Training Program Overload

I sometimes marvel at the number and diversity of training programs that commercial life sciences professionals are exposed to.

Situational Leadership. DISC. Crucial Conversations. Coaching Skills. Selling this. Influence without Authority that. The list, the acronyms, go on and on – as do all the outlined steps and principles contained in each program.

Can anybody really remember all that stuff – let alone apply it in the moment of need?

Or are we overloaded with training program flavor-of-the-month?

As someone who makes recommendations of training programs to my life sciences clients, I seriously do wonder about this. And I wonder how you – people in the life sciences training community (trainers and vendors) – feel about this as well.

Are we so overloaded with information that we become constipated at the point of interaction?

Please share your experience in the comments. How do you, and your colleagues, deal with remembering, and synthesizing, and applying all these programs? Are there strategies you have found to help with the overload?

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A Creepy Robot That Could Help You Take Your Meds

Let me begin by saying that I find Jibo (a little household robot/servant) to be cute, creepy, and provocative.

We’ve been fantasizing about robots for decades, and the connected internet of things joined to intelligent software make these little digital companions a future certainty. This type of device/platform isn’t a fanstasy. It’s inevitable.

The privacy issues make me cringe; though, in reality, this is only an evolutionary step from our existing world of smartphones and other connected devices.

So, what does this Wall*E-like platform do? Watch this video, and then let’s discuss one application that could be pretty significant – patient compliance with taking medications:

Now, imagine an older person – perhaps living alone – that needs to take one or more meds in sequence during the day. If Jibo is there, with a prescription schedule(s) programmed in, then it’s much easier to deliver friendly reminders.

Create digital bridges to wearables (such as Apple’s iWatch and other body-monitoring devices), and some really interesting possibilities open up. Tie this into glucose monitoring devices for diabetes, for instance, or into an on-board blood pressure monitoring device. Pharmacies could interface Jibo to one of those fancy digital pill-bottle caps that can send a signal when it’s time for another pill.

Now you have a (multi-functional and kinda friendly) companion that can talk to you and provide reminders.

Of course, there is the expanded possiblility of video medical consultation, since a device of this sort could both store and upload digitally-gathered body systems data. Jibo becomes the in-house medical information conduit.

Patient–Jibo–Cloud–Doctor. Connected.

The fact is, all of this is coming – we have the various tools and toys already in place for it. Something like a servant-robot could easily tie it all together from an interface point of view.

What do you think? Is Jibo potentially one of the new faces of medicine?

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