Category: The technical world

Remote Health Services: Will behavioral health be a player?

Posted on | by SOS Blog | 2 Comments on Remote Health Services: Will behavioral health be a player?

A couple of weeks ago, I read with interest a discussion on a Psychology listserv about telephone and other remote consultations. Florida psychologists tend to be pretty conservative about telehealth and Internet psychotherapy; after all, it is difficult to apply the same standards to remote interventions as to face-to-face contacts when psychotherapy is the product.

The same week, I received an email from the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare in Boston. Partners was founded by Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals in 1995; its purpose is to perform “pioneering research in a wide range of connected health-related areas. Their progress report for 2008 includes articles on a number of their initiatives.

Just what is connected health? It is any healthcare endeavor that involves electronic connection between patients who are the receivers of care and the providers of that care. It can involve remote monitoring of medical variables (e.g. blood pressure, blood sugar) utilizing instrumentation that does the test/measurement and reports it to the provider; it can involve sending reminder text messages and determining the impact of those messages on patient behavior. If you start to think about the possibilities, it can involve an incredible range of services provided to consumers of those services from a distance and utilizing electronic media of some sort as the means of connecting.

A wonderful example in the report demonstrates how patient behavior and healthy lifestyle can be studied using an Internet tool like Second Life. Participants in the study are taught the Relaxation Response in a classroom setting in Second Life (see page 5 of the report mentioned above). The study will measure the effectiveness of teaching this stress reduction technique in virtual reality. Other articles in the report study patient compliance with medical protocols when monitored remotely, another area where the expertise of behavioral health researchers should be invaluable.

As a former media psychologist…host of a TV show that focused on psychological issues, answering phone calls and providing public education…I find the research being done by the Center very exciting. If we are going to find ways to reach people where they live and to reduce the costs of care by increasing compliance and changing patient behavior to live healthier lifestyles, we must begin to study and be prepared to utilize these electronic methodologies.

What do you think about telehealth and mental health services? Should behavioral health providers be learning to provide services remotely? Is it time for all of us to support research and training and developing best practices for provision of services electronically? Could you imagine yourself participating as a recipient of remote healthcare services?

Please tell us what you think. Just click on the title of this article and enter your comment in the box at the bottom of the article.

Multitasking and Time Wasting

Posted on | by SOS Blog | 3 Comments on Multitasking and Time Wasting

I have been struggling this week with getting a blog article written. Too many items keep coming across my desk that distract me from the task. I had a topic I was all set to write about; I even started jotting some notes. Then something else interrupted me. As I have gotten older and have more diverse responsibilities, I have found that my ability to stay focused on one task at a time has suffered. I certainly do not have any of the attention disorders that affect concentration. There is just too much going on! And the technology that is supposed to help us only makes it worse. It gives us the illusion that we can do even more. (I just finished writing this article only to lose it when I tried to Save!)

In the past several months, there has been considerable discussion of multitasking and its effects on our lives…from cell phone use while driving, and instant messaging while in the classroom to constantly checking email and other online sources while answering the phone. Dr. John M. Grohol at The World of Psychology reviewed several articles that discuss multitasking in different situations. Dr. Grohol suggests that the outcome of multitasking might make us think twice about doing it…except that our world seems to require that we do many things at the same time. He cites a paper by Mark, Gudith and Klocke that measures the effects of constant interruptions on work product and on the worker. While work quality seems to stay the same, the worker definitely pays a price. Work product is shorter and the worker is stressed.

My experience in mental health practices, behavioral health clinics and medical offices is that interruption is the order of the day. These environments are incredibly busy to begin with, and the demands of serving consumers and patients while also attending to business needs makes it impossible to go smoothly from one completed task to the next. My own office is no different. I work on writing an article and the telephone rings, or my computer announces the arrival of a new email that seems to require my attention immediately. The outcome for me is much less efficiency and a feeling that I am not producing well.

What is your work setting like? Do you find that technology is a help or a hindrance in getting your job done? Does the ability to do many things at one time get more accomplished or just result in your leaving work at the end of the day with one massive headache? Do the tools help you or just waste your time?

To add your comment just click on the title of this article and enter your thoughts in the box at the bottom.

Kathy

Twitter Strugglers Are Not Alone

Posted on | by SOS Blog | 1 Comment on Twitter Strugglers Are Not Alone

I was very pleased to read David Pogue’s NY Times column on Friday morning. It was really a relief to find that someone as tech sophisticated at Pogue also struggles with the possible benefits of social networks like Twitter.  Of course, I (and 1500 other people) started following him on Twitter immediately. His comments are most entertaining and I am sure there will be lots of tech tidbits that will be very useful to me personally. One of the biggest tips in his column was not to actually enter what you are doing right now when you Tweet (that is, when you enter a comment on Twitter). Entries that are personal are not really useful to the social network and are not really the best one can do. One of the first of Pogue’s tweets that I read was a link to a Twitter tutorial. If you have any interest in what Twitter is about, both of these articles will be useful to you.

For myself, I struggled this week with LinkedIn. Someone asked a question to which I had an answer, but it was a major effort to figure out how to enter the answer. In fact, I could not do it without also recommending an expert. While that might be useful sometimes, it was not what I wanted to do with my answer. Obviously, I was missing something and I could not find a way to get an answer to how to post my answer.

I also had a positive Facebook experience this week. We had a visit from a longtime friend and colleague who mentioned the name of another longtime friend with whom I had no contact for the past 14 or so years. I Googled this person’s name and found several references to someone with the same name. I read the various items and knew that some pertained to my friend; of others I was not sure. Then I found that the email for the “not sure” candidate was also on Facebook. I sent a Friend invitation and a note and the next day I had a reply. What a delight!

I also learned this week that not notifying my network of contacts that I have made a new blog entry results in few readers. So, this week I will return to my previous pattern of notifying certain folks that there is a new blog article that they might find interesting.

I am still not convinced that use of these social networks is going to be useful to me. They take a good deal of time to check daily and to make some entries. I have connected with people with whom I would not otherwise be communicating. I am not sure those connections will make any difference to my business or personal purposes. With enough time, I may make enough connections with others interested in mental health issues, behavioral health EHRs, and the ongoing struggles of healthcare professionals to be useful. Time will tell on this one. What about you? Has anyone else who reads this had any experience with social networks they would like to share? Do you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any of the other social media services on the Internet?

Social Media, Text Messages, Twitter: A generational divide

Posted on | by SOS Blog | 4 Comments on Social Media, Text Messages, Twitter: A generational divide

As I have gotten older, I find myself much more strongly connected to the natural world than when I was a younger person. Those who know me well would be surprised to hear me say that because I have always been an avid gardener and for the last decade a cyclist…my pleasure in being outdoors does not seem new to them. As I sit on my porch watching the last glow of the sunset on the lake behind our home and write this blog post on my laptop, I am struck by the contrast of that focus on nature and my simultaneous reliance on technology to accomplish my work tasks and to maintain many of my connections to the people in my life.

After all, we were among the first psychologists in our circle to get computers when the Kaypro 4 became available. For you youngsters, that was a CPM based machine that preceded IBM personal computers. And then we started the software business; technology has been our lifeblood. We have had a website since the early 90’s; we use email as much or more than the telephone. SOS has used customer forums on Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups as a very effective way of helping our customers help one another.

Nevertheless, I am totally flummoxed by social media. I signed up for Linked In a couple of years ago. That seemed like a reasonable way to network with other professionals. I have always been an avid networker. Then, this year, I started using an Internet marketing product and consultant to help us get up to speed. I was told that I needed to be on Facebook and to use Twitter. I have always been good at following instructions, so I got a Facebook account and signed up for Twitter. I started writing this blog, which has been great fun, and has put me in touch with our customers and others on a different level.

Now for the BUT! I just cannot get used to certain aspects of social media. I wrote our personal holiday letter this year along with some photos. Within 24 hours I had an email from my niece saying that my photos were all over gigglestalk. I had never heard of that site, so I went to explore it. I was put off by having to pay for it unless I text-messaged a cancellation within some time frame. I am sure the name is intended to be some cute combination of giggles and talk…send funny messages to one another. I could not help but see the more sinister giggle stalk…and I don’t text message so I could not even be sure I would be able to cancel the $9.99 service. I log onto Twitter each day and I usually leave some kind of message about what I am doing; but I am extremely uncomfortable every time somebody says they are “following” me. Then, today while on our tandem bicycle ride, I got a text message from that same niece…and responded (a two letter response, so it was not a big deal), but I felt like a stranger in a strange land.

I really feel old admitting to these things. Is there a generational divide on being so public with personal information? My biggest worry about electronic health records is the risk of breach of privacy of myself and anyone else who wants their health information kept private. Has my generation (baby boomers all) become anachronistic in these matters, or do younger folks worry about others having TMI (too much information)? R u k w/ all of this? Do those of us over 50 just need to get over it? Will younger folks be hurt by what they reveal now in a public forum and can never take back? Am I just demonstrating the paranoia that runs deep in my generation?

Tell me what you think about these things. How do you use social media…personally and in your work? Where do you see these technologies going? Are there tools we need to be using and developing to facilitate the functioning of our customers in these electronic social spheres?

To enter your comment, click on the title of this article.

Kathy Peres
www.sosoft.com
www.sosoft.com/blog
Follow me on Twitter
http://twitter.com/SOS_Software

The Indispensible Data Backup

Posted on | by SOS Blog | 6 Comments on The Indispensible Data Backup

We were recently told by the IT person for an organization that had six weeks earlier lost all their data, that backing up was not a priority. Yes, they were having the same problem again. No, they did not have a good backup. They had needed to get up and running again and that took priority over getting a backup system in place. We were flabbergasted. They had just paid us to recover their database because they did not have a backup from which they could restore…yet backing up was not a priority.

On a regular basis, we are confronted by a customer organization that has a catastrophic event resulting in the loss of their entire SOS database including all of their practice management information…patient billing, clinical records, schedules. Some of the events have been a hurricane, a fire, or a crash of the computer causing irreversible corruption of the data. In the case where the customer has regularly been following our recommendations for data backup including verification and off-site storage, they merely retrieve their most recent backup, restore it to their computer in the appropriate folder, and pick up their work where they left off.

In all too many instances, that is not what happens. In some cases, the customer has not been creating backups of their data at all! In many others, they have been writing over the same single copy of their backup over and over again. If their hard drive fails in a progressive manner becoming flakier as it goes, their database becomes corrupted in the same gradual manner and their lone backup becomes as unusable as their corrupted database. Sometimes, they make their backup onto a partition of the drive on which their production database resides. When the main one goes, so does the backup. And quite often, they make backups regularly, one tape for each day, but they never verify that the backup can be restored. 

We have created documents, newsletter articles, email rants and verbal tirades trying to communicate the absolute necessity of having excellent backup procedures that are followed without fail and that produce reliable, verifiable backups of all necessary data. This information is certainly effectively used by many of our customers, but we do not seem to be successful at reaching others.

We need help understanding how folks think about data backup so we can more effectively assure that it occurs. How does an organization justify not making and verifying a backup of their mission critical data? What are the “reasons” that get used? If your company does not do data backup, what are the obstacles to doing so and how do you rationalize not removing the roadblocks? What can we and other software companies do to assure that backup happens? What have you done to assure that data backup works effectively in your organization? If you “got religion” about backup at some point, what triggered the change?

Talk to us, please. We need your assistance here.

Thanks!