8 ways iBeacons can improve your health

Location-based services are heating up.

First it was check-ins (think Foursquare). That begat unique offers based on geolocations. Now Apple has taken the next step with proximity-based messages and offers — within a location. 

Image source: Gigaom

Apple installed iBeacons in all 254 of its U.S. stores earlier this month. The iBeacon system uses low-powered, low-cost transmitters to send messages to users based on their proximity (and users have the option to turn off the messages).

Here's how it works: As iPhone-toting customers walk through one of Apple's retail stores, they can receive messages about products they are standing in front of, news about events that are about to take place or even on-the-spot unadvertised discounts. 

Macy's is also testing Apple's iBeacon service and Major League Baseball said it will use the technology at ballparks this spring. And Apple is not alone, with Qualcomm recently announcing its own proximity beacons, called Gimbal.

How can these be used in health care? Here are eight quick ideas:

1. Help patients, families and visitors navigate throughout a hospital.
2. Broadcast wait times at ERs and doctor's offices.
3. Notify passers by of specials at the cafeteria or the gift shop.
4. Remind patients that the in-house pharmacy is convenient and quick.
5. Provide reminders to patients to complete satisfaction surveys.
6. Remind everyone to wash their hands (everywhere)!
7. Suggest it's time for a flu shot.
8. Notification of the urgent need for blood donors.

Your health, your data and why context matters

It's your body and your health. It's also your data. But do you know what to do with it?

That is one of the byproducts of the recent dust-up between the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and 23andMe about whether the genetic testing company can continue to sell its $99 DNA sequencing kits directly to consumers. The kits offer insights into a patient's risks for cancer and other diseases.

Here is the crux of the FDA warning, issued November 22:

FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device; the main purpose of compliance with FDA’s regulatory requirements is to ensure that the tests work.  

Four days later 23andMe posted a letter from CEO Anne Wojcicki:

It is absolutely critical that our consumers get high quality genetic data that they can trust.   We have worked extensively with our lab partner to make sure that the results we return are accurate.

This is new territory for both 23andMe and the FDA.

This is also new territory for patients. And it goes well beyond 23andMe and genetic testing.

There are two big issues here — accuracy of the results and the context of communicating these data.

Data are everywhere. Patients are getting more comfortable tracking and analyzing their own health data — from reading their own blood pressure at machines in places like Walmart to wearing fitness trackers, like Jawbone Up, Nike FuelBand or the FitBit.

But when we deliver health data that requires context — such as your likelihood to develop some type of cancer, heart disease or neurological disease — that's where analysis and guidance from trained health care professionals becomes essential.

Self analysis works well when you're tracking calories. It has worked well for decades for diabetics who track their hemoglobin because they have been instructed in what to look for and what the different readings mean.

We are moving to a health care world that is data rich. It must also come with equal doses of caution, communication and compassion so that data are meaningful, useful and actionable.

Turkey Talk topics: Health, tech & memories (with @1Password, @dnanian, @crashplan, @dropbox & @evernote)

As you gather with family and friends, take a moment to tackle three important topics.

1. Health

Thanksgiving dinner is a great time to talk about two related aspects of health that are often overlooked: what to do when you can no longer make decisions for yourself and your desires for end-of-life care.

Start by having everyone complete a health care proxy. This little document is vital to ensure that your wishes are carried out by someone who knows and loves you.

Make sure you discuss what should happen in one's final days. This is no "death panel" — it's a serious and heartfelt conversation about setting and respecting everyone's personal end-of-life care preferences.

2. Tech

Take this downtime to make your passwords truly secure.

I have been a user of the password manager 1Password for Mac since it was released and also use it on iOS. I was a beta tester during the recent launch of 1Password 4. 

1Password (and other products) allow you to create super secure passwords for every online account and manage them with a single universal password. You only have to remember that one password — hence, the name — so make that super secure as well.

If you already use 1Password, it's easy to change all those old passwords to something long, random and secure by using the "Security Audit" feature. It will show you all of your weak passwords, duplicate passwords and those you haven't used for a while.

3. Memories

The holidays are built for creating memories — memories you don't want to ever lose.

So back them up!

A solid strategy means having your data in multiple places — a regular physical backup and a cloud backup.

For the physical backup with a Mac, use SuperDuper! from Shirt Pocket software. It's simple and free. Pay just $27.95 and Dave Nanian will give you super scheduling features and, so far, lifetime upgrades.

For cloud backup, I use Crash Plan, which last year had an awesome Black Friday deal. It takes a while for the initial backup, but then works seamlessly and quietly in the background.

Also consider using Dropbox to automatically sync your photos from your smartphone (requires a Pro account).

And then organize your memories — and keep important papers handy (like health care proxies) — in Evernote. Again, the "Premium" service is well worth the upgrade.

Enjoy your turkey (I'll be having steak!). But also take care of these important tasks.

Live healthy, prevent disease with @Prevently

One of the latest entries into the "make small changes and change your health" arena is Prevently.

Our goal is to prevent a disease before it ever happens by helping users live a healthier lifestyle.

We know this can be difficult. That's why we make sure it isn't.

Prevently is a new service that is built on four pillars:

• Health articles and videos focused on prevention and wellness.
• The sale of products and devices that promote and monitor health.
• Regular telemedicine consultations with health care professionals.
• An all-in-one online personal health record.

The last pillar is one of the most interesting. The online personal health record aggregates data (such as steps, sleep, BMI, blood pressure) from fitness devices and apps, such as Fitbit, Internet-enabled scales and Prevently's own app. 

These data have a direct connection to Prevently's telemedicine offering, which will be a subscription service that allows users to chat with a doctor about their health. The doctor has access to the user's Prevently health record and can even get notifications when the user's data show that something is off.

The marrying of real-time data and notification with education, awareness and coaching will be essential to achieving population health. It still requires an engaged and activated patient — and a strong support system of family and friends — to become a reality.

Prevently promises that physicians have reviewed all of their content and products. The site sources information from places like Harvard Medical School and has a team of advisor physicians review all of the health products and devices the site sells.

Prevently is a solid idea that shows promise as a platform for patient engagement and better health.

Source: MobiHealthNews
 

Uploaded by BigFishpresentations on 2013-09-16.

iPhone, please take my temperature (with @kinsahealth)

Here's a dongle for your smartphone that could actually save your life.

Health care startup Kinsa is readying what it calls "the world's smartest thermometer" — a small, flexible thermometer that plugs into an iPhone or Android smartphone. It not only gives you a fun and graphical depiction of your body heat, but also aggregates data to show the "health" of a community, what Kinsa calls the "health weather."

Inder Singh, Kinsa's founder, was previously an executive VP of the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s program to fight Malaria and HIV in Africa and South Asia. “While I was there," Singh told Fast Company, "it struck me that if we just knew a little more about how the illness was spreading, we could do more."

The result: The Kinsa thermometer.

At the NY Tech Meetup on October 8, 2013, Singh said:

"We are creating a product that we believe will truly transform the way people care for their families. And we are creating a system where data, crowdsourced data — your data — will save lives." 

Kinsa is one of a number of devices and companies working to harness health data to help educate and prevent the spread of disease.