Posts Tagged ‘mHealth’
The Next Wave of Technology: Social Media and Electronic Health Records
November 12, 2011
This Thursday I presented at the Senior Workers of the Twin Cities annual conference on this topic. It was helpful to discuss the value and trends in EHRs, PHRs, Social Media, and Mobile Apps. The group was receptive and had excellent questions on privacy and the digital divide. I started the talk by telling Regina Holliday’s story. The slides are below:
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How about a Motivation App?
April 12, 2011
There is some evidence that although there may be a lot of downloads of health related apps to smart phones, they are underutilized. Especially apps for diets, food monitoring, exercise and walking. Is this a usability problem or lack of complete features?
At one of the breaks during TEDxMaastricht, I had the idea that it may come down to what motivates each person individually. Are you motivated by some kind of rewards (financial or “chance to win…”) or by a social network or by being able to chart your results or receiving regular reminders, etc. What about a chance to win coupons (Groupon integration)?
What about developing an app which would take you through a series of questions to understand what motivates you to exercise or watch what you eat and then matches you with the apps which provide these types of motivations.
If anyone knows of such an app or is developing one, let me know. If you develop one based on this post, give me some credit. Thanks.
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First Day at HIMSS 11
February 21, 2011
The two highlights of my day were the HIT X.O track and the Social Media Center.
HIT X.O: Beyond the Edge is a new track to predict and discuss the future of Health IT. Beginning with a presentation of the dozens of statistics and predictions on the future of wireless and ended with the Geeks Got Talent brief demos and judges going at it. The multimedia experience was unique as was the live tweets at the bottom of the dual screens. The next stage of the competition continues tomorrow.
The social media center is expanded this year, with an afternoon of presentations. I was glad to be on a panel with Rich Elmore, David Kibbe and John Marzano this afternoon. John’s Orlando Health Facebook page and complimentary YouTube channel are a great example of what hospitals can do with social media. We fielded questions from the audience via twitter – a good range of queries about everything from participatory medicine to risks and opportunities in health care social media. I enjoyed the Social Media Center as a welcoming environment with an opportunity to meet many I follow on Twitter. Thanks to Ceasar Torres and other HIMSS staff in making it a welcoming place.
Tomorrow I speak about my experience with using Twitter to connect with Health 2.0 and health IT colleagues.
The twitter stream at HIMSS was very active today demonstrating a greater adoption by both attendees and vendors.
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The Future of Coding
November 30, 2010
In Wired magazine this month, Clive Thompson talks about his own experience in developing a mobile app. Coding for the Masses is the new reality. In a way, many in the Web 2.0 world have been doing coding by creating blogs, wikis, communities such as Ning, with little or no technical training. Now tools for mobile apps allow for building tools for the handheld devices. He notes Scratch to Google’s App Inventor as the enablers of this new reality.
Related is the book Program or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff. The same concept of empowerment comes through. More once I read the book. Implications for healthcare? Obvious – epatients going beyond advocacy to become app developers. Physicians and nurses developing apps for their own use or for their patients. Check out this post about creating a journal club with Google Reader and Facebook. Not mobile yet but maybe for the iPad?
Check out the HIMSS HIT X.O conference track which include HIT Geeks Got Talent? contest – live programming. I was on the planning committee for this innovative program track.
Also, from Wired magazine check out the redesign of medical test reports.
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New PHR Report from California Healthcare Foundation
April 13, 2010
Titled “Consumers and Health Information Technology: A National Survey“, the survey shows some promising progress:
- users cite taking steps to improve their own health, knowing more about their health care, and asking their doctors questions
- lower-income adults, those with chronic conditions, and those without a college degree are more likely to experience positive effects of having their information accessible online
- Two-thirds remain concerned about the privacy and security
- should not let privacy concerns stop us from learning how health IT can improve health care
- almost half are interested in medical devices that can be connected to the Internet.
- Of those who do not have a PHR, 40% express interest in using one.
Also just released is a major report from Price Waterhouse Coopers, The customization of diagnosis, care and cure. A key part of this report is patient touchpoints inlcuding:
- coordinated care teams
- fluent navigators
- patient experience benchmarks
- medical proving grounds
- care anywhere networks (aka, mHealth).
The common theme here is participatory medicine, which as it turns out, appeared in a post by Roni Zeiger of Google Health in Huffinton Post. His key quote is, “Data on its own is useless. It’s all about conversations.” Health data whether in personal health records or social networking sites or other tools is essential in creating a conversation about how to improve and maintain health.
