In changing behavior, ‘wanna’ works better than ‘hafta’

July 19, 2013 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/carrot-cake01.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The proliferation of apps, tracking programs and devices that promise to change your life through Quantifying Yourself and lead you to the New Jerusalem of fitness and health is fascinating in number and variety. Yet why do some apps and programs do their job of changing behavior–and others, equally well-intentioned, do not? It’s all about ‘wanna’ vs. ‘hafta.’  Tracking your caloric consumption quickly turns into a ‘hafta’ drag for most (MyFitnessPal), but if you plug into a lively online community (Fitocracy), make the app easy to use and the changes gradual, plus forgive a few lapses, the same activity can start feeling rewarding and ‘wanna’. It’s all about personal autonomy, reward and control. It may be carrots rather than carrot cake, but you’re doing the choosing. Must reading for those working to develop corporate wellness programs, sticky apps and engage users. Why Behavior Change Apps Fail To Change Behavior (TechCrunch) Hat tip to reader Sandeep Pulim, MD via LinkedIn.

Related: Our April discussion of employee wellness programs, Employee wellness: Carrot? Stick? Or something else?

An example of simplification helping to increase positive behavior–and perhaps outcomes–is the recent study of the Center for Connected Health’s BP Connect program. Mobile users took their blood pressure more often than the telephone hub/device users; these older users (median age 61!) found the mobile version both easier and more convenient in portability. Overall BP scores went down moderately. Connected Health Study Finds Mobile Health Improves Patient Engagement (HIT Consultant)

Is Saga automated lifelogging the future of memory – or just creepy?

June 14, 2013 | by

The Saga (nothing to do with the UK company of the same name) smartphone app takes journal-keeping to an entirely new level, that is without input by you. It takes data behind the scenes from your smartphone and tries to make some sense of it. For example, you visit lots of burger bars…you must like burgers (unless you are a hygiene inspector, of course). So is it, as the developer claims in the 9 minute video below, the next evolution of memory, for which we will all become grateful or is it just creepy that people would want all that activity logged automatically? Saga app website FAQ page (as the home page is very bland). Hat tip to Toni Bunting.

Doctors wild about…what works

June 10, 2013 | by

In the first half of the following blog item the author makes some valid points about doctors being quick to adopt mobile devices but that they were also quick to discover that the available apps are not much use in their work. The second half turns into a ‘knock Apple and big-up Windows 8 on tablets’ session. But then, as the author is Bill Crounse, MD, Senior Director, Worldwide Health at Microsoft, it would be surprising if he didn’t take that opportunity. Doctors wild about….. what works Hat tip to Bob Pyke.

UPDATE: related item, thanks to Toni Bunting: Health apps won’t reach core NHS patients (The Guardian). An NHS commissioner, writing under a pseudonym, also bemoans the lack of focus on appropriate apps and/or their use in the NHS. What the author focuses on is that the majority of NHS users are “the elderly, deprived and poorly-educated” and these people are less likely than most to be wielding and using smartphones.

Android app for dementia research and therapy (UK)

May 31, 2013 | by

Steinkrug, a UK based research and development company has developed an Android app for tablet-based devices that monitors users’ responses to sound and images. The technology has been designed for use in dementia research but has potential for wider applications within and beyond the healthcare sector. Whereas Google Glass looks outwards into the wearer’s environment, Steinkrug’s application tracks the user’s response to media displayed on the device. Press release: Android App For Dementia Research and Therapy.

Boys win Lego award for medication reminder robot and app (Ireland)

May 21, 2013 | by

It’s great to see young people working as an effective team in developing technology – although it is not clear from the article what the robot element does. However, isn’t it time that there was more recognition in the media that the issues around prompting and monitoring medication compliance are more complicated than just how to get the person to receive a reminder? Dublin boys win Lego award for robot reminding people to take medicines. The Journal.

Friday telehealth ‘snaps’

May 10, 2013 | by

It appears that Bayer HealthCare is exiting the telehealth business with the sale of Viterion TeleHealthCare to the newly formed Viterion Corporation. According to the press release, Japan’s NSD Co., Ltd. through its US subsidiary is providing the investment and strategic support, and taking on all products and personnel. Viterion’s offerings in recent years have remained fairly static, but the Viterion release promises a change to “advancing our technology offerings, and in particular the migration to wireless and mobile applications.” Viterion also had speakers and a booth at ATA 2013.

Mobile connectivity is now reaching everywhere. Canadian companies PatientOrderSets.com, a developer of web-based evidence-based clinical checklists to specify appropriate patient treatments, acquired fliiSolutions (pronounced Fly). Its fliiTherapy connects providers and patients through a rehabilitation/exercise prescribing/tracking app. Announcement on the PatientOrderSets.com website.

For mothers in the hospital temporarily separated by necessity from their babies in Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit, the new Baby Time iPad app enables them to check on and interact with their newborns. This will aid the estimated 20 to 30 percent of mothers who undergo C-sections and cannot be ambulatory for 24 to 48 hours. Cedars-Sinai release. (Hat tip to TANN Ireland’s Toni Bunting)

Tunstall Americas announced at ATA the introduction of its Vi telehealth/two-way PERS unit, iVi fall detection pendant and the CEL450 home-based cellular PERS, although the blog placement is rather low-key. Release.

NHS Choices Apps Library

May 9, 2013 | by

If you Google ‘NHS Apps Library’ the early results that come back after those to the library itself are predominantly from US publications. Perhaps we in the UK under-appreciate the potential benefits. The reason I mention this is that while TTA has given the Apps Library a couple of passing mentions during the past month or two, we have not – as one sharp eyed reader pointed out – given it the attention it deserves. So, by way of amends, here are some relevant links:

Mysteriously, the 12 apps recommended in the following enthusiastic US article: UK NHS launches 12 patient decision support apps do not seem to be listed in the library. Perhaps the author mistakes the BMJ for the NHS, or perhaps they are published or endorsed by a different part of the NHS…

I’ll be happy to take recommendations for links to good articles on the Library. Ed. Steve.

Report: RSM event ‘Using apps to transform healthcare delivery’

April 29, 2013 | by

Many thanks to independent consultant Charles Lowe, President-elect of the Royal Society of Medicine’s (RSM) Telemedicine & eHealth Section for the following report on the one-day conference Using apps to transform healthcare delivery at the RSM, London, 18 April 2013.

Reflecting the importance of the topic, this one-day RSM conference sold out weeks in advance. The audience confirmed the growing trend for RSM Telemedicine Section-organised events to be attended principally by clinicians, in this case mainly hospital-based.

The general themes that emerged from the event included:

The need for greater connectedness among app overseers – the different players in the UK, notably NICE, MHRA, NHS Apps Library and NIHR each have different, often overlapping, concerns about apps before they are able to recommend or approve them for use. There emerged during the day a case to be made for tighter coordination among these bodies and, doubtless, others not represented at the meeting.

Big data doesn’t respond to professional users’ or patients’ needs well – apps are a great way to make big data acceptable to users. The Consent app (ascendinnovations.co.uk) demonstrated was quoted as an excellent example.

Not everyone has to produce apps – by opening up, publishing the APIs to your data, others with the appropriate skill might be able to do the job better than the data owner.

The day began with a presentation by (more…)

Whisper of the heart

April 4, 2013 | by

Two app-related items spotted by TANN Ireland editor Toni Bunting. Connect the dots with the first to this TTA item and the second has potentially huge implications for understanding heart disease:

Related item on TANN Ireland: Gamifying meditative breathing with the Zen biosensor.

Quantified Self fail: nighty-night for Zeo

March 13, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

Brian Dolan in Mobihealthnews exclusively broke the news this morning that Quantified Self darling and pioneer (2009) Zeo has likely shut down, turning in not just for the evening but for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately for the founders, employees, investors and users, it illustrates how Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation works fast, fast, fast in the real world. Its sleep monitor/coach was perhaps too good or complex for the market, and certainly too expensive at $400. Consumers traded off sophistication and features for less expensive (Lark at $160) and better value in the wider ‘jobs to be done’ in health tracking (fully mobile, multiple activity monitors/trackers such as FitBit and Jawbone Up now include sleep.)

It also demonstrates how the ‘better mousetrap’ does not trump a (more…)

Health apps finally get a certification body (US)

February 27, 2013 | by

Happtique has now published the standards it will use to certify apps under what they have dubbed the Happtique Health App Certification Program (HACP). The published final guidelines include both the Certification Standards and associated Performance Requirements, which assess operability, privacy, security, and content. Happtique, a subsidiary of GNYHA Ventures, has also brought in initial HACP Partners to serve as subject matter experts for evaluating apps: the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), CGFNS International, and Intertek. While Happtique is not yet ready to evaluate medical, health or fitness apps, companies can register for a submission form and be notified when the application portal is opened for submissions.