Mike Kirkwood on Open Standards for Personal Data

March 8th, 2010

At the last bay area Quantified Self meetup, Mike had the opportunity to share the work from OMHE and also showcase Polka’s implementation.

The idea of a health microsyntax for connecting applications and devices gives insight into how the personal information platform assists joining personal streams for the benefit of the person and the health system.

Here is a video of the session captured by Kevin Kelly:

Mike Kirkwood on Open Mobile Health Exchange from Kevin Kelly on Vimeo.

A big thank you to Gary Wolf for including this in the QS stream!

Polka Founder Shares CA HIE Plans with Gov2.0 Radio

February 10th, 2010

Mike Kirkwood was selected as a Tri-Chair in the California HIE Patient Engagement working group.

This group is helping define the requirements and use cases for delivering HIE (Health Information Exchange) in the State of California and qualifying to receive federal funds from the ONC (Office of National Coordinator).

Mike was interviewed on the Gov 2.0 Radio on what the Patient Engagement Workgroup is doing, and how it is engaging citizens to participate. Listen to the interview.

This is a historic opportunity for California, and we’re honored to have a chance to participate.

Polka presents to packed room at mHealth 2010

February 9th, 2010

The Polka team was able to join the fun at mHealth 2010 in Washington DC February 6th and 7th.

Our presentation, Connecting the Streams, was in the Medical Networking section and focused on how personal observations in a mobile platform like Polka connect into the traditional healthcare system.

This presentation focuses on the value of Polka for medication adherence and the value of layering additional streams of data on top of the basic pattern of receiving reminders for medications.

The room was packed and there were a lot of good questions.

Polka was also honored to be hightlighted in the AT&T presentation “iPhone in Medicine” as an example of a mobile PHR.

Mobile, FTW.

Polka business model: Interview at Vator.TV

January 29th, 2010

Mike presented Polka to the crowd at SFTech’s mobile forum this month. At the event, he was interviewed by Matthew Bowman of Vator.TV on the business model for the company and what will motivate people to use it. A portion of the story is below:

The need to align monetary incentives for health resonates with what Venrock VC Brian Ascher told us last week. Venrock is becoming more involved in healthcare IT, and Ascher sees a need to “create financial incentives for the consumers to make better long-term choices for themselves with regards to wellness, and not just fixing the problems after the fact.”

Polka is one attempt to re-align those incentives. It’s a web application that lets users log their health-related actions—taking medication, going for a run, etc—in Twitter-esque 140 character updates. Users can share that information with doctors, emergency contacts, and others on their appointed “team.” The company partners with employers, insurance and pharma companies in the health industry to reward actions taken to improve health, without giving up any individual’s private info. Users can end up getting paid for health actions, and receive special offers based on their habits.

Getting paid to be more healthy, and helping the system at the same time. Polka.

Fav Follow Polka on Vator.tv

Polka customer success story in Wall Street Journal

December 22nd, 2009

A bit of excitement around the Polka camp today.

We were highlighted in today’s issue of the Wall Street Journal. A Polka customer was interviewed on his use of the Polka system and it was placed the homepage of Marketplace.

We’re excited to be included as a leader in mobile health and personal tracking. And even more happy that our customers find our application a key part of their health.

polkaWSJ

Onward!

Polka Demonstrates Platform at Health 2.0 2009

October 13th, 2009

Polka demonstrated at the conference in the Health 2.0 Tools Panel, which is being heralded as the largest civilian cooperation of interoperability of Health applications.

In this demonstration, the team of nine companies showed how networks of peers enables specialization to be rewarded and is starting to pay off as user-centric platforms emerge.

Polka’s on-stage demonstration.

Want to see the full demonstration on stage? Here is the whole on-stage unedited Health 2.0 demonstration video.

Polka founder and CEO Mike Kirkwood had the opportunity to share his observations of the Health 2.0 Conference and H2A tools panel.

 

Thanks to the great folks at ICYOU, who have a catalog of over 10,000 videos compiled to date from leaders in health innovation.