Do Sports Drinks Really Work? Just in time for the Summer Olympics in London, a top science journal has issued a blistering indictment of the sports drink industry. According to the series of reports from BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), the makers of drinks like Gatorade and Powerade have spent millions in research and marketing in recent decades to persuade sports and medical professionals, not to mention the rest of us suckers, that a primal instinct—the sensation of thirst—is an unreliable guide for deciding when to drink.
We've also been battered with the notion that boring old water is just not good enough for preventing dehydration. I've been as susceptible to this scam as anyone else; I knew, or thought I knew, that if I'm thirsty after my half-hour go-round on the elliptical trainer, it means I was underhydrated to begin with. So for years I've been trying to remember to ignore my lack of thirst and make myself drink before working out. Innovation In The Health Care Sector Marches Forward. Zuckerberg’s Dinners with Girlfriend Help Spur Life-Saving Facebook Tool. May 1, 2012 6:34am Conversations over the dinner table with his med-student girlfriend helped Mark Zuckerberg formulate his latest big idea — harnessing the power of Facebook to help eliminate the critical shortage of organs for patients desperately in need of life-saving transplants.
And it was his friendship with Apple founder Steve Jobs, whose life was extended by years following a liver transplant, in part, that spurred the 27-year-old Facebook founder and CEO to help put that idea into practice. “Facebook is really about communicating and telling stories… We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends. And that can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there,” Zuckerberg told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview at the company’s headquarters.
“She’s in medical school now,” Zuckerberg said of Chan. From Chan he learned of one boy in need of a heart transplant. How a Social Network Helps Families Coping With Autism. Autism Awareness Month may be coming to a close, but by using the social network MyAutismTeam, parents of children with autism spectrum disorder can spread awareness and find support throughout the year.
MyAutismTeam is a part of the MyHealthTeams network, online communities for people living with or caring for those with chronic health conditions. On the network, users share information about the members of their support teams — parents, specialists, businesses — with other users looking for the same. "One in two Americans suffers from a chronic condition or disease," says Eric Peacock, co-founder and CEO of MyHealthTeams. "That includes everything from autism and ADHD to diabetes, Parkinson's and breast cancer. What's more, that number is expected to grow 42% in the next 10 years. " MyHealthTeams decided to focus on autism for its first network because one in 88 children in America is diagnosed with symptoms of autism. "We're becoming the Yelp for autism," says Peacock. Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution. GE's $1 Billion Cancer Project: Raising the Bar on Social Business. GE’s healthymagination project is setting the pace for cancer care as well as defining what it means to be a social business.
Back in September GE announced it would spend $1billion on cancer-related R&D over the next five years. The $100 million healthymagination challenge is a part of that – essentially a crowdsourcing platform to generate new ideas from screening to diagnoses to treatment and care for breast cancer Earlier this week I got a chance to talk with Mike Barber, the GE VP who heads up healthymagination. The fascinating aspect of the project is that the output metrics, what GE gets back on its money, according to Mike, are all related to patients. The hope is for the $1 billion to deliver better care to 10 million patients by 2020, and healthymagination to positively impact 1 million women. The investment though is not just about delivering these noble social objectives. Let’s think how. This new business ecosystem is a way of describing shared value.
Medicine Must Allow for Customization: A Lesson for Policy-Makers -- and Regulators. Can social media help heal healthcare? How to get more for less? It’s an age-old question and one that is playing out today in our healthcare system. With healthcare reform top of mind these days, everyone is asking how the medical industry can treat patients better for less money. Social media often comes up in these discussions and everyone seems to have an opinion about the risks and rewards. For all of the debate, one thing is for sure: social media in healthcare is here to stay. But when it comes to the availability of trustworthy health information, research suggests that we still have a ways to go.
According to a recent Pew Internet survey, four out of five Internet users have searched for health information online, making health one of the most searched topics on the Internet. As the CEO and founder of Avvo.com, an online legal and health Q&A forum and professional directory, I talk to hospital administrators, doctors and consumers about these issues on a regular basis. 1. I agree with Dr. 2. Curing cancer: too important -- and too difficult -- for university researchers to do alone. A Low-Tech Business That Can Prevent Hospital Readmissions. Nimble Medicine Set to Reshape Healthcare. Could a Facebook for Doctors Improve Your Care? Your accountant can email a specialist for advice about a specific issue in your tax return.
Your doctor, however, doesn't necessarily have the same access to easy collaboration. There may, however, be a Facebook-like solution in the wings. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) prevents doctors from sharing patient information without "reasonable safeguards. " For the most part, this shuts down the instantaneous email exchanges through which other professionals collaborate.
Physicians can consult with each other about a patient's condition via email, but they can't involve medical test results or a patient's medical records in the discussion. While it's good that patient privacy is protected, these restrictions have contributed to the fax machine's mainstay as a major form of communication between doctors. A new doctors-only network called Doximity wants to free doctors from the fax machine and bring social media into the field. Facebook statuses can predict signs of depression. More People Are Now Sharing Their Cancer Diagnosis. With all of the social networking sites at our disposal, we’ve become somewhat robotic in how we share, and what we share.
And then somehow real life always kicks back in and you’re smacked in the face with reality. There are actual people behind those computers and avatars. For all of the horror stories you hear about Facebook privacy, or accidental tweets featuring the junk of some politician, there are heartwarming stories that remind us that the Internet isn’t all that bad after all. It’s a place to be ourselves, reach people we would have never been able to reach, and share things that we’ve never shared before. The “C” word Five years ago, you didn’t broadcast the fact that you had cancer. Over the past few weeks, many friends of ours in the tech community, and more importantly, real people who do amazing things, have shared the fact that they have cancer with the world. Last week, a good friend of mine DM’d me.
Using your online voice to help others I have breast cancer. Khan Academy Inspires Flip of Doctor-Patient Relationship Model. Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Dave Chase, the CEO of Avado.com, a patient portal & relationship management company that was a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist. Previously he was a management consultant for Accenture’s healthcare practice and founder of Microsoft’s Health platform business. You can follow him on Twitter @chasedave. Education and healthcare are typically held up as the industries least affected by the technology revolution, however this has begun to change. From Bill Gates to millions of students and parents, the Khan Academy has impressed many of us and inspired teachers to flip the classroom lecture/homework model on its head as described in the video below. Doctors are now recognizing similar value in videos for their patients. Read more about flipping the classroom in The Economist As you can see in the video, technology has brought a human element back into the classroom making it more interactive and tuned to specific kids’ needs.
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