November 2011

Announcing the Winners of the Apps Against Abuse Technology Challenge

Working with the Office of the Vice President and the White House Office of Science and Technology, we launched the Apps Against Abuse technology challenge – calling on software innovators to harness the power of mobile technology to help prevent dating violence and abuse by keeping young adults connected to trusted friends and providing easy access to important resources for help including local police and abuse hotlines. Today, we are pleased to announce the winners of the challenge: “Circle of 6” and “On Watch.” Prototypes of the two winning applications were selected from a pool of over 30 entries submitted to Challenge DOT gov. Vice President Biden applauded the winning applications earlier today during a conference call with hundreds of college and university officials to discuss ongoing efforts to help better prevent and respond to sexual assault and violence on campuses across the country. He encouraged the college and university leaders to make students on their campuses aware of the applications when they become available for download in 2012.

Circle of 6: This iPhone app makes it quick and easy to reach your circle of supporters and let them know where you are and what you need. It takes two touches to get help. The app uses text messaging to contact your circle, uses GPS to locate you when needed, connects to reputable domestic violence organizations, and asks contacts to take a pledge on Facebook to stop violence before it happens.
On Watch: On Watch is an iPhone app that lets you transmit critical information by phone, email, text, and social media to your support network. You can check in with friends, call 911 or campus police with two touches of a button, set countdown timers that send messages and GPS information automatically if events or activities don’t go according to plan, and connect to sexual assault, dating violence and domestic abuse hotlines.

Got a knack for making apps? $100,000 prize offered by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced an "Aligning Forces for Quality" $100,000 “app challenge” – a competition among technology developers to create easy-to-use online tools that help consumers find information on the quality of their local physicians and hospitals.

In the challenge, competing developers will create applications for various devices including smartphones or iPads that will allow consumers to easily access and experience comparative information about the quality of care provided in various regions of the country. Data to fuel the app will come from RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality initiative, the foundation’s signature effort to improve the quality of health care in 16 targeted communities nationwide. The Aligning Forces app challenge will be conducted in two phases. Phase one is an open challenge for interested developer teams to create and submit new applications using Aligning Forces data. In phase two, the developer teams will work with AF4Q communities to further refine their applications with independent judges, including leaders and patients from Aligning Forces communities. The developer of the winning app will receive $100,000. The second place winner will receive $25,000, and the third place winner will be awarded $5,000. Winners will be announced in June 2012.

BioBook, A Gates-Funded iPad Textbook, Plans A Free Database For Customized Learning

Since the launch of the iPad, college educators have been seeking an inexpensive alternative to paper textbooks that could leverage the collective knowledge of teachers and students. With a $249,000 grant from the Gates Foundation's Next Generation Learning Challenge, Dr. Daniel Johnson of Wake Forest University and education technology firm Odigia might have found it. Their BioBook, an iPad and web-enabled interactive biology textbook, creates a fully customizable experience for both students and educators.

The Smartphone Wars Are Over

Statistics, arguments, sales figures, and passionate explanations claiming one or another smartphone platform has sold or will sell more than another in a specific market might litter the web for a while to come. But, really, it's all over but the shoutin'.

"Android outselling iPhone by two to one in the UK," states one headline. "Android was the only OS whose sales grew in all markets it surveys," goes another. And remember this one from last year: "Android sales overtake iPhone in the US." You could be forgiven for thinking that like a tide sweeping the world, Google's smartphone/erstwhile tablet OS has decisively won the smartphone wars and has been busy digging itself in, reinforcing its positions, and mopping up the entrails of survivors it's slain. After all, RIM's sales are in trouble, Nokia's future is in serious doubt, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 plans haven't borne fruit yet, and HP/Palm's great webOS experiment is dead in the water. The only competitor to Android is Apple's iPhone, which started it all off, but Android fans love to point out Apple's outsold by Android handsets pretty much everywhere.

So now we have a Cold War situation, with both brands locked in tense legal and commercial battles, and a cluster of competing smartphone brands jockeying for third place. Oddly enough, just as the real Cold War drove a massive amount of innovation, this new battle may actually see even more interesting developments being pursued by Apple, Google, and Google's partners as they compete to win the hearts and minds of the smartphone-buying public.

Social Media Has Role in Delivery of Healthcare but Patients Should Proceed With Caution

Social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube can be powerful platforms to deliver and receive healthcare information, especially for patients and caregivers who are increasingly going online to connect and share experiences with others with similar medical issues or concerns. However, these sites may lack patient-centered information and can also be sources of misleading information that could potentially do more harm than good, according to the results of two separate social media-related studies.

In the first study, “Social Media for Esophageal Cancer Survivors,” researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Florida found that social media is an important resource for patients and their caregivers who are facing important treatment decisions after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer and managing difficult nutritional and lifestyle issues after esophageal surgery.

In a second study, “YouTube: A Friend or Foe When You Are Taking Care of IBD Patients,” researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation analyzed the top 100 most viewed IBD-related videos for content, popularity and as a source of patient education information. They found that while YouTube can be a powerful tool for patient education and support, overall Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) content posted on YouTube was poor.

Survey: 10% of Hospitals Ready for Stage 1 of Meaningful Use

About 10% of U.S. hospitals are ready to meet all 14 core measures for Stage 1 of the meaningful use program, according to a report by HIMSS Analytics, the research arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments. The report found that 31% of hospitals "should be prepared to meet Stage 1 of meaningful use shortly". Such hospitals are ready to meet at least 10 of the 14 core measures for Stage 1.

The report also found that:

About 53% of hospitals are classified as being unlikely to meet Stage 1 soon, having met nine or fewer core criteria; and
About 6% of hospitals are not ready to meet any core measures.

Doctors, Like Their Patients, Use Google for Health Information

General web browsers like Google and Yahoo are behind only professional journals and colleagues as a source of information physicians frequently use to diagnose and treat patients, according to a survey of more than 300 doctors.

The survey, from Wolters Kluwer Health, covered a sample of American Medical Association members, both primary-care physicians and specialists. We weren’t too surprised to hear that “spending more time with patients” ranked highest on a list of areas in which doctors would like to see improvement. Nor was it particularly shocking to read that expense is a big barrier to adopting new health technologies. But the Google and Yahoo findings initially surprised us. When doctors were asked how often they used certain sources to gain information used to diagnose, treat and care for patients, 68% said they “frequently” consulted professional journals and 60% said the same about colleagues. And just under half — 46% — said general web browsers. Conferences and events and online free services like WebMD were each cited by 42% of respondents as frequent sources of information. Then again, no one says Google and Yahoo don’t lead people to tons of useful info — just that it can be tough to sort the wheat from the chaff. Physicians, presumably, can assess the quality of the health information they dig up better than the average consumer.

Is ESPN the main force behind realignment in college sports?

Gene DeFilippo backpedaled quickly — an old quarterback executing one more scramble — after suggesting last month that one of the most stunning shifts in the recent wave of realignment in college sports had been scripted by ESPN. The Boston College athletics director apologized, saying he'd misspoken when he told The Boston Globe that the cable television titan "told us what to do" before the Atlantic Coast Conference chose Pittsburgh and Syracuse as new members, plundering the neighboring Big East. His retreat did little to quell conspiracy theories.

Questions continue to bubble about whether ESPN — the 32-year-old network that has become a defining force in sports and the culture around them — has been a key behind-the-scenes player at a time of high-profile realignment in college sports. Fueled largely by schools seeking more money and security in their conference arrangements, the scramble has touched at least a half-dozen leagues and threatened several traditional rivalries. For all that ESPN has lent to the growth of major-college athletics — through on-air exposure and with rights-fees payouts that schools have fed into stadium improvements, luxurious locker rooms and huge contracts for top coaches — there's an undercurrent of concern about the influence of the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports. It's not just that its tentacles are everywhere: They're everywhere at once.

Steve Jobs bio sheds light on Obama relationship

The account of Steve Jobs' relationship with President Barack Obama, which comes toward the end of Walter Isaacson's autobiography, takes up little more than four of its 571 pages. But it sheds light on both men - not always flattering - and on the relationship between U.S. business and the U.S. government; again, not always flattering.

Apparently, Jobs' relationship with President Obama ended on an up note, with the two talking by telephone several times, including one call in which Jobs reportedly offered to help out Obama's re-election campaign on the ad front. We don't know if Obama took Jobs up on his offer. We do know Jobs never got the chance. Whether Obama turns out to be a "one-term presidency," with or without Jobs, we'll have to wait a year to find out.

$16M promised for broadband in Chicago suburbs

High speed Internet is getting a $16 million boost in suburban Cook County.

Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle (D) announced a partnership at South Suburban Community College. The state will put in $6.1 million and the county promises $10 million. The project will mean more than 70 miles of new underground fiber optic cable to provide high-speed network connections between hospitals, libraries and schools. Chicago suburbs that will benefit include Calumet Park, Dixmoor, Harvey, Markham, Riverdale and Robbins. State officials say the project will create at least 150 permanent and temporary jobs. County Board President Preckwinkle says the project is critical to reverse joblessness, poverty and technology adoption in the southern Chicago suburbs. Gov Quinn says the infrastructure project is a step toward economic growth.

Benton

Search