Collaborhythm a technology platform to empower an individual to control their own health

The foundation of CollaboRhythm is a speech- and touch-controlled collaborative interface for the office where doctor and patient make shared decisions. Patients can actively engage with their data, so they can take action in their lives with doctors serving as coaches rather than commanders.

CollaboRhythm is a technology platform that enables a new paradigm of healthcare delivery; one where patients are empowered to become active participants and where doctors and other health professionals are transformed into real-time coaches. We believe that this radical shift in thinking is necessary to dramatically reduce healthcare costs, increase quality, and improve health outcomes.

Patients own their data in CollaboRhythm: everything they see in the doctor’s office is available at home, or when they visit another doctor, or change jobs, or move across the world. Just as importantly, patients can contribute data of their own, things that doctors fail to see in the face of too many lab tests: data and perceptions about social support, diet, alternative therapies, and their effect on the patient;s quality of life. (Patients and physicians disagree on the reason for an office visit nearly 50% of the time.)

Although the hub of CollaboRhythm is located in the doctor’s office, the system’s goal is to connect with the patient from any place at any time. However, it is not a tele-presence system – which beams the doctor into the patient’s life – but a system for tele-collaboration. Patients need support from their health-care providers, and doctors need to encourage patients to actively track their performance in collaboration with providers. No more letting patients fall through the cracks between visits every six months.

Working together, CollaboRhythm’s components bring the promise of ubiquitous connectivity to primary care. For example, in the near future, the doctor may be able to push out medication reminders to the patient’s bathroom mirror or television. The patient can interact with an intelligent conversational agent before doctor visits to prepare. The doctor can send the patients visualizations of their progress in fighting disease, providing detail on a microscopic level in a form that is understandable and actionable by the patient.

IndivoHealth

Indivo is the original free/open-source Personally Controlled Health Record server developed by Children’s Hospital, Boston.

Indivo Apps and Indivo-related projects being developed by the Indivo open source community.

CollaboRhythm is a technology platform that enables a new paradigm of healthcare delivery; one where patients are empowered to become active participants and where doctors and other health professionals are transformed into real-time coaches. We believe that this radical shift in thinking is necessary to dramatically reduce healthcare costs, increase quality, and improve health outcomes.

CollaboRhythm uses Indivo X as a collaborative health record back end in which patients own and control the sharing of all of their data but that also allows clinicians to use it as their primary record for patient care. The front end of CollaboRhythm consists of a collection of core actionscript libraries for Adobe AIR applications that allows for integration with health sensors, real-time video conferencing, asynchronous video messaging, automated avatars, etc. It then allows the development of “plug-in” applications on top of this core. The “plug-in” applications can be deployed to Windows and Mac desktops, Andriod phones, Android tablets, and other devices that support Adobe AIR, all from a single source. Currently CollaboRhythm is being used for small pilot studies of chronic disease management. The platform will be released open-source this summer to allow others to develop their own plug-ins, contribute to the core, and conduct their own investigations on new paradigms of healthcare delivery.

My Devices App

“My Devices” is an Indivo PHA project that will deliver a Continua WAN Interface Receiver™ Open Source module for Indivo X: It receives securely observations from many Medical Devices (Blood pressure, Weight scale, Thermometer…) and stores them in Indivo using SNOMED CT and UCUM nomenclatures. It will enable end-to-end connected health solutions based on the Continua architecture and Indivo X.

JLInX

JLInX (Java Library for Indivo X) is designed for Java developers who want to get started quickly with Indivo X. It is different from the Indivo core Java Lib as it maps “POJO” Java calls to Indivo documents. There is no need to be familiar with REST/ Oauth / XSD schemas in order to start & develop a PHA. Each Indivo document is a Java class (Demographics, VitalSigns) handled through a document manager (postDocument,getReports, etc.).

The library is up to date with Indivo Beta 3. It comes with sample code for servlet and webless PHAs. Indivo X REST requests and results can be traced via log4j. There is no restriction for the use of JLInX. It is Open Source (LGPLv3)

Diagnose It Yourself – Open Source Reinvention of the Stethoscope

Over the phone, the doctor asks him for his vital signs: his temperature, his blood pressure and also his heartbeat.

Jim is able to relay this information to his doctor by using the IDA Digital Auscultation device that he purchased over-the-counter for only $10. This inexpensive alternative to digital stethoscopes saves Jim a visit to the doctor’s office and allows him to maintain his daily routine.

The device is easy to operate, and does not require any prior experience to use. To activate the device, Jim simply places it on his chest—the device will guide him and indicate when it’s in the proper position.

When the device is in place, it transmits the auscultation data via Bluetooth to an application running on his computer. After digital filtering and encoding, the audio and waveform is transmitted over the internet to the doctor’s computer. The doctor can hear Jim’s heartbeat the same as if he was performing the examination in person. Seeing the waveform of Jim’s heartbeat also gives the doctor much more information regarding the heart’s activity.

Jim can hear his heartbeat throughout the entire examination. A recording of the examination is stored in Jim’s personal health record, enabling him to easily share the results with other physicians.

IDA could have a major impact in developing countries, where the physician-patient ratio averages 1 to 200,000. The implementation of IDA makes it easier for physicians to monitor patient symptoms and provide effective treatments.

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