Health 2.0 Spring Fling in San Diego on March 22-23.

Here are the hot topics and summary of the Health 2.0 in S.D 20111.

I. Data-Drive Technologies

a. Data-set Size and Availability
The availability of extremely large amounts of publically available datasets has revolutionized the healthcare industry. From drug development to demographic statistics, developers can combine these datasets to provide an application that is valuable to the individual end-user.

b. Analysis
Basic Descriptive statistics as well as the more complicated concepts of correlation and regression modeling have become commonplace in these applications. The ability to graphically represent data statistics is critical to the success of any medical health application.

c. Display (UIDs)
Another noteworthy advance in these data-driven technologies is the customizable nature of the application display. It was observed during the Health 2.0 Coding Competition that the majority of judges preferred an application that was both simple and aesthetically appealing to the user. Thus, although there is an enormous reservoir of data and statistics available, the application is viewed as superior when it is limited to critical data and user-friendly graphical representations.

II. Medical Diagnostics

a. Motion detection
Convenient, data-driven applications represent a growing opportunity in the medical industry. A good example of this is the motion detection KINECT technology. One group of developers used the X-Box Kinect to measure movement rates in patients being diagnosed for a movement disorder http://www.motionassessment.com. This quantitative testing application is less subjective and more reproducible than the existing methodologies.

b. Corneal scans
Another medical application was represented by a group from MIT. They constructed a simple device that attaches to the user’s smart phone and can read and report corneal topography and refractive error. The convenience of such a small and inexpensive apparatus illustrates a great opportunity for development in the eye-care industry. It is currently being validated and used to screen for cataracts in underdeveloped nations, where traditional eye measurement devices are too expensive, large, and inconvenient.

III. Consumer Health

a. Monitoring Health
A very popular theme at the conference was the use of applications to assist consumers in monitoring their health status (e.g. weight, BMI, average workout time, etc.). Most applications not only displayed current use progress and statistics, but also compared the results to comparable demographic statistics. Much effort was done to create interfaces that would be attractive and addictive (i.e. gaming themes) to the end-user. There were also modules that allowed the user to incorporate social media applications in order to compare and share data with friends, etc. Thus, they would be more likely to continue use.

b. Food Education
California and other states have begun to further efforts to reduce obesity and unhealthy eating habits. One approach has been to require food companies to make nutritional data for their product publically available. Many applications may use a barcode scanner to access and display these basic nutritional data as well as an interpretive scoring system. For instance, with the “FoodSwapper” app, the user scans the barcode and is instantly given a relative score on the overall nutritional quality of the food. The application also provides a series of recommended healthier alternatives at the same food location (e.g. apple slices to replace potato chips). While this technology is not exceptionally sophisticated it does create a “fun” application that can be used repeatedly by the consumer.

c. Food Access
A new and unique application involved geographical data and “food deserts”. A food desert is a geographical location that has a significant shortage of fresh food products. The application was text-driven. The hypothetical user would text grocery needs to a central number. The information would be disseminated to a group of food providers. These providers would then give the consumer a price quote and location where the food would be delivered. The application was very popular with the judges. However, there is concern regarding the scalability of the application. More specifically, I do not think it is likely that food producers will find much economic advantage in the delivery of small personal orders, given gas prices and delivery costs. However, if the order data was collated among all the local users, a given producer could more accurately manage what food was in shortage and what the price should be set as. The application does not currently have such a feature.

IV. Platforms

a. Web-based vs. Mobile
While the majority of developers at the conference were working on mobile applications, there was still a handful focused on web-based solutions. With the growing popularity of the iPad as well as the internet capabilities of practically all cellphones today, an argument could be made that web-based solutions have an advantage. Still, it was clear that iPhone and Android applications were much more exciting to the attendees and coding judges.

b. iPhone vs. Android vs. Cross Platform
It appeared that approximately 50% of the mobile applications were developed only for the iPhone, 45% for the Android, and 5% were cross platform (html5, etc.). This was extremely surprising and is likely due only to the developer’s preference and availability of development software. Still, it seems clear that any well-developed application should exist for both platforms. Not doing some would immediately remove a large portion of the potential market share.

V. Role of Social Games
The presence of social gaming modules was very large at the conference. Developers seemed convinced that end-users find these games to be the key to market success. One developer created an application that used a “virtual garden” to represent the user’s health status. So, as the user became healthier their garden grew. I was somewhat surprised these types of simple metaphors were successful. It is possible that the typical consumer will use the gaming interface for a short, but focused amount of time. Thus, continual adjustments and changes to the interface are likely necessary to hold the user’s attention over a prolonged period of time.

VI. Research Impact

a. Real-Time Data Access
Potentially the most significant impact on the research market is the speed at which large datasets become available. Being able to continually track patient outcomes in a real-time manner is becoming indispensable to the researcher. Of course, this is also aided by the increased mobility of the testing and data capturing technologies. Gone are the days of paper clinical trials.

b. Patient Ownership of Data
Data ownership is a very important topic in the U.S. market. Because healthcare is not provided by the government, up until now the individual agencies that provide health services were the only groups that had access to patient data. However, going forward there is a movement in thinking that the patient should own and control the dissemination of their own medical information. The advance of electronic medical records (EMRs) is increasing the rate of this trend as end-users can access their medical history records online.

c. Genome Projects
With the increased sharing of health data, the advancement of the human genome project is likely to be greatly affected. It is not unforeseeable that in the future genomic data for specified diagnoses will be made publically available, if not centrally located and able to be queried by researches. Advancement in a more individualized medical approach does not seem far off.

VII. Code-A-Thon Entries
Below is a biography of notable Code-A-Thon developers that participated and were rewarded in the coding competition component of the conference.
a. www.Healthypeople.gov
b. www.Networkofcare.org
c. www.Health.cgi.com
d. www.Healthline.com
e. www.Healthcare.gov
f. www.Epicenter.johnschrom.com
g. www.Foodswapper app
h. www.Mappinghealth.com/maternitycare
i. www.Freehealth.com
j. Team Triangle (Grand prize winner)