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This tweeterview was between:
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The tweeterview as recorded:
| Q1: | "Welcome to our twitterview. Remember you can read this live on Twitter or through www.tweeterview.com (no signup for readi.." |
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..ng).
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| Q2: | "Send @diariomedico a question if you wish. We can't guarantee we'll have time for it, though. " |
| Q3: | "Today our guest is @ivorkovic, Croatian EMR doctor with a twist on mobile health." |
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He's also the founder of http://health-blogs-observatory.org/ Welcome Dr. Kovic!
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Thanks. Great to be here with you /
| Q4: | "Your talk at Mobile Monday Amsterdam: http://www.mobilemonday.nl/talks/ivor-kovic-an-emr-physician-with-an-iphone/" |
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You introduced a prototype to actually do better CPR with the help of an iPhone and less stress for docs wrists!
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Yeah that's right. I was thinking about it for some time, so when the opportunity opened to do this talk, I said to myself
do it now, show it during this event, so with some folks from my hometown, I produced a prototype of this device. /
| Q5: | "What kind of feedback did you get?" |
WOW, fantastic. People were really excited about it. I received a lot of questions, a lot of people wanted to try it out
because I brought the actual CPR dummy with me. Also they gave me some cool new ideas. It was just incredible. /
| Q6: | "You said iPhone-driven CPR could significantly improve outcomes just as automated defibrillators. Did you put it to the te.." |
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..st?
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We shouldn't mix it with AEDs, I mean from a medical stand point these are different things. Quality CPR has been proven t..
..o improve outcome. Not with my prototype but with other accessories for defibrillators for example. But the same acceler..
..ometer chip is installed in the iPhone/
| Q7: | "Are you planning to turn this in a commercially available device?" |
I never think about money or business primarily, just want to improve things. However, now when I have received all this f..
..antastic feedback, I am seriously thinking about it. My first step will be to improve it and protect it. We can improve ..
..it a lot. Already have a lot of ideas. So wwhy not offer something as effective but 100 time cheaper/
| Q8: | "Will the mobile phone render other devices obsolete for Medicine?" |
Excellent question! It seams so. Why not? It will become, and already is so much more than we tought it could be just 5-10..
.. years ago. As I said at the end of my talk, we want mobile phones to become multipurpose devices like medical tricorder..
..s from Star Trek :) /
| Q9: | "So you're telling all (other) Apple fanboys out there that there will be no room for iPad in e-health? :)" |
I mainly talked about the iPhone, because it is the phone I use, but the same things apply to for example android phones. ..
..They can have the same apps. I am 100% sure the iPad will have a huge success in medicine. Doctors adore there iPhones, ..
..and they will love the iPad even more. It is just a perfectly natural transition and you can do a lot of things better w..
..ith its beautiful screen. /
| Q10: | "You said docs adapt easily to innovations that improve their workflow and now that they love their iPhones... But... " |
| Q11: | "Reality is many of them don't use any of this. Why is it taking them so long to adapt to the Internet-era techs?" |
Most of the times nobody asked them what they wanted and how they wanted it to work. Many projects of EPR implementation i..
..n the begging failed and lost a lot of money, because nobody was looking at people, only hardware and software, nobody c..
..hecked what were the attitudes, wishes, motivation, how things are performed in real situations. We are the same as anyb..
..ody, we want things that are designed well and that just work/
| Q12: | "Has this changed? Do you think actual IT can really motivate doctors and gain a massive support?" |
Yes, I am sure of it. We just have to work harder. Once you pay attention to people, have patience and should them why is ..
..it important and how it can improve their work, they accept it. I have seen this in practice. Lot of doctors in Croatia ..
..resisted whey our government introduced computers in GP offices. They were mad, and now they would give away everything ..
..except their computers. They cannot function anymore without them./
| Q13: | "How developed is mobile health in Croatia? " |
Unfortunately not so much. We have some interesting telemedical projects, like for example linking some of our islands to ..
..university hospitals on the main land for remote diagnostics. But we could do a lot more, and I will together with some ..
..partners also try to improve on this. We want to introduce some advance systems into ambulance vehicles. Wish us luck :)/
| Q14: | "How supportive is Croatian healthcare system/Government?" |
Ups, I have to be careful what to answer here :) Hopefully they don't use Twitter. I am not at all satisfied with their s..
..upport. I think they lack vision and spend their money on wrong things. We could do some incredible stuff with small amo..
..unts of money only if some people would WAKE UP. /
| Q15: | "In contast... What about the Netherlands? " |
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There seems to be lot of activity there. Are they becoming Europe's innovation center for e-health?
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They are just great. And this is nothing new. They were the pioneers of medical informatics from its beginnings, they inve..
..nted the field. I visited and spent time in a lot of their hospitals, they were doing things 5 years ago there are still..
.. sci-fi to a lot of EU countries. It is their approach to things and the way of thinking that I really admire. /
| Q16: | "So why other countries don't just follow the example...?" |
Again, I think is this about the Dutch mentality. In other countries maybe you just don't have a critical mass, but in the..
.. Netherlands 99% of the people have this advanced way of thinking. Of course there are other things present there as wel..
..l, such as a great tradition, money, industry etc. /
| Q17: | "You know it's shocking for many Europeans that American doctors see healthcare as any other business..." |
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Meaning "you get what you pay for, period". But there is growing concern about costs of public healthcare systems...
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...and many suggest more copayments are something unavoidable and would even foster efficiency.
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Do you agree? Would it be better to switch to a system more similar to American?
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For instance, allowing direct-to-consumer drug advertising?
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Tough one. I am definitely not for switching to the American system. Although it gets you thinking. I Croatian we have tax..
.. financed health care, but what do we get at the end, what quality of service. The costs are rising continuously, this i..
..s a great problem. We should stick to our model but improve the management. This is one of the biggest challenges we all..
.. face. I wish we could solve it using Twitter :)/
| Q18: | "What's your experience as a Twitter user? Why do you keep using it?" |
Me and Twitter - somewhat a love and hate relationship :) I wrote a blog post about it - How is Twitter influencing public..
.. health / http://ivor-kovic.com/blog/?p=422 It is definitely cool for some things. I tune in for 20 days, then I tune ou..
..t for 10 days :) so on and on it goes :)
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| Q19: | "What about medical blogs? Most readers seem to come from other blogs anyway. Are they really an influence? Are they reliab.." |
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..le sources of information?
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I love medical blogs. If you follow top medical bloggers you cannot go wrong. In a research I conducted with my colleagues..
.. - http://www.jmir.org/2008/3/e28/HTML - we found out that 71% of top medical bloggers have a Masters degree or doctora..
..te. This is very impressive. If you want to stay on top of a certain topic, follow some quality blogs from that area as ..
..well as all the scientific literature. That is my advice. /
| Q20: | "Well, we just ran out of time. Thank you so much Dr. Kovic, it was a pleasure!" |
This was really a great new experience for me. Thank you Alain for inviting me. /