Once a week, I go without makeup. I don't wear much normally -- a smudge of concealer, a coat of mascara, but it's enough to make me feel covered, safe.
When I'm taking a break from traveling, working from my home office in Rotterdam, Holalnd, I go to war without armor. I make a conscious effort to strip away trappings and get back to bare essence, who I am, and what I can do, without hiding any flaws.

American health care needs a day with no makeup.

Driven by consumer activity and e-patient activism, health care data is increasingly becoming part of the public domain. We're putting much more of our overall identity online, interacting and transacting with data sets that reach deeper and broader into our personal narratives, now globally housed on the web. We've gone beyond just posting about our favorite bands, travel plans, and restaurant reviews.

Like pushing our personal profiles on Facebook and MySpace, posting our professional exploits and CVs on LinkedIn, organizing groups on Ning, and revealing our latest vacation photos on Flickr, we're sharing health and wellness experiences at a rate never seen before.

It's only a matter of time before we're sharing X-ray films and CT reports on social networking sites (indeed, radiologists already post "interesting," anonymous films all over the blogosphere).

The world is ready to talk about health using the web. The U.S. is almost ready to improve health using the web. Interestingly enough, this crop of presidential candidates are (unintentionally) leading the charge towards personal health data transparency - they're stepping outside wearing less makeup. Weighing a right to personal privacy against the opportunity to gain a leg up over the competition, the candidates have been voluntarily releasing "clean bills of health."

This proactive inclusion of personal health data marks a change in the history of American campaign strategy. Past presidents hid illness, infirmaries, and injuries. FDR, who was debilitated by his battle with polio, delivered Fireside Chats seated, and photos of the President regularly captured him only from the waist up - he didn't want anyone to see his wheelchair.
JFK became famous for using a rocking chair while hiding back injuries so severe he was rumored to be taking large amounts of narcotics and amphetamines throughout his term of office.
The vision of a president as physically strong and mentally infallible has fallen by the wayside, and rightfully so. Presidents are people with health care issues, just like the rest of the American public.

Baring it all in health care might well be one of the most under-reported aspects of the current Presidential campaign, but each candidate is to some extent "going without makeup," releasing personal health data for public scrutiny. Sen. Barack Obama publicized efforts to quit smoking, and his wife Michelle worked as a hospital administrator in Chicago. Obama also recently received a "clean bill of health."
Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, had several of his treating physicians detail his medical history for reporters during a teleconference held May 23rd. Some journalists were given the opportunity to sift through copies of his records provided for the event.