I first planned to write this article right after my submission, but then when I was told I’d been selected as the winner so I thought I’d hold off. This article is a recap of the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge and specifically the West Wireless Health Institutes (WWHI’s) challenge to “Accelerate Wireless Health Adoption through a Standardized Social Network Platform“. I’ll also provide a sneak peak of what we are cooking up.
Who’s the Big Winner Tonight? Videntity That’s Who:
Yay! Holla! Read all about it here. I will autograph the press release if your nice.
I’d like to thank the nice folks at Gary and Mary West Wireless Health Institute for selecting Videntity’s solution. The $10K prize and the flight out to San Francisco to attend Health 2.0 was also not too shabby! I’s also like to say that everyone that participate in the Health 2.0 Developer challenge is a winner.
My submission included turning a Nintendo Wii into a Internet-enabled weight device (much like a Withings scale) and then making that information available on Facebook application (either to only me or a select group of friends). That is cool and flashy, but the real sizzle is in RESTCat: The Social Object Server. RESTCat can securely store any kind of data, but it does “speak” OMHE Microsyntax out of the box. RESTCat is built on the philosophy that APIs should be easy to use and clients must come in all shapes and sizes. That includes sensors, mobile devices, SMS, web applications and all other modalities of electronic communication. Self-data collection and minimal hardware requirements is OMHE’s sweet spot.
A Couple Notes About the Challenge:
WWHI’s challenge outline detailed Open Social. I sent an email asking if we should you OpenSocial but I was told it was only an example. I did, however, take a closer look at it. It certainly holds the promise and if I had more time I likely would have tried it. Its still an option to explore, but based on our existing skill-set Chris and I decided we could more easily build a Facebook application before the deadline than an OpenSocial application. It was an invaluable experience to have Chris implement a RESTCat client inside a Facebook application. he provided valuable feedback which resulted in an easier and more complete RESTCat server.
So What Now?:
We’ll be adding notifications and reminders to the RESTCat server. In Q1 2011, look for a hosted wellness platform for employers incorporating many devices and SMS communication. The name is undecided at this point and we are looking for good name ideas. One thing for sure is that its its going to be fun, sticky, and social! Other things we’ve got cooking include:
- Android Support (Free open source clients)
- Additional Hardware Support
- Some other things that we aren’t quite ready to share just yet
What’s Been on My Mind? FDA Regulation of Mobile Health:
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the FDA and FCC’s role in regulating mHealth. To what extent will the market be regulated? What are the rules? Will it stifle innovation? I’m not sure anyone knows just yet, including the FDA and FCC. It’s been my experience, that when certification and regulations are involved the cost of doing business and the time to market go way up.
Our plan is to ensure that RESTCat Server, which aggregates, stores, and shares data, remains strictly a software tool much like MySQL. We do not plan to add any clinical decision support into this piece of the puzzle. However it is entirely conceivable to create a RESTCat client application that does diagnose disease, and therefore could be subject to regulation. If you build a RESTCat client, it is your responsibility to determine if your application requires FDA approval.
For example, if you built an application that only collects and displays blood pressure information (using RESTCat as the backend data repository) then it is probably a consumer application. If you do something with that data or to make a determination of some kind, then that application may be subject to regulation by the FDA. I’d like to propose to the FDA that they look at making minimal guidelines that employ free self-testing where FDA . Let’s make this easy on the creators and the entrepreneurs. Perhaps we could define a simple set of tests that could also be validated through automated testing (i.e. unit tests, etc.)?
The challenge ws a great experience and I’d like to thank the nice folks at West Wireless Health Institute and Health 2.0 for their support.