It's often easy to get caught up in the wonderful world of technology and even easier to forget that sometimes the best answers are not necessarily found in developing applications or hardware.
Apart from my love of technology, my other great love are dogs. In my eyes dogs are one of the most beautiful creatures on this planet. They are loyal and loving pets and we see them in a variety of therapeutic environments, helping people live productive lives.
This video (at the end of this post) really shows just how important animals can be to the life of people who need a hand just doing every day activities and proves that sometimes technology just can't offer the same support. Of course, with some of the advances recently seen with robo pets, perhaps one day Fido will be replaced but I hope not. I still think real dogs have it over their robot versions!
From CNN: ALPHARETTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Ben, who's 15 months old, can already do a lot of things. He can turn on a light or open a door. He can pick up a remote control off the floor. He can pull a heavy object with his teeth. Colise Johnson, 42, spent two weeks in September at a canine training camp getting acquainted with Ben.
Colise Johnson, 42, spent two weeks in September at a canine training camp getting acquainted with Ben.
But Ben, a gangly golden retriever, is more than a family pet. He is a specially trained seizure dog who may one day be able to save the life of his new owner, Colise Johnson.
"Having epilepsy and cerebral palsy is kind of like having a nonstop roller coaster ride," said Johnson, 42, of Portland, Oregon. "You never know what's going to happen, but with him, he slows the ride down so it's manageable."
I've posted previously about the use of WiMAX in remote regions. Here is another video showcasing another great project. The U.S. Department of State and IBM extend the reach of Telemedicine to remote regions of Pakistan. Public-private partnership showcases power of technology and connectivity to improve quality of life for remote populations.
EpiSurveyor can be downloaded to devices like mobiles and PDA's making it highly adaptable for staff working on the ground. It has already been successfully piloted in Kenya and Zambia improving availability and timeliness of health care data involving preventative programmes and immunizations against malaria.
I'd love to see this in action. It pleases me to see technology really helping to improve productivity and accuracy of information which in turn helps those at great risk.
I found a short video showcasing EpiSurveyor if you are interested.
It has been months since I last posted an update on my social networking site so I thought I'd give you a brief history and current status of where I am currently placed.
The idea of building a secure social network came about 2 years ago after chatting with some of the nurses based at my office. They were telling me that many of their clients were now emailing and texting them on a regular basis as well as communicating with other members of the groups run by the nursing staff. The result being that quite a bit of information was being shared among the group that the nurses weren't necessarily aware of. In a few cases, misinformation was being shared on a range of topics including nutrition advice on their babies.
Around the same time sites like Facebook, Digg and quite a few others had really set the trend in delivering rich communication and content to users. I decided that utilising web 2.0 technologies might offer our staff a way to communicate more effectively with their clients and groups and ensure that the right information was being shared.
After reviewing many of the open source products on the market, I settled on Drupal. I had read that it can be quite a beast to tame and boy, it has certainly stood up to that reputation! It is one of the most challenging, frustrating, mind bending, stress ball inducing products I have ever worked with....I love it! Make no mistake, Drupal is not for the faint hearted, you can spend considerable time working on what you assumed would be a relatively quick modification. At times it is baffling. But when you figure it out, the results are powerful. I love working with Drupal. It is well supported by it's users and most are quite happy to offer advice and eager to see you succeed in developing a strong application.
Rather naively, I thought the project would take no longer than about 6 months. Unfortunately, it has taken me well over a year and a half! The reason? It has nothing to do with Drupal and everything to do with lack of resources, direction and organization restructures. In short, I fell victim to losing the two resources that worked with me resulting in an increased work load, structural changes that saw no less than 6 managers take on my project and a complete lack of direction during this phase.
Don't get me wrong, I love change. I embrace it. But when you spend almost 2 years in the mix of a major restructure it is easy to lose control and direction. Having so many managers during this period grew tiresome. Every new manager meant spending time with them explaining what I did, why I was developing this new application, justifying my role and the direction I was taking it and working within a new set of guidelines. The biggest challenge though was not one of my managers had I.T knowledge or any real understanding of web technologies. Some had no real understanding of what was going on out there in the web world which is incredibly challenging, especially for a self confessed tech geek.
I must say that not one of those managers ever stood in the way of me developing the site. They all saw the potential and I think that says a lot about their ability to not let their lack of knowledge get in the way of making a decision.
Fast forward two years and I am close to finally getting my site rolled out. I still have to get approval from the Executive Director but my immediate Director has seen the site and believes there is potential so hopefully it will be approved. What has me rather excited is that I showed the site to Ambulatory care and our population health unit and both are as excited about it's potential as I am.
So the plan now is for me to write a briefing paper and then most likely present the site to the Executive Director. If it gets the go ahead then it will be piloted by a few select community groups that are currently run by our nursing staff.
Although the site is not live, I have included a couple of screen shots. It will no doubt change based on what feedback is received from Executive and the groups using the site.
Oh, I forgot to say that the site is called Community Connect.
I'll keep you all posted. If you wish to find out more about Drupal or any technical aspects, please feel free to comment or email me.
Of course, the Executive Director may say no to piloting the site. I am not going to think about that though!
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