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WHO definition of health August 29, 2008

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For your information: a link to the WHO definition of health.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Reference info:

Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.

The Definition has not been amended since 1948.

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Upcoming Medicine2.0 Conference: Web 2.0 in Health and Medicine August 26, 2008

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Just a quick reminder to those who aren’t aware, but there is a very interesting conference being hosted in Toronto, Canada titled "Medicine 2.0 Conference: Web 2.0 in Health and Medicine".

Medicine 2.0® is an international conference on Web 2.0 applications in health and medicine, organized and co-sponsored by the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the International Medical Informatics Association, the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, CHIRAD, and a number of other sponsoring organizations.

The conference is being organized by Dr. Gunther Eysenbach, a friend and colleague of mine, and it looks to be a great event. Unfortunately, I can’t attend, but I plan to do some writing on the topic in the next few days.

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Smart homes and health - some thoughts from Alex Jadad August 6, 2008

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A recent article in the Toronto Star (August 2, 2008) reported on some future thoughts, opportunities, and challenges to the housing market from an ehealth perspective as presented by Alex Jadad. It’s an interesting read and provides a glimpse into the mind of Alex and how he thinks.

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Interesting conference - Making the eHealth connection August 5, 2008

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I came across an interesting conference site titled "Making the eHealth Connection". The goal of the conference is to "to raise the profile of eHealth, form new partnerships and identify promising new areas of work for the Global South". Unfortunately, this month-long conference is invitation only.

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When ehealth is not ehealth August 5, 2008

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Now that I’ve had a few weeks under my belt in my ‘industry role’, I’ve been able to do some more thinking about my previous post.  Here are some of my thoughts:

  1. ehealth is NOT ehealth:  Industry and government operate using a completely different definition of ehealth than what was used in the academic circles I was in.  For me, ehealth was a concept; it was (and is) something that requires investigation.  Perhaps that’s why the systematic definition that I conducted a few years back is so important.  We were able to catalogue the different definitions being used.  To government, ehealth is a term used to describe large-scale information technology/infrastructure projects that happen to occur within the health care sector.  It’s not wrong as these provider agencies have different responsibilities than the researchers.
  2. Research is the thing that academics do:  When undertaking projects, decisions need to be made.  Because of the time constraints, people seem to search for a few short time to compile all of the information they can to base a decision on.  In a sense, people conduct a review except that it’s not systematic.  I am surprised by the attitude that academics live in some fantasy land doing research while everyone else is doing *real* work.  Sure academics operate under different constraints, but they have contributions to make too.
  3. Academics/Researchers need to get more involved:  Some of my research colleagues may disagree with me on this point, but I believe that academics and researchers need to get more involved with the world.  There is so much that needs to be done that people need help.  I’ve seen examples where some engineering professors partner with an industry group and both sides benefit.  For the professor, he (or she) can find opportunities to conduct more research and/or find projects for students.  Students get opportunities to learn, while the industry partner(s) benefit from the expertise of the professor and also get a chance to assess potential future employees.
  4. Patient?  What patient?:  Maybe I’m a bit cynical, but I’m worried about the patient.  No-one talks about or considers the patient.  It’s always about achieving a project deliverable and coming in on budget and getting the clinicians (i.e., physicians) on board.  I understand that finances are important and that clinicians play an immensely important role, but who speaks for the patient?  Patients and regular people need to get more involved in the entire ehealth agenda (be it from a research perspective or from an industry advocacy perspective) or else they/we will be left out again, just like during the early stages of when the health systems were being developed.  This is a perfect opportunity to make real change.

I’m thinking that this experience will be an interesting one for me as I navigate between these two worlds.

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