Teams raced to find 10 red weather balloons around the U.S.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won $40,000 after locating 10 red weather balloons placed in undisclosed locations around the United States. They did it in just nine hours using social networking tools like Twitter. The contest, run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), wanted to see how social networking works to solve problems. Results from this, and other DARPA sponsored contests , give the military new ideas not only for combat, but for responding to natural disasters needing urgent mobilization.

DARPA’S Dr. Peter Lee spoke on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning about the contest, and how findings could help improve relief efforts. For example, in the case of a natural disaster, the search for red balloons might by replaced by a search for ten heavy lift operators in a particular area hit by a natural disaster. The quicker they are found and mobilized the better.

Mobile technology innovation award for global health solutions

The Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project is now accepting applications for the mHealth Alliance Award through February 1, 2010. The competition is expected to draw innovative wireless solutions to solve pressing global health challenges. The winner recieves a cash prize and benefits totaling $50,000. This includes the opportunity to collaborate with the renowned Santa Clara University’s Global Social Benefit Incubator Program (GSBI), and the mHealth Alliance, to get the idea to market.

Related link: the 2009 Wireless Innovation Project Winners  

Three generations share a digital moment

We’ve heard a lot about how digital natives, the 40 and under crowd, take advantage of social media for all kinds of things…networking for jobs via Linked-In, making friends on Facebook, finding camaraderie in facing illness via sites like patientslikeme.com. Baby Boomers are also using social media for health and other aspect of their lives, but does one size fit all in social media? 

Recently, the Path of the Blue Eye project commissioned a nationally representative online survey of 668 e-patients to, in fact, find out what older e-patients want from health organizations communicating via social media. Some results are outlined in a recent blog post, Older E-Patients Crave Information, Not Friendship from Health Organizations Communicating Via Social Media. The rest of the study goes on sale next week. In short, the study finds: ”If you want to capture older e-patients’ hearts via social media, focus on substance (information) over style (friendship).”

Looks like it’s a generation that is essentially still asking, “Where’s the beef?”.

DocRock-Hip-Hop Swine Flu Video

Dr. Clark won the HHS Flu.gov video PSA contest with his H1N1 hip-hop video in September. Now DocRock is ready for a hip-hop Swine Flu video show-down. His video, like Dr. Clark’s, educates the public (especially children) about preventing the flu from spreading.

Both doctors are in the business of doctoring, and selling music videos. Both do it via their web sites (HealthRock and HealthHopMusic) and via YouTube (DocRock presents his on the CignaTV YouTube channel). YouTube is now the number two search engine in the world and these two doctors, along with many organizations and businesses are reaping the benefits of putting their messages on video and uploading them to YouTube.  

An important element for success is to make instructional videos fun to watch. In a New York Times article, How to Start a Company (and Kiss Like Angelina), a Google exec comments on the rise of Howcast, a how-to video production company. He explains that  “(Howcast) understands that video is an incredible medium to share and instruct, but they also realize that they can use video to provide instruction in an environment that is entertaining, not dry.” Here’s Howcast’s version of a tongue-in-cheek public health message on How to Survive a Bear Attack.

Are your entertaining health messages on YouTube yet?

IdeaGoras Online Community

Though Europe is home to cutting-edge use of social media in healthcare, for example at Swedish hospitals, for the most part, social media is a new frontier.  Recently Ángel González set out to change this by holding his first conference in Madrid on social media for health and wellness in Europe.

Here’s an except from Walking the Path’s founder Fard Johnmar’s interview with Ángel González when asked to comment on major differences in the use of social technologies in the U.S. and Europe:

“”…when it comes to advertising and marketing trends, the US is at least two steps ahead of the EU.  Citizens of the EU and healthcare providers are increasingly using social media tools to gather and share information.  Pharmaceutical and other health companies operating in this part of the world must join in the conversation, despite their fears.”

By joining Gonzalez’s new online community IdeaGoras, 130+ European health communicators and others are confronting their fears, and learning how to engage target audiences in more meaningful ways and profit from a better return-on-investment.

The Health 2.0 User Challenge Documentary (give time to load)

Making its debut at the recent Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, The Health 2.0 User Challenge documentary follows the lives of five patients who describe the ups and downs of their test drive using Health 2.0 tools from companies like lifemojo.com, carrot.com, and CapMed. The Health 2.0 Conference then devoted a session called “The Patient is In” where some of the stars of the documentary, and others including Esther Dyson, reflect on user experience with Health 2.0 tools (see video below).  Users agreed that tools are not yet personalized enough, not easy enough, and that issues of technology vs. motivation enter in. An invitation to developers to listen, and make improvements.  

 
Health 2.0 Conference is San Francisco session: The Patient is In!
(give time to load)

I found this great blog post I had to share from Global Health Ideas:

NEW DELHI: Think out of the box. It pays. This is what 15-year-old Sarojini Mahajan is happy to realise after her idea of using human pulse to charge a cellphone was picked up by Stanford University on Wednesday. Sarojini had sent her idea as an entry to IGNITE 2009 — a nationwide contest of innovative ideas. Though she won a consolation prize in the contest , Stanford University will now work on her idea.Aman, Innovation Everywhere – Human pulse to charge cellphone |

Public Health 2.0: Re-Mixing Public Health
Jody Ranck, Dr.P.H. and Principal Investigator at the Public Health Institute shares his thoughtful exploration of innovation in public health “through the lens of social media, mobiles and design.” He describes social media tools like blogs, video sharing, and the mobile web, then discusses “elements that produce new social outcomes like preventing disease and addressing the social inequalities and determinants of health.” He says that the field of public health can’t wait the usual lag time of 8-10 years in adopting innovation. Though his white paper, full of graphs, charts, and examples (linked above), is 80 pages, he calls it a mere ”scan”. So, there will be more to come from Jody!

SMS or texting "till you drop" in Uganda

For people in Malawi, as in many developing countries, mobile phones are often the sole source of communication where there is limited access to fixed-line telephones or computers with an Internet connection. A UN report out in 2007 said that 64 percent of mobile phone users are in developing countries. Mobile phones are changing the way people live and have the power to change healthcare delivery.

The report Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use, released by the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation, states that 74% of NGO workers can now reach audiences they could not previously reach.

In Josh Nesbit’s presentation yesterday at the mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. he spoke about how his company’s free, open source software, FrontlineSMS, transforms a laptop and a mobile phone into a communication system, through text messaging. And, unlike similar software on the market, no Internet connection is needed. Its Mobiles in Malawi project connects community health workers and their patients with hospitals, replacing paper trails often marked by errors.

NGOs are using SMS (short message service, better known as text messaging) in programs around the globe. See this FrontlineSMS world map to get a glimpse of the program’s reach.

Two free reports, mHealth for Developmentfrom the UN Foundation and Vodaphone Foundation (which showcases 44 projects); and Mobile Phones: an Appropriate Tool for Conservation and Development shed light on the opportunities for mobile technology in international development.

Parents who worry about their U.S. teenagers texting an average of 80 messages a day–take heart. They may be just busy building skills for 21 Century careers if their thumbs hold out to adulthood!