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HealthConnect, the final XConnect panel event of the year was held at the ING Direct Cafe October 25th, 2012.

Over the course of the panel discussion, a number of different challenges being faced by the healthcare system were brought up. It would have been far too easy to end on a discouraging note, but Cassie McDaniel, the moderator of the panel discussion, took things in a hopeful direction with her final question to the panel:

“What can we walk away from this room today and make this system better?”

Abigail Keeso reminded us all that social media is only a piece of the puzzle. Some people don’t have computers or smartphones, so while we can use new technologies, we still need to make use of other options to not exclude people.

Nikolai Bratkovski told us to keep challenging the status quo, get into the grey zones and don’t be scared. Sooner or later we’ll make a difference and people will start paying attention and then change will come.

Dr. Karim Jessa said that the key to making the system better is all of us taking greater personal responsibility for our own care.

Hadi Salah said that the disconnect in communications between different levels of the healthcare system is the biggest challenge. We need to improve communications between patients, nurses, doctors, and all other parts of the healthcare system.

Farid Kassam said that the system is taxed right now, with 46% of the provincial budget going to healthcare. Doctor’s should be paid to keep people healthy rather than healing people when they’re sick. Consumers need to be made better aware of how to stay healthy in advance and be better aware of their risks.

As moderator of the event Cassie wrote the questions she asked the panel, but we never got the opportunity to hear her thoughts. So, as part of the summary for HealthConnect I asked her a few questions about her thoughts on the discussion.

1. What’s one thing you learned at HealthConnect that you hadn’t known before?

I envisioned Abigail (RN) and Karim (MD) would share a care provider perspective and stick together on many issues. I didn’t know that a nurse and a doctor would have such different point of views, especially in terms of taking risk in the hospital setting. It seemed nurses have to battle somewhat of a double standard when it comes to patient privacy.

2. As the moderator, you had to plan out the discussion questions in advance. Did the reactions to any of the questions surprise you? Was there anything you would have wanted to explore further if you weren’t limited by time constraints?

Well, I hail from the States where the question of whether or not government should be involved in personal issues is an incredibly divisive topic. For example my mother, a Democrat, will not speak to my grandmother, a Republican, during months leading up to the election!

I expected there to be more dissension around the role of government in healthcare entrepreneurship. However, it seemed everyone was in agreement that innovation would have to happen independently of the government’s involvement.

As for what I would have liked more of, privacy is a thorny issue (especially when the crowd experts get involved!). In a crowd, we have a tendency to think that making our voices heard means making everyone well-aware of our complaints, but I think we need more solutions so I attempted to steer speakers toward action-oriented discussion. But I would have liked to debate more the underlying notion of private health data and the fear that accompanies sharing this data. To me, sharing to make the whole system better seems like a given, but I still do not understand all facets of the issue.

3. What’s our best strategy to move forward from here? What’s the one thing you would say about the future of technology and social media in healthcare?

I believe Patients Like Me represents a movement, and I want to know where people see that going. I like how they’ve taken a really private issue – personal illness – and encouraged people to not only share their experiences with this illness, but actual data as well. This is huge. I see the individual as having an enormous bearing on the future of healthcare, and certainly healthcare’s relationship to social media. It seems that making such a large part of our social structure shift directions means that we need to work together to make that happen. Technologists and social media lovers have a history of accomplishing big things together, so that’s where I think the future is at.
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As with other XConnect events, there will be a follow up report with a Summary of the series, interesting key insights shared from the disrupters and industry professionals that we connected with over the series, and recommendations from thirdocean!

Thanks to all of the fantastic sponsors who helped HealthConnect happen!

Be sure to connect with XConnect to receive the HealthConnect report and news about future events:

• To keep up to date, all you have to do is subscribe to our RSS feed at http://xconnectto.com/feed/.
• Follow our Twitter account @XConnectTO.
• You can “Like” us on Facebook too!

Building on previous successful events such as SportsConnect, MusicConnect, FashionConnect, FilmConnect, BankConnect, EduConnect and GameConnect, the final XConnect event of the year was held at the ING Direct Cafe October 25th, 2012:

This time the topic was the intersection of technology and social media with the world of healthcare. The conversation was moderated by Cassie McDaniel and the panel was comprised of Abigail Keeso, Nikolai Bratkovski, Dr. Karim Jessa, Farid Kassam, and Hadi Salah.

No discussion on healthcare and technology would be complete without a dialogue on privacy, and the topic was brought up almost straight out of the gate. Dr. Karim Jessa expressed the challenge of privacy in healthcare quite succinctly, calling it “the apostrophe problem”. There is a patient’s privacy versus patients’ privacy — on an individual level (patient’s) many of us are okay giving up personal privacy for an improvement in our own personal care, but at the collective level (patients’) we are more reluctant to give away all patient privacy without any restrictions. Audience members came forward with a multitude of questions and comments about the privacy issue, and we easily could have spend all night on that one issue alone, but Cassie did a fantastic job of keeping everyone moving along.

Challenges with the regulatory environment and a healthcare model made up of a number of disparate medical record systems were concerns for the healthcare practitioners on the panel as well as from the investment and entrepreneur perspective. Red tape seemed to be noted as one of the largest obstacles to innovation.

Squeezed between a frightened investment community and overspent government budgets, healthcare definitely faces challenges when it comes to sharing information and making use of technology. While all panelists agree there is no “silver bullet” solution to sharing information effectively, they all shared part of their visions of a future where technology can help us attain higher quality, faster, more efficient and less expensive medical care.

It was another packed house at the ING Direct Cafe, and many people stayed around long after the official panel discussion ended to continue the chats that had started.

As with other XConnect events, there will be a follow up report with a Summary of the series, interesting key insights shared from the disrupters and industry professionals that we connected with over the series, and recommendations from thirdocean!

Thanks to all of the fantastic sponsors who helped HealthConnect happen!

Be sure to connect with XConnect to receive the HealthConnect report and news about future events:

• To keep up to date, all you have to do is subscribe to our RSS feed at http://xconnectto.com/feed/.
• Follow our Twitter account @XConnectTO.
• You can “Like” us on Facebook too!

Palomino Inc. is a Toronto-based software and web solutions provider, creator of the WebPal Application Suite. The WebPal Suite enables medium-sized organizations to take their business processes online and interact with clients on a whole new level.

In this final episode on healthcare and technology, Karim Kanji hosts Palomino System Innovations Inc. CEO Markus Latzel. In it, Markus describes the WebPal Suite and its application for healthcare.

The full episode can be found at http://youtu.be/L9HPxBryfjU For more information on the WebPal Suite visit http://bit.ly/wpfeatures

Thanks to iHorse Technologies for generously supporting our HealthConnect initiative.

Follow the conversation tonight on Twitter at #HCTO.

Smartphones and other mobile personal technologies have led to a revolution in big data collection. We now have the ability to track and monitor all the factors that might impact our health on a real-time basis. Whether it’s the calorie content of your food, the exercise you’re getting, the weather at your location or any number of other things, we can collect an incredible amount of information about our lives.

While we’re collecting all of this data, the real challenge is in making any use of it. The potential of it all is downright staggering. Currently we’ve got a lot of individual data sets, but if we manage to connect that data together in a larger format where we can track and manage the many factors impacting health conditions, there are amazing opportunities to “personalize” and dramatically increase the effectiveness of healthcare treatments.

The concept of “personalized care” is a relatively new notion in healthcare whereby treatment for a condition is specifically tailored to a person’s lifestyle, genetics and environment. Many modern conditions have variations in them and cannot be universally solved with a vaccine or a single drug treatment. Big data, when applied to healthcare, involves the collection of all the data that can impact a person’s health condition, and then aggregating that data with other people in similar conditions to help find symptom management and treatment options that wouldn’t otherwise be evident.

One of the most fascinating things to consider when it comes to big data in healthcare is the beneficiaries. The first and most obvious beneficiary is the patients, because they gain better health outcomes. However, insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies are also beneficiaries of a trend towards more personalized healthcare.

The collection of the data required for personalized healthcare, and big data in general, requires individuals to become much more thoroughly engaged with their own healthcare. Tracking your behaviours with regard to your health makes people less likely to skip regular medicine doses (a common health issue), which increases sales for pharmaceutical companies as well as increasing the perceived effectiveness of their products as people follow their prescription instructions more closely.

Anything that results in better health benefits for individuals will be of a net benefit to the insurance industry, because it will lead to lower costs for them.

The Challenges Big Data Faces

One challenge in using big data in healthcare is how the information is used. Ultimately, the data that is needed to find the small factors that influence health must be voluntarily provided, as individuals are both the source of the data as well as the first step in collecting that data.

However, discoveries in this field are often double-edged. If we find a new risk factor in health, it might result in a decrease in insurance rates for some people, but it will likely increase insurance rates for others.

A second challenge any big data initiatives in healthcare must face is ownership of information. This is similar to the challenges faced by Facebook and other social networks with regard to content created by users.

Which brings us to a third challenge faced with using big data in healthcare: information security. While many individuals won’t mind their data being used anonymously as part of a larger pool, there needs to be security provided for individual data.

On the bright side, most of the challenges involved with using big data in healthcare are similar to ones facing other mobile applications. Companies collecting big data for healthcare need to continue being transparent with regard to their motives, being accountable and creating confidence with their users in order for people to voluntarily submit large amounts of personal medical data.

Provided that we figure out how to correlate the incredible amounts of information we’re collecting, personal technologies and big data might lead to the next revolution of healthcare.

If you want to hear more about the challenges and possibilities of big data and healthcare, come to HealthConnectTO, register online!

On Monday, we discussed some of the demographic factors that logically led to the development of online communities based on specific health conditions. Rising to that challenge are some incredible communities, such as the twitter account for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (@endstigma).

However, numbers alone don’t tell the full story of these communities. There’s also a human side that I wanted to explore further, so I decided to speak to someone who’s more familiar with these online communities than me, Abigail Keeso. I first became familiar with Abigail’s work via her blog and her work as the Healthcare Contributor for Betakit, where she discusses the impact of technology on personal health and the healthcare space.

Abigail Keeso is passionate about improving the health of all Canadians through emerging technology. Currently she is a Registered Nurse at a downtown Toronto hospital and is working on building a community of healthcare innovators at HealthCareInnovatorsTO.com. She is a graduate from Ryerson University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. She kindly took some time to answer my questions about online communities in healthcare.

1. What do you believe is the most helpful feature of online communities based around specific health conditions?

The most helpful feature is having a designated and accessible place for information sharing. Healthcare professionals mean well but tend to be focused primarily on the biomedical aspect of disease and illness and as a result neglect the environmental, social and psychological influences that often play such an enormous role. These online communities allow people to realize there is much more to treating and coping with their disease than medications or surgeries. Crohnology is a great example of this. The platform allows people with Crohn’s Disease to learn from others, meet people with the disease near them, find successful treatments, and track their health. So while a person’s doctor may be recommending pharmacological treatment of the disease, they might log onto Crohnology and connect with someone who has tried the medication so they can gauge their experience. They may also connect with people who are finding success in adopting non-medical ways of coping with their illness such as through spirituality. The online sharing of perspectives really allows patients to see their disease in a different light. This information sharing aspect isn’t something that comes from a visit to your healthcare provider.

The fact that these communities are online is also huge. They can be accessed by anyone and any time or place whether you live in New York City or Nunavut. People who used to be isolated no longer need to feel alone. All they need is an internet connection.

2. How do you see those communities growing as technology becomes more accessible? What more can they offer their members?

The more people that discover these platforms, the more robust the community will be. Also, with more and more people using smartphones, I feel patients will be taking these communities with them on the go. I envision a patient leaving a doctors appointment and using their smartphone to connect with their community to share their experience or get advice on a suggested treatment.

3. Are these online communities fulfilling an unmet need in the current healthcare system? What can more traditional sources of healthcare information (doctors, nurses, etc) learn from them?

Perhaps they are fulfilling the unmet need of a humanistic touch. Hospitals can feel quite cold, isolated and full of intimidating professionals for patients dealing with a chronic illness. On the other hand, online communities offer a more humanistic support system. There is definitely something to be learned from this for healthcare professionals: we all have room to improve when it comes to providing holistic care and addressing patient needs in the healthcare setting.

4. Is there a role for both these online communities AND traditional medical care in a smoothly functioning healthcare system?

Definitely. I see these online communities acting as complementary therapy to traditional medicine. I think they allow patients to feel empowered to take control of their health.

Abigail will be one of the panelists at HealthConnect, so if you want to hear more of her opinions on technology in the healthcare space, be sure to register!

Our third episode of our Heath-focused show is a conversation between Karim Kanji and Komodo OpenLab co-founder Mauricio Meza.  Komodo OpenLab develops inclusive technologies that facilitate the daily lives of people with disabilities. In this clip we find out about how Komodo was started and what problem they are attempting to solve.

To watch the full interview visit http://youtu.be/igQR4ENwoVA. Komodo co-founder Jorge Silva has also spoken at TEDx in Montreal. Watch his intriguing talk on open source systems and assistive technologies.

Remember to register for our HealthConnect panel on October 24th.

Thanks to iHorse Technologies for generously supporting our HealthConnect initiative.

From the early days of its existence, the Internet has always been a place to go for information about chronic diseases. Information alone however, doesn’t usually alleviate the isolation that often comes with an uncommon chronic illness. Even if an individual has a well-meaning and supportive network of friends and family, these relationships often can’t substitute for a real connection between those who are undergoing the same challenges and issues presented by a chronic ailment. It is not always enough to simply be told that you are “not alone”. This is where social media can help fulfill the needs of individuals suffering from a chronic disease, not only in accessing related information about particular disorders, treatments and side effects, but also, on a more profound level, connecting those with similar experiences together.

To demonstrate, let’s look at Crohn’s disease.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that impacts the lives of about 200,000 Canadians. According to World Bank data, the population of Canada in 2011 was about 34.5 million. So, about 1 out of every 172 Canadians suffers from Crohn’s disease. If we look at a town like Niagara-on-the-Lake (2011 population of 15,400), if the town follows the statistical average then there will be about 90 Crohn’s patients in the town. That might seem like a lot of people, but in reality that’s less than 2 buses full, and what are the odds that you know all (or even any) of them?

Try contrasting this with a startup website such as Crohnology, which is a social network created specifically for patients suffering from Crohn’s or Colitis. Obviously, this sort of a community will be a far easier place to build the sort of relationships that can provide support and empathy to people struggling with a chronic disease.

The challenge of finding supportive interactions with fellow patients diagnosed with a chronic disease gets far more challenging with less-common diseases. What if you live in a small town, and are the only person in your area dealing with a specific disorder? While there are about 200,000 people in Canada who suffer from Crohn’s diesease, there are many rarer diseases, such as Gaucher’s disease (a genetic disease in which a fatty substance accumulates in certain organs and cells), in which only 1 out of every 50,000 people are affected. This means that there are only approximately 690 people with Gaucher’s disease across all of Canada. (Incidentally, there is an organization for people suffering from Gaucher’s disease at www.gauchercanada.ca.)

The power of social media lies in bringing people with similar interests together, no matter where in the world they live. When it comes to chronic disease, social media is already doing an amazing job of bring together people living with the same illnesses. The big challenge will be in mobilizing the strengths of these communities to inform and empower people to be better stewards of their own care.

Want to talk more about the opportunities social media offers in healthcare? Sign up for our amazing panel event on October 24th. Register now before it’s too late!

Facebook recently hit an impressive milestone. They announced that they have now reached 1 billion active users. Given that approximately 1 out of every 6 or 7 people on the planet are now using Facebook (and this doesn’t take into consideration other social networks), can the medical community ignore social media as a means to engage with potential patients?

There is already a demand for interaction with medical professionals via social media. A recent report released this week by the Canadian Red Cross indicated that “63% of Canadians think emergency services such as fire and police should be prepared to respond to a call for help posted on a social media site such as Facebook or Twitter.”

Given the numbers on this recent survey, I think we can safely assume demand exists for a greater presence of both emergency medical help and general healthcare professionals / services on social media. Some might say we are already heading into dangerous territory when 35% of those polled in this recent Red Cross survey already believe they will gain assistance during an emergency by means of a post requesting help on a social media site (the official recommended method is still to call 911).

In every problem there is an opportunity

Since the demand for social media service for emergency medical care exists, there is also an incredible opportunity, specifically for medical surge capacity planning.  Medical surge capacity is the term used to refer to the ability for an existing healthcare system to handle a dramatic increase in patients. Technology can be an incredible help with this. When the SARS outbreak hit Ontario in 2003, the number of daily calls to TeleHealth Ontario went from around 3500 to around 13,000. This kind of a sudden increase would swamp the average hospital, but with TeleHealth, all of the callers were able to speak to a medical professional without needing to visit their doctors or local hospitals.

Although one-to-one communication such as a phone call to Tele-Health is a great time saver and customer service benefit to a client, not to mention a financial advantage for the Province, it cannot always reach the desired number of people you seek to contact. A finite number of operators means a limited number of calls can be taken at any one time. What happens when your primary focus is reaching out to a community, and not intake related? Organizations like the Toronto Transit Commission are already demonstrating that social media can be effectively used for reaching a larger audience  as well as responding to inquiries and concerns. The TTC often broadcasts scheduled and unplanned service delays and route changes, along with impromptu station or track closures through their Twitter account.

Social media channels of communication for emergency medical services could be incredibly efficient at dealing with large volumes of inquiry, as often there is a surge in demand for information as a result of a single occurrence (take the SARS outbreak for example), while still providing the flexibility to respond on an individual basis.

Often, one of the obstacles to building new services is the lack of certainty as to whether people will use them. After all, TeleHealth was launched as a pilot project in Ontario in the late 90s, while the phone was invented over a hundred years earlier. When we look at the Canadian Red Cross findings however, they seem to suggest there won’t be many barriers to people adopting a new social media service, in fact, it seems people are actively requesting it! 49% of respondents said they would sign up for electronic alerts in times of official warnings. Perhaps the future will see us tweeting about the next bird flu! Given the capacity challenges being faced by our medical system, social media could be the key to making more effective use of our limited resources!

Want to talk more about the challenges and opportunities of using social media in healthcare? Sign up for our amazing panel event on October 24th. Register now before it’s too late!