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The Digital Acolyte – Newsletter #22, March 5th, 2012

Google Brings Smartphone Functionality to Eyeglasses

FierceMobile | March 2, 2012

Forget having to fumble with your cell phone to look up information. Google is putting smartphone functionality into a pair of high-tech glasses, reports the New York Times.  Attributing the news to employees within Google’s secretive development group, dubbed Google X by the Times, the new eyeglasses will use the same software as Android smartphones, and be equipped with GPS, motion sensors and cameras, the Times reports…Read More

 

How Coco-Cola Monitors Social Media

SmartBlogs | March 2, 2012

Coca-Cola has more than 500 brands in 206 countries. That’s a lot of customers, and it means a whole lot of conversations.  But what do you focus on? Which conversations matter? Who’s influencing the conversation? How do you get this information to the people who can do something about it? And what tools can help you do all this?  In her Blogwell presentation, Coca-Cola’s Natalie Johnson walked through all of these big questions and shared how, as one of the most talked about companies on Earth, they’re able to learn so much from online conversations…Read More

SMS Prompts Help Patients Send Glucose Readings to MDs

Mobile Health News | March 1, 2012

Researchers from Denver Health and Hospital Authority, a medical school, found that patients with diabetes who received text message reminders and prompts throughout the week reported increased accountability, social support, and awareness of health information. The Researchers found that 79 percent of the participants responded to more than 50 percent of the prompts, according to the study’s results which were recently published in the American Journal of Managed Care. About 66 percent provided glucose readings when their care provided prompted them by text message, compared to the 12 percent that provided readings at two previous clinic visits…Read More

Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki

Dose of Digital | January 4, 2012

With a growing number of pharma companies testing the waters of social media, an intrepid few have tried to keep track of every site, YouTube video, Twitterer, Facebook page, and so on. It’s become a daunting task and no one list seems to have it all, so we created the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki.  This wiki is meant to house every Social Media project that has been created by pharma (or healthcare companies in general)…Read More

The Digital Acolyte – Newsletter #21, March 2nd, 2012

CSC consultant: Healthcare reform is driving technology growth

Fierce Mobile | February 29, 2012

Among the top concerns of health IT professionals attending the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) annual conference in Las Vegas last week were data mining and analysis, clinical decision support, the automation of chronic disease management, patient engagement, accountable care organizations and care coordination across communities, according to Tracey Mayberry, a partner with consulting firm CSC…Read More

UK wants docs to prescribe apps instead of some visits

Fierce Mobile | February 27, 2012

England’s National Health Service just announced it will encourage general practitioners to “prescribe” apps rather than actual doctors’ visits whenever possible. The core idea is to get British patients to use mobile healthcare devices to monitor and track their ongoing health status, and identify (and solve) problems before they require a visit. It’s couched as a quality of care move, but also as a money-saving maneuver for the state-funded healthcare system…Read More

UCLA researchers detect E. coli with cell-phone plug-in

Fierce Mobile | February 27, 2012

Engineers at UCLA just developed a device can be attached to a cell phone to detect the presence of Escherichia Coli in food and water. Researchers recently published their findings in the peer-reviewed Royal Society of Chemistry journal…Read More 

BYOD approach makes inroads at Kaiser Permanente

Fierce Mobile | February 27, 2012

The bring-your-own-device trend continues to snowball. After a recent report from Aruba Networks found that 85 percent of hospitals are supporting mobile BYOD, healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente admits it’s working on a BYOD policy of its own.  We found a discussion of Kaiser’s plans in a larger story at Network World. Mark Kadrich, Kaiser’s senior security architect, admits that employee demands have driven…Read More

New diabetes texting programs have ambitious goals 

Fierce Mobile | February 27, 2012

After more than a year of testing the concept of using text messaging to change health behavior, a federal/state/local partnership is taking things to the next level…Read More

Five Types of Social Media Influencers 

Social Media Today | February 18, 2012

What makes a good influencer?

“Influence” is a concept difficult to evaluate since it refers to both subjective and objective values, resulting in a measurement of…Read More 

Apple’s Jobs leaves behind a powerful mHealth legacy

Fierce Mobile | October 6, 2011

IT pioneer and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs leaves behind a host of ideas, devices and products for the healthcare IT world in general, and the mobile health industry in particular.  Just days before his death October 5, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Apple announced a possibly ground-breaking development…Read More

Apple now sifts through health apps for docs

Fierce Mobile | September 16, 2011

Apple has added an ingenious new segment to its app store–iTunes for Healthcare Professionals–with the idea of sifting through the thousands of healthcare apps, and corralling those that will be of most use to physicians and other providers, according to medical market manager Afshad Mistri…Read More

 

NICE value for public health, July 8th, 2011

For many patients, healthcare professionals, advocacy groups, politicians or the pharmaceutical industry executives, the word NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) can be a mixed blessing. Since its inception more than ten years ago, NICE has been empowered with the responsibility of evaluating a drug’s cost effectiveness, and subsequently its availability — or lack of — through the National Health Service (NHS). A negative appraisal by NICE can sound the death-toll for otherwise promising new therapies.

However, its latest initiative is likely to draw far more supporters than detractors. Working in partnership with the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) and the Department of Health, NICE this week launched a website with tools designed to help UK doctors and healthcare commissioners evaluate the value for money offered by social marketing projects that are intended to help people make healthier lifestyle choices. In addition to providing information regarding direct costs to healthcare providers, the tools provide insight into the wider financial and societal costs associated with our lifestyle choices.

For example, designers of smoking cessation programs are able to find out how much money an individual who stops smoking might save through giving up smoking, the cost to the local fire service, savings on street cleaning through reduced cigarette littering and the extent of gains to employers from reduced employee absences.

The first tool, which focuses on smoking cessation, is now online and available to download (http://thensmc.com/resources/vfm/smoking-tool). Additional tools focusing on breastfeeding, alcohol abuse, obesity and bowel cancer are due to be published soon.

So will this significant vote of confidence in the role social marketing can play in addressing public health issues, change the way in which some currently view NICE? As the organisation’s scope continues to grow and its role diversify, will NICE ultimately win the argument that it is an enabler to access rather than a barrier? Time will tell.

Presenting 200 years of history in 4 minutes, January 10th, 2011

For a great example of presenting complex data visually and in layman’s terms, watch this extraordinary video. (more…)

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