Sunday 29 June 2008

Crowdsourcing my medical data

Consider this. What if I did all the tasks for capturing my medical data? i.e. tasks that an amateur can do using consumer-affordable technology. I am thinking of the consumer profile of an owner of a mobile phone, digital camera or even a flat screen TV.

Then, could I post this medical data to a site and invite doctors or clinical technicians (or whatever they are called) -- who could mine this data to propose healthcare advice. Preventive care as well and diagnoses. The power of the network of doctors, who may have treated these illnesses in other parts of the globe, could be very valuable to me (persons posting this data). I could compensate the doctor providing this service in much the same way I would compensate my regular doctor.

It should make sense if we can solve the privacy and commercial challenges associated with this service. Useful, yes! But it shakes the foundations of the societal and commercial models we are used to. Will it work?

Sunday 22 June 2008

Visiting your doctor digitally

At the Telemedicine conference in Tromsø this year, an interesting paper was presented. Meeting your doctor using a webcam and an LCD screen is no rocket science however, the requirements of privacy and integration are critical.

Being able to meet my doctor this way would save me a lot of time -- 45 mins to be exact; which is the time I have to spend to make the detour to visit him. If I could upload my bloodtest results before I met him, it would have saved me even more time. But then again, updating my Electronic Medical Record (EPJ in Norwegian) calls for robust and flexible privacy and integration solutions. I think this is a solution that should be made available to the public. The challenge is getting my local politician to push the case and getting others to push him too.

Microsoft's Global Healthcare director Bill Crounse visited the telemedicine conference and posted this article that echoes my sentiments -- Norway can be a test bed for digital health and well-being.

While writing this post, I recalled my earlier post on using videoconferencing to improve the quality of life for digital nomads (like me). In such a scenario, I would like to be able to choose a channel on the remote and automatically be connected to my parents' TV and be able to see them and talk to them. This is the videophone we have been talking about for decades. Only thing is it is not one device, rather it is a collection of independent devices brought together by a service -- a service that a well-being service provider will offer. I hope fellow baby-boomers will be just as impatient for such solutions. After all, I would like to digitally meet my children whereever we are.

The death of distance as Frances Cairncross put it is going to be very real.

And today, for us in the northern hemisphere, the days start getting shorter. Have a great summer!!

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Accelerating health care services

As I write this, it appears that Barack Obama has won the nomination as the Democrat's presidential candidate. Whether he does what he says in his health care program is left to be seen (see my previous post).

However, the health care industry seems to be coming together in a strong way. Both the combination of health care providers and telecom providers teaming up to create use cases that set the context for solutions. Continua Health Alliance is such a forum.

Creating such use cases with consumer-citizens at the center -- or consumer-citizen centered design -- can significantly help accelerate the process of creating solutions where software and services meet. See also this post on my other blog

Microsoft is agressively building the Amalga brand. This is definitely a space to watch as they attempt to link the enterprise and online worlds (hospitals and consumer). Expect more acquisitions in the health care sector.