For years we’ve been told that health is something you keep to yourself. But privacy doesn’t come naturally to humans. We’re easily announcing our struggles with health. So…yes..like every aspect of being human…health is deeply social. When we get sick or something is wrong, we tell someone about it. We want others to care for us and about us. In fact, that’s often the glue that holds seniors together– a simple understanding that senior friends will enjoy talking about their health problems with one another. It’s often an opportunity to laugh and make light of their changing bodies.

Are healthy activities social for healthy people? Absolutely. Team sports. Bicycling in groups. Golf with friends. Competing against others. It’s all meant to be a shared experience.

Is happiness social? Absolutely. Parties, concerts, dinners, and drinks…they’re all meant to be shared. A concert for only you wouldn’t be that fun.

So what is private about health? Privacy means many different things to everyone. Most importantly, health privacy is more about control than secrecy. We want to be in control of who sees our health issues. We don’t want health insurance companies or employers to discriminate against us. But we want help and advice from friends and strangers struggling with the same health problems– sometimes we want this anonymously and for others we want full disclosure.

The world is quickly changing. Clay Shirky says in his excellent book, Here Comes Everybody, “When we change the way we communicate, we change society.” He then goes on to say “It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming.”

What does this mean to our understanding of health, happiness, and sickness? We’ll soon see that the value we gain from controlling and sharing health experiences and information far outweighs the value we gain from being secretive. Grandparents are starting to embrace Facebook. Imagine the possibilities of an entire Baby Boom generation virtually networking about their shared health experiences. And when they have interfaces as intuitive as the iPad, I think we’ll start seeing an entirely new wave of social connectivity encouraging more health interactions. And the more social we become the happier we get.

photo by Noah Kalina

Now that communication and feedback for products and services can be so easily obtained and measured, this just makes perfect sense.

via David Armano

“My research suggests that we have misbranded health behaviors such as exercise,” she continued. “The ‘health’ and ‘weight-loss’ brand of exercise doesn’t create desire in people to exercise on a daily basis. It makes the behaviors feel like a chore and a ‘should,’ which undercuts our desire to do them.”

Dr. Segar likened this approach to telling young children, “Eat your vegetables; they’re good for you,” which almost never accomplishes the desired goal. “We’ve based our promotion of exercise on a medical and logical model,” she said. “And people don’t necessarily behave in a logical manner.

“We’ve made exercise feel like a chore to most people, not like a gift we give ourselves.”

via The New York Times

Our Take: For the last century, the paternal medical industry has come down hard on our bad behavior. The stodgy, fatherly looking doctor with his sterile sentiment and white coat has created a rebellious culture. We’ve been talked down to. We’ve been told “we must” and “we should” for so long that the American public, like rebellious teenagers responding to the power parents hold over them, have developed a culture of excess and inactivity.

It’s time to rebrand health. It’s time to stop paternalism and time to create amazing experiences that people desire. The timing is right. We’re interacting with others in whole new ways. Health is finally realizing social. People are connecting to learn from and encourage one another. Gyms should function more like community centers in the same way Apple Stores function as social, community-driven experiences. Healthy behaviors will be about creating happiness because the health experience, with a whole new voice and brand, will be something desired. As adolescents, we don’t desire to please our parents. However, when we get older, more mature, and more empowered, the table turns and we start valuing our relationship.

There’s a whole new world waiting to happen. Health, wellness, sickness…it all needs a reboot, a rebrand, a whole new communication strategy with a whole new promise and experience.

The health conversation should put the client at the center…by the way, that patient at the center is e-Patient Dave…one of our heroes.

Living in such a complicated world can seem so complex. But we’re creatures of habit. Ninety-three percent of our behavior is predictable.

And everyday the media reports on new research that suggests certain things are good or bad for you. It’s all quite confusing. We get so lost and so paralyzed by complicated details, we lose sight of making health simple. Don’t worry about whether or not coffee is good or bad for you. If the “science” of analyzing one substance and its effect on health hasn’t figured it out by now, the implications of that substance are mostly unknown for you as an individual. In fact, even the number one selling drug in America, Lipitor, designed to reduce your cholesterol has very little evidence to suggest it prolongs your life. In reality, our longevity is limited by our genes and our everyday behaviors.

All I ask is that you stop and think about your life today.

We’re all expected to live 82 years or so in the developed world. What do we want out of those years? Do you want to prolong your life at the end? Do you want to live to be 92 instead of 82? Or do you want to feel your best prior to getting old and limited by age? What do you think will give you the most happiness out of life? Living your life optimally as a young person? Or stretching your life out at the end for another decade of life as a slow-moving senior citizen?

Now, think about your everyday. Spend a few minutes and write down how you spend your day. What are you doing? What are you doing that’s probably good for you? What are you doing that’s probably not that great for you? What are you doing too much of? Not enough of? Make a list. It’s actually pretty simple. For everything you identify that’s not so great for you, write a simple way you can change that behavior.

Think about just three things– sleep, food, activity. Changes should be very, very simple. It’s things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It could be eating less meat. It could be sleeping 7 hours instead of six. It could be drinking with friends 3 nights a week instead of four. It could be one less hour of sitting in front of your computer.

Life really isn’t about your health. It’s about happiness. Health is just one component of happiness. So take a break every once in a while and sit down and think about a few small everyday things that have huge impact on your happiness.

video portrait of Drew Anderson by me.

In step with last week’s post about low cost wheelchairs, here is another ingenious mobility invention:

The genius of Winter’s wheelchair lies in the design of the long ratchet-like levers that power it. Hold them low, near the axle, and it goes fast. Hold them higher up, and it generates a lot of torque, making it possible to climb slowly but surely over rocks and up hills. In effect, you change gears by changing your body geometry…

Lever-powered wheelchairs have been around for more than 50 years, and a few companies market them now. But those often are very expensive – up to several thousand dollars – and use derailleurs or other gearing that is often ill-suited to tough conditions…

Also essential to his design was that the chair could be easily manufactured, and even more easily repaired.

“If you can find a guy who can fix a bicycle, and they’re everywhere, he can fix this chair,’’ Winter said.

“When someone gets a wheelchair in Africa . . . you are giving a lease of life to someone, and you are entitling the whole family so they can concentrate on their own lives while the wheelchair user is able to generate some income on his own,’’ Mbuguah said.

via Boston.com

Happiness Post of the Day: PS22 Chorus does Phoenix’s Lisztomania…”I truly love this point in the year. The kids pick stuff up really quick — only two rehearsals to get this performance! And you know the kids are coming into their own when every new video posted becomes a new favorite!”

“The iPhone was a success from the start, but it really became a ubiquitous device when it proved competent at a whole range of tasks beyond Apple’s original marketing copy. (It was just “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device,” remember?) Now games rule on the iPhone, and as many parents will attest, the iPhone’s one true calling is as breakthrough child pacification device.

A similar role awaits the iPad. No, not for children; rather, look to the burgeoning end of the demographic curve: baby boomers.

I know many baby boomers who are intimidated by computers. Plenty are not, but a great many spend far too much time wrestling with viruses and drivers, wondering what a DLL is, and generally not knowing the difference between their RAM and a hard disk – all just so they can read emails and check their bank account online. Some boomers have sired offspring who gladly help them with remote tech support sessions, but many others have not, and suffer for it. The reason for all this misery is simple: Computers are still too complex for those not prepared to give them their undivided attention. That’s even the case for Macs.

Not so with the iPhone. I’ve seen that thing understood within minutes by 2 year-olds and 84 year-olds. It does one thing at a time. Your finger is the cursor. There is no need to tap things twice before stuff happens. You are allowed to turn it off with the power button.

But the iPhone isn’t perfect for baby boomers. The screen and text are too small for aging eyes, the keyboard too cramped for confident typing, making it unusable for even basic office productivity tasks.

Enter the larger, faster iPad. It’s a complex computer simplified, which makes it a perfect fit to those whose remaining life is too short to spend it defragging drives. Add the keyboard dock, and the iPad is versatile enough to be a baby boomer’s only computer. The only thing it won’t let them do is videoconference with their grandchildren – which is an omission I hope they fix in next year’s version – but on the other hand, at $500 this much is forgiven.

My prediction: Within 2 years you will be reading articles describing how it was obvious – with hindsight – that the iPad would be a hit with aging baby boomers.”

via Gizmodo

Our Take: The iPhone is the classic case of Crossing the Chasm. It launched and appealed to geeks. Three years later, both of my parents have an iPhone. My grandfather wants nothing to do with computers and hates his mobile phone. However, what would happen if our family bought him an iPad? Would his loneliness abide now that he could connect with his children and grandchildren? Would he embrace a flat interface with only one button? Yes, I think he would. The iPad will be a revolution in how seniors use technology, how they socially connect with one another, and how they can start using “computers” to manage their lives…and their health.

photo of my grandfather by me

Free Wheelchair Mission is an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations.

The FWM wheelchair was a child of necessity, conceived in compassion and born of ingenuity. On that life-changing trip to Morocco, Dr. Don Schoendorfer saw the need, heard the call, and set out to develop a durable, safe, inexpensive wheelchair. A mechanical engineer and inventor by trade, Don’s goal was to come up with a most basic design at an extremely low cost so as to reach as many  disabled impoverished people as could be served in the shortest possible amount of time.

Rather than starting with custom-made components, Don put together a wheelchair using elements already in existence, ingredients currently in manufacture, and parts already being produced, all preferably in high volume – by using this approach, he was able to generate an extraordinarily low cost in gathering wheelchair components.

He studied a variety of traditional wheelchairs and engineered out every extra feature possible, keeping his focus on making the FWM design as simple as possible.  He wanted no bells and whistles,  just a simple chair to lift a disabled person off the ground and provide mobility – to give wheels to someone who would not otherwise be able to afford such a gift.

And he wanted to make lots of them … twenty million, to be exact.

Our Take: I met Stefan Bucher at Design Indaba last week. He was there speaking about his Daily Monsters. He introduced me to this organization and we think it’s ingenious. We’re big fans of using off the shelf parts to solve the simple problems first. Health doesn’t need to be as complex as it is. It’s mostly about unique thinking for simple solutions that solve 90% of problems for 90% of people. Each wheelchair costs $59.20. Give one here.

“Public-service ads intended to reduce binge drinking may actually lead to more of it, according to a study out of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management that’s set for publication in the Journal of Marketing Research later this year.

The five-part study — based on interviews with 1,200 undergraduate students shown ads created for the research that were modeled after anti-alcohol ads that ran in Canada — faults the ads’ reliance on “self-conscious” emotions such as guilt and shame to make their point.

It has long been assumed, of course, that guilt and shame were ideal ways of warning of the dangers associated with binge drinking and other harmful behaviors, because they are helpful in spotlighting the associated personal consequences. But this study found the opposite to be true: Viewers already feeling some level of guilt or shame instinctively resist messages that rely on those emotions, and in some cases are more likely to participate in the behavior they’re being warned about.

The reason, said Kellogg marketing professor Nidhi Agrawal, is that people who are already feeling guilt or shame resort to something called “defensive processing” when confronted with more of either, and tend to disassociate themselves with whatever they are being shown in order to lessen those emotions.

Ms. Agrawal suggested two fixes for PSA makers. The first involves media: Ads placed in more-positive surroundings — such as in a sitcom or a positive magazine article — have a better chance at resonating than those placed in tense or negative contexts. Second, she said, anti-alcohol groups would be better served focusing their messages around how to avoid situations that lead to binge drinking than on the consequences of the behavior, because attempting to shame people out of binge drinking doesn’t work.

“It’s important that the messages be toned down and as positive as possible,” she said.”

via Ad Age

Our Take: The era of health paternalism is over. Since the very beginning of health advertising, health has spoken to you like frustrated parents speak to adolescents. People want a positive experience. They want value. They want happiness. Shaming them into happiness and good behavior doesn’t work for any other industry, why would it work for health? Does Apple shame you into purchasing a Mac with their Mac vs. PC ads? No, they poke fun at an inferior experience. Being unhealthy is an inferior life experience. So what does that mean for advertising health?

“Most people think the important thing about the iPad is its form factor: that it’s fundamentally a tablet computer. We think Apple has bigger ambitions. We think the iPad is meant to be a Windows killer. Or more precisely, a Windows transcender. We think Apple foresees a future in which the iPad is the default way people do what they now do with computers (and some other new things).

Programmers may never want a computer they don’t control, but ordinary people just want something cheap that works. And that’s how the iPad will seem to them. Many will never make a conscious decision to switch. They’ll get an iPad as well, then find they use their Windows machine less and less. When it dies they won’t replace it.”

via Y Combinator

Our Take: What are the implications of great design for the health of our nation? First of all, the health space has suffered from serious design problems from the way devices look, to complicated interfaces, to the way health concepts are communicated. Most importantly, the “System” we currently have wasn’t designed to incentivize healthy behavior and value. But we’re more interested in creating solutions that are beautiful and well-designed rather than concentrating on the decades of poor health design. We firmly believe that health needs a complete facelift and communication overhaul. And great design is just the output of understanding health needs and creating unique solutions with proper incentives that give people simple and effective reasons to change behavior for the better. The iPad is just one example. Apple designed something beautiful and what appears to be a whole new immersive media experience. The interface is something that’s never been done before. We have yet to know “if they design it, people will come.” But I have a feeling the experience is going to be so great that people will simply change their current behavior in exchange for a better experience. I think that concept has huge implications for health.

UPDATE: Here’s Penguin’s iPad-formatted books. The experience is everything. It’s a whole new world of opportunity.