Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Health and Healthcare

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Sunday 11th March 2012

• How STDs Can Be Good for Your Health

  by Anmol Madan, David Hale, Deven McGraw, Emily Hackel and Mark Dredze

  We’ll let you in on a secret: Socially Transmitted Data (STDs) are good for your health.

  Updating Twitter, searching for information on Google, texting your friends, and carrying your mobile phone – these activities may hold the key to preventing your next cold or knowing when flu will be keeping the kids at home so you can get them Echinacea and call the sitter in time.

  In this panel, we’ll discuss how the data you leave in your wake, every day, holds within it vast opportunity to predict and even improve personal and public health; and we’ll delve into some of the latest research and tools that are helping uncover what’s possible. Do you want to know when the next bug will be wafting through town? Is your partner depressed but not aware what’s wrong? Your twitter feed, mobile location traces, search queries, subway travel patterns and even buying behavior may hold the answer.

  The common denominator: These non-traditional passive data offer tremendous scale that simply doesn't exist with any other physiological health sensor. They give us clues about our personal and collective health behavior, and help health care professionals and health organizations better serve the public.

  It is important to note, that while some are excited by these prospects, others cry “big brother”. So we’ll discuss privacy implications too.

  • Health
  • Healthcare
  • Social Media

  At 11:00am to 12:00pm, Sunday 11th March

  In Classroom 204, AT&T Conference Center

  Coverage audio clip

• A Dr, Patient & Insurer Walk into a Social Network

  by Dr Michael Golinkoff, Jamie Heywood and Wendy Sue Swanson

  What happens next? Mobile, social and peer-to-peer tools are blowing up politics, news, and entertainment. But what about health care? Why is it that you can connect with everyone you know online except for your doctor or your health insurance company? Why is it easier to update your status on Facebook than it is to update your health history? Why do clipboards and paper forms still play a prominent role in the doctor's office? On the flip side, patients and caregivers who have their lives on the line are literally putting their lives online. Research shows that if you enable an environment in which people can share, they will. The benefits of that sharing will entice others to join and there is mounting evidence that sharing is, in fact, caring. When people connect with the right tool, the right advice, or the right person who is just ahead of them on a treatment path, their health outcomes improve. Everyone - clinicians, health insurance companies, patients -- know we need to figure this out. So what's going to happen in that bar? A fistfight? A love connection?

  • Health
  • Healthcare
  • Mobile

  At 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Sunday 11th March

  In Classroom 204, AT&T Conference Center

Monday 12th March 2012

• Sharing Privately in the Context of Health

  by Michael Nichols

  Social sharing about all topics is now commonplace, and the trend of increasingly open sharing about historically “private” aspects of our lives reflect changing standards about what’s appropriately public information. At the same time, for certain subjects – including health – privacy and confidentiality concerns often keep us from open sharing.

  At the same time, we now know that sharing health information, particularly in an online social context, can have significant benefits (for all who share and others), especially when practiced in large groups/communities.

  This session will explore how to create environments where participants receive the benefits of sharing, while also enjoying the peace of mind of privacy: secure sharing. It will address emerging trends in technology (including mobile sharing and privacy/security technology), products (including online and mobile services that allow anonymous sharing of health information), privacy controls and sharing trends, and current (as of the time of the talk) law, which collectively support the new and exciting prospect of "secure sharing" and the related benefits it creates.

  • Health
  • Healthcare
  • Privacy

  At 11:30am to 11:45am, Monday 12th March

  In Texas Ballroom 4-7, Hyatt Regency Austin

Tuesday 13th March 2012

• All Day Event - The iTriage "Power-Up" Lounge

  Need to recharge? iPhone or Tablet going dead? Feet hurting? Come relax in the iTriage Power-Up Lounge. Plug in your electronics at the charge stations and grab a healthy snack to refuel! And while you're recharging on the comfy couches, learn about the #1 downloaded healthcare app that allows you to take charge of your health!

  • Apps
  • Health
  • Healthcare
  • Lounge

  At 9:00am to 4:00pm, Tuesday 13th March

  In Room 301, AT&T Conference Center