john-norris.net

CorvallisHealth chirps out tweets you can use for healthier living in Corvallis, Oregon.

Throughout the week I will be tweeting 140 characters of locally focused, health information.  I’ll keep the tweets down to at the most, one message a day, not force you to go to a webpage, and keep it organized to help you plan your time.

CorvallisHealth is also a bit of an experiment.  I am a biomedical informaticist, which is someone studying heathcare and information.  As part of my research, and career path, I have been looking into tools such as Twitter to help convey healthcare information.  I want to see what I can do even without being professionally associated with a local healthcare organization. (You can find my more corporate related medical tweetings at john-norris as well as other healthcare related work on the rest of this website.)  So, in exchange for what I think is some helpful information, you may find some things changing as I try out new ideas.

As this experiment includes you, I thought it would be helpful about who I am and what I am doing.  This might also help folks send me constructive comments.

FAQ:

Who are you?

• I’m John Norris.

Why Corvallis?

• While I think some of the what I am doing can be done in any town, I am familiar with Corvallis, and it seems to have good demographics for this experiment.

Who’s paying you?

• No one, but I may be open to offers   Seriously, there will be times when I tweet about services in the area, perhaps a restaurant, or event.  At this point I am not receiving anything for these tweets.  If things change, I will let folks know on this page (or whatever website my tweets are associated with.)  I am not currently soliciting sponsorships, this is not, currently, my profession.

No website community about Corvallis and health?

• I’d really like to do one, but simply do not have the time at this point. I am focusing on the tweets, and microblogging in general.  I am putting a hashtag of #cvo at the end of my tweets so that others can find  each other.

What’s #cvo?

• CVO (or KCVO) is the designator for the Corvallis Municipal Airport.  This is like Portland being ‘PDX’.

Here’s my current idea on the weekly posts:

Nxt: Sunday.  A quick, health planning guide for the upcoming week; namely weather, allergies, colds, etc…  Getting information for some of this may be tough, and I really want to be sure to to infringe on copyrights. Here are the topics and sources so far:

Weather: NOAA.

Sun/UV hazard: EPA.

Flu/Illness: Google Flu Trends, Benton County Health Alerts, and Benton County DHS.

Air Quality/Pollution: AIRNow. (This is not a forecast, so I use the day reported. Corvallis is not listed, but Eugene and others are, thus the inclusion of the word “area”.)

Allergies: I am working on getting permission to publish this from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. (This is not a forecast, so I use the day reported. Corvallis is not listed, but Eugene and others are, thus the inclusion of the word “area”)

I’ll be refining this list for sure.

Eat: Wednesday.  A post directing folks to a healthy meal at a local restaurant.  I will try to note if the people at the restaurant recommend the meal, or if it is just my take on their menu.  (I am not a nutritionist.)

Joy: Thursday.  Features an event that promotes good health, whether that means music, camaraderie, or simply fun.  If I haven’t heard of something directly I  currently scan the events over at Visit Corvallis.

Veg: Friday.  What is local, fresh, and good for you.  Apparently this changes quite rapidly so is a tad more complex than I first thought, but I’ll be relying on the good folks at First Alternative Co-op and Corvallis Farmer’s Market for some ideas.

Fit: Saturday.  A physical activity for the day.  Not too overwhelming, but something to get one out for a bit.  Calories burned are approximately for a 155lb person, from the Department of Human Services.  Distances from Google Earth.

Tip: If I come up with something that does not work into the above categories and times, I’ll post it as a tip.

I will also change the CorvallisHealth icon occasionally.  Free free to try to guess where it was taken!

Stay Tuned-

I’ve placed a link on my resume to my Twitter feed.

I had been exploring Twitter in general, but it has now become a major microblogging tool for me.  I am publishing ideas on how healthcare orgs can use Twitter to help members of their local community and themselves.

Updated the 2002 to present area as well.

While looking up the efficacy of online support groups, I found this rather timely information. It concerns what people wanted from their hospital during the SARS outbreak.  (The bold is my emphasis)

Their most frequent suggestion was the ability to communicate with
family members, as visits were restricted. Others wanted to use the
Internet to access their electronic health record, participate in
virtual support groups, replace certain follow-up visits with
online consultations, and find information on drug compatibility or
clinical trials.

“What Internet Services Would Patients Like From Hospitals During an
Epidemic? Lessons From the SARS Outbreak in Toronto”
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1550678

I know there are some efforts starting up within Second Life to help share information.  It looks like it may be a good venue for a wider variety of activities.

This report also shows that hospitals should be an online partner as well.

I’ve been taking peer support courses through the Guiding Lights in Second Life.  It’s been very interesting, with some great speakers, and a super group to work with.

To help with this sort of training, I am developing a simulated discussion group consisting of 4 fake avatars.

It has two modes.  One can run automated dialogs that demonstrate various issues and techniques that may happen during a meeting. This dialog can be stopped and continued.  Further, the dialog can pause itself to allow one to type in their own responses.  The other mode lets the various fake avatars puppet what someone else chats.  Thus, a trainer can control what each of the fake avatars say.  (One can combine both modes as well.)

I currently have 2 automated dialogs concerning healthcare support groups available.  The first is a general chat, demonstrating possible issues, and techniques.  The second addresses issues of tolerance and includes pauses for the trainee to come up with their own responses.

It would be easier to merely have a notecard, or web page, with the dialog all written out, but it wouldn’t capture the timing of events in a group, nor, possibly, the surprise.

It would be easier not to have the fake avatars, but it brings the experience closer to being a discussion group.  Actually sitting down, surrounded by avatars, helps make the training more real, and a better learning experience.

The simulator is in beta currently, but send me an email and I’ll get a copy to you.  I’m releasing it under a creative commons license with full permissions, so please feel free to change it around.

I think it will be useful to those training to lead group discussions in any setting.

#Update April 18, 2009.  My apologies, but earlier versions of the Group Simulator I gave out may not have all the permissions set up properly.  I intended to give it away with full permissions to the new owner.  If you did a fixed copy, please let me know.

I received some very good advice about my resume and have updated my Business Analyst / Application Program Manager resume.

I had a bit of fun with my healthcare 2.0 / community management resume. (The summary is less than 140 characters…if you know what I mean.)

I’ve re-done my business cards as well, and will post a snap of them soon.

It’s funny to think that I have now been volunteering at a local hospital for over a year.  Really a great group of folks over there, so the time seems much shorter.

I’m not much for popularity contests, but it is critical to know just who and what is going on in one’s area.  For this reason, I installed some simple counters that report to me the number of different avatars per hour…but not their names…for the sake of privacy.

The Path of Support is a place to find out about the wide variety of healthcare support groups in Second Life.

So how is The Path doing?

I now have 3 months worth of data:

Average avatars a day saw a gradual increase.  For Jan. it was 7.9,  Dec. was 7.3,  and Nov was 7.1. (These numbers may be shocking to folks used to website volume, but given the current membership in Second Life and the lack advertising/outreach for The Path…I’ve got to say, I am kinda happy.   Secondary to the service it provides, The Path is also learning tool for this sort of project within a virtual world.)

Most avatars in one day for those 3 months was 19.  That was the day I posted to the group healthcare@lists.secondlife.com.

Lowest avatars a day was 1, and it wasn’t me!

Most popular day of the week was Fri/Sat.

Popular time of the day is from 9 to 1 SLT.

In December I installed a counter on the note cards that I give away.  One Entryway notecard, that details The Path and it’s content, was given for every 8.5 visitors in Jan.  In Dec it was  7.3.  One calendar notecard, that has some of the groups meetings for the month, was given for every 7.3 visitors in Jan. In Dec it was 5.7.  One does not need to receive a notecard inorder to get good information from The Path, but the notecards have more information and show added interest.  I hope to see these both increase, but understand at this point,  the calendar is probably the most visually compelling.

I have recently begun asking others to put up promotional posters about The Path in other areas of Second Life.  I am collecting stats on these posters, but do not have a full month’s worth.  At this point all I can say is that a few people are using them.

With the addition of the calendar, extra posters, and organizing the groups, I am trying to make The Path more helpful to people.  By providing a better service, I hope to see increased traffic.

Further, there has been ‘outreach’ for the path in  real life.  VintFalkin had a web based article on the Path and roughly doubled visitors for a couple of days.   Wellness published an article I wrote about the Path available both in/out world, and that increased visitors for about a week.  A simple post to an Second Life email health list garnered a few visitors for the day.

This year I am participating in the Dreams Community Fair.  It features numerous healthcare groups.  I have a booth, with informational posters, notecard with landmark, and even a “freebie” to entice folks. I am happy to say that The Path had its biggest day in the last 3.5 months, with 20 visitors.  I am interested to see how the rest of the fair goes.

I think The Path can be even more of a service, and look forward to new features as well as working with the other healthcare folks within Second Life and without.

Many thanks to the folks on Healthinfo Island (OK, Carolina Keats) as well as the funders- The Greater Midwest Region of the National Network/National Library of Medicine for the tremendous opportunity to help maintain The Path of Support.

I am currently looking for my next project or full time employment.

Here’s the list from my ‘elevator’ speech about me!

1. Lifelong interest in the flow of information in its various forms.
2. Enjoys exploring technology where “the rubber meets the road” -helping others live, work, and play.
3. Technical/Managerial experience in Customer Service Management.
4. Certificate in Medical Informatics, Certificate Medical Terminology and Bodily Systems, MFA Studio Ceramics, BA Philosophy.
5. A happy dad with a wonderful family.

Tailored resumes:

Community Management.

Business Analyst / Application Program Manager.

Contact: john@john-norris.net

Feed for my For Hire content only.

I’m passionate about the use of online communites helping each other in the healthcare arena.  Below is a brief list of research I have done, and put up on the web, concerning community management:

Introduction to virtual world group tools for online healthcare support groups.

For those who already run online support, but are interested in the opportunities/difficulties virtual worlds hold.  Not an introduction to virtual worlds, but the tools and issues surrounding groups.  Second Life is used as an example.

Statistics for Second Life Healthcare Support Groups.

A snapshot of 150 groups in Second Life.  Looking at types of issues, membership numbers, and analysis.  Comparison to real life support group communities.

Statistics for IMVU Healthcare Support Groups.

A snapshop of over 100 groups in the virtual world of IMVU.  Similar data and analysis as the Second Life paper. Additional data and analysis surrounding the creation rates of groups.

Systems that identify ‘experts’ in online communities.

Overview of many healthcare related communities and the systems for identifying ‘experts’ on their sites.

Asynchronous communication system for patients and  providers.

Proposed systems to assist patients and providers communicate with each other online, asynchronously.

Complex Adaptive Systems- an online reading list.

Complex Adaptive Systems are those in which multiple agents act, learn, and change.  (Much like an online community.)  They are hard to predict and require a particualr approach inorder to ‘manage’ them.

Organizational Cultures- I.T. Vs Clinical.

By looking at the differences between Information Technology and Clinical culture, and how they collide, one can better understand how to have them work toward a common goal.

Providers and PHRs.

How might providers deal with patient created information?  What is the value and power in a PHR?  I take a look at Dossia as an example.

Use of privacy and ethics statements in virtual land.

The use of privacy and ethics statements on webpages is well known.  Should this carried over to virtual world land?

As a response to another post over at HIStalk that basically wondered if Healthcare 2.0 and social networking software will help healthcare in the future. I sent in a comment and was published:

From John: “Re: Web 2.0. Web 2.0 and social networking are already playing a role in healthcare. People are helping each other out, providing information and support. It’s happening right now, go and see for oneself. For example, a few quick searches in Facebook finds the group ‘Support the fight against cancer with just a click’ has 1,400,000 members, Autism Awareness has 60,000 members, and ‘Find a Cure For Juvenile Diabetes’ has 27,000 members. Now if by ‘healthcare’ one means ‘the sustainable business model one can come up with to monetize healthcare communities of interests,’ that poses a different question. However, the answer might stem from the large number of folks currently participating in the former notion of ‘healthcare.’” Brilliant and well said. Maybe healthcare as a business has made all of us too cynical about any manifestations of it that don’t come with a big-name CEO or a liquidity event.

I’d link directly to the comment, but am not sure how to do that on the HISTalk site.

No, really, it’s me.

As you wander a lonely virtual landscape, is anyone watching you?  Probably, if the land collect stats.  Should you be told?

As some may know, I maintain the Path of Support on Healthinfo Island in Second Life.* It features almost 100 posters of different support groups. The path includes groups  dealing with mental health conditions, chronic issues, and terminal illnesses.

I am acutely aware that some people, as well as avatars, do not want to be publicly associated with some of these ailments.  This may even be the reason why some join Second Life.  A person can be relatively anonymous behind their avatar.

However, some people’s SL lives are unique enough that close friends or associates may be able to figure out who the real life person is ‘behind’ the avatar.  Further, people may want the avatar itself to have some privacy.  I know some people who do not want to list certain groups their avatar belongs to because others’ may see it in their profile and think less of the avatar (as well as the person.)

It was with this in mind that I designed certain aspects of the Path of Support.  For example, I have a list of the groups in the notecard at the beginning, so that avatars need not be seen near group posters they are not comfortable being by.

To properly understand the utilization of Path of Support, I collect statistics on visitors.  There are a number of outfits and objects/scripts that will do so, and some report the name of the avatar including in real time (ttSLVC, 1902 Essential.)  However, given the nature of the material on the path, I decided to not collect avatar names. I do record that a visitor came by, that they took a note card, and in the case of some posters I am making, where the poster is located.

I now include a privacy statement about my reporting on the notecard at the entrances to the Path of Support.  I wonder if, like websites, more areas will also begin to post similar statements.  Can the HON code be far behind?

*If you have a Second Life client, you can visit the path here.