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Nurse Kim Visits Health 2.0

foodtrayAll I could think of when I saw this photo was Gordon Ramsay screaming that the Cream of Wheat was lumpy.

But she’s smiling, so this can’t be Hell’s Kitchen.

It’s more like pot-luck-in-the-break-room.

Cherry Ames got in trouble for “sampling bread and butter” in the ward kitchen, which was apparently against the rules back in the day.

Now you can come into my department and have a four-course meal laid out on the table, which is great for morale but bad for those of us babes with too much “back”.

And when it really does look like “Hell’s Kitchen” in the ER, nothing boosts your serotonin like a big, chocolate brownie, or nacho cheese Doritos!

Sometimes it feels like my shift is one big exercise of will power, and I usually poop out by by 0300.

********************

IMG_0256Somewhere between work, school and full blown addiction to that god awful “Word Island” game on Facebook, I managed to make it to one day of the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

*FTC ALERT: INCOMING DISCLOSURE!*

Rob at Johnson & Johnson let me use their free sponsor’s pass (Thanks, Rob!) and so I found myself walking through San Francisco on a gorgeous early morning!

concourseThe conference was being held at the Concourse Exhibition Center. It was an interesting venue – it used to be a train station!

The conference was geared toward businesses and providers, even though many of the programs are designed for patient/consumer use. There was a patient panel that first day, and a panel with patients who had demo’d a couple of apps, but I did not notice patients represented in the other panels.

I came away with two thoughts:

1. Technology is great, but nothing takes the place of a personal relationship with your health care provider. There is not a technology in the world that can replace in-person interactions and assessment.  While this was the opinion of speaker Ron Dixon, MD, it is a belief I share. Technology is an adjunct, not a substitute. (I actually stated that in a paper for a class – and lost points for not being “forward thinking”.)

2. There are a lot of apps and programs marketed “to” patients and “for” patients. Very few of these (if any) have been produced “with” patients.

Trish and Amy

Of course, the fun of conferences is hooking up with folks you know and folks you “know” from their blogs!

I finally got a chance to meet Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine and Trisha Torrey of Every Patient’s Advocate!

I had a blast talking to both blog buddies!meandval

And here is a pic of me and Dr. Val of Better Health!
Sort of a rehearsal for BWE next week!

So in summation, the Health 2.0 conference was interesting and a good look at some applications that are coming down the pike.

As a blogger, I didn’t really feel there was a lot I could relate to, but that’s not really a criticism because the conference is not geared to that audience.

*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*


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