WIHI: The Patient Will See You Now: New Technology for New Collaborations

Date: February 23, 2012

Featuring:

• John Moore, MD, PhD Candidate, MIT Media Lab – New Media Medicine
• David Judge, MD, Project Leader, CIMIT Ambulatory Practice of the Future; Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

New technologies by themselves cannot create more robust patient-provider partnerships. But, with a lot of ingenuity and thoughtful design, and a commitment to creating tools that help put patients more in charge of their health, technology can be a game changer. That’s the guiding principle behind some fascinating work under development at the MIT Media Lab, and that’s where this WIHI takes place for its first ever “live on location” broadcast.

If you’ve never heard of NewMediaMedicine, you’re in for a treat. Using a conceptual and software platform called CollaboRhythm, researchers are designing and testing tools that offer patients real-time data about their own chronic health conditions that can then be easily conveyed to a health care provider, enabling coaching and communication practically on the spot. It might sound glib to refer to primary care as a shared environment that can be tapped on an “as-needed basis,” thanks to a couple of smart phones, but in the health care world that NewMediaMedicine envisions, the best primary care will be transformed into something less like a single office visit and more like a daily engagement with one’s health goals, with expert advice available when necessary.

Joining WIHI host Madge Kaplan are two people who can explain it all. Dr. John Moore is a physician and technologist overseeing multiple projects at the Media Lab and in true “open source” fashion is eager to share what he and his colleagues are up to. Dr. David Judge’s work is closely aligned, thanks to the Ambulatory Practice of the Future at Massachusetts General Hospital, which opened its doors in July 2010. Dr. Judge talks about what it’s really like to offer a model of “continuous, customized, iterative, and well-informed care” in the environments most convenient for patients.

This special “on location” WIHI is taking place on the heels of the Media Lab’s third annual Health and Wellness Innovation sprint that took place at the end of January 2012. In addition to what’s in the testing phase now, find out what teams of students, health professionals, and innovators are imagining next.