Intent is the new demographic – What the Mobile Web Means for Health: Jane Sarasohn-Kahn highlights how people use the mobile web and how that translates into action for the health world. [healthpopuli.com]

Behavioral Economics and Public Health at TED 2010: Paul Tarini of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio reflects on a talk he enjoyed at the recent TED event. Check out Paul’s thoughts on competitions for health innovation in an interview I did with him. [rwjf.org]

GE Healthcare Introduces the Vscan: GE unveils the world’s smallest portable ultrasound device! Below is a video (also on the link) of the Vscan in action – [medgadget.com]

Fighting Cancer with Social Media: A great story of hope and community during a tough time of illness for a young child. Reminds me of my interview with Angela Current not long ago. [newsfiresocialmedia.com]

Architecture and the Human Condition: A look at changing where we live for better health from noted architects, Arakawa and Gins. [aribra.com]

One Small Change campaign on Tumblr: It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department – I wanted to share the link to their Tumblr (a microblogging platform) page for their One Small Change campaign. A great way to continue on the momentum!

When Awareness Isn’t Enough: Great post by my friend Alex Bornkessel looking at the reasons why awareness building often times falls short of effective behavior change campaigns [fly4change.com]

Instead of waiting until the end of the week where I may or may not have the time to wrangle up various links, I’ve decided to put them together in a bundle whenever I come across a few great resources!

New York Focused On Curbing Salt Intake: “Now Mr. Bloomberg has called on restaurant chains and food producers to lower the amount of salt in their products by 25 percent over the next five years. The goal is to reduce the incidence of high blood pressure, a major contributor to heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease.” [NYTimes]

What’s the Point of Health 2.0?: Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet Project brings up an important conversation topic surrounding the Health 2.0 movement (make sure and read the comments!) [e-patients.net]

Communication Focus in Healthcare 2.0: Great video illustrating the evolution of what’s been happening at the nexus of social media and healthcare

Can you believe the year 2010 is just a few weeks away? I almost feel like I should be the owner of a hoverboard or something…

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give – Sir Winston Churchill

• Best Buy Now Offering Personal Health Technologies
  • Best Buy announced today that 40 of its stores in the U.S. have begun offering personal health solutions devices like pedometers, Bluetooth-enabled weight scales and blood pressure monitors.
• How Healthy (or Unhealthy) is YOUR State?
  • Is Vermont healthy because of the awesome Ben & Jerry’s ice cream?
• Smokefree Wisconsin Debuts Report on Race and Menthol Cigarettes
  • I did a report on this in college and glad it’s still a topic of discussion. Interesting research and observations here.
• 5 Healthcare Ladies to Watch
  • So glad that these ladies were profiled as to what they are contributing to the health conversation. A few of them are good friends of mine and it’s always great to see your friends shine. Keep up the great work!

• FrontlineSMS Sets the Record Straight
  • I’ve talked about their impact on mHealth quite a bit but here is a post that clears up any question as to what these talented mobile pioneers are focused on doing
• Playnormous Nominated as Marketer of the Year
  • Really proud of the work (interactive health games) that one of my favorite companies has been doing – apparently so do others! Please spread the word if you’re in Houston to get them the award!

Is it just me or is 2009 very quickly coming to a close? Here are some links to close out October.

• Josh Nesbit joins the FrontlineSMS team officially
  • “Josh was the original inspiration behind the creation of targeted FrontlineSMS communities of practice when he started applying the software in health, making him the ideal candidate for what we’re calling the FrontlineSMS Ambassador Programme.” – K. Banks
• Interview with new mHealth Alliance Executive Director
  • From the MobiHealthNews blog, an interview with the Exec Director of the mHealth Alliance
• Parents Throwing Swine Flu “Parties” to Improve Kids’ Resistance?
  • I wish I was joking – of course it’s a bad move!



• Pew + Robert Wood Johnson Foundation develop Health Impact Project
  • “The Health Impact Project will promote the use of health impact assessments to incorporate health into decisions made by sectors—such as transportation, planning, education or housing—that do not traditionally focus on health outcomes.”

• The Persistent Impact of Poverty for Health
  • Health Populi’s Jane Sarasohn-Kahn writes on the high cost of poverty and how it affects the nation’s health
• The Triangle area is focused on global health
  • Right here in North Carolina, Sabine of Science in the Triangle highlights the area’s dedication to improving health around the world

Photo Credit: PreciousKhyatt

August swiftly coming to an end. Sheesh.

Be true to your work, your word and your friend.

Henry David Thoreau

• Dr. Francis Collins – New Director of the National Institutes of Health
  • Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project
• Humana’s Grant Harrison and the B-cycle Bike Sharing Program
  • The cross-impact of transportation initiatives and public health from my buddies over at Humana
• Twitter Creator, Jack Dorsey Endorses The Extraordinaries
  • Big props to the great team over at The Extraordinaries for their hard work and social change movement!
• Interview with Whitney Ping of HopePhones
  • The mobile health initiative that I heavily support gets some love from my friend James through an interview with their Director of Partnerships
• Disease Diagnosis with a Mobile Phone?
  • Continued mobile innovations in the public health space
• Social Media’s Promise for Public Health
  • The most wonderfully talented Susannah Fox sheds light on the burgeoning movement towards social technologies in public health – these insights come from the recent CDC Health Communication, Marketing and Media conference

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them. — Alfred North Whitehead

• How much do you trust health information online?
  • Always something to think about regarding the new ways we are gathering information for our health – kudos to NIH for the Wikipedia venture
• Alabama workers to get charged for being overweight
  • Desperate times call for desperate measures or a bit over the top? What do you think?
• It Takes a Community to Solve Obesity
  • New CDC Director brings some really good information on the impact of community health to be a glowing solution in the fight against obesity

• Richard Branson and Disease Prevention in South Africa
  • The charismatic entrepreneur does it nicely with investing into a disease control hub
• Swine Flu and Megacities
  • Author of Blood and Milk blog discusses the impact of the H1N1 virus on large cities

Weekly Links Fridays have returned. Enjoy

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

Norman Vincent Peale

• How to Talk About Global Health Without Boring People
  • Global health blogger from Change.org, Alanna, drops some knowledge on speaking intelligently on the subject
• Isaac Holeman of FrontlineSMS:Medic interview
  • One of the passionate team members behind the mobile health technology driving change in rural countries gives us a look
• 5 mHealth Start-Ups that Received Funding in 2009
  • An interesting lineup of devices
• How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains
  • NYTimes article on what makes us nom nom nom
• Why Are Southerners So Fat?
  • TIME article on reasons why the South is in trouble with obesity might not be what you thin

June is flying by isn’t it? Happy Father’s Day weekend!

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

- E.E. Cummings

• Top 10 Most Creative People in Healthcare
  • Fast Company includes Healthcare in their ongoing Top 10 listings
• Los Angeles Unveils New Campaign to Fight STDs
  • The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is offering free in-home testing kits through a new mail-in service.
• Congress Passes Tobacco Regulation Bill
  • President Obama: The measure would “protect our kids and improve our public health.”
• Health on the GO
  • More coverage on the rising use of cell phones in health care
• Americans Say Disease Prevention is Top Priority
  • Huffington Post article on a recent poll indicating how Americans feel about disease prevention (aka…Public Health!)

Welcome to June! Some great links from this week…

We have too many high sounding words and too few actions to correspond with them. – Abigail Adams

• Leveraging Social Media for Healthier Communities
  • A great downloadable report corresponds with this article from Booz Allen Hamilton (which has a great team headed by Steve Radick)
• Harnessing the Web for Public Health Surveillance
  • New England Journal of Medicine article on digital disease detection
• Winners of the Design for  Better Health Competition Announced
  • Competition designed by Ashoka Changemakers and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Weight Gain and Eating at Night – Mythbusters
  • One of my favorite health games blog, Playnormous, uncovers the truth behind the myth
• Craigslist founder highlights great work of AIDS.gov
  • The team at AIDS.gov have really stepped up and done great things through new media