How to Radically Improve Your Writing in Under 2 Minutes

We're already more than a week into January, but I'm still slowly working my way through all the "best of" year-end lists out there (there are so many of them!). Combing through these recommendations may be time-consuming, but it's worth the commitment, I've found, as sometimes you turn up an absolute gem you missed earlier in the year.

Take the post titled "The Two Minutes It Takes to Read This Will Improve Your Writing Forever," by marketer Josh Spector, for example. As short as it is useful, the piece is one of the most recommended posts of 2016, Medium informs me. It's not hard to see why.

Spector offers five dead-simple changes you can make to basically any piece of writing in a matter of seconds that will make it more forceful and compelling. We'd all enjoy reading a bit more if more writers followed his tips:

    1. Delete the word that. At least 90 percent of the time, the word that can be removed from your writing    and it will instantly make your sentence stronger.

    2. Delete the words I think. It adds nothing. Remove it to strengthen your point.

    3. Avoid words that end in -ing. Example: "The experiences we're seeking end up being underwhelming and even disappointing." Change this to: "The experiences we seek often underwhelm and disappoint."

    4. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. Most sentences can be cut in half. Don't be afraid to have a two- or three-word sentence. Keep paragraphs to less than three sentences.

    5. Shrink your opening sentence. Example: "This is a post that's going to help you become a better writer." Change to: "I can help you."

9 Healthcare Predictions For 2017

Every year at Frost & Sullivan, the Transformation Health team brainstorm top predictions for the New Year to come. 2017 will definitely continue to be a year of tumultuous uncertainty and turbulence, but amidst this uncertainty we know for a fact that technology will continue to flourish and will have unprecedented impact on healthcare in terms of building some of the foundation blocks towards a connected home and healthcare ecosystem.

The following are our nine top predictions for healthcare for 2017:

Strong Push Toward Price Control And Transparency Measures Around Drugs
Public and political pressure on the control of surging drug prices, globally, will compel health authorities to bring transparency measures around drugs pricing, especially for some of the diabetes and cholesterol medicines where more low-cost generic competition is gaining market acceptance.
Blockchain Becomes One Of The Most Important Technologies In The Healthcare Industry
With the potential to change how healthcare information is stored, shared, secured and paid for, blockchain technologies have immense potential to tackle some of the biggest challenges in healthcare information management. Companies like Gem Health are among the few companies currently advocating the use and benefits of such a platform.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Transforms Medical Imaging Informatics
As more and more experts and healthcare professionals find the usability of these AI systems as decision support tools and not decision makers, uptake of AI-enabled clinical decision support tools is expected to increase in the coming years. More particularly during 2017, AI will play a big role in diagnostic imaging by complementing radiologists with advanced interpretation and imaging informatics supports.