Resilient Ambassadors of Change

Giddyup! Horses teaching future doctors

Jillian Ketterer — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:31:06 +0000

I wish I remembered how I stumbled upon this clip, but like so many things, it has evaporated into the ether/webulous/what-have-you.

In any event, this fun clip from NBC shows students at Stanford Medical School learning about communication and interpersonal skills from horses. Unfortunately the clip is old (2007) but it is still an interesting concept. Looks like Stanford is still offering the class, and students are still enjoying it as evidenced by this blog.

Am I smarter than a fifth grader?

Kathleen Rose — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:04:39 +0000

I didn't expect any red marks!

Nope. But hey, since I don't do the game show circuit for a living, the ability to respond to questions about obscure or not so obscure facts is not a top priority. But having the skills to ensure patient safety (especially when I am the patient or recipient of services) by preventing medical errors (more especially when you are the healthcare professional or provider of services), now that's a priority I can wrap my brain around. Health literacy, especially as it relates to patient safety, is a pretty hot topic. And whose literacy is always in question? Why, it's the patient's, of course. How refreshing to follow a tweet and find that in the UK, folks at the National Health Service (NHS) North West Strategic Health Authority think it's important to assess literacy/numeracy skills of aspiring healthcare professionals.

More on the mHealth Networking Conference

Jillian Ketterer — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:38:26 +0000

In follow-up to last week's post about the mHealth Networking Conference, I thought I'd share some of the summaries that have popped up around the web. Here they are, in no particular order:

Federal Telemedicine News: Status of Mobile Health

New Medical Schools Opening in the US

Amber Montanano — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:20:10 +0000

Today the New York Times told me that the US is planning on opening some new medical schools. In fact, they're planning on increasing the number of US medical schools by 18% over the next few years. Whoa!

First International mHealth Networking Conference (I was there!)

Jillian Ketterer — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:03:46 +0000

Last week (February 3-4, 2010) I attended the mHealth Networking Conference in DC. Sponsored by mHealth Initiative Inc (mHI), the conference was focused around the use of emerging mobile technologies to improve healthcare delivery. Here are a few themes to give you a flavor: iPhones/mobile phones/Android phones, emailing your doctor, bringing evidence to practice via electronic alerts for patients and physicians, home health monitoring, real-time everything, connectivity, usability, patient literacy, technologies for chronic care management and geriatrics.) The full program seems to still be available, and relevant Twitter posts (e.g., for the #mHealth hash tag) are also available.

e-Patient Infiltrates Medical Professional Assessment Organization

Amber Montanano — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:39:03 +0000

On January 11, we had a guest come in and shake things up a bit here. Jen McCabe Gorman gave a really engaging talk (which can be found here if you’ve got an hour to kill and feel like you could use some stimulation) about medicine, social media, and how the two can be mashed together to help you become a participant in your care as opposed to simply the object of your doctor’s care.

About Face! The MIT Media Lab assesses microexpressions

Jillian Ketterer — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:42:36 +0000

When I was catching up on posts from one of my favorite blogs, Brain Pickings, I stumbled upon this post about a software application developed by the Affective Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab. The application, called FaceSense, detects and analyzes facial gestures in real-time, and then uses that information to make inferences about the person's mood and emotional state. As Brain Pickings points out:

Patient involvement – Another public service announcement

Kathleen Rose — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:01:26 +0000

Apparently this video has been out for some time, but someone asked me today if I'd seen the AHRQ commercial about asking your doctor questions. The video really needs no explanation; it's a great message. Share it with every patient you know!

Perfecting patient care

Kathleen Rose — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:30:37 +0000

Since my last post referred to people who make healthcare better, a post on "Perfecting Patient Care" seemed appropriate. I recently made a short field trip across the great state of PA to Pittsburgh, where I learned you cannot hail a cab easily, but you can find the dedicated staff at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) doing their best to address patient safety and quality improvement, often in one patient care setting at a time.

Will the public “buy” Blippy?

Jillian Ketterer — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:51:25 +0000

Today I stumbled upon a really strong example of how certain subsets of consumers are willing to sacrifice privacy in exchange for what I'll call "social convenience". Blippy, which is just in beta and was recently highlighted in a New York Times article, is an online social network that lets you share your recent credit card purchases with your friends. I haven't actually used the service, but from the description, it seems to do this automatically in a "Twitter-like" microblogging fashion - a type of passive, social information-sharing. There are, of course, ways to restrict what is shared with whom, but in general I think this is a step in the direction of transparency. The question is: will people find benefit in sharing where they are and what they are buying (and for how much) with their friends?