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Project HealthDesign and Health 2.0 Accelerator

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By AARON APODACA and JULIE MURCHINSONMurchinson_Julie_155_WEBBIO

Round 2 of Project HealthDesign, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, builds on a key learning from round 1: people live with and manage their health every day, not in discrete and separate episodes. This may seem like an obvious realization to some; but the “traditional” health care system most of us use is not really designed with this in mind. Our system is getting better at enabling patients to do things such as view a version of their electronic medical record or lab results online and automate appointment scheduling or payments. And yet, most of this progress is still limited to clinical and administrative data that is generated based on episodes of care and limited to the institutional medical record. This is where “observations in daily living” (ODLs) come in. Project HealthDesign defines ODLs as “personal clues to health that might include sleep patterns, diet, exercise, mood and medication adherence, all of which are critically important to health but not collected in a clinical setting.” By understanding ODLs, patients can be empowered to create a more meaningful portrait of their health, to shape daily health decisions and facilitate better health.

The Health 2.0 Accelerator (H2A) has partnered with Project HealthDesign to help program applicants connect and identify Health 2.0 solutions that can be leveraged to identify, interpret, and integrate ODLs. It turns out that the Health 2.0 community is particularly well suited to support this focus as Health 2.0 companies have developed applications for the web and mobile devices that enable new models for capturing and sharing health information. Whether condition-specific communities or personal health logging/tracking tools, these new models are based on the notion that individuals and communities can generate new insights by managing health as part of everyday life and engaging with others that share a common condition or health interest. Health 2.0 companies know how to capture and make sense of “user-generated” data that can bridge the gap between provider visits, helping both patients and providers make decisions to influence behavior and health outcomes.

What can YOU do to leverage the partnership and get involved with Round 2 of Project HealthDesign?

  • Participate in a webinar H2A is offering to potential applicants on the 12th, including a look at the Health 2.0 landscape and examples of how Health 2.0 technologies are relevant to and working in the “traditional” health care environment.
  • Applicants of all kinds, whether institutions, clinical partners or Health 2.0 companies, can ask for help identifying technology solutions or partners. H2A also offers a listing of Health 2.0 companies for applicants that are not familiar with companies in the space.
  • Health 2.0 companies should contact the Accelerator team to ensure we are able to provide the latest and greatest information for Project HealthDesign applicants. In an environment that is constantly evolving, with new companies and products continually being introduced, your updates are essential!
  • Health 2.0 companies can coordinate with H2A to offer web demos of their offerings to potential PHD applicants.

To register for a webinar, ask for help identifying partners or solutions, submit an update to the Health 2.0 listing, or coordinate a web demo, visit http://www.health2accelerator.org/phd

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4 replies »

  1. The Project Health Design seems to be very valuable to all of us especially that the Health 2.0 Accelerator has now become their partner. With the help of these helpful designs, people can now focus more on clues to personal health which are usually not collected in a clinical setting but indeed, are critically important.

  2. The advent of 2.0 websites is certainly of considerable value to patients when it serves to maintain good behaviors and keeps them aware of the importance of tracking these various day to day factors that will affect their health.
    However, I think that it will truly be valuable when systems are able to collect more of the data without the requirement of daily effort on the part of the patient. My wife is a nurse who has Rheumatoid Arthritis and collects information here and there, but finds that extreme diligence is required to collect this data on a daily basis and to review it to check for indicators that might mean something to her health.

  3. I agree. We’re finally getting down to the “person” level, in their real day-to-day environment. Question: Are there apps to help measure meaningful design, location-based, or structural elements of the local environment that draw people towards participating in a healthy activity? This information would be terrific for helping builders and planners who are trying to re-design and retrofit neighborhoods and communities for future well-being.