News
August 23, 2010
A Text Message to Avoid Counterfeit Drugs
In African nations experts estimate that about 700,000 people inflicted with malaria or tuberculosis die each year after taking counterfeit drugs often composed of water, sawdust and baby powder. However, an innovative and relatively inexpensive example of HIT that employs the use of simple mobile phone text messages is helping to save lives. A new project, developed by a Ghanaian entrepreneur, designates a distinctive code to the back of medicine blister packs beneath a lottery ticket-like scratch off sheet. This allows a patient to enter the code in a text message sent to a central and secure database that responds instantly to let the patient know if the drug is registered and thus safe to take. If the drug exists in the database, the responding text message informs the patient that the drug is "OK." If the drug is not registered, the responding message replies, "No. Please recheck the code." The new technology offers an innovative way for poorer nations and ordinary people to by-pass the expensive mobile labs and hand-held spectrometers employed by richer nations like the United States. Learn more
August 18, 2010
Nikolai Kirienko Illustrates the Importance of Project Health Design for the Wall Street Journal
Crystallizing the significant visions of Project HealthDesign takes the insight from individuals living on two sides of a coin: the researcher and the patient. And Nikolai Kirienko stands in the unique position as a representative of both sides. Kirienko's personal and professional dedication to Project HealthDesign's important work were presented in the Wall Street Journal on August 18. The article recounts the story of Kirienko, a University of California-Berkeley Undergraduate, who suffers from Crohn's disease and who also works with researchers on Project HealthDesign. Their team endeavors to create a smartphone that tracks the complex fluctuations of Crohn's disease symptoms on a daily basis. And what he shares with the Wall Street Journal epitomizes the significance of Project HealthDesign's work in HIT. Learn More.
August 11, 2010
2010 Health 2.0 Developer Challenge
RWJF Pioneer Portfolio and California HealthCare Foundation are seeking innovative designers to forge ahead with the Project HealthDesign 2006-2008 projects. Using the Project HealthDesign visual stories the 2010 Health 2.0 Developer Challenge is asking developers to build apps for the web, smart phones or tablets that demonstrate the features envisioned by 2006-2008 team designers. The challenge mandates that the apps must be compatible with commercially available PHR services capable of storing data securely. Entries will be judged on design quality and their degree and robustness of functionality. Learn more
April 20, 2010
Project HealthDesign Director Provides Testimony to Meaningful Use Workgroup
Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, FAAN, director of Project HealthDesign provided testimony at a public hearing hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator’s Meaningful Use Workgroup on consumer engagement in health care. She explained that achieving a paradigm shift to a more patient-centered health care system requires that patient-generated data – called observations of daily living (ODLs) – be captured, interpreted and incorporated into clinical care. Read Dr. Brennan's Testimony
April 14, 2010
Survey Finds Personal Health Records Motivate Consumers to Improve their Health
According to a study released by the California HealthCare Foundation Americans who have access to their health information through personal health records (PHRs) report that they know more about their health, ask more questions, and take better care of themselves than when their health information was less accessible to them in paper records...Read the Report
April 5, 2010
Project HealthDesign Workshop 2 Video Available
In March, Project HealthDesign grantees and members from the core resource teams came together in Nashville at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health to participate in our second design workshop. All of the video and documents from this workshop are online and available for viewing. In addition to group activities, guests Dr. Kevin Johnson presented on ODLs in clinical practice and Dr. David Ahern presented on evaluation strategy. Workshop Webjournal
March 5, 2010
Manatt and CDT to Provide Regulatory and Assurance Support to Project HealthDesign
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a law firm specializing in health information technology and privacy, and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the country’s foremost consumer expert on health information privacy policy, are partnering to serve as regulatory and assurance advisors to Project HealthDesign.
Together, Manatt and CDT will provide the Project HealthDesign grantees with legal and policy advice to support their provision of personal health records, including the integration of patient-generated observations of daily living. They will also contribute to the more global aim of monitoring and influencing public policy that will support continued innovation in the creation of PHRs and other health IT tools designed to place patients in greater control of their health care.
Together, Manatt and CDT will provide the Project HealthDesign grantees with legal and policy advice to support their provision of personal health records, including the integration of patient-generated observations of daily living. They will also contribute to the more global aim of monitoring and influencing public policy that will support continued innovation in the creation of PHRs and other health IT tools designed to place patients in greater control of their health care.
March 5, 2010
Project HealthDesign Director Featured in iHealthBeat HIMSS Preview
As a preview to the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference Patricia Flatley Brennan, Director of Project HealthDesign, was featured in an audio story from iHealthBeat. Her comments focus on moving away from thinking of personal health records as repositories of data and instead seeing them as platform for action, containing the kind of information patients notice and understand...Listen to the Audio Report
March 3, 2010
Project HealthDesign Announces 2010 Projects
We are excited to announce the five grantee teams that are working to demonstrate how to improve the health and well-being of people with chronic disease by helping them capture, understand, interpret and act on information gathered from their observations of daily living (ODLs).
- Carnegie Mellon University
- RTI International and Virginia Commonwealth University
- San Francisco State University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Irvine and Charles Drew University
January 19, 2010
RWJF Feature: The Power and Potential of Personal Health Records
This web feature from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation highlights Project HealthDesign and traces the history and development of PHRs, discussing their role within the larger health IT arena. It also highlights a shift in emphasis from data captured in clinical encounters to the strong potential of patient-generated observations of daily living (ODLs)...Read the Feature
November 19, 2009
Project HealthDesign Director Receives Leadership Award
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) selected Project HealthDesign National Program Director Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, FAAN, FACMI, to receive a prestigious 2009 Leadership Award for her work with Project HealthDesign, creating a new vision for personal health records. Leadership Awards are given by the AMIA for outstanding volunteer leadership and service to the association or in the field of medical informatics. The award was presented to Dr. Brennan at the AMIA Annual Symposium Leadership Dinner on Nov.14 in San Francisco, California.
November 19, 2009
Project HealthDesign Common Platform Now Available for Developers and Users
The Project HealthDesign Common Platform – a set of software components that provide common, shared functions to a variety of personal health applications (PHAs) – is now available for use by developers and others interested in learning more about the platform...Read More
November 5, 2009
Informational Bidders' Call
An informational Bidders' Call will be held on Monday, November 9, at 10:00 AM Central time. To participate, please contact Project HealthDesign at (877) 674-3170 before 4:00 PM Central time on Friday, November 6.
October 30, 2009
Project HealthDesign Seeks Regulatory and Assurance Consulting Proposals
Project HealthDesign is seeking proposals for Regulatory and Assurance Consulting. For information about responding to RFQP #10-5215 please contact Carl Hubbard (608) 262-6557 /FAX (608) 262-4467; EMAIL: chubbard@bussvc.wisc.edu at University of Wisconsin-Madison Purchasing Services. Responses to the RFPQ are due on November 16, 2009.
August 11, 2009
2009 Public Media Award for Project HealthDesign
Project HealthDesign was selected to receive a 2009 Public Media Award from the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (STT). The award recognizes “Grantee Videos,” for capturing the vision of nine grantee projects through vignettes that illustrate the potential of personal health applications to help individuals and families better manage their health. The award will be presented at STT’s Fortieth Biennial Convention Tribute Luncheon, November 1. To learn more about Sigma Theta Tau awards, see Awards. You can view the grantees visual stories on our YouTube channel.
July 1, 2009
Living Environments Laboratory Chosen for Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Project HealthDesign National Program Director Patricia Flatley Brennan, R.N., Ph.D., is among five University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty whose research proposals will establish the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID). Dr. Brennan’s proposal for the Health Technology Design in the Living Environments Laboratory is aimed at accelerating the development of personal care diagnostic and therapeutic technology with the goal of supporting individuals and families in the detection, recognition and management of health problems.
“The Living Environments Laboratory research will help expand Project HealthDesign’s work,” according to Dr. Brennan, “by developing new devices and creative technologies to better understand health in everyday living. “This is a perfect complement to Project HealthDesign, which seeks to demonstrate how to improve the health and wellbeing of people with chronic disease by helping them capture, understand, interpret and act on information about the patterns of their everyday lives.”...Read More
June 30, 2009
National Advisory Committee Selected To Help Advise Second Round of Project HealthDesign
Project HealthDesign is pleased to announce new additions to its national advisory committee (NAC), comprising leaders in academia, technology, clinical practice and health and health care. Selected for a three-year term of service, the committee members include such industry luminaries as healthcare IT innovators Dr. John Halamka of the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Dr. Paul Tang of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. The NAC members were chosen based on leadership in their respective fields, as well as their commitment to the goals of the program. As a part of their responsibilities, members will review submissions received in response to the program’s recent call for proposals, make recommendations on awards selections and provide RWJF with advice on overall program strategy. Full NAC list
June 17, 2009
Project HealthDesign Releases Findings and Resources from Initial Phase
The work products and final report from the initial phase of Project HealthDesign are currently available for download. The report captures key learnings from the work of the program’s first nine grantee teams, as well as from its efforts to develop a common platform and explore the ethical, legal and social issues tied to next-generation personal health records (PHRs). We are pleased to also release all of the open, sharable source code and other technical code documentation produced by the grantee teams in developing their PHR application prototypes. View Resources
Project HealthDesign is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio