March 30, 2004
New Survey of US Youth Online
A new report by the Online Publishers Association reveals that 18 to 34 year-olds are more frequent and active internet users than any other age group. The report which is the first in a series of research reports on consumer behavior, shows that while 18 to 34 year-olds comprise only 24% of the total U.S. population, they account for 38% of the total time spent online and 40% of the total pages viewed. This is even more pronounced among men in this age group.
The report points out that this age group feels a perpetual need to stay connected and expect to get online access whenever they choose and wherever they are. Like most Internet users, 18 to 34 year-olds are most likely to go online at home, from work or from school. However, they are significantly more likely than other age groups to access the Web from other non-traditional locations. For example, within 30 days of the survey date, 24% of 18 to 34 year-olds accessed the Web from a friend/relative's home, 16% accessed the Internet via cell phone, and 8% accessed the Web from a library - a significantly higher percentage than any other age group.
Why is this group so important? It seems that 18 to 34 year-olds represent the first 'generation' to have grown up with the Internet, their behavior patterns are a harbinger of future media consumption of the population at large. More than any other age group, 18 to 34 year olds consider the Internet to be one of the most important sources of entertainment available to them. They use the Internet both as a primary source of entertainment and as a resource for entertainment news and information.
The report details where this group went online and what they did. Some of it is predictable and some surprising.
Online Publishers Association Press Release
Download the full report (pdf)
March 23, 2004
Wireless Patient Monitor
A recent article in Nature Science Update describes a new technology announced at the current CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany that is a wireless wrist monitor that allows patients, who may not have been ambulatory because of the need for monitoring devices, to roam freely in a hospital or long-term care facility.
The wristband measures both pulse rate and the amount of oxygen in the blood, with a transmitter to relay the information to a computer. The system essentially does away with the tangle of wires used by conventional monitoring devices. The design could incorporate additional functions, such as sensors for body temperature, blood sugar level and blood pressure.The system could then automatically alert medical services if a patient or elderly person had a problem.
The basic concept underlying the mobile wrist monitor is BAN or Body Area Network - a technology developed by a German firm, Fraunhofer, for monitoring and logging vital signs to supervise the health status of patients suffering from chronic diseases, such as diabetes and asthma. Another prominent area of application for long-term logging of patient data is cardiology, where 24-hour-ECGs are required for therapy control and as early indicators for impending heart attacks.
"The basic concept of BAN is the fusion of both ideas: a set of mobile, compact units which enable transfer of vital parameters between the patient´s location and the clinic or the doctor in charge. The vital signs data flow passes a chain of BAN modules from each sensor to a main body station, which consolidates the data streams of all sensor modules attached. It transmits the data to a home base station, from where they can be forwarded via telephone line or internet."
March 09, 2004
Clinical PDA's Fast Acceptance
A news article from Mobile Health Data reports that a recent New Jersey pilot study of the use of PDAs in clincial practice saw impressive results after only a month. A conrol group of 20 physicians apparently saw enough benefits from using PDAs to access clinical information that the program decided to offer the technology to all of its physicians beginning in March. The pilot study used MDdata software from MercuryMD to enable PDA access to clinical data such as patient lists, lab results, orders, radiology results, medication lists and demographics. It required physicians in the study to purchase their own PDAs.
Article on MercuryMD at Palm One
MDdata Product Overview (pdf)
MDdata User Interface (pdf)
March 04, 2004
Content Creation Online
According to the most recent Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, 44% of U.S. Internet users have contributed their thoughts and their files to the online world. After conducting a national phone survey last year, Pew researchers found that 53 million American adults have used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online. Some 44% of the nation’s adult Internet users (those 18 and over) have done at least one of the following:
21% of Internet users say they have posted photographs to Web sites.
17% have posted written material on Web sites.
13% maintain their own Web sites.
10% have posted comments to an online newsgroup. A small fraction of them have posted files to a newsgroup such as video, audio, or photo files.
8% have contributed material to Web sites run by their businesses.
7% have contributed material to Web sites run by organizations to which they belong such as church or professional groups.
7% have Web cams running on their computers that allow other Internet users to see live pictures of them and their surroundings.
6% have posted artwork on Web sites.
5% have contributed audio files to Web sites.
4% have contributed material to Web sites created for their families.
3% have contributed video files to Web sites.
2% maintain Web diaries or Web blogs, according to respondents to this phone survey. In other phone surveys prior to this one, and one more recently fielded in early 2004, we have heard that between 2% and 7% of adult Internet users have created diaries or blogs. In this survey we found that 11% of Internet users have read the blogs or diaries of other Internet users. About a third of these blog visitors have posted material to the blog.
Most of those who do contribute material are not constantly updating or freshening content. Rather, they occasionally add to the material they have posted, created, or shared. For instance, more than two thirds of those who have their own Web sites add new content only every few weeks or less often than that. There is a similar story related to the small proportion of Americans who have blogs.
The most eager and productive content creators break into three distinct groups: the "power creators", the "older creators" and the "content omnivores."
Some of the material contributed to the online world
Web sites
Web cams
Weblogs/Blogs
Sharing files
Newsgroups