Interactive Data + Health Apps: (article by Alex Howard about the Community Health Data Forum, with video about HHS.gov/open and info about games and health data!)

For a wealth of information and links related to this topic, please read Alex Howard's recent O'Reilly Radar post, "Here come the healthcare apps:  A look at the applications--and the big opportunities--showcased at the Community Health Data Forum."

Information from  HHS.gov/Open: 




"... working with a growing array of technology companies, researchers, health advocates, employers, media, consumer advocates, marketers, providers, etc., we are seeking to identify the uses of this data that would do the most to raise awareness of health performance, help motivate civic leaders and citizens to improve performance, and help improvers do the improving.  

Potential examples include:  

• Interactive health maps on the web that allow citizens to understand health performance in their area vs. others with tremendous ease and clarity
• “Dashboards” that enable mayors and other civic leaders to track and publicize local health performance and issues
• Social networking applications that allow health improvement leaders to connect with each other, compare performance, share best practices, and challenge each other
• Competitions regarding how communities can innovate to improve health performance
• Viral online games that help educate people about community health
• Utilization of community health data to help improve the usefulness of results delivered by web search engines when people do health-related searches and further raise awareness of community health performance 
• Integration of community health-related data into new venues, such as real estate websites, which could be highly effective disseminators of such information
• Etc."

Harnessing the Power of Information to Improve Health
Event: Community Health Data Initiative Launched (06/02/2010) (Long!)


RELATED
Making community health information as useful as weather data
Alex Howard, O'Reilly Radar 6/2/10


HEALTH DATA AND GAMES FOR HEALTH!
My favorite section of Alex Howard's post:


Game mechanics and health data
"Community Clash isn't the only game that's using community health data: SCVNGRlocation-based technology that has become familiar to many through Foursquare and Gowalla with specific challenges to earn points. SCVNGR provides a platform for organizations to build games upon. To date, more than 550 institutions in 44 states and 20 countries have taken them up on the opportunity as clients, including museums, conferences, universities and cities. combines the
"John Valentine, SCVNGR's conference and events manager, says that SCVNGR now has more than 20 million locations in its system and is being downloaded thousands of times daily from the iTunes and Android app stores. In D.C., SCVNGR will be a part of the upcoming Digital Capital Week."