Saturday, February 16, 2013
Room 312 (Hynes Convention Center)
Social media brings together different media as well as modes of distribution -- focused, narrowcast, and broadcast – and has revolutionized communication among people. Mobile phones, equipped with myriads of sensors and being used my more than 75% of living humans, are bringing the next generation of social networks not only to connect people with other people, but also to connect people with other people and essential life resources. We call these networks Social Life Networks (SLN) and believe that this is the right time to focus efforts to discover and develop technology and infrastructure to design and build these networks and to apply them for solving some essential human problems. We believe that healthcare may be revolutionized at many different levels using such networks. In this paper, we will discuss applications of mobile social life networks for prevention, diagnosis, and advice in different healthcare situations. We will use a few examples of such systems explored in our group and list challenges and opportunities in this area.