For those of you who may be interested in the intriguing world of genetics, my friend and insanely smart health innovator, Jen McCabe, decided to try out the promises of relatively new company 23andMe. The organization basically aims to help individuals see how their unique genetic structure may play a role in the future of their health.

Check out this link to see how it works.

Intrigued by this opportunity, Jen decided to find out for herself – check out the videos below in which she goes through the process:

How Jen Gives Her Specimen:

Analyzing the Results!

After my last post about how Walgreens rolled up their sleeves and developed a program to help community members who have been laid off with free health care treatment, I began thinking: “Who else is working on re-imagining this old and failing system of health care?” Sure enough, there are quite a few people who are investing their ideas and energy into creating.

One organization that has been creating buzz for several months is the revolutionary Hello Health. This new way of having doctors interact with their patients through new communication technologies such as IM, text and video chat, is the brain child of Dr. Jay Parkinson. Imagine not having to go through the hassle of medical insurance and actually being able to talk to a doctor about your needs. Not only that, but the doctor understands the technologies that make life easier and wants your life/visit with them to be easy as well. The image below from their site pretty much sums up what Hello Health is about -

This week, the Health 2.0 conference is taking place in Boston, MA with some great demos and speakers discussing innovations in healthcare – Myca/Hello Health is on the roster. For a glimpse into the mind of Dr. Parkinson, check out this video that Health 2.0 co-founder Matthew Holt produced on location at the Hello Health Brooklyn site.

Jay Parkinson, Hello Health from Health 2.0 on Vimeo.

Don’t forget to check out the most recent Fast Company issue where Dr. Jay Parkinson is highlighted in “The Doctor of the Future” article.

Since recently relocating to North Carolina, my time has basically been spent finding essential locations (grocery, shopping malls, Blockbuster, etc.). Between all the personal items that need to be addressed after making a move, we get a new list of items to take care of when we start the new job: benefits. Now I don’t know about you, but one of the main items related to your benefits is the medical care. Who will you go to when you are sick, injured or need a regular check up? What are the OB/GYN professionals in my area that can help me through this pregnancy? Is there are a good pediatrician in the area to take care of Junior?

These are all questions that get asked when thinking about our medical care and even more so when you are starting from scratch to find answers, like yours truly. So recently I came across something that might not only help me but many others in the search for compatible and great doctors. Vitals.com is a new service that allows you to not only search for doctors in your area, but also to rate and review them.

As you can see from the home page, you are given pretty much three choices on where to go from there:

• Check up on your (existing) doctor;
• Find a doctor;
• Figuring out what TYPE of doctor to find based on your physical ailments (NOTE: it is not telling you what your medical condition is, but helping to clarify what type of doctor to look for to treat it)

I was pretty happy to see that there were quite a few options for doctors based on your gender and what parts of the body are troubling you. So with that added feature, this definitely isn’t a one time search resource. There are other aspects of the search process that I am hoping to explore more of on the Vitals website. One thing that I think is important and probably beneficial for the site is that they are looking to create a community – you can even sign up to be notified of when you can become a Vitals community member!

Lastly, and this is the part that really hooked me into checking it out, there is a free eBook on the whole process of finding a doctor and what many people should look for when doing their research. The ebook helps readers figure out things like what kind of doctor should you be looking for, what are quality measures, what questions are important to ask when looking for a doctor and a dictionary of different doctors and what they specialize in (like “What is an Otolaryngologist and what do they do?”). You can get the eBook by going to www.vitals.com/ebook, and there is also a link to it from the main Vitals.com homepage.

Pulse + Signal may have the opportunity to interview Mitch Rothschild, the CEO of Vitals.com – would you be interested in asking any questions to him about the site or about the search for a doctor? Go ahead and leave the questions/comments in the comments field!

So now that I am doing the public health thing full time as a day job, I’ve had more opportunities to get back into the field and peruse various resources. Lately, I’ve been on a CDC-themed kick. Their website is seriously chock full of awesome resources and links to information on a multitude of public health topics. Not that you would probably doubt it – they are in fact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for cryin out loud. But in this age of embedded media and photos/videos all over the place, you have to stay relevant right? Well, the other day I uncovered CDC’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL). Now I’m not sure how many people know about it, but I sure was happily surprised to find it! I’m a sucker for visual ways to convey messages, especially in communication.

So when I saw this repository of photos, video and illustrations, my mind began to take off on how these can be used in effective public health communications (and more selfishly some of my blog posts!). Now be warned, some of the images aren’t pleseant but I think most health practitioners understand that thoughts of a historical smallpox outbreak doesn’t evoke images of a Disney movie. It’s reality. It’s what we are living with around the world. It’s public health.

As they mention on the site, the CDC wants this resource to be used by the public:

We welcome public health professionals, the media, laboratory scientists, educators, students, and the worldwide public to use this material for reference, teaching, presentation, and public health messages. The content is organized into hierarchical categories of people, places, and science, and is presented as single images, image sets, and multimedia files.

Currently, they have 4 featured collections of material: Influenza, Natural Disasters, EM (Electron Micrographic) Imagery, and Bioterrorism. On top of that, PHIL offers guidance about who can use the material – whether you are a student, PR/Communications professional or a public health practitioner, there is something in the Library that can be useful for your project or general knowledge about a subject.

So whenever you have some time, hop on over to the Public Health Image Library for a healthy dose (pun intended) of visual goodies.

A few months ago with one of my early blog posts, I highlighted a new innovation in personal computing, the Asus EEE PC. Taking one look at this small, laptop-lookalike, I began thinking about its usefulness in our personal lives as well as a practical tool for “doing good” – similar to the XO Laptop. Other than wanting poverty to be reduced and people to have quality shelter and food, I want people to be informed. Much of the questions on anything you may have can be found on the Web – I’m passionate about leveling the field and closing the digital divide and I truly believe that increasingly mobile technology can help to achieve that.

One of my Twitter buddies, Sam Harrelson, popped up on my radar as an actual owner of one of these machines. I asked him if he would be kind enough to do a review of the EEE PC and he happily agreed. Now, with all of the emerging web technology coming out every few months (literally), I asked if he had video recording capabilities because, let me tell you, I’m loving the usefulness of video these days. Lucky for me (and you) he did! Here are the questions I asked him:

1)   What initially attracted you to the EEE PC? Were there certain computing needs that you felt it fulfilled?

2)   One of the most obvious aspects of the computer is its size – what are the pros and cons of the EEE PC’s mobility (e.g. wi-fi access, portability, etc.)?

3)   Based on your experience with the computer, what sort of users do you think would most benefit from what it offers? All ages?

4)   In one of my  first few blog posts, I wrote on how the PC could be used for “good” initiatives, e.g. health communication campaigns – what do you think the possible benefits of smaller computers can have to help close the digital divide?

5)   What recommendations would you give  for anyone interested in purchasing an EEE PC?

And without further ado…

Thanks again Sam!

I’ve been really excited to learn more about how the Web and it’s growing focus on community has been impacting the realm of health education. Improving the quality of our lives through peer discussion AND the dissemination of professional information is something we need more of in the health landscape – we need to focus on the people.

And that’s what Healia Communities aims to accomplish.

You’re probably already aware of the health information search engine, Healia – this tool has been around for a while and from what I can tell, has been successful in helping individuals find what they need on topics ranging from mental health to weight management.

The Health 2.0 movement is definitely taking notice that individuals aren’t solely seeking doctors for their medical advice. There are plenty of health professionals who are better trained to actually interact with people on deeper community basis and you can find some of them on Healia Communities. This has always been a concern of mine when it comes to health information being twisted and changed – causing people to leave thinking about the wrong concepts. Experts are important, but experts that actually respond is essential, good job Healia.

The personalization aspect of being able to join certain groups that are tailored to your health interests make the site even more effective in that you don’t have to look all over the community to find what you want. Interested in finding out how to get your family to lose weight (similar to a question I put up there)? If you are part of the weight management group, you will most likely see this query and be able to quickly respond. You feel better by offering your own sage advice and the person asking the question now walks away with a smile, feeling encouraged. Win-win situation right?

Healia Communities is about what concerns you.

If you want to connect with me, I’m mindofandre in the community. Oh yeah they also blog regularly about diseases and conditions that you probably want to know about.

ReadWriteWeb also recently did a profile of other communities that deal with community members lending an ear and expertise to one another. The Web is really starting to bring people together for a common good.

So go ahead and join the conversation and meet people who are concerned about the same things you are. What better issue to be concerned about than your health and the well being of others?

Hello Blog World!

I am very honored to be a special guest on my hubby’s blog. I’m not a member of the blog world, but I see that Andre is having fun and I’m very grateful to everyone who has and still supports him.

I’m going to talk about my experience at a gym called Crossfit in Alexandria, VA. A co-worker of mine has been a member there for 6 months and has lost 55 lbs! She looks amazing. You can actually see her in action here. Let me just start off by saying that Crossfit is NOT your average gym (Gold’s Gym, WSC, etc). Navy Seals and other military groups train there, so it is definitely no walk in the park. As far as I know, there are only 2 trainers who are willing to help you push yourself and do things that you never thought you could do. Their definition of Crossfit is “a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, if not randomized, functional movements executed at high intensity.” This means that you will do a lot of high-intensity workouts in a short period of time, and you will very rarely, if at all, do the same workout twice. The key is to constantly give your body a challenge so that it will never get used to any exercise. They are not as concerned about you losing weight as they are about how you are improving your performance. For example, if you lose weight during your process, that’s great, but if you can lift 45 lbs one week and then in a few months lift 65 lbs, that’s even better!

There is nothing fancy about this gym. When you first walk in, it’s just one big room with equipment along the perimeter and a large space in the middle to actually do workouts. They also have a very large blackboard in the front where they list the specific workouts that you’re going to do and your personal time of how long it took to complete a workout. Hopefully I didn’t scare anyone by mentioning that Navy Seals train there because the trainers are very cool guys, so no one is going to be in your ear screaming at you to PUSH HARDER!!! GIVE ME 50 MORE NOW!!!!

Personally, I do not work well in an environment like that, but to them, writing your timed workout on the board for everyone to see is enough to push you to compete against yourself. This is not the kind of gym where you just walk in and do your own thing, you have to work with a trainer because they are very dedicated to showing you how to do workouts the right way, emphasizing on good posture and core strength. They’re not going to just put you on a machine and tell you to push. Anyone can do that. Most of their workouts don’t involve any machines at all.

My co-worker invited a group of girls to check it out this past Saturday. I was interested because I feel like I’m always battling with my weight. A couple of years ago my previous job started a weight club and I just decided that I was going to make a change and seriously start to lose weight. I was working out 4-5 times a week and eating very low carbs. I lost about 25lbs in 3 months. Not to put a damper on marriage, but when my wonderful hubby proposed and the wedding plans began, let’s just say the number of workouts gradually decreased, my love for burgers and French fries increased. I’ve recently started to get back into the gym, and after seeing my co-worker’s before and after picture, I had to check it out!

After a discussion of what they are about, we did a warm up (jumping jacks, stretching), then we started doing squats. This means that we did as many squats as we could in 20 seconds, then rest for 10 secs, over and over again. This lasted for about 4 minutes. After about the 2^nd set, I was ready to walk out. Unfortunately, I did more lunges than I have ever done, 2 days before trying out Crossfit, so my thighs were extremely sore before we even got started *tear*

Next, they set up about 5 different stations: squats with 20lb weights in each hand, pull ups, tire jumps, squats with a kettlebell, and the row machine. We did 2 rounds of each station, one minute per station. It may not seem too bad for those who work out regularly, but after doing regular squats first and having your legs literally feel like Jello, it was extremely hard to do the rest.

That was pretty much it, but it felt like I just ran a marathon! I’m having some trouble walking today, but I don’t think it would have been so bad if I hadn’t done too many lunges 2 days before. I seriously thought of joining, but the location would not work out for me to attend about 3 times a week. I would recommend becoming a member for those who are tired of the corporate gym experience and really want to push themselves to try something new. From the stories I’ve heard, members have gone from thinking that they could not possibly do an exercise, (“So why bother trying?”) – to eventually trying it out and actually doing what they thought was impossible. Sorry if I’ve rambled on for too long, I just didn’t want to leave anything out. I guess I don’t know the proper blog writing etiquette. To check out videos to actually see what it’s like, please check out www.crossfitalexandria.com. I was very inspired and I hope you will be too!

~Hope

Have you constantly had CNN on the tube or CNN.com as one of the permanent tabs on your Firefox browser lately? I have!

It’s been a fun ride so far, listening to what the candidates have to say to us as a country as well as to each other while they stand a few feet apart on a stage. After it’s all said and done, we will have another Commander-in-Chief who will lead our nation for 4 years.

Here at Antibio.tech, I try to focus on health issues on the personal and community levels. But when it comes to the nation’s health, that’s a big bear to tackle – it’s no secret that our nation’s health has been declining due to factors such as: obesity-related diseases, increased cardiovascular disease and a host of infectious diseases. However, I want our next President to saddle up, put on some Davy Crockett gear and make that bear say “uncle”!

One of my friends has been working with the UN Foundation here in DC to hold our next leader accountable On Day One of their term (the site is here: www.ondayone.org). The reason I wanted to write about it here is twofold:

1. Social Media is only as useful as its ability to bring change or action in the real world. Whether it is as simple as connecting with an old friend, or as complex [and important] as getting more young people to vote… social media should be a tool that promotes connections and real life action. As you can see from the On Day One site, their goal is simple and clear: send a message to the President — On DAY ONE — about which topics are the most important to address. Because the UN Foundation is involved with this site, I feel like these messages might actually make it to the Oval Office!
2. This is exactly the kind of stuff that Antibio.tech is about. Providing a solution and a cure (like antibiotics!). While the On Day One site isn’t trying to be the next glamorous Web 2.0 buzz machine, what it is trying to do is combine Web 2.0 tools with an actual purpose. The icons are pretty well designed and it seems like their beta launch has already brought in some traffic. Good design (check!) and a worthwhile mission (check!) — are you in?

So, readers and social media mavens, what do you think that the President should do On Day One? Should it be about Iraq exit strategies? Women’s Rights? Darfur? Improving out tattered image on the Global Stage? You already know what my interests are…whatever happened to people knowing about the Presidential Health Challenge? Check out On Day One and post your thoughts here/there… let’s show the world that social media is more than just for pajama wearers.