Thursday, September 22, 2011

Medicine 2.0: technology transforming health care delivery

Last week I attended the Fourth World Congress on Social Media and Web 2.0 in Health, Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, also known as Medicine 2.0. This conference, held at the Stanford University School of Medicine, brought together some of the world's leading experts in using social media and mobile applications to create new ways of delivering health.

How can we use the Internet and social media to improve health as well as patient-caregiver relationships? I came away with loads of ideas to try out with mobile applications like A-CHESS that NIATx is developing.

One recurring theme throughout the conference was how much patients, no matter what their health condition, benefit from networking with others. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter have become new tools for building the social support patients need. Some other new applications that you'll be hearing about include Google + and www.patientslikeme.com.

This innovative conference also introduced me to some new technologies that transformed my conference experience. We hope to give you a sample of the same at the 2012 NIATx Summit/SAAS National Conference - next year, your Summit conference badge might also be the conference program!

It is becoming increasingly evident that our prediction is true: wireless devices (smart phones, tablets and sensors) will play a critical, even revolutionary role in health care in the future. We look forward to working with you to collaboratively set the future for our field by embracing these technologies.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Recovery Month 2011: No one should have to suffer twice

September, National Recovery Month, (http://www.recoverymonth.gov/) celebrates people in recovery and the treatment providers and support groups that help them.

For NIATx, Recovery Month underscores our mission to help treatment providers remove barriers to treatment and recovery. Recovery Month reinforces our belief that no one should have to suffer twice: first from a chronic disease such as addiction, and again by not having access to appropriate treatment.

One of our newest projects is developing a smartphone application to help people maintain recovery. Click here to watch a video about this project.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Emergency Preparedness - Do you have a plan?

Millions of Americans throughout the northeastern United States were left in the dark and flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Lynn Madden, CEO, APT in New Haven CT had a disaster plan ready to roll out. Now that the lights are back on, customers have moved back into permanent facilities and the server is up and running; Lynn and her team are meeting to discuss their observations and make improvements to their plan.

How did the storm affect you? Do you have an emergency preparedness plan? Are you making process improvements post disaster?

Share your tips for mitigating disaster.

Disaster recovery resources from inside and outside the field: