“Audacious” is probably the best word I know to describe CAST Senior Fellow in Technology Innovations, Eric Dishman. So I was not surprised recently when the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) used the same word to describe Eric’s latest adventure.
As you will read in the April issue of Tech Time, Eric has been appointed director of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program at NIH. In that role, he will lead what Dr. Francis S. Collins called an “audacious” study involving one million or more U.S. volunteers.
Those volunteers will share an incredible amount of data with NIH — including genomic data, electronic health records, health survey information, and mHealth data. Eric is hoping that this data will help NIH improve health and treat disease through precision medicine.
Capturing and analyzing the volunteers’ data will involve building what Eric called “one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated data-capture and data-sharing infrastructures to accelerate science and clinical discovery.”
The sheer size of the study group makes it audacious. But another audacious aspect of the study holds an important lesson for LeadingAge Members, CAST Associates, older adults, and individuals with chronic conditions.
It’s a pretty simple lesson: We won’t succeed in developing groundbreaking aging services technologies without help from the people who will actually use those technologies or benefit from them. We also need to ensure that our technologies are personalized so they meet the specific needs and preferences of users.
Eric’s study is sharply focused on the people who have the most to gain from the study he has helped design. These aren’t policy makers or investors. They are ordinary consumers of health care. Eric is literally taking his research questions “to the people.” He understands the power of these health care consumers to help NIH discover new treatments for serious and life-threatening diseases.
All technology developers should take the same audacious approach to their work. As I suggested in a recent interview for the Ask the Innovators blog, technology developers must talk to their potential clients and users, and must engage with these users from the early stages of product development. Developers must treat users as co-development partners, not as test subjects. By the same token, they should also treat providers as true co-development partners with vested interest and equity, not just as pilot sites!
Just like the volunteers in the new NIH study, users of aging services technology have a lot to contribute to the work you do. They can help you develop products that have a higher likelihood of being embraced and implemented. So let’s take a page out of Eric Dishman’s book and engage them in our work.
Register Today for the LTPAC Health IT Summit
I hope you have marked your calendar for the 2016 Long-Term and Post-Acute (LTPAC) Health Information Technology (IT) Summit, which takes place June 26-28, 2016 in Reston, VA.
Co-sponsored and co-organized by LeadingAge and CAST, the LTPAC Health IT Summit is designed to help providers address challenges and take advantage of opportunities encountered as they deliver technology-enabled services and supports to older adults.
Over the past 12 years, the LTPAC Health IT Summit has become the premiere conference for health IT leaders, key policymakers, providers, representatives of federal and state agencies, and other professionals working in the LTPAC field. You won’t want to miss it! See our article in this issue of Tech Time to learn more about the Summit and how to register.
Also in This Issue of Tech Time
As always, this issue of Tech Time delivers great news from the CAST family. I hope you will read our articles about:
- Philips, a LeadingAge Silver Partner and CAST Supporter, which is developing a portfolio of personalized technology services and solutions designed to help older people maintain their independence at home.
- eHealthData Solutions, a LeadingAge Silver Partner with CAST Focus, which has been acquired by ABILITY Network, a health care information technology company.
- PointClickCare, a LeadingAge Silver Partner with CAST Focus, which is integrating its electronic health record platform with the Smart Incontinence Management from Simavita Limited.
- CAST Supporter It’s Never 2 Late (iN2L), which recently rolled out the company’s resident engagement technology to its 2,000th site. That site — Sunny View Retirement Community in Cupertino, CA — is affiliated with CAST Patron Front Porch.
In addition, check out the insights and advice about point-of-care technologies shared with McKnight’s Long-Term Care News by representatives of LeadingAge Silver Partner with CAST Support PointClickCare, CAST Supporter HealthMEDX, and CAST Business Associates NTT DATA Long-Term Care Solutions, LG CNS Healthcare Solutions, Constant Care Technology, and American HealthTech.
Finally, don’t miss the latest news from two CAST Business Associates — STANLEY Healthcare, and HCS — and two CAST University Members: the Sinclair School of Nursing at the University of Missouri, and Carnegie Mellon University.
Feel Free to Contact Me
I hope you enjoy these and other articles in this issue of Tech Time. Please contact me with any questions for comments.