Facebook as a medical solution

IOWA CITY, IOWA – The sky seems to be the limit in terms of applications for the popular social-networking site Facebook. Now one University of Iowa doctor is using the site to help get his patients to take their medications.

For young transplant patients, often between the ages of 13 and 21, keeping up-to-date on their medications may be the last thing on their mind.

“Often they’ve had chronic illnesses. They want to be like their peers, which I don’t blame them, so sometimes they forget to take their medications,” Patrick Brophy M.D. University of Iowa Children’s Hospital said.

Falling behind on meds could mean losing a vital organ like a kidney. Patrick Brophy, a doctor at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, was discussing the problem at home when his son came up with a solution.

“He kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, why don’t you just put it up on Facebook?’ And I said, ‘That’s a pretty good idea,’” Brophy said.

Brophy helped develop new software called Iowa Medminder.

The Facebook application shows patients a list of all the medications and the frequency in which they should be taking them for a given day.

“Some kids are on three medications, twice a day. Some are on 10 medications, twice a day,” he said.

The patients then check off the medications when they take them. The information is then sent to a secure hospital health care server for doctors to monitor.

“If they don’t take it, hopefully we’ll be able to set up a notification system to either text them through their phones or email them,” he said.

That information compared with later blood tests for drug levels will help doctors determine if patients have really been taking their medications. Brophy says he’s been contacted by providers from the United States and Canada, interested in his idea.

“There’s so many potential applications of this thing, and I think it’s got legs of its own,” he said.

A possible glimpse of the future of better health care delivery. Officials are working to meet privacy laws. The information will only appear on the patient’s Facebook page and not for others to see. The software was funded by a grant.

(Copyright © 2011 NBC Universal, All Rights Reserved)

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Kabam Taking ‘The Godfather’ To Facebook With New Social Game

A scene from The Godfather: Five Families

“I’m gonna make him an offer he won’t refuse. Okay?”
–Don Corleone

Social gaming start-up Kabam is partnering with Paramount Digital Entertainment to create The Godfather: Five Families, a new multi-player Facebook social game based on the iconic Godfather film trilogy.

The move could presage more moves by large studios to turn older classic entertainment content into newfangled social games. Other brands recently brought to Facebook include Ubisoft’s Smurfs game and Electronic Art’s Sims Social.

It’s a first for Kabam in terms of licensing intellectual property to build a game. It’s also a way for Viacom’ Paramount to monetize its existing titles. The Godfather movies are still quite popular–its Facebook page has almost 5 million fans–but the movie may not be as well-known with the younger generation. However, gamers clearly like mobster games. Witness Zynga’s Mafia Wars, Freeweb’s Mob Wars, the mobile game iMob Online, and so on. Kabam’s new game is going after both Kabam’s hard core social gaming audience but also a broader mainstream audience interested in the Godfather movies.

Kabam is backed by about $125 million from investors including Google Ventures, SK Telecom Ventures, Canaan Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Intel Capital.

This Godfather game is set in New York City in the early 1930s, ten years before the time of the first godfather in the first movie. The goal of the game is to take over territory in the city by attacking others in the game. To do this players gather resources such as food, steel and cement. Then they train an army made up of units that level up from categoriss such as “thug” up to “professional.”

The Godfather game incorporates Kabam’s style of play, which is competitive and combat-oriented games. They are also social so people can play with friends or meet new players in the game. In the game, people can choose from one of the five mafia families to join. Each family has special characteristics and skills in the game and will battle for territory in the city. Within the family, players also join an alliance or “crew.” The smaller groups, which are a new feature for Kabam, enable more communication and interaction between players. Players strategize and organize attacks on other groups through the game as they can in other Kabam games such as Edgeworld. “One thing we saw as a huge indicator of why people like to play games is that they feel like they’re part of a tight-knit community,” says Larry Koh, general manager of the game at Kabam.

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