eHealth » Disruptive Technology

Future Med This Week

John Sharp — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:23:52 +0000

Although I am not there, I feel the spirit of FutureMed. Sold out again, this program of Singularity University covers topics including:

Exponential and Emerging Technologies
Regenerative Medicine
Information and Data Driven
Future of Medical Practice
Personalized Medicine
Future of Intervention and Robotics
Neuromedicine
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Global Health
Government and regulatory
Longevity

This line up is complemented by an large, expert faculty including some friends: Lucien Engelen and Roni Zeiger.

Daniel Kraft organizes this unique event every year. Listen to his interview from last year.

Daniel Kraft from The Doctor’s Channel on Vimeo.

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2012 Predictions for Health IT

John Sharp — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:13:33 +0000

Like others (see Daniel Kraft) , I have my own opinions about what trends will be most influential for health IT in 2012.

Big Data and real-time analytics and decision support – IBM Watson and Explorys are in this space, others will follow and adoption will grow enabled by cloud computing, NOSQL/Hadoop and natural language processing
Continued focus on EMR adoption as more health systems pursue meaningful use. This will again be the main focus at HIMSS as well as other conferences
Social media in health care will continue to grow among patients as the e-Patient movement continues to gain in strength and public awareness and as advocates like the Reshape Innovation Center find creative uses to influence the future of health
Mobile health and apps usage will expand but what is needed is a way to integrate personal health information, such as, PHRs and apps that promote wellness and disease management. For health care professionals, apps and mobile devices need to be integrated into clinical workflow rather than being an adjunct or distraction
Research will be further enabled by EMR data as more academic medical centers develop data warehouses for research and quality studies and as initiatives like QueryHealth make it possible to combine data across systems and states using health information exchange and other tools

There are many more but these are the primary one’s I will be following.

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Distracted Doctors – Living in an App World

John Sharp — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:33:54 +0000

The NY Times article on how devices are distracting doctors certainly rings true as hospitals push patient safety and preventing data breaches. New devices, specifically smart phones and tablets (especially the iPad) are becoming pervasive in hospitals and outpatient settings often outside of the control of hospital IT departments. Medical schools as well attempt to increase awareness of the risks while evaluating the advantages of these devices.

One aspect of smart devices yet to be addressed is, does the app model in iOS and Android devices fit with medical practice. Part of the purpose of integrated EMRs is to bring all of the information to the user in one place. This increasingly includes CPOE and embedded clinical decision support tools. But an app model requires the user to jump from one app to another to acquire the information needed. This is a classic dilemma of an integrated application/portal (EMR) versus a better user experience (apps). Which works best for physician workflow? When will EMRs look more like apps?

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Social Media in Clinical Trials

John Sharp — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 02:36:28 +0000

Today I presented on a panel at Case Medical School on clinical trial recruitment. My notes and references are contained in these slides.
This is a topic that needs more discussion in the online community:

Social media in clinical trials

View more presentations from John Sharp

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Book Review: The Googlization of Everything

John Sharp — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:19:43 +0000

This book by Siva Vaidhyanathan has the provocative subtitle “And why we should worry”, which defines the subtext of the book questioning whether the “Do no evil” search engine company has become something else as a result of its efforts to monetize everything. The book covers the broad domains that Google impacts modern life and discusses the predominant thinking driving the company – “faith in aptitude and technology” and infrastructure imperialism.”

The two pivotal chapters are “The Googlization of Knowledge” and “The Googlization of Memory”. The former deals primarily with the Google Book project and makes a point about the importance of preserving knowledge in the digital age, particularly preserving out-of-print books. But, the author cautions, should a for profit company hold such a public trust that has traditionally been held by public libraries. Similarly, in the latter, the author questions whether “Google is making use stupid” or not. Does consuming snippets of knowledge limit our ability to read for extended periods and reflect?And what impact does it have on education, particularly higher education? Both are valid questions and it may be that the way we think and consume information is changing. However, not all of this is due to Google as much as it is to social media and Wikipedia. Consumption of knowledge is becoming the ability to think critically about the volume of available information and not be controlled by the filters and overload of information. Understanding knowledge algorithms rather than being subservient to them is the key.

In conclusion, the author proposes a bold new project, The Human Knowledge Project, which appeals to the need to have more public control over knowledge through libraries and democratic processes rather than commercial interests. One might agree with him since the recent demise of Google Health. If Google Books are not profitable in 5-10 years, will this project also be abandoned leaving the legacy of digitalized books behind? Yet much of the books skepticism about Google and fears are overdrawn. Perhaps Google’s service to higher education through Gmail and other services will help it keep a commitment to educational and knowledge resources in the future.

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More on Health Apps

John Sharp — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:32:59 +0000

The Mobile Health LaunchPad will be announce winners who will pitch their products on September 19. They want apps that are more than content, in an early stage and ones that can actualize utilize capital.

The Blue Button initiative from the VA will award $50,000 for a non’government provider to add the Blue Button on a PHR website or create a PHR with one. The blue button is a function to allow patients to download their medical records. Submissions open until Oct. 19th.

The Cleveland Clinic announced a incubator for Health Care Apps. This according to according to Scott Linabarger, the Clinic’s director of Internet marketing, speaking at the World Congress Leadership Summit on mHealth.

Jen McCabe is making news with combine HealthMonth and Contagion Health to make a new company, Habit Labs. She even got attention on TechCrunch for funding from Y Combinator.

Health apps are popping up everywhere. Hoping that the market will sort out or create aggregators to manage our health with multiple tools. Health apps are eclipsing PHRs. The future looks promising.

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Health Apps and Real Time Consults

John Sharp — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:23:01 +0000

There was more on the FDAs decision about health apps today. According to an informative blog post by Brian Dolan on MobileHealth News, the FDA will not regulate most apps. Some specific use cases for apps that won’t be regulated include:

“that are electronic “copies” of medical textbooks, teaching aids or reference materials
“that are solely used to log, record, track, evaluate, or make decisions or suggestions related to developing or maintaining general health and wellness.
“that only automate general office operations with functionalities that include billing, inventory, appointments, or insurance transactions.
“that are generic aids that assist users but are not commercially marketed for a specific medical indication”

As always with the FDA, the concern is how the app influences treatment.

Also announced was the real time iConsult where physician users can “consult” in real time with specialist and others and include photos and xrays in the request. Sounds like twitter consult but more secure.

In a 2010 post by @Berci Mesko, he notes doing consults via Twitter:

What would I do if	in 2000	Now
I need clinical answer	Try to find a collegue who knows it	Post a question on Twitter
I want to hear patient story about a specific condition	Try to find a patient in my town	Read blogs, watch Youtube
I want to be up-to-date	Go to the library once a week	Use RSS and follow hundreds of journals
I want to work on a manuscript with my team	We gather around the table	Use Google Docs without geographical limits

My take is that most physicians are concerned about doing this but early adopters can share their successes and issues for the others.

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Health App Development and Innovation

John Sharp — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:54:52 +0000

Two quick notes:

HHS kicks off $5M ‘i2′ Health IT app development program – contracts awarded for this, more innovation opportunities looking to:

Allow an individual to securely and effectively share health information with members of his or her social network.
Provide patients, caregivers and/or clinicians access to rigorous and relevant information that can support real needs and immediate decisions.
Allow individuals to connect during natural disasters and other periods of emergency.
Facilitate exchange of health information while allowing individuals to customize the privacy allowances for their personal health records.

Also announced, the Cleveland Clinic Medical Pavilion on Innocentive and the first challenge posted.

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Can Social Media Save Lives?

John Sharp — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:58:56 +0000

This provocative title of a webinar to be held next week is part of the growing optimism about the potential for social media in the process of health care. Some recent examples come to mind:

Report from the Change Foundation in Toronto on Using social media to improve the quality of patient experience (I was on the advisory board for this report)
An App that Looks for Signs of Sickness – Mobile-phone activity can provide a warning of disease flare-ups.
Community Health Data Initiative – more on this later
Case Study: Radboud Hospital Supports Young Cancer Patients With An Online Community

We are witnessing a shift from social media for pure marketing toward engagement and beyond, to changing the care process.

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Innovation Opportunities Abound

John Sharp — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:36:39 +0000

A new conference has been announced by the NIH: Crowdsourcing: The Art and Science of Open Innovation. Speakers incude Tim O’Reilly and ” will focus on the key aspects of this new approach that include: how to identify problems that can be solved through open innovation; how to communicate a scientific problem across disciplines.”

Another open innovation opportunity has been recently announced called Merit Awards which is offering $50,000 on the topics of citizen engagement, defense, emergency response, entitlement reform, work force management and motivation, back office operations, results achievement and waste.

Another opportunity is a developer community called TopCoder “revolutionizing the software design and development process by tapping in to our unlimited global community.”

Will open innovation become the primary source for new ideas and products/apps in the future?

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