Sometimes you get across news that really sets off an awkward feeling.

This week one of the major bus-companies Connexxion (part of Transdev and Veolia Transport) in the Netherlands announced they started a pilot with Candy-machines in 50 busses !

Now in the Netherlands we don't have schoolbusses, so a lot of our kids take these busses to get to school and back home again.

And that was not enough, they've also issued a new rule you can no longer eat your own food in the bus.

Wow, that mindbogggles me. We are all trying to get bad food out of our schools, educate our kids about good food and prevent them to get obese. And what does the bus company do : they bring this bad stuff almost right under their nose.

Haven't they seen the work of i.e. Jamie Oliver on this ?

In their mission statement it says i.e  :

* We reach our goals through Corporate Social Responsibility

and

* Connexxion is in the heart of the society and takes it's responsibility to the enviroment, "Quality of life" and good employment. 

The Radboud Reshape & Innovation Centre today launches his latest innovation the ‘REshape Health Talk’ app based on patented technology (by RE-phrase) that helps patients to be co-director of their health(care).

REshape HealthTalk
Within this REshape HealthTalk app a great number of conversation lines are embedded that can occur in conversations with doctors or nurses etc. These conversation-lines are available in different languages. By selecting a sentence or topic, the app flips the screen around and shows it in the other selected language, where again a reply sentence can be selected.
Besides the use in regular healthcare-visits for non-native speakers or communications-issues it off course comes in handy during travel, might the need of healthcare should come up.
http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/reshape-healthtalk/id491015749?mt=8

The app is at present available for iPhones en iPads. Versions for android, windows will come up soon. News for that will be published at our website or twitterhandle as to be found below

Patiënt as partner

The Radboud Reshape & Innovation Centre is part of Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands. It’s goal is to transform healthcare into a place where patients can act as partners by removing boundaries and innovate towards the patient, their family and informal care.
In 2010 the Centre launched his first app for www.aed4.us, that find the nearest submitted AED. This app already has been downloaded over 50.000 times. In the Netherlands alone already more then 15.000 aed’s are submitted, the goal is to creat a worldwide overview of as many lifesaving AED’s as possible.

This free app is avaiblable for Android http://nl.androlib.com/android.application.nl-max-android-aed4eu-pAqE.aspx and IOS  http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/aed4.eu/id361224605?mt=8

End of message

note for editors :

Press department: +31 243618910, out-of-office-hours +31 651291446.

E-mail adress : umcstradboud@umcn.nl Twitter: www.twitter.com/umcnpress

more info  www.radboudreshapecenter.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/reshape

or its Director Lucien Engelen (www.twitter.com/zorg20)

UMC St Radboud lanceert nu drie nieuwe apps 

Het Radboud Reshape & Innovation Centre lanceert vandaag drie nieuwe apps die patiënten helpen om meer regie over hun gezondheid te voeren. 

REshape MijnMedicatie 
Veel patiënten hebben een medicijnkastje of nachtkastje vol met medicatie, soms op voorschrift, soms op eigen initiatief. Door barcodes te scannen en de dosering in te voeren met de app, verschijnt er een compact overzicht. Patiënten kunnen dit aan hun huisarts of apotheker tonen. Ook is er een app variant, waarmee dit medicatieoverzicht naar de huisarts, apotheek of familie kan worden gestuurd.
http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/reshape-mijnmedicatie/id491110073?mt=8

REshape HealthTalk
In deze app is een groot aantal zinnen over gezondheid opgenomen die regelmatig in de spreekkamer bij een arts kunnen voorkomen. Deze zinnen zijn beschikbaar in diverse talen. Door een zin aan te klikken, draait het scherm automatisch om en wordt het aan de andere kant in de gekozen vreemde taal getoond. De app is niet alleen erg handig op reis, maar ook in de Nederlandse spreekkamers door de afschaffing van de tolkenvergoeding in de zorg. http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/reshape-healthtalk/id491015749?mt=8

REshape MijnZorgBoek
De MijnZorgBoek app is een handig digitaal notitieblokje, waarop patiënten kunnen bijhouden wat hen bezighoudt of opvalt aan hun gezondheid. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan hun gewicht, stemming en medicatieoverzicht. Met één druk op de knop mailen ze hun bevindingen aan de behandelend arts. MijnZorgBoek is een startapp die binnenkort uitgebreid wordt met diverse extra modules, zoals een beweegcoach. Voor de extra modules wordt onder meer samengewerkt met afdelingen van het UMC St Radboud en zorgverzekeraars. http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/reshape-mijnzorgboek/id482039247?mt=8

De apps zijn geschikt voor iPhones en iPads. Er wordt gewerkt aan versies voor andere systemen waaronder Android en windows.

Patiënt als partner
Het Radboud Reshape & Innovation Centre is onderdeel van het UMC St Radboud. Het Centre houdt zich bezig met de omslag van zorg naar zorg 2.0 participatory healthcare’, in Nijmegen ook wel de ‘patiënt als partner’ genoemd. In 2010 bracht het Centre de eerste app uit voor www.aed4.eu, waarbij mensen de dichtstbijzijnde AED kunnen traceren. Deze app is inmiddels meer dan 50.000 keer gedownload en is beschikbaar voor veel systemen. http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/aed4.eu/id361224605?mt=8

After a long period of setting up conferences, Pecha Kucha Nights TEDx-es etc where i tried over and over again to offer the stage to patients in one way or the other, i was reflecting on that a bit.

We've succeeded in that in almost every aspect of it. Not only on our Pecha Kucha Nights, or TEDxMaastricht conference with 5 patients (so 1/5th) just as our next one on April 2nd will have, on our TEDxRadboudU, of course our e-patientsbootcamp was RUN by patients, just like the night after where we invited physicians to bring their patients with them.
And at our Radboud REshape Academy we will be happy to have patients for free in the audience, next to fact that in every Masterclass will start with a patient story told by a patient. 

Result of that i really can not imagine a conference anymore about healthcare with a NO-SHOW approach of patients. That is :

no patient IN the program,

no patient ON the stage or

no patient IN the audience.

As patients that is, it is too easy IMHO to state :
"well we are all patients" , "it is all about patients" or this one : "we KNOW what our patients want" well .....YOU DON'T.
Ever since i have appointed CLO (Chief Listening Officer into my REshape team,, we find on a day-today basis that you don't. And that completely logical if one has only 7 minutes to spare with your patient. 

Let's stop talking about patients as if it where " a third-person word", as my friend e-patientDave states often. 

This is just like people at your work are having a meeting about you.... without you, right ? These conference to me are what i call NO-SHOW-Conferences. 

I've been around lately keynoting on conferences on this little blue marble, and over a year mostly start with the most important question : http://www.slideshare.net/lucienengelen/mhealth-conference-dubai-2010

Thinking about this lately there is only one right thing to do : NO-SHOW to these conferences!

And it's time for change, time to step-up, or may be step down actually.

And that is precisely what i will be doing as of tomorrow, and wil be completing by the end of this year:

I will NO-SHOW on healthcare conferences that do not add patients TO or IN their program or invite them IN the audience also I will no longer speak at NO-SHOW conferences.

I ask you to do the same, only then we can make a statement and really change healthcare. It will take some time, including in our own surroundings, but just let's start. 

Start listening to (your) patients or to put it like one of our patients (mr Rene Tabak) told us at TEDxRadboudU recently :

"Do not look at me, but SEE me. Do not listen to me but HEAR me"

Conference organizers could use the logo below to state the support the NO-SHOW Patients Act so everyone can see that this is a Patients Included: conference. 

It is downloadable as JPG or as PNG or TIFF or PDF and can be used free of right for conferences that have patients ON stage, IN the program or invited as patients to the conference.