Leslie Saxon, executive director of the Center for Body Computing at the University of Southern California, says there's no better connected device on which to reach an audience than a mobile phone. And on that mobile phone, go to where the consumer is -- social media. At the Partners Healthcare Connected Health Symposium in Boston, Saxon highlighted four key ways that her team is reaching out consumers and patients through social platforms such as Facebook, gaming, YouTube and Instagram so that she can reach them online where they already exist.
"If you're going to use a mobile connected device to create a health experience, why not leverage off of things that we know are honestly successful and create amazing experiences with things like Facebook that already have a billion people online?" Saxon said. "People hear us say that, and [they say] 'You know, what is the power of social media?'"
Saxon used the example of organ donation. Within a few weeks, Facebook was able to establish many more state-registered organ transplant donors than had occurred in 10 years through traditional means, like going to the DMV. This is just the beginning, she said. On Saxon's phone, her medical data apps are positioned right next to social and informational apps from other aspects of her life.
In her second example, she argued that health gaming isn't just "some sort of sequestered game just for diabetics or kids with cystic fibrosis," but rather a way to engage patients across the board.
"But how do you develop a very popular social game, say across a Farmville-type concept that allows the diabetic or child with cystic fibrosis to integrate their disease into what they're already playing to invite their friends?" Saxon asked. "How do you integrate that experience and by doing so create a new kind of digital health literacy for children and comfort in the community?"
The third social media component to access, YouTube, is an important component to engagement because of how available video is over mobile devices, Saxon said. The Center for Body Computing enlisted the help of Dani Spies, a chef, who has a cooking series on YouTube. Saxon believes leveraging Spies' popularity is an entryway to discuss nutrition with diabetics.
"You may forget what your doctor told you but you remember your favorite movie or commercial," Saxon said. "It sticks with you because it connects with your brain in a different way. So how do we use the phenomenal success of YouTube, with most young people using it as their primary entertainment and the flexibility of it, the short content of it, and the popularity of it? How do we leverage that now?"
The last social network that Saxon thinks people should tap into is Instagram. She combined the idea behind Instagram, a social photo-sharing website, with biometric data and co-created Biogram. She used heart rate data from AliveCor's Heart Monitor, which snaps on the back of a phone, to supplement pictures posted on Instragram. The goal -- to create a large amount of biometric data while offering people a chance to add more context to their Instagram pictures.
"Suddenly what you're saying is 'I curate photos through a social network that is enormously popular that has an aesthetic to it,'" Saxon said. "Now, capturing my heart rate is a way to show you how I'm feeling, is another window to understanding, to enhance, this experience of photo sharing. And it's much more of an aesthetic personal understanding, community understanding experience. But at the same time, you've suddenly got 10 million 17-year-old heart rates that you've archived. These kids have a virtual electronic health record. ... It's a totally different experience than going to the cardiologist and getting your heart rate [measured] or anything else."
