Posts Tagged ‘mHealth’
New Technology Now Brief on Mobile Apps in Healthcare
June 15, 2012
I authored this tech brief with the American Association of Medical Colleges. These tech briefs are one page, high level documents which “summarize the latest technologies, trends and issues facing our community. They are designed to make it easier for Information Resources professionals to communicate with stakeholders (Deans, students, colleagues) and help in the decision-making process. ” The challenge in producing these is summarize a huge trend into one page. The result is more questions than answers but we did include examples of some apps.
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How Europe is Growing Health Apps
February 13, 2012
My post on HealthWorksCollective last week. I am sure there are many more apps being built in the EU but wanted to call attention to a few I am familiar with.
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Health and medical apps are growing at an incredible pace in the US. But what about Europe? Are there equally creative ideas going on across the pond? Fortunately, there are plenty of examples.
One hot spot is Nijmegen, Netherlands at the Radboud Reshape and Innovation Centerat UMC St. Radboud University Medical Center. Under the leadership of Lucien Engelen, the center has already produced 4 apps. First is AEDS4.US which enables the user to find the nearest defibrillator devices at a moment’s notice using this iPhone/Android app which integrates maps and location services. It has over 50,000 downloads but is still most heavily used in the Netherlands. Anyone with a smartphone can add AEDs to the app. Second is AYA4 – community for young cancer patients. Third is aniPad app to enable communication between patients, families and the healthcare team. Fourth is Hospital Visitor Planning to coordinate visitors coming the hospital. The newest app is REshape HealthTalk which enables translation during healthcare visits for non-native speakers. The ReShape Center also sponsorsTEDxMaastricht which will take place April 2, 2012.
In Belgium, there is a growing number of startups and a startup incubator specifically for health. HealthStartUp“organises events in Europe that bring together entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, policy makers and investors.” Like many of us, HealthStartUp seeks to empower patients and improve the quality, efficiency and accessibility of healthcare. Check out their interview with miMedication which not only describes their product but also discusses being an entrepreneur. miMedication is a niche PHR product in English developed by Mitchell Silva, who is an epatient in his own right.
From Spain, there is a new app called Doctoralia, a service to find, rate and contact medical services in 14 countries. In addition to the website search by country there is an iPhone app in the App Store. The combination of international search, rating and actual scheduling information makes the service unique.
Also from Spain we have Medical Exchange Medting which includes collaboration platforms and medical viewers. It is a comprehensive tool set which enables elearning, social networking for physicians and medical students. The Medting Media Manager enables the management of medical images including DICOM and pathology standards. Medviewer is a lightweight version of the image viewer which can be imbedded into websites and web applications for continuing medical education, etc. The products can be used for free and the primary business model is licensing for enterprise use for which they also provide customization and services. While not yet a mobile app, it will display on the iPad.
From Hungary there is Webicina founded by Bertalan Mesko, MD, is a curated social media resource tool in multiple languages. The solution has two paths: one for the medical professional which is cataloged by medical specialties from anesthesia to transplantation. The path for the “Empowered Patient” goes to specific diagnoses from pregnancy to psoriasis.This is also available as an mobile app in the iPhone Store and Android version. Webicina also has a tool called PeRSSonalized Medicine with an emphasis on curated RSS feeds for medical resources including major medical journals, blog and news. It enables the busy health professional to scan multiple articles for relevance to their practice at a glace and drill down on topics of interest. Again, this too is in multiple languages and curated by real people, not algorithms. Dr. Mesko who goes by @Berci on Twitter is a popular speaker internationally and continues his medical research while maintaining this service. Webicina has recently partnered with Basil Strategies of Paris, France and sponsor of the Doctors 2.0 Conference there.
There are a growing number of annual conferences on Web 2.0 in healthcare in Europe.
- TEDxMaastricht in the Netherlands in April is in the true TED tradition with fast paced presentations but a focus on innovation in health care. The program includes speakers from throughout Europe but also the US. The program includes patients and their dynamic stories of survival as well medical professionals focused on patient-centered care.
- Doctors 2.0 and You in Paris in May billed as “an international healthcare social media and web 2.0 conference,” is sponsored by Basil Strategies which is now in partnership with Webicina. The conference has a strong emphasis on mobile apps as well as social media and patient and professional communities. A contest for startups rounds out the program. Check out the videos from last year.
- Salud 2.0 meets in Bilbao, Spain in July. It includes international and Spanish presenters on topics from Health 2.0 administration and clinical practice. Last year’s presentations are online throughSlideShare. Preliminary information on this year’s program is available.
- Last year was also the first Health 2.0 Europe in Berlin sponsored by the US Health 2.0 conference group of Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya. It included their usual format of individual speakers on the latest apps and interviews with entrepreneurs and quick paced demos.
Bottom line, Europe is alive with activity – building apps, experimenting with social media in healthcare and a growing number of conferences to show it off. This small sampling should give you a taste of some exciting developments worth keeping tabs on.
Share this: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:
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.
Share this: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.
Share this: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.
Share this: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.
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