Our February Health TechNet meeting focused on various novel social media tools and devices involved in patient care, consumerism, wellness and data gathering.
The meeting featured a presentation by Pillsbury's intellectual property partner James Gatto. Jim created and is the leader of the firm's Social Media, Entertainment and Technology team. He leverages his unique combination of over 25 years of IP experience, business insights and attention to technology trends to help companies develop IP and social media strategies that are aligned with their business objectives.
Patients and health care consumers are using innovative and constantly changing technology and social media in unprecedented ways. Many health care organizations and health care professionals are successfully embracing social media and have developed an online presence that has increased patient and consumer engagement and brand awareness. Patients can measure and track their medications, engage in “gamification” tools to be rewarded for healthy behaviors, recommend a healthcare professional online, access medical information, and even obtain treatment and care through their mobile applications.
We also heard from Dr. Farrohk Alemi, founder of Rapid Improvements, Inc., who provided us with an overview of his new company’s use of internet commentary on provider performance to form searchable data bases for provider evaluation.
We discussed recent trends in social media and technology in healthcare and the unique technologies, applications and business models that are leading to new legal and regulatory issues that are still taking shape. (For example, the Federal Trade Commission and the FDA recently teamed up to take action against a mobile application that they regarded as ineffective and fraudulent.)
The presentations of the speakers were followed by an active discussion among our members.
Presentations of the speakers are attached.