IBMers and Friends on Networked, Patient-Centric Healthcare:
Electronic Health Records, Health Information Exchange, Clinical Transformation, Biobanking, etc.
In addition to the Smarter Healthcare widget seen here in the right column, we've developed other widgets on key Smarter Planet topics that you are welcome to add to your site, page, or blog, or share with your contacts and network. Simply copy and paste the embedding code that works for your site.
We've also made these widgets available as Facebook applications. Please feel free to put these to work and enable our community to function as a social media catalyst.
I've been busy working on the launch of IBM's Smarter Planet mega-strategy, which seeks to help the world build the next generation of intelligent infrastructure for everything from transportation and energy grids to supply chains and complex systems such as healthcare.
To that end I've set up A Smart Planet on Tumblr (which I like as a more spontaneous and multimedia approach to blogging) and just wanted to share a couple of examples of how this smarter planet meme, which intersects with fronts such as wireless sensor systems, ubiquitous and wearable computing, as well as the promise of marrying this new "Web Wide World" to powerful supercomputing, presumably delivered via cloud-based services.
I just added to examples of how the "Internet of Things" -- trillions of devices, sensors and smart objects -- relates to healthcare innovation.
For example, Bodymedia has developed different wearable products to help people manage their weight and overall health. Similarly, Intel just announced a laptop-style device for connecting patients and caregivers electronically.
Of course, these are only representative of the deeper meaning of how Smarter Planet can address healthcare challenges with new computing and innovation models across many different fronts, such as using social networks for biosurvelliance, or mobile phones for natural disaster alerting and response.
In fact,it's pretty clear that the future of healthcare is deeply connected to a blend of technological and intellectual innovation, and I will try to rededicate and refocus Healthnex to reflect this direction.
I'm amazed almost daily by the growing power of social computing. One of my Australian colleagues who shares a passion for all the new possibilities of the Web 2.0 world and virtual innovations is Jasmin Tragas, who also writes the inspiring WonderWebby blog.
We also collaborate and stay connected via instant messaging, Twitter, virtual worlds and shared social bookmarks. In fact, Jazz was able to share a post by VeeJay Burns in the MindBlizzard blog:
If anyone needed further proof that Healthcare 2.0, ehealth or whatever you want to call it is coming, one need only look at the major push that the good folks at Google are making on this front:
Dr. Shreeve's effort at defining Healthcare 2.0 is just about a year old, but it's a very worthy effort. I'm reblogging it here to advance the collective effort at building some consensus around the intersection of healthcare, social networking and Web innovations. There are excellent alternative sources for defining Health 2.0 on the Health2.0 blog Jack
"In that vein, I have attempted to capture, the quintessential characteristics of the emerging movement and body of companies that make up the Health 2.0 movement.
"The graphic is self-explanatory, but the narrative is helpful to see how the pieces build on each other and work together to bring the concept of Health 2.0 into focus. Here goes:
2. Realize that Health 2.0 is all about Patient Empowered (not the misnomer "Consumer Directed") Healthcare whereby patients have the information they need to be able to make rational healthcare decisions (transparency of information) based on value (outcomes over price). In the Health 2.0 paradigm, everyone in the healthcare process is focused on increasing value for the patient.
3. Realize that Health 2.0 is absolutely reliant on interoperability of health information. Everything from the Personal Health Record (PHR), to the Clinic Health Record (CHR), to the Enterprise Health Record (EHR), to the National Health Record (NHR) must be based on standards, be seamlessly transitioned between environments per standardized security and privacy protocols, and be accessible anytime from anywhere.
5. As more information becomes available as a result of increased transparency, there will be a wave of innovation at all points along the full cycle of care (see slide 8-12), which includes phases where health care service providers Educate, Prevent, Diagnose, Prepare, Intervene, Recover, Monitor, and Manage the various disease states. Measuring someone's HgA1c or Ejection Fraction does not tell you how effective their diabetic or cardiovascular treatments have been. You need to factor in the care provided over the full cycle of care to appropriately determine value.
6. An increased amount of personal health and outcomes information will create an ongoing role for infomediaries and related services providers to add value at each stage of the full cycle of care. These value added Health Advisory Services (more later) will offered by hundreds of companies, in thousands of forms, to millions of people who are can benefit from the remixing of medically related information. It is easy to see how the new Web 2.0 framework, with its inherent social networking and collaboration tools, will make this "long tail" of medicine a "value"able venture.
These concepts are worthy of further discussion and debate, particularly since we are blazing new territory without any established rules, patterns, or procedures. Shooting my canonical representation of Heath 2.0 out into the ether is the proverbial "shot out of the canon" to stimulate the conversation."
What they've built is an innovative 3D environment to help people experience how healthcare is being revolutionized by enabling health information to be deeply networked and easily exchanged.
To visit the island in Second Life, simply search on "IBM Healthcare." The island was also developed with an innovative HUD, or heads-up display, to help visitors navigate their experience.
Electronic healthcare is also about evolving toward a system more focused on patients, not technology. To that end the IBM Virtual Healthcare user experience begins with the patient in the home, where a visitor can create a facsimile of their Personal Health Record (FYI: More than 150,000 IBMers in the U.S already have access to an electronic version of their healthcare data.)
Visitors can then see how their personal, electronic health records can securely interact with the other major parts of a connected, interoperable ehealthcare system: doctors' offices, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, etc.
The island is debuting as part of the HIMSS 2008 conference, one of the world's largest healthcare events.
Here's a bit more on how the island will serve as an interactive simulation of eHealth:
Visitors can then walk, fly or use "transporters" to visit the various
island stations:
-- The Patient's Home: In the secure environment of a private home, patient avatars can initiate a PHR and populate it with their personal health characteristics and clinical history, accessed and downloaded from physician EMR data. They can also establish privacy and security preferences as well as health directives. The ground floor demonstrates secure messaging with health systems and activates the initial PHR. Using a transporter to move upstairs, patients use home health devices to take weight, blood pressure and blood sugar readings in the privacy of a bedroom, further incorporating this information into the PHR, which is shown on presentation screens. -- The Laboratory: This stop offers laboratory and radiology suites to help avatars extend their understanding of the benefits of HIE. Here, patients can check in at a Patient Kiosk and have blood work and radiology tests performed. The use of EHRs -- revealing only appropriate portions of the PHRs -- shows how consumers can also benefit through cost and time savings. -- The Clinic: Patient avatars transport or walk from the Lab to the Clinic, where a welcome from their primary-care physician awaits. A combination of scripting and information screens supports simulation of a patient exam, after which an electronic prescription is generated, and the continued development of the EHR is explained on nearby screens.
-- The Pharmacy: Here, avatars can check in at a Patient Kiosk that simulates the verifying of drug information. They then receive their prescriptions and update their PHRs/EHRs with new medication data. The HIE architecture demonstrates how use of PHR/EHR technology can prevent consumers from purchasing medications that are contra-indicated given the medicines they presently require, as well as alerting them about potential drug-to-drug interactions. The PHR/EHR is again updated. -- The Hospital: In this futuristic, three story structure, avatars arrive for a scheduled visit with a specialist. Physicians' offices, patient rooms and exam rooms are all simulated here. -- The Emergency Room: Avatars can chose to experience a virtual emergency by "touching" a specially scripted control. This engages a medical episode and a ride on a fast gurney directly into the private and secure emergency treatment area, where a special screen is programmed to reveal the full incorporation of the PHR to ensure proper treatment.
Let me start by saying while I prefer elliptical and treadmill trainers, I hate stationary bikes, spinning classes etc. I don't even much like riding a bike in the real world.
But I did find the Expresso virtual cycling experience compelling, and offer it as an example of where 3D technologies may play a bigger role in healthcare by turning gym exercising from a chore into a game.
Gyms and healthclubs already have many kinds of displays, including plain-old-television, integrated into workout equipment to distract or entertain people will they burn some calories and raise their heart rates. What was refreshing about the Expresso experience was the way in which I didn't just feel distracted, but more immersed in the activity, like I was actually riding a bike through a beautiful park at sunset.
In fact "Bliss Park" was one of dozens of scenarios that I could choose to ride through.
I could really see how this "exergaming" approach might lend itself to other scenarios, like turning a stairmaster into a mountain climbing adventure or an elliptical machine into a cross-country ski mini-vacation.
I'm sure that some people's reaction to the idea of virtual worlds workouts will be: why not just go ride a bike in a park, climb a mountain or run in the real world? To that understandable reaction I've got two thoughts. First, I prefer to run on a treadmill than actual streets or parks.
The treadmill really compels me to keep moving, and allows me to count the calories and heart rate, while actual running requires me to convince myself to keep picking them up and putting them down.
Of course, its also about the value of something like the rush of mountain climbing or skiing, without the travel, time and expense of the realdeal. (Though I'll stipulate that there's nothing better, in my view, than a great day of realworld skiiing.)
Second, there seems to be something about simulated reality that tickles our brains. Just look at the breadth and depth of electronic, multiplayer games. In fact, there is something about the game-like, playful nature of electronic experiences that may be the real secret sauce here.
I grew up playing all kinds of sports--ice hockey, baseball, football, basketball, skiing, tennis, windsurfing, rock climbing-- and like most kids the impetus was the fun of the game itself, not the exercise or health benefit that I might derive.
As an adult I've been faced with the reality that working out is a necessary evil...the work you need to do to stay healthy for one's family and one's economic well-being.
In the final analysis, I'm hungry for anything that can turn exercising back into a game. Back into fun.
And I that score, I think Expresso's virtual cycling experience (which can also become a kind of competitive, online multiplayer experience as well) feels to me like the shape of much bigger things to come.
One of my new year's resolutions is to cross-fertilize the myriad professional interests I've accrued in almost four years with IBM, including virtual worlds and 3D technologies, social computing and Web 2.0 trends, and of course, healthcare innovation via new technologies, models and practices.
So I hope I'm not wildly late in pointing folks to the very timely and important new initiative by Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, the Health 2.0 blog, Facebook group and wiki.
Here's an excerpt from the launch post in November, 2007:
"Welcome to The Health2.0 Blog
Since the Health 2.0 conference in September, the blogosphere has exploded
with hundreds of blog posts from people all over the country and world. Among
the myriad thought-provoking pieces on Health 2.0 have been contributions by
Esther Dyson at the Huffington Post, David Kibbe, Brian Klepper and
Jane Sarasohn Kahn defining Health2.0, Amy Tenderich on DiabetesMine, Scott
Shreeve on healthcare FICO scores, and many, many more. There’s been
posts in lots of countries and several languages. Plus the opening video has
been reposted and commented on in several places (usually with great
compliments, but not always!)
Given the bits and pieces of interesting conversation on the Facebook group,
the Health2.0 wiki, THCB and more, we decided to create a forum for our diverse
and emerging community to convene and deepen the conversation. So with great fanfare…."
I hope I can encourage my IBM colleagues involved in both healthcare and related fronts of networked collaboration efforts to become part of this critical conversation. And will definitely strive to focus HealthNex in 2008 in this direction.
It's quite amazing how fast new fronts like this emerge...it was only a year ago that John Sharp of eHealth had taken the initiative to produce an eSession for HIMSS 2007 on Web 2.0 implications for healthcare. I was so swamped with 2.0-related work that my own contribution to the presentation was meager.
In any event, congrats to Matthew and Indu, and in the spirit of leveraging mass collaboration, I hope that all interested in this front will contribute to the blog, join the FB group and be part of what should become a true innovation movement.
My colleague Jeff Gluck continues to share some great video content on YouTube. This clip details several promising technology trends, including how medicine will benefit from the intersection of electronic patient information and 3D or virtual medical avatars.
Communications and strategy expert specializing in smarter planet, virtual worlds & 3D Internet, social software and networking, Web 2.0 and collaborative innovation, healthcare information technologies,corporate strategy and communications, nanotechnology commercialization
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