Heart attack.

Those are two of the most dreaded words in the English language. After the moment, after the hospital trip and the frantic calls to family cellphones,  its horror is a reality check for many. What do I change now? How can this never happen again?

The traditional track to cardiac rehabilitation goes like so: Patient gets discharged. Patient goes home with a stack full of instructions, books, and scary warnings. Don’t do this. Stop doing this. Change your life. Change your diet. Schedule 3 followup appointments every week for 3 months.

The model works, says Wellframe CEO Jacob Sattelmair. We know it works. We know that some lifestyle behaviors we can prevent 80% of cardiac disease, for example. And we know that followup care is key, but seeing a clinician in person 3 times a week requires taking off work, paying a copay – sometimes $50 or more plus finding childcare and paying parking. It’s simply too costly for many patients to follow up.

Sattelmair, an epidemiologist by training, became frustrated with the disconnect between the care model and the behavior of patients. “There’s this gap between the scientific & medical community & what people do in the real world.”  Jacob collected a few friends – UK primary care MD Tristan Ranch, MIT-trained computer scientists Vinnie Ramesh and Archit Bhise – and began work on Wellframe. Their vision was to turn static documents into a “GPS navigation system for health, especially for patients with chronic disease.”

“It all seems like giving people directions, or a map, ” Sattelmair says.” We thought there was an opportunity to combine clinical expertise and data to give a patient more adjustable guidance.” In other words, instead of giving you, the patient, a stack of documents, your device could provide personalized guidance through cardiac rehabilitation, including daily task lists, tracking physical activity, and messaging between you and your clinician. All the educational materials would be distilled into bite-size chunks of content, making it easier for you to absorb. It would remind you to take your meds. And it would work on any device – an Android phone, an iPhone, your laptop, or your home PC.

In short, it would enable fewer clinic visits and a better ongoing rehabilitation experience, one that patients might actually use. Sattelmair is quick to note that Wellframe isn’t trying to replace your doctor or your nurse. “We are not trying to replace human care; we’re just trying to engage patients more often and more continuously.” You might come to the clinic once, do a stress test and get cleared, talk to a nurse manager and set up a personalized care plan, but the next few weeks you’re at home, or back at your job, able to keep up your care via Wellframe’s platform.

Sattelmair and the Wellframe team knew that adoption of their product depends on a great user experience – especially for older cardiac patients who may not be as comfortable with a smartphone as your typical 30-year-old. “We knew if the technology was complicated and caused anxiety, that would be a barrier, ” Sattelmair says.

Right now, the Wellframe team is enrolling clinics and hospitals interested in testing the platform for cardiac care. If it works, they may be able to apply the model to other chronic diseases. Providers love having an avenue for more frequent interactions with their patients, and patients love having fewer clinic visits and less money spent on copays.

AARP is proud to sponsor Wellframe’s pitch to the DEMO mobile audience on Wednesday, April 17. (DEMO, as their website states, focuses on funding emerging technologies and new product innovations.)

Also of Interest

• Carnitine: A New Reason to Cut Back on Red Meat?
• Saga of a Wounded Heart
• Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being

See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more

A Year and a Day from James Curran on Vimeo.

If you’re 51 today, you were 25 when the Beastie Boys released Licensed to Ill; you might remember dancing to “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” They were inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame last year, just after the death of 47-year-old lead singer MCA. As the anniversary approaches, we’re starting to see some amazing tributes. Above, an artist put together a trailer for his London art show tribute to MCA. In his own words:

 35 individual framed prints will be on show and for sale in London on May 4th – 5th 2013. Each print represents a different Beastie Boys track. All sales go to charity for cancer care and support. Venue and details to come. Follow me on Twitter @slimjimstudios for updates.

- Artist Jim Curran

Can you spot the songs referenced in the video?

Get in on the discussion: If you could have front-row seats to any concert, who would it be? 

Also of Interest

• Bobbie Smith: The Signature Voice of The Spinners
• Online Games for 50+: Benefits Include Socialization, Activity
• Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being

See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more

Not again! Yeah, we know. Here’s the good news: It seems a whole lot easier on the eyes. You’ll notice much bigger photos and less clutter. Here’s two things we think you’ll notice first.

First, let’s say you shared a photo. Below, left, is how it looked in the old News Feed – and on right, you can see the new version:

Second, are you frustrated that you’re not seeing your friends’ updates in your News Feed? Would you like to see more photos? Just your friends? Or just the pages you like – the restaurants, local businesses, and pages like AARP? Now, you can pick from a few options…

If your Facebook homepage changes, let us know what you think in the comments. We’ll keep an eye on this  - bookmark this page for all of our Facebook coverage.

The Muse brain-sensing headband, available for retail in a few months.

Can you pour a beer with your mind? You can – if you wear a headband straight out of Star Trek. Could you use your eyes to scroll through a website on your tablet? You can - if your tablet has a camera and an infrared LED.  As technology gets better and better at reading our bodies’ signals, we may not have to use a keyboard – or even touch our computers – to use gadgets in our daily lives.

A couple months ago, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart strapped some wires to his head and showed us how his drumming affected his brainwaves. Yesterday, I saw a long parade of CES attendees slip a thin white headband on and watch their own brainwaves pop up on a screen. Mickey had a little advanced help, but this is a headband you might be able to buy at your local Best Buy in the next few months.

Early last decade, University of Toronto engineer Steve Mann developed a way to turn your brainwaves into binary code – something readable by any computer.  Since 2007, Interaxonhas been working on ways to turn that into something you and I can use at home. This spring, you’ll be able to buy the Muse headband for the low, low price of $175. It comes with games designed to help you train your brain to focus, to stress less, and to remember better.

CES attendees test the Muse headband.

What else can it do? Well, right now, you can only pour a beer with your mind if you’re lucky enough to be in Vegas, but Muse hopes that soon you’ll be able to use it to control all sorts of everyday objects, as more and more objects have Internet connectivity built in. If I think hard enough (and wear Muse’s headband) I could ask my Internet-enabled fridge whether I’m out of orange juice, or I could ask my TV to bring up new episodes of Downton Abbey. Your imagination is the limit – quite literally.

A month ago, IBM released a set of predictions about what they refer to as “Cognitive Systems” – or in other words, how machines will soon be able to simulate touch, “smell” us to warn us if we’re getting the flu, augment our hearing, and use everything they sense about us to let us better control the world around us. “Technology will be about the senses in five years,” IBM says. At the Consumer Electronics Show, we’re already seeing it in reality.

UCSF professor of neurology Adam Gazzaley, left, explains how the EEG headset worn by Mickey Hart, right, transmits images of the rhythms of Hart’s brain to the screen on the far left.

He was caring for his grandmother, which was just fine with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. Except she wasn’t speaking.

She had been officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s some time before, and she hadn’t spoken in a year. Not one word.

Finally, Mickey pulled out his drum, and played a simple rhythm. One she knew.

She spoke. “Mickey?” She knew his name!

Mickey Hart was fascinated. What was it about the rhythms that had such a power over a deteriorating brain?

Life is about rhythm. We vibrate. Our hearts are pumping blood.

- Mickey Hart

Is the Golden Gate Bridge an enormous undetectable harp, playing at frequencies we humans can’t hear? As Mickey mused about this possibility on stage, Adam Gazzaley, professor of neuroscience at University of California at San Francisco, began explaining the science behind the rhythms in our brains.

“There are five simultaneous rhythms in the brain,” Gazzaley explained. “If they accelerate too much, that’s what a seizure is. The rhythms of your brain are a factor in perception, decision making, memory, attention and language. They tend to try to synchronize, like kids on a swing. They’re connected to many diagnoses,the most obvious being Parkinson’s or tinnitus, where you hear a ringing in your ear. But you probably wouldn’t think of depression or dyslexia, both of which are affected by the brain’s rhythms.”

“These findings… imply that early age of musical acquisition, sustained and maintained during advanced age, may enhance cognitive functions and buffer age and education influences.”

- Psychology Science, November 2011 

Could you prove that music directly improves the brain? Gazzaley thinks he’s proven so. His Neuromancer musical video games tracked participants’ abilities to multitask – a skill that drops more than 30% between age 20 and age 70 – and improved both their abilities to multitask and their memory.

Then again, why trust science when you could see for yourself in this viral YouTube video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gazzaley and Hart took show and tell to the next level today by strapping an EEG on Hart as he paced, clutching a drum, and images of the rhythms coursing through his brain were displayed on the giant screens throughout the hall. After the appropriate number of oohs and aahs, Gazzaley explained what was happening, adjusting to show more or fewer rhythms coursing through Mickey’s brain. “This is scary,” Mickey joked. “I’m trying not to think of my first wife.”

Visualized: the EEG scan of Mickey Hart’s brain.

No more time for looking at Mickey’s brain, though. It was time to dance. “Follow me!” Mickey said, or something along those lines, and the crowd did, coalescing in the back of the room as an endless parade of various musical instruments and quasi-musical instruments (a cowbell?) came out of nowhere. Suddenly, there was a foot-stomping beat that reverberated louder and louder through the convention hall, as more and more AARP members joined the drum circle. Mickey led, sometimes from a drum set on a platform in the middle, sometimes with a cowbell, sometimes while dancing.

An AARP member dances and drums with Mickey Hart on Saturday in New Orleans while participating in the annual Life@50+ Conference and Expo.

“Vibrations are all around us,” Mickey had said earlier, and on Saturday afternoon in Hall D, a few hundred AARP members made it so. What a way to close another great Life@50+ event! See you all next year in Vegas and Atlanta.

You can follow Professor Adam Gazzaley on Twitter here, and Mickey Hart is of course on Twitter at @MickeyHart.

Three women from the World War II museum in New Orleans pose for our photographer on the exhibit floor at Life@50+.

Hello! We’re here hanging out with thousands of AARP members from all over the country, and right now at midday, we have a few extra tickets to tonight’s show to give away.

Here’s how it’ll work… did you take a photo of anything during the time you’ve been at Life@50+? If you post it somewhere public (like on your Twitter feed!) and comment here with the URL, or Tweet at us (@AARP) we’ll give the first 3 to send us a pic a free pair of tickets to the show tonight.

Got it? If you have questions, comment here and we’ll take care of them.

It’s true. After Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, we realized we had a lot of members – more than 1,000 – living in this working class neighborhood of New Orleans. We asked residents how AARP could help and, eventually, worked with several other organizations helping build up the Hollygrove neighborhood. Our work was recognized as a national model for community organization. And then AARP Ambassador  James Brown (“JB”) stopped by…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Volunteers attending the annual Life@50+ event in New Orleans  came out to Hollygrove to help Habitat for Humanity continue fixing up the neighborhood. “This program is called ‘A Brush with Kindness,’” explained the Habitat staffer. Instead of building new homes, AARP members would be painting stairs, cleaning up sidewalks, and making the neighborhood more livable.

With many AARP members spread out among three houses, work went quickly and teamwork prevailed.  ”I’m working on the blue house. You?” “I’ll work on the pink house.” “I’ll caulk. You scrape.” Done.

Could just playing a game for 15 minutes a day keep you sharp? What if you treated it like an actual sweaty workout? You’d start with a warmup, get into a “workout”, and “cool down” when you’re done. After all, your brain is a muscle too.

The folks over at ThinkFun are looking for people who’d be up to test this theory out. They’ll send you the games (one involves chocolate!) and ask you to spend 15 minutes a day at play. Next, they’ll ask you for a little bit of feedback in your email.

Judging by how many of you enjoy our games section, we figure this might be the right group to ask. If you or a friend would be up for a little home gaming, fill out this survey by next Wednesday, August 23.

Tell us if you try it out!

They’re small. The keys are tiny. The text is barely big enough to read.  Their ringtones are jarring, and only your 15-year-old grandson knows how to work it.  Cell phones are a must-have these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re any more fun to use than they were 10 years ago.

Over in Germany, they held a contest a little while ago to reinvent the phone. (Here are some of the ideas, although they’re in German. Your browser may be able to translate.) One of our favorites reminded the user to close the windows, to turn off the stove and not to forget the keys, wallet or phone. If you forget your cellphone, the alarm begins to ring when you are at the front door and reminds you to take your phone with you.  Genius, huh? Who hasn’t needed that at some time or another?

Now it’s our turn. What would you do to change the cell phones of today? If you’re a caregiver, how could a cell phone help you and your loved one? Propose an idea here, and we’ll select our three favorites to receive $1,000 or a trip to Las Vegas to present your idea at the  Consumer Electronics Show.  You have until October 7 to get your ideas in – and you can also vote on the submissions here.

Picture of cell phone pile at Barcelona’s CCCB museum via Flickr user ario_.