That sort of adaptive technology is (relatively) straightforward.

You only have to look back at Eliza to see how our responses can be
modified, turmned back on ourselves, and make it seem like a computer is
"responding" in a human fashion to what we have said.

The secret to anything which requires willpower is often going to be an
external force which badgers us in some way.

But that is not always the answer.

Take the "stop-smoking" text message services - I remember looking at
setting one of those up three or four years ago - There were some people
  who were generating inspirational messages to send by email every day
totell someone not to smoke that day, and I suggested that they do it by
text message as well.

What became clear there was that something which said "don't smoke today
or you will die" which arrived at 8.30 every morning was likely to be
ignored when someone was down the pub at 9pm with a few drinks inside them.

And building a system which predicts when someone is most likely to be
down the pub will work some of the time, not all of the time.

In that circumstance, and in the Dr Rachel scenario, you probably need
one or more human co-conspirators.

For example:

8am - Your regular "don't smoke today" text message turns up

10.30 am - You are seen leaving your desk with a colleague you usually
have a cigarette with - One or more of your co-workers enlisted for the
purpose sends an email or an SMS to a predefined  address - You receive
a text message on your way outside saying "Don't bum that cigarette!"

13:00 you leave for lunch - Again, your spy send the email/text, and you
  get the text message again

and so on through the day. You have to define the rules with your
"buddies" - In that scenario, every text would probably cost the punter
25p (the revenue payout on reverse SMS is shockingly low)

This works for diets as well.

I am not saying for a second that my system guarantees that people take
medication, nor that they will attend appointments

What it does do is help those who have a modicum of willpower to do
something they might not otherwise have done - Or in my case, have
forgotten.

If anyone has an interesting application I am very happy to talk about it.

What about general reporting systems? Is it of value to have a patient
text/email in their blood sugar/blood pressure levels, and for them to
be instantly accessible through a secure web system?

Or to set up rules based reporting on that data whereby a particular
result alerts both patient and doctor of the need to visit the surgery

That sort of system is pretty straightforward, and costwise, probably
pretty cheap (so long as enough people signed up for it)

Kind regards

Nigel




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Adrian Midgley wrote:
> On Sunday 07 November 2004 07:29, Nigel Cannings wrote:
>
>>Getting a patient to take a drug can be the hardest thing to do. Some may
>>not want to, many just forget.
>
>
>
> Read down this page to Dr Rachel.
> http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/introduction
> Read the book if you want, IMHO this chap knows his stuff.
> MIT seem to think so as well.
> His photographs are nice.
>
> Answer the question that occurs early on in the Dr Rachel passage.
>
> And if anyone wants to get away with advertising on GP-UK they need to be
> interesting.  Did anyone say "hello" yet - if not, Hello.
> --
> Adrian Midgley                   Open Source software is better
> GP, Exeter                       http://www.defoam.net/
>