New Cyberpills Send Text Messages If You Forget To Take Them

Did you forget to take your medicine? If you’re using these new microchip-implanted pills, your phone will remind you--and your doctor. Helpful attention or Big Doctor breathing down your neck?

I need this! I wanna argue with the article's "when you get old." For me—I think—I just get busy or bored. I heard about this before on Science Friday.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in partnership with Million Hearts, an HHS initiative to prevent a million heart attacks and strokes in five years, and the American Heart Association announces the Beat Down Blood Pressure Video Challenge (#HealthIT4UBP).  We invite the general public to create short (<2 min long), compelling videos sharing how they use health IT or consumer e-health tools to manage high blood pressure. Videos will demonstrate how health IT is used to support blood pressure control through activities such as routine monitoring of blood pressure, taking blood pressure medications as prescribed, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle that helps lower blood pressure.  High blood pressure (aka “hypertension”) affects one in three adults in the U.S. and is sometimes referred to as the “silent killer” because it damages the brain, heart, eyes, and kidneys while causing no symptoms.  If left untreated, high blood pressure can result in strokes, heart attacks, and kidney failure. Fortunately there are steps that each of us can take to prevent or manage high blood pressure and change our future health for the better.

Thrilled to see that there's a national coordinator for health information technology and that there's a contest to find out how people are using technology to manage blood pressure. I can't wait to see the entries and the prizewinners. I don't think (oh, call a spade a spade—I know) I'm not doing anything prizeworthy. Still, I wonder if I could use this as my justification to buy a video camera?

I've done enough complaining (Government Apps and Potholes, Again!, for example) about the lack of eGovernment initiatives in Fairfax County to make it unsporting not to note this app which I just saw announced on Twitter. Looks a little more staid than I hoped for, but it's a start.