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The Stimulus, Health and Privacy |
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The stimulus bill now in the final stages of becoming law includes about 20 billion dollars to spur the national development of electronic medical records. That's not chicken feed! We're in favor of using technology to both improve the health of students and all Americans and increase efficiency in our health care system. We've spent quite a bit of time examining the potential benefits of personal health records (PHRs) which harness such digital data into user-controlled applications. Currently, less than a quarter of the 550,000 physician offices across the country use digital medical records. So there is a lot to do. In our survey last year, a majority of students (56%) liked the idea of storing their health records online, for the primary reasons of convenience and easier access. However, a vocal minority were concerned about the privacy and security of information, and who would have access to it. Students said that "privacy can never be 100% effective," and "no matter how strong the protection, hackers could always get in." There are significant health privacy concerns related to the provisions in the stimulus bill. The key question appears to be how to allow enough access to the appropriate health experts to ensure people are getting the health-related information they need, while preventing the commercial exploitation of individual private health data. Another question is will the legislation allow consumers to know who has access to their health information? We'll be following this discussion closely in the coming months, and would like to hear your views. |
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Good Napping = Good Thinking and Good Health? |
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"Power napping" isn't just for the "very young, old and sluggish." A timeless article from the Ririan Project argues that "power napping" can reduce stress, increase creativity, improve motivation to exercise, and is good for the heart. For college students, it can even translate into better thinking and higher grades on tests. A study in which college students were asked to identify small differences in an image during four different tests sessions in a day came to the conclusion that those students who took either a 20 minute or 1 hour nap scored better than their peers after the first session. The Ririan Project argued that "It looks like napping may protect brain circuits from overuse until those neurons can consolidate what's been learned about a procedure." An analysis by biology students at Berkeley "determined that the nap shouldn't be over 45 minutes" -- they say 15 to 35 minutes is best. Check out the full article, "Ten Benefits of Power Napping." |
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The #1 Cause of College Stress |
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We have found in our surveys that a surprisingly high percentage of college students suffer from some form of stress and anxiety. We will be doing some follow up surveys on stress to delve deeper into this topic. Just Ask Alice, Columbia's Health Q&A Internet Service, believes the primary cause of stress for college students is...drumroll...not having enough time in the day due to less than stellar time management skills. Alice's tips: 1. Set written priorities before you go to bed or early in the morning before the day gets going. 2. Try to place a time estimate on how long each task will take, and then add 15% to the total. 3. Build "quiet hours" into your schedule -- no Facebook, phone calls, texting or multi-tasking! 4. Shun procrastination, which only builds stress levels. We also believe that a regular and effective exercise regime can do wonders. |
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President-elect Obama is determined to digitize our country’s health records within five years as a way to both reduce health costs and improve care. Obama has said in the last week that the initiative "…will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests.” He also indicated that “it just won't save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs -- it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.” The price-tag for the plan could reach $100 billion. Check out a good CNN Money piece on Obama’s plan here. Here at CSHAL, we believe that digital personal health records (PHRs) can do much to improve health and wellness, particularly among college students. PHRs are really a user-focused, more interactive way of harnessing innovative applications to exploit the health records that Obama wants to digitize. College-age students are comfortable with using the Internet in various ways, and will be early adopters of such technology and applications. Which is why CSHAL is going to be devoting more energy and resources to education and research on the potential of PHRs generally and the important role of college students in moving forward with the technology. We also want to ensure that students’ privacy is protected, which was a concern in last year’s CSHAL survey of more than 500 college students. |
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Social Networking, MySpace and Health |
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Several studies published this month found that 54 percent of 18 year olds who use MySpace are often found discussing substance abuse of some form, sexual behavior or violence on the site. A second study (published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine) involved randomly picking students aged 18 to 20 using MySpace who had “high risk behaviors” included on their profiles. A physician sent an e-mail to some of the students, suggesting it would be a good idea to change their profiles. According to US News and World Report (“Health Buzz: Teens Using MySpace,” 1/6/09), roughly 14 percent of that group deleted “sexual behavior references,” with only 5 percent of those who did not get the e-mail deleting the sexual reference in their profile. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1/6/2009) has a good substantive piece on the studies' findings. Here at CSHAL -- with the help of a few visionary college health and wellness experts -- we have put together a proposal on how to explore the effectiveness of using social networks in a positive way to improve the health of college students, using a peer education model. Hopefully this will be funded soon! |
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