The Serious Games Initiative
May 9, 2008
“Serious Games” sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s the best way to describe what’s going on at the Baltimore Convention Center today.
More than 300 people are in town for the fourth annual Games for Health conference - a group that is serious about the use of video games for health benefit.
For instance, they’ll reveal a new version of the popular video game Guitar Hero that’s designed to be used by an arm amputee, for rehabilitation. They’ll examine how the use of “PD Wii” is aiding balance and mobility in Parkinson’s patients. One panel will discuss how exercise games (or “exergaming”) in gyms can be used to make physical activity more fun.
And video games are even being used to train medical professionals. Physicians and EMTs are immersed in a 3D simulation of an emergency situation or a patient interaction to practice responding.
Parents will appreciate this one: a team of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center are working on an “interactivity kiosk” originally titled Project ER that is aimed to lower stress for the 60,000 children who visit Pittsburgh Medial Centers ER each year.
And this year, for the first time, a health insurance company is participating. Humana is a conference sponsor.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentBrody, others discuss health care on MPT
May 1, 2008
Aptly enough, JHU President Bill Brody will be on Retirement Living TV.
He’s conducting the interviews for a special on health care.
“Healthcare ‘08: Search for Solution” is being produced by RLTV and Maryland Public Television, with help from Johns Hopkins University and the National Coalition on Health Care.
The program will feature Brody having “in-depth conversations” with public figures about the present and future state of health care.
“This series presents an insight into both how our health care system really works and what needs to be done to fix it. Dr. Brody does an exceptional job at challenging conventional wisdom in these interviews,” said Elliot Jacobson, VP of programming and production, RLTV.
Here’s the schedule:
MPT - 8 p.m. EDT
May 1: Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
May 8: John Erickson, CEO, Erickson Retirement Communities
May 15: Bill Novelli, CEO, AARP
May 22: Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House
TBA: Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, Director, NIH
If Brody asked you, what would you say about the future of health care?
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentEmployees depart over NPO’s bachelor auction fundraiser
March 28, 2008
Is a firefighter bachelor auction held at a bar an appropriate fundraiser for the Red Cross?
This seems to be the question that’s led to a purge of employees from the Frederick County Red Cross - both resignations and terminations.
The group’s executive director was fired March 19 after objecting to the plans, according to a story in the Frederick News-Post. Two more longtime employees resigned this week.
Here’s the crux of the “inappropriate” argument: The Red Cross organization advises its workers and volunteers to avoid bars and taverns while representing the Red Cross.
However, there is no such language in the organization’s written code of conduct.
In this situation, once the Frederick chapter was told there were no legal concerns over the event, it was up to the board members to make the final decision.
And on Wednesday, the bachelor auction was held at the Greene Turtle Sports Bar and Grille. The event raised more than $4,000.
Do you think a bachelor auction is appropriate for an esteemed NPO? Or should nonprofits steer away from mixing business and pleasure?
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentWal-Mart - $1 billion saved?
March 14, 2008
Do you remember back in Sept. 2006 when Wal-Mart announced its plan to provide $4, 30-day prescriptions for a number of generic drugs? Well, the company has crunched the numbers and says it’s saved Americans more than $1 billion. $1,032,573,012.61, to be exact.
About $13.7 million of that is for Maryland alone. Florida leads the way with $72.4 million in savings.
I’ll admit I don’t know much about this program, or how Wal-Mart reached these numbers. But it is interesting to hear, especially considering the state of health care in the country. What do you think? Have you used the program, or know someone who has? Let us know.
JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist
Sphere: Related ContentTo bundle, or not to bundle
March 13, 2008
While the practice of “bundling” services is commonplace in many industries, such as food service (think McDonald’s Happy Meal) or the new car industry, where various options are thrown together for one price instead of sold separately, I never thought that the plastic surgery business was an industry where I would find services bundled.
I was wrong.
A news release issued by Dr. Eric Chang, owner of Columbia Aesthetic Plastic Surgery LLC, in Columbia, though touts a bundling of surgical services “popularly known” as a “Mommy Makeover.” The service is aimed at mothers looking to restore to “restore a woman’s pre-pregnancy body.”
“Mommy Makeovers are tailored to the individual needs of each patient, but usually combine tummy tuck with a breast enhancement surgery like breast lift, breast enlargement, or breast reduction to recontour women’s bodies that have begun to stretch and sag after pregnancy,” Chang said in the release.
According to Chang, the procedures are making up an increasing share of his practice.
Do you think this is a valid response to an underserved market?
Should he bundle a selection of services for male clients as well? Why not have men tag along and go for something like a “pre-wedding makeover?”
Or, why not target both and make a “parent makeover” bundle?
BEN MOOK, Assistant Business Editor
Sphere: Related ContentAre we lying about how long we sleep?
March 13, 2008
Americans may not be the sleep-deprived victims we’re often made out to be, say researchers at the University of Maryland in a new report today.
In sharp contrast with estimates recently given by the National Sleep Foundation, the UMD report says we’re averaging 8 hours, 12 minutes of sleep on workdays (NSF: 6 hours, 40 minutes) and 9 hours, 12 minutes of sleep on weekends (NSF: 7 hours, 25 minutes).
So how do the UMD researchers explain the difference between their findings and those of the NSF? Basically, “everybody lies.”
The NSF sleep poll asks Americans to estimate how much sleep they get. The Maryland analysts used “time-use” data collected by the U.S. Census that accounts for every minute of a person’s day.
“It’s a status symbol,” UMD sociologist John Robinson told The Washington Post. “If you are a good American, you work all hours. It’s virtuous in American society to not get enough sleep.”
It must be a whopping fib: while UMD says Americans total 59 hours of sleep a week in 2005, the NSF poll claims only 48 hours per week. That’s more than one full night’s difference.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentAsleep on the job? Not this week.
March 3, 2008
Here’s a national debt that gets little press: our national sleep debt. It affects all of us, and every morning we hit the “snooze” we are paying the price.
Today is the start of National Sleep Week, reports Sleep Services of America, a Glen Burnie-based company that is urging Americans to spend more time sleeping in bed rather than at their desks.
A survey of 1,000 people found participants average only six hours and 40 minutes of sleep a night on weeknights, and roughly one-third said they had fallen asleep or become very sleepy at work in the past month.
Personally, I’m surprised it’s only one-third.
Just how big a deal drowsiness is depends, of course, on your job, the AP writes.
Recently, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the NRC should have investigated a tip that security guards often took naps on the job at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant. (They did so only after a videotape of guards sleeping at the plant surfaced several months later).
And sleeping at work can dictate catching up at home; the study found workdays are getting longer and time spent working at home averages 4.5 hours each week.
Here’re some tips for good sleep:
- Establish a regular sleep schedule to help set your body’s internal clock
- Avoid alcohol, caffeine and nicotine close to bedtime
- Exercise regularly but avoid doing so at least three hours before bed
- Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet and cool
And maybe try to sleep in a bit more? The National Sleep Foundation says our average wake up is at 5:35 a.m.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentThe Wal-Mart effect on U.S. healthcare
February 28, 2008
Got strep throat? The flu? But your doctor’s all booked up today … or maybe you don’t have one?
Now that big-box Wal Mart has entered into the healthcare industry, you can walk in to a clinic where prices are rolled back by the cute smiley face. Earlier this month, the chain announced it would open 400 more clinics by 2010.
Wal-Mart’s presence is sure to have a ripple effect on practicing physicians, nurses, emergency rooms, insurance practices and more.
RNCentral has put together a list of 20 predictions on the impact of Wal-Mart clinics: from flat fees to increased immunizations to more nurse practicioners.
Their bottom line? Rural citizens, working parents and the uninsured will have more convenient, cheap access to simple healthcare, but traditional medical offices will likely feel the mental and financial crunch of treating only the most complicated patients.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentA legislative answer to the obesity epidemic?
February 6, 2008
If you think Maryland’s statewide smoking ban is oppressive, it’s got nothing on this: a Mississippi lawmaker has proposed a bill banning restaurants from serving food to obese people. He says that he was just trying to bring attention to the state’s obesity problem: almost one-third of Mississippi adults are considered obese.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentIs work making you feel ill?
January 21, 2008
My desk mate just returned from a week-long illness, my Web colleague is out sick today, and to be honest, I’m not feeling that well myself (though maybe it’s the working-on-a-federal-holiday blues?). I think it’d be safe to estimate that one third of my newsroom cohorts are sniffling.
If this sounds like your office, then you might find this piece on germs lurking at the office useful. I never wipe down my cell phone, press the “copy” button with my knuckle, or clean my workstation every day, but with every cough out of my cubicle-mate, I’m inclined to start. Maybe Howie Mandel is on to something.
JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
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