I can’t find where I read it but I remember reading a discussion, I think it was in Wired Magazine, about how the presidential candidates were using the Web and Web 2.0 technologies. I remember a chart of the candidates and what they were using. And one of them, Edwards I think, said something like blogs, wikis, rss, Twitter..too..much…Web 2.0 (I always imagine this with the voice of the best Captain Kirk impression).
I like Web 2.0 technologies and they can be useful in health care if applied intelligently to problems, but they can be abused. Just like Flash was abused in the 90’s, a site can have an overload of these applications and overwhelm the user. We try to use them where appropriate to solve business problems. One of the best examples is the Google Maps mash-up we incorporated into our find a doctor application. It displays a map of the office locations in a physician profile.
The iMedia Survey results were posted to iMedia Connection on February 19th.
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18379.asp
I still don’t know that I am following their graphs correctly, but the one below blew me away.
If I am translating this cylindrical rainbow correctly, over half of the brand marketers (in the top bar) responded “More than one on this list” notice that the list does not include TV, radio, or print.
This slide shows that most of the money is coming out of TV budgets. Uh Oh!
It’s probably obvious to a lot of bloggers but cut me a little slack: The more you blog the easier it is to keep blogging. It’s just like the older adage for writers that the more you write the easier it is. And to be a writer all you need to do it write! All you need to do to be a blogger is to blog!
In my salad days, I wanted to be a fiction writer. I did some writing but I realized that while I wanted to be a writer, I didn’t have enough passion for it. I didn’t write enough. I didn’t stay up late working on a story. I did finish a few stories but never tried very hard to get them published.
I think I’m on the downhill side for this blog. It’s become easier to add entries. I also think I was trying to write my entries too long so it would take me longer to complete one. Now I dash off something short and post it. And I can add to the discussion later.
Why are we trying to hammer Internet nails with screwdrivers?
I have become enamored with the line from my post and wondered if I should have titled my last post with that line. I decided not to and then I decided to make another post with that title and link it to the post, because the phrase will look good as a title. Just like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” writing his theme about what he wants for Christmas and proclaiming, Yeah, that’s good.
The original post is text messaging and health care.
I had a great meeting with my team and some of our creative partners today. This meeting led to a great discussion regarding online advertising, and it led me to some realizations.
The most important thing I have found as a web user and working in new media is creative. It used to be easy to make a banner ad and get someone to click it, but as targeting becomes easier and easier, the creative can become more challenging.
Parts of it are easier, as the more you know about your target, the more you can tailor the message, but integrating the messaging can be more challenging.
Another challenge is of course, the fact that the medium is constantly changing, illustrated by YouTube’s new video advertising, and Google’s new video advertising on their results pages.
https://adwords.google.com/select/afc/ads/videoadsdemo.html
Five years from now…text messaging will replace web sites. I don’t believe that. I had a meeting with a vendor today and we were discussing text messaging and uses in health care. It was a good discussion and one thing that was stressed is that text messaging is for very small discreet messages or interactions with a user. It won’t replace a web site but it can support a web site strategy. One of the advantages is that it is easier to, in some cases, use your phone to interact with a site than to log on to the Internet and then a web site and then interact with it. Convenience is an advantage but there is a lack of user interface and it’s difficult to supply user feedback or correction. So if the task is small, like recording a single piece of numeric data or being sent a reminder, text messaging works great. If the interaction is complex and involves several pieces of data text messaging is not a good medium for the interaction.
Like Marshall McLuhan says, “The medium is the message.” To create a text messaging application, you need to consider the medium, its benefits and its constraints. Then select a project that benefits from the medium and could not be done as effectively in some other medium. Work with the process and not try to impose a technology on situation and force a new process.
In another meeting there was a discussion about using Internet technology to accomplish a goal but the methodology was from another medium. The idea was to use the internet but in a way that would be better accomplished in another older technology. The medium is the message and the medium should be part of the determination of the tools used to accomplish a goal. You can use a screwdriver to hammer a nail but a hammer would be more effective for that task. Why are we trying to hammer Internet nails with screwdrivers?
Ahh, it’s so good, just got my laptop set up again after a hard drive crash. Since I work as a web developer and in addition am particular about how my laptop is set up to maximize my efficiency, it takes a couple of days to install all the developer software and configure the laptop. Some of the configuring will slowly be done over the next week, the specific setting on Visual Studio, etc. I was very lucky that the data recovery person was able to recover all my data on the hard drive. Just today I completed my transition from the spare laptop. I had to make sure I had all I needed on the new hard drive, had transferred all my work over and could do my work without the spare laptop. I’ve been using a spare for a few weeks now and it’s great to have my laptop back. It’s faster and has more hard drive space.
One thing maybe unique to health care is that i make sure that my hard drive is thoroughly wiped clean before sending it back for warranty just in case there is any patient or consumer data on it. I try not to store that kind of data on my laptop but when something happens to it unexpectedly I may have had something on there I was in the middle of working on. With all the news about stolen consumer data I would rather be absolutely sure than to take chances especially since I work in health care.
This article in Wired magazine has it right. It’s a brief but insightful discussion of the current state of health care medical records.
Trying to get these vendor systems to talk to each other is extremely difficult and the vendors don’t want a database administrator or developer into their medical records database.
My wife had an interesting experience today. She went to her doctor and expected that she would be able to see some tests results another doctor ordered. But her doctor today can’t see them until the other doctor sends them to her. Both of these doctors are in the same health care network and my wife’s expectation or conceptual model (usability term alert!) is that they could all see all of the records that pertain to her in one location. Even inside the same electronic medical record system that is not necessarily true.
