Health Care Social Media Review: EndoGoddess Edition

I am proud to bring you this Wednesday's edition of a week's review of topics over the past week in health care social media news.

After this past week's tragic Colorado movie massacre, a vibrant discussion of the role of social media in healthcare emergencies occurred on this past week's Sunday night #hcsm twitter chat with a link to the transcript here. A central question raised: what are emergency best practices for social media? Overall, it was unanimously agreed that social media is an excellent channel for communication during an emergency. It was also agreed that trusted sources should produce accurate information outputs in real-time that others should retweet. It was also discussed that texts from a trusted source are highly valuable during an emergency or crisis situation.

'The human spirit' is vital for good healing and good health, especially during tragedies. Social media can effectively connect communities and 'the human spirit' during tragedies as is beautifully illustrated here by a tribute from my city, Columbus, to Aurora noted in the above youtube video tribute. The Harmony Project of Columbus Ohio gathered 150 voices and countless volunteers in 24 hours to record the Beth Nielsen Chapman song "How We Love" to benefit the families of victims in Aurora, Colorado. All of the proceeds from the single, which can be downloaded at www.harmonyproject.com/howwelove, go to GivingFirst.org and are directed to families in Aurora. This labor of love demonstrates that we are all neighbors, that important tributes can come from our voices, and that in times like these, what is important is how we love.

Although the TextsFromHillaryClinton Blog is not new, I did find myself turning to it this past week despite no new posting: perhaps for some comic relief but also because following leaders such as Hillary Clinton during a national crisis just feels natural to me. As humor is often based on some degree of truth, perhaps we all naturally turn to our phones (particularly social media and SMS texting) during emergencies thereby pointing to the potential power and importance of social media during a crisis whether it's a national crisis, natural crisis, or health crisis

As political ads are a constant feature prior to the November election, especially in my state of Ohio, it is no surprise that democracy in healthcare has been a part of the #hcsm discussion landscape recently. In the past, patients have not been at the table to decide what new technologies and improvements should be funded…unless they happen to be a hospital executive, pharmaceutical executive, or health insurance executive. However, a new crowd-funding platform called MedStartr allows people patients that are using medical technology and those who love them to decide what new technologies they’d like to see further developed by voting with their donations: democratization of medical technology. This was a central theme notable in the first ever health care crowd-funding twitter chat on Monday night this week featuring the hashtag #HCCF moderated by MedStartr's co-founder, Alex Fair. (Shameless plug: a screenshot for my crowd-funding project for EndoGoddess is pictured above and a link here).

Despite a week that included a national tragedy and ongoing political battles, health care social media maintained a reflection of the tenacity, innovation, and passion of the human spirit...it's who we are and healing is in the air. :)

July Reflections

Upon the eve of each July, it has become my tradition to reflect on my career and look at my letter of acceptance into medical school framed above my desk (pictured above, my maiden name Jennifer Leigh Shine). As you may know from reading this blog, I am a dreamer. Then again, this whole career in medicine started as a dream.

In college, I was originally a journalism major with a dream of being a science correspondent on the Today Show that I watched religiously (and still do). However, my freshman year, as I began to miss the science classes that I so loved in high school, my dreams turned to the possibilities of a career in medicine. It was exciting to think about a career that combined science, communication, excitement, and helping people. I fearlessly and confidently pursued my premed course work with a hunger to fulfill my dream and to become a doctor. I never paid attention to the concerns of not getting into medical school that some of my other student colleagues expressed. I knew that I was going to succeed in becoming a doctor. That tenacity and confidence along with good grades, hospital volunteering, excellent MCAT scores, and a great essay did indeed allow me to enter medical school and become a doctor. As I reread my medical school essay each July eve, I ask myself: Have I satisfied that hunger that I had? Have I stayed true to my original dream? A portion of my original essay is as follows:


My achievements have shown me that I have what it takes to be a great physician but my heart tells me that I want to be a physician. While volunteering in the burn ICU, I changed dressings and cleaned wound infections. As I got to know the patients, I became fascinated and inspired by their determination, the loving support of their families and the medical staff, and the healing that I witnessed. I noticed first hand that every patient's world was important and their role in it was precious. The medical staff gave the patients the ultimate gift of a second chance to play that role and to have 'a moment in time when you're more than you thought you could be, when all of your dreams are heartbeat away'. I desire with all my heart to have the power as a physician to give this gift to the patients that I am lucky enough to meet.

As a medical school graduate and physician now 12 years later, I am a lot less cheesy and would never again quote a Whitney Houston song in an important essay, but I am happy to report that that young woman still lives inside of me. As a mobile health entrepreneur AND a physician, I am living the ultimate dream: creating a vision of good health using mobile phone tools that are a perfect fit into the precious and important lives of patients. I challenge you to ask yourself if you too are staying true to your dreams? :)

MedStartr Launch: July 4th!

The innovative 'kickstarter' crowdfunding site for healthcare projects, MedStartr, will be launching on July 4th! This means that on July 4th, you can start making donations and receiving rewards in relation to the projects that interest you the most.

The link directly to the EndoGoddess App Project on the beta site is here for a sneak peak before the launch: http://beta.medstartr.com/projects/19-endogoddess-diabetes-app-clinical-trial-fundraiser

Building EndoGoddess Kids App

I am super excited to announce that work on the EndoGoddess Kids App will begin through the 10x accelator program on June 25th! 10x is a mentorship-driven investment program designed for energetic and game-changing entrepreneurs. 10x is partnering with Ohio’s New Entrepreneurs (ONE) Fund, an innovative business accelerator designed to attract and retain the best and brightest talent in Ohio. Teams such as the EndoGoddess Team are awarded $20,000 to bring a project to life over a 10-week period.

The EndoGoddess Team will be creating the new EndoGoddess Kids App built for young children with type 1 diabetes and their families. The app will include a new rewards and gaming feature similar in concept to the classic Tamagotchi virtual pet (pictured above). The virtual pet, which will need to be 'fed' by recording glucoses within the app, is expected to encourage engagement in daily diabetes glucose checking by the child based on appointment dynamic game mechanics theory.

The EndoGoddess Kids App virtual pet will include a reincarnation of my sweet golden retriever, Cooper Dyer, who passed away last year due to cancer. So, needless to say, the EndoGoddess Kids App is a labor of love for me. I will share details of the process and of course information about the launch toward the end of the summer. So excited!!

mHealth Crowdfunding Issues

mHealth Zone Radio Episode Link

This blogtalk radio edition of mHealth Zone does a great job of discussing the current issues involved with crowdfunding in medicine. Hosts Ben and Corey chat with Steven Greene, Chairman of the Conversation, Sperlingreene PR and Communications, about how mHealth companies can position themselves to attract investors, the impact of crowdfunding, and the role of marketing, PR, and live events in mHealth. An additional panel discussion on crowd funding is featured with Mike Norman, Co-founder of Wefunder, Alex Fair, Founder and CEO of MedStartr, and Manoush Zomorodi, reporter.

EndoGoddess App Crowdfunding

At the recent Doctors 2.0 & You conference in Paris that I attended, I heard a great presentation by Dr. Bertalan Mesko (also known as @Berci on twitter) about the power of crowdsourcing in medicine. Dr. Mesko created Webicina which provides curated medical social media resources in over 80 medical topics in over 17 languages using expert crowdsourcing communities.

Crowdsourcing is increasingly becoming a popular technique to help solve complex problems by leveraging the power of individuals and teams, mostly outside of traditional networks. Crowdsourcing provides a unique opportunity to exchange and share data and information through collective intelligence and providing a diverse array of solutions from solvers with experience across a multitude of disciplines. Crowdsourcing can be used not only to help solve problems but also to capture intelligence (data and information) in novel ways through the use of various platforms.

Kickstarter puts crowdsourcing into action by providing an online platform for funding creative projects. However, kickstarter does not accept medical projects. Kickstarter for medical projects is to launch in several weeks (mid June): Medstartr. Medstartr facilitates gathering monetary resources from the general public and circumvents many traditional avenues of investment for projects. The term has been dubbed crowdfunding. Project owners choose a deadline and a target minimum of funds to raise. If the chosen target is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected (this is known as a provision point mechanism). Money pledged by donors is collected using a third party source such as Amazon Payments. The EndoGoddess App Kickstarter/Medstartr submission video explains the crowdfunding project as follows:

Crowdfunding provides opportunities for the patients and their loved ones to give small scale financing support to health-related technologies that they want to see within the healthcare system that they are experiencing. Who better to invest in the healthcare system than the people who are affected most by it? In other words, a system for the people by the people. Makes sense to me, let's do it!  Here is the link to preview the EndoGoddess App crowdfunding project in kickstarter-format : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/endogoddess/1045368863?token=3b8aa0f8.

Watch for the official launch of the EndoGoddess App crowfunding project on Medstartr in the coming weeks so you can donate! :)

Recap: Doctors 2.0 & You Paris

I just returned from Doctors 2.0 & You held in beautiful Paris where I discussed development of the EndoGoddess App and using mobile health in e-health and medical practice, specifically for diabetes. Doctors 2.0 & You is an international meeting focused on doctors' and patients' challenges and opportunities in the health 2.0 space.

The event was organized by e-patient and e-health pioneer Denise Silber who, upon discussing the trends in e-health, asked the important question of 'what is the e-health quest?'

Beauty and pleasure are the quest in France. The French embrace beauty and pleasure in food, art, conversation, and vibrant debates as I observed while happily walking around Paris. E-health, what is its quest? In keeping with the French way of life, the quest as discussed at this year's Doctors 2.0 & You...

-Learning by connecting with communities. Whether the communities are just for doctors, just for patients, or for doctors AND patients (such as the diabetes online community with me pictured above with diabetes patient advocate/blogger Kerri Sparling at www.sixuntilme.com), science and healing and help come through conversation provided by e-health channels. Patients can learn from patients, doctors can learn from doctors, patients can learn from doctors, and doctors can learn from patients. A classic example presented was the evidence of science and healing that has been generated from the 'Patients Like Me' communities which was first started in 2004 for patients with ALS and their families. The beauty and pleasure noted from connecting within these communities is always a present undertone in any presentation I have ever heard about online communities, including the amazing ones at Doctors 2.0 & You.

-Learning by debating or facing challenges using new and economical ways. Just as the French seem to enjoy debates and challenges, challenges and solving problems are in the blood of entrepreneurs who were abundantly present at Doctors 2.0 & You. Entrepreneurs and e-health partnerships with telecommunication giants such as Orange have indeed taken on a large-scale global problem, counterfeit medications in Africa, with an elegant sms-based texting solution which was discussed. The beauty and power of such an economic and effective solution is hard to deny!

-Learning by having fun. In order to allow e-patients to have engaging consumer health information about pharma products for their empowerment, pharma company Boehringer Ingelheim has developed a facebook game called Syrum which can be played here. The objective of the game is to "save the world, one disease at a time, by harvesting compounds and then using them as trading cards to play against diseases. A player must first investigate molecular compounds at a research desk before putting them to the test in the laboratory, then conduct clinical trials and, if successful, advance a treatment to the market." The content engagement from the game is expected to lead to increased comprehension of consumer health information (currently undergoing beta testing now). Gaming is an innovative way that e-health can empower e-patients through fun and pleasure.

So, what is the e-health quest? It's about learning and living this life together (doctors, nurses, patients, entrepreneurs, industry, hospitals) with vibrant beauty and pleasure. C'est la vie! :)