Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Anthony
LaFauce

mHealth is the Future

Monday, August 16th, 2010

welldocWellDoc, a company focused on developing next generation medical tools, announced that the FDA has approved its DiabetesManager System. I can hear you now, “what’s the big deal? There are plenty of those on the market already.” The key to this new system is that it delivers real-time monitoring results to a person’s mobile phone.

Again, is it really that great of a tool? The DiabetesManager System also links directly to the patient’s caregiver via the patient’s phone and can provide automated health updates. HIPA you say? Well the company’s press release says nothing about privacy issues, but because this is an ‘opt in’ program that communicates directly with a patient’s caregiver, the information passed is no different than a patient calling his or her caregiver.

After a quick read-through of the WellDoc’s site, I was able to read that the information captured is held in a highly secure database that only allows for approved member access. I understand the need for HIPA, but on the other hand I understand the need to provide healthcare information on the go. (more...)

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Brendan
Kownacki

Health in Your Hands, Literally

Friday, August 13th, 2010

Last week I had a great opportunity to contribute an article to Examiner.com titled, “The Intersect between Media and Mobile,” where I dissected the ways that mobile devices have impacted the flow of information in society – both generally and specifically in the marketing and news industries.

Doctor on Blackberry

The truth is, the growth in mobile technology is affecting every industry based on the access that it allows; and beyond the cliché, it puts information right in the palm of your hand. It’s become a popular way to track how many doctors are using smart phones as a part of their daily routines, and the number is steadily on the rise, with 94 percent of doctors reporting use in one recent study. Mobile provides the advantage of never having to stop when it comes to needing information, whether that means referencing an encyclopedia or consulting with a colleague.

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Anthony
LaFauce

Twitter Can Save Your Life Part 2

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

twitter-bird2Several years ago when I was at The Social Times I wrote a blog post about how Twitter could save your life as a multi-channel messaging tool. If you take a second to look at the comment section of that post you can see there was some back and forth about the usefulness of Twitter (@Martin Ringlein).

Why am I bringing up an article I wrote almost 3 years ago? Today Susan Kinzie wrote a great piece about how innovative developers are starting to create tools to use Twitter as a method for finding people in distress. The article talks about an online survey the Red Cross conducted that reports that more and more people are using social media as a tool to find help.

While the article wraps up by saying that in an emergency the best thing to do is dial 911, it is great to see people starting to explore the ways in which multichannel tools can help out. Imagine tying in my Foursquare, Twitter, Ping.fm and Facebook page into some sort of Geo-Targeted/911 connection tool that would tell all my followers where I was, what was wrong and how they could help.

As an avid lover of tech it is exciting to see these developments coming to fruition. Do you have any examples of folks using social media or developing social media tools to help during a disaster? Let me know.

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Anthony
LaFauce

Top Tips for Hospitals and Doctors to Achieve Positive Feedback with Social Media

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

social-media-logoI was recently featured in an article on AMED News and ReachMD (12:45) talking about how doctors should handle negative posts by patients on social media sites. I stated that doctors should never go on the offensive against negative postings and instead should work on “getting on top” of negative messages.

The principle is simple; you can never make everyone happy all the time so by nature some people will post negative messages. If you’re a good hospital or doctor, many of the patients you serve are happy with the work you do. Therefore, as a good practitioner or facility, if you give patients an opportunity to speak positively about you they will. More positive messages will always drown out negative messages.

Think about it like this, if you see a Yelp posting about a restaurant and 15 people say it's great and one say it’s terrible… Who are you going to believe?

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Jon
Mandel

OB/GYN 2.0

Monday, July 26th, 2010

I recently read a USA Today entitled "Some doctors join Facebook, Twitter; others wary," which has sparked another debate about health care going digital. Dr. Jeff Livingston, a certified obstetrician and gynecologist, is using social media to promote his practice, MacArthur OB/GYN, and create a public platform for a subject matter that quite often is stigmatized as too confidential and personal to discuss. As he notes in the article, he isn't publishing personal health information online, but instead shares helpful articles and advice that he believes would benefit his followers and fans. macarthur-ob-gyn-facebook

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Tonique
Heaven

Gaming That Changes Lives, Part I

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

I was very intrigued when I first heard about the "Games for Change" effort that is taking shape in the United States. Games that don't just entertain but educate and foster understanding and social change - I thought it was a fascinating idea. But when I sat in on the "Games for Change & Health Workshop: Brainstorming and Game Design Jam for HIV/AIDS" for Digital Capital Week, I was floored. The workshop, hosted by Spectrum, aimed to educate attendees on HIV/AIDS and "edu-gaming." And, in doing so, supply them with the knowledge to conceptualize video games that could help a variety of audiences better understand HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. and around the world. You can watch the live stream of the event in our DC Week video archives.

Two of our panel speakers - David Phillips, an information governance contractor at The National Institutes of Health, and Justin Goforth, RN, Director of Medical Adherence Unit and STD Services, Whitman Walker Clinic - were extremely educated on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Before delving into the gaming aspect, they introduced the hard hitting facts of the virus. After all, we need to know the subject matter before we could brainstorm about the game. (more...)

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