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Featured Post
Hacking Health in Hamilton Ontario - Let's hear that pitch!
What compelled me to register for a weekend Health Hackathon? Anyway, I could soon be up to my ears in it. A pubmed search on Health Hack...
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Friday, October 6, 2017
Algonquian birchbark canoe building
Robert Twigger shared a video on his Facebook page about how Indian peoples (in this case Algonquian peoples) built birchbark canoes. The video is really old (1947) but that's what makes it so special.
Robert has written several absolutely awesome real life explorer/adventure books. My favourite so far has been Angry White Pyjamas, because he writes about several Aikido masters that I also had the privilege to study with! Another of the most incredible tales was Voyageur: Across the Rocky Mountains in a Birchbark Canoe. Leave it to a Brit do so something so audaciously Canadian!
Canoe trips have always been in my blood since I was a child. The romance of the "coureur du bois" or "voyageurs" was part of our elementary school Canadian history curriculum and I read books about Radisson and Grosseillers. Because our house was on the edge of a large forest we used to practice running through the woods as fast as we could, jumping or climbing over fallen trees.
I learned how to canoe fairly early in life at the Northern Ontario cottage our family owned. In those days the lakes were more pristine and on short canoe trips we could put a detoxifying pill in our boiled lake water to make it potable for cereal, dried foods and tea. I later learned expert skills on how to travel on longer canoe trips at YMCA summer camp. In my early and middle teens I made several 2 week canoe trips into Northern lakes near Algonquian park with a friend. These trips involved carrying our own food, boiling our own lake water, portaging and camping in off the beaten track lake areas. With only that small experience, I can fully appreciate the astounding birchbark canoe trek Robert Twigger made across the far north of Canada.
Later in life I was living north of Ottawa on the way to the traditional Algonquian hunting and fishing territory near Maniwaki Quebec - very much I suspect where this video was filmed. I visited reserves and heard teachings from their elders - some of whom carried on this same tradition of birchbark canoe making. This old video features those same peoples, albeit it is 1947 or something like that. The singing at the beginning is French Canadian but I think it is has Algonquian language in it as well - not sure. I bought a few books about building birchbark canoes written by some local apprentices - David Gidmark - Birchbark Canoe: Living Among the Algonquians.
Watching this video is amazing. The skill and knowledge required to build these splendid crafts is truly awesome!
Robert has written several absolutely awesome real life explorer/adventure books. My favourite so far has been Angry White Pyjamas, because he writes about several Aikido masters that I also had the privilege to study with! Another of the most incredible tales was Voyageur: Across the Rocky Mountains in a Birchbark Canoe. Leave it to a Brit do so something so audaciously Canadian!
Canoe trips have always been in my blood since I was a child. The romance of the "coureur du bois" or "voyageurs" was part of our elementary school Canadian history curriculum and I read books about Radisson and Grosseillers. Because our house was on the edge of a large forest we used to practice running through the woods as fast as we could, jumping or climbing over fallen trees.
I learned how to canoe fairly early in life at the Northern Ontario cottage our family owned. In those days the lakes were more pristine and on short canoe trips we could put a detoxifying pill in our boiled lake water to make it potable for cereal, dried foods and tea. I later learned expert skills on how to travel on longer canoe trips at YMCA summer camp. In my early and middle teens I made several 2 week canoe trips into Northern lakes near Algonquian park with a friend. These trips involved carrying our own food, boiling our own lake water, portaging and camping in off the beaten track lake areas. With only that small experience, I can fully appreciate the astounding birchbark canoe trek Robert Twigger made across the far north of Canada.
Later in life I was living north of Ottawa on the way to the traditional Algonquian hunting and fishing territory near Maniwaki Quebec - very much I suspect where this video was filmed. I visited reserves and heard teachings from their elders - some of whom carried on this same tradition of birchbark canoe making. This old video features those same peoples, albeit it is 1947 or something like that. The singing at the beginning is French Canadian but I think it is has Algonquian language in it as well - not sure. I bought a few books about building birchbark canoes written by some local apprentices - David Gidmark - Birchbark Canoe: Living Among the Algonquians.
Watching this video is amazing. The skill and knowledge required to build these splendid crafts is truly awesome!
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Blockchain & eHealth: Towards Provable Privacy & Security in Data intensive Health Research
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
------------------
The First Workshop on "Blockchain & eHealth: Towards Provable Privacy & Security in Data intensive Health Research" will be held on:
November 7, 2017, Markham (Greater Toronto area), Ontario
https://www-01.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/workshop.jsp
The workshop is co-located with CASCON 2017: The Cognitive Era: Data, Systems and Society conference
https://www-01.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/
The registration for the conference and its workshops is free.
The goal of this workshop is to bring together security, privacy and eHealth experts from academia, healthcare institutions, industry and public policy to focus on the challenges and opportunities of developing a blockchain enabled infrastructure that promotes trust between different stakeholders in health research and enables a provable privacy-aware path to real time access to patients data.
We invite interested researchers to submit an abstract (limit of 500 words) reporting the state of their research relevant to the workshop objectives. Accepted abstract submissions will be invited to present in the workshop. Both research and application papers are solicited. The submitted abstracts will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance and clarity. We particularly encourage PhD students in the early stage of their research on blockchain and R&D managers who are planning the application of blockchain technology to submit an abstract to this workshop.
Topics of this workshop include (but not limited to) the following:
• Decentralized platforms for health information exchange
• Public vs. private Blockchain for health research
• Access control, anonymity and privacy issues among blockchain participants
• Blockchain scalability issues and its solutions
• Blockchain threat models, attacks, defenses and countermeasures
• Network forensics in Blockchain
• Blockchain trust verification models
• Legal, ethical, and societal aspects of using blockchain in health research
• Case studies (for adoption, attacks, etc.)
WORKSHOP CHAIRS:
- Reza Samavi, Department of Computing and Software, eHealth Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
- Thomas Doyle, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, eHealth Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
- Thodoros Topaloglou, Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, Toronto, Canada
DEADLINES:
- Oct. 23, 2017 Submission Deadline
- Oct. 30, 2017 Acceptance Notification
- Nov. 7, 2017 Presentation
SUBMISSION:
Please send your submissions, inquiries and correspondence on this workshop to (email to: samavir@mcmaster.ca) with the subject starting with "Workshop on Blockchain & eHealth:"
------------------
The First Workshop on "Blockchain & eHealth: Towards Provable Privacy & Security in Data intensive Health Research" will be held on:
November 7, 2017, Markham (Greater Toronto area), Ontario
https://www-01.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/workshop.jsp
The workshop is co-located with CASCON 2017: The Cognitive Era: Data, Systems and Society conference
https://www-01.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/
The registration for the conference and its workshops is free.
The goal of this workshop is to bring together security, privacy and eHealth experts from academia, healthcare institutions, industry and public policy to focus on the challenges and opportunities of developing a blockchain enabled infrastructure that promotes trust between different stakeholders in health research and enables a provable privacy-aware path to real time access to patients data.
We invite interested researchers to submit an abstract (limit of 500 words) reporting the state of their research relevant to the workshop objectives. Accepted abstract submissions will be invited to present in the workshop. Both research and application papers are solicited. The submitted abstracts will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance and clarity. We particularly encourage PhD students in the early stage of their research on blockchain and R&D managers who are planning the application of blockchain technology to submit an abstract to this workshop.
Topics of this workshop include (but not limited to) the following:
• Decentralized platforms for health information exchange
• Public vs. private Blockchain for health research
• Access control, anonymity and privacy issues among blockchain participants
• Blockchain scalability issues and its solutions
• Blockchain threat models, attacks, defenses and countermeasures
• Network forensics in Blockchain
• Blockchain trust verification models
• Legal, ethical, and societal aspects of using blockchain in health research
• Case studies (for adoption, attacks, etc.)
WORKSHOP CHAIRS:
- Reza Samavi, Department of Computing and Software, eHealth Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
- Thomas Doyle, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, eHealth Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
- Thodoros Topaloglou, Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, Toronto, Canada
DEADLINES:
- Oct. 23, 2017 Submission Deadline
- Oct. 30, 2017 Acceptance Notification
- Nov. 7, 2017 Presentation
SUBMISSION:
Please send your submissions, inquiries and correspondence on this workshop to (email to: samavir@mcmaster.ca) with the subject starting with "Workshop on Blockchain & eHealth:"
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Say Hello to Empathetic Interfaces and Digital Humans
- reposted with permission of author
The very first trend introduced in my co-authored book, ePatient 2015: 15 Surprising Trends Changing Healthcare, was "Empathetic Interfaces."
Trend Overview: Empathetic Interfaces
Source: ePatient 2015
My co-author Rohit Bhargava and I, described this as how "artificial intelligence ... [is making] health technology go beyond the diagnostic to be more empathetic and responsive to emotional needs—in other words ... more human."
The inventive people at New Zealand's Soul Machines are taking empathetic interfaces to the next level. They have developed a cadre of 'Digital Humans' that utilize AI to engage in face-to-face conversations, spontaneously display emotion and much more. One of Soul Machine's Digital Humans is pictured below.
Soul Machine's Digital Human
According to Soul Machine, the possibilities for these virtual assistants are endless. One day they could play a significant role in treating a range of mental illnesses, including depression.
Next week, I'll take those attending future::present, my upcoming breakfast event, on a tour of the rapidly evolving and exciting world of health-focused artificial intelligence (including Digital Humans).
I'll discuss recent innovations, leading companies, investment activity and more. And, I'll be joined by Thomas Tsang, CEO of Valera Health who will discuss how AI is being put into practice today.
A great group of executives from leading health organizations, consultancies, innovation catalysts, entrepreneurs and others will be attending future::present. I hope you can join us for this live event in New York City next week. Click the button below (or here) to register.
See you there.
Click Here to Register for future::present (September 19, NYC)
Fard
Founder/President, Enspektos, LLC
The very first trend introduced in my co-authored book, ePatient 2015: 15 Surprising Trends Changing Healthcare, was "Empathetic Interfaces."
Trend Overview: Empathetic Interfaces
Source: ePatient 2015
My co-author Rohit Bhargava and I, described this as how "artificial intelligence ... [is making] health technology go beyond the diagnostic to be more empathetic and responsive to emotional needs—in other words ... more human."
The inventive people at New Zealand's Soul Machines are taking empathetic interfaces to the next level. They have developed a cadre of 'Digital Humans' that utilize AI to engage in face-to-face conversations, spontaneously display emotion and much more. One of Soul Machine's Digital Humans is pictured below.
Soul Machine's Digital Human
According to Soul Machine, the possibilities for these virtual assistants are endless. One day they could play a significant role in treating a range of mental illnesses, including depression.
Next week, I'll take those attending future::present, my upcoming breakfast event, on a tour of the rapidly evolving and exciting world of health-focused artificial intelligence (including Digital Humans).
I'll discuss recent innovations, leading companies, investment activity and more. And, I'll be joined by Thomas Tsang, CEO of Valera Health who will discuss how AI is being put into practice today.
A great group of executives from leading health organizations, consultancies, innovation catalysts, entrepreneurs and others will be attending future::present. I hope you can join us for this live event in New York City next week. Click the button below (or here) to register.
See you there.
Click Here to Register for future::present (September 19, NYC)
Fard
Founder/President, Enspektos, LLC
Friday, September 1, 2017
NIH’s All of Us Research Issues Initial Research Protocol
NIH’s All of Us Research Issues Initial Research Protocol
August 8, 2017
by Heather Landi
|
Reprints
The
National Institute of Health’s All of Us Research Program, previously
called the Precision Medicine Initiative, released its initial research
protocol, or research plan.
The All of Us Research Program’s 61-page protocol includes information on consent forms, the ethical issues associated with the project and explanations for how participants will be able to provide secure access to their electronic health records (EHRs).
The goal of the All of Us Research Program is to gather health-related information from one million or more diverse participants to detect association between genetic and environmental exposures and a wide variety of health outcomes.
The NIH states that longitudinal tracking of health outcomes through EHRs is an important component of the program. Through a consenting process, participants will be asked to authorize linkage of their EHR information. EHR data may be sent directly by the participant’s health care providers to the DRC or sent by the participant to the program through Sync for Science.
Access to EHR data will be repeated regularly throughout the life of the program. The initial data types to be included are demographics, visits, diagnoses, procedures, medications, laboratory tests, and vital signs, but may be expanded to all parts of the EHR, including health care provider notes. The feed may include mental health data, HIV status, substance abuse and alcohol data, and genomic information stored in the EHR
Participants may need to complete and sign a separate informed consent module to authorize access to their complete EHRs.
“We will create an informatics infrastructure to clean and standardize data from disparate EHR systems across the United States; this broadly applicable system will be a key contribution of the All of Us Research Program to health informatics research efforts nationwide. For participants enrolled by their health care provider organization, the site will extract data from the participant’s EHR, format it according to the DRC’s data model (based on the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership [OMOP] Common Data Model version 5, and transfer it to the DRC using secure protocols,” NIH stated in a press release.
And, the NIH states that although obtaining EHR data from direct volunteers presents unique challenges, early pilot studies have demonstrated feasibility of such an approach. “For example, the Sync for Science (S4S) project launched by NIH and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is creating a technology that aims to make it easy and safe for people to securely share their EHR data for research. S4S has been adopted by the All of Us Research Program and initially will be enabled in a small pilot for DV participants at S4S-enabled direct volunteer sites,” the NIH states.
All of Us Research Program direct volunteer participants who have enrolled at one of these pilot sites will be able to sign into their healthcare provider’s patient portal using the S4S workflow and authorize sharing their EHR data with the program. Their health care provider’s system will provide a secure application program interface (API), which is used by the research program, rather than the provider sending out data, and transmitted to the Us of All Research program.
And, NIH notes that this is just the first version of its protocol. In future versions, NIH intends to include plans to pilot test wearable devices for real-time data collection.
The All of Us Research Program’s 61-page protocol includes information on consent forms, the ethical issues associated with the project and explanations for how participants will be able to provide secure access to their electronic health records (EHRs).
The goal of the All of Us Research Program is to gather health-related information from one million or more diverse participants to detect association between genetic and environmental exposures and a wide variety of health outcomes.
The NIH states that longitudinal tracking of health outcomes through EHRs is an important component of the program. Through a consenting process, participants will be asked to authorize linkage of their EHR information. EHR data may be sent directly by the participant’s health care providers to the DRC or sent by the participant to the program through Sync for Science.
Access to EHR data will be repeated regularly throughout the life of the program. The initial data types to be included are demographics, visits, diagnoses, procedures, medications, laboratory tests, and vital signs, but may be expanded to all parts of the EHR, including health care provider notes. The feed may include mental health data, HIV status, substance abuse and alcohol data, and genomic information stored in the EHR
Participants may need to complete and sign a separate informed consent module to authorize access to their complete EHRs.
“We will create an informatics infrastructure to clean and standardize data from disparate EHR systems across the United States; this broadly applicable system will be a key contribution of the All of Us Research Program to health informatics research efforts nationwide. For participants enrolled by their health care provider organization, the site will extract data from the participant’s EHR, format it according to the DRC’s data model (based on the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership [OMOP] Common Data Model version 5, and transfer it to the DRC using secure protocols,” NIH stated in a press release.
And, the NIH states that although obtaining EHR data from direct volunteers presents unique challenges, early pilot studies have demonstrated feasibility of such an approach. “For example, the Sync for Science (S4S) project launched by NIH and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is creating a technology that aims to make it easy and safe for people to securely share their EHR data for research. S4S has been adopted by the All of Us Research Program and initially will be enabled in a small pilot for DV participants at S4S-enabled direct volunteer sites,” the NIH states.
All of Us Research Program direct volunteer participants who have enrolled at one of these pilot sites will be able to sign into their healthcare provider’s patient portal using the S4S workflow and authorize sharing their EHR data with the program. Their health care provider’s system will provide a secure application program interface (API), which is used by the research program, rather than the provider sending out data, and transmitted to the Us of All Research program.
And, NIH notes that this is just the first version of its protocol. In future versions, NIH intends to include plans to pilot test wearable devices for real-time data collection.
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