Come to a Twitter party to talk about health! #bootsmakeithappen

Tomorrow between 1-2pm I will be joining in a Twitter chat with Beautyandthedirt and The High Tea Cast - two fantastically knowledgeable sites along with all the twitter community who have an interest in health too. I am really looking forward to sharing tips and getting some questions answered so it'd be great if you could join us.

To join in use #bootsmakeithappen. Boots Let's Make It Happen is an initiative set up to help us achieve our health and beauty goals - whether that be to eat more healthily, lose a bit of weight or get into an exercise regime they are there to help. Check out the website for more details and advice. 

Boots currently have a partnership with Mumsnet and various radio stations and everything is hosted on The Feel Good Forum on Mumsnet - all shows are fully accessible now so have a listen. 

So come and join top bloggers Beautyandthedirt and Thehighteacast at a Twitter party on May 16th (tomorrow) between 1-2pm using the #bootsmakeithappen hashtag to discuss your own goals (and theirs) and to ask questions of the always helpful Twitter community. Follow them on @beautyanthedirt and              @thehighteacast

I will be taking part on Thursday lunchtime so join me @scaredcrows and the others to talk all things health! There will be some beauty goody bags to win for a few lucky tweeters too....

Compeed - foot saving for your handbag

We had a small glimmer of sunshine recently and although the winter is back with a vengeance I for one am looking forward to getting some strappy sandals out and getting into some heels. But a winter in flat boots will mean my tootsies will get blisters, they always do, even from shoes I've worn in thoroughly.

So the Compeed blister plasters that were in our Handpicked Media goody bag have already found pride of place in my handbag. These are worth buying before the pain starts as they really do work (they are already a favourite in our office).

They provide a blister getting any worse and also create a cushioning layer to help things hear nicely while protecting from bacteria and dirt which only makes things worse. If a blister bursts (which you shouldn't encourage) then bathing in salt water for 10 minutes really helps things too. If you get blisters often there's lots of advice on the Compeed site.

Compeed medium plasters, pack of five, available from Boots, £4.99

Fitbit Ultra - losing that Christmas weight

Fitbit Ultra activity and sleep tracker

Like most of the UK I have over-indulged. Thankfully we didn't cook the main Christmas lunch event so didn't have all those left-overs, but we still have a fridge full of nibbles. Cheeses are the most difficult to resist, especially when teamed with slices of Christmas cake. So I know I will have put on weight and will have to do something about it.

Luckily a very good friend bought me a Fitbit Ultra to get me on my way and having downloaded it all I am a bit obsessed.

You wear it clipped to your belt or bra and it shows you all the activities you have done that day, how many calories you've burnt, how many you've eaten (and of course this is a huge disconnect for me) and sets you goals in terms of diet and activity.

It also tells you how good your sleep has been and how many calories you've burnt while doing it - which is quite encouraging.

You do have to be a bit obsessive to work it properly but once you have loaded in all your regular foods it's easy to log - and I've downloaded their app onto my phone too so can update on the go!

I will let you know how I get on. A stone by Easter? Well with this you never know as it does make you aware if you just haven't done enough that day...

I aim to walk instead of drive to the tube and use the loo at the top of the house - well it's definitely a start!
Will let you know how I get on.

Cancer help is at hand with little big things!

Sadly many of us will know or have known about someone with cancer. It used to be rare or something that you got when you were too old to care, but now it affects so many of us it has almost become 'normal'. I have had three girlfriends with cancer and my mum had it too - and that's just without thinking really...

The wonderful news is that the survival rates are so much better now although the treatments are still tough-going, both physically and mentally. It affects the sufferer and those around them so it's always good to know that there is lots of help, support and information out there to allow everyone to take back some control.

AXA PPP healthcare have lots of cancer advise on their website through their dedicated Cancer Centre and today they have also launched a new Facebook Application which takes the form of a pin board where everyone can leave tips, inspirational stories and comments. It's designed to highlight coping techniques which can really have a huge impact and that is why the name of their campaign is 'little big things'. The application is all part of a six week long focus on cancer support across the AXA PPP healthcare social media channels. There is also a TV campaign to make everyone aware of where to go to get information and support - so keep an eye out for it!

AXA PPP healthcare pride themselves in working with the best experts around, and within that we mustn't forget their amazing team of nurses. This dedicated nurse service provides extra support and also gives great advice from those who have seen it all!

The AXA PPP healthcare YouTube channel discusses lots of extra tips and gives some great advice! Here is how ice cream really does do the trick!

How you can get help or become involved with the campaign.

Contribute to the pin board - share your comments or tips that you find the most inspiring or helpful which live on Facebook! Talk to and join in through Twitter #littlebig things and read the blog - all great places to find out more.

Join a live chat - all this week from 15-19 October live chats will be taking place with AXA PPP healthcare experts on a wide range of topics to do with cancer, from coping yourself and with relatives and friends, to specific forms of cancer and  nutrition and wellness.

AXA PPP healthcare member, Keith Hern will be holding a live chat to discuss his experiences and give advice. He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004 and chest cancer in 2009. He's written a book 'Bangers and Mash' and is the perfect person to give advice from a patients point-of-view. You can register for this and other chats on AXA PPP healthcare.

AXA PPP healthcare offers exceptional cancer support for its members and includes treatment of the condition at every stage, even if it recurs or spreads, no time limits or session limits are set on out-patient consultations, new cancer drugs as soon as they are licensed and a one-to-one dedicated cancer nurse service.

Get involved, sign-up to a chat for some great advice and support, or pass on the information to those who need it - you may well make a very big difference!


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The Life Edit takes a walk with Instagram

Start at the splendid St Paul's Cathedral. Photo by Jiri Siftar.

I love walking in London. For me it beats the countryside, I'm that much of a city girl, and with a city as diverse and historic as ours, it's constantly changing and full of surprises. I realise I won't get to see it all in my lifetime- it's just too big, and also I do tend to return to my favourite haunts throughout the year to see what has changed and what is new and exciting. Even in historic settings like the South Bank there are always changes and new things to see. So with the help of the fabulous Instagram photographer Jiri Siftar and egged on by Bupa, whose latest campaign is to get us all walking more to maintain our health, I'm sharing with you one of my favourite weekend walks from St Paul's on the North Bank to The Anchor pub downstream on the South Bank. Here is some of my walk plotted out but to see all the photos and the full walk check it out on Google Maps

Leave St Paul's and walk towards the Millenium Bridge to cross the river. Photo Jiri Siftar.

The view downstream. Photo Jiri Siftar.

Across the bridge to Tate Modern. Photo Jiri Siftar.

Turn downstream and take in the sites of historic Southwark Cathedral. If it's a weekend stop to shop at  Borough Market. Photo Jiri Siftar.

You will pass by glorious Southwark Bridge. Photo Jiri Siftar.

Next stop - The Globe Theatre. Photo Jiri Siftar.

Down beside the Clink Prison at Pickford's Wharf... Photos Jiri Siftar.

Final stop for a lunch and a drink at The Anchor pub. Photo Jiri Siftar.

The view towards St Paul's from The Anchor pub. Photo Jiri Siftar.

Get out and get walking - you'll learn more about your surroundings than you will in a car. Bupa have launched a new initiative and have set themselves a target to get at least 100,000 people walking (and this includes their own employees, charity and corporate partners) both now and for the long-term.

It's all part of the Bupa Global Challenge which is an annual worldwide initiative aiming to 'get people moving' and raising awareness of the benefits of increased walking for good health and to reduce the risk of long-term diseases. It also supports Bupa's 'Well World' commitment, helping to enable 60 million people to make positive changes to be healthier and happier by 2015 and to reduce the organisation's carbon footprint by 20 percent.

You should get out there and walk, and to make it more fun I have one Black Jack Diana F+ camera to giveaway to accompany you. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me your own favourite walk. Alternatively tweet me on @scaredcrows #walkthisway. All entries will be entered into a draw which I will draw on October 5th.

An update on Google Health and Google PowerMeter

In the coming months, we’re going to retire two products that didn’t catch on the way we would have hoped, but did serve as influential models: Google Health (retiring January 1, 2012; data available for download through January 1, 2013) and Google PowerMeter (retiring September 16, 2011). Both were based on the idea that with more and better information, people can make smarter choices, whether in regard to managing personal health and wellness, or saving money and conserving energy at home. While they didn't scale as we had hoped, we believe they did highlight the importance of access to information in areas where it’s traditionally been difficult.

We’re making this announcement well in advance to give you plenty of time to download the information you might have stored in either product or to transfer it to another service, and we’re making it easy for you to do it in a variety of formats. More on how that works below.

More broadly, we remain committed as always to helping people around the world access and use information pertinent to them. We’ll continue to pursue this goal and to encourage government and industry to do the same.

Google Health
When we launched Google Health, our goal was to create a service that would give people access to their personal health and wellness information. We wanted to translate our successful consumer-centered approach from other domains to healthcare and have a real impact on the day-to-day health experiences of millions of our users.

Now, with a few years of experience, we’ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would. There has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven’t found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people. That’s why we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue the Google Health service. We’ll continue to operate the Google Health site as usual through January 1, 2012, and we’ll provide an ongoing way for people to download their health data for an additional year beyond that, through January 1, 2013. Any data that remains in Google Health after that point will be permanently deleted.

If you’re a Google Health user, we’ve made it easy for you to retrieve your data from Google Health any time before January 1, 2013. Just go to the site to download your information in any of several formats: you can print and save it, or transfer it to other services that support industry-standard data formats. Available formats include:

• Printable PDF including all the records in your Google Health profile
• Industry-standard Continuity of Care Record (CCR) XML that can be imported into other personal health tools such as Microsoft® HealthVault™
• Comma-separated value (CSV) files that can be imported into spreadsheets and database programs for ongoing tracking and graphing
• HTML and XML versions of the original “data notices” sent to your Google Health profile by linked data providers
• A unified ZIP archive that includes all files you’ve uploaded to your profile, plus all of the formats above

Over the coming weeks we’ll also be adding the ability to directly transfer your health data to other services that support the Direct Project protocol, an emerging open standard for efficient health data exchange. And while we’ll discontinue the Google Health service at the beginning of 2012, we’ll keep these download options available for one more year, through the start of 2013. This approach to download and transfer capability is part of Google’s strong commitment to data liberation principles: providing free and easy ways for users to maintain control of their data and move it out of Google’s services at any time.

In the end, while we weren’t able to create the impact we wanted with Google Health, we hope it has raised the visibility of the role of the empowered consumer in their own care. We continue to be strong believers in the role information plays in healthcare and in improving the way people manage their health, and we’re always working to improve our search quality for the millions of users who come to Google every day to get answers to their health and wellness queries.

Google PowerMeter
We first launched Google PowerMeter as a Google.org project to raise awareness about the importance of giving people access to data surrounding their energy usage. Studies show that having simple access to such information helps consumers reduce their energy use by up to 15%; of course, even broader access to this information could help reduce energy use worldwide.

Since our launch, there’s been more attention given to this notion of people easily accessing their energy data. The installation of smart meters and other home energy devices is picking up steam, and states like California and Texas are moving forward to finalize policies and programs in this area. Earlier this month, the White House announced a goal of giving all consumers access to their energy usage in computer-friendly formats as part of a national plan for modernizing the electricity grid.

We’re pleased that PowerMeter has helped demonstrate the importance of this access and created something of a model. However, our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would like, so we are retiring the service. PowerMeter users will have access to the tool until September 16, 2011. We have made it easy for you to download your data: simply log in to your account and go to "Account Settings” to export to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. We will be contacting users directly with more information on this process.

Momentum is building toward making energy information more readily accessible, and it’s exciting to see others drive innovation and pursue opportunities in this important new market. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished with PowerMeter and look forward to what will develop next in this space.

By helping people make more informed decisions through greater access to more information, we believe Google Health and PowerMeter have been trailblazers in their respective categories. Ultimately though, we want to satisfy the most pressing needs for the greatest number of people. In the case of these two products, our inability to scale has led us to focus our priorities elsewhere.

As always, we welcome your feedback; please share your thoughts and opinions with us at health-feedback@google.com or powermeter-feedback@google.com. We won’t be able to respond to every email, but we promise we’ll listen.

Update 7/15/11: We've now added the ability to directly transfer your health data out of Google Health via the Direct Project protocol.

Posted by Aaron Brown, Senior Product Manager, Google Health and Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar

Using search patterns to track dengue fever

(Cross-posted on the Google.org Blog)

What does baseball have in common with gazebos? We’re not sure, except that people search on Google for both terms in similar patterns. Last week we introduced Google Correlate, an experimental tool enabling researchers to model real-world behavior using search trends. We’ve heard from many researchers who want to mine this data for new discoveries about economics and public health—much like we designed Google Flu Trends to give an early warning about flu outbreaks. We hope they’re able to make useful discoveries with Google Correlate.

While building Google Correlate, we used it to create an early warning system for another important disease. Google Dengue Trends in Bolivia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Singapore provides an additional surveillance tool for a disease that affects about 100 million people each year. Dengue is a virus spread through mosquito bites that creates symptoms including high fever, severe headache and pain, rash and mild bleeding. There is no vaccine or treatment, so public health efforts are largely focused on helping people take steps to prevent being infected with the disease.

Singapore has an impressively timely surveillance system for dengue, but in many countries it can take weeks or months for dengue case data to be collected, analyzed and made available. During the dengue outbreak at last year’s Commonwealth Games, we discussed the need for timely dengue information. With help from Professor John Brownstein and Emily Chan from HealthMap, a program at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, we were able to create our system. Using the dengue case count data provided by Ministries of Health and the World Health Organization, we’re able to build a model that offers near real-time estimates of dengue activity based on the popularity of certain search terms. Google Dengue Trends is automatically updated every day, thereby providing an early indicator of dengue activity.

The methodology for this system is the same as that for Google Flu Trends and is outlined in a newly published article in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

We hope the early warning provided by Google Dengue Trends helps health officials and the public prepare for potential dengue outbreaks. For those who live in places where dengue is present, remember to follow the advice of health officials to prevent infection by wearing mosquito repellent and emptying any containers that lure mosquito larvae by gathering standing water.

Posted by Vikram Sahai, Software Engineer