Health Espace

moving on iHealthcare neXt

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:35:14 -0500

the journey on this blog was short but inspiring enough to make me plan something bigger.

I have onto a new blog ihealthcarenext.com - the intent and the objective remains the same. Thanks for all your words and appreciation it has helped me help me further this initiative.

Look forward to keep hearing from you all.

How hospitals can benefit from their presence on YouTube

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 02:04:00 -0500

YouTube is fast gaining popularity as a reliable source of information for healthcare information. With the growth of social media and the rising people participation in treatments there is a growing movement of community marketing for health solutions. The web with all its information has also empowered patients to compare treatment, facilities, cost and learn from peers.

Kevin Silverman - vice president of digital strategy for Ogilvy, recently met the healthcare team at YouTube and reported some interesting trends in his blog post

Of YouTube’s 180 million viewers, 32% watch health videos - more than food or celebrity
Of those viewers 79% of health consumers have watched videos about their specific health condition
93% take action after viewing health information
69% conduct further online research as a result of the video they watched
And 60% interact with their doctor

This indicates that videos especially on YouTube is fast emerging as a reliable source of information for patients and thereby provides an opportunity to the healthcare providers to connect with the consumers. In my earlier post I have reported how hospitals in USA are using digital media as a prelude to the treatment of some specific diseases by providing video based information about the disease and the line of treatment and empower patients to take informed decision.

Patients with chronic diseases are always on the lookout for information and insights about their ongoing treatment, and contextually both hospitals and pharmacy companies can look to fulfill this need. As I have reported earlier there is also a growing trend of community approach to treatment with the proliferation of patients’ community sites like care together and Patients like me.

Skimming through the YouTube channels, I noticed that some of the major hospitals in India like Apollo and Fortis have channels on YouTube but all of them lack a cohesive strategy and are being used mostly as PR tool. In the interactive age that we are in, brands are viewed in the social context and user’s perception of a brand is largely influenced by the social capital it is creating.

So a presence even on YouTube needs a clear thought out strategy that should take into account social and geographical context, understanding of the users, their needs and deliver accordingly. Some quick thoughts on what I feel should be potential focus areas for a hospital’s YouTube channel

Videos showcasing treatment unique to the hospitals
Section providing general and practical tips on common diseases and epidemics like swine flu, Dengue, common cold
A dedicated section on emerging treatments option for lifestyle diseases
Stories from patients about their hospital experience

I was also wondering why hospitals needs to be so serious, Physicians do have a lighter side to them and this lighter side can help the common man to connect with the physician. The age of a traditional treatment is almost over, and we are moving towards a more participatory approach to treatment where physician and patients need to connect and share. Such light-hearted video stories can contribute to demystify the persona of a physician and provides avenues to patient to connect with the physicians.

P.S: Check the humour channel on dedicated video site for the physicians “The Doctor’s Channel”

Goverment in India opens up to private participation in healthcare

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:43:00 -0500

The healthcare seems to be finally getting seems to be getting the focus from the government in India. The Department of Biotechnology, (Govt. Of India) has invited proposals for government-industry partnership to upgrade and make affordable healthcare services available to the masses.

The initiative is designed as a Public-Private partnership on a cost sharing basis and intends to bring innovative and affordable health technologies which do not exist in Indian market. The proposal covers preventive, diagnostic, information and communication technologies and technologies having therapeutic value.

This is a welcome move by the government given the abysmally low standard of public healthcare infrastructure available in India especially in the rural and semi-rural areas. This will also go a long way in easing the process of importing practices and technologies that exist in more advance countries. This signals a change in mindset and I believe will encourage public participation in healthcare issues, opinion and developing consensus and significantly contribute to the much needed participatory approach to find healthcare solutions.

The proposal is open to both individual companies and to consortium. The details are available on the website of ministry of science & technology, Dept of Biotechnology; and the proposal details can be viewed here.

Positive Health Awards 2010

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:32:06 -0500

The Positive Health Awards 2010 will be announced across three cities in India. This is the first and only initiative in India backed by either government or corporate to honours people associated with the health industry.

The award was instituted by Dr Batra’s, a chain of homeopathic clinics, four years ago and is co-presented by Bajaj Discover. The award look to honour those individuals, ‘who have overcome serious disease or disability to lead positive, purposeful lives’. There is a category to recognize doctors as well ‘who spend their lives serving society’.

I search online for the yesteryears winners but could not locate any list either of the differently-abled or of the doctors. In fact the result showed many pages with references to bollywood personalities who have or would be attending the awards. I hope the award does stay honest to its objective of contributing to the health care industry and does not become a marketing tool.

The award schedule is as given below

Bengaluru: 16th November, 2010 at Chowdia Hall,
Mumbai: 30th November, 2010
New Delhi: 16th December, 2010 at Siri Fort

grades for health care providers

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:12:00 -0500

We have long celebrated the ‘Billboard top 100’, ‘Forbes most powerful 100’ and the best MBA institutes, but I have rarely came across the list of top 100 medical hospitals or physicians in any leading publication.

I am thinking it might have to do with Medical & health care not being part of public consciousness and being relegated to the backseat as something concerning the less privileged or the challenged class of the society.

But last decade or so health & health care has become part of the mainstream lifestyle and with rising disposable income there is a constant focussed on health care and well being. Hospitals have also evolved from being centres of remedy for the afflicted to institutes of wellness. This have not only brought a change in the way hospitals are built and managed but have resulted in people spending quality time in their premises.

I feel against these backdrop, the time have come to annually publish a list of best hospitals. In case consideration of all parameters and constrains and assigning an absolute rank is difficult, especially in a country like India, we can at least classify them into grades. This would help general people get an understanding of infrastructure and address misgivings of people arising out of misplaced expectation - expecting a specialist treatment from a multi-disciplinary nursing home.

I came across “Health Grades” a site dedicated to guide Americans to their best health care providers. The site have so far have enabled users to graded 7,50,000 physicians, 5,000 hospitals and 16,000 nursing homes and provide their rating on such parameters as trust, understanding, co-operation, time spend and wait time.

To me that’s an impressive start and a reason for physicians and hospitals to be chart busters.

practical tips for patients to avoid medical errors

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:31:58 -0500

This is a interesting video about simple but practical tips for new patients to avoid medical errors.

Top ten tips to avoid medical errors

(I have to provide the hyperlink as the site does offer the code for embedding video on third party site. I found this a little strange coming from a site that is about empowerment of patients & common man. But the content was compelling enough to be shared.)

Bill Davenhall speaks at TedMed on ‘Your health depends on...

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:22:35 -0500

Bill Davenhall speaks at TedMed on ‘Your health depends on where you live’

Geomedicine - know the environmental hazards of your place

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:15:00 -0500

Geomedicine is an emerging practise area that takes into account the enviro nmental impact on your health? On the website of esri, a leader in this space, Geomedicine is described as “ a new type of medical intelligence that leverages national spatial data infrastructures to benefit personal human health and improve the quality of the care medical profes sionals deliver.”

Bill Davenhall a leading advocate of Geomedicine made a compelling presentation on the subject at TedMed 2010. He leads the health and human services marketing team at ESRI, the largest geographic information system (GIS) software developer in th e world.

To understand how geograp hical information can make you healthy, you need to interact with My Place History – an interactive geolocation map. The web mapping application tags diseases and toxic release history to a geographical location and visually presents the data about environmental hazards you face in a specific area. My Place History is also available as an iPhone App on iTunes.

The recent incident in Delhi where a scrap dealer died after being exposed to Cobalt 60 and the recent years unorganized growth of hospitals and industries have brought environment hazards within the realm of public health in India as well. It would indeed be helpful if such information or map is made available for other parts of the word; ideally as part of WHO funded project. My Place History is currently only available for US.

(The result for New York specified as the place I live in)

hospitals using digital media to help patient take informed decision

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:17:41 -0500

As a clear sign of growth in participatory treatment, hospitals are involving the patient long before the treatment starts. The push is to have an interactive information session as a prelude to taking the patient content for the course of a treatment.

Traditionally across countries for more than a century the consent taking process has centred on conversation with the doctor and signing medical forms mostly filled with hard to decipher legalese. As Huffington Post reports, this push for electronic record-keeping is part of President Barack Obama’s administration initiative for the computer-based informed consent programs and are aimed at improving patient safety and to curb medical errors.

Interactive session takes the patient through the entire treatment procedure in interactive format, there empowering the patient with information and helping to get the mindset required for the treatment.

But perhaps most importantly it serves a dual purpose of making sure patients understand the risks and benefits, and also protect the hospitals from misdirected litigation in case something goes wrong in a process which was presumably risk prone.

Some of the companies who are contributing to this initiative

Dialog Medical - iMed Consent application
EMMI Solutions - Interactive Emmi® programs
Informed Medical Decisions - A non-profit organization

iPad, since its launch in April this year is fast turning out to...

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 06:34:00 -0500

iPad, since its launch in April this year is fast turning out to be the coolest gadgets for parents of some autistic children.

SF Weekly recently profiled the Rosa family of Redwood City, CA; and the story of their 9-year-old, Leo in an article titled “iHelp for Autism”. The 9-year old who even though has “intense autism” has adopted iPad with great promptness and show a remarkable improvement in attention span, engagement and intelligence.

To me it looks like the reactive graphical interface keep the user informed what to expect when they tap or slide on the iPad is contributing to its popularity among autistic children. Their disability to decipher complex ‘human expressions and reactions,’ test their patience and frustrates them leading to bouts of unpredictable moods.

The article lists a few iPad Apps which are assist in developing learning and cognitive abilities for autistic children. Apart from that article I came across a list of useful iPad application for Autism and Asperger syndrome and a blog published by a couple who is raising a Autistic child.

avaz - making every voice heard

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:43:00 -0500

Children with severe Cerebral Palsy will soon have an AVAZ.

Earlier this year Invention Labs have launched AVAZ - an Augmentative and Alternative communication device for children with cerebral palsy. This is a device which will help children and adults suffering from from various speech motor disabilities. The limitation of their capability has restricted their use of traditional communication tools like pens and computers but with Avaz they will be able to communicate their thoughts and mind.

It has a built-in speech synthesizer, graphical interface, touch screen functionality and adaptive text predictive software. This is perhaps a first non-PC based assistive product to have been indigenously.

Its current price of Rs. 40,000 is a fraction of what a similar device from abroad would cost and thereby makes it very well affordable to the large chunk of middle class in India.

web presence for challenged people

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 03:21:28 -0400

It good to see that the world is warming up to the emotional needs of differently able, aesthetically challenged and disease afflicted people. Of late there have a proliferation of websites that cater to the needs of the people who are destined to live with these challenges and in the process have given presence on the web to these largely ‘invisible’ groups.

The Ugly Bug Ball (TUBB) is a dating website for the “aesthetically challenged” which attracts unattractive men and women who are either “sick of all the lovey dovey dating sites” or have owned up to the ‘beauty’ challenges they face in life. During my search I came across sites for people who have sexually transmitted infection, smoking habit, diabetics or either too short or tall. There is a site for the geeks as well, if you were to consider geek as an affliction.

This is a welcome relief after the news in January early this year that BeautifulPeople.com threw out 5000 members after they posted photos “revealing that they have let themselves go,” a reference to the ounces they have added during the Christmas and new year festival season.

virtuwell

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:50:00 -0400

Virtuwell.com – A round the clock, online diagnosis and treatment of simple medical conditions have recently been launched by HealthPartners along with AKQA.

Through the website you can avail service of experienced nurse practitioners for personalized diagnoses, treatment recommendations, and prescriptions for conditions such as allergy, cold, cough and other common ailments.

It takes you through diagnosis process and then gives the recommendation including prescriptions if needed. The model looks quite helpful in the case of routine medical conditions that does not require an in-person consultation and for delivery of low cost and trusted medical expertise.

I went through a diagnosis for a presumed advance medical condition, and it suggested me to visit a nearby doctor with the message that it needs immediate doctor’s attention. I was left wondering what it the message would have connected me a database of the doctors available nearby, with a attending google map to point me to their location and a skype integration.

The first TEDMED is underway in California and is a two day event spread across 28-29th October. On...

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:02:00 -0400

The first TEDMED is underway in California and is a two day event spread across 28-29th October.

On the website the events is described as “TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone’s life around the globe.”

For me it is interesting development as a platform for cross pollination of ideas between healthcare, interactive and healthcare industry. The event have brought together some great achievers from across different walk of like. Pepsico as one of the principal sponsor of the events, caught my attention; I feel it has got to do with more than just being the health drink producer.

Carry healthcare data in your bracelet - with Lifecare EHR

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:49:00 -0400

During the period my mother was hospitalized, I realized how cumbersome it is to manage the papers across hospitals, doctors and ailments. Looks like with the Lifecare’s ‘Health Record Card’ lots of it can be taken care of. Lifecare EHR (Electronic Health Record) storage device is a program loaded on a memory stick that systematic collects electronic health information of individuals.

Like a USB one needs to plug it into the USB port, the special program then get started and them systematically display the information about individual medical history, health insurance, allergy, immunization, lab test reports, radiology images and hospital emergency numbers.

The device comes in interesting shapes of a pendant, bracelet, keychain and a card to make it user friendly. In India it is being offered @ Rs.1500/- for a family of six with complimentary data backup for life.

There a couple of areas which concerns me? Firstly it will be a somewhat difficult to get access to all medical data in an electronic format especially in a country like India. Secondly will there be adequate confidentiality in the way individual records is managed. It is estimated that close to 150 people have direct or indirect access to at least part of a patient’s records during a hospitalization.

revival of a dying art - the physical

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 05:18:00 -0400

The recent years have seen crossover across the business and professional world which have either created a new stream or have enriched the mainstream with fresh insights and innovations. And perhaps the biggest change has been in the perceived utilitarian value of design. Design was earlier thought to be exclusive domain for folks from creative stream, but lately design is being looked upon as a key catalyst for business innovation.

Recently New York Times carried a refreshing article on Dr. Abraham Verghese, a clinician and educator at Stanford. “At Stanford, he is on a mission to bring back something he considers a lost art: the physical exam” and is devoted to revive the practise and importance of physically examining a patient. “He is out to save the physical exam because it seems to be wasting away, he says, in an era of CT, ultrasound, M.R.I, countless lab tests and doctor visits that whip by like speed dates”.

“Art and medicine may seem disparate worlds, but Dr. Verghese insists that for him they are one. Doctors and writers are both collectors of stories, and he says his two careers have the same joy and the same prerequisite: ‘infinite curiosity about other people.’ He cannot help secretly diagnosing ailments in strangers, or wondering about the lives his patients lead outside the hospital”.

He strongly believes that trust and care forms the core of the relationship between patient and doctors and continues to teach the same to score of his students. He has been instrumental in developing the Stanford 25, a list of techniques for physically examining a patient that every doctor should know.

I believed he is a doing great service in bringing back the humane approach to a profession which have become more and more dependent on machines and technology. I recommend that you should take time out and go through this article.

(You can excuse me to get away from my interactive media inclination and publish a post primarily focussed on medical practise. But the very nature of the article, the designer-like sensitivity suggested for the medical practitioners and the fact that such intimate professional nuances was discussed in the public space makes it 2.0 in its intent.)

the doctors channel

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:50:00 -0400

Thedoctorschannel.com is dedicated website that aggregates video content for doctors. The site offers video educative and informative content on news, ideas and information that doctors can put to use. Quite judiciously the videos on the site are kept short and provide insights and opinions across 35 specialities. Each newscast is supposedly also available for website syndication via licensing.

The office of the website or the channel as they prefer to call it, is based out of New York and was founded by David Best and Michael Banks. Best have background in healthcare advertising and advertising with an experience of 25 years and founding member of Saatchi & Saatchi’s medical education company BESTMED.

The site has an official tie up with Reuters Health, a division of the Reuters News Agency owned by Thomson Reuters and is the leading provider of daily global breaking news on the pharmaceutical, medical, and consumer health sectors.

Google Health

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 06:39:22 -0400

Google Health, the health system platform from Google was re-launched on a month ago with new features and integrates a cardio training mobile app and an online platform to manage health and wellness data.

In its new avatar it will organize all ‘health and wellness information in one place and provide graphs to track your weight loss goals, and enable you to create custom trackers for wellness issues like dietary habits, daily sleep, frequency of exercise, pregnancy or even how many cups of coffee you drink a day’.

But what caught my attention was the privacy and authorization disclaimer that I was made to sign as I logged in. Services like this will make us rethink about our approach to accepting online friends, granting permission to share information and force us to raise our sensitivity towards privacy issues. You can read the complete privacy policy here

taking healthcare online

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:56:00 -0400

Carrying forward the Healthcare 2.0 string from my earlier post, I have lately come across many a web-based service which falls under its ambit.

These online solutions are either designed to facilitate collaboration between doctors and patients, make it easy for doctors to manage their practise or empower patients with information or tool to know more about their treatment. Some key ones are listed below.

NoMoreClipboard: NoMoreClipboard is a secure, online, easy-to-use tool that helps you compile, manage and share your medical records.
Practice Fusion: web based, secure and free electronic health record management suite
Sermo: largest online physician community in the US, a platform to collaborate on difficult cases and exchange observations about drugs, devices and clinical issues
Webicina: This is a patients-as-partner model at work as the imitative aims to help physicians enter the web 2.0 era and empowered patients find medically reliable content online for years.
Online care anywhere: Web-based software platform for which enables doctors to themselves available for online and phone consultations at any time, from any location, and for as long as they choose.
Curetogther: An online inititive to empower patients with information about more than 600 medical conditions. You can check your symptoms, choose treatment, track your progress and connect with peers.
Keas: Online platform to record your health data, choose a care plan and track your progress means to be as healthy as possible.

iTraycer was recently launched as an ‘iPhone/iPad app to...

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 02:57:00 -0400

iTraycer was recently launched as an ‘iPhone/iPad app to help hospitals and clinics track medical devices and other products on hand. Developed by Medical Tracking Solutions, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based firm and it is said to provide on-the-go mobility with a simple, easy-to-use interface’. Read the full press release.

I have checked on the iphone app store online and it seems it is still make its debut on the store.