Bob Lorsch seeks to lead health IT through his blog

I last wrote about Bob Lorsch of MMR Information Systems (right) at SmartPlanet last year. He was helping China automate its medical records.

Well, he has a big new idea.

A blog.

Launched in March at multiple MMR sites, the Lorsch blog is part pep talk, part travelogue and part business adventure story, with its author always at the center as the hero, pulling the strings and bringing people together.

The blog has no graphics, no pictures, and the hyperlinks are all written-out, so you have to copy-and-paste them to use them, you can’t click them. All this makes the project seem more genuine, more personal, like the entrepreneur who comes to the big business meeting in a flowered shirt but is certain he’s going to charm you anyway. He usually does.

Lorsch is a special southern California type — informal, gregarious, self-confident, always selling, trophy wife by his side, hey look at me life is wonderful. He’s the kind of guy my dad always wanted to be, but my dad could never pull it off. Some can. Lorsch can.

I found Mr. Lorsch’s blog because he ordered a press release on it. It’s not a meeting I would like to have been in on.

But, Mr. Lorsch. You have no hyperlinks, no pictures.

That makes it genuine! That’s what people are looking for today, honesty. Heart!

But sir, we’ve barely started putting it on the servers.

And I want our other executives to blog too. That’s what the kids like. Blog, blog, blog.

Sir, can’t you just send it in to us and we’ll publish it for you?

What? You don’t trust me to do my own blogging? How long have you been working for me? Want to still be doing it tomorrow?

<cringe>Yes, sir. I’ll put out the press release today. </cringe>

From all this snark you may think I am making fun of Mr. Lorsch, that I find something repellent about him. I don’t. I like him a lot. He puts a smile on my face. He’s supremely self-confident, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, he’s a real go-getter.

We need more like him in health IT.