Mix of things to check out

A bunch of things caught my eye today that may be of interest.  First, given that the Games for Health conference kicks off today and I have to sit it out this year, I was especially glad to see this article in the Syracuse Post-Standard.  It profiles one of our Health Games Research grantees, Cornell University, which has given middle-schoolers iPhones loaded with a game designed to encourage healthier eating choices.  The way they do it is pretty clever, though...the kids take care of their own virtual pet and snap photos of their food selections, which are sent to the Cornell research team.  When indicated, the virtual pet will prompt the kids to consider, say, trading in their chips for a yogurt next time.  It's more of a fun interaction than preaching, as the article points out, and it goes wherever the kids go.  I like that it shows how health is playing out apart from health care settings and encounters, and how games and game technologies may provide ways to deliver health messages to kids in ways that are so much more up their alley, and potentially so much more effective.

Second, Steve Downs and John Lumpkin blogged on June 1 on "Catalyzing an App Store for EHRs," which our friends at the Health Care Blog were kind enough to re-post.  A great conversation has kicked up around this - read the comments and add your own thoughts.

Finally, Project HealthDesign received 145 new proposals last week in response to its Round 2 CFP. National Program Director Patti Brennan talks about the breadth of ideas and wide range of observations of daily living that teams proposed - they'll be working together with patients managing multiple chronic diseases to capture and analyze health data generated in the course of daily life and test how it can be integrated in to clinical care workflows.