In January, I gave a lecture to the 3rd year medical students at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine on Biomedical Informatics challenging them to think about the future of algorithms in medicine among other topics.

Beginning in February, my chapter on eResearch in the book Health Informatics, was published.

Later in February, it was off to Las Vegas for HIMSS.  I was a guest of the Dutch delegation and spoke on Electronic Medical Records: From Clinical Decision Support to Precision Medicine. It was great to see Health IT social media colleagues at the HIMSS social media center. Also during February, I was invited to be on the advisory board for Health Works Collective and contributed to their interest in European trends with a blog post on How Europe is Growing Health Apps.

In March I attended the American Medical Informatics Association Clinical Research Informatics meeting in San Francisco. I presented two posters and one podium presentation all focused on the use of EMR data in research.

Then in April, it was on to the Netherlands for TEDx Maastricht and a visit to Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmeg en to meet at the ReShape & Innovation Center see a preview of the movie The Waiting Room. Also had a tour of the In Vitro programming there with ePatient Dave. Later in April I attend the Epic Research Advisory Council for the first time. Another valuable meeting of other user of the Epic EMR on the secondary use of EMR data in research and how to integrate research into the EMR.

Epic Campus near Madison, Wisconsin

May brought the publication of a blog post in iHealthbeat on A Look at Social Media in Health Care — Two Years Later , a follow up post on my original commentary on Healthcare social media from 2010. Also, I attended the Patient Experience Summit at the Cleveland Clinic which included fellow HealthWorksCollective bloggers Robin Carrey and Barbara Ficarra. Also published was a Technology Brief from the American Association of Medical Colleges on Mobile Apps. These one page summaries are targeted at medical school leadership.

June brought a trip to Barcelona for the Hospital Liquido conference. I presented an updated version of From Clinical Decision Support to Precision Medicine, This was a great opportunity to see one of Europe’s most beautiful cities as well as see the health IT innovation including Doctoralia.

Sagrada de Familia, Barcelona

In July I presented virtually at Salud 2.0 in Bilbao, another offering from Spain in medical innovation. My presentation on Social Media in Health Care: A Reasoned Approach was well received. I had the opportunity to answer questions via phone. Hopefully, I will be able to attend this conference in person in a future year.

In August, I was invited to become Adjunct Faculty at Kent State University in Health Informatics. Preparing a course in Clinical Analytics to be taught in May and June, 2013. This is a completely online masters program will be a new experience for me including online videos, readings, assignments and weekly discussion topics. At the end of August I attend the Ohio Health Data Symposium at Case Western Reserve University. Ohio like many states has a rich repository of public health information on everything from chronic diseases to behavioral health.

In early September, I completed a chapter on Computing and Information for a new textbook on Wireless Health: Remaking of Medicine by Pervasive Technologies. The concept of pervasive technology in healthcare is certainly at a tipping point. The book will be out in February 2013. Also in September I attended an internal Cleveland Clinic event, the annual Healthcare Technology Forum which showcased some of the many IT initiatives at all Cleveland Clinic locations including Abu Dhabi.

October 29-31, I attend the Cleveland Clinic Innovation Summit which focused on Orthopedics but included presentations by IBM, 23andMe and Explorys.

November took me to Chicago for the AMIA Annual Symposium. With record attendance (3500), I had the opportunity to organize and present a pre-symposium workshop on Clinical Research Informatics Infrastructure and a poster on the use of a wiki to educate healthcare professionals about secondary use of EMR data.  The same week I attend the Informatics Key Functional Committee of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards of the NIH. It was valuable to see what tools are being developed and particularly to attend the Integrated Data Repository workgroup. Also significant for AMIA this year was being featured on the website under Faces of AMIA and participating in the mentorship program, working with an up an coming informaticist, Anja Timmerman. I would encourage all experienced health IT professionals to participate in mentoring to bring along the next generation of informatics.

Chicago Millennium Park

In December I presented at Cleveland Clinic Medical Informatics Grand Rounds on Use of an EMR-based Registry to Support Clinical Research. Mature EMR systems are quickly become key tools in all aspects of research

Quite a year of opportunities and evolution in my thinking. As you can see, much of my work is shifting from social media in healthcare (although this is still an interest of mine) to research informatics and specifically secondary use of EMR data. More later on what next year might bring.

At the same time, I wonder if mobile apps, which have seen huge adoption, need integration with PHRs or visa versa. Disease management and wellness activities could be tracked through apps and added to one’s PHR. This what Google Health tried to do and HealthVault still does. Yet only a small percentage of those with chronic or life threatening illnesses have benefited.

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.

I also post on WikEhealth, a European site.

Check out my photo on the REshape Conference website – spoke in Nijmegen in 2009.

• “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:

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