In only a couple of days, there will be a flurry of texting between Sami and I, sending pictures of packing and potential Learning Session outfits back and forth. Yesterday I sent Sami a few pictures of a sample outfit, to which she instantly texted back, “I like it!! It looks professional and cute!” (Note: said outfit was, indeed, packed immediately)

Last night I was pouring over an email with the Learning Session agenda, clicking on the various hyperlinks for teasers about the plethora of exciting things to come. One link sent me to pictures posted on the ICN Exchange of various ImproveCareNow teams; I chuckled at the Boston Children’s Hospital team’s faces photo-shopped onto duck statues (a la Make Way for Ducklings), the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta team’s matching t-shirts, the MassGeneral Hospital for Children team’s “We love ICN” sign (complete with a full GI tract doodle), and – finally – the ICN Exchange “Team Oscar Selfie” (a gutsier version of Ellen’s now infamous Oscar celebrity selfie).

Nothing like previewing pictures of the big-hearted, gutsy-humored, determined-with-all-their-might-to-change-chronic-illness-care care center teams to get me excited about the Spring Learning Session!

Sami and I have tried (and, notably, failed) at accurately articulating the pure excitement, joy, motivation, and positive energy that’s simply contagious at the Learning Session. Here in text, it sounds cheesy and like ImproveCareNow is prodding us to write down such ooey-gooey sentiments. But, let me reassure you on behalf of Sami and myself, our ooey-gooey praise is exceedingly well-deserved and comes directly from our hearts (read: guts).

In addition to the undeniable culture of optimism and innovative thinking, there are always particular sessions we just cannot wait for. Following are the things we look forward to most at the Spring Learning Session:

• 
  PAC Reunion: The Learning Session is the one time when the PAC Leadership is able to brainstorm in-person (and also eat lots, and lots of candy!). We look forward to seeing each other face to face, and are always astonished by the amount of important work we get done in a couple of days. This Learning Session will be the first where our full PAC Leadership will be in attendance (PAC co-chairs - Jennie & Sami, and Patient Scholars - Katherine & Tyler) – we just can’t wait!!

• 
  QI Fundamentals: Sami and I stumbled upon this last year as we both arrived early, and were quickly enthralled with the phenomenal centers who are our newest family members in the network. This is a wonderful opportunity if you’re in need of some inspiration (note: by the end of the weekend, you’ll be bursting with inspiration!) or a Quality Improvement refresher, and is a fantastic way to meet upcoming superstars in the network.

• 
  Opening Reception: Here, there, and everywhere – the reception is filled with amazing people and is an awesome chance to network, socialize, and get the 411 on the network’s progress and innovations with the variety of poster presentations. Also, keep an eye out for some Patient Advisory Council members who will be reprising their roles interviewing reception attendees!

• 
  The Learning Health System Today and Tomorrow: The opening never fails to deliver in motivating every cell of every attendee, and – who are we kidding – we always love seeing Dr. Margolis and Dr. Colletti (and, if we’re lucky, they’ll coordinate their outfits!).

• 
  Lunch: Food, food, more food, and lots of networking! We always fill up with some nourishment and get the chance to meet new centers, parents, and the clinicians at various centers that we are humbled to call friends.

• 
  The Learning Health System, The Months Ahead: The closing is reliably the time when you will need a stash of tissues compliments of the remarkable speeches from parents and patients. After the excitement of the weekend and the endless research ideas and connections you’ve developed, the closing is a perfect opportunity to digest (yes, pun intended) the entire experience and head home with genuine motivation that you won’t soon forget.

We can’t wait for the collaboration, the innovation, the passion, the insight, and to continue to watch children and their families living with IBD receive better, and better holistic healthcare.

So pack your bags (or join us on Twitter and follow the Learning Session hashtag #ICNLS) and get excited – the Spring Learning Session is just around the corner!

Jennie + Sami

When I was little, I had a lilac-purple colored bicycle. There were shiny streamers at the ends of the white handlebars, which would often catch the wind as I rode through a field near our house, my parents cheering and running behind me holding tight to the lip of the seat. Having gotten used to the stable comfort of riding my tricycle around our quiet suburban cul-de-sac, I remember feeling both terrified and thrilled at the expanse of the field and my ‘big girl’ two-wheeler. Learning to ride my bike – like most things in life – was a skill that required a lot of technical and emotional support from others, and a belief that I could do it.

A few months before I graduated high school at 17, I went to the hospital with my Mom for the so-called “transition appointment.” We had been sheltered and insulated in the pediatric world, full of pastel-colored murals, teddy bears, and bandages that were cut into heart shapes. The adult medical world was cryptic and distant – a new building, new doctors, new nurses, new everything. While everyone was perfectly polite, the transition appointment consisted of being told which adult doctor I was going to see and when/where I had to show up; there were no choices, no decisions, no questions. And there was no road-map for how to get from point A (pediatric care) to point B (adult care).

There are two important concepts that often get conflated: transition is the careful, premeditated, and inclusive process of educating and empowering an individual to be responsible for one’s health, while transfer is the physical change of moving to a new medical facility (e.g., pediatric to adult hospital). Transition is the meaningful process of gaining and growing skills like medical literacy, advocacy, adherence strategies, and so on. It requires a team of people (patient, parent, pediatric and adult doctors, nurses, etc.) working together to empower the patient. It’s the difference between learning to ride that little purple bike in a big field with lots of support versus just being given the bike with no guidance about how to use it.

According to Dr. Michele Maddux, a clinical psychologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital, who helped develop their transition program, Mercy’s efforts had previously involved transferring medical records and, “finding an adult provider, with significantly less focus on equipping adolescent patients with the tools and skills needed to successfully manage their health care needs.” Seeing this gap, Dr. Maddux and a dedicated transition task-force set out to create a holistic transition program that managed the clinical issues while taking lifestyle matters and family perspectives into account. They started by interviewing each of the pediatric gastroenterologists (GIs) on service to ensure physician engagement in the project and to capture their unique perspectives. They also created a GI roundtable and invited pediatric and adult GIs to have transparent conversations about transition. This resulted in a provider database and helped to dispel some of the myths that pediatric and adult GIs had about each other. The success of the roundtable and the transition task-force’s efforts culminated in the hiring of a transition coordinator and the development of a transition readiness screener for patients as well as educational materials for patients and families undergoing transition. The educational materials were vetted by Mercy’s general parent and teen advisory boards (i.e., not IBD specific) and by parents of children living with IBD.

Cue Jamie Hicks – a perfect fit into the role given her nursing background and a busy mom of three, including 10-year-old Colson who lives with Crohn’s. Prior to reviewing the transition materials, Jamie said, “[i]t simply wasn’t on my radar… I think of him growing up and how the disease will impact his future. But I never linked that to him taking over my ‘job’ as the manager of his health care.” Jamie praised the educational materials as “fantastic”, underscoring the importance of a defined direction and plan over guessing and uncertainty. Jamie’s main contributions were adjusting the material’s language, which she believes can have a large impact on how the information is received and understood by kids and families. According to Dr. Maddux, “Jamie brought a much needed patient/family voice to our materials that gave us a unique opportunity to craft our educational materials to meet the needs of families.”

Both Dr. Maddux and Jamie reiterate the vital importance of creating space for parents in research projects. Dr. Maddux pointed to the language and format changes as key edits that would have gone unaddressed without parent and patient engagement. Jamie addressed the critical role parents play as the people who most intimately understand their children beyond the clinic by helping to appropriately tailor educational materials and provide ‘behind the scenes’ information about children's motivations and worries. Similarly, they are both passionate about transition being relationship-based and starting as early as possible so the changes in medical responsibility are empowering and fitting for each child and familial situation.

We may not have a cure for IBD, but thanks to the insight and persistence of Dr. Maddux’s team and parents like Jamie, it is possible to implement a comprehensive, team-based transition program that prepares young patients with IBD to manage their own care. We can give our patients the encouragement, support, and information they need to ‘ride their bikes’ with strength and confidence.

After dozens of tries back in that field on my purple bicycle, I finally pushed off the ground, my feet finding the pedals and my eyes trained on the horizon, newly sturdy and sure of myself, and off I went pedaling across the field as my parents clapped and whistled. It hadn’t been easy, but I did it.

And together, we can make sure all of our kids can do it too.

I’m delighted to announce that on Tuesday December 17 the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) gave two major awards that will enable us to advance our work in ImproveCareNow.

One award is for $1,000,000 over 18 months for ImproveCareNow to create a Patient Powered Research Network (PPRN) to develop tools to boost patient and family engagement and implement patient reported outcomes.  The Principal Investigators are Peter Margolis, MD, PhD and Michael Seid, PhD at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and Richard Colletti, MD, at the University of Vermont.

The second award is for $7,000,000 over 18 months to develop a Clinical Data Research Network (CDRN) called the National Pediatric Learning Health System, initially consisting of 8 major children’s hospitals (all participating in ImproveCareNow) plus 3 improvement networks, including ImproveCareNow.  The Principal Investigators are Christopher Forrest, MD, PhD at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Peter Margolis, MD, PhD.

These awards are the results of the outstanding work of everyone participating in the ImproveCareNow Network, and in particular those who helped to prepare the extensive proposals for these awards.

Congratulations!  This is a great opportunity for us to continue our innovation, discovery and improvement!

Richard B. Colletti, MD

Network Director, ImproveCareNow

Jennie David and Sami Kennedy are co-chairs of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC), having taken over for the group’s founder and former chair, Jill Plevinsky. The PAC is a group of young, passionate and motivated patients with IBD who draw from their own personal experiences with chronic illness to educate and enlighten clinicians, researchers and other collaborators on how to design health care innovations that are making it possible for patients (and families) and their care teams to communicate more meaningfully with each other, to work together to investigate lifestyle changes that might have an impact on health and to truly share in decision-making about care – with the ultimate goal of getting more kids healthier, faster (and keeping them healthier longer).

Sami and Jennie – affectionately known as Gutsy 1 and Gutsy 2 or Jami – are not new to us. They have been active members of the PAC since early 2012 – when, without realizing it, they ‘jumped on the fast-track to super high-level engagement’. Since joining the PAC they have been engaged with ImproveCareNow and the C3N Project – and are well-known for their stirring contributions to LOOP.  Recently their role has deepened as they have been co-developing educational content and delivering presentations at Learning Sessions (our Fall 2013 Learning Session was approved for a record 14.5 CME and 15 CNE credits for eligible participants), participating on innovation teams and engaging with centers 1:1 to encourage patient involvement network-wide. They do all this on top of already full schedules – because they know, first hand, how transformative this work is.

It is transformative not only for ImproveCareNow and the C3N Project – which are collaborating to change the face of chronic illness care through innovative engagement and self-tracking approaches like the PAC and Passive PRO – but also for the patients themselves. As Jennie and Sami explained at the Learning Session earlier this month – “we weren’t always like this”. Starting as young kids getting handed diagnoses they didn’t ask for – Sami and Jennie have transformed into outspoken patient leaders; mentors and advocates for others living with IBD. It is their hope that many more will join them and that together – with a strong, sustainable culture of patient engagement through the PAC - they will continue to inform, educate and co-design a better way to care – one that takes into account the ‘person inside the patient’ and embraces the unique knowledge and perspective (and yes, expertise) that each patient brings to the table.

Here are Jennie and Sami’s reflections on ImproveCareNow and next steps for the PAC following the Learning Session

As patient advocates, there is something wonderfully refreshing about ImproveCareNow's Patient Advisory Council (PAC). It is unique in the sense that from the network leadership, all the way down to each center, the work of the PAC is celebrated and integrated in ways that outshine perfunctory patient involvement. PAC members are not involved because we have to be, we are involved because a) we want to be and b) care teams want us to be.

Enthusiasm and sincerity are synonymous with ICN, and yet the network is still an exemplary role model for movers and shakers in the pediatric chronic illness world. And so it seems only natural that the PAC emulate the inclusive, collaborative, out-of-the-box thinking as we build our council into an action-oriented, accessible group of patient advocates who actively engage in co-designing health care innovations, in brainstorming new and better ways to engage more patients, and in supporting the incredible efforts of everyone in the network.

The PAC strives to be a thoughtful and accessible resource for ICN care centers - as mentors to patients all the way through to colleagues in research. Over the next six months we plan to strengthen the council in the following ways: firstly we aim to develop and pilot, with the help of several centers, an effective recruitment strategy to welcome energetic and passionate patients into the PAC. Secondly, we believe it is important to create a community and culture of engagement and ownership amongst our PAC members. This is both to ensure members of the PAC are empowered by their experiences and that the council continues to grow and sustain itself. To that end we believe we must develop a sustainable succession plan.

As the co-chairs of the PAC, we remain extraordinarily humbled and thrilled by the endless encouragement and opportunities we have been afforded, and are admittedly a bit blinded by the spotlight. Nevertheless, we are honored to serve as patient advocates and work as part of this incredible network. As always, we will encourage you all (until we're blue in the face or there's a cure for IBD, whichever comes first!) to email us with questions, comments, suggestions, or anything you can think of! Like we said at the Fall Learning Session, we want to be your resources, your cheerleaders, your brain-stormers, and your colleagues.

You can always reach us at [email protected]

As Sami and I get super-duper-gutsy-psyched for the ImproveCareNow Fall Learning Session, we thought we’d put together quick snapshots of what an #ICNLS is like from our perspective. And voila, here they are, broken down into ‘Before,’ ‘During,’ and ‘After!

Before:

Sami: The excitement of planning and watching others plan. The Learning Session is a labor of love and - true to ICN's motto of "share seamlessly, steal shamelessly" - so much collaboration goes on behind the scenes in the weeks leading up to the LS. Despite the occasional stress, it's a blessing to be a part of such well-coordinated collaboration. My contributions to the LS are never just 'mine' - they've been shaped by a countless number of collaborators.

Jennie: Out of the mountains of emails and over-excited texts between Sami and I, everything was becoming real as plane tickets were booked and bags were packed. It’s kind of like coordinating a flash mob: dozens and dozens of people, all with the same passion for patient-centered care, group together from all corners of the country, lots of people doing one big dance. A lot of excitement, a smidge of nerves, and so very much gutsiness.

During:

Sami: Connecting with individuals representing all centers and roles within ICN. The PAC reps love meeting you - we want to know how we can best partner with you to meet your needs! I learn as much from casual hallway conversations and introductions at the LS as from the formal plenary and breakout sessions. One year ago, I didn't know my present PAC co-chair until I got off the plane in Chicago - so much can change in one year.
Tweeting, blogging, and sharing what I learn with you!! p.s. anyone can join the LS conversation real-time on Twitter using the hashtag #ICNLS.

Jennie: I remember my very first LS. It was as if I’d known everyone there forever – everyone was incredibly sweet and lovely and thrilled to have myself, Sami, and Jill (our amazing former PAC chair) there. I’ll never forget during the opening reception I was introduced to a few people, first names only, and it wasn’t until my head stopped spinning and I put two and two together that I realized I’d just met the biggest movers and groovers in ICN and the C3N Project. What struck me then was that they were just ordinary people who could hold conversations with me and I wasn’t stuck in some small ‘patient only’ box. The LS truly is an environment filled with excitement, respect, brilliance, compassion, and the unwavering attitude that we can all learn from one another (purposely ignoring the standard hierarchy of doctors versus patients/parents, it is doctors and patients/parents).

After:

Sami: Reconnecting and making plans for collaboration with those I've met over the weekend. The LS is "the charger" of ICN - it propels us through the next six months.
Working through the pages and pages of notes I'll leave the LS with - despite the work involved, the LS is magical because it allows you to come with scraps of ideas and gain the inspiration you need to transform those ideas into reality. Sleeping a little - and dreaming about the next Learning Session!

Jennie: There’s always too much excitement, too many possibilities, and so many new connections leaving the LS to get any sleep on the plane home! And that’s what’s so incredible and indescribable about the LS: we pass around and borrow ideas and fire from one another and there’s always so much to start doing! And importantly for patients and parents, we don’t become forgotten in the months between (we’re not simply a perfunctory part of the LS and then we’re dropped), if anything I’ve seen the commitment to meaningful patient engagement grow each time!

We can’t wait to update you after the LS!  But why wait? Learning Sessions have their own hashtag on Twitter so you can keep up with what's happening. Be sure to follow #ICNLS  – and we’ll be sure to tweet as often as we can!

J + S

The day to day work of changing care delivery systems - to make them more reliable and effective - is important but it's nice to learn from time to time that there's an impact at multiple levels of the health care system.

One of the major federal sponsors of health services research is the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Rick Kronick, PhD was recently appointed the agency's new director.  Dr. Kronick has experience as a researcher, as a leader in Massachusetts and in Washington, DC. His first day on the job was two weeks ago and he mentioned ImproveCareNow in his opening remarks to the agency.

A program officer at AHRQ emailed me to share this news. Dr. Kronick's theme was achieving an impact through health services research. She paraphrased Dr. Kronick as saying that all research is viewed with a skeptical eye in tight economic times so it is important to be able to show measurable progress towards the goal of an impact on outcomes. Dr. Kronick cited ImproveCareNow as a leading of example of the kind of research that AHRQ should be sponsoring because of the very significant impact that we have had (in part through the support of the Enhanced Registries project).

By continuing to stay focused on improving outcomes, ImproveCareNow is demonstrating that when we work together the health care system can change. Achieving an impact at a larger level isn't the reason why we're doing this. At the same time, it's important for policy makers and others to know that there's hope for accelerating improvement and to know about models like ours that work. Hopefully, this will make those who support our work, more inclined to continue to do so.

George Dellal | Program Manager

As the ImproveCareNow program manager, my role is to coordinate and align all the people who tirelessly work to make ImproveCareNow the leading learning health system in the world.

I stumbled across ImproveCareNow in 2009, when I was looking for an opportunity to use my project management and process improvement background to help improve the healthcare system.  I quickly became hooked. I’m writing this post to express some of what inspires me about our work and makes me so proud to be a part of ImproveCareNow.

Sharing:

John Wilbanks once said to me “people want to share, the problem is that our systems are set up to restrict and disincentive sharing”. To give an example, two clinicians from different ImproveCareNow centers wanted to collaborate on a handbook to help kids better manage their IBD. However, before they could share their drafts with each other, lawyers from their respective hospitals spent several months going back and forth on copyright and branding issues. This is a classic example of what we call a ‘transactional cost’. These costs make sharing almost ‘not worth it’ and prevent the kind of collaboration that is necessary to change healthcare.

One of the ImproveCareNow Network’s aims is to reduce and eliminate transactional costs by designing systems that reward sharing and more importantly make it easy and convenient. A great example is the ImproveCareNow Exchange (picture Pinterest for healthcare). This internal collaboration platform has been developed by a team of volunteers to make it easy for patients, parents, clinicians and researchers to share and discuss tools and ideas to improve chronic illness care for kids with IBD.

Tools to improve healthcare are almost always ‘non-rivalrous’; meaning just because one person uses a certain tool doesn’t mean it won’t work or be helpful to someone else. Let me paraphrase Peter Gloor who described it nicely in his book “CoolFarming”: Two people walking opposite directions on a path meet and decide to give each other a dollar, as a result they each walk away with a dollar. The next day the same two people meet and this time decide to share with each other an idea they’ve had to improve healthcare, as a result they each walk away with two ideas to test.

At ImproveCareNow we have brought together hundreds of patients, parents, clinicians and researchers and enabled them to share tools and ideas. As a result they are all walking away with many more ideas and tools to transform care. This is the power of sharing.  Our collective intelligence and ability is so much greater than our individual intelligence and abilities.  It is this kind of power that is necessary to tackle the thorniest of our nation’s challenges: How do we provide our children with the care they deserve?

Technology:

I recently saw the following tweet:  “How do you know you work in healthcare? There’s still a fax machine in the office and moreover it’s used”.  It really summed up a lot of the technology challenges healthcare is facing.  We are trying to solve today’s problems and improve today’s care using outdated technology. No wonder we’re frustrated! At ImproveCareNow we’re fixing that.

ImproveCareNow has developed a data-in-once registry (called ICN2) to harness clinical data collected routinely by our clinicians at the point of care.  These data are enabling us to research which treatments work best so we can feed that information back to our centers and they can improve care for their patients.  Additionally, we’re using cell phone apps and SMS messaging to collect patient data which helps patients understand their IBD better and allows clinicians to work with them to customize care. And this is just the beginning. We’re working towards a technology infrastructure that combines clinical data and patient data; a system in which patient health can be monitored remotely and disease flare-ups predicted and prevented. That’s the promise of technology and our future healthcare system.

Learning from Variation:

Fred Trotter writes “when you’ve seen one medical practice, you’ve seen one medical practice”.  Each ImproveCareNow center operates differently; each has its own unique culture, processes and systems.  While this variation presents challenges, it also presents a huge opportunity.  Quality Improvement teaches us to embrace and learn from that variation. What does care center A do that care center B doesn’t? What impact is it having on patient outcomes?  Where is the positive deviance (better solution)? How can we spread it?  These are the questions that our team asks every day, and embedded in their answers are the reasons we have been so successful at improving clinical outcomes.

I could keep writing. But this post is long enough already.  I’ve tried to convey some of the top things that make me so excited to get to work every day. But, the thing that inspires me the most are the stories I hear from our patients and families. They really are heroes - sharing their experiences, ideas, time and energy so that together we can improve the care and outcomes for all kids with IBD.

Picture this: you’re waiting for class to begin, or an elevator to open, or for a cashier to call you to the counter. Sound familiar? Welcome to my life. With a fair amount of time spent waiting, I often (along with the vast majority of my contemporaries) pull out my smart phone and start sifting through text messages and checking (and re-checking) my email. It kills a few minutes, and before you know it, class is starting or the elevator comes or the cashier calls out, “Next in line!”

Three summers ago after I returned home energized from my freshman year of college, I began a summer job as a babysitter to three one-year-olds. I love kids and these little ones – a pair of identical twin boys and a little girl – were as precious as they come (besides nap time when the boys would cry until their faces were red). I so enjoyed watching them discover the world and interact with myself and each other. I had just started a new biologic medicine before leaving school for summer break – it was going to be ‘the one’ (sadly, ‘the one’ in the chronic illness world rarely refers to a significant other, but instead the lofty potential of a medication to bring on the sought-after remission).

Spoiler alert: it was not ‘the one’ and one evening I found myself at the mouth of a toilet throwing up. I banged on the ceramic tile floor of the upstairs bathroom to get my parents’ attention downstairs in the kitchen, and after they ran up the stairs to see what the matter was, they found me in tears pleading to them that something just wasn’t right. A scope and lots of sedation later, the answer: severe inflammation throughout my colon. There’s a lot of ways to say it, but it came down to one thing – farewell colon.

There was a park a little ways away from the kids’ house and we would often walk there to play (note: a triple stroller with three kids is super heavy!). I recall walking home from the park one day and needing to go to the bathroom, immediately.   I considered going to a random house and demanding to use the bathroom but decided against it. I made it back to the kids’ house and soon found myself housebound there with my three charges, herding them in the bathroom so I could watch them every time I needed to go (which was quite often). Between bathroom breaks I can remember standing in the kitchen with an Oreo on my tongue, trying to find the energy to play with the kids.

The question soon became how did I get so sick so quickly? The answer was complicated – first and foremost, I had never really been well. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I had become so accustomed to feeling ill and dealing with symptoms that the feelings of wellness, health, and energy were merely distant memories. I could talk about them, but could not really physiologically remember what it was like to be well. Going to the bathroom existed solely as a horrifying painful experience, but it was my daily reality. And somewhere along the way, my disease had made the transition from uncomfortable and unpleasant to unbearable and unrealistic.

Having Crohn’s isn’t my fault – but it is my responsibility to do my best to take care of myself. After some initial denial, I was a conscientious patient who asked a lot of questions and adhered to my medications and spoke honestly with my doctors.  But I said farewell to my colon anyway.  What had I done wrong? How could I have better predicted the steep descent of the flare that eventually took my colon? Another spoiler alert: it all ended up just fine, as I was able to squeeze in my ostomy surgery a month before my sophomore year; I returned to college that semester and I love my bag. But the whole experience made me think, there must be a better way to track my symptoms so that I can catch myself when I’m starting to slip down the mountain; so I can alert my doctors and put up the CAUTION signs and figure out a strategy to rescue me from a debilitating flare.  You know, even without a colon, I still get flares.

Now picture this: you’re waiting for class, the elevator, or the cashier. You reach for your phone, but instead of texting a friend, or checking the weather, what if you took two minutes to track your symptoms? Well, luckily for us, there’s no ‘what if’ because it is real. It being Ginger.io, a smart phone app and ICN innovation that does a few super cool things. In honor of Ginger.io, I’ve made a list.

Ginger.io is Super-Cool Because…

1) It looks cool – it’s a sleek app that’s easy to use (in research geek-speak: it has a great deal of clinical utility because it’s feasible for participants to navigate).

2) It sends you push notifications when the surveys (which take an average of 2 minutes) are ready to complete, so you’ll never miss a beat.

3) It leverages your smartphone’s location services with the idea that when you’re feeling well, you’re moving all over, and when you’re feeling icky, you’re staying in bed with some Netflix (okay, so maybe the latter is just me….). The app literally tells you how much you travel so you can have a clue as to whether or not your ‘moving and grooving’ habits have changed (but don’t worry, it doesn’t creepily stalk you!).

4) Daily surveys capture the details of whether your pain is getting worse or better, whether you’re going to the bathroom more or less – in other words, it helps you become more conscious of your disease and any changes in your symptoms (i.e., giving you and your medical team the power to stop a flare in its tracks).

5) You get your info – you have a chance to receive a monthly graphic report of your answers to bring to your next doctor’s appointment.

6) It pays! A little moula never hurt anyone! Since you’re helping with research, there’s a financial incentive for every survey completed – and no, it’s not monopoly money!

Would my disease and surgical history have been any different if Ginger.io had been around 3 years ago? Maybe. But my point isn’t about rewriting my history; it’s about my ability to get engaged by tracking my symptoms and about being involved in health care innovation research in a way that is directly beneficial to me (and hopefully many others who live with chronic illness every day). In a busy world, Ginger.io is an efficient use of my time.  I don’t mind spending a few spare minutes here and there to catch up on my health and assess how I’m doing.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, sign up for Ginger.io.  Take a few minutes to dedicate to your health on a daily basis (and hey, it will come in handy when you’re bored and staring at your phone), it’s an app-solutely great idea!

Jennie

Hear the voices behind the blogs - Patient Scholars Jennie David and Sami Kennedy will chat via LIVE Webcast with Dr. Peter Margolis about their work with the C3N Project and the ImproveCareNow Network this Thursday, June 27.  Jennie and Sami are part of the Patient Advisory Council (PAC), where they collaborate with a diverse group of patients to help their generation and the next by working alongside researchers, clinicians and families.  What does a PAC member do?  You’ll have to tune in Thursday and hear for yourself.

Find out more about the PAC here, and make sure to bring comments and questions to the LIVE discussion - register now!

C3N LIVE Webcast | June 27, 2013 | 12 PM ET

Not available to join the Webcast?  Follow and join the discussion in real-time on Twitter.