I’m just a bill.
Yes, I’m only a bill.
And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.

  – Lyrics from “I’m Just a Bill” / Schoolhouse Rock

A few months ago, my wife brought home a blast from the past: the 30th Anniversary Edition of Schoolhouse Rock!  My daughters (ages 4 and 9) were entertained, but I couldn’t tell if it was the DVD that amused them, or the sight of their mom and dad singing and dancing like fools.

What really struck me though, was how many of the lyrics we both remembered.  It’s been more than a thousand Saturdays since either of us has seen that “sad little scrap of paper” sitting on the steps of the Capitol Building, but somehow when the music started playing the words just bubbled up from some forgotten corner of our brains.

When Schoolhouse Rock! began airing on ABC in 1973, the idea of using (more…)

Health Nut Hal walked in at just the wrong moment. The glare he got from Tayshaun as he turned the corner into the living room could have frozen a volcano.

“Whoa, dude. What’s that steam coming from your ears all about?” asked Hal.

“Sorry, Hal, it’s not you man. It’s my mom,” answered Tayshaun as his icy glared started to melt. “She thinks she knows everything and I don’t know nothin’.”

Hal chuckled, “Shoot, it’s that way with every adult, bro. They all think they know and that kids don’t.”

“Yeah, well, she’s telling me I gotta learn how to use this stupid puffer and spacer thingy,” said Tayshaun as he held up an inhaler stuck into the end of a small, clear plastic tube. “She said Doc Yan don’t want me using my nebulizer for my asthma meds anymore, at least not all the time. I told her I like my neb machine. Heck, I been usin’ it since I can’t even remember when. It’s always been just fine. I don’t get why I gotta change.”

“So…what…you don’t like the spacer?” Hal questioned.

“Yeah. I mean, no. I mean, no, it isn’t that. I like my nebs. It works and (more…)

Dad was working on the car as Health Nut Hal pulled up on his bike. “Ahhh…maintained,” he thought.

“Hi, Dad,” Hal said as he slid his back tire around with a tiny squeal. His dad was a startled by the sudden squeal which was just inches from where his head lay under the engine block. He bumped his head against the car’s frame, muttered “D’oh”, and greeted Hal with a grin. (Hal’s dad never seemed to get shook; he was on of those take-it-all-in-stride kind of guys.)

“Hi, Hal,” replied his dad as he rolled out from under the car on his makeshift creeper, made from old furniture casters and scrape wood pieces. “What’re you up to today?” he asked as rubbed the new bump forming on his forehead.

“Notta alotta,” replied Hal as he pulled off his bike helmet. “Been over at Jimmy John’s. He just got a new video game.”

Hal’s dad said, “Another wham, bam, shoot ‘em up, I suppose.”

“You’d think, right? But, no,” started Hal. “He got this kinda cool new game about asthma.” (more…)

Here’s a simple question: Why have the worlds of healthcare and “medicine” always avoided making health fun?

Here’s a simple answer: Making health fun just ain’t easy. (Please pardon the “ain’t.”)

Think about it. The worlds of health, healthcare, and medicine have long been owned by the elite. Typically, in years past, it was only the rich or privileged who were able to get medical training. Historically, the elite in their ivory towers of medical knowledge didn’t write down their wisdom for the general public; they wrote “scholarly” papers designed to talk in big terms using big words to “big” people with big vocabularies (and, many times, with big heads.) “It’s complicated, so it must be discussed with big words and in long, dull documents,” they said. And that is where they stopped. And that has become medical tradition.

Well, they were right…sort of. Health and the workings of the human body are pretty darn complex. There’s a whole lotta stuff going on inside of each of us. There’s a lot of “this thing connected to that thing causing the other thing to do some different thing.” We’re pretty amazing creatures full of complicated “machinery.”

But those medical elitists were wrong, too. Complicated or not, every single one of us has “health” (more…)

Los Angeles, CA – June 25, 2012: Health Nuts Media has launched a Spanish-language version of its animated asthma education series Huff & Puff: An Asthma Tale. The seven-episode series, already valued by healthcare providers as a teaching tool for kids with asthma, is now available to millions of Spanish speakers who suffer from the chronic pulmonary condition.

“Rates of asthma are on the rise among children, especially Latino kids across the United States,” said Dr. Gregg Alexander, Chief Medical Officer, Health Nuts Media. “If we can make learning about asthma fun, we can reach that many more families with the information they need to take better control of their health.”

In Soplar & Rabiar: Un Cuento de Asma (Huff & Puff: An Asthma Tale), the Big Bad Wolf huffs…and he puffs…and has asthma attack! Viewers follow “Grande” on a journey of discovery (more…)

Question: What’s the value proposition of using animation versus live action recordings for pediatric health videos?

Answer(s):

(more…)

AAAAI!!! Sounds more like something you might scream when running away from asthma education, doesn’t it? But, actually, “AAAAI” is the short name for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and they have loads of asthma education tools. Plus, they now have a new Just for Kids section. It has games, puzzles, storybooks, video, and more.

Their new spokesperson is Mr. Nose-it-All. (As you can see from his picture, he’s actually more of a “spokes-nose”.) Mr. Nose-it-All has pages and pages of word games, bubble pop games, coloring books, matching games, storybooks, even a BrainPOP video with Tim and Moby. (more…)

The United States Department of Health and Human Services released The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy in 2010. It’s goal? To encourage the healthcare industry to make health information and services easier to understand and use.

“Health literacy is needed to make health reform a reality,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Without health information that makes sense to them, people can’t access cost effective, safe, and high quality health services. But, HHS can’t do it alone,” she added. “We need payers and providers of health care services to communicate clearly and make the necessary changes to improve their communication with consumers, patients, and beneficiaries.” (more…)