With non-communicable diseases (NCDs) killing two-third’s of the Earth’s residents — not malaria, HIV or other infectious diseases — the World Health Organization calls lifestyle-borne chronic conditions a “slow-motion catastrophe.”

The solution for addressing this global challenge isn’t just about deploying more doctors and medical technology in hospitals and bricks-and-mortar institutions. The real health reform is about infrastructure-independent care and feeding that bolsters peoples’ health where they live, work, play and pray, as characterized by the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin in the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 2011.

Today I’ll be participating on the eHealth track at the J. Boye 2011 conference in Philadelphia with a host of innovators in the online, mobile, and (yes) hospital space who are all part of the growing patient-focused health ecosystem. My context-setting message is that “health is everywhere,” and that access to nutritious food, walkable streets, engagingly designed products and devices for self-tracking and connecting health are at least as important as that annual well visit to the doctor and an inpatient stay at a hospital.

A big message of the eHealth track will be the issue of trust: trust and authenticity are the precursors for health engagement when an individual chooses to do so with an organization. A multi-stakeholder group of presenters will share their experiences on how to engage patients and clinicians in co-creating health:

  • Margarethe Harbo of Denmark’s eHealth Portal will describe how Danish health citizens now have access to a core set of health data that is bringing greater transparency and engagement between patients and providers.
  • Brett Shamosh, Founder and CEO of WellApps, will talk about his experience with Crohn’s Disease which led him to innovate the GI Monitor, a mobile phone app now available to help patients manage gut disorders.
  • Dr. Harm Scherpbier, Chief Medical Information Officer of Main Line Health in suburban Philadelphia, will talk about how his health system is deploying electronic health records and evangelizing meaningful use among clinicians and patients.
  • Anthony Gold, founder of Healthy Humans, will talk about how his organization is engaging clinicians and patients to co-create health information and wisdom through innovative, engaging technology.
  • Tim Armand, co-Founder of Health Union, will dive into his organization’s website, Migraine.com, which is bringing together patients and physicians to crowdsource experience and knowledge around head pain.
  • Richard Singerman of TrustNetMD will talk about the role of technology for enabling hospital/physician collaboration.
  • Unity Stoakes of Organized Wisdom will explain his portal’s evolution and how it has become a trusted source for many health citizens and clinicians.

The J. Boye organization, based in Denmark, is a world leader in bringing together technology-focused professionals across all industries to share best practices, experiences, and lessons learned. Their winter conference will be held in Aarhus, Denmark, in November 2011.

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  What’s so refreshing about the J. Boye conference is its ethos of sharing: people come together from all industry sectors, including and beyond health, to go beyond demo’s and into reality of disruptive innovation — which always involves mistakes, mis-steps, and practical advice. On the eHealth track, we’ll set out the context for whole health and what we’ve learned so far about trust (or lack thereof) in the health system, problems unearthed in the first iteration of online health, and the promise of infrastructure independent health care.