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:
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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