In this talk at the Quantified Self Public Health symposium, I argue that we must respect the context of people’s lives while designing health interventions, tools, and research projects. Not everyone is ready to stand naked in front of the bright light of numbers on a screen. Let’s be gentle in our approach, especially to […]
Medicine fails, patient is frustrated: Google
Jessica Hagy is one of my favorite social commentators, so I was thrilled to meet her in person at the 2010 Mayo Transform conference, curated by David Rosenman. Here is one of her cartoons from that event: I have shared the image on Twitter a few times, including today, when I wrote that I’d add […]
I’m leaving Pew Research
Believe it or not, 14 years ago, the idea of using the internet for health was a novel concept. That’s when Pew Internet published its first report about the social impact of the internet on health and health care, raising eyebrows across the U.S. Our data was cited in mainstream news outlets, in JAMA, and, […]
How did we get here? And where are we going?
Video of my talk in Sweden is now online (skip to minute 7 unless you speak Swedish): It’s a comprehensive summary of my research so far, as well as an argument for listening to patients and caregivers as we move forward into the future. I opened with an example that was inspired by a visit […]
McKinsey’s “Healthcare digital future” checks out
Stefan Biesdorf and Florian Niedermann of McKinsey wrote an excellent essay laying out 5 myths about health care and technology. It rings true so I decided to add my own evidence to their points: McKinsey Myth 1: People don’t want to use digital services for healthcare Pew Research has found that looking for health information is consistently […]
Just in time someone like me
In 2005, I took a call from someone who worked at Planned Parenthood. He wanted the conversation to be off the record, so I didn’t even write down his name, which is a shame because that conversation changed the direction of my career. The caller had seen media coverage of Pew Internet’s health research, probably […]
Recent Comments