Comments on: Digital temptations: “Quantifying, tracking or gamifying everything”

By: Smart Healthcare

Smart Healthcare — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:13:43 +0000

[…] Brilliant blog: http://www.ethicalnag.org […]

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:22:05 +0000

Thanks for your kind words, Charlie, and for your interesting (and oddly appropriate!) analogy of the McDonald’s milkshake!

LikeLike

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:20:30 +0000

Thank you so much for the tip about Jessie’s article (I’d missed it entirely!) You’re right – technology (in and of itself) is not the holy grail that developers and early adopters seem to believe it to be.

LikeLike

By: Smart Healthcare

Smart Healthcare — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:16:13 +0000

[…] See on ethicalnag.org […]

LikeLike

By: Charlie Young

Charlie Young — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:04:40 +0000

Carolyn, you are an eloquent and entertaining blogger – quite unique by my experience. This blog is particularly relevant to my work in healthcare in the UK where we are investigating how digital technology can be used as an enabler in healthcare delivery, rather than as a means to an end in itself.

I’m currently reading Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky and in his ruminations reflects on some research carried out on how McDonalds could improve their milkshakes. Rather than just evaluate the characteristics with customers as many researchers were doing, one looked at the people buying the shakes to determine why they bought one in the first place. The reason is meaningless, not least because it’s about McDonalds marketing strategy, but the question he ended up asking is pivotal – As a customer [patient], what job am I hiring this milkshake [product] for?

If a digital developer understood the fundamental needs of the patient, which I believe have to be described in patient-centred terms as above, then apps and digital health products and services would probably be very different in form and function.

Thanks, great reading!

@CharlieY

LikeLike

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:54:17 +0000

Technology is not the holy grail developers and early adopters seem to think it is.

Jessie Gruman in her open letter to Mobile Health App Developers, wrote: “We—patients and caregivers need your help to reduce the demands of self care. Mobile health (mHealth) apps have enormous potential to lessen our burdens. But our needs are often only loosely related to what clinicians and/or the evidence expect us to do.”

She also quotes Amy Tenderich, founder of Diabetes Mine: “We will use tools that answer our questions and solve our problems. We will avoid tools that help us do what you think we should do and we won’t use tools that add to the work of caring for ourselves.”

LikeLike

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:25:14 +0000

Hello Andrew and thank you for your comments here. I suspect you’re right – somewhere between the two extremes (the headline grabbers and the Luddites!) lies a middle ground where future patients will be routinely assisted via (smaller!) technology.

LikeLike

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:24:53 +0000

I am a great fan of Morozov as well, and I think he gets at a lot of the mush around technology and its use very well.

I do think, however, if that technology is designed with the end purpose in mind, and in the case of health, from the perspective of health care practitioners and patients, it can help.

Self-tracking within reason can help patients monitor their condition, activity trackers may provide additional motivation to some to be more active, and some of the larger diagnostic equipment will likely be replaced over time by smart phone accessories and apps.

Topol is over the top in his thinking but his smart phone app, ECG in a pocket if I understand correctly, may eventually replace the larger equipment in use today.
But a general skeptical approach is likely to be more realistic.

LikeLike

By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:40:55 +0000

Thanks for your perspective, Mark. But a simple pulse check wouldn’t capture media headlines, right?

LikeLike

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:34:21 +0000

If doctors cannot diagnose most cases of atrial fibrillation with pulse check (and a stethoscope would be nice) they are missing more than an app: they are missing basic physical diagnosis skills.

As with each medication, technology has effects and side effects (benefits and harms). Proceed with caution. Beware of salesmen…be they self-described salesmen or an unwitting sales force (health care workers).

Brings to mind an excellent book by Neil Postman called “Technopoly”.

LikeLike