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A recent survey appearing in Health Affairs: The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere, shows that Americans find little satisfaction in the current health care system. The study focused on seven developed countries: Australia, Canada, Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States. In almost all categories, U.S. patients ranked themselves dead last. Americans have the lowest life expectancy, the highest percent of GDP spent on health care, and the highest infant mortality rate of the nations polled.

A whopping 32% of patients have experienced medical mistakes, where as only 16% of Dutch patients said the same. This could be a result of doctors’ complaints about not having access to medical records at the time of service. Only 49% of Americans are able to get an appointment with their physician when they’re ill, whereas 75% of New Zealanders are able to see their doctors when it counts most. Even more revealing, 34% of U.S. patients surveyed say that the health care system needs to be entirely rebuilt.

What can health care providers, including physicians, hospitals, government programs, and insurance companies do to combat this high level of dissatisfaction? Is there something short of a complete overhaul that will improve the health care experience of the average American? Perhaps providers can take a page out of the book of private business, where the ultimate goal is always improving the customer experience. In the few months, Talkibie has reported on some of the high tech solutions that many providers are using to give their patients the best possible care. These new services and technologies could solve some of the user frustrations with our current health care system.

As reported earlier this fall, a Canadian company called Myca has been giving patients access to their doctors through cell phone video conferencing. Canada ranked the lowest of all seven countries when it came to same or next-day appointments with doctors, with the U.S. a close second. The service allows subscribers and doctors to communicate visually through their phones, and conversations can be logged and incorporated into existing medical records. Prescriptions can even be assigned by email. This could be a major help to physicians who suffer from a constant backlog of appointments, and for patients with minor ailments who need medication but do not necessarily need to be seen face-to-face. Providers and patients currently using the service have seized a golden opportunity to streamline the antiquated protocol of our current health care system.

Patients may also turn to alternative online options to increase their satisfaction with the health care system. Microsoft is courting the disgruntled patient with its new HealthVault service, which debuted in October. The idea is that medical records can be stored online and shared with any health care providers who use the service, regardless of whether or not they’re your primary doctor, a specialist, or a surgeon. It’s easy to see how a service of this kind would reduce the rate of medical mistakes due to a lack of access to medical records. And Microsoft is not the only high tech company to offer this service. Google unveiled vague plans to host online medical records, which it says was inspired by the destruction of thousands of patient records during Hurricane Katrina.

The U.S. health care system most definitely needs some changes, and borrowing a few tricks from the internet technology world could potentially solve common problems that affect the patient experience. Innovators in both fields could work together to identify and address the concerns of patients, and by using a problem-solving process that focuses on the needs of the end-user, we just might avoid a total overhaul.

Much buzz has surrounded the recent release of Halo 3, and much of it has focused on Bungie’s and Microsoft’s usability efforts. Wired.com ran an article earlier this fall describing the usability process that Halo 3 went through prior to release. The game was tested by hundreds of participants, and their reactions to every aspect of game play were monitored through one-way mirrors by psychologists and usability experts. These in-depth studies were conducted to ensure that the game was not too difficult to be fun, intuitive, and would provide fans with a consistent experience across the brand.

This marriage between applied psychology and usability is becoming more common in the corporate world, and it is the very essence of providing a user-centered product. Heuristics and error prevention are wonderful tools to use in web development, but they do not ask or answer the essential questions of human behavior. Is your application fun to use, is it easy to figure out, does it frustrate the user, or does it aid him/her in accomplishing something desirable? How does a user feel when using this site? At ease or infuriated? Indifferent or engaged?

Because Halo 3 is a wildly popular game and expectations were high for the end of the trilogy, the developers had to be sure they had the tools to answer these questions. With psychologists monitoring every move, participants tested all levels of the game, providing data both verbal and visual to the psychologists. For example, if the main character “Master Chief” was getting killed by evil aliens too quickly or at the same point in the game, the experience would not be much fun for players. The data collected by psychologists suggested that players were dying at certain points because they couldn’t find ammunition stockpiles or didn’t see an approaching cliff. They solved these problems with simple graphics tweaks to keep the game fun for players.

One of the other overall strategies of the Halo developers was to limit bloody, intense battle scenes to 30 seconds. This is another example of applying psychological principles to create highly usable applications. Experts are divided about the actual average length of an adult’s attention span, but they generally agree that it is shrinking. Though interested in the game, Bungie assumes that users cannot concentrate on the intensity of a battle for much longer than 30 seconds and still enjoy themselves.

By employing psychological testing on their newest product, Bungie and Microsoft have another critical success with Halo 3. Using the methods and tools of psychology can explain not only when users are succeeding or failing, but also why. It takes into account what they feel when they visit your site: frustration, peace, anger, fun, or satisfaction. We could all take a page from the gaming world’s book in creating applications that seek to entertain and ensure the satisfaction of the user.

Rumors spread quickly through the technology world, especially those which reference Apple’s product lines. How many fake photoshopped pictures did we slog through prior to the release of the iPhone? The iPhone’s touchscreen feature is boosting new speculation that Apple is developing a miniature, tablet-style notebook that will make use of this interface. Champions of the idea point to the power of the multi-touch iPhone interface. It’s a surprisingly sophisticated technology, recognizing more than one finger on the screen, as evidenced by the “stretching” and “shrinking” actions. But will this feature be truly usable on a notebook?

Tablet notebooks have been spectacularly unsuccessful in the past, particularly those which discarded the keyboard. However, with the recent popularity of the iPhone, Blackberry, and similar hand-held web-enabled phones, the public might be ready for a stripped down mini-notebook. After all, Generation Y seems to be able to type text messages on tiny phones as quickly as they type on a standard keyboard. If any Silicon Valley company was able to re-energize the market for ultra mobile computers, it would be Apple. Their sense of modern design and ability to integrate software and hardware would lend itself well to this product, which some bloggers are nicknaming the “MacBook Touch”.

The “MacBook Touch” would not only fill a void in the marketplace, but would hopefully reach out to Japanese consumers who are reliable early adopters of tiny gadgets. AppleInsider is reporting that the company is hoping to reach out to the Japanese market with this product, which has been slow for them lately. They predict that the mini MacBook, whether or not it features a touch screen, will be a hit in Japan.

This touch screen fever is not only focused on Apple, though. Microsoft’s innovative Surface interface is also hoping to revolutionize the physical way in which users interact with computers. Talkibie featured an article about Surface a few months back, and we expect to see more devices of this type in the near future. We are preparing for a world in which there are no physical barriers or limitations between us and our computers. Hopefully Apple will capitalize on the success of the iPhone and take their touch screen technology to a broader product line.

Earlier this month Microsoft announced the launch of HealthVault, a website designed to store medical records and health information which can be accessed by health care providers and patients alike. The goal of the site, according to Microsoft VP Peter Neupert, is “to empower people to lead healthy lives. The launch of HealthVault makes it possible for people to collect their private health information on their terms and for companies across the health industry to deliver compatible tools and services built on the HealthVault platform.” It’s undoubtedly a lofty goal, since some 94% of consumers polled currently use a paper-based method to track their health information. However, the advantages of having instant, online access to medical records is a no brainer. Wouldn’t it be nice if your primary care physician and a specialist were able to communicate with each other through your online records? Wouldn’t it be convenient to track your blood pressure/cholesterol/glucose levels online? Or if you switched physicians, you wouldn’t have to move your records from a previous doctor’s office? The idea is appealing, but there are as many obvious benefits as there are obvious pitfalls.

With the motto “Be well. Protected.” splashed atop HealthVault’s home page, Microsoft is clearly reaching out to users who have concerns about the privacy of these records. Industry watchdogs and bloggers alike have pounced on HealthVault, attacking the idea for the security and privacy nightmare that it is. One blogger amusingly offers five reasons why HealthVault is unappealing: “One, because it is a Microsoft offering… Two, because it is a Microsoft offering… Three, because it is a Microsoft offering… Four, because it is a Microsoft offering… Five, because it is a Microsoft offering.” A common refrain is, “If I can’t even trust Microsoft with Windows updates, why should I trust them with my health care information?” It’s a valid point.

The criticisms usually focus on Microsoft’s tendency to absolve themselves of lost/misplaced data, reliance on users to add privacy and security upgrades to systems, and the legal ambiguity about how HIPAA applies to online records. In spite of all the criticism, Microsoft is determined to make HealthVault a success. They have hired hacker organizations to test the security of the site, and the very branding is meant to reassure users (what do you think when you hear “vault”?). They are going about this by trying to convince health care industry companies to offer web services and devices which are compatible with HealthVault. Some 40 organizations have signed on, including the American Heart Association, LifeScan (a glucometer manufacturer), and the American Diabetes Association. The website will generate income through a web search tool which features sponsored links. The potential for success is huge, but unfortunately, so is the potential for disaster.

Other high tech and health care companies, including Aetna, WellPoint, and Google, are working on similar systems. The key for any of these initiatives to take off is gaining the trust of consumers. Privacy and security are increasingly important in the Web 2.0 atmosphere of identity theft, and Microsoft presents too juicy a target for hackers to ignore. They have not cultivated a brand of trust, and they may pay the price for it with the failure of HealthVault. Let’s not forget, also, that the main target group for a website like HealthVault is baby boomers, and people of that demographic are far less likely to share personal information online.

HealthVault is still in beta, and hopefully this will allow Microsoft plenty of time to make tweaks as users find holes in the system. The buzz surrounding this initiative is not likely to die down soon, and if it’s true that there’s no such thing as bad exposure, Microsoft may have the leg up on competitors in the health information field.

With big name partners like Harrah’s Entertainment, Sheraton Hotels, and T-Mobile backing Microsoft Surface, this is one piece of technology that is sure to transcend the way we are used to viewing digital technology, and sure to revolutionize the way we learn, share, create, buy, and much more within our homes, businesses, schools, and endless other mediums. Microsoft Surface is the future of digital interaction.

At Talkibie we’ve been preparing for a world where there is no software, no keyboard, no mouse, no wiring, but instead a collection of live tools for people to use, anywhere, and at anytime—this is the essence of Microsoft Surface. Take away your standard monitor, and replace it with a countertop, a table, maybe a wall or even the floor. Don’t use the mouse to move things on screen, use your finger tips. Forget wiring your MP3 player to the CPU, just place it on Surface, and then drag whatever content you want to where your MP3 actually appears. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information by using their hands and natural movements. Microsoft Surface also recognizes physical objects placed on it, so, you can organize your Palm Pilot without having to connect wire ports. This represents a fundamental change in the way we interact with digital content.

Unlike a standard touch screen, Microsoft Surface recognizes dozens upon dozens of points of contact, making collaborative work not only ideal, but quintessential for harnessing the productivity rate that the standard point-and-click mouse could never provide. The standard tabletop will forever be transformed into a vibrant, radiant, interactive surface.

The power of this technology will easily be seen evolving in corporate America. Surface will provide customer reps the ability to provide a real service – from Financial Advisors to Real Estate agents; customer service just became more personal.

The first version of Microsoft Surface will be 22 inches high, 21 inches deep, and 42 inches wide, on an acrylic tabletop with an interior frame that is powder-coated steel. Surface could become the standard for customer interaction in hotels, restaurants, retail, and public entertainment venues later this year. Be assured that Surface will find its way into the design of web applications, most importantly, those that interact with customers.

Learn more at http://www.microsoft.com/surface/