Waiting Room: No Cell Phones Sign

While I was in the waiting room of a local hospital today helping a very dear friend navigate through the healthcare system, I needed some good reading material. I was really hoping to find some great up-to-date information about the condition that my friend faces while I was waiting. Sadly, I only found one magazine rack and NO health materials around.

This is a sign that I found just above the magazine rack. It demonstrates the large ocean between the excitement on the mhealth frontier and implementation within medical practices and hospitals. There is alot of work yet to be done.


However, I am not discouraged. Just because something is hard does not mean that it is wrong. Reducing the ocean that divides mhealth excitement and implementation is certainly possible. A marathon rather than a sprint is what it will take, and I am certainly a runner in this exciting race.

Diabetes Awareness: Blue Fridays

The blue O in the EndoGoddess logo represents the diabetes awareness symbol. Diabetes awareness and education is one of my central goals. I am honored to have been asked to participate in this sweet video announcement made by the diabetes online community (#dsma). This video highlights the 'Blue Fridays' diabetes awareness movement which occurs every November. I hope to see you wearing blue in November, too!

EndoGoddess Goes To Mayo Clinic

Am packing for a fun-filled, educational few days at the Mayo Clinic Social Media Summit. I am honored to have the chance to discuss how the EndoGoddess app incorporates online communities and social media principles in an effort to improve diabetes health outcomes.

If you would like to see the rest of the agenda, you can click here. You can follow the conference in real-time via twitter using #mayoragan.

Tech Bubble

I think I might have been living in a tech bubble over the past several months. However, yesterday it popped.

Yesterday, I heard a great presentation given by a passionate middle-aged primary care physician who donates her time weekly to practicing medicine in a free clinic for the homeless within a homeless shelter in Columbus, Ohio. Amazing right? Even more amazing...this was her FIRST time to give a powerpoint presentation and she was nervous about using the technology!


The irony of having recently attended Stanford's Medicine 2.0 in Silicon Valley where conference badges had QR codes to attending a conference by The Ohio Association of Free Clinics in Columbus Ohio yesterday where powerpoint is a novelty really demonstrates some of the real life barriers that healthcare technology visionaries such as myself must not lose perspective on.


Physicians such as this wonderful one are doing truly fearless humanitarian work right here in the US on the frontlines of medicine caring for the underserved population. Yet, notable fear by some healthcare providers is present with regards to technology. Interestingly enough, this physician DOES have a smartphone and DOES feel comfortable using it. She uses her smartphone mostly outside of the clinic in her personal life but also uses apps inside of the clinic. She often looks up drug interactions using Epocrates mobile app while in the clinic which is consistent with national trends reporting that 80% of physicians use smartphones in their daily medical practice. I'm happy to see concretely that mobile health via smartphones offers a solution to technology fear by healthcare providers given data showing growing numbers of provider users both inside and outside of the clinic. This is different than powerpoint or EMRs given that healthcare providers are rarely using these technologies outside of the professional environment.


I will try hard to maintain a healthy appreciation of the fear that some healthcare providers have about technology. However, I have confidence in my pursuit of a mobile health future knowing that a fearful powerpoint novice is not afraid of her smartphone. Thus, a mobile health future is tangible, and even welcomed.

Medical Device Discussion

Future directions for the EndoGoddess app: integration with medical devices?

Check out my #MedDevice chat interview with medical device marketing consultancy @MedicalMarcom:

http://www.medicalmarcom.com/blog/?utm_source=Endo

The App's Purpose

A few readers have asked me to clarify the purpose of the EndoGoddess App. The main purpose of the EndoGoddess App: a glucose journal that you get rewards from. Here is an example of the old-fashioned glucose journal that all diabetes patients are very familiar with:

The EndoGoddess App serves as a more modern form of journal for your glucoses (also with corresponding carb intake and insulin dosing).

However, the journal also has a rewards (and points) feature. In the next month or so, you will be able to download an iTunes song weekly if your points are high enough. You can keep track of your points on the home page currently.

Diabetes Apps: The Competition

A wonderful academic review paper assessing qualities of available diabetes apps for self-monitoring was recently published (link here). Different elements of app function were assessed among 49 apps that were identified as quality self-monitoring apps (features % prevalence among the 49 quality apps):

I am excited that the EndoGoddess app not only offers insulin and carbohydrate journaling but also a social media component, an education component, and alerts/reminders. Later in the year, the EndoGoddess app will also offer a PHR web portal to more easily manage diabetes glucose and carbohydrate data.

Glucose Logging

I am dedicating this blog post to Auntly H, a diabetes patient blogger in Minnesota (@auntlyh on twitter). Auntly asked me to discuss what the glucose log looks like. The log can be easily shared from the EndoGoddess app to an email address.

Right now, the email log does not include time stamps beyond the date but we are changing that this week so that both date AND time stamps go with the email.

Easily shared glucose data is very important for good health as diabetes patients are often dealing with multiple medical offices for their medical care. Sharing data easily is something that the EndoGoddess app is very proud of as this is a unique yet important feature.