If there is one thing that I learned from my very first experience at TEDMED, it’s that there are people who are finally not afraid to change things happening in the health care landscape. It’s become cool to talk about disruption and new concepts in the field that’s traditionally been an impenetrable fortress of sameness. And to be fair, maybe that’s why the conversation is ramping up.

[Photo: Regina Holliday]

For those of you unfamiliar with the TED (stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design) brand, the original conference started a number of years ago to showcase “ideas worth spreading”. With the groundswell of new concepts to transform health care (mobile technology, film, design elements, etc.) emerging in the last few years – it only makes sense that TED applies its brand to health and medicine.

For the first time in Washington DC (held in California in years past), TEDMED truly brought together leaders from health, medicine, science, technology – with a sprinkling of celebrity flare including Gabrielle Reese and Katie Couric, to make for engaging conversation. The sheer firepower of innovators and decision makers at the Kennedy Center gave me hope for some real movement on finding some solutions. There were a few folks that really highlighted concepts I care about.

Things got kicked off for me when Dr. Francis Collins, head of NIH, took the stage discussing the importance of moving faster in the medical science arena to develop better techniques to cure diseases. The fact that a young man (15 year old) living with progeria was able to attend and inspire the audience with his story solidified reality for the audience. This was important for me, especially because storytelling is what we are focused on with FastForward Health and I’m personally interested in people over statistics in the future of public health.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a personal heroine of mine because of her work – also dropped some knowledge on the crowd around issues that reflect on what needs to be recognized in public health. Much of what RWJF is focused on is growing health initiatives where we live, work and play (and as Jane Sarasohn-Kahn would add: where we pray as well!). “Health is essential to the productivity of our country” mentioned Risa. This is where public health really becomes relevant – looking at the far reaching consequences of inaction for our society. In this case, economics.

Finally, John Hoffman of HBO had me thoroughly excited about the upcoming documentary – The Weight of the Nation. A series looking at obesity in America and what can be done about it. Great to see partners such as Kaiser Permanente, the Dell Foundation, NIH and CDC being involved with this project. Getting a glimpse at the series which premieres next month, May 14 and 15th, got my mind going about film, storytelling and public health – once again applications to the FastForward Health project.

After it’s all said and done – TEDMED was a great gathering of minds for networking, idea sharing and inspiration. Over the past few years of being in this space, it’s wonderful to see things heating up for positive impact. Or maybe the potential for impact. Now it’s time to take the conversation home and not lose the energy. What can we do to see actual change over the next 3 months? 6 months?

That’s the true power of TEDMED and other events like it. Come together, then do together.

The following guest post is written by Bob Mook, Editorial Manager at the Colorado Health Foundation. This post comes particularly at a useful time when the Institute of Medicine recently came out with a report on the need for better funding for public health.

If you read Pulse + Signal regularly, you already know about the value of prevention in improving health.

Unfortunately, prevention can be a “hard sell” to those who don’t follow the health sector closely. In Colorado, as in other parts of the country, budget cuts are the norm for businesses and government. Increasingly, money is the “common language” people use and understand in these lean economic times.

As health costs and insurance premiums continue to escalate, there’s been a lot of discussion about cutting costs and reducing demand for health care services. After all, no single entity has unlimited resources to devote to health care.

While many cuts are driven by economic reality, efforts to skimp on prevention funding may prove “pennywise and pound-foolish,” according to “Prevention: Strong Investments in Colorado’s Health”(PDF), a supplement of the 2011 Colorado Health Report Card. The Report Card is published by the Colorado Health Foundation in collaboration with the Colorado Health Institute,  to gauge the state’s progress in health. The Foundation also uses the Report Card to identify priority areas for grantmaking investments.

Though Colorado often gets kudos as a healthy state (no doubt because of its pleasant climate and abundant outdoor recreational activities), the latest Report Card illustrates that our grades are merely “fair to middling.”

For example, though Colorado has the “leanest” adult population of the 50 states, our obesity rate rose from 19 to 22 percent between 2010 and 2011. With the increase, Colorado lost the distinction of being the only state in the nation with an obesity rate lower than 20 percent. One study estimates the economic
impact of obesity for Colorado at $1.7 billion a year. Furthermore, the Report Card shows we lost ground in other important areas, including prenatal care (where we rank No. 31 among states) and dental care (where we fell to No. 38). All of these factors contribute to declining health for Coloradans and adversely
higher health costs for individuals who reside here.

While many of the results from the Report Card don’t bode well for Colorado in the short term, prevention offers a bright ray of hope for improving those grades in the future. The Report Card supplement shows that investing in evidence-based public health programs could substantially reduce health care costs in Colorado over time while improving the health of our residents.

Case in point: One study estimates that an annual investment of $10 per Coloradan in community-based prevention initiatives could save more than $232 million annually in health care costs after five years – a $5.05 return for every $1 invested. Yet, despite this potential cost savings, public health represents a small portion (less than 5 percent) of every dollar spent on health care in the United States.

The supplement highlights the benefits of vaccinations (which saved $5 for every dollar invested and about $11 in additional costs to society), Nurse-Family Partnership programs (which save society $5.70 for every dollar invested) and worksite wellness (one study showed that for every dollar spent on wellness programs, overall medical costs fell by $3.27).

In addition to those encouraging findings about prevention, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has identified 10 “Winnable Battles” in public health – many of which are highlighted in the Report
Card.

Though the Report Card contains some disheartening statistics, the good news is that investing in prevention could greatly improve quality and reduce costs in Colorado and nationwide.

The second annual Food Day, the nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food, is just months away. Food Day is October 24 every year.

Food Day brings together organizations and individuals working on food issues as varied as hunger, nutrition, agriculture policy, animal welfare, and farmworker justice. Last year, some events were large in scale, such as a Times Square Eat In, attended by celebrities, chefs, and prominent food activists, but small scale efforts make a difference, too! Check out this video for a closer look.

Food Day will reach millions of Americans through events on college campuses, schools, houses of worship, and even restaurants. But Food Day can also be celebrated by simple, solitary acts of personal responsibility, such as stopping drinking soda or other sugar-based drinks, or forgoing fast-food in favor of a healthy, brown-bag lunch. Organizers welcome restaurants, manufacturers, growers, and other food companies to consider using Food Day to announce changes that benefit the health of consumers, employees, farm animals, or the environment.

With Food Day 2012 approaching, how will you participate?

The following is a guest post from Natasha Paleau on the recent National Health Promotion Summit in Washington DC. Natasha is a first-year graduate student at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She writes regularly for umwellness.wordpress.com , the blog of the University of Maryland Wellness Initiative, and Student Health 101, an online student health magazine. Natasha’s interests are in health disparities and the contextual factors that affect wellbeing for marginalized populations.

The National Health Promotion Summit took place this past Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, DC. Participants included government officials, policy makers, educators, students, health promotion advocates, and more.

Tuesday’s opening presentation and keynote address was given by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, and focused on the unprecedented focus on prevention efforts in the United States today. Using tobacco control as an example, the secretary highlighted how national efforts and national dialogue are shifting to rethink how we approach health promotion with an increased emphasis on prevention.

The plenary panel of that morning discussed prevention initiatives as they are related to new health care reforms, such as the National Prevention Council, The National Health Service Corps, and the National Public Health Improvement Initiative. The panel mentioned that if the ACA succeeds in expanding health insurance coverage to an estimated 34 million people by 2019, our health care system and safety net will be dramatically altered. As public health professionals, we must be careful about planning interventions and strategies that are flexible to such fast-changing realities.

Drawing on Healthy People 2020, the panel expanded upon Assistant Secretary for Health Howard K. Koh’s assertion that we must have “20/20 vision” for the future of health; indeed, we must be able to view public health issues with “3-D glasses” to address the various levels and determinants of health from a sustainable, combined-thinking, systems approach.

The concurrent sessions of the day touched on various advances in the field of health promotion. Speed Share sessions, which comprised 75 minutes of rotating presentations and group discussions, featured such topics as health promotion-based applications of the HITECH Act and EHRs, social marketing tools and strategies, using web-based approaches for health interventions, and more.

A panel session on “Preparing the Workforce for New Public Health” focused on innovations for improved training and education of students in various health fields. During this panel, experts discussed basing coursework on Healthy People and other national health targets, to educate students on current realities and future directions in the field of public health. Panelists also discussed some recent trends in improving medical education and training, such as the interdisciplinary program at Nova Southeastern University that combines a Doctor of Osteopathy program with a Master of Public Health Program. Dual graduates are able to ease some of the dichotomies between the different health professions, and address the deficiencies in public health training identified by many students in medical programs.

New and emerging technologies were an important topic throughout the summit. On Tuesday afternoon, before the luncheon keynote address, awards were distributed to the winners of HHS’s Leading Health Indicators Apps Challenge. Three impressive designs were recognized, all of which will be featured at the June 5^th Health Datapalooza in Washington, D.C.

The first place winner, Community Commons, was featured in a second-day panel on “New Innovations in Community Health Assessment.” This website uses geospatial mapping to display various types of public health data. There are over 7,000 data layers in their interactive map room. “Making public data publically accessible,” Community Commons uses an online social networking tool to connect users on the site with each other and with various health initiatives around the country. While it’s still in a testing phase, it’s clear why Community Commons was chosen by HHS as a particularly promising tool for displaying health indicator data, and for future use in community health assessments.

Along with Community Commons, The Community Toolbox and NACCHO’s MAPP program were also featured in the innovative assessment session.

The Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, gave the second keynote address on Wednesday morning. In addition to discussing the unprecedented National Prevention Strategy, Dr. Benjamin highlighted the importance of finding joy through health promotion. From zumba to walking events to dance breaks, the Surgeon General showed how she promotes having fun while pursuing optimal health.

Citing a new report on tobacco use, the Surgeon General echoed Secretary Sebelius’ message about the importance of smoking interventions for young people: 99% of first-time smokers are under the age of 25. For every person that dies as a result of smoking, there are 2 new young smokers to replace them- daily. As a result, the Surgeon General’s office has launched a new anti-smoking PSA that is specifically geared towards young people (the Surgeon General herself admitted to the similarities between this PSA and the teen-centric Twilight movies).

A second plenary panel on Wednesday discussed practical applications of the National Prevention Strategy, with a main focus on the co-benefits of a systems approach to creating holistic, integrated, and sustainable communities. The intersection of policy, community development, and public health was a major talking point here, as representatives from Sonoma County Department of Health, the US Department of Defense, and the Kresge Foundation discussed economics, social determinants of health, and various on-the-ground initiatives which were reflective of the National Prevention Strategy already working around the country. A fourth panelist, from Australia’s Gus Nossal Institute, commended the U.S. on the global implications of the US strategy. He mentioned that in addition to universal access to health care, all people are entitled to universal access to prevention.

Finally, Leon Andrews, a senior fellow with the National League of Cities, gave the closing speech late Wednesday morning. He discussed how various cities around the world are considering and re-considering their health initiatives, highlighting the changing culture and dialogue around childhood obesity over the last 10 years. In 1991, obesity was seen largely as an individual issue. Now, in 2012, as peak obesity rates in some states are over 30% of the population, the National League of Cities has designed a policy-centered childhood obesity initiative, in partnership with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Towns and Cities initiative to combat the growing epidemic.

As the various speakers and presenters highlighted throughout the summit, the landscape of public health is constantly changing. A central theme to the summit was being able to look forward to the future of health in the United States. There are countless opportunities and challenges ahead, and we would be wise to remain flexible in our approach, keep an eye on emerging innovations, and be willing to constantly evaluate our efforts in promoting health in the U.S.

I’m so very proud to be able to say that the health innovation film festival that I co-founded last year has been continuing to gain momentum over the past few months. After launching in Washington DC last November, we were fortunate enough to be invited to the first Health/Wellness track at Social Media Week in NYC this past February!

With people and organizations committed to destroying problems with new solutions in public health – we feel encouraged on a daily basis to keep the project moving forward.

We are now on the GOOD Maker Challenge to win $2,500 to keep the venture going. For those of you unfamiliar with GOOD magazine, it is dedicated to covering innovative concepts, people and initiatives shaping our world for the better. They have launched this Challenge to bring together great ideas in which the ones with the most votes will get this stipend.

Would you all be so kind to vote for us? http://jumo-organizations.maker.good.is/projects/fastfwdhealth

You need a GOOD account to make the vote count, however you can easily register/login via your Facebook account or fill out the brief registration form.

We sincerely appreciate any votes and opportunities for you to spread the word among your colleagues. At FastForward Health we are trying to refresh and invigorate the public/global health community with stories of innovation. Inspiration to think outside the box and create new solutions for the health of our communities.

We’re coming out to Los Angeles, DC and San Francisco this year! If you have any questions or would like to sponsor us, feel free to contact me at andre@fastforwardhealth.org

We are also on Twitter as @fastfwdhealth and on Facebook as well!

Big news happening. I was fortunate to be part of the selection committee for the Health Justice CT Challenge that got kicked off at the end of 2011. Basically Connecticut is growing leaders and innovators to reshape how health makes an impact in their communities.

The purpose of the challenge was to open the idea dialogue for those working to provide health equality in the state and give voice to the initiatives that would be sustainable/successful with the boost of the $10,000 prize. After months of entries, voting and selections – we are pleased to announce the winner: The Summer of Solutions Hartford!

A little bit about the initiative:

An initiative of Grand Aspirations, the Summer of Solutions Hartford project aims to address the food desert issue in Frog Hollow, a Hartford, Connecticut neighborhood, where 71% of residents are of Hispanic descent. The project is designed to engage residents in urban farming and to create a community garden that will provide residents access to fresh fruit and vegetables.

We have been delighted with the response to this challenge. All of the projects were inspiring and creatively proposed to address the state’s most pressing health issues,” said Heang Tan, Health Justice CT project manager. “This challenge provided an opportunity for people to share their ideas, stories and solutions with us. We’re excited to hear these ideas and stories, and look forward in continuing to make these projects possible.

I absolutely love when projects like this get the boost they need to become sustainable and continue to create the impact that the community needs around health and wellness. Here’s a word from Jennifer Roach, Summer of Solutions Program Leader:

I am so excited for the work we get to do this summer. With this $10,000 we will be able to expand el Jardín de Zion Street by building 50 new raised beds. We can provide need-based stipends for our program participants so 15 young people can experience a life-changing summer of change-making and personal growth,” said Jennifer Roach, Summer Solutions Hartford Program Leader.

Grassroots level changes will lead to macro level results and impact. Keep it going.

When: August 7 – 9, 2012 | Where: Atlanta, Georgia

CDC | National Public Health Information Coalition | SAMHSA

Abstract Deadline: March 27th

This year I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to again join the planning committee for one of the top events around health communications and marketing (the other being the recently launched DHCX). After opening up earlier this month, we’re inviting abstracts for both oral and poster presentations in addition to panel sessions focusing on the areas of health communication, social marketing, media, partnerships, public health policy communication, and other topic areas that relate to the multi-disciplinary nature of this conference.  A wide diversity of submissions are encouraged, addressing specific issues and approaches that range from- research and evaluation, and theory/model development to practice/program-based foci.

Abstracts will be reviewed and considered for oral, poster, or panel presentations. Click here to submit abstract.

The National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media brings together individuals representing academia, public health researchers and practitioners from federal and state government and the private sector, and provides a forum for collegial dialogue within and across these disciplines. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet with colleagues and shape the future of health communication, marketing, and media practice.

Submit and look forward to seeing you in Atlanta!

Last week in Austin, TX was an amazing time at South by Southwest (SXSW). Apart from catching up with colleagues and friends that I don’t usually get to see on a regular basis, I just felt more apart of the “what’s around the corner” vibe that originally brought me to the event.

This was partly due to the fact that I had a great time during my panel session and meeting great people interested in taking innovative concepts from the developing world and making them useful as solutions here in the States (reverse innovation). In a recent post I shared some resources from past SXSW events and here I’ll be outlining things mentioned during the panel session. Another big thanks for the folks who came out to listen to me and my panel teammates on this concept.

Panelists:

In addition to myself (and good grief was I in awesome company..) -

Jaspal Sandhu (@jaspaldesign): Faculty @ Berkley’s School of Public Health | Making technology meaningful as Partner @ Gobee Group

Jose Gomez-Marquez (@jfgm): Maker of Little Devices for DIY Global Health | 2009 Technology Review Humanitarian of the Year

Resources Mentioned During Panel:

• NextDrop
• OpenMRS
• Mpesa (mobile banking)
• Noted Schools of Global/Public Health (Emory, Duke, UNC, UMD)
• Salt Lake Valley Health Department interview (from here at Pulse + Signal blog) Part 1 | Part 2
• Instructables
• CodeAcademy
• Medic Mobile
• Knight Foundation News Challenge
• Sustain or Die: The Rise of Public Health 2.0
• Medik
• FastForward Health Film Festival (which I am co-founder)
• Ushahidi
• Uber (example of disruptive idea in public transportation)
• Drishtee (the Acumen Fund example I mentioned re: kiosks & democratizing innovation)

Hopefully the podcast that was recorded during our session will be up on the SXSW website soon and I will be sharing that as well with an update to this post. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or more comments!

If you’ve ever smoked, and tried to quit, chances are you know how much fun quitting, and quit attempts, aren’t. The cravings, the mood swings, the weight gain – ugh! What if quitting smoking was fun instead?

Game Mode: Relax

Funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Program grant, Lit2Quit is a mobile game that aims to help smokers reduce or quit smoking. This promising technology is being developed and studied by a group of researchers, developers, and health professionals at Teachers College at Columbia University. I caught up recently with Azadeh Jamalian, a Ph.D student at Teachers College, and one of the lead researchers and developers on the Lit2Quit initiative. She graciously agreed to answer my many questions, and share them with Pulse + Signal readers.

BC: Lit2Quit attempts to match the effects of smoking through game play, either relaxation or receiving a “rush” – are there really only two states in which a smoker may find themselves?

AJ: Yes, research shows that smokers perceive smoking as a sedative or stimulating experience depending on their state of mind (Donovan & Marlatt, 2007). However, there may be different motives for smoking. According to Kassel, Paronis, & Stroud (2003), the most commonly reported motive is stress reduction (hence, perceived sedative effects of nicotine); other cited motives include perceived stimulant effect of smoking (specially when drinking), socialization, addiction, habit, and sensorimotor aspects of smoking (see Donovan & Marlatt, 2007).

In addition, research shows that nicotine enhances memory and focuses attention (Hahn, Ross, Yang, Kim, Huestis, & Stein, 2007; Lawrence, Ross, & Stein, 2002, Vossel, Warbrick, Mobascher, Winterer, & Fink, 2011). Although you cannot target everything in a single project, and different products may be suitable for different people, we tried to have all these motives in mind when designing Lit2Quit.

Game Mode: Rush

Mirroring the perceived stimulating and sedating effects of nicotine, Lit2Quit is designed in two modes, RUSH and RELAX. These modes use specific breath patterns and game design challenges to excite or relax the player. Depending on his/her state of mind, the player chooses which mode he/she wishes to play. For the future releases of the game, we are planning to integrate social aspects in which players could collaborate and play together, or they can invite their friends to see the world they created. In addition, we believe that since the players control both versions of the game with their breath, the gameplay mimics the behavior of smoking and help smokers to control their urge through engagement of their sensorimotor habits. Further, to enhance player’s attention and memory, the players need to memorize certain patterns to succeed in the higher levels of the game.

BC: The aim of Lit2Quit is smoking reduction through replacement of the stimulus with game play. Can you say more about how this plays out? In other words, are participants switching “cold turkey” to Lit2Quit, or is there a gradual change over time?

AJ: The aim of Lit2Quit is smoking reduction through replacement of the stimulus with game play. Since we haven’t done any field studies yet, we cannot know for sure how smoking behavior changes as the result of the gameplay. However, our hypothesis is that the game will help smokers to gradually reduce their smoking over time, as they become more expert in the gameplay, and hence can perform the advanced breath patterns in the game more successfully. Our initial studies have shown that these advanced breath patterns more closely mimics the perceived and physiological effects of nicotine.

BC: Are there preliminary data you can share with us yet?

AJ: We have compared the physiological and perceived emotional effects of gameplay to smoking through various measurements such as Self-Assessment- Manikin (SAM) survey, Electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiography (EKG), and skin conductance (SC). Although smoking is perceived as either a stimulant or sedative, physiologically it stimulates the body. Therefore, in order to compare effects of playing the game to smoking, we analyzed both perceived and physiological effects. Overall, results show that on average subjects perceive playing either modes of the game as an enjoyable experience, and that Lit2Quit partially mimics perceived and physiological effects of smoking. We also learned that since breath is a novel game mechanic (as evidenced by the fact that in 100+ subjects, none of them had experience using their breath as a control mechanic for a mobile game), the initial difficulty levels of the game should be set low to allow players to grasp how to play the game using their breath.

At this stage of the project, we don’t have behavior change data to share. Efficacy trials are the next contemplated step for the project pending funding.

BC: After learning about the game, I wondered if the game is able to match the effects of smoking, is there any danger of addiction to the video game?

AJ: Your question reminds me of a recent article, “Saving Education Through Games Addiction.” I personally like the possibility of “saving health through game addiction!”

BC: What else should we know about the Lit2Quit research?

AJ: We have successfully finished the first stage of the project and are publishing our results in tandem with providing peer review opportunities at presentations at notable gaming and health care conferences. Our plan is to enrich the design of the game by adding a layer of social and community aspects to the game as well as explore platform agnosticism and body sensor networking for input monitoring. Most critical to the game’s success and impact are new collaboration and partnership opportunities with developers,
nonprofit foundations, educational institutions and industry. In particular, we are in the process of designing efficacy trials to study short-term and long-term patterns of smoking behavior change as the result of gameplay intervention. You could follow our progress and contact us via our Facebook page or www.Lit2Quit.com.

BC: Do you think Lit2Quit could be played for any other purposes aside from smoking reduction?

AJ: Yes! The game is fun to play and in fact anyone could enjoy playing the game without even knowing that it’s a smoking reduction game. In addition, since there is no direct reference to smoking in the game, the Relax mode in particular could be played for any type of stress reduction. if you gain expertise in the “Relax” version of the game you could train yourself to self-relax through meditative breathing patterns, and therefore self-monitor your stress through breathing slower than your usual rate. The game has other health benefits. It could be used in clinics for treating asthma and chronic inflammatory diseases of the airways.

–

To learn more about Lit2Quit watch this video:

Lit2Quit Video by Advance from Dan Rabinowitz on Vimeo.

Bridgette

Bridgette Collado, MA, RD, is a health communication consultant and registered dietitian, and a contributor to Pulse + Signal. Follow Bridgette on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bcollado.

References:
Donovan, D.M. & Marlatt, G.A. (Eds.). (2007). Assessment of addictive behavior (2nd ed.), The Guilford Press.

Hahn, B., Ross, T.J., Yang, Y., Kim, I., Huestis, M.A, Stein, E.A. (2007). Nicotine enhances visuospatial attention by deactivating areas of the resting brain default network. Journal of  Neuroscience, 27, 3477?3489.

Kassel, J.D., Stroud, L.R., & Paronis, C.A. (2003). Smoking, stress, and negative affect: Correlation, causation, and context across stages of smoking. Psychological Bulletin, 129(2), 270-304.

Lawrence, N.S., Ross, T.J., Stein, E.A., (2002). Cognitive mechanisms of nicotine on visual attention. Neuron, 36 (3), 24, 539?548.

Vossel, S., Warbrick, T., Mobascher, A. Winterer, G. , & Fink, G.R. (2011). Spatial and sustained attention in relation to smoking status: behavioural performance and brain activation patterns, Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(11) 1485?1495.

So this week is when everyone in the digital/interactive world descends upon Austin, TX for an overwhelmingly intense display of what’s being done/what’s next in the space.

New to the world of South by Southwest? Check out the main website for more information on the general scope of the event – here is the area for the Interactive portion, which I will be attending along with the Film parts. Since beginning the FastForward Health Film Festival, film has definitely become part of my passions/interests.

This will be my third time attending the conference after first moderating a panel looking at Twitter during the H1N1 outbreak, then the first year of being on the SXSW Advisory Board for the new Health track. This year I’ll be attending as a panelist, a board member and an enthusiast for all things innovative.

Health/Wellness is Back @ SXSW!

This is the second year that health will be an official area of focus during the SXSW Interactive events. It’s so great to see the growth of health-focused content that was presented during the panel submission process and of course what will be on tap this year.

We had almost 100 submissions this year for the Health/Medicine topic area, which was absolutely fantastic to see. If you are interested in submitting an idea to speak about for SXSW 2013, by all means I encourage you to do so. One of the things I’m looking forward to is seeing those panels/talks that really encourage a new way of thinking for health that can be implemented in our society. It’s all about reality now.

For those of you on Twitter, we’ve gotten together a list of 2012 SXSW Health people for you to follow. Big thanks to Aman Bhandari (good friend, health innovation leading man and co-founder of FastForward Health)!

The Beacon Lounge: Home to Nonprofit/Social Change

Ever since I first attended SXSW, the Beacon Lounge became my home away from my hotel room. It can definitely get draining with all the walking around, absorbing new information, networking, etc at the event that it really is important to have a place to recharge (and yes, electronically too). This truly is a meeting ground for sharing ideas and connecting to people of impact – I love it!

The Beacon Lounge is the magnificent creation of the folks over at Beaconfire. They put together a great space for folks across various sectors (focused on the nonprofit and social change folks, from my experience) complete with music, food/drink and speakers. I will most definitely be headed back to the Lounge with a Conscience this year to re-connect with friends and collect my thoughts from what has been going on throughout the weekend. In particular, I’m looking forward to hanging out with the folks at LIVESTORNG and Legacy (the Truth campaign folks, anti-smoking) for their happy hour. I’m personally on a mission to bring more of these organizations out to join the conversation on innovation and the future of health. For more information on the Lounge and what they are bringing this year, check out their latest blog post.

Reverse Innovation:  Global Health Ideas for Domestic Health

And now to plug the panel that I will be a part of – you know I had to do it. On Sunday @ 5pm CST, I will be on a panel with 2 esteemed colleagues of mine: Jaspal Sandhu of the Gobee Group and Molly Kinder of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures. Basically we’ll be talking about how we can borrow innovations from the global health landscape. Mobiles, low-cost tech, crowdsourced/co-created solutions with communities. Many of these can be applied health issues needing attention in the States. Follow me on Twitter this week as I’ll be promoting the panel session and giving more updates!

Lastly, here are some additional resources/recaps from last year and this coming event:

• CTO of HHS, Todd Park’s presentation on Open Data & Health Innovation (2011)
• SXSW Health Accelerator for 2012
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Joins SXSW Health Accelerator (2012)
• The Hope Phones @ SXSW project I did last year
• SXSW Health: What’s Coming and What’s Missing (for 2012)
• Dr.V’s recap of SXSW 2011