I know many of you are not keen on being overloaded with a bunch of “Health 2.0″ news. You just want to hear about things that effect your day-to-day existence with diabetes. Gotcha. Nevertheless, it’s useful to know what’s happening in the “health revolution” outside our D-community. You might be surprised.
I spent a significant amount of time on the topic this week, at the Health 2.0 
Conference here in SF. (Here’s a nice new article reminding us what Health 2.0 is, btw).
Once again, I heard a lot of talk about the importance “patient-centeredness,” amongst dozens of demos of online tools that 1) looked awfully techy and sometimes hard to use, and 2) didn’t always appear to put patients’ real-life needs front and center. But still, many interesting new ways to use technology to track and improve our health are on the horizon, no doubt!
I also helped to moderate the one and only Patient Panel at this two-day conference. The panelists, which included patient advocates Trisha Torrey, Gilles Frydman, Jen McCabe, and “ePatient” Dave deBronkart had these important points to make:
- doctors and health technology vendors currently think about doing things to patients or for patients, but not WITH patients; this needs to change
- the notion that only medical experts alone generate valuable information, which patients simply consume, is fundamentally flawed; patients can and do add a great deal of value
- patient social networks and blogging communities need to be more integrated into the healthcare system
- in this entire national dialogue about healthcare reform, there’s simply not enough patient representation!
I think this was an important discussion to have, in front of about 900 experts in health, healthcare, and health technology. Halllloooo, from us patients!
Among a large batch of online health tools I heard about, I’d like to highlight a few, which are not specifically designed for diabetes care, but are interesting nonetheless. You might find something here that could come in handy for managing some aspect of your or a loved one’s heath:
* The Carrot – an extremely popular web site and iPhone app that lets you “track your life.” It offers more than 30 “health and lifestyle trackers,” plus “on-the-go access to all tracker histories, photos and journal entries, and the ability to search for nutritional information, medications, symptoms and more.”
* Polka – a new, somewhat similar app for daily monitoring of various health parameters including medications, pain, weight, blood pressure, etc. – “or anything on your mind” via the web or iPhone app. Logging can be either kept private or shared with your doctor, nurse, family, friends, etc.
* American Well – an “eHouse call” service that allows live, face-to-face video consultations between physicians and patients. The technology matches up the patient with a physician. Their Online Care system is currently offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii and Minnesota, OptumHealth (a business of UnitedHealth Group) and TriWest Healthcare Alliance.
* Kryptic – a site that connects physicians with each other and their patients, via what is “essentially a sophisticated secure email system that moves data between more than 30,000 physicians.”
* MedSimple – an application that collects data from patients, translates it into ‘doctor speak’ and then assembles it for both the patient and doctor. Practically, this means you’re prompted to fill out health questionnaire that before your doctor visits, so your provider has all the right data in advance. The aim is to save both you and your doctor time, and allow you to focus on the health issue at hand rather than the paperwork and data collection.
* PharmaSURVEYOR – a site that promotes drug safety by profiling the risks of various medications and potentially harmful interactions. They claim to “go beyond traditional drug interaction checkers” by matching patients’ symptoms against the drugs they take to pinpoint the source of discomfort and/or side effects.
* Kinnexxus – A caregiver coordination and communication site that calls itself a “senior ecosystem.” It’s a networking platform designed so that “caregiving tasks can be shared among friends and family and professional care providers so that the senior’s needs are addressed in a well-coordinated manner without overwhelming any individual caregiver.”
* Eliza – a system that uses the good ‘ol telephone in novel ways to engage people in their own healthcare. They’ve created state-of-the-art speech recognition using “natural language” to enable automated phone calls to patients to check in on their conditions, or remind them about their meds, for example. As annoying as this may sound, the CEO says “we’re respectful – we don’t call during dinner.” The company rakes in annual revenue upwards of $25 Million, she says, so they must be doing something right.
I was also delighted to be part of the live demo of the new Keas platform yesterday as well. Just a reminder that you can pre-register for the DiabetesMine Keas Health Account Plan here (available next month).
“Doctors and health technology vendors currently think about doing things to patients or for patients, but not WITH patients; this needs to change.”
Amen and we are on the front of that curve. The Atlantic had a good article on power to the patients that made an example of the insulin dependent community and speciffically the diabetes online community as leading where health care needs to follow.
WoHoo for us! Patients Rule!
I posted a link on http://www.YDMV.net but you save yourself a click and go direct: http://tiny.cc/qVVPD
Somehow I screwed up posting a comment. That takes tallent. Maybe not a good one but a certain tallent none the less.
“doing things to patients or for patients, but not WITH patients; this needs to change.”
There is an article in the Alantic that speaks to this and put insulin depenednts on the front of the curve and the DOC too. Go US! I up a link off http://www.ydmv.net but you can go direct to The Atlantic: http://tiny.cc/qVVPD
Great article! I am so glad those representatives were communicating on patient’s behalf. I have not needed a doctor for my type 1 diabetes for many years (which i don’t necessarily recommend, mind you) and have found out (often the hard way) that we diabetics are capable of learning all the ins and outs of insulin and the pump and how our diabetic bodies respond to exercise and different foods. All of us patients should become experts in our own diabetes and own the responsibility. Then we should communicate our experiences with doctors and use their guidance and medical expertise to tweak our control. Doctor’s need to view us more as partners whom they can learn and gather information from. Together we can work towards an increase in better diabetes management for millions of diabetics and an increase in understanding by the doctor’s who serve us.
Wow! We couldn’t agree more with this and it’s why we created patient centric software. It’s EXACTLY why RememberItNow! was created.
Our founder, Pam Swingley searched in vain on the internet for a solution that could help her manage her father’s medications, and keep her family updated on his care.
With no results and a lot of frustration, Pam decided to create RememberItNow! Our service features medication reminders and the ability to create a private care community.
Check out our website at: http://www.rememberitnow.com
Or, check out our review from PC Mag: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2352488,00.asp
PC Mag has also said, “Most people would probably make better use of RememberItNow because it’s more intuitive to use, easier to share with others, and better serves caregivers.”
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353392,00.asp
Best,
Alex Bettencourt
Very informative…
“…patients can and do add a great deal of value…”
Ya think? Without us, doctors wasted 8 years of their lives…sorry, I was feeling sarcastic this morning!
Some of these apps sound great. As long as they don’t add too much hassle such that they take away from healthy habits. I keep a simple daily log of my morning blood sugar, and what I did for exercise. By eating mostly raw and vegan I don’t feel a need to chart calories etc, as my weight is good. Every 6 months I go in for a checkup and blood tests.
That works for me, and each individual must find what works for them and will keep them motivated!
To Your Health!
James Reno
I couldn’t agree more with the four points from the Patient Panel discussion. I’m looking forward to seeing how patients become more integrated into healthcare and become a valued part of the healing process. I personally believe there is amazing power in patients sharing info and personal experiences with others and supporting those who have the same diagnosis. There is such comfort in knowing that you are not alone in facing whatever challenges may come. Sometimes the physician is not able to provide the comfort and reassurance that another patient can provide to someone who is facing a new medical diagnosis.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
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