Wednesday, February 11, 2009

CyLab MRC's Martin Griss Declares, "I Do Not Want Us to be Just Another Big Consortium, I Want Us to Do Something"



[Image: Martin Griss addresses workshop attendees]

CyLab Mobility Research Center's Martin Griss Declares, "I do Not Want Us to be Just Another Big Consortium, I Want Us to Do Something."

At the opening of the Carnegie Mellon CyLab Mobility Research Center (MRC) Mobile Health Workshop, MRC Co-Director Martin Griss declared "I do not want us to be just another big consortium, I want us to do something."

The MRC's Mobile Health Workshop brought together over forty leaders in the health care, information technology (IT) and education sectors to explore challenges and opportunities in this vital intersection where science, medicine, and IT meet head-on with one of the most poignant dimensions of the human condition.


[Image: Silicon Valley Campus]


In welcoming the workshop attendees to Carnegie Mellon University's Silicon Valley Campus, Dean Pradeep Khosla, drew attention to a recent three million dollar renovation and highlighted the bold vision behind the work of the CyLab Mobility Center, the Information Networking Institute and the other elements of Carnegie Mellon University that make the Silicon Valley Campus a vibrant center of insight and innovation. "We are integrating Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh campuses. We have over thirty full-time students and several bi-coastal PhD programs. Our graduate students can spend two years at the Pittsburgh Campus and three years at the Silicon Valley Campus. The time for change has come at universities."

In articulating the ambitious agenda of the one-day workshop, Griss told attendees their goals were to identify three "shovel-ready" collaborative initiatives (i.e., health care, academia and industry), and gather the will, resources and plans to launch these initiatives. In the course of identifying and developing these initiatives, Griss called on them to identify impediments and potential solutions, as well as to focus on "thinking globally, acting locally" by coming up with local initiatives that "tap into the uniqueness of Silicon Valley."

Griss also articulated the three critical questions that were addressed in the twenty-four position papers submitted by attendees:

1. How will mobile health improve outcomes, reduce costs, and/or patient (and provider) experience?

2.What are the most pressing business, process, organization, cultural and technical issues in mobile health?

3. What are the best opportunities for collaborative university research?

Speakers from Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Qualcomm, SAP, Kinnexxus, Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), and Carnegie Mellon framed the core issues and reported on cutting-edge work being done in the space.

In two breakout sessions, the attendees were organized into five groups, with role participants. Each group was led by a facilitator. Each group has a scribe to take notes. The assigned tasks of these work groups was to prepare one or two flip charts and a five minute talk.

The goal of the first breakout session was to "explore space of collaborative mobile health opportunities identify three promising ideas."

The goal of the second breakout was to "identify no more than 3 shovel ready collaborative initiatives to make a significant (local) difference."

At the end of the day, attendees walked away, remarking:

"Do it again." (Several of the groups are planning on re-convening.)

"We have been in mhealth for awhile, but this workshop really opened my eyes to the rich area of potential."

"The people I connected with today, I want to collaborate with tomorrow."

"We are here," promised Griss, "to be a leader in this eco-system."


[Image: Karita Ilvonen, Research Director, Helsinki University of Technology, Reports on Breakout Session]

Related Posts on the CyLab Mobility Research Center Mobile Health Workshop

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: Helsinki University of Technology on the Known Unknowns

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: Kaiser Permanente's Naomi Fried Extols Telehealth and Envisions "Home as the Hub"

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: Microsoft's Oren Rosenbloom on the "Copernican Shift" in Health Care

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: "Wireless Health Connectivity Collapses Time and Space" says Qualcomm's Don Jones

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: SAP's Belala asks, "Can wireless patient flow monitoring to provide true patient-centric care?"

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: Kinnexxus' Vision -- "With" the Elder Rather than "For" or "To" the Elder

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: Carnegie Mellon's Siewiorek on "Intelligent Systems that Augment Body and Mind"

CyLab MRC Mobile Health Workshop: Faces of Future Technology Leaders, Students with Their Posters