By: Kishan Kariippanon
www.youthhealth20.com
Almost a year ago today, I was soaked in a pool of
journal articles on the use of the internet and mobile technologies
by health professionals to engage with their clients and the wider
community. As I was reading various peer reviewed articles around
the specific use of social networking sites to engage with young
people, I came across the Journal of Medical Internet
Research (JMIR). The JMIR also happens to be
organisers of the Medicine 2.0 Conference series now in their 3rd
year existence.
I booked my tickets and made my way to Maastricht
to meet and discuss the use of Web 2.0 for health interventions
with like minded people from all over North America and Europe. The
foundation of Medicine 2.0 (Gunther Eysenbach - Producer of
Medicine 2.0) is made up of 5 major aspects:
Social networking
Participation
Apomediation
Collaboration and
Openness
Conference Proceedings
The venue was equipped with high speed wireless
internet. Projectors were placed in each session room to enable
tweets of the conference (#Med2) to be displayed. The tweets came
from within the conference as the keynotes and presenters laid bare
their findings and ideas for the participants to discuss. Most of
the participants were health professionals and many others were
directors, deans and managers working closely in the field of
health care provision and education.
The use of Twitter alone for the conference was
remarkable as it allowed for information to be disseminated and
discussed freely without the notion of the "expert opinion".
Twitterers who were unable to make it for the conference were able
to follow the tweets, ask questions and add to the
discussion.
Discussions were open to both strengths and
challenges of using social media to drive behaviour change and
manage chronic disease. People agreed and disagreed with each
other's findings and conclusions and this healthy debate made the
trip from Australia to Europe in 1 week, a worthwhile experience
that I am happy to share with everyone. All abstracts of the
conference are available at www.medicine20congress.com. Photographs
and slides are available on Flicker and Slideshare (see events:
Medicine 2.0).
Presentations to look out for
Dr. Bas Bloem from the Radbound University Nijmegen
Medical Centre defines
participatory healthcare (made possible through Web
2.0) as "a new approach where patients are no longer passive
objects, but become active subjects who contribute to their own
health and disease management".
Dr. Gunther Eysenbach from the Centre for Global
eHealth Innovation, Toronto, introduced the idea of infodemiology
and infoveillance by presenting data from the H1N1 outbreak,
specifically collected from Twitter. He says "Infoveillance has the
potential to not only detect
outbreaks and other public health relevant events
early, but can also help us to understand the pulse of the Canadian
public during public health emergency…"
Dr. BJ Fogg joined us via video presentation from
Stanford University with new ideas of using social and mobile
technologies to form better health habits. His Stanford lab has
created a new tool called the "Behaviour Wizard", which can help
people succeed in creating solutions for better health
habits.
Lisette van Gemert from the University of Twente
brought to us ideas from the field of persuasive technology.
Technology that allows people to remain socially embedded in
isolated life situations that prevent depression. She states that
"what is needed today is the creativity to invent useful
applications and combine the technological components into user
friendly systems to realise these applications. This means there
has to be attention for the creative use of motivational and
affective technology in the context of eHealth, like using
persuasive design principles, innovative feedback systems for
participating in the design process and smart systems for
persistence in use (triggers, goal setting, dialogue
applications)."
Dr. Pieter Kubben a Neurosurgeon from Maastricht
University Medical Centre introduced to audience "Neurosurgery
2.0". This application creates access for neurosurgeons worldwide
to discuss difficult cases and operative techniques. They can also
share videos, blog posts and readers can be notified of updates via
RSS feeds and share posts on Facebook, Twitter or
other social networks. Look for the Iphone
app!
Dr Bertalan Mesko in Hungary is running the 1st
digital literacy course for medical students in the University of
Debrecen. He hopes that through this training, future doctors will
be able to meet the expectations of e patients. He is currently
busy with his website called "Webicina" and his blog called
"Science Roll".
We also had presenters such as Leo Ottes from the
Dutch Council of Public Health to report on their inquiry into the
use of Health 2.0. They support the notion that development in this
field is underway and cannot be halted. The government must think
of how implications can be addressed and organisations need to
respond to this adequately. Marc Sprenger, the Director of the
European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention presented on the
potential of eHealth for the surveillance of communicable disease
and the impact Medicine 2.0 can have on health, health care and
biomedical research.
Conclusion
The future of Medicine 2.0 and eHealth is not free
from controversies and challenges. The learning curve that health
professionals have to adopt to meet the expectations of an evolving
society is knocking at our doorstep waiting for use to take the
next step. As we adopt a humble posture of learning, we can use
technology to benefit our clients and patients and
improve health care for all at the same time
minimising the risk of potential pitfalls.
By: Kishan Kariippanon
www.youthhealth20.com
Almost a year ago today, I was soaked in a pool of journal
articles on the use of the internet and mobile technologies by
health professionals to engage with their clients and the wider
community. As I was reading various peer reviewed articles around
the specific use of social networking sites to engage with young
people, I came across the Journal of Medical Internet Research
(JMIR). The JMIR also happens to be organisers of the Medicine 2.0
Conference series now in their 3rd year existence.
I booked my tickets and made my way to Maastricht to meet and
discuss the use of Web 2.0 for health interventions with like
minded people from all over North America and Europe. The
foundation of Medicine 2.0 (Gunther Eysenbach - Producer of
Medicine 2.0) is made up of 5 major aspects:
- Social networking
- Participation
- Apomediation
- Collaboration and
- Openness
Conference Proceedings
The venue was equipped with high speed wireless internet.
Projectors were placed in each session room to enable tweets of the
conference (#Med2) to be displayed. The tweets came from within the
conference as the keynotes and presenters laid bare their findings
and ideas for the participants to discuss. Most of the participants
were health professionals and many others were directors, deans and
managers working closely in the field of health care provision and
education.
The use of Twitter alone for the conference was remarkable as it
allowed for information to be disseminated and discussed freely
without the notion of the "expert opinion". Tweeters who were
unable to make it for the conference were able to follow the
tweets, ask questions and add to the discussion.
Discussions were open to both strengths and challenges of using
social media to drive behaviour change and manage chronic disease.
People agreed and disagreed with each other's findings and
conclusions and this healthy debate made the trip from Australia to
Europe in 1 week, a worthwhile experience that I am happy to share
with everyone. All abstracts of the conference are available at
www.medicine20congress.com. Photographs and slides are available on
Flicker and Slideshare (see events: Medicine 2.0).
Presentations to look out for
Dr. Bas Bloem from the Radbound University Nijmegen Medical
Centre defines participatory healthcare (made possible through
Web 2.0) as "a new approach where patients are no longer passive
objects, but become active subjects who contribute to their own
health and disease management".
Dr. Gunther Eysenbach from the Centre for Global eHealth
Innovation, Toronto, introduced the idea of infodemiology and
infoveillance by presenting data from the H1N1 outbreak,
specifically collected from Twitter. He says "Infoveillance has the
potential to not only detect outbreaks and other public health
relevant events early, but can also help us to understand the pulse
of the Canadian public during public health emergency…"
Dr. BJ Fogg joined us via video presentation from Stanford
University with new ideas of using social and mobile technologies
to form better health habits. His Stanford lab has created a new
tool called the "Behaviour Wizard", which can help people succeed
in creating solutions for better health habits.
Lisette van Gemert from the University of Twente brought to us
ideas from the field of persuasive technology. Technology that
allows people to remain socially embedded in isolated life
situations that prevent depression. She states that "what is needed
today is the creativity to invent useful applications and combine
the technological components into user friendly systems to realise
these applications. This means there has to be attention for the
creative use of motivational and affective technology in the
context of eHealth, like using persuasive design principles,
innovative feedback systems for participating in the design process
and smart systems for persistence in use (triggers, goal setting,
dialogue applications)."
Dr. Pieter Kubben a Neurosurgeon from Maastricht University
Medical Centre introduced to audience "Neurosurgery 2.0". This
application creates access for neurosurgeons worldwide to discuss
difficult cases and operative techniques. They can also share
videos, blog posts and readers can be notified of updates via RSS
feeds and share posts on Facebook, Twitter or other social
networks. Look for the Iphone app!
Dr Bertalan Mesko in Hungary is running the 1st digital literacy
course for medical students in the University of Debrecen. He hopes
that through this training, future doctors will be able to meet the
expectations of e patients. He is currently busy with his website
called "Webicina" and his blog called "Science Roll".
We also had presenters such as Leo Ottes from the Dutch Council
of Public Health to report on their inquiry into the use of Health
2.0. They support the notion that development in this field is
underway and cannot be halted. The government must think of how
implications can be addressed and organisations need to respond to
this adequately. Marc Sprenger, the Director of the European Centre
for Disease Control and Prevention presented on the potential of
eHealth for the surveillance of communicable disease and the impact
Medicine 2.0 can have on health, health care and biomedical
research.
Conclusion
The future of Medicine 2.0 and eHealth is not free from
controversies and challenges. The learning curve that health
professionals have to adopt to meet the expectations of an evolving
society is knocking at our doorstep waiting for use to take the
next step. As we adopt a humble posture of learning, we can use
technology to benefit our clients and patients and improve
health care for all at the same time minimising the risk of
potential pitfalls.