One-third of U.S. consumers plan to buy a new fitness tech in 2013, but most buyers are already healthy
Over one-third of U.S. consumers plan to buy a new fitness technology in the next year, especially women. They’ll buy these at mass merchants (females in particular, shopping at Target and Walmart), sporting goods retailers (more male buyers here), online and at electronics stores like Best Buy. These potential buyers consider themselves in good or excellent physical health. They’ll see the latest applications on retail store shelves in pedometers, calorie trackers, fitness video games, digital weight scales, and heart rate monitors that will be launched this week at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In advance of the
Consumers want digital communications from providers, from payment reminders to patient care via email
85% of U.S. health consumers say that emails, text messages, and voicemails are at least as helpful as in-person or phone conversations with health providers, according to the TeleVox Healthy World study, Technology Beyond the Exam Room. The study was based on surveys conducted with over 2,200 health providers across specialties, and 1,015 U.S. adults over 18. Furthermore, one in 3 consumers admit to being more honest when talking about medical needs via automated voice response systems, emails or texts than face-to-face with a health provider. And 3 in 10 consumers believe that receiving digital health communications from providers such
Mobile is the new black in health care
Mobile technology will change the delivery of health care, according to 2 in 3 health IT execs polled in the 2nd Annual HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, sponsored by Qualcomm Life. Only 2% of health IT management says mobile won’t impact the delivery of health care in the future. This week finds the mHealth Summit convening in Washington, DC, hosting some 3,000 interested stakeholders looking at the intersection of mobile devices and platforms and health and health care. The 2012 theme is Connecting the Mobile Health Ecosystem, and the exhibitor area of the Summit speaks to the broadening of that ecosystem, including
Most smartphone owners seek health information online via mobile
The ubiquity of mobile phones, increasingly smart ones (one-half of all mobile phones in the U.S. ), means people are walking around, working, playing and driving with self-tracking devices and ultra-mini computers in their pockets and totebags. 52% of smartphone owners seek health information on their phones, and overall 1 in 3 people seek health information on all mobile phones — nearly doubling the percent of those seeking health info via mobile in 2010 (17%). People who are sicker, caregivers, and those who have had a big change in health are also more prone to using phones for health, as
The new bio-terrorism? Medical device hacking
A time-and-technology challenged FDA, proliferation of software-controlled medical devices in and outside of hospitals, and growth of hackers have resulted in medical technology that’s riddled with malware. Furthermore, lack of security built into the devices makes them ripe for hacking and malfeasance. Scenario: a famous figure (say, a politician with an implantable defibrillator or young rock star with an insulin pump) becomes targeted by a hacker, who industriously virtually works his way into the ICD’s software and delivers the man a shock so strong it’s akin to electrocution. Got the picture? Welcome to the dark side of health IT and
Wired health: living by numbers – a review of the event
Wired magazine, longtime evangelist for all-things-tech, has played a growing role in serving up health-tech content over the past several years, especially through the work of Thomas Goetz. This month, Wired featured an informative section on living by numbers — the theme of a new Wired conference held 15-16 October 2012 in New York City. This feels like the week of digital health on the east coast of the U.S.: several major meetings have convened that highlight the role of technology — especially, the Internet, mobile platforms, and Big Data — on health. Among the meetings were the NYeC Digital Health conference, Digital
In sickness and in health: consumers expect doctors to be wellness coaches, too
4 in 5 health consumers expect doctors not only to treat them when they’re sick, but to keep them healthy. “In sickness and in health” now morphs over to the doctor-patient relationship, beyond the marriage vow. Better Health through Better Patient Communications, a survey from Varolii, finds that people are looking for health, beyond health care, from their physicians. Varolii is a customer interaction company that claims to have interacted with 1 in 3 Americans through some sort of company communication: they work with major Fortune 1000 companies, including banks, airlines, retail, and, yes, health care. They recently attracted a
From fragmentation and sensors to health care in your pocket – Health 2.0, Day 1
The first day of the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco kicked off with a video illustrating the global reach of the Health 2.0 concept, from NY and Boston to Mumbai, Madrid, London, Tokyo and other points abroad. Technology is making the health world flatter and smarter…and sometimes, increasing problematic fragmentation, which is a theme that kept pinching me through the first day’s discussions and demonstrations. Joe Flowers, health futurist, offered a cogent, crisp forecast in the morning, noting that health care is changing, undergoing fundamental economic changes that change everything about it. These are driving us to what may
What Jerry the Bear means for Health 2.0
A teddy bear in the arms of a child with diabetes can change health care. At least, Jerry the Bear can. Yesterday kicked off the sixth autumn mega-version of the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. Co-founded by Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, a long-time health analyst and physician, respectively, this meeting features new-new tools, apps and devices aimed at improving individual and population health, as well as health processes and workflows for physicians, hospitals, pharma, and other stakeholders in the health care ecosystem – even health lawyers, who met on October 7 to discuss up-to-the-minute e-health law issues. Yesterday was
Employers grow onsite health clinics, and employer-sponsored telemedicine will grow
With “Zero” large employers expecting to drop health insurance, as reported in the Washington Post, companies are getting creative and innovative about how to manage workers’ health and wellness, while addressing ever-growing costs. One strategy that’s getting more traction is the re-invention of the onsite health center. Towers Watson‘s 2012 Onsite Health Center survey report, finds that one-half of employers view establishing an onsite health center as a linchpin to enhancing productivity and health in the workplace. Following close behind productivity is the onsite health center’s promise of reducing medical costs, improving access to care, and the traditional reason for providing onsite
Aging in the US – seniors are health-confident, less financially so
Most seniors look forward to aging in place, and are confident in their ability to do so. Such is the top-line feel-good finding from the National Council on Aging‘s (NCOA) survey, The United States of Aging, sponsored by USA Today and United Healthcare. A majority of seniors have a sense of purpose and plans for their future. Three-fourths of older Americans say staying physically fit through exercise and proactively managing their health is important. However, only 36% of seniors say they exercise or engage in physical activity every day. 11% never do. The most common chronic conditions noted by seniors
Target gets into the Quantified Self biz: could this be the mainstreaming of self-monitoring?
Target, the beloved retail channel for many design-minded value-conscious consumers, has opted in to mobile health through its purchase of SMARTCOACH mobile health coaching devices. SMARTCOACH is part of a growing category of wearable devices that monitor health behaviors like walking and calories consumed. What differentiates SMARTCOACH is the “coach” element, which provides real-time feedback throughout the day. Most other devices in the market simply track and record data. And it’s feedback loops that more experts say are key to sustaining health behavior change. Target will bring the device into stores for purchase in the fall. Like some other wearable
Consumer ambivalence about health engagement – will OOP costs nudge us to engage?
In some surveys, U.S. consumers seem primed for health engagement, liking the ability to schedule appointments with doctors online, emailing providers, and having technology at home that monitors their health status. The chart illustrates some of these stats from a 2011 survey by Intuit. However, organizations that develop quality report cards on providers and plans, and developers of mHealth apps, will point out that consumers aren’t rushing to use the quality reports or sustain use of apps: in fact, most downloaded health apps aren’t used after one try, according to PwC’s research. How do we make sense of these different
Why we now need primary care, everywhere
With the stunning Supreme Court 5-4 majority decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), there’s a Roberts’ Rules of (Health Reform) Order that calls for liberating primary care beyond the doctors’ office. That’s because a strategic underpinning of the ACA is akin to President Herbert Hoover’s proverbial “chicken in every pot:” for President Obama, the pronouncement is something like, “a medical home for every American.” But insurance for all doesn’t equate to access: because 32-some million U.S. health citizens buy into health insurance plans doesn’t guarantee every one of them access to a doctor. There’s a
Patients in emerging countries value mHealth, but sustaining mHealth behaviors is tough
Half of patients globally expect that mobile health will improve health care. These health citizens expect that mobile health will help them manage their overall health, chronic conditions, how they manage their medications and measure and share their vital health information. Welcome to the new mobile health world, a picture captured in PwC’s report, Emerging mHealth: Paths for growth, published in June 2012 and written by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Patients’ views on mHealth are bullish, and while most doctors and payors share that vision, they also expect mHealth to come into focus more slowly, recognizing the institutional, cultural and
Your doctor’s appointment on your phone: out of beta and into your pocket
You can now carry a doctor with you in your pocket. Two top telehealth companies that support online physician-patient visits have gone mobile. This upgrade was announced this week at the 2012 American Telemedicine Association conference, being held in San Jose, CA. In enabling mobile physician visits, American Well and Consult A Doctor join Myca, which has offered mobile phone-based visits for clients for at least two years to employer clinic customers. In April 2010, my report, How Smartphones Are Changing Healthcare for Consumers and Providers, talked about Myca’s work with Qualcomm: the telecomms company armed traveling employees with mobile phones that could connect
Superconsumers and value mining: health care’s uber-trends driving care, everywhere
There’s a shift in power in health care moving away from providers and suppliers like pharma and medical device companies, toward patients and payers. This is the new health world according to Ernst & Young‘s latest Progressions report called, The third place: health care everywhere. What’s underneath this tectonic shift is the need to bend that stubborn cost curve and address public health outcomes through behavior change. E&Y says look for new entrants, like retailers, IT companies, and telecomms, to be part of the solution beyond traditional health care stakeholders. These participants will be part of both delivery of care
Job #1 in data analytics for health care: get the data, and make sure you can trust it
The ability to get the data is the #1 obstacle that will slow the adoption of data analytics in health care, according to IBM’s report, The value of analytics in healthcare: from insights to outcomes. Healthcare “high performers,” as IBM calls them, use data analytics for guiding future strategy, product research and development, and sales and marketing functions. 90% of healthcare CIOs told IBM that developing “insight and intelligence” were key focuses of their organizations over the next 3 to 5 years. Underneath this macro objective are 3 business goals that data analytics addresses in healthcare: to improve clinical effectiveness
The economics of mHealth – incentives align more easily outside of U.S., but times (and incentives) are a’changing
A global analysis of mobile health (mHealth) by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for Telenor, the telecomms company, illustrates many forms of return-on-investment using mobile platforms in health: Improved quality of life for individuals and families A more educated society Lower absenteeism for employers, and Greater incomes for people. Together, these micro-benefits yield macro societal benefits such as freeing up (acute) health systems due to a lower burden of chronic care; positive impacts on people, labor participation, and productivity; and, long-term economic growth. BCG believes that, “the smartphone is the most popular technology among doctors since the stethoscope.” That phone can
Under 10% of people manage health via mobile: a reality check on remote health monitoring from HIMSS
With mobile health consumer market projections for ranging from $7 billion to $43 billion, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, a casual reader might think that a plethora of health citizens are tracking their health, weight, food intake, exercise, and other observations of daily living by smartphones and tablets. But as the chart shows, health self-trackers number around 1 in 20 U.S. adults, according to a survey conducted for HIMSS Analytics and sponsored by Qualcomm Life. HIMSS Analytics’ report, A New Prescription for Chronic Disease: remote monitoring devices, was published in conjunction with the annual HIMSS conference which highlights the latest health information technology
Connected Health: countries’ vary in their health IT connectedness, but US patients are ready, willing and welcoming EHRs
How electronically connnected and communicative are nations’ health information infrastructures? Accenture has answered that question in its report, Making the Case for Connected Health. Accenture built a “connected health maturity index,” analyzing a nation’s level of health information exchange among users along with their level of health IT adoption among specialists and primary care doctors. Adoption was defined across four HIT functions: administrative tools, electronic patient notes, electronic alerts/reminders, and computerized decision support systems. Health information exchange was defined across seven connectivity dimensions: electronic communications, e-notifications, e-referrals, e-access to clinical data about patients who see a different provider, e-prescribing, and
The digital future in focus, according to comScore: health grew fastest in 2011
comScore has issued its annual report on the state of the American digital consumer in U.S. Digital Future in Focus 2012 and the topline is that mobile and Facebook are redefining communication in both the digital and physical worlds. This disruptive phenomenon has transformational implications for health and health care. comScore’s macro observations are that: – Social networking, and especially Facebook, is capturing a growing proportion of online users’ time, thus redefining how brands and organizations must interact with customers offline and on-. – Google remains the search leader but Bing has grown, surpassing Yahoo! as #2 in 2011. –
The Connected Consumer – she loves her iPad, and she’ll be able to Connect for Health
She’s likely to be female, Facebooking, smartphoning, and digitally shopping. She’s the Connected Consumer, and she’s a lot older than you might expect: on average, 40 years of age, and with a mean household income of $63,000. And Connected she is: in addition to having a PC or laptop computer, 43% have a smartphone, and 16%, a tablet. Meet the Connected Consumer is a report from Zmags, a digital design company. Zmags surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults in November 2012 who owned a tablet, a smartphone and/or a computer, asking people their views on shopping, apps and the digital lifestyle. Connected
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Hey, Big Spender: 1% of US health citizens consume 20% of costs
Cue up the song “Hey Big Spender” from the Broadway hit, Sweet Charity, when you read the January 2012 AHRQ report with the long-winded title, The Concentration and Persistence in the Level of Health Expenditures over Time: Estimates for the U.S. Population, 2008-2009.” The report’s headline is that 1% of the U.S. population consumed 20% of all health costs spent in the U.S. in 2008 and 2009, illustrated by the chart. These Big Health Spenders tend to be in poor or fair health, older, female, non-Hispanic whites and people with only publicly-provided health insurance. Their mean expenditure was $90,061. The top 10%
Make 2012 the year of living health-fully
When I would meet up with clients and friends during the latter half of 2011, people whom I hadn’t seen for months would do a double-take when they saw me. “What have you done?” they have asked. In this first post of 2012, I will share with Health Populi readers my story of 2011 — a year of living health-fully for me. One of the blessings of my work-life is that I have access to some of the great minds in health and health care. But not until I began to personally harness their wisdom, intentionally incorporating what they’ve learned into my own life-flow and
Consumers are at the center of the business of health and wellness
The market for health and wellness has traditionally included over-the-counter medicines, gym memberships, and vitamins/minerals/supplements. In 2012, the boundaries of health/wellness are blurring beyond these line items toward preventive medical services and consumer electronics. This morphing market is discussed by Cambridge Consultants in their report on the disruptions driving The Business of Health & Wellness: Engaging consumers and making money. Cambridge correctly introduces this analysis by saying that economics, the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, an aging population, and demand consumers are shaping health/wellness, “recharacterizing” the market as one driven by “life events.” Cambridge sees that health consumers are changing their spending
Primary care, everywhere: how the shortage of PCPs is driving innovation – especially for patient participation in their own care
The signs of the primary care crisis in America are visible: A growing number of visits to the emergency room for treating commonplace ailments Waiting lists for signing up with and queuing lines to see primary care doctors Fewer med students entering primary care disciplines Maldistribution of primary care practitioners (PCPs) in underserved areas, rural, exurban and urban. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act will (try to) enroll at least 30 million newly-insured health citizens into the U.S. health system. That’s the objective: whether being insured will actually provide people access to needed primary care is a big question given the current supply of
Consumer electronics comes to health care — but don’t overestimate consumer demand just yet
More people with higher levels of concern about their health feel they are in good health, see their doctors regularly for check-ups, take prescription meds “exactly” as instructed, feel they eat right, and prefer lifestyle changes over using medicines. And 40% of these highly-health-concerned people have also used a health technology in the past year. At the other end of the spectrum are people with low levels of health concern: few see the doctor regularly for check-ups, less than one-half take their meds as prescribed by their doctors, only 31% feel they eat right, and only 36% feel they’re in
Tech fast forward families are ripe for health care self-care
Kids lead their parents in the adoption of digital technologies; that’s why the youngers are called Digital Natives. An intriguing survey of adults’ use of technologies finds that those who do so like “childlike play,” and at the same time, for kids, make them feel more grown up. The trend, Ogilvy says, is blurring generational lines: market to adults as kids, and kids as adults. This convergence is leading families to become more “units” — parents and kids increasingly on the same page in purchase decisions. In Tech Fast Forward: Plug in to see the brighter side of life, from
Health is a team sport: the 2011 Edelman Health Barometer
Lifestyle, nutrition, the environment and the health system are four key factors that people globally say have the most impact on their health. Underlying these influences, its friends and family who most shape our health, followed by government and business. Welcome to the 2011 Edelman Health Barometer, the third year the communications firm has polled health citizens around the world on their views on health, behavior change, and the use of information and digital tools. Edelman conducted 15,165 interviews 12 countries in North America, Asia and Europe to gather health citizens’ perspectives. The top-line, globally, is that there is a knowledge-action
Prospecting for gold: the role of data in the health economy
3 in 4 of the Fortune 50 companies are part of the U.S. health economy in some way. Only 1 in 3 of these is in traditional health industries like pharmaceutical and life science companies, insurance, and businesses in the Old School Health Care value chain. 2 in 3 of the Fortune 50 companies involved in health are in new-new segments. In their report, The New Gold Rush, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) identifies four roles for “prospectors” in the new health economy which will represent 20% of the GDP by 2019: Fixers Connectors Retailers, and Implementers. These are the disruptive roles that will
Telemedicine is an enabler of health reform
Globally, in developed economies, the challenges of increasing health care costs, access to quality health care, aging citizens and the supply of clinicians are universal. CSC says telemedicine can address these challenges as part of reforming health care delivery and financing throughout the world. In Telemedicine: An Essential Technology for Reformed Healthcare, CSC sees telemedicine as an enabler for health reforms’ goals the world over. In the U.S., telemedicine is explicitly mentioned in the Affordable Care Act. In April 2011, the Federal Register included language about health financing reform that said, “The ACO shall define processes to promote evidence-based medicine and patient engagement, report
A long-term care crisis is brewing around the world: who will provide and pay for LTC?
By 2050, the demand for long-term care (LTC) workers will more than double in the developed world, from Norway and New Zealand to Japan and the U.S. Aging populations with growing incidence of disabilities, looser family ties, and more women in the labor force are driving this reality. This is a multi-dimensional problem which requires looking beyond the issue of the simple aging demographic. Help Wanted? is an apt title for the report from The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), subtitled, “providing and paying for long-term care.” The report details the complex forces exacerbating the LTC carer shortage, focusing
Health care where we live, play, work and pray: how Ford & Toyota’s mhealth pilots fit into Whole Health
In an interview in March 2011 with the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Regina Benjamin, the U.S. Surgeon General, said, “We can’t look at health in isolation. It’s not just in the doctor’s office. It’s got to be where we live, we work, we play, we pray. If you have a healthy community, you have a healthy individual.” Ford’s announcement last week that the automaker would team up with WellDoc to incorporate mobile health sensors into the company’s SYNC connectivity system follows Toyota’s mhealth concept, the RiN, launched in 2007. Among various applications envisioned at this preliminary stage: Glucose monitors, from Medtronic, will
Verizon expanding into remote and mobile health for senior living – what it means for healthy aging and medical costs
The announcement that Verizon, the telecommunications giant, will partner with Healthsense, a home health monitoring company, indicates that the adoption of telehealth services beyond project pilots and government-funds required to bolster the market is real. Verizon is upgrading the FiOS network, which it will extend to senior housing and assisted living communities that would use Healthsense’s suite of remote health monitoring, personal emergency response systems, wireless nurse call, and wellness monitoring products. The broadband FiOS network is upgradeable to 100 megabits per second, which would enable the bandwidth required by home health technologies that require high performance and reliable network connectivity. These
Patients’ health activation leads to better outcomes, but providers aren’t as engaging as they should be
Patient engagement improves health outcomes. But deploying patient empowerment and engagement tools involve many challenges, among them: privacy, security, integrity of medical records, liability, and payment. These have prevented health providers – doctors and hospitals – from adopting strategies to more closely engage patients. From the patient’s perspective, though, many patients have project-managed their own approaches to engagement with online and mobile health tools, such as participating in peer-to-peer health social networks, downloading and using mobile health apps, and monitoring calories, weight and sleep through devices like FitBit, Zeo, and the Withings scale. The Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2) published the
Are health innovation and cost-reduction mutually exclusive? Insights from West Wireless’s Health Care Innovation Day DC
Representatives from eight U.S. Federal government agencies, including the FDA and Veterans Administration, among others; health financiers (VCs, angels); health tech start-ups; providers, life science companies, and analysts, attended the Health Care Innovation Day DC sponsored by West Wireless Health Institute on April 28, 2011. The meeting had the tagline, A Discussion with the FDA, setting the stage for a day-long consideration of the role of regulation vis-a-vis health innovation. The $2.5+ trillion question (annual spending on health care in the U.S.) is: can innovation drive making health care “cheaper?” This was the underlying theme of the panel on which I sat
What telehealth can do for the Health of Nations
Health care cost increases are unsustainable the world over; in developed nations, the forecast is even more dire given exploding demand for health services as citizens age. Cisco polled senior leaders in health systems globally to gauge their views on the challenging state of health care in their respective nations, and prospects for health system improvement. The triple-mantra for senior health leaders is access, efficiency, and quality. Access takes the form in this survey in maldistribution and insufficient number of health professionals. Efficiency looks like patients referred for unnecessary care coupled with long lines (queues) for needed services. Quality measurement continues to
The Withings scale – building block for the self-powered home-health hub
In the “House & Home” section of last weekend’s Financial Times, an article titled ‘Domestic Science’ talked about internet-operated vacuum cleaners that feed pets, refrigerators that track emptying cartons of milk, and the $10 Savant TruControl iPad app that helps control home systems’ remotely (tied to a $6,000 home-based system). The article also touched on the Withings WiFi body scale. The Withings scale communicates wirelessly to a computer or mobile phone, transferring and automatically recording the user’s weight, BMI, body fat percentage and other parameters to a secure, password-protected online system. The user can choose to tweet their weight via Twitter if they choose
Increasing smartphone uptake will drive higher use of mHealth apps globally
Adoption of mobile health (mHealth) apps will increase by 23% as a compound annual growth rate. according to a forecast from Arthur D. Little (ADL), featured in their report published in April 2011, Capturing Value in the mHealth Oasis. What is this mHealth Oasis? ADL notes that mobile network operators (MNOs — mobile phone companies) see gold in them thar’ health hills given unsustainable health economies the world over. However, ADL rightly points out that mobile health is just about as easy to conquer as any other aspect of health technology, full of minefields. ADL lays out the success factors for MNOs who want to engage
Telemonitoring for health must be patient-centered and participatory
In December 2010, an article describing a telehealth remote monitoring program for heart failure patients concluded that telemonitoring did not improve patient outcomes. The paper, Telemonitoring in Patients with Heart Failure, written by Sarwat I. Chaudhry, M.D, and nine other authors, analyzed 1,653 CHF patients, 826 of whom participated in a remote health intervention: a telephone-based interactive voice-response system that patients dialed into on a daily basis to report symptoms and weight; this was designed to occur every day over six months. These data were then reviewed by patients’ clinicians who could contact patients when data pointed to the clinical need to adjust patients’ medications and other parameters.
The mobile health opportunity is connected health
February is American Heart Month. The month also features Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Awareness, and National Condom Week. It also feels like mobile health month. I’ll be speaking three times this month at meetings featuring mobile health themes, in very different venues. On February 8, the Health|Tech|Food event will be held at the Paley Center for Media in New York City as part of Social Media Week. I’ll set the stage at the meeting for mobile health, sharing my perspective on the role of social media and mobile health, and how together these can combine to address health
The home health hub is digital, mobile and personal
Bet on it, live from Las Vegas at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES): the new home health hub is digital, mobile and personal. More consumers are morphing TV and video watching from the “set” to the computer and mobile platforms, and DIYing more activities of daily living. Health (for both wellness and sickness care) is transforming in this process. This transformation is enabled through consumers’ adoption of technologies that they’re using in their daily lives for entertainment, household management, and communications. Broadband and wireless provide the infrastructure for health care to move beyond the doctor’s office and the hospital, so engaged patients who choose to do
What health care IT holds for 2011: politics vs. market realities
The one issue in health politics that’s got bipartisan support is health care IT. While Republicans in the House may try to pick away parts of the Affordable Care Act, the HITECH Act — part of the 2009 stimulus package formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — will stay intact, according to most industry analysts (including me). However, political agreement doesn’t equal market adoption. So forecasting what 2011 will mean for health information technology requires some deeper analysis of additional issues. For today’s Health Populi, take a look at my annual health IT forecast in California HealthCare Foundation‘s
When with the “Future of Health” happen?
It’s year-end, so the forecasts abound whether we’re talking about trends in technologies, products and services. Gartner says cloud and mobile computing are hot, but managing customer expectations will require heavy lifting On the food front, Epicurious predicts that food halls will be all the rage (think Harrods in London or Takashimaya in Tokyo), Korean cuisine in demand, and sweet potatoes crowned the vegetable of 2011. For colors, Pantone is Queen and they see that honeysuckle (a salmon-pink) is the new black. In health technology, there’s no better list to read than CSC’s The Future of Healthcare: It’s Health, Then Care, which offers up top 10 technologies
Are Influentials less keen on connecting health? Practice Fusion says ‘yes’
I posted here yesterday on Practice Fusion‘s survey on consumers’ views of remote health monitoring, discussing a key finding that older Americans are less keen on the idea than younger people. The company sent me more detailed survey data which I’ve dug into, and discovered a counter-intuitive finding worth exploring: “Influential” people appear less interested in remote health monitoring than the mainstream American. Who are these “Influentials?” GfK Roper, who conducted the study on behalf of Practice Fusion, bases this consumer segment on an index built on political and social activities engaged in over the past year: writing a letter to
Health, the new green: Toyota’s RiN
While health has blurred into a score of consumer product categories, here’s the latest crossover from Toyota: the first car to engineer health and wellness into its design, recently unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Auto Show. The Toyota RiN is a concept car based on comfort and what Toyota’s PR calls, “serene, healthy living.” The RiN was one of 21 cars Toyota showed under the theme, “Harmonious Drive — a New Tomorrow for People and the Planet.” This isn’t high performance; it’s high-minded health by way of Dr. Weil, wrapped up in a golf cart-cum-Popemobile. Toyota’s press says the car’s
Thanks to Feedspot for identifying Health Populi as a top Public Health blog to follow in 2024...I must call out my Twitter following update is nearly 30,000 these days.... : )
Jane was named as a member of the AHIP 2024 Advisory Board, joining some valued colleagues to prepare for the challenges and opportunities facing health plans, systems, and other industry stakeholders. Looking forward to AHIP 2024 in Las Vegas come June 11-13, 2024.
Join Jane at AHIP's annual meeting in Las Vegas: I'll be speaking, moderating a panel, and providing thought leadership on health consumers and bolstering equity, empowerment, and self-care.