CDC’s first iPad App already a winner

Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control released its first iPad App, rated by iSnoops.com as “Hot,” with 4.5-stars.  This app specifically enabled for iPads was created with the recognition that more and more people are using mobile technology to search for health information. Industry experts rate the app so positively due to the breadth of information offered and the instaneous nature of the updates, a feature important during times of public health crisis, such as during a flu pandemic.

The CDC's leap into mobile health gives iPad users touchpad access to the organization's real-time health updates, blogs and podcasts, these tabs include:

• Newsroom features the latest health news from the CDC Newsroom. From this tab you can access current and archived press releases, media advisories, and press briefing transcripts.
• Public Health Matters Blog: Here CDC bloggers share their passion for public health, its evolution, and the continual strides that are being made to protect and save lives through education, awareness, research, and promoting healthy lifestyles.
• CDC podcasts: Listen to CDC podcasts on your iPad for reliable health and safety information when and where you want it. The tab links to CDC’s vast library of audio and video podcasts.

Over 50,000 pages of content can be accessed through tabs for general health-related information:

• Health Articles written by subject matter experts and health communicators from all CDC centers and programs.
• Vital Signs offers recent data on important public health issues. Topics include: colorectal and breast cancer screening; obesity; alcohol and tobacco use; access to health care; HIV testing; seat belt use; cardiovascular disease and more.
• Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) Journal is a peer-reviewed electronic journal established to address the interface between applied public health research, practice, and policy.

Mindful of users’ desire to network, the app provides a conduit to share:

• Stay Connected: Follow CDC by tapping on tabs for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. By accessing CDC's social media through the iPad, users can view important information on health topics and events throughout the year.

The CDC App is free for anyone to download. If you have an iPad, tap directly on the icon for the iTunes App store. At the top right of the page, type CDC iPad App in the search box. You will be taken to a page where you can download the CDC App. (Look for the app with the CDC logo.) You can read more about on CDC’s web site: http://www.cdc.gov/mobile/Applications/CDCGeneral/promos/ipad_promo.html

This is not the CDC’s first venture in mobile technology. In addition to it’s own site being mobile-optimized for more than two years, the agency continues to offer cash awards for developers to create technology-enabled ways to augment its public health efforts by developing apps for flu and other conditions. Read more: http://www.fiercemobilehealthcare.com/story/cdc-looking-few-good-flu-apps/2011-04-25#ixzz1lExP4kQk25#ixzz1lExP4kQk .

Mobile Health Apps: Making Us Healthier?

As the mobile app market booms, those seeking a more health-conscious life have a seemingly endless selection of tools that claim to make them healthier: Apps track diets, count calories and even connect people with others trying to stay active and eat better.
Brian Dolan of MobiHealth reports there are roughly 8,000 "health" apps available for download in the iTunes library alone. The breakdown looks something like this: 60 percent relate to calorie counting, 20 percent to cardio fitness, 9 percent to strength training and 7 percent to improving sleep.
So, with so many resources literally at our fingertips, are our behaviors being changed for the better? Are mobile health apps effectively improving our way of life?
Not really, according to mobile health app analyst Pamela Culver, who authored a recent research report stating that while 70 percent of people globally want access to at least one medical health app, 26 percent of people who've downloaded them only use them once, and only two-thirds of people who have the apps use them as intended. (This is according to a Pew Internet Research Study.)
Quality is an issue
With the gates wide open for mobile health app development, it's easy to see how some, if not most of the apps being downloaded, aren't the most useful of tools. In many cases, these tools are not designed or developed by health experts. To compound this issue, many of health apps are simply regurgitations of existing apps where the same, poor functionality and information is repeated with a more appealing interface.
And while only a few medical apps have been approved by the FDA (including AirStrip and Mobile Medical Imaging) a March 10 FDA town hall revealed the FDA will require regulatory review and software validation. Once in place, this should give consumers more useful, powerful tools and help amplify engagement.
Medical app users are disengaged
Another part of the issue has to do with disengagement. In 2010, Susana Fox from the Pew Research Center published findings that said the more chronic diseases a person struggles with, the less likely he is to seek health information online. This means the very people who need to effectively manage chronic conditions aren't accessing the data or tools that can help them.
Similarly, a 2010 Edelman Health Engagement study, which showed who interacted with online health information, uncovered that only 20 percent of people "health engage" -- an industry term describing people who act on data provided to them through these health apps. (For example, you read that you should be running 10 more minutes today and then you follow suit.)
It's important to note that this study was conducted in 12 countries, which clearly shows that health disengagement is global.
In a March 12 panel on mobile health apps at SXSW Interactive, Margaret Morris, a senior researcher with Intel Corp., said, "One of the landmines with developing and promoting health software is an assumption that people set health goals and follow them in a steadfast manner. But people have a lot of variation in motivation and we need to address the social and emotion factors that affect motivational variation."
This is true with anything being designed in app form. If the app isn't designed to be flexible for these variations in motivations, as well as other factors like the user's level of technical ability, daily routines and time they can dedicate to improving their health, then it's not designed well and it can be expected to score low with retention and engagement.
Changing human behavior
Changing behavior with a mobile health app can be challenging. Another pitfall around designing useful apps is "sloppy thinking around behavior change."
Says BJ Fogg, a Stanford researcher who founded the Persuasive Technology Lab: "There's lots of different types behavior change [and] it's very difficult to get people to do things one time like a health risk assessment vs. stopping like quitting smoking vs. creating a daily habit so we need clearer thinking around behavior change."
One tactic to help with launching this change is focusing on baby steps. When health app developers focus on designing small, initial steps, they can "trigger the right sequence of baby steps," claims Fogg. These apps may be more successful with users because they don't set unrealistic goals right out of the gates, keeping users engaged with them longer.
Another approach is to focus on utilizing better health data within the app. Today, not many tools have the networking capability to tie in with, say, a user's health chart from their physician's office. But the future of successful mobile health apps may hinge on the ability to display custom activities based on granular, personalized data right from a doctor's notes.

Do Analog Networking Theories Still Apply? Building Blocks Learned From Parents

Parents are often the best teachers of good networking skills. They are the ones demonstrating great patience and perseverance, ultimately practicing what they preach "Making the effort now brings a payoff later, and the rewards are worth waiting for." Here is what most of our parents told us, as often as necessary, until the lessons took hold:

"You have to learn to share"
No one is born willing to share. But eventually we learn to share, first sharing our parents time and then our toys and then our money.  Eventually we come to realize a truism of human nature: when you share with others, others want to share with you, too.

In business, the focus is often on getting ahead, achieving our own goals, advancing our own careers. When we have learned to share we recognize that our greatest achievements are reached when our resources are pooled. Stephen Covey summarizes this concept as the sixth habit of Highly Successful People: Synergize. He writes "the sum is greater than the parts" and "moving from independence to interdependence helps take us to the highest level of leadership."

I suggest that learning to share in the business community through ideas or referrals builds trust, loyalty, and camaraderie between individuals. What better way to establish your reputation than as an individual who is always looking to help other?

"Don't forget to say thank you."
Often considered the downside of the childhood ritual of receiving birthday presents, is the expectation of writing thank you notes. Parents stress the importance of this obligation and as an employee I have recognized the benefit of building strong business relationships.

Networking professional Sandy Donovan, shares that she often looks for reasons to send people notes. She writes more than just thank you notes, but often sends along articles or of personal interest to the recipient. She recommends doing this with all in your network-- business associates, clients, friends, contacts or colleagues. It shows them that you are thinking of them.

"You made a promise, now keep your word."
Parents always stress the importance of keeping a commitment. A good definition of commitment is doing the think that you said you'd do long after the mood you said it in has left you. Doing the things we don't want to do, but promised to do, "gradually brings to light the better angels in our nature" Abraham Lincoln has been quoted to say. These angels will most likely be the ones that bring us success.

How can we be great networks without cultivating great relationships? How can we build positive relationships without trust? And who will trust us if we don't do what we say we'll do?

I speculate that what will set us apart from our competition is how well we have learned and adopted the building blocks of networking our parents taught us.

Do Analog Networking Theories Still Apply? Chopra's The Law of Giving

A decade ago in business school, I studied Deepak Chopra's Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. One of which is the Law of Giving. This law could also be called The Law of Giving and Receiving, because the universe operates through dynamic exchange--nothing is static. This law describes every relationship as one of give and take. Giving engenders receiving, and receiving engenders giving.

Chopra suggests that the intention behind your giving is the most important aspect. The intention should always be to create happiness for both the giver and receiver. Practicing the Law of Giving is actually very simple: if you want attention and appreciation, learn to give attention and appreciation; and so on.  Simply, the easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. This principle by nature should work equally well for individuals, corporations, societies and nations.

In 2001, I learned in Human Interactions class that the best way to put The Law of Giving into operation is to make a decision that any time you come into contact with anyone, you will give them something. Nonmaterial gifts, such as an idea, a compliment or an introduction, are always the most powerful. In my opinion, modern day social digital networks have flourished by using this very principle.

I challenge myself, my network and my clients to practice The Law of Giving--remembering that as long as you are giving you will be receiving; and as you receive more, your ability to give more will also increase.

Do Analog Theories Apply in the Modern Digisphere: What is a Network?

In my inagural series of blogs I will introduce networking theories taught in my B-school classes a decade ago. I ask those in my network to ponder and perhaps respond.

Humans spend an enormous amont of enegy communicating. We talk about the past, the present, the future, how they are connected, how they affect us, how we feel about it and what we plan to do about it.  Communicating enables our species to dream about things that do not exist and ultimately bring them to reality. This dreaming is often done internally, but requires the dissemination and rumination with others to be "fruitful." We cannot exist without synergistic communication.
Why and how do networks form?

John Naisbitt, American author and public speaker in the area of futures studies, suggests that networks simply stated are people talking to each other, sharing ideas, information and resources. In  his 2000 bestselling book Megatrends and Megatrends, he states that the important part is NOT the actual network, the finished product, but the process of getting there--the communication that creates the linkages between people and clusters of people.

In The  Aquarian Conspiracy, written by Marilyn  Ferguson in 1980, networks are described as elemental in changing society by improving productivity and work life through resource sharing. She stated 30 years ago that they are structured to transmit information in a way that is quicker, more high-tech, and more energy-efficient than ANY OTHER PROCESS WE KNOW.

The greatest attraction of a network is that is it the MOST EFFICIENT way to gain information. Although sharing information and contacts is their main purpose, networks can go beyond the mere transfer of data to the CREATION of knowledge. Describing this process, Williard Van de Bogart writes: "Each new thought is being integrated into the next thought, producing a new cumulative awareness of himan nature and the universe we live in. These new mental models are being shared within the newly developed networks  throughout the world."

Life in a network involves a power shift from the vertical to the horizontal and this liberates ALL that participate. Hierarchies promote moving up and getting ahead, producing stress, tension and anxiety. Networking empowers the individual, and people in networks tend to nurture each other. In the network environment, rewards come by empowering others not delegating.

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