TEKT refers to the strategic deployment of modern information and communication technologies to help individuals and organizations accelerate the incorporation of research and new knowledge into clinical practice.² For the Olympics, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is responsible for deploying one of the most intricate public health surveillance systems ever designed for a planned mass gathering.³ As a medium of dissemination and performance evaluation by the system, technology is the modus operandi in the integration of fourteen data sources which allow for continuous assessment, monitoring, and public health response. Table 1 (below) displays the data sources, including both existing and enhanced data resources created for solely for Olympic surveillance by VCH. The intricacy doesn’t stop there however. All components of data collection are also congruent with the Olympic Movement Medical Code,⁴ the document which describes the rules and medical practices for Olympians and prevents positive doping tests resulting from medical treatment.

Table 1: Surveillance System Components

As you can see from the table, data is vast and the stakes are high! The “crash” room where this data is analyzed is located at Vancouver General Hospital and staffed 24 hours a day. The Olympic surveillance team conducts real time geospatial analyses and is capable of sending blackberry-push instant notifications to all IOC medical personnel. Figure 1 displays a publicly available crowdsourced version of what the protected crash-centre map may look like. This map features the 25 cities where 75% of Olympic visitors reside and the corresponding germs these people may bring with them. In the “crash” room, data access statistics are also geo-coded by IP address allowing disease prevention and management personnel, whom are central to the system, to evaluate the effectiveness of TEKT. Daily reports with the current state of public health affairs can be downloaded directly from the “crash room”,6 should you interested.

Figure 1: Geospatial map denoting the residence location of 75% of Olympic visitors

In regards to personnel, the two polyclinics, the Olympian-only treatment facilities, are staffed with public health nurses with on-the-spot communicable disease, rapid flu, enteric, and point of care HIV testing and management resources. Cluster and outbreak investigation teams are also situated in each of the Olympic venues, all equipped with laboratory sample-collection equipment for expedited testing. For the treatment and management of disease, the Polyclinics have stockpiles of antivirals (e.g., Tamiflu), well-established outbreak protocols, and set processes for isolation, including those for security personnel, athletes and other VIPs.

While you soak in the festivities during these 27 days of sport and 60 days of celebration, don’t only walk proud of your Canadian heritage. Show your pride with a smile on your face, because you know that the 21st Winter Olympic Games have featured Vancouver as a leader of public health surveillance and TEKT in action.

References:

[1] Henry, B. Planning for the 2010 Olympics in the midst of a pandemic: a provincial perspective.

[2] Ho et al. Technology-enabled knowledge translation: frameworks to promote research and practice. J Contin Educ Health Prof (2004) vol. 24 (2) pp. 90-9

[3] Daly, P. Public Health Surveillance for Vancouver 2010.

[4] Olympic Medical Commission. Olympic Movement Medical Code.

[5] Health Map. Global Disease Alert Map for the Olympics.

[6] Vancouver Coastal Health. 2010 Helath Watch.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank @roboethics for reviewing the first few drafts of this post.

Editorial Note:

This article was written for the column “The 2.0 Factor: Musings of a Hyperconnected world” in the TICr.

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Last year we saw the Netbook, e-Book Reader, and App Phone (short for mobile phone with a downloadable application) proliferate. This year, my Bluetooth LED ball shows four transformations coming:

1. F(Web 2.0 AND Medicine)^PubMed. We will see the first exponential growth of peer-review literature relating to Web 2.0 in medicine. Figures 1 and 2 (below) were featured in a recent article published last year by a fellow tweep and emerging technologies librarian @pfanderson.¹ I believe the data speaks for itself.

2. Augmented reality (AR) comes to your pocket. If you are wondering what AR is all about, don’t worry, chances are that you are not alone. In essence, it is the nexus of physical and sensory worlds with web-based information. For example, AED4EU is an application created by a friend of mine, @zorg20, which allows anyone who finds a person in cardiac arrest to point their phone and while using the camera; GPS and Internet data merge on the screen (Figure 3) to help you can find the closest sparky (Automatic External Defibrillator). This will ultimately decrease the time-to-shock ratio where there is a 10% decrease in the likelihood of resuscitation with each passing minute.

3. Embedded sensors get cheap! Wearable sensors like the fitbit allow you to track sleep, exercise, calories burned, and wirelessly upload your data to the net automagically; best of all, they cost less than a hundred dollars. Thus, we will see a ubiquity of sensors come into the market that allow you to track of your dog, wife, and kids’ lives to the step. We will also see an increase in the number of clinical trials that use these gadgets.

4. Social media policies come out of the closet. 2010 will bifurcate our social media use. Health regions, universities, and professional health-related associations will do one of two: A) run away and deem Facebook/Twitter the source of all evil; respectively “banning” the use of Social Media almost completely; or B) they will train their staff to use social media in a responsible manner and allow an enhanced patient-clinician relationship. McMaster University’s new Medical School policy is an early example of this is where, any medical student or staff who uploads a picture to a social media site in an inappropriate environment, or that, which propagates alcohol use, will automatically be placed on academic probation.

As the old Mexican saying states: “We will see, said the blind man.” In the meantime, have a very successful New Year!

Cisco

Works Cited:

[1] Anderson et al. An Online and Social Media Training Curricula to Facilitate Bench-to-Bedside Information Transfer. Positioning the Profession: the Tenth International Congress on Medical Librarianship (2009) pp. 1-11.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank @roboethics for reviewing the first few drafts of this post.

Editorial Note:

This article was written for the column “The 2.0 Factor: Musings of a Hyperconnected world” in the TICr.

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It was with great excitement that I was recently informed of your decision; with your vote and support I have been elected senator representing the Graduate Student Society for the 2010-2011 academic year.

I would like to thank you for giving me this extraordinary opportunity, and would also like to remind you that I stand by my word; I am committed to bringing your voice to Senate and will remain available both in person and through the various web 2.0 channels to hear your voice.

As promised during the first internal debate, the first issue I will address will be the evaluation of graduate student status as university staff.

Please let me know how I can best meet your needs in this and other issues and let us work together to have the best graduate experience here at UBC.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Cisco

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It was the people like you that took the time and made a difference in my life. Wether you taught me how diplomatic protocol and history were made (you know who you are =), proofread a paper, or shared the beauty of life during a meal; these were times I greatly valued and feel privileged to have shared with you.

I hope you enjoy this video and very much look forward to your comments.

Have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Winter’s Solstice, or just a jolly old time with some apple cider and Christmas carols.

Cisco

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My only question is: If better patient outcomes are not about the technology but implementation, what sort of licencing costs will be required to make these technologies ubiquitous?

Nevertheless, I am definitely looking forward to what they are going to come up with for our Medicine 2.0 Congress presentation in Toronto, Ontario.

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Today, I am followed by and follow over four hundred tweeps and cannot imagine a day without greeting, collaborating, and tinkering along with my twitter gang.

For those of you open minded types, I believe the following two pieces nicely describe the impact Twitter can have in Medicine and Public Health.

NY Times Columnist Dr. Pauline Chen’s Medicine in the Age of Twitter

P.F. Anderson’s Twitter for Public Health

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mHealth can have a lot of applications in Public Health, particularly with the growing penetration rate of mobiles in developing nations.

This presentation provides a wonderful introduction to the subject.

Stay tuned for more posts on mHealth.

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Hungarian Inter-city Train Toilet

Miasma or not, feces and bodily fluids go straight from the orifice and are funneled to the train tracks.

For us public health gurus, I thought it would make you say: Got Public Health?

Cisco

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Six months after officially graduating from my old university (long story), I finally bought myself a top-of-the line pedometer and began tracking my activity levels. If anything, it appears that the life of an average graduate student is far from balanced.

Blown off my feet, I realized my lifestyle was a lot more sedentary than thought. I also realized that 10,000 steps a day is (almost) unrealistic for the average drive to work, desk-pushing North American.

Below, you will find my typical run route, which I try and do no less than three times a week (and yes, that is sill below the recommended CSEP guideline- no less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week).

I had also wrongfully calculated it to be approximately 16Km. Alas, I better increase my activity level so my old HKIN professors won’t be disappointed. Yes, I still carry you with me and this post is is dedicated to you. Sometimes, I even carry you like little angels (or devils) on my shoulder every time I take the escalator over the stairs (Pst, Cisco, Why didn’t you take the stairs?).

All aside, I recommend this route to anyone working/living in the Yaletown area of Vancouver, BC. It may not be Central Park but you can certainly get out and clear your mind at 1:00am (my typical running time). I will say however, with insecurity and all, I don’t accept liability if you get mugged or find a raccoon or skunk in the shadows.

Stay tuned for a review of MapMyRun from the Exercise Physiologist perspective.

Good night for now or I wont be at work in five hours.

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Although there is research supporting and refusing this premise, my perspective is a little different.

I believe this video by Nick Vujicic shows a little on Perspective, Vision, and Choices. Central themes that could be applied to this issue.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

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