Turkey Talk topics: Health, tech & memories (with @1Password, @dnanian, @crashplan, @dropbox & @evernote)

As you gather with family and friends, take a moment to tackle three important topics.

1. Health

Thanksgiving dinner is a great time to talk about two related aspects of health that are often overlooked: what to do when you can no longer make decisions for yourself and your desires for end-of-life care.

Start by having everyone complete a health care proxy. This little document is vital to ensure that your wishes are carried out by someone who knows and loves you.

Make sure you discuss what should happen in one's final days. This is no "death panel" — it's a serious and heartfelt conversation about setting and respecting everyone's personal end-of-life care preferences.

2. Tech

Take this downtime to make your passwords truly secure.

I have been a user of the password manager 1Password for Mac since it was released and also use it on iOS. I was a beta tester during the recent launch of 1Password 4. 

1Password (and other products) allow you to create super secure passwords for every online account and manage them with a single universal password. You only have to remember that one password — hence, the name — so make that super secure as well.

If you already use 1Password, it's easy to change all those old passwords to something long, random and secure by using the "Security Audit" feature. It will show you all of your weak passwords, duplicate passwords and those you haven't used for a while.

3. Memories

The holidays are built for creating memories — memories you don't want to ever lose.

So back them up!

A solid strategy means having your data in multiple places — a regular physical backup and a cloud backup.

For the physical backup with a Mac, use SuperDuper! from Shirt Pocket software. It's simple and free. Pay just $27.95 and Dave Nanian will give you super scheduling features and, so far, lifetime upgrades.

For cloud backup, I use Crash Plan, which last year had an awesome Black Friday deal. It takes a while for the initial backup, but then works seamlessly and quietly in the background.

Also consider using Dropbox to automatically sync your photos from your smartphone (requires a Pro account).

And then organize your memories — and keep important papers handy (like health care proxies) — in Evernote. Again, the "Premium" service is well worth the upgrade.

Enjoy your turkey (I'll be having steak!). But also take care of these important tasks.

Live healthy, prevent disease with @Prevently

One of the latest entries into the "make small changes and change your health" arena is Prevently.

Our goal is to prevent a disease before it ever happens by helping users live a healthier lifestyle.

We know this can be difficult. That's why we make sure it isn't.

Prevently is a new service that is built on four pillars:

• Health articles and videos focused on prevention and wellness.
• The sale of products and devices that promote and monitor health.
• Regular telemedicine consultations with health care professionals.
• An all-in-one online personal health record.

The last pillar is one of the most interesting. The online personal health record aggregates data (such as steps, sleep, BMI, blood pressure) from fitness devices and apps, such as Fitbit, Internet-enabled scales and Prevently's own app. 

These data have a direct connection to Prevently's telemedicine offering, which will be a subscription service that allows users to chat with a doctor about their health. The doctor has access to the user's Prevently health record and can even get notifications when the user's data show that something is off.

The marrying of real-time data and notification with education, awareness and coaching will be essential to achieving population health. It still requires an engaged and activated patient — and a strong support system of family and friends — to become a reality.

Prevently promises that physicians have reviewed all of their content and products. The site sources information from places like Harvard Medical School and has a team of advisor physicians review all of the health products and devices the site sells.

Prevently is a solid idea that shows promise as a platform for patient engagement and better health.

Source: MobiHealthNews
 

Uploaded by BigFishpresentations on 2013-09-16.

Photo Friday: Broadway Lights

As George Benson famously sang:

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
They say there's always magic in the air …

I recently got off the Red Line at the Broadway T station in South Boston. While the lights aren't neon, I was struck by how they illuminated the subway platform toward the exit.

Take this path — it's going somewhere.

Broadway T station on the MBTA's Red Line in South Boston, shot on November 19, 2013.

Why :) when you can :D?

Billboard at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and West 4th Street in South Boston, shot on November 19, 2013.

Open wide — and smile!

That's the message from the Massachusetts Health Connector, the Bay State's health insurance marketplace, in its newest campaign to offer affordable dental coverage.

While other states are fretting over how to get started, Massachusetts continues to leap ahead by offering more plans and additional services — and a website that works. 

As the ad says, "Now, smile like you mean it."

iPhone, please take my temperature (with @kinsahealth)

Here's a dongle for your smartphone that could actually save your life.

Health care startup Kinsa is readying what it calls "the world's smartest thermometer" — a small, flexible thermometer that plugs into an iPhone or Android smartphone. It not only gives you a fun and graphical depiction of your body heat, but also aggregates data to show the "health" of a community, what Kinsa calls the "health weather."

Inder Singh, Kinsa's founder, was previously an executive VP of the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s program to fight Malaria and HIV in Africa and South Asia. “While I was there," Singh told Fast Company, "it struck me that if we just knew a little more about how the illness was spreading, we could do more."

The result: The Kinsa thermometer.

At the NY Tech Meetup on October 8, 2013, Singh said:

"We are creating a product that we believe will truly transform the way people care for their families. And we are creating a system where data, crowdsourced data — your data — will save lives." 

Kinsa is one of a number of devices and companies working to harness health data to help educate and prevent the spread of disease.