Boston conference to explore mobile tech's influence on behavior change, healthy lifestyles

Using mHealth technology to affect behavior change and improve one’s lifestyle will be one of the highlights of the Healthcare Experience Design Conference, a three-day event scheduled for March 25-27 at the Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston.

Sponsored by Mad*Pow and Claricode, with assistance from, among others, GE Healthcare, Partners Healthcare’s Center for Connected Health and Rock Health, the conference – in its second year –  is designed to bring together a wide range of healthcare industry professionals, from entrepreneurs to designers, to explore the role of design in delivering better healthcare outcomes. The conference will feature workshops on Sunday and Tuesday, with the conference itself taking place on Monday.

According to Amy Cueva, founder, chief experience officer and healthcare principal at Mad*Pow, the conference will focus on tools and strategies “that have been tested in the real world and have proven to be successful.”

"We will explore the patient, clinician and consumer journey across all channels: mobile, social, tablet, in-hospital and more,” she added, writing about the conference in a blog posted late last year.

Guest speakers include Tim Kieschnick of Kaiser Permanente, who will discuss “eHealth equity,” focusing on health disparities, digital disparities and health reform. Also on the agenda are Alexandra Drane, president and co-founder of the Eliza Corporation, a developer of healthcare communication strategies; Jonathan Bush, president, co-founder and CEO of athenahealth; Todd Park. the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Chief Technology Officer; Josh Clark of Global Moxie; Mitch Higashi of GE Healthcare; John Weiss of WebMD; Meredith DeZutter of the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation; Christian Richard of Philips Healthcare; Zen Chu of Accelerated Medical Ventures and Jill Reed of Allscripts.

Also among the presenters is BJ Fogg, a psychologist and director of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University who will be leading a one-day pre-conference Behavior Change Bootcamp. Fogg and several health and wellness entrepreneurs will be offering recommendations designed to motivate people to exchange the French fries for fresh fruit and make those lifestyle changes stick.

Among them:

•     Make it unforgettable. Anchor the new behavior to an old one, and don’t forget to congratulate them when they’re done, says Fogg.
•     Make it social. MeYouHealth’s Trapper Markelz says give people simple daily challenges and let them share their accomplishments with friends and family.
•     Make it fun. Dustin DiTomasso, an experience design director at Mad*Pow, says an engaging, rewarding game-playing experience can bridge the gap between people’s intentions and actions.
•     Make it adaptable. It’s easy to support someone who is already motivated to change unhealthy behaviors, but what about all of those people who aren’t quite there yet? NutriSystem’s Debra Gelman helps design online experiences that support, motivate and inspire people to be healthier no matter what stage they’re in.
•     Make it elegant. Why bother designing an app that nobody wants to use? Josh Clark, founder of GlobalMoxie, inventor of the C25K (Couch-to-5K) running program, specializes in “designing for touch,” where ergonomics and interfaces are key.
•     Make it efficient. If you’re adding mobile or online self-service functionalities, they’d better be just as easy and save twice as much time than what the customer can do offline. Just ask John Yesko, director of user experience at Walgreens.

Eric Wicklund

Editor of mHIMSS.org

Follow Eric on Twitter @eriwick