Jul 3, 2013, 11:15 AM, Posted by
Steve Downs
On my way out to visit the Calit2 team that is running the Health Data Exploration project (sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio), I read Alissa Quart's excellent piece in Newsweek about the Quantified Self (QS) movement and health. The article covers many of the possible benefits as well as the downsides of self-tracking.
As Quart acknowledges, she also focuses quite a bit on the edge cases, the extreme QSers, painting a picture that can seem a little ridiculous. It’s inevitable; whenever a new technology emerges, a subset of early adopters takes it to the extreme, making the technology and its applications easy for us to mock (see "glasshole").
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May 31, 2013, 9:00 AM, Posted by
Christine Nieves
From: Christine Nieves
To: Paul Tarini, Beth Toner and Thomas Goetz
Date: May 31, 2013
This is my first time attending Health Datapalooza, and I am intrigued. I am fascinated by the fact that there will be a reception at the National Zoo on Sunday evening and a 7 a.m. run to kick us off Tuesday morning. It's not just any run, though—it will be led by Bryan Sivak, chief technology officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s what I call intense!
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Apr 22, 2013, 8:30 AM, Posted by
Steve Downs
Sometimes the best ideas come from unexpected sources – beyond technology, beyond research, beyond clinical trials. Sometimes, the future of health and health care lies somewhere else: in the people who will bring it about.
And sometimes, those people are children.
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Mar 4, 2013, 3:14 PM, Posted by
Christine Nieves
“Smart” phones are rapidly becoming ubiquitous; almost half of all American adults own one. Every one of those phones has the potential to be a health companion for its owner, providing reminders about pills to take or tips about healthier foods to eat. Phones can also collect valuable health data—such as the quality of the air we breathe or the number of steps we walk. For people with a chronic disease such as diabetes, a smart phone can track the kinds of meals that spike their blood sugar or the side effects of their medications; it can even relay that information back to a doctor, who can then help patients better manage their health.
To date, the major tool for harnessing the power of mobile technology has been the app. Just like there are apps for weather, news, or restaurant reviews, there are apps for health. They can do amazing things, from measuring and monitoring, to imaging and predicting. But, there aren’t just a handful of them—there are thousands! And, that’s where the Heritage Open mHealth Challenge comes in.
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Jan 3, 2013, 12:53 PM, Posted by
Al Shar
Before retiring, Al Shar, vice president and senior program officer, reflected on his time with Pioneer and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Along with a few others here, I’ve been on the Pioneer team since it began in 2003. What makes my case somewhat unique was that I didn’t have to be on the team. I had a “day job,” and no one asked or told me to join; I was there exclusively because I wanted to be. Looking back, what’s interesting about that is how little I, and others, understood about what Pioneer should be.
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Health data visualization at Calit2. Photo courtesy of Calit2
