I recently posted about the unveiling of Jawbone’s Up wristband – which is aimed at helping individuals keep track of their behavior and hopefully improve health. Well, my gadget-loving friend Greg Ng quickly snatched one up and created a quick video review of his first impressions of the device.

Check it out:

The following is a guest post from Elizabeth Brotherton of PreventObesity.net reviewing day 1 of the recent Childhood Obesity Conference held in San Diego, CA. More photos from the event can be found on their Facebook page. See here for Part 2 of the review.

Aside from First Lady Michelle Obama, there aren’t too many famous folk working to reverse childhood obesity. So when Sam Kass, the handsome White House assistant chef and key player in Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, gave a keynote speech to kick off the 6th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference in San Diego on Tuesday, he drew quite the crowd.

And some of Kass’s remarks came as a bit of a shock to some in the audience.

Kass spoke before a packed ballroom of 1,800 or so attendees, talking a lot about Let’s Move!, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new “MyPlate” food icon and proposed federal principles guiding companies to advertise only healthy foods to kids. But Kass also told the crowd that for real change to happen, private sector companies and corporations must be involved.

Chef Sam Kass

“This issue will not be solved unless we engage and really work with the private sector,” Kass said.

Kass’s comments came after an audience member suggested the administration work to ban sodas from hospitals, which she compared to allowing patients to smoke. While Kass didn’t dismiss the suggestion, telling the crowd local communities should make decisions that are right for them, he urged people to keep a broad perspective when looking at reversing obesity.

“This issue is not caused by one drink,” Kass said. “It isn’t.”

Those remarks seemed to shock some conference goers, many of whom are working to limit access to sugar sweetened drinks, especially in schools. But it didn’t squash Kass’s warm reception, as dozens of people swarmed him after his speech, including many people who wanted a photo with the dashing White House chef.

Kass also, it turns out, has a bit of a bromance with Robert Ross, president and CEO of the California Endowment. Ross explained in a speech that when he first came to the White House to talk about childhood obesity a few years ago, he planned on meeting with top administration officials. Instead, he was told he would meet with the chef.

“You want me to go see the cook?” Ross recalled saying.

But Ross and Kass hit it off, and Ross even joked, “I don’t know if it was a man crush…”

“We connected,” Ross added. “This guy was not just a cook. He had a passion and a vision.”

Other notes from the conference:

• Those proposed food marketing principles Kass mentioned in his speech have been the talk of the conference, with panelists urging conference-goers to write to the Federal Trade Commission to comment on them. The deadline to do so is July 14 (PreventObesity.net actually has an easy way to submit comments to the FTC)

• Being an obesity conference, there are plenty of opportunities for conference-goers to engage in physical activity during their trip. Exercise and yoga classes, power walks and runs are being sponsored every morning, and physical activity sessions are being led by fitness experts during the day. There’s also a hilarious sign posted next to a set of elevators urging people to take the nearby stairs instead.
  

  Say No to the Escalator

• Technology-wise, a lot of emphasis is being placed on the use of GIS mapping to track various issues related to obesity. One group in California, for example, shared in a conference session how they used the technology to find out where women who were eligible but not receiving the Women Infants and Children (WIC) funding were living. After they mapped that, they opened WIC clinics in those areas to better reach those communities in-need.
• Dozens of young people also are attending the conference, and several shared their personal stories at a session held Wednesday morning. One high schooler is working to bring fresh, clean water to her campus, while others are using photography to get the word out about everything from unhealthy nutrition to food deserts to the importance of local gardens. 

   

  —————————-

  Elizabeth Brotherton is a senior writer and editor for PreventObesity.net. She is tasked with creating original content for the project, including on its blog and weekly newsletter, The Inside Track. Brotherton previously wrote the “Heard on the Hill” column for Roll Call and has written for a number of publications, including the Orange County Register, Press-Enterprise and the Almanac of the Unelected.

The following is a guest post from Kristi Miller Durazo, conference attendee & health innovation advocate. Read more about Kristi after the post.

[Image: Games for Change]

Games are the “Hot Ticket”, right!? Everything is a game. Just add a game to that and we have a solution…or, do we? As I consider the intersection of my experiences at Games for Health and then last week at Games for Change, I note some common patterns emerging, but some major evolutionary differences in the spaces. Both are excellent venues for exploring the progress, status and the future of games that share a societal benefit. While that “benefit” may be personal (which is the premise of almost all “health games”), increasingly it is social and far more reaching in its potential in terms of broad policy and in societal change. I don’t think, especially in traditional health, we’ve taken the next steps in how we view games. Here are my personal observations:

• Games aren’t new. Games are embedded in our past, our present, our future. Card games, board games, real world games like tag and capture the flag have been around forever. Now, however, we have three generations who have played electronic games, interactive games, now mobile games. Gaming isn’t new. The technology, the scalability and the intersection with other media and social forms is advancing.
• Games are a part of a bigger whole. Games can serve as a platform for awareness, engagement and action, but not in isolation. As one speaker at Games for Change noted, you can’t just throw content at kids (or grownups, I add). Games can be a “scaffold” from which content can hang. Find the Future is an example highlighted this week that takes the “content” message from the NYC Library and meshes it with a game as part of a “bigger whole”.
• Games tell stories. Games that truly have the objective of “change” have a narrative. As Ken Eklund (@writerguygames) shared his in story about stories… “where beautiful fiction and reality resonate there is “suspension of disbelief” in which we become engaged in the experience” ELUDE from MIT has been highlighted at a number of conferences as an immersive story experience within traditional video game dynamics. Pulse + Signal also covered Elude during the Games for Health conference. Even in mainstream, mass market games, stories are key. Speakers pointed out that many kids are learning more history in “Call of Duty” than they are in school. EVOKE uses a graphic novel as the channel for telling its story. But the storyline, regardless of channel is critical.
• Games are about experiences. Increasingly, games are part of a greater “transmedia experience” that immerses the players through film, art, narrative, play and social interaction. ITVS has long been a leader in the transmedia space. Their new initiative around Women and Girls 2016 (photo via @devonsmith) incorporates a wide range of media, including games into their work. America 2049 also uses design, storytelling, games and transmedia to engage players on multiple levels, taking “Facebook Game” to an entirely new place. Community management is critical at keeping the experience alive and evergreen.
• Games can be simply executed. Simple mobile platforms make game play ubiquitous regardless of technology. In the developing world where more people have phones than running water, simple interfaces like IM, SMS and IVR are the channels of choice. However, the power of the story and the social interaction remain critical to success.
• Games are social and dynamic. Increasingly, games will be more… active, mobile, global, collaborative, networked, interdisciplinary. In remarks by @natronbaxter regarding lessons learned in EVOKE: “In the future, games will be designed for mobile platforms with access points for the web vs. the other way around.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean “there’s an app for that.” It’s less about being on 24/7. It’s about being “just in time” available when and where I want it. In EVOKE, players even went outside the game to “riff” on the experience. From creating wikis to embedded librarians who provided deeper resources into the game play, the social interface outside the game developed on its own.
• Games for change needs networked expertise. As @DouglasCrets commented during the conference, “the big lesson right now is that it’s not important to be THE expert. It’s important to be the person with a network of experts.” Devon Smith extends that thought: “Nobody has the expertise across game design, funding and social impact, so partnerships are abundant.”

As we move forward in the health space, I’m struck by the words of Dr. Martin Seligman in his keynote remarks at Games for Health: well-being is so much more than the absence of disease or unhappiness. If we combine that thinking with the big thinking coming out of Games for Change, we can create a new landscape for health not only in the US, but worldwide. Where is our EVOKE, where is our America2049? To paraphrase Seligman, where do we “Flourish”?

———————–

Kristi Miller Durazo is the Senior Strategist at the American Heart Association. In her work, she explores innovative opportunities to integrate health into the paths of people’s everyday life and examines trends that will drive our world 5, 10, 20 years from now. Her current focus areas include investigating the role design of built environments influences on health, solutions to aging in place challenges, the role of gaming and game theory in health and socialization and health. Kristi also worked with Jane McGonigal who created CryptoZoo for the American Heart Association. CryptoZoo is an alternative reality, real world urban play game and winner of the 2009 ComeOut and Play Festival’s “Best Use of Narrative” award. Her views here are expressed on her own and not those of the AHA.

You can find Kristi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/krash63 or on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristimiller63

This is a post that my friend/colleague Fran Melmed of [context communication] wrote recently, dissecting Georgia’s media campaign around childhood obesity. I really enjoyed how it was broken down and wanted to share with you all – with permission from Fran, of course (who by the way, enjoys lowercase writing).

the georgia children’s health alliance has taken a lot of grief for this campaign. the links here are a smattering of the hue and cry. the campaign originally consisted of billboard ads and a website with four personal narratives. the billboards have been pulled and so has one of the videos.

i’ll be honest; i don’t like the campaign. i’m going to break down why in this post, because dissecting this campaign offers valuable lessons for employers working this health puzzle.  i’ve included the billboard ads and one of the four videos. i wanted to include the one from bobby, but that was pulled. rightfully so. i review why in “message” below.

your face here?

health awareness is not promotion

one of my issues with this campaign is that it’s a health awareness campaign, not a health promotion campaign, the difference being that one makes you conscious of something and the other helps you do something about it. stealing from the world health organization, health promotion is “the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health.”  awareness campaigns have knowledge as the end result; promotion campaigns: action taken.

what works

even though i don’t think this campaign works as a whole, i don’t want to shortchange the fact that (most of) the videos do. the kids are emotionally naked. they bring you into their world, and it’s painful to be there. most grown-ups watching this video—parent or not—would want to do what they can to alleviate their pain.

what doesn’t work

now for what doesn’t work and what i think would’ve fixed it. i’m breaking down my reasons into three buckets: tone, message, and location (or channel).

tone. there’s a vast difference between the tone of the billboard ads and that of the videos. the kids break your heart. they speak about their pain, about being ostracized, about their illnesses in stark terms. the billboard ads use punchy lines and common jokes, like having “big bones,” to make a point.

how it could’ve been fixed: stay true to one tone—the tone that’ll appeal most to the audience you’re trying to reach. the alliance has been a little wishy-washy on who that audience is, but most of us would agree it’s parents. the genuine tone of the kids is the one to stick with and carry through to the billboards. it has the emotional pull and resonance the billboard text currently lacks.

message. with any communication, your aim is to leave your target audience with one clear message about what they should think, feel or do. consider the “it gets better” project. it’s name is its message, and the message is carried through every video as well. here, it’s unclear what the main message is. parents could feel shame, sorrow, inadequacy. as to what they should think or do? that’s left to their own invention.

(note: bobby’s video was pulled and replaced with this awkward one. here are my planned comments on that video which features bobby talking about his love of donuts, his hiding of chips so he can eat them later, and his vegetable disgust. “a separate issue is bobby’s video. i parenthetically added ‘most of’ when talking about what works about the videos because bobby’s stands out as being different. he talks of his love of food. of donuts and chips. i’ve no doubt he loves these things. most of us do. but in a campaign about childhood obesity, his testimony seems open to ridicule. its message validates the person who already believes solving obesity is as simple as telling someone to put down the donut. this video may be meant to show parents their food choices matter, but it’s a poor, misplaced choice and makes bobby vulnerable.” obviously, others turned up the heat on the alliance and they pulled the video, which would’ve been my suggestion as well.)

how it could’ve been fixed: kill the glib, dire billboard text. replace it with a combination of the kids’ real words and a new tag line. i’d play around with something we parents hear regularly from our kids:  “mommy…daddy…help me.” one billboard could read something like: “mama, help me: i want to play outside. stopchildhoodobesity.com.” not only would this approach play to our role as supporter, nurturer and steward, but it makes it clear that parents need to step up and learn how to prevent and reduce obesity and its many related problems. the idea needs work, but a clear call to parents to help their kids live a full, happy, healthy life might be a more persuasive technique.

location/channel. bj fogg explains effective behavior change as putting hot triggers in the path of motivated people. what he means is that we need to seize opportunities when someone shows a readiness to make a change. we need to allow them to act right then before the moment’s gone. you could argue that the billboard is a hot trigger, but we have no reason to believe that someone driving down the road is specifically motivated to tackle his or her child’s obesity problem. nor does driving down a road constitute a very good opportunity to take action.

the second breakdown here is that anyone who’s triggered to visit the stopchildhoodobesity site won’t find much. it features the videos of the four kids, a brief video on georgia’s childhood obesity statistics and an invite to join the conversation on facebook. there’s no support here. no guidance. no resources. no links. that’s coming in a previously unmentioned phase two and three, according to a recent interview given by ron frieson of the alliance. if you do visit their facebook page, you’ll find a stunning lack of involvement from the alliance. it’s been taken over by haters and others, including a representative from the CBS show the talk, who’s hunting them down for comment, i assume.

how it could’ve been fixed: don’t rely solely on one channel. billboards may be right for georgia’s culture, but there are significant shortfalls with their use, including fighting for attention in a cluttered air space. add channels that are relevant to and can springboard your audience to guided action. for example, ancillary materials shared with doctors, health clinics, community centers and schools bring the subject closer to the desired audience at a time when the information can be combined with personal discussion.

create a social strategy and follow through on it. the campaign’s use of facebook, twitter and youtube is ill-thought-out and poorly executed. they had an opportunity to reach out to the community, to rally discussion, to pull in people who’ve been there and can advise, nudge and empathize. instead, they’ve ceded the facebook page to the individuals commenting on it instead of engaging them in conversation, and they’ve let their youtube and twitter page languish. the obvious fix is: don’t take the easy step of using the tools and miss the hard, first step of planning.

these are my opinions, and these things can be subjective. a young woman who was part of the campaign eloquently spoke out about how her confidence grew because of being part of this campaign. what are your thoughts?

——————–

Fran regularly blogs on wellness/health in the workplace and health communication initiatives. She is the co-founder of the #co_health Twitter chat, a monthly chat on corporate wellness topics. You can follow her on Twitter at @femelmed.

What exactly is a “code-a-thon” you ask? Well, I’m not computer science wiz but according to the Health 2.0 Code-A-Thon DC website:

…bringing together developers, designers and raw data sets to build exciting new applications and tools for improved health care. Developers, designers and other stakeholders are given an overview of health care issues, tools and data sets, and are asked to creatively design new tools for the health care space. Developers are encouraged to use OpenGov data sets as well as private data sets to create their application. At the end of the day, developers present their application to the group, and the best solution is awarded.

In a nutshell, people in the Washington DC area (and another event taking place in Boston this week) got together and built applications using public data to improve healthcare. Although I wasn’t able to attend and cover what was going on – my good friend David Hale (info about him below) was able. He recently wrote his thoughts down about being an observer and I knew I had to get them over onto Pulse + Signal. David’s musings really hit the nail on the head for me when it comes to innovations in health. We can bring together the greatest minds on the planet, the savviest technical people and the most passionate changemakers – but what good is it when the very people who need these things are nowhere to be found? Don’t get me wrong – this is a fantastic way to get new things moving. I just wish colleagues I know from local public health departments or communication agencies were more privy to what was going on. What if they had questions on how they could use these potential tools for their work on the ground, serving the needs of the community?

I digress, check out David’s thoughts and let me know what you think:

——————

Last Saturday, the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge code-a-thon took place at Georgetown University.

I should state up front that I didn’t go to code, participate in any particular project, or to specifically push data related to my work.  My goals were to observe, learn about how government health data can and is being used by individuals and groups looking for innovative solutions to health challenges, promote awareness of open data to which I am connected, and of course, network.  It’s not uncommon for me to attend an unconference or similar event and not actually attend any sessions.  I find the hallway meetings to be extremely beneficial.  Events such as this are often when discussions occur which simply wouldn’t happen if they had to be organized with the Scheduling Assistant in Outlook.

So now that I have somewhat disqualified myself, here are my impressions of the event.

The words that seem to sum up the event are "exciting mix."  First you have people like me, who spent more time in hallway meetings than in the planned event.  Second, in addition to open development time, there were pre-planned speakers on relevant topics, such as CMS.

There were pre-planned projects as well as those organized that morning.  HHS CTO Todd Park referred to the health sciences researchers in attendance as "free agents," adding his belief that the winning team with be one who engaged them.  After the morning speakers, there was a "free agent" list posted outside the main meeting room door, next to the list of teams and their topics.

Logistically, the event went smoothly.  The internet connection was fast and consistent (it is a major university  after all).  Coffee and other drinks were always available.  There wasn’t actually a "lunch time."  After the food arrived, everyone ate at their own pace.  Facilities were excellent (again, it’s Georgetown University).  There were a number of classrooms and workspaces available.  Smaller private areas were available, of which I made very productive use.

Two areas in which I see the opportunity to expand the event’s impact are virtual participation and digital footprint.  It would have been helpful (even for on-site participants) to have a wiki where information was collected about the teams, their projects, and progress.  At an event focusing on open data, this adds transparency and accountability to the process.  Perhaps there could have been an event reporter who function was to collect this information from the teams and post it on the wiki, freeing the teams, who were already working at a frenzied pace, from this responsibility.

This next comment is not really directed at the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge.  It’s the question I always ask.  Where were the communities?  Where were the representatives of the persons and communities for whom these innovative solutions were being created?  There was no lack of experts at the event: physicians, researchers, developers, etc.  These are individuals who know their "customers" well.  There is, however, no substitute for having real citizens, patients, and caregivers participate in the development process.  Also, community health providers would have been a great addition.  They should be "baked in" to these processes.  Bringing communities in and giving them ownership of the process is key to success and positive impact.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about MAYA and BlueMeter, the first as second place teams.  My personal favorite wasn’t the fanciest app and didn’t make the data do the craziest trick.  It was an iPhone app that quizzed users on data drawn from health indicators.  Correct answers unlocked discounts from retailers, such as athletic wear or dining.  The team of two (yes, only two!) built a working prototype and demonstrated it.  Watching their presentation, I knew they weren’t going to win.  It was too simple compared to the other complex ideas being presented, some of which were presented more as a proof-of-concept, than a vetted system.  The organizers came over to this team after the winners were announced and expressed their admiration for their accomplishment.  This is where I think we need to be a little more DC and a little less VC.  Or at least more like a VC who sees the benefit in funding a small project that accomplishes a single task well.

My final question is the same I ask at every code-a-thon.  How many of these projects and apps will launch, or have a positive impact through other processes?  Apps don’t have to launch a start-up to be successful.  After all, the group of developers from the Great American Hack-a-thon who built a Facebook game from Pillbox’s data, decided to not launch.  They did however, post all of their code (including wrappers in multiple languages and a Facebook pill ID app) on github.

The end goal isn’t apps, it’s solutions to challenges that create a positive impact.  That isn’t a destination, so much as a direction in which we are all blazing exciting trails, learning and sharing together – researchers, public health agencies, developers, advocates, citizens, and everyone in between.

——————-

David Hale is the project manager of Pillbox, a National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health/Food and Drug Administration patient-safety initiative. Pillbox has restructured government pharmaceutical data to create a platform for innovation, promoting the development of resources and applications that empower and enable communities to solve challenges related to drug information and identification. Known as a technology entrepreneur in government, Mr. Hale is a frequent speaker on the subjects of open government, community engagement in the process of opening health data, and social media.

Today was a big day for the World Health Organization (WHO). More streamlined and organized. Social media. Clear look at top stories. This is what the hopes were behind the redesign of the WHO website from what I read in the paragraph. However, there are some things that have got me puzzled:

• I would have liked to see some sort of expansive image (maybe a rotating image featuring countries involved in global health activities) in the top banner where the WHO symbol is – a little bit too much white space?
• There are so many great images that the WHO has shown me over the past few years, I would have liked to see that more prominently
• I don’t see social media anywhere above the fold (where you first see the website) or…even below the fold. Wasn’t that mentioned as part of the upgrade?
• The statistics across the middle section highlighting the Millennium Development Goals probably could have been illustrated better with a rotating image somewhere instead of just…text.
• I know there are links to multimedia at the bottom but maybe highlighting it on the main page rather than just through links?

Overall I’m happy that this large and influential organization took some time to think about a redesign for their visitors and those who depend on their information (and those with a fascination, such as myself) for improving the public’s health. Maybe there will be some tweaks in the near future.

Just my quick 2 cents. What do you all think of the redesign? Do you regularly visit the WHO site? Why or why not?

Pulse + Signal is taking part in the virtual book tour Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer are doing to explore concepts from Open Community: a little book of big ideas for associations navigating the social web. In this post, Maddie and Lindy answer a few questions for our readers. 

P+S: What prompted you to even begin looking at the connection between social media and associations?

Maddie:  Actually, Lindy and I both independently started blogging a few years ago; her blog was about association marketing (she worked for a association marketing agency), and mine was about association management (I was COO for a small healthcare association) – and we both started talking more and more about social media and how associations could benefit by trying these new social sites where their members were.  We met online first, then started speaking together on the subject of social media for associations, then eventually launched our consulting firm – so this connection has been what we’re all about since the beginning.

Lindy: On top of that, we grew up professionally in the association industry – and associations’ lifeblood is community (through networking).  We knew associations could achieve great things with social media if they only figured out how to translate that real-life, face to face relationship building to online community-building.

P+S: What are the main 3 challenges you have seen regarding associations and social media adoption?

Lindy:  Associations, like any other company or organization, have gone through a stage of fearing the perceived loss of control (of their messages and branding) that comes with social media.  And they have long-standing internal hierarchical structures which don’t allow for just any employee to speak for the organization.  Those are the first two challenges I’d choose, although slowly but surely as social media adoption grows we’re seeing less of the first "fear" challenge.

Maddie: Agreed. The third challenge – which we are seeing a lot of right now – is in figuring out the internal process and framework for doing social media work – in other words, who’s going to lead a social media team, who should be on the team, how will they communicate what they hear on the social web, how will they put in place escalation procedures should something fall under "crisis communications" – all of this infrastructure building is what associations are struggling with right now.  Most of the associations we talk to all the time really want to incorporate social media, but they get stuck on who’s going to manage it and how.

P+S: With associations that have several different affiliates or local levels (such as where I work at the American Heart Association), social media management can be a bit of a daunting task. Do you have any top level suggestions?

Lindy: We actually talk a lot in the book about the concept of the "ecosystem" – any open community will be messy, will have push and pull between the organization’s homebase website, for example, and it’s outposts (such as Facebook or LinkedIn).  The messiness, as you’re experiencing first hand, only increases when you start adding chapters and components, who will each have their own homebase and outposts….

Maddie: So the key is to invest your time and energy into making sure your entire open community knows what you as an organization are trying to achieve (your mission, in other words), and giving them the tools to help you do just that.  Making it easy for people to share the right information.  Making it easy for people to collaborate in the ways that they want to, but to find each other through you.  Really a lot of the book is about how to do this! 

P+S: Do you have any examples of associations doing well with social media?

Maddie:  We’re going to be cheeky here….

Lindy:  …and tell you that we are going to be collecting case studies of organizations who are putting into action the concepts we discuss in the book.   We’ll be sharing them through our book website (www.opencommunitybook.com) and we hope that if any of your readers are doing interesting things with social media and online community building that they will share those experiments in the comments.   We very deliberately did not include any examples in the book – we wanted people to be able to immediately start reading through the lens of their own organizations and asking themselves how particular ideas might work for them. 

P+S:  Despite what many pundits may mention about the "end of.." a given social media platform, I feel there are plenty of people and organizations still struggling to understand why social media is important. What do you feel will be the main takeaways from the book?

Maddie:  Honestly, I feel that the whole purpose of the book is to answer that very question.  I think the answer gets far too easily lost in the deluge of information online about all the latest tools and tactics – and in those discussions we might forget the essential reasons why we’re doing this in the first place.  It’s about building relationships, it’s about people and how they want to interact with organizations in this digital age, it’s about aligning business objectives with new technology, it’s about changing individual behavior, changing traditional internal structures, and changing organizational culture because these changes are becoming essential in order to flourish in a fast-evolving business environment.  That’s not so much a takeaway though – that’s just truth.

Lindy: Hehe – well by coincidence, I wrote a recent Book Tour post for Thanks For Playing on the top five takeaways from Open Community – see what you think!  We can’t wait to talk more to you, Andre, and your readers about how you’re building your open community online.

Thanks so very much ladies for dropping by and shedding some light on the new book and what it’s all about! If you’re in an association and want to find out how to best dive into social media and build great community – this is the place to start!

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!