  Look for inefficiencies, barriers and bottlenecks.   Prioritize these issues and plan a corrective action if warranted.   Below are some suggestions to improve the patient experience during the visit:

Compare staffing in the medical practice to practices of the same specialty and/or industry benchmarking surveys.  Does the medical practice have enough registration staff to accommodate the number of patients scheduled to be seen?   Would “flexing” staff on busy days and times alleviate a backlog?  Would adding ancillary staff (i.e. phlebotomists, medical assistants, Radiology Technicians, DME Assistants) improve the clinical workflow and eliminate tasks currently being performed by a provider?  Ensuring staff are working to the “top of their license” is an important consideration.

Examine tasks performed by staff prior to the clinical visit.   Has the provider ordered labs or imaging studies?  What steps are in place to ensure the provider has the data prior to entering the room?  Is a copy of the results needed for the patient? With the results flagged and available, the provider will be able to concentrate his/her efforts on educating the patient about the results and potential next steps.

Review all documents completed by the patient.  Avoid duplicate questionnaires.  Determine if the patient questionnaire can be completed on an Ipad or through a patient portal prior to the visit.  When staff input the data elements for the provider, overall documentation time can be reduced.  Some of the elements can include patient, family and social history, medications, allergies and the reason for visit in the electronic medical record.

Train staff to anticipate the needs of the provider and set up medical supplies in the room (i.e. Injection kits, bandages, suture supplies).   Standardizing the exam room set up can streamline the process Ensure each exam room is set up identically in the practice and across all locations.   Clean out cabinets to ensure they are not filled with supplies that are no longer needed.   Labeling the cabinets is a good way to improve efficiency.  When setting up the rooms, consult with providers and medical assistants to best organize supplies.  These items can reduce time during the visit.

Ensure the patient discharge process is thorough.  Many times patients call the office after an office visit with questions regarding the follow up instructions, medication protocols, refill requests, test results or scheduling of additional procedures.  Circumvent these calls by having team members review the instructions with the patient at the end of the visit.  Confirm with patients they understand the instructions.    Monitor the phone messages and identify trends in terms of patient complaints or comments.

Encourage staff and providers to return phone calls throughout the day between patients rather than batching calls until the end of the business day.  This reduces the likelihood of patients calling the practice a second or a third time.   Ensure staff understands the process for paperwork which has been dropped off for completion, the timeframe to process refill requests and when patients can expect a call back.    Document all actions in the electronic medical record in order to inform others regarding the status of the request.

Be on alert for signs of frustration.  These can manifest in new behaviors after changes are made to a routine.  Once a process is improved, be sure to re-visit the process and determine if the workflow is effective.   Improving patient satisfaction is not a one-time event, but it is an on-going process.  Examining patient flow can be helpful in identifying opportunities for improvement from the perspective of the patient.

Jill Berger-Fiffy

Issues to Consider When Sunsetting a Legacy Practice Management System

There are numerous issues which must be taken into consideration when determining staffing needs for supporting a practice management system which is being sunsetted. Quite often there is substantial volume being passed through the system for several months after the transition from old system to new system has taken place. Late filing of old charges, follow up and rebilling of existing AR can result in the same volume of issue reporting which existed prior to the switch to new systems. Data files must be maintained and updated, user logons supported and claim forms and electronic exchanges must be modified in accordance with payer requirements. In addition, mandates such as v5010 and ICD-10 must be taken into consideration even though the system is being wound down. These mandates are date sensitive and do not take into consideration that they are tied to an old system. As a result there are several consideration which need to be considered when trying to determine the amount of staffing and specific skill sets needed to support a legacy system.

Application support

Overall application support must be provided in order to resolve day to day issues which arise. This includes: changes to incorrect data files, problems with end user security and system errors which periodically surface which may require vendor intervention in order to be resolved. These tasks may result in the management of a series of external systems which are used to track statuses on the various issues reported.

5010 –electronic exchange expertise

With changes to ANSI standards which are in process there may be spin off project such as the conversion of all exchanges to the v5010 format in order to meet compliance requirements. As part of follow up on old and existing claims, the submission of these claims must be compliant with newer versions for those claims which are resubmitted electronically.  Implementing this process may require a small team of EDI staff working on an aggressive timeline for a limited period of time in order to get this accomplished.

Operation/production staff to support on-going operations

There are numerous considerations for production and operations staff with regards to spinning down an old system.  Although the volume will steadily decrease, there is a continued need for both electronic and paper claims submissions to continue as part of AR spin down.   In addition, electronic eligibility checking is still likely to take place in the back end office setting as part of follow up processes so these queries and payer check processes must be maintained as well.

Method for converting data to outside vendor

In the back end setting, after all billing efforts have been exhausted, remaining invoices (both insurance and self-pay receivable) are generally sent to an outside company (receivables management/collection agency) as a last stop along the way prior to writing off any residual balances. IT staff are generally responsible for delivery of this data. Depending upon the database size and number of unpaid invoices IT may provide a “data dump” of information to this company. This may be completed by creating flat files from the old system to be converted into a format by the outside vendor. In addition, many organizations are allowing access to their old systems by the vendor to simplify the receivable spin down process.

The above considerations are just a few things to keep in mind when trying to determine specific skill sets which will be needed from a staffing standpoint when preparing to wind down an old system. When planning for a system conversion it is recommended to keep maintenance costs of the legacy system in mind as system support will be required for up to a year post conversion.

Allscripts PM -Truly Effective Practice Management with Custom Reporting

Practice management (PM) software operates the full revenue cycle of a medical practice, from patient registration and scheduling to claim submission, claim follow up and payment posting; it operates the all-important business side of healthcare.  And, while all of these activities are vital components for the successful operation of a medical office, without reporting, practices cannot assess the true health of the business and have a lesser ability to be proactive with corrective measures.

We all know that the running of daily, monthly, annual reports is so critical to assessing the health of a medical practice and Allscripts-delivered reports represent a great start to understanding how healthy a practice is at any given time.  Like all well-developed practice management systems, Allscripts PM offers a wide range of performance reports to help assess practice health in terms of operations, statistics and productivity.  However, what if there is information a practice desires that cannot be delivered using a canned report?  What if you need a full patient list based on visits grouped by rendering provider and grouped by particular age groups?  What if you want to explore the top 20 diagnoses or procedure codes submitted by your providers, grouped by provider with textual and graphical representations?  What if you want a complex payormix report with textual and graphical representation as well with user-defined parameters (by particular date range per query run, for particular payors or insurance categories)?  This is where a custom reporting strategy can help.

So, what does the strategy look like?  Well, it doesn’t have to be complex.  It can be made up of one individual in your organization who is familiar with Crystal Reports and a basic understanding of relational databases.  One user can create queries in Crystal and distribute the reports to end users as requested or you can implement a Crystal reader solution on one of your PM servers so end users can run the reports themselves, with security to run the queries dictated by Active Directory or the like.

You don’t have to have an expert in Crystal Reports to extract data, however.  In fact, you can extract data from the back end SQL database utilizing any data mining tool such as Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel as well.

Whatever tool you choose to use, do think about the following when considering your solution:

  • What IT expertise do you have in house that we can use to develop a custom reporting solution? Do you have anyone who is well-versed in Crystal, Excel or Access? If not, look into getting help outside the organization to assist with developing and implementing a solution as well as training current staff on report writing so you can be self-sufficient in the end.
  • Do your custom reporting needs or organizational size dictate consideration of an enterprise Crystal Reader solution or does it make more sense to designate one person to write queries and distribute reports to end users? Enterprise Crystal Readers can be purchased and most are reasonably priced and you will get much bang for the buck in terms of the valuable data you will now be able to access.
  • Assess whether the data you are looking to study is actually being entered into the system and if it is, determine if it is it being entered into an available, reportable field. If data you need is not currently being captured, refine workflows or add an element to the current workflow (Additional Info custom question, for example) so that the data is captured and thus, extractable and useable.

Developing a custom reporting strategy can allow you to take the management of your practice to a whole new level.  Additional reporting opportunities will allow for more opportunity to monitor your practice’s health and well-being because a well thought out solution will help you better understand the full spectrum of your business operations.  With the development of a cost-effective, custom reporting solution, the management of your practice will be at your fingertips and will be well worth the effort to implement.