H. Hampson's List: Health 2.0

• On December 6, the Disruptive Women in Health Care blog launched a new initiative, Health in Place (HIP), to help reframe how people maintain their health. A broad concept, HIP aims to help people of all ages – and across the wellness spectrum – rethink health maintenance.<br /><br />HIP has assembled a board comprised of experts from within and outside the healthcare field – from healthcare, technology, telecommunications, housing, travel and others – with the aim of developing an “incubator for innovation.” The goal of the incubator is to address health challenges in unconventional ways that tap the potential for technology to reshape how and where individuals receive and maintain health.

WIRELESS TRACKING IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT<br />One of the earliest examples of a wide-scale deployment of wireless patient tracking in a large urban ED was at Albert Einstein Medical Center, in north Philadelphia,

The primary benefits of the iPad pilot include instant access to information, the ability to share data and images with patients and family at the bedside, and secure, wireless, remote access to EMRs.<br /><br />Based on extensive interviews with Ottawa Hospital physicians, nursing directors, and IT managers, “The iPad Revolution at The Ottawa Hospital” supplies thorough documentation on the Ottawa iPad pilot, details the planning and decision-making processes, and explores the path forward for tablet-based mobility in large hospital settings.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – TELUS Health Solutions has announced the acquisition of Wolf Medical Systems. This acquisition will create a new line of business within TELUS Health Solutions called TELUS Physician Solutions. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

I am certainly in favor of modernizing health care, but I think we need to catch our collective breath as we rattle off our demands for innovation within this field. Can we address the inherent aspects of good medicine that inevitablly impede change? Will an accounting of these aspects improve the application of new technologies?<br /><br />A more charitable culprit for medicine’s resistance to change: the unacceptability of mistakes.

Grand Rounds is a summary of the best health care writing online.  It features stories, opinions and analysis from doctors, nurses, patients, researchers and administrators, as well as journalists.  This edition features health care technology blogs from industry experts.  I explored the web searching for blogs that I feel are worthwhile to read.  If your submission was not technology related, it may be featured in a future post.  Thank you for your time.

Health 2.0 (as well as the closely related concept of Medicine 2.0[1]) are terms representing the possibilities between health care, eHealth and Web 2.0, and has come into use after a recent spate of articles in newspapers, and by Physicians and Medical Librarians.[2][3] A concise definition of Health 2.0 is the use of a specific set of Web tools (blogs, Podcasts, tagging, search, wikis, etc) by actors in health care including doctors, patients, and scientists, using principles of open source and generation of content by users, and the power of networks in order to personalize health care, collaborate, and promote health education.[4] A possible explanation for the reason that Health has generated its own "2.0" term are its applications across health care in general, and in particular it potential in public health promotion. One author describes the potential as "limitless."[5]

Journal of Medical Internet Research

At the recent mHealth Summit 2011 in Washington DC, one of the main themes was bringing healthcare home to the patient.  Mobile technology would allow remote monitoring and communication of results to the healthcare team.  Patients would be empowered to play a major role in their own care.  Below is a short video of  Dr. Joseph Kvedar,  Founder and Director of the Center for Connected Health.  Dr. Kvedar's work entails the use of mobile technology to take healthcare out of traditional medical settings and into the home.

As social media continues to permeate nearly all aspects of the healthcare landscape, its growth as a medical practice tool is rapidly changing the face of medicine. Change of any kind brings with it both positive and negative outcomes. The number of physicians choosing to integrate social media and mobile computing devices into their practice protocols is steadily increasing; yet a considerable number of holdouts have reservations about utilizing the still-fledgling tool of the digital age.