It is a fairly simple concept that has been coming back into my mind especially after reading The Blue Sweater – a book about the journey of Jaqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund. If we don’t make public health integrated into people’s lives and sustainable – we will continue to fail.

Let me make it even more clear: for public health initiatives to be anywhere near effective in the coming years, the phrase sustain or die will need to ring loudly.

Sounds a bit morbid right? Well, unfortunately that’s exactly what we are dealing with these days. A deadly lack of effectiveness. According to an August study published in the Lancet – there will be an additional 65 million more obese Americans by the year 2030. That’s pretty staggering number in the next 18 years. How long do we need to look at these numbers and hear these reports before we realize that if we don’t do something drastic, effective and sustainable, the world of public health will lose out on the premise that the discipline is aimed at prevention and saving lives.

No more time for failure. Sustain or Die.

Double Meaning?

To “sustain” (according to Mirriam-Webster): to give support/relief to, to supply with sustenance, to support the weight of (no pun intended?)

To “die” (according to Mirriam-Webster): to pass out of existence

Campaigns do not sustain themselves. Multi million dollar HIV/AIDS campaigns that say the same thing to the same “troubled communities” do not sustain themselves. People who are passionate and invested in their own communities, however are sustainable. Partnerships with credible local leadership is sustainable. Building neighborhoods that encourage health is sustainable.

Coming into a community with a celebrity poster on a bus stop? Not sustainable. The celebrity gets paid and the citizens? They have something to look at briefly while waiting for a bus to take them to a job where they don’t get paid enough and gives them little time to think about getting more fruits and vegetables in their diet. Marinate.

Oh yeah. Sustain or Die.

The Death of Public Health?

Now for the morbid part. Two fold death. The field of public health in which we work to prevent disease/death is on the chopping block. Funding is constantly disappearing and professionals are a) burning out b) switching industries c) losing the passion and interest we so desperately need during these times. Terms/issues like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease have become buzz words in the media (not in a good way). Oh and culinary abominations like the triple stack Whopper continue to thrive in place of real food.

Where does that leave us? If we fail at growing sustainable new ideas for public health – the communities/populations/people that are supposedly in our care are doomed (there’s that DIE part again). Also the field of public health itself will become a shell of its former accomplishments and too, will perish for being a slow moving, ineffective, timid, business-as-usual, aging, just-get-me-to-retirement field.

So Then What?

In November of last year I brought an idea to life by co-founding the first public health innovation film festival - FastForward Health. It was a fantastic experience, not only for seeing the amazing turnout and getting some cool press, but also seeing the inspiration that was cultivated during that short time with all sorts of people interested in making positive impact in the health space. There are opportunities out there folks! Technology, food/water, the built environment – these are just a few of the main places where fresh ideas are being put into place by people who may or may not have an MPH (marinate) or a traditional health background. Urban gardens, mobile health, video games for health – it’s all very real and it’s all very necessary. This is what this blog is about and this is what I am most definitely advocating for and wakes me up in the morning!

Disagree with me? Agree? Let me know. Stay tuned for something else I’m cooking up around this that I’m hoping will add value to the next iteration of public health.

Welcome to 2012.

I recently had the opportunity to head out to San Francisco to attend the Health 2.0 conference – I was pretty jazzed since this would be my third time out there since first attending as a volunteer in 2008. I think as the Health 2.0 field has matured over the past few years, there have been some pretty interesting initiatives and companies popping up. Being interested in covering this sort of innovation, I was pleased to see a company catch my interest – Health eVillages.

From what I initially gathered, the Health eVillages initiative works to integrate technology into healthcare systems around the globe. It looks like mobile is the main focus. The site’s landing page has a video to give you a glimpse into who is behind the program as well. Through press connections at the conference, I got a chance to catch up with Health eVillages’ co-founder and CEO of Physicians Interactive, Donato Tramuto – in order to get some thoughts on the history and inner workings.

P/S:  What prompted the creation of Health eVillages?

DT: I am a firm believer that healthcare is a right for every single individual on this earth. It’s not just the access to care that is so important but it’s the quality of care- every person deserves good, adequate healthcare. As CEO of Physicians Interactive, we strive to make healthcare more efficient and adequate through the use of mobile technology. A few years ago my sister-in-law died in childbirth due to a medical error so I’ve become very passionate in working to provide safer care– mobile information technology can significantly help make this possible. In an age where advancements in technology are surpassing all expectations, it is unimaginable that today there are areas in the world, including here in the U.S., where people continue to suffer and die due to a lack of access to sufficient healthcare. This is what prompted me to start Health eVillages- I wanted to make an impact.

About a year ago, I was fortunate enough to meet Kerry Kennedy through my involvement with her wonderful organization, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. She, along with her father, is a great hero of mine and her work has been inspirational. With her incredible commitment and passion to human rights and my expertise in the mobile medical technology field, we created Health eVillages to bring technology to areas where people often have no access to clean water, much less modern medical care.

P/S: How does education for community health workers/physicians take place regarding use of mobile phones?

DT: Because the clinics in most of the areas where these Health eVillages mobile medical devices are being implemented do not have the facilities to hold medical references or have the money to buy new editions and stay updated with the most current medical conditions, the mobile phones allow physicians to access information through the touch of a button. Doctors can easily find medical references, resources and solutions to a medical question or issue on their phone. These mobile devices are easy to use and is something that they can have on them at all times without having to go through medical books that they might not even have.

P/S:  Have the results from the pilot programs been received yet? If so, where can that information be found?

DT: To date, the organization has conducted pilot programs in several regions, including in Haiti, Uganda, the Greater Gulf Coast, and Lwala, Kenya. Because Health eVillages is new, we’re still in the process of collecting detailed feedback and data on the outcomes of these phones. We’ve worked with volunteer nurses at the Angels of Hope Clinic in Mattuga, Uganda, providing them with a number of mobile devices and mobile technical support in an area without basic electricity. Based on their successful use of the mobile technology, the organization has requested additional devices and applications as they begin their expansion into Northern Uganda.

P/S:  Is there a process to how Health eVillages receives the donated phones? Is that a process the general public can get involved with like Hope Phones?

DT: Unlike Hope Phones, Health eVillages only distributes smart phones which better support the Skyscape medical application. However, we are similar in that we are resourceful by distributing refurbished phones. Since we’re still in the early stage, we have not reached out to the general public for donated phones- it is definitely a possibility….

P/S:  What is the process for ensuring that the software loaded onto the phones are useful for each of the communities in the pilot programs? Is there a sort of co-creation/development process in order to maximize effectiveness?

DT: The new and refurbished mobile phones and handheld devices do not require Internet access and are preloaded with clinical decision support reference tools to ensure that caregivers and patients have access to updated medical references in remote locations around the world. All devices include drug guides, medical alerts, journal summaries and references from over 50 medical publisher resources powered by Skyscape.com, Inc. Health eVillages has had brainstorming sessions with healthcare workers during the pilot program to get feedback on the devices and how they could be improved to better fit the workers’ needs.

Big thanks to the Donato and the team over at Health eVillages for this look behind the scenes. I’m all about practical use of technology to change the infrastructure and processes for sustainable impact. Looking forward to following up when the initiative gets even more data on the pilot programs.

The following is a guest post from Whitney Zatzkin, Policy and Advocacy Manager at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. A member of the Coalition for Health Funding, she attended a Congressional briefing on the role of public health in disaster recovery on September 12, 2011. More information on this and future events is available through the Coalition for Health Funding.

Disaster Recovery – After the Cameras Leave

The public was captivated when news crews descended upon New York City for the September 11 attacks, the Gulf Coast for Hurricane Katrina, Joplin, Missouri for the tornadoes and, most recently, along the East Coast for Hurricane Irene. But what happens after the cameras leave?

On Monday September 12, 2011 the Coalition for Health Funding hosted its seventh annual Public Health 101 briefing. The event featured Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, Deputy Commissioner for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Clayton Williams, Assistant Secretary for Public Health for the State of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, and public health systems researcher, Dr. Jerry Suls, Professor and Collegiate Fellow at The University of Iowa.

“Gadgets only get you so far, staff is critical.”

So much of disaster response and recovery is fast adaptation and planning for the unanticipated public health response needs. Dr. Weisfuse spoke of the flames, days after 9/11, shooting 20+ feet in the air as workers moved beams for clean-up and of the health cleanliness recertification developed for restaurants and delis to address the places where breakfast was left on the table for weeks. Many anthrax scares followed 9/11 but the first case wasn’t confirmed until October 12^th 2011. This slide from Dr. Weisfuse detailed that confirmed anthrax case – tracing the letter through NBC studios in an investigation that revealed that the NYC subways were, in fact, that dirty. And who knew they used fax machines for cleaning exposed documents for disposal? He closed emphasizing the significance of training, education and multi-layer communication for all stakeholders and highlighted the critical role for public health staff saying, “gadgets only get you so far, staff is critical.”

“We need a solid base in public health. That means people, and that means money.”

Mr. Williams brought the conversation to the recovery tasks following the BP Oil Spill, establishing seafood safety strategies and creating “the MOST certified seafood out there!” through the work of his team in Louisiana. His efforts there focused on “Rescovery,” merging response and recovery programs so disaster recovery programs (exposure screenings) are hosted INSIDE the established local response facilities (community health centers or shelters). Furthering the comments from Dr. Weisfuse, Mr. Williams cited that protocols in New Orleans once detailed that only the Public Health Director was left in the government health offices in its disaster plan. That one person was not enough when response was needed particularly post-Katrina when many colleagues within the Department of Health met the Public Health team for the first time. Emphasizing the important investment needed to build solid relationships with key stakeholders before the disaster happens, not after the incident, he commented, “We need a solid base in public health. That means people, and that means money.”

“We need money for research, staff and for outreach [programs].”

Closing the panel, Dr. Suls reflected on the important research around mental health and the challenges of rebuilding feelings of positivity in a community following a disaster. Not surprisingly, the biggest sources of stress following a disaster are employment, parenting and finances. Research demonstrates that people become more pessimistic following a disaster and they turn to pessimism-boosters, like alcohol and smoking, to find quick stress relief. Dr. Suls further explained that when pockets of optimism exist post-disaster, the feelings are often rooted in the idea that something like that would never happen to the community again and result in an increased number of people that stop being prepared for future events. In some cases, the optimists will even go so far as to not respond to local alerts and warnings to evacuate during the next hurricane or ignore alarms to seek shelter during a tornado. “If you have an immunization for something and no one uses it, you didn’t make an impact,” he said, adding, “We need money for research, staff and outreach [programs]” to make an impact.

Innovation in Public Health and Recovery Response

New York City was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support after 9/11. Volunteers flooded the area and officials sent the volunteers to donate blood when they found themselves over staffed. Quickly, blood donation centers were overwhelmed with donors and volunteers were left standing. The public health community developed new strategies to inform national volunteer deployment strategies and created the Medical Reserve Corps, to verify medical volunteers and deploy them successfully following emergencies.

Evolution in Public Health and Recovery Response

In her Congressional Statement for the Record this past May, Heather Blanchard, co-founder of CrisisCommons, cited the findings of an American Red Cross report and new levels of expected disaster response, “during an emergency… 55% [of respondents believed] help would arrive in less than 30 minutes if they posted a request for help on a social media website.” At the hearing, those in charge of disaster response stated how tweets and other web reports were an unmet need during past responses and that staff training, as well as new communications and new solutions, were needed. The public health and first responder communities are testing tweet-based deployment response and HHS and FEMA worked with Health 2.0 to issue an Application Developer Challenge to create a Facebook application to track a community following a disaster, communicate needs and verify safety. The need is growing for mobile platforms and effective response after an emergency, yet many agencies not only do not have the staff to support new media use but often staff cannot even access the websites.

Despite funding reductions at federal and state levels in recent years, the federal expectations and demands for public health emergency preparedness and response has increased.

In a letter to federal appropriators on August 25^th, 70 member organizations from the Coalition for Health Funding asked Congress to recognize the needed investment in public health funding, detailing the 44,000 state and local professionals already removed from the public health workforce after recent budget reductions while citing the strong ROI of public health programming. Furthering the need, people in need are expecting and demanding more from government agencies and national response units to coordinate relief when disasters happen and turning to new resources and new communications to ask for help, expecting response.

We need to strengthen the capability of public health disaster preparedness and response now, before the next disaster, through staffing, training and research. Only then can we take efficient, effective programs to the places people are already turning to for help and offer recovery support.

Guest post written by Cristian Liu, recently involved in Dept. of Health and Human Services innovation projects. His passions surround entrepreneurship, technology and healthcare.

Get ready to be blown away (hopefully). After last years official debut of a health track, the quality of entries seems to have picked from a quick analysis of 99 submissions in the health category at SXSW. Now is a great time for health to be on the docket at SXSW because of the massive shifts taking place in the sector.

Stripping out common terms like “health” and “SXSW,” a Wordle cloud of the tags show a couple of trends that healthcare is moving toward.

Wordle cloud generated from Wordle.net and Tags scrapped from the SXSW site.

The themes clearly popped out from the tags and while they are common to other sectors, the health sector is still in it’s pre-infancy stage when it comes to social, mobile and innovation:

1. Social Media:  Social Media has exploded over the past few years but healthcare has yet to effectively leverage its benefits at scale.  With the growth of social networking between patient groups, doctors, and specialists, one should expect to see the healthcare industry leveraging social media even more effectively.
2. Mobile: “Mobile is the new social.”  Picture the wave of social media over the past few years.  Now picture a new surge that’s coming up right behind it.  That surge is mobile technology and the unfathomable data capture that comes along with it.  The increased adoption of smartphones has opened the door to new services that can bring information, services, and doctors to patients’ fingertips.
3. Innovation: Disruptive innovation is the key to transforming healthcare and it is no surprise seeing this theme pop up.  Innovation is all the rage not only in the private sector (there are at least 4 health accelerators that launched within the last year – HealthBox (@health_box), RockHealth (@Rock_Health), StartupHealth (@startuphealth), BlueprintHealth (@bphealth)) but also in the government . It’s clear that the status quo isn’t going to work.  SXSW is the epitome of innovation.  By linking healthcare to the startup technology world, the opportunities are endless and as some VCs believe there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur and innovator in this sector.

There are a lot of usual suspects from the health world and it is refreshing to see some new faces. For example, check out the Food related submissions as compiled by Food and Tech Connect here. One thing, though, is clearly missing, view from emerging markets and global health. This blog of course has some bias because @mindofandre and @jaspaldesign submitted one of the very few that take a global view.  Check out a SXSW panel on global health issues here.

It’s clear that the health technology space is ripe for disruption.  The introduction of consumer web technology like social and mobile allows for patients to access services more directly, but business models here still need maturation. Additionally, similar groups are better able to connect with one other, leading to more effective knowledge sharing.  There is no time for small social media and mobile health stories at SXSW.  We should be well beyond that, moving into evidence and impact.  You can shape the future of this conversation and ensure the chosen panels reflect the true cutting edge.  Head over to the SXSW Panel Picker and be prepared to be blown away by the tremendous amount of health activity.

The following is a guest post from Jayme Hummer, associate at The Path of the Blue Eye Project, an innovative health marketing/communications initiative.

In 2009, we launched a very special initiative designed to aid collaboration and knowledge sharing/acquisition in health marketing communications called the Path of the Blue Eye Project.  Since then, we have been living the philosophy of the Project by producing a number of online and offline initiatives that have aided a diverse community of health communications experts, including public health communicators, social marketers, digital designers and others.

One of the most successful parts of the Project has been unNiched(micro), a series of breakfast events designed to provide health marketing communications pros with opportunities for deep learning and networking.  To date we have hosted two unNiched(micro) events focusing on mobile health and the health data movement (in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

Our third unNiched(micro) event is designed to provide attendees with hands-on experience with some of the most imaginative and impactful innovations in health marketing communications today. And, we need your help.  We plan to feature between six and eight innovations in the areas of mobile, public health communications, design, media relations and other topics during the event.  Attendees will have the opportunity to test drive each innovation during the event, which will hopefully spark ideas and new innovations.  Currently, we’re looking for innovations to highlight and we want to feature yours. In addition, after the event, case studies on each innovation will be published on the Project’s globally recognized wiki and featured on our podcast, fyi: healthmarcomms.

Will you submit an innovation?  You can learn more by visiting the unNiched(micro) website. The submission deadline is September 26. If you have questions or comments, please get in contact.

We’d like to thank Andre for his continued and enthusiastic support of the Project and for providing us with a space to highlight the unNiched(micro) event.

My news feeds have been much abuzz with talk of the newly announced journal, Games for Health: Research Development, and Clinical Applications. Gaming for health is a topic we’ve been covering here at Pulse + Signal, so when we heard the news, we caught up with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Bill Ferguson, for a Q & A.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., the publishers of the anticipated journal, hope to bring greater cohesion to the field of health games with its launch in early 2012. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, the journal will feature product news and reviews, as well as reports from the field. Read on for more detail…

BC: Why launch an academic journal for games for health?

BF: Health games are perhaps the most powerful new tools for the prevention and treatment of health issues.  I was asked by Mary Ann Liebert, the founder of our company, to attend the most recent games for health conference in Boston this past May to see if the field of health related games had matured to the point where the researchers, game developers, therapists, end users and so on would benefit from a dedicated journal.  I was very impressed by the depth and breadth of research going on in universities as well as the many very practical uses of games to improve the well-being of people with many different challenges.  Many of the key people I met including Debra Lieberman of the University of California at Santa Barbara, Paul Tarini of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Ben Sawyer, the organizer of the conference, enthusiastically supported the idea of a journal dedicated to games for health.

BF: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been a powerful force in health games research. At present, they have no official role in the journal although many of their grantees are on our editorial board.

BC: Who’s brain child is the new journal?

BF: If you take a moment to look at the history of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. you will see that she and our colleagues have been the pioneer publishers in some seventy health and human wellness fields including Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics in which we have worked closely with Sanofi.  Our peer reviewed journals often precede public awareness of emerging health sciences as is the case with Games for Health:  Research, Development, and Clinical Applications.

BC: Published articles will be peer reviewed, is that correct? With the diverse mix of developers, clinicians and researchers working in the field, how will reviewers be chosen? 

BF: Yes, in addition to field reports, product reviews and news from the field, our content will feature peer reviewed research papers.  Two of our key editorial board members, Dr. Lieberman, whom I mentioned, and Tom Baranowski, PhD of Baylor University will help me to determine and enlist appropriate reviewers for each submitted paper.  We are currently putting together our website and I will be issuing a call for papers very soon.

BC: Are there plans to make the journal open source? If not, how can we gain access?

BF: The journal will be available by subscription in print and online.  The Games for Health:  Research, Development, and Clinical Applications website www.liebertpub.com/g4h will feature complimentary sample issues and articles and clear instructions on how to submit articles and information of interest.

BC: How often will the journal be published?

BF: Initially, we will print bi-monthly with the hope that the volume of papers, news, activities and demand will drive us to monthly publication.

BC: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about the journal?

BF: I’d like your readers to know that they now have a forum to share their advancements, developments and interests in the field of games for health as well as a single source for leading edge news.  It is our goal to be a powerful vehicle for sharing and shaping this important new field.  Your contributions are welcome in Games for Health:  Research, Development, and Clinical Applications.

–
Bridgette Collado for Pulse + Signal

Follow Bridgette at twitter.com/bcollado

On June 9, 2011, sanofi-aventis U.S. announced the “sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data, Design, Diabetes” at the National Institute of Health’s Health Data Initiative Forum. The challenge integrates open data with a human-centered view into diabetes, and will award $220,000 in total prize money.  Guest blogger Michele Polz provides details on how this challenge came to be, and the future of similar challenges to change the face of healthcare. 

The room was packed and there was a buzz in the air. It was June 9, and I was at the Health Data Initiative Forum, an effort to accelerate momentum for the public use of data and innovation to improve health. Hosted by the Institute of Medicine and Health and Human Services, the event brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs, technologists, data mavens, and government officials driving innovation in health and healthcare.

As the Head of Patient Solutions, Diabetes, Sanofi-Aventis U.S., I couldn’t think of a better place to announce the “sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data, Design, Diabetes.”

For those who might not be familiar, diabetes is a chronic, progressive disease that has reached epidemic proportion in the US and at current rates the CDC estimates that by the year 2050 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes.  It is known as a “self-managed” disease, requiring people with diabetes to frequently check their blood sugar levels, administer treatments, and keep track of a lot of numbers. In one sense, people living with diabetes are the epitome of the quantified self movement.

“Innovation” has many definitions, so for this challenge we are looking for a solution that brings together the strength of insight enabled by open data sets and the empathetic connection provided through human-centered design to meaningfully help people living with diabetes in the US.

We were equally interested in ensuring that the best data-driven and human centered solutions receive more than a token award. We want to see solutions come to market to complement the treatments and devices that are currently available. It is also important to note that as an open innovation challenge, all intellectual property and equity will remain the property of its creators throughout the entire competition.

sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge: Data Design Diabetes from Data Design Diabetes on Vimeo.

These principles helped shape the staged approach that we feel is necessary to change the face of healthcare:

July 1, 2011 – July 31, 2011: The competition is open and submissions are accepted via entry form on the website: www.datadesigndiabetes.com. Note that the submission is a concept only with potential to be prototyped within 4 weeks.

August 5, 2011: A panel of esteemed judges will select 5 semi-finalists, who will be awarded $20,000 to build a prototype.

August 8 to September 2, 2011: The 5 semifinalists will take part in a “virtual incubator” where they will be provided advice and mentorship from industry leaders in topics such as user experience, business modeling, and technology architecture. The areas of mentorship will be determined by the semi-finalist concepts.

September 2011:  The 5 semi-finalists will take part in a “Demo Day” to pitch their concepts. The event will be live-streamed.

October 1, 2011: Two finalists will be announced and awarded $10,000 to conduct a community uptake exercise. The community uptake exercise consists of engaging with a real community of people living with diabetes gather responses to their prototype. Finalists will determine the community uptake location and format with the Sponsors. The exercise will be one month long.

December 15, 2011: 1 winner will be announced and awarded $100,000 and a 1-month stay at the Rock Health accelerator to develop their concept.

So at this point, I’d like to issue a personal appeal to the Pulse + Signal readers who may be considering this challenge. Your interest in health and technology has the potential to improve the experience or outcome for the millions of people living with diabetes today. To learn more:

• Visit the Website: www.datadesigndiabetes.com
• Watch our Video: http://vimeo.com/25434364
• Follow us on Twitter: @DDDiabetes
• Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Data-Design-Diabetes/129625740449604

In yesterday’s post published here on the NextDrop team, we covered the innovative project’s mission to empower a community around necessary resource through simple technology. With great support from the local community in Hubli-Dharwad and with the recent boost from the Knight News Challenge – the team look poised to create sustainable impact.

The question during their alpha phase of the pilot was, just how much impact will be created with this new venture?

Well last week the results came in. Check out their post explaining the numbers but also the human aspect of how this project has touched lives. In their feedback from citizens using the service, the team captured a story:

Ones all the family members went to marriage party in near to Hubli (one hour journey) ,when I get the SMS from Nextdrop   I came to know that water is flowing , suddenly I send my younger brother to home and fill the water because next day all the relatives are coming to the home, if we missed the water we have to wait again 6 to 8 days .Your service is very useful on that time.

This is what makes my day when it comes to simple innovations that are taking place around the world in regard to health, wellness and happiness. Kudos to the NextDrop team.

Last week at the Games for Health 2011 conference, Dr. Doris Rusch (MIT-Singapore GAMBIT Game Lab) presented her groundbreaking game, Elude. Elude is not like most games – its intention is not to “play” but just the opposite. A beautifully designed metaphor, Elude is a  tool for people supporting others with depression.

For people who have never experienced it before, depression is difficult to understand. It is not simply sadness, as many may think; it is more akin to an all-encompassing hopelessness, a failure to connect to or derive meaning from the outside world. By tapping into the experiential aspects of the video game medium, Elude’s metaphoricalmodel for depression serves to bring awareness to the realities of depression by creating empathy with those who live with depression every day. (GAMBIT Labs)

Sitting in the dark hall, the music, scenes, and up- and downward visual pull of the game quickly sent my emotions astir. This trailer gives you a taste.

Elude is designed for the clinical setting, as part of a psycho-education package for friends and family of those living with depression. As I sat imagining this play out between clinician, client and family, my mind wandered to health literacy and realized that this type of education doesn’t fit in our current definitions. According to Healthy People health literacy is “the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions.” What about the ability to empathize with others’ and their health struggles?

This has caused me to contemplate our current definitions of health literacy. Would the inclusion of empathy be too complex? Does it even make sense in the context of health literacy? As a society we certainly push for awareness of health conditions, with new awareness days/weeks/months cropping up regularly. Do we strive to understand though?

What do you think? Are we too restrictive in our definition of health literacy? Please leave me your comments and links to conversations I may have missed!

- Bridgette

Bridgette Collado is a free-lance health communication consultant and recent addition to the Pulse + Signal team. You can find her on twitter as@bcollado.

This week at Games for Health, I had the pleasure of meeting Tara Cousineau, PhD, founder and CEO of BodiMojo, Inc. Tara is a clinical psychologist and eHealth innovator. Bodimojo.com, the flagship product, is a health engagement platform for teens leveraging web and mobile technologies. When I learned about this online health community, I thought about the impact it could have on the health literacy of the teens and promptly asked Tara for an interview. I hope you find our discussion as inspiring as I did!

~~~

BC: What was your inspiration for creating BodiMojo?

TC: The inspiration for “BodiMojo” arose from the need to personalize health information and skills to the individual teenager during a time that is pretty chaotic, demanding and distracting.

Originally, BodiMojo was developed as an obesity prevention program, to motivate teens to eat more fruits and veggies and get out and exercise. But we learned quickly that those goals are pretty much non-starter with this age group!

We talked with many teenagers to get a good understanding of what mattered to them about their wellbeing and what a novel online platform might contain to keep them engaged and educated. Teens also helped us to name the program – and it’s been great to hear over and over, “BodiMojo. That’s a cool name!” And really, that’s our mission: to make health cool for teens; to make it about being your best self, inside and out. We definitely take a holistic view.

BC: What do you mean ‘holistic’?

TC: Teens’ bodies are changing throughout the high school years; their brains are in a hormonal soup and undergoing rapid cognitive changes. Think of the teens you know (orthe one you were): they can be spaced out, clumsy, moody, stubborn, ditzy, giddy, and sleepy and so on.

On the social side, fitting in is paramount. How they look and feel is centerstage. “Health” is not compartmentalized like it might be for grownups. While teens may be getting many of the critical prevention messages for high-risk behaviors (e.g.,safe sex, no drugs, no alcohol), they aren’t actually getting health information that is meaningful to where they’re at in the moment based on their current behaviors or attitudes.

BC: Health literacy is not only a hot topic in public health but also an important aspect for consuming health messages and translating them into behavior change. One’s health literacy starts to take shape early in life and is influenced by a multitude of factors. Have you approached any aspects of BodiMojo with health literacy in mind?

TC: Health literacy and media literacy is top of mind for us. The very nature of adolescence is that it is a time of transition. Teaching to the task, rather than teaching to the individual teen, is problematic because the message will only get through to whoever is paying attention at the time or who cares about the issue. For example, a high school student might get a nutrition module in gym class (if they even have PE), or a human reproduction lesson in a 9th grade biology class – that may be it over the entire course of high school! And really you have to teach health messages again and again, because a 13-year old girl is dealing with different issues than a 17-year old guy. There are many missed opportunities when it comes to health ed.

BC: What’s unique about BodiMojo?

TC: What we do that is new and different is that we that tailor health information. In their “My Page” teens can create tap into their “Health Mojo” through a series of self-assessments called “BodiMojo Snapshots.” These are customized reports in nutrition,fitness, body image, and stress. The feedback is based on gender, age, BMI and whether a teen is on a sports team. Over time we want to drill down even more, so the messages can be as relevant as possible. Teens can then set goals, track them and earn points as they engage. They can share their goals on their Facebook profiles and send themselves reminders via SMS. By personalizing the information we are helping teens to be more literate, or mindful, of their own health and that of others.

BC: The Games for Health conference was held this week in Boston and it seems gaming is gaining momentum in this space. Who designed the games on BodiMojo, how have teens responded to them and what plans do you have for additional health gaming?

TC: Our funding is from a National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovative Research grant, and we pulled together a team of programmers, designers and writers as well as health experts and teens, to create the platform. We then tested it in 4 area high schools in  Massachusetts, suburban and urban. Our results were very positive. For girls in particular, exposure to the BodiMojo over 4 weeks significantly improved their attitudes about their own body image relative to those who did not get the program (results will be presented at a scientific conference in the Fall). So we tapped into some of the issues that are important to teens, but not typically addressed in obesity prevention or wellness campaigns. From what our teens tell us we also know that under-addressed issues are sleep and stress. And if you think about it, you really want a teen to be well rested and emotionally balanced first and foremost!

We hope that tackling the psychosocial issues will then nudge teens in to making healthy decisions related to healthy food choices, physical activity, and stress management, among other behaviors. BodiMojo is going mobile next. We’re creating a mobile browser version and an iPhone app. Stay tuned. In the meantime, send teens to the site and check out some interactive tools: Headspin, Body Talk and  Mood Cloud.

BC: How are you going to promote BodiMojo?

TC: Good question! An issue that came up at the Games for Health conference was around getting research and academic inspired programs to the public and what business models could work. We plan to integrate with body sensor devices so that we can provide real-time feedback for teens. We’re set up nicely to be the “teen wrap-around” for wellness devices. Importantly, we believe that parents and caregivers will want to support their teens in taking healthy action, through a health allowance program,for instance, and through communities or schools with shared goals. We’re talking to strategic partners now and welcome a conversation with others!

BC: For those who haven’t yet checked out www.bodimojo.com, would you give them your elevator pitch?

TC: Really, the pitch is a single question: What’s YOUR bodimojo?

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You can find out more about BodiMojo at www.bodimojo.com.

Help spread the word!  Like BodiMojo at www.facebook.com/bodimojo and follow them at twitter.com/bodimojo. And while you’re at it, check out their YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/bodimojo.

- Bridgette

Bridgette Collado is a free-lance health communication consultant and recent addition to the Pulse + Signal team. You can find her on twitter as @bcollado.