Many of us know about various Bluetooth devices (e.g. headsets, etc.) that allow us to connect with technology wirelessly. Well now, Jawbone, one of the manufacturers of the headsets we know and love, has come up with a way to track our health statistics and patterns with similar technology.

Introducing the Up wristband.

Announced this morning, the wearable device is supposed to help track your activities (what you eat, sleep) as well as provide prompts to move and get active if you’re sitting at your desk for too long.

Design meets technology meets health.

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.

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

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?

~~~

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.

The 7th annual Games for Health conference began today in Boston. This conference is one of several going on now as part of Games Beyond Entertainment Week, organized by Digitalmill, Inc. and is supported by the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Today’s pre-conference line-up did not disappoint – I’m only sorry that I couldn’t attend every presentation! From accessibility to sensors, prevention to rehabilitation, medical education to research, the day was packed with awesome speakers, great design and a whole lot of inspiration. Here are just a few of today’s take-aways…

1. Gaming has the potential for application in a long list of healthcare topics.

Continua Health Alliance talked about the many health gaming opportunities, including integrative health activities, simple secondary input, chronic disease care and diagnostic gaming.

2. Incentives work.

Incentivizing gaming was a practice and recommendation across the board. Continua Health Alliance provided that competitions are the greatest motivators (the speaker referenced Partners Healthcare data not available in the public domain). Group competitions were also a hot topic – they are not only highly motivating but add a social dynamic different from head-to-head rivalry. Creativity and supplying options were also mentioned as important factors in considering incentives, for example, allowing one to apply credit to a cause, or trade it in for mobile minutes, may be more motivating than cash for some.

3. Users who share their success do better.

Bill Sabram of MeYou Health talked to this point, touting the power of connection. In Monumental, MeYou Health’s free iPhone app that “takes you to the top of virtual monuments as you climb real stairs,” users can share results with other users through social plug-ins, and these users are more successful.

Tomorrow looks just as promising! So, look for more conference coverage tomorrow on Pulse + Signal and follow the hashtag #G4H11 for live news.

–

Bridgette (a.k.a. @bcollado)

Have you noticed images like the one to the right sprouting up at every turn? I have. That, my dear readers, is a QR code, and it’s one trendy, useful piece of technology.

These 2-dimensional codes were developed by Denso Wave, a manufacturer of automatic data capture technology, and released to the market in 1994. QR stands for “quick response” and these symbols can serve up a large amount of data with a swift scan. They stand up to more dirt and damage than traditional codes with error-correction encoding. They are omni-directional (i.e. they can be read from any angle). One QR code can store 16 individual codes. And, they are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Well, perhaps not that last one. If you’re interested in a few stats on this subject, head over to Social Wayne’s blog and check out his post on the subject, complete with infographic.

To read a QR code, a scanner must be installed on your mobile phone (your phone must also have a camera). A number of scanners are available free for download. Examples of types of data that can be stored in a QR code are:

• Phone number
• Email address
• Contact information in the form of a virtual business card
• Event details
• URL
• Geo location
• Simple text
• SMS (pre-populates the number and message)
• MMS
• WiFi configuration

This list is by no means exhaustive and clever programmers are expanding the utility of QR codes rapidly. After reading this list, are you also contemplating the ways we can leverage this technology in the public health realm? Curious about how this channel is being used, if at all, by healthcare and public health professionals, I scoured the internet for examples, and when few turned up, I put out a call via Twitter with some success.

Condensing member information on health insurance forms: Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Excellus is now incorporating a QR Code that directs people to learn more or obtain more of their information via QR Code. Because a QR Code can take half of the information that previous required multiple print pages and consolidate it to a singe sheet or two they are realizing a savings on their printing costs.

Driving traffic to a mobile Website:  Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals points readers of a Uloric (gout medication) advertisement to a mobile Website.

Opt-in for reminders:  American Cancer Society.

The American Cancer Society leveraged QR code technology to drive users to a highly targeted mobile Website allowing users to sign-up for reminders about their breast cancer walk, send alerts to friends and donate to their cause.

Driving traffic to a mobile app:  Curatio CME Institute.

Curatio used the bar code to the left to drive clinicians to a mobile application of their Clinical Educator pocket tool. They used an other code on the front panel of a hematology symposium program book so participating physicians could access the Power Point slides on their mobile device.

QR Codes as an Assistive Technology

Digit-Eyes is an iPhone 3G app for the blind and visually impaired community. It makes text or audio QR Code labels you can read with your iPhone.

My hope is to see more and varied uses of QR code technology in the public health space in the near future. If you know of other examples, please tell me about them in the comments! Would also love your thoughts on how you can imagine how these lovely little codes could be leveraged for improvement of public health.

Here on Pulse + Signal I’ve covered the journey of Josh Nesbit, Isaac Holeman and the rest of the folks working to bring mobiles to global health innovation at FrontlineSMS:Medic. Whether it be through a CNN highlight, exclusive footage of their community health worker training or a Poptech write up – there is no doubt that my fascination with mHealth started with their work.

Late last month, the team decided to change their name from FrontlineSMS:Medic to Medic Mobile. The only thing that I see different is how much deeper they are affecting populations in need of revolutionary healthcare methods. Their announcement does a great job of giving insight into their journey of growth and impact. I also like how they pay homage to the platform that started it all – the FrontlineSMS product that Ken Banks put together years ago.

Medic Mobile maintains FrontlineSMS:Medic’s team, values, and mission – using mobile tools to create connected, coordinated health systems that save more lives.

Right on.