The Problem Every Behavior Change Platform Should Shed Blood, Sweat, and Tears to Have...

Interesting - after using the brilliant #getupandmove for 4 months, running is so integrated into my life that I no longer need the app #qs

via facebook.com

To build something so useful at providing social support and helping motivate behavior change that -

YOUR. USERS. OUTGROW. YOU.

Wow, this is a first.

The good news: #getupandmove is WORKING.

The bad news: most of us fall off the wagon after a bit (cough cough Susannah, self).

(Notice I do not believe the bad news is people stop wanting to #getupandmove, or stop wanting to use our platform).

Unfortunately, the bad news is that behavior change maintained over time takes anywhere from 18-260+ days, depending on your personality, environmental variables, and a whole host of factors we don't currently know how to track and then optimize.

Right now at Get Up and Move we're taking a look at how to build a kick-a#$ platform that:

1. helps guammies "level up," or go from individual/1x use;

2. lets you discover a fun new occasional activity you then repeat (like bed jump challenges or reading an article);

3. builds you up to prep for hitting a goal with a group (like our Bay to Breakers crew training - and I use the word loosely - in San Francisco);

4. and then helps you maintain (routinize) healthy microchoices you personally find fun and valuable, like Alex's running.

How can we do this?! That's a damn good question.

Alex's achievement represents our ultimate goal - building a platform that 'plugs in' near-real-time, extrinsic social support so useful that you no longer need it...motivation to move becomes internalized, intrinsic.

You own your goals. You own your microchoices. And you use them to be, well, better. .

That's the point where we think you can do one of several things:

1. you can pay it forward and challenge a friend or family member. (1:1);

2. you can adopt new guammies. (1: many - we're working on 'groups' features to help with this sort of thing);

3. you can motivate others to make micromovement a part of their daily decision tree so they too can see macro results.

But hell, why stop at achieving just one?

Speaking of which, I'm heading back offline to remind myself why we're so focused on building this online support platform.

See you all on the road to better health.

And may you too, one day, no longer need us ;).

Jen
Andrey

Posted via web from Get Up and Move

Genomics Keeps Getting More Exciting: Forget DNA. Give Proteomics a Pass...

U.S. and Swedish scientists say they've discovered tiny bits of genetic material known as microRNAs can move from one cell to another.

MicroRNAs were first characterized during the early 1990s as regulating the activity of genes within cells. Now researchers at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, in collaboration with the Universities of Helsinki and Uppsala, have shown microRNAs can move from one cell to another to send signals that influence gene expression

on a broader scale.

The scientists said they made the discovery while investigating the intricate details of plant root development in Arabidopsis, a highly studied mustard plant. Although the researchers haven't determined how the microRNAs travel, they said it appears the mobility allows them to play an important developmental role in sharpening the boundaries that define one plant tissue from another.

"To our knowledge, this is the first solid evidence that microRNAs can move from one cell to another," Professor Philip Benfey, director of the Duke IGSP Center for Systems Biology, said.

The finding adds microRNAs to the list of mobile molecules -- including hormones, proteins and other forms of small RNA -- that allow essential communication between cells in the process of organ development.

via upi.com

RNA is where it's at...(or, at least, where it's heading).

From: "Study shows micro-rna's can move - UPI.com."

Why am I working so hard/fast/furious on Contagion and Get Up and Move?

Because, after some crazy group of folks saves healthcare, someone has to focus the genomics sect on something other than RNA therapies.

My next startup will work with practical applications of the RNA-centric genoanthropology theory.

I love startup Halcyon Molecular, but until someone has the microscopy to show us RNA action/movement in real time, we won't really know what we're missing.

DNA molecules are the cars on the highway, but RNA are the drivers.

Posted via web from Jen's Posterous

Walking the Walk

There are two types of people: those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don't talk at all, 'cause they walkin'. Now, people who talk the talk, when it comes time for them to walk the walk, you know what they do? They talk people like me into walkin' for them.

via imdb.com

From "Hustle & Flow."

Lesson of the day: Walk the walk. Then, don't let yourself get talked into walking someone ELSE's walk. (Harder than it sounds).

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Social Games for Health Players Mean Move FAST: Wellness Companies, Are You Ready to Update 1x/Week?

He also noted that the company’s games like Pet Society and Restaurant City are updated once a week “reacting to players and testing that sense of the game being alive. It keeps people there and when we launch new features they will tell you right away if they like it or not.”

Mr Segerstrale also noticed that this frequent interaction with players means the company is able to understand their likes and dislikes better.

“We are developing a long-term relationship with a specific user and that means if someone is a hardcore Pet Society player, chances are we shouldn’t push Gangster City at them.”

Mr Perry saw the value in that and seemed to suggest that, in the future, perhaps Facebook will need social gaming more than social gaming will need Facebook.

“The thing is you are now building on a platform and your platform is your community. That is why you will survive.”

via markwarner2008.com

From: "Spotlighting social gaming — World's Geekiest Dad | World's Geekiest Dad."

I was speaking with a venture capitalist last week about the social gaming for health space.

The ability to move fast, listen to users, and adapt quickly by releasing new features (or ruthlessly pruning ones that don't work) is one reason why larger, entrenched companies are hesitant to give up choice and control and allow 2 way challenges.

Even the most advanced, forward-thinking health insurers and medication reminder groups I know are still thinking that 'prescriptive' challenges issued by an authority figure - like your doc or a disease management nurse paid to give you a call to see if you're taking your pills - is the ideal way to go.

At Contagion, we think that's a bunch of bunk. The people who know you best - friends and family - these are the people who can provide the motivational support, in real time, that we need to make healthier daily microchoices.

Programming for contagious wellness is the only way to go, but it means you've got to:
1. Be willing to give choice and control BACK to your users;
2. Admit early when your assumptions are wrong;
3. Recognize quickly when you've baked in your own biases to platform design;
4. Move quickly to do all of the above.

Community Managers become vital 'software' in social gaming startups for precisely these reasons. The human machine/human code interactions are only one piece of the puzzle.

Being an active part of your community is another (this will, luckily, be a default if you build something to solve one of your own problems).

Health insurers, how many of you USE your own wellness portals on a weekly basis? If you haven't built something you want to use, what makes you think we will?

Posted via web from Get Up and Move

My Guammies Keep Me Honest...

Even though they span thousands of miles and multiple social networks. Shockingly, my use of Get Up And Move has changed not just the way I think about taking cabs vs. walking, or taking the stairway to health, but also the way I eat (and what foods I choose to buy and cook, real time, at the point of purchase). Try it! Try tweeting or sending a Get Up and Move challenge for healthy food choice support next time you're a breath away from succumbing to junk food temptation. Just knowing I'm accountable for the debits and credits on my body's balance sheet to people other than myself means health becomes both community resource and an individual asset. Am I really going to intentionally pollute that? Sometimes yes, best intentions will fail me. But not today. Today I'm inputting blueberries. Thanks guammies! #getupandmove strikes again ;)

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Jen's Posterous

You've Got Five Minutes...

Go outside. Take off your shoes. Plunge your toes into damp spring grass. Wiggle 'em. Life is good. Thanking @gwachob for this post-#getupandpace moment.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Jen's Posterous

CBT Via the URLs - Treatment for Depression Online May Be as Effective as Group-Based Therapy IRL

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) via the internet is just as effective in treating panic disorder (recurring panic attacks) as traditional group-based CBT. It is also efficacious in the treatment of mild and moderate depression. This according to a new doctoral thesis soon to be presented at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

via physorg.com

From: "Panic disorder and depression can be treated over the Internet."

There's a great short story by Anne McCaffrey about a female psych/compsci student named Nora Fenn, who in a course discovers a lower incidence of psychosis and need for CBT after computer journaling became commonplace (cough cough socially acceptable catharsis on Twitter and Facebook anyone?).

Note: I think the collection of short stories is Get Off the Unicorn, and I highly recommend it as required reading for any self-respecting female scifi/fantasty geek.

Seems like Nora Fenn got it right. Some similar incidences in the cathartic value of sharing experiential patient narratives has surfaced in my Redefining Patienthood work as a Kisaut Fellow at the Health Strategy Innovation Cell.

The power of using "I" based narratives, and the opportunity to share them at will for community referential value, seems to have as yet unquantified cathartic gains for individual users.

Someday soon, someone's going to figure out the power of combining "I" and "you" to drive behavior change. Oh wait, @shazow, sound familiar? :)

I want this doctoral thesis candidate as a Contagion researcher. Anyone speak Swedish?

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