… healthy conversation
- African-American Technology & Health Project
Earlier this year, Sprigley spoke at the Louisville African-American Think Tank’s 2008 Health Summit.
Since then, they have launched a Leaning and Technology Center in Louisville’s West End, the roughest part of the city where they provide free internet access and computer training to community members.
They’ve invited Sprigley to work with them on an African-American Health and Technology project.
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Click here for more pictures from the center
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Community members can now go the the Learning and Technology Center to access Sprigley and learn about their health and well-being and find personalized information. For those who need help, the center has dedicated personnel and is working with nursing students and nurses in the community.
- Meet Spriggan the Sprite
Health care is too intimidating, too unapproachable.
We thought a mascot was in order!
A character that’s cute, clumsy, a little sly and generally approachable:
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His name is Spriggan
(Cornish for a type of sprite or elf).
Does it look like it’s something for kids?
Maybe.
But couldn’t we all use something to make us smile?
And shouldn’t accomplishing your own goals for your health and well-being be delightful?
- Tough Food?
What’s the toughest thing to do: quit smoking, get exercise or eat fruits and veggies?
For cancer survivors, folks who have stared down death and won, there’s nothing tougher than eating right.
Only 1 in 6 cancer survivors are able eat five servings of fruits and veggies according to a new study in May’s Journal of Clinical Oncology.
They had better success rates quitting smoking or exercising regularly than making healthy food choices!
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Surprised? Most people are. So why exactly is it so hard, for any of us, to eat right?
First off, a good number of folks simply can’t cook. One recent study found that over 8 out of 10 adults couldn’t boil an egg – almost equal rates among men and women.
And most of these folks aren’t relying on family members to do the cooking – they’re simply eating out – eating a lot of fast food. Most studies put the average American eating 3-4 meals at a fast food hut every week.
For folks who can cook, it can be tough to figure out what’s healthy and what’s not. Salads can have more fat than deserts – almost every product says low fat or organic and most of them don’t agree.
Even when people are highly motivated to eat better because their life or recovery depends on it, a good number simply have absolutely no clue where to begin.
So what to do?
We need support systems for basic lifestyle changes. We need personalized tools that empower us to make everyday, practical healthy choices that we need and want to make.
Tools that:
1) Recommend personalized recipes for you based on your preferences, the number of folks in your household, how much you want to spend, how tough a dish is to make, and what percentage of the ingredients meet the healthy nutritional standards. Give people something like this that shows them what’s healthy and how to make it – something that saves them time by learning what they like and recommending those things – something that’s fun and lets them explore.
2) Have nutritionists giving tips and basic how to.s – and recommends those links along with the recipes. Connect folks directly with nutritionists allowing them to see someone’s resources – what they’ve been reading, what’s they’ve been making, what they like and what works for them.
Stay tuned…
Photo courtesy of Gak, used under this Creative Commons license
- What Health Care Can Learn about Customer Service from the Airlines
Air travel is serious stuff. There’s nothing frivolous about hurdling through the skies at rocket speeds sitting on huge fuel tanks. Flight attendants issue dire warnings about paying attention and worst-case scenarios
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A couple of companies, noticeably Southwest, take a different tact. They don’t take themselves too seriously and the treat deadly serious subject matter with a light, jovial touch. Check out this post about April Fool’s Day on their blog featuring embedded YouTube videos. Even on the planes, they have fun; their flight attendants banter, tease, and jest.
And, amazingly, people don’t run shrieking from the plane. Instead, they’re tickled. Turns out people like to be treated like they’re human beings, like they’re intelligent enough to distinguish between what’s serious and what’s not and able to lift important information out of its humorous wrapper. Turns out they’re even more receptive to information - because - of a fun delivery.
Sprigley thinks that health care could take a page from this book. We work in health care and we can’t stand reading most of the materials. Want to engage people? Try delighting them. Part of that means writing in a conversational style. Check out www.Sprigley.com for our take on it.
Photo courtesy of M.V. Jantzen, used under this Creative Commons license
- Sprigley at SXSW
Health Care is getting hot with interaction, design & tech crowds.
South by Southwest is perhaps best known for music and film, but there’s no better tech festival than SXSW Interactive.
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Click here for more pictures from SXSW
-After speaking at Health 2.0, Sprigley took a little time to check out cutting edge tech, design & user experience at SXSW 2008.
SXSW sports a different culture than Health 2.0 - less blue blazers, more blue hair. But health care heating up and Microsoft’s session was standing room only.
Health care folks would be wise not to write off these kids clad in black and toting Macs. As they’re coming into the space, they’re making ‘crazy’ demands, like real value for interacting with a product and a great user experience.
For more, check our write up on ReadWriteWeb.
- Sprigley Speaks at Health 2.0 Conference
The Health 2.0 Conference in San Diego just finished.
This Spring Fling was organized around the theme of “Connecting Consumers & Providers.”
Sprigley spoke and walked close to 500 health care and web folks though a demo to a standing-room-only audience.
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Click here for more pictures from Health 2.0
-The panel was entitled “Health 2.0 as a Health Management Tool” and Alex Drane, President of Eliza and Larry Leisure, President of iMetrikus presented alongside Sprigley with commentary following from Joe Gifford, Chief Medical Officer of The Regence Group, Ranae Whitmore, a super-user know as Heartgirl from Daily Strength and Alexander Domaszewicz, Principal of Mercer.
Here’s a screen-cast of the demo.
Read Sprigley’s overview of trends from the conference at ReadWriteWeb, one of the preeminent technology blogs.
- Google Begins to Unveil Google Health
First Microsoft HealthVault, now Google Health.
“Google Health aims to solve an urgent need that dovetails with our overall mission of organizing patient information and making it accessible and useful. Through our health offering, our users will be empowered to collect, store, and manage their own medical records online.”
She goes on to describe things that set Google Health apart: Privacy and Security; Platform; Portability; User Focus.
It will be fun to keep an eye on this.
- Sprigley Tour
Want to see what Sprigley can do for you?
Check out the video below:
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Sprigley Tour from Sprigley on Vimeo.
-If you’re a health care, HR, or tech person, we have a video that shows some more stuff just for you.
Just ping us at: info@Sprigley.com
- African American Health Summit
Today Sprigley spoke at the African American Think Tank’s Health Summit.
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Click here for more pictures from the Health Summit
-The conference focused on “disparities in health and wellness associated with race and gender” and was attended by community members, doctors, nurses and health coaches as well as the CDC, the mayor of Detroit and the Kentucky Lieutenant Governor, Daniel Mongiardo, MD.
- Video of the Sprigley Alpha!
Here’s a video of the alpha version of Sprigley:
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-We’d like to thank Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer for this great write up!
