I Traveled 8 Hours to Give a 5-Minute Talk About My Fitbit

Data Makes a Difference was the tagline for the Strata Rx 2013 conference on using "Big Data" to drive innovation in Healthcare.  In my opinion, so does community ... and, of course, so do we as empowered patients ... make a difference, that is. This was an underlying theme for my #Ignite talk last week -- Fitbit: You Had Me at Smooches!

This is me speaking below. You can hardly tell that I had just traveled 8 hours to get to Boston ... from New York! I was so fortunate that the Amtrak train delay/power failure en route didn't cause me to miss my 5-minute appearance.



For those not already familiar with #Ignite talks, the format is you have only 20 slides and 5 minutes to tell your story. Even more fun for presenters is that your slides are automatically advanced every 15 seconds!

I've previously shared my journey to becoming an "urban datasexual" who has become part of the Quantified Self community by tracking my steps (and often my sleep) using my Fitbit. In fact, my June blog article was the basis for my #Ignite talk -- given the first time in Denver at the Healthcare Unbound conference (July), and last week at Strata Rx.

What's changed since July is that I'm now in Week 8 of my Couch-to-5K training, sustaining runs of at least 25 minutes long. As a result, my distance/steps have increased to an average of about 7,000 steps per run. My personal best day is 14,123 steps and 6.65 miles in one day in August. I've noticed that my motivation to run is also changing.

I'm still motivated by the personal challenge of running; yet, I'm also inspired by the "likes" I get on my Facebook page whenever I post my latest accomplishment. That's why I believe that community makes a difference in health care and our overall well-being. I heard that sentiment echoed in many of the Strata Rx presentations -- that our social connections impact our decisions and health behaviors. Observing our friends and family making positive health choices can lead us to do the same. And, of course, the opposite is true -- we're, perhaps, even more strongly influenced when we observe others making unhealthy choices.

I'll share the link to a video of my talk as soon as it's available. In the meantime, I'm curious about what makes a difference for your health? Do you have a "health posse"? What health behaviors are you looking to increase (or decrease)?