Institutions, for example, are using Kinect to help prevent falls among the elderly. “Falls lead to functional issues and other health problems, and can be a precursor to mortality. My mom was a pretty classic case,” said Marilyn Rantz, a University of Missouri nursing professor – one of the examples Microsoft is highlighting today. “It’s an age-old problem of aging. So much spins on this particular issue.”

Rantz, along with her colleagues are researching how they can use Kinect to measure and monitor changes in how seniors move to help prevent falls.

“With Kinect, we can gather finely grained, gait data – walking speed, stride length, step time, and we can see detailed trends over time to determine subtle changes and determine very early whether there is functional decline and fall risk,” said Marjorie Skubic, a professor in the college’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department.

“We’ve also tried to make it really passive. For the most part people don’t think about them being there. That’s what we’re going for,” she adds, referring to Kinect sensors in seniors’ apartments.

Medical professionals are also experimenting with the Kinect in other ways, trying to help stroke patients regain movement, access info from operating rooms, and are using it physical therapy and work with children with developmental disabilities, Microsoft says.

“Honestly, what we know about here at Microsoft is but a tiny fraction of what is actually going on,” said Microsoft’s Bill Crounse. He is a medical doctor and the company’s senior director of worldwide health. “Everywhere I go in the world – every hospital, college or public health organization, people are already doing something with Kinect or they plan to.”

At Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, England, doctors are assigning stroke patients to play different Kinect games (including Kinectimals).

“The patient thought it was marvelous and we could actually see an improvement occurring, rather than the normal stretching and pulling a physiotherapist would do to the patient,” said Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at the hospital, referring to a patient who had lost their arm movement.

Another patient who had problems with full-body movement and standing up has been playing Bowling. “He was able to work on coordination between the twisting of his body and the movement of his hands, plus his eyes had to look at the screen rather than where his hands are. It’s been enormously beneficial to him,” said Sperrin.

Microsoft shared the following infographic looking at the “Kinect Effect”:

In June, the company released a software development kit for academics and enthusiasts to go wild with Kinect, and next year, it will release one for commercial use.

Microsoft is also donating hundreds of Xbox Kinect Bundles to soldiers.

The Athens Regional Medical Center in Georgia is using a different technology to improve patient care in one small way.

The hospital is using QR codes to help women schedule mammograms. The hospital has been inserting the little black-and-white boxes into their various forms of advertising, such as newspapers and magazines.

When a woman uses her smartphone to capture the code, she is taken to the Athens Regional website where she can book her mammogram.

Marketing manager Courtney Alford-Pomeroy has this to say about the campaign (as quoted at Athens Banner-Herald -

We felt that women in our community were looking for more convenience in accessing their health care…the QR code was a test to see how popular this is going to be in our market.

The multiple-source approach to the QR code placement allows Pomeroy to see where their marketing is the most effective, whether that be magazines, newspaper ads or postcards.

It came down to wanting to be able to track where people were reading about our services and pulling up our services on the website. I want to make sure that we’re targeting people in the places that are most convenient for them.”

And just how successful have the QR codes in the ads been? Apparently the hospital has seen a 15% increase in the visits to the online mammograms form. Also, those who use the QR code to visit the online mammogram request site are more likely to actually schedule an appointment.

Pomeroy said that she plans on using QR codes in their next “health and marketing campaign.”

Do you think QR codes would increase the chance that you would schedule a procedure? Mammograms? Prostate exams? Even basic physicals? Let us know in the comments.

"Mayo Clinic believes individuals have the right and responsibility to advocate for their own health, and that it is our responsibility to help them use social media tools to get the best information, connect with providers and with each other, and inspire healthy choices," said Mayo Clinic president and CEO John Noseworthy, M.D.

"Through this center we intend to lead the health care community in applying these revolutionary tools to spread knowledge and encourage collaboration among providers, improving health care quality everywhere."

Features of the Center for Social Media include:

*Training for health care employees via webinars, in-person and on-site workshops and boot camps, and online curriculum.

*Consulting and coaching to help organizations align social media strategies with business goals.

*Conferences and other events to bring people together to learn from each other and share their experiences.

*Resources including toolkits, manuals, books, white papers, policies and guidelines.

"Health care has lagged behind other industries in applying social media tools," says Lee Aase, one of the leaders of the new center.

"Social media interest and activity among hospitals and health care professionals has grown remarkably, though, with the number of hospital Twitter accounts, for example, doubling in the last year."

In addition to reaching out, the center staff will work with Mayo Clinic colleagues to find new ways to apply social media tools throughout the Mayo system.

"We see immense opportunities to use internal social networking tools for collaboration among our employees to improve patient care, education, research and administration," said Aase.

"As we find new applications, we plan to conduct research into their effects so we can measure any cost savings, efficiency gains and improved effectiveness. And when we do, we’ll be sharing those findings externally to help the whole health system improve."
 

Death rates for patients with pneumonia, heart attacks and heart failure are now posted on Medicare’s Web site, Hospital Compare.

"Reporting quality data on the care provided hospital patients is a key to our continuing effort to provide better, value-based health care for all Americans," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said.  "Expanding the scope of measures is making Hospital Compare a more valuable tool for all health care consumers."

New additions to the site include pneumonia scores that track the number of Medicare patients with pneumonia who died within 30 days of being hospitalized. The national 30-day pneumonia death rate was 11.4 percent.

Medicare says the purpose of adding mortality rates to its Hospital Compare site is to provide usable and accurate information about hospital performance to consumers.

"With these new enhancements, consumers and health care providers will be able to look at individual hospital mortality scores.  We hope that this new information will cement the Web site’s role as a key driver in improving the quality and reliability of care in the nation’s hospitals, said Kerry Weems, Centers for Medicare Services acting administrator.

Medicare says consumers should not use the information on Hospital Compare as a tool to "shop" for a hospital. They say the information on the site should be used, as an additional tool to make health care decisions and that people should gather information from multiple sources when selecting a hospital.