In our walkthrough yesterday of the new healthymagination showcase — which is a two-week series of healthcare panels and seminars being held in Manhattan — GE’s Bob Schwartz, General Manager of Global Design, explained how the event space and its themes are all centered on patient stories. That focus on the human side of healthcare is one that will be explored in depth later this week when Bob and design experts from in and outside of the healthcare industry join GE’s “Health By Design” panel — which explores how the look and feel of technologies fuse with functionality to make a real impact on patient outcomes and patient experiences in often intimidating hospital settings. Bob explains more in the video below:
As Mike Barber, Vice President of healthymagination, described in our first video, that focus on the personal nature of healthcare is front and center for crowds on busy 5th Avenue in New York City who pass by our Twitter-filled windows. They’re “powered” by tweets on health, with a light popping up whenever a word — such as “ultrasound,” “heart,” “MRI,” “fearless” or “cure” — is used somewhere in the global twittersphere about health.
Additionally, TV monitors in the windows capture some of the offbeat tweets from real people, such as: “October is fabulous for running outside. Can’t wait for this afternoon,” and “I bought a bunch of healthy food yesterday. It made me feel weirdly happy.” While the everyday tweets seem miles away from the complex healthcare issues swirling today, the windows do bring out the common connections that everyone shares when it comes to health — and they help underscore the desire that both doctors and patients have for more personalized experiences when it comes to healthcare choices. In the video clip below, GE’s Megan Parker provides a Tweet-sheet on how the window conversation works:
You can join the healthymagination windows conversation by ending your your tweet with #healthy. We will also be live tweeting from the showcase events through the @GE_reports account — which can be followed on Twitter or by visiting www.twitter.com/GE_reports.
Read our recent stories from the new healthymagination showcase:
* “Scintillating tech: The world’s 1st high-def CT scanner”
* “Healthymagination tech showcase kicks off in NYC”
* Read the announcement about Jeff Immelt’s Oct. 21 press event at the showcase
* Bob’s GE Healthcare team recently won five medals in one of the world’s most prestigious industrial design competitions — the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards. Click here to read the story and see the award-winning designs.
Check back frequently during the next two weeks, as we’ll be taking further looks at the technologies on display and meeting some of the people behind the scenes of healthymagination each day.
