Archive for April 2009

As Helen and I drove down the M6 in the rain yesterday, something struck me…..

In 1996, I travelled – I had no email, no mobile phone – my family got a postcard every couple of weeks

In 1997, I started at university – they gave us a clunky email that resembled an MS-DOS screen – we thought it was great

In 2000, I did a PGCE – for the first time I used the internet for research – my paper on health education for behaviour change was largely in debt to online publications

Here we are in 2009, not a huge number of years later, and Helen and I were driving down the M6 after meeting the Head of the Pharmacy School at Keele University. What he showed us was mind blowing!

They have developed the virtual patient – an avatar called Shirley who walks up to the pharmacy counter, coughs, snuffles and waits for you to start the conversation. Depending on what you, as the pharmacist, chose to say or do, Shirley will respond. The prototype is using text input, but the future masterpiece version will use voice recognition.  It’s ingenious and totally captivating!

The consultation scenario that Shirley demonstrates is based on a decision tree algorithm – an interlinking set of questions, answers and decision points that dictate what Shirley will say and do. These algorithms are incredibly complex to build, we know, because we have just completed our first set for the alli launch that has been used to train pharmacists across the land. We’re very proud of the work we’ve done so far, but I can’t help wanting to take scenario training to the next level.

In the city of Portland, Oregon, ‘Mrs. Smith’ has invited Intel Corp to equip her house and its contents with hi-tech sensors. These sensors map Mrs. Smith’s movements through her home, and measure her average stride length. They note the volume at which she speaks, and the amount of time it takes her to recognise her granddaughter on the telephone. They keep track of her nocturnal activity, including bathroom trips, midnight snacks, and ‘romantic encounters’. Urgh.

Researchers at Intel Corp will translate this data into a ‘behavioural baseline’ for Mrs. Smith. Any deviation from the norm could be a signal that something is amiss. Although research is at an early stage, it is hoped that the technology will eventually be able to recognise the patterns of behaviour that are characteristic of certain early-stage diseases, like Alzheimer’s.

It would currently take many years to determine if Mrs. Smith was developing dementia, and this technology shows promise to shorten this timeframe considerably. Early diagnosis translates into improved outcomes, and so intelligent houses may become an efficacious (although expensive) healthcare intervention. However, as with all nascent technology, many people are worried about the potential for abuse. You’d be worried too, if you’d seen Demon Seed.

Having hit the brand planning season, with flipcharts and by post-it notes a weekly occurrence I met with a strategist mate who suggested with much mirth that informed dictatorship is by far and away the best way of coming up with battle plans.

He is a military strategist, quotes Von Clausewitz  a lot, and never had to work in primary care – so I am sure he doesn’t know what tough is!

These conversations always get me thinking, our terminology is military, our challenges (resources, prioritisation, superiority) pretty similar, perhaps we have something in common. In his world having non-strategists risk being the rate limiting step to your campaign success is a fear well founded. The use of strategic development time to drive interdepartmental buy-in made him visibly nervous, and prompted him to suggest we should settle on a good old game of Rock, Paper, Scissors when approaching “strategy by consensus”.

His tips were as follows;
1. Play paper first. Rookies tend to lead with rock, so paper is the safest opener. (A savvy opponent will try the same, causing a tie.) If you win, claim victory; if not, start the next throw right away, because of course it’s two out of three.
2. Exploit copycats. Casual players often switch to the object that just beat them. You can encourage them to do this by shouting, “Paper wins!” when you defeat their rock. Then throw scissors on the next round.
3. Watch for doubles. People rarely throw the same hand three times in a row; if they play scissors twice, your next move is paper. Also, keep up the pace so they have less time to think and instead fall into patterns.

So that’s all solved then!

My friend Kate sat in my kitchen looking through a pile of papers. Then she laughed a short, scornful laugh:

“Wikipedia? Why would you print anything off Wikipedia?”

Silence.  A loose ball of cat hair tumbleweeded past.

I stirred the tea and hung my head. Why can’t I get into good debate with Kate? She makes me feel dumb. Nevertheless, I had to talk to someone about my thoughts on Wikipedia.

Unlike a real life Encyclopedia you need two hands to carry, Wikipedia is generated and edited by its users. There’s an article for just about every search term out there, and it’s often the first link on the search results page.

What came first, Wikipedia’s popularity or its accessibility?

Anyway, thousands of iterations by users shape a package of apparently relevant, well structured content, updated into real time. But with any piece of information plucked from the net, you should fact check your finds against your own research.  

For very casual research, I don’t have a problem with Wikipedia. It is fairly obvious to see which content has been approved by a substantial body of readers. And we know that scientific rigour is based in sample size. 2 approvals – not very rigorous, 200 approvals – much better. However, it’s true that we don’t know what these people are agreeing upon. I have never really checked out the references (not called references but “Notes” – suspicious).

Obviously Wikipedia was never made to fly with academia. There is also this satirist who calls Wikipedia an example of “truthiness” – the repurposing of “gut feeling” as equivalent to hard evidence.

Then again, Wikipedia is a soft target because it’s such an annoying buzzword. It’s high street, common, unfashionable. It’s in the distressing realm of the hyper-real (Wiki isn’t a real word). It symbolises our separation from what we were… think of the massive encyclopedia clutched to the chest with tiny child hands…the effort of finding the page we wanted.

But it should be fashionable for at least a couple of reasons – it’s free, it doesn’t make any money, it’s community-led.

People wanna get their facts straight!

I had a conversation with a man who works with us sometimes, Dan. He recently stopped smoking with the help of nicotine replacement therapy. I too have banished the need to smoke. I didn’t do it with NRT though – I tried that a few years ago and fell off the wagon too soon. I have also tried tablets, but misread the label and got the dosing wrong in the first week.

I was kidding myself both times. To tackle an addiction physiologically you need to be 100% committed. That’s tough, especially when you don’t feel all that addicted in the first place. Hence the behavioural support programmes that accompany smoking cessation products.

Maybe you think you enjoy smoking, but know that in the main you are insensibly compelled to do it. The truth is, cigarettes are nice, but so fiendishly addictive that most people develop a mutually abusive relationship with them. That’s when you notice the downsides.

When it’s time to get serious, call on the wise. Attend a reliable support group. NHS, Allen Carr, NRT support plans will help you make your decision.  Of course, simply attending these sessions/ reading the literature will remind you that smoking doesn’t do it for you. Not one cigarette nor a million will make you a better person.

It is a horrible, angry feeling, a ciggie craving. I experienced it for many years. Then I took a closer look. It’s not just a nicotine request. A craving is an unheard demand from childhood. It’s an oral fixation. It’s the left hand feeling left out when the right hand holds a drink. It’s a simple desire to tune out for ten minutes. A habit that shrinks as the weeks go on.

Of course, there are certain benefits to smoking. It gives you Time Out, staves off hunger, is proven to enhance short term memory, etc. Considering the price of being a smoker, I can do without those things. If you can’t, make a plan to compensate. 

Nobody should be surprised that obesity has overtaken smoking as a cause of death. Smoking is not a natural urge. Sleeping or eating is. Babies, rabbits, budgies, will all attack you for food. Light a fag and they scatter.

It’s okay to want to smoke a little bit, here and there. But if you’ve been addicted before, you must avoid forever. Keep reminding yourself of what makes sense, and you’ll be fine.

Layer Tennis is a series of live design events on Friday afternoons presented by Adobe® Creative Suite® 4.

What the hell’s layer tennis? Two competitors swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” which is then posted that to a site live.

Way back when in the misty days – Layer Tennis was called “Photoshop Tennis”. A few old schoolers remember that to-the-death match with Derek Powazek against Heather Champ. Anyway, the match was going along well when Heather played this for volley six and then all of the sudden Derek disappeared from the backstage chat-room. In a beautifully creative move, Derek printed out volley six, crumbled it up, took it outside, stapled it to a telephone poll, took a picture of it, formatted that picture and posted it as his volley seven. So cool.

The players may be designers, animators, illustrators or pretty much anything else, and they can use any tool or application they like. The match progresses volley by volley. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action as it happens.

The match lasts for ten volleys and when it’s complete, Season Ticket Holders sound off and we declare a winner. Its brilliant and a design joy.

Today sees an All-UK Layer Tennis match featuring Simon Cook vs.Rex Crowle with commentary by Anne Ward.  First serve at 4pm. Get your tickets here.

The word is civil, a very English display. We were ready, leaning out the window to see real “anarchists”. A peaceful, orderly, if noisy parade. I particularly liked the man on his chitty chitty bang bang bike with wings, kites and sign saying “love your mum”.

 This being April 1^st, I was struck with a mischievous urge to write an entry for this Blog, outrageous in content, designed to mislead the gullible among you. Perhaps an in-depth account, blinding you with science, of the successful development – using recombinant DNA techniques – of a novel species, based on genetic material from the Burmese ferret-badger and from a rare species of simian primate, indigenous to the Amazon rainforest, known affectionately as ‘The Spanking Monkey’ (due to elaborate social rituals, in which family members playfully tap each other). This new species – the Burmese badgerspank – is said to harbour traits from both parent species, and although the animal does seem drawn instinctively to spanking-based rituals, such urges are suppressed in most by a Buddhist-like display of restraint.

Instead, I thought I give you a rundown of my top 5 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of all time.

#1: The Left-Handed Whopper

1998. Burger King announced the introduction of a new item to their menu – the “Left-Handed Whopper”. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper, but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers.

#2: Dutch Elm Disease Infects Redheads

1973. BBC Radio broadcast an interview with an elderly academic, ‘Dr. Clothier’, who discoursed on the government’s efforts to stop the spread of Dutch Elm Disease. During the interview, Dr. Clothier described several instances of infection in redheads, where the disease caused hair to turn yellow and eventually fall out. Redheads were advised to stay away from forests for the foreseeable future.

#3: Bearskin Helmets Need Trimming

1980. Soldier magazine revealed that the fur on the bearskin helmets worn by the Irish guards while on duty at Buckingham Palace grows continually and needs to be regularly trimmed. The phenomenon was attributed to a hormone that persists in the skin – otios. Apparently, scientists hope to put the hormone use in tackling male pattern baldness. An accompanying photo showed Guardsmen sitting in an army barbershop, having their helmets trimmed.

#4. San Serriffe

1977: The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation.

#5. Alabama Changes the Value of Pi

1998: The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of pi to the ‘Biblical value’ of 3.0.