Pioneering Ideas

Games for Health NYC Regional Meetup - Agenda

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Games for Health is convening a half-day meet-up in New York City this coming Tuesday, January 26th.  The meeting agenda is now available and it includes a great lineup of speakers and topics:

• Ben Sawyer, co-founder, Games for Health Project – Games for Health Today & Tomorrow
• Sam Yohannan, Senior Physical Therapy Specialist, Burn Research at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell – Rehabilitation for Burn Patients Using Nintendo Wii
• Bill Crosbie, Lead Designer, Skeleton Crew Software – Operating Under the Influenza
• Paul Krebs, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center – Virtual Reality Coping Skills Game to Prevent Post-Hospitalization Smoking Relapse in Tobacco Dependent Cancer Patients
• JP Pollack, Cornell University – Mindless Eating Challenge
• Jessica Hammer, Columbia University – Lit to Quit: A Mobile Game for Health
• Mark Grob, VRShell LLC – DWI Simulator Game
• Nicole Manfield, Physical Therapist, Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, New York Hospital, Queens – Using Nintendo Wii to Improve Upper Extremity Motor Function

For those of you in the area, there is still time to register. The event is being held the Hunter College Brookdale Campus (Room W323, 425 E 25th Street).  Attendance is free but an RSVP is required.  If you are interested please contact Beth Bryant (bbryant@dmill.com).

 

The Power and Potential of Personal Health Records - A New Web Feature

Since shortly after its inception in 2004, the Pioneer Portfolio has collaborated with grantees and other partners to advance the field of personal health technology. In 2005, the Portfolio joined forces with the Markle Foundation to explore how patients could use health information technology, and specifically personal health records (PHRs), to better engage with their health and their care providers. In 2006, we launched Project HealthDesign, a $10 million national program devoted to stimulate innovation in the design of PHRs. Over the course of the past six years, the Portfolio’s work on personal health technologies—including (PHRs)—has spanned numerous projects and several different grantee organizations.

 

Now, with both the ARRA stimulus money and the second round of Project HealthDesign on the horizon, we wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on our grantees’ work in this exciting and growing arena. In so doing, we hope to provide a new and enriched context for the body of PHR-related work funded by Pioneer and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

 

This Web feature traces the history and development of PHRs and discusses their role within the larger health information technology arena. It also highlights a shift in emphasis from data captured in clinical encounters to patient-generated “observations of daily living,” which show strong potential to provide a fuller picture of people’s health and help them more actively manage their care—together with their providers—day in and day out.

 

PHRs have evolved significantly over the past decade and there are some exciting pockets of innovation that are extending their utility and impact. This feature contextualizes those developments, and looks to the challenges that lie ahead for PHRs—such as incentivizing widespread adoption, demonstrating sustainable business models, and striking the right balance between privacy and openness in an information age.

 

One final note: As part of this Web feature we are testing out a new addition to RWJF.org. On the home page of the feature you’ll find a “micro poll,” where you can provide feedback about whether (or not) you found the feature helpful. Feel free to submit additional comments and/or responses in the comments section of the blog.

The Value of Failure

Last week we mentioned the guest series at the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog featuring Bob Hughes. Yesterday, part three of the five part series went up and it has been generating a lot of buzz.

The topic – failure and foundation effectiveness – is not an easy or comfortable one to tackle but as Bob mentions in the post it “…is beginning to gain a critical mass of attention.” He touches on why candidly evaluating and learning from failures can be valuable to a foundation and the entire field – he even shares a few categories of failure from RWJF’s experience. 

We encourage you to check the post out and share your thoughts.

Games for Health NYC Regional Meet Up

Interested in hearing the latest on digital interactive games are assisting in anti-smoking efforts, rehabilitation for burn patients, and more? On Tuesday, January 26, Games for Health is convening regional thought leaders in the health games industry for a half-day event showcasing current industry projects.

 

Ben Sawyer, co-founder of Games for Health, along with game designers and health professionals, will discuss how different types of games are helping people manage heath conditions. This will be particularly valuable as a networking opportunity for researchers, game developers, students, and others in the greater New York/New Jersey area.

 

The event is being held the Hunter College Brookdale Campus (Room W323, 425 E 25th Street). Attendance is free but an RSVP is required. If you are interested please contact Beth Bryant (bbryant@dmill.com). Learn more about the event here.

A Candid Assessment of Philanthropic Practices

Over the next week, our own Bob Hughes will be a guest blogger over at the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog.  As Phil Buchanan, CEP President, points out in the series introduction – he hoped Bob would be candid and direct and he does not disappoint.

The five part series will cover four thought-provoking topics:  

Why haven’t foundations made more progress in becoming strategic?

Can failure be the key to foundation effectiveness?

What are the limits of quantitative performance measurement?

Can foundations be learning organizations?

 

First up, the two-part post on foundations and strategy.  Bob tackles why having clear goals is essential to a successful strategy, why those goals are always a source for contention and how to maintain discipline “in the face of…eroding pressures.”

The series is already generating conversation – so head on over to CEP’s blog and check it out.

Upcoming Events: The Inaugural SharpBrains Summit

Last November, we hosted a group of leaders in neurotechnology, neuroscience and behavioral health to discuss near-term and distant innovations in these fields. The forum’s conversation was nothing short of engaging and enlightening. In less than two weeks, January 18-19, many of these same folks will gather for the inaugural SharpBrains Summit.

The summit, which is fully virtual and interactive, has a packed lineup of speakers from academic and research institutions, health and medical institutions, and industry. Sessions range from panels on cognitive health and whether brain games and brain fitness software actually work – to discussion of technologies like automated neuropsych assessments and computerized cognitive behavioral therapy, EEG biofeedback, mobile cognitive aids and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

Below is just a sampling of the sessions and speakers the summit has to offer:

• Alvaro Fernandez, SharpBrains & Others – Cognition & Neuroplasticity: The New Health & Wellness Frontier
• Charles Jennings, MIT & Stephen Macknik, Barrow Neurological Institute – Future Standards & Channels for Neuroplasticity-based Interventions
• Margaret Morris, Intel – The Future of Cognitive Health Tech – Intel’s Perspective
• Kunal Sarkar, Lumos Labs & Others – Baby Boomers and Beyond: Maintaining Cognitive Vitality (a look at whether brain games work)
• Michael Merzenich, UCSF & Others – How Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Can Inform and Refine Mental Health Care

Dynamic discussions on emerging research, best practices and the opportunity to continue the conversation after the summit at the SharpBrains Network for Brain Fitness Innovation – are just a few of the reasons to register and participate.

Click here to register and please spread the word.

What Will You Be Attending in 2010?

Hello folks,

On the Pioneer Team, we’re thinking about our travel plans for 2010.  A lot of our travel is related to specific grants and projects, but we have a budget for meetings and conferences.  We’re building a list of events we might attend.  What we’re looking for are meetings and conferences where we might meet interesting and innovative people, find unconventional and future-oriented ideas.

To prime the pump, I asked a couple folks for their ideas.

From Susannah Fox at the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

• Health 2.0 – April 6-7, Paris (with apologies to Vernon Duke and Yip Harburg)

• Gov. 2.0 Expo 2010 – May 25-27, Washington, DC

• SXSW – March 12-21, Austin, TX

• TEDMED 2010 – October 26-29, San Diego, CA

• Medicine 2.0 – September 17-18, TBD

From Vijay Goel, Sr. Director, Healthcare Prize Development at X PRIZE Foundation:

• World Healthcare Innovation & Technology Congress – November 8-10, Washington, DC

• Milken Global Conference - April 26-28, Los Angeles, CA

• Versant Ventures Innovation Conference – TBD  

• TED2010 – February 9-13, Long Beach, CA

• Clinton Global Initiative – September 21-24, NYC

• TechCrunch50 2010 – TBD

• TiECon (The Indus Entrepreneurs) – TBD

From Jim Cashel, Chairman, Forum One Communication

• SXSW – March 12-21, Austin, TX

• Forum One Online Community Summit – TBD

• NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference – April 8-10, Atlanta, GA

• TED2010 – February 9-13, Long Beach, CA

• Web 2.0 Expo – May 3-6, San Francisco, CA

Pulse + Signal Blogger Andre Blackman keeps a list of upcoming events here:

Other events we’re aware of include:

• PopTech – October 20-23, Camden, Maine

• Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship – April 14-16, Oxford, England

• The Feast – October 15, NYC

• Push the Future—TBD

• Mayo Clinic Transform Symposium—September, Rochester, MN

• Cleveland Clinic 2010 Medical Innovation Summit—November 1-3, Cleveland, OH

• Games for Health Conference – May 25-27, Boston, MA

We will compile all the submissions, add web links and share the results with everybody.