Why people-driven digital health and wellbeing? #PdDigital15

Why people-driven digital health and wellbeing? #PdDigital15

by | Mar 29, 2015 | #PdDigital15 | 1 comment

Towards the end of last year I offered to run a session on people/citizen-led digital health for the Health 2.0 Europe which took place in London. My suggestion came about because I spent much of 2014 encountering many amazing digital entrepreneurs, but when it came to conferences they were rarely to be seen on the podium or as sponsors or with stands. We know that digital tools and services have to be born out of user-centred design approaches if they’re going to stand a chance of success; but we also need people accessing services to be shaping the discussion at conferences and events too. So back to Health 2.0… it took no time at all to pull together an amazing panel of people who had all developed digital tools and services out of their personal experience. The tracker session was full to the rafters and we had a lively and stimulating discussion as well as tons of interest in what our panel had to say.  This experience gave us an idea… why not shape an event entirely around the experiences and motivations of people who have done digital innovation from the ground up. Why not ask the question ‘how can the NHS unleash people-driven digital health and wellbeing?’ and see if we can collectively find answers to help shape the strategic direction of digital in health and social care and beyond. We chose the word people because this is all about everyday people sorting out everyday problems that they have directly experienced. We chose the word driven because it is people in the driving seat and many are really...
Digital is just a fad.

Digital is just a fad.

by | Mar 15, 2015 | Digital, NHS stuff, social media | 8 comments

‘Digital is just a fad’ ‘Digital is just a distraction from the real problems facing healthcare’ ‘Digital is just another thing to learn and I  don’t have time’ These are all challenges I’ve recently heard from healthcare professionals recently who are reticent and doubtful about the value of spending time developing their understanding of social media and digital tools/services. Everyone is busy and everyone is overstretched. So why should their attention be focused here when they are so many other more pressing priorities? Their wariness is in sharp contrast to a talk on widening digital participation by Bob Gann at a recent mHealthHabitat breakfast discussion in which he shared the following three stark facts: Low health literacy is closely linked to poor outcomes and mortality Information and services are increasingly digital – digital skills are increasingly linked to health literacy Those who are least likely to be online are those who most need health and care services. If digital skills are important for people needing health and care services then they are also important for practitioners who are delivering those services. Increasingly, practitioners need to incorporate digital mediation in to their day to day work – helping people find and make sense of the best health information and digital tools online. Digital skills aren’t just technical skills – they are skills in appraising information online, they are skills in participating in online communities to maximise their beneficial effects and minimise harm; they are skills in understanding whether a mobile app is based on evidenced clinical effectiveness and deciding if you’re ok with how it uses your data; they are...