Let's get physical (or not)

Today's music production has become quite virtual. Not to speak of digitally sampled synthesisers and music workstations, there are virtual analog synthesisers, virtual acoustic instruments, virtual effecters and amplifiers and even virtual idol singers. However, sometimes we would miss physical touch.

My favourites have been Korg's nanoSERIES 2 trio, which look rather like some GUI objects just popped out of the computer screen than serious musical tools. They are handy and versatile with flexibility of choosing any combinations as you wish. The problem is that they are designed to function only one of them at a time when using with an iPad/iPad Mini.

I had looked around for the options which provide combined functionalities as a single device ideally with more decent feeling of playing musical instruments. There had been some attractive candidates but they all fell short in terms of portability.

Finally I found that most of the time a simple bus-powered USB hub does the job at least with two nanoSERIES 2 devices if you can tolerate the occasional "drawing too much power" error message and suspension. Also, inconvenience with only one or even no physical device does not do so much damage to the joy of being able to play iOS music apps anywhere.

Moderation is virtue.

To code, or not to code that is the question

Each time media start fussing over a black magic called "AI", it reminds me of how small number of people actually write some codes. So it is little known that what is great about AI is actually resides on a human art called coding rather than machinery of computers. It may be fortunate because it seems that I do not need to worry about witch-hunts within foreseeable future although I am sometimes called "wizard" from end users.

I really appreciate who code any kinds of AI programs even if they are actually a "counting horse" sort of circus acts. They at least need to have some insights into both of human psychology and computer logic which are completely different to each other. However, I do hate those who are selling false dreams or scaremongering to cheat money out of people's pockets.

Having said that, I am totally in favour of educating coding to everyone especially from very early stage of compulsory education although I know very well that coding is not for everyone but requires some distinct talent to be good at it.

Then everyone has some sense of what is coding is like and rough ideas about what is possible or easy and what is impossible or difficult with coding i.e. with computers. With more people receiving such education, I think the money for IT investment will be more effectively spent in more meaningful uses.

Autumn Leaves

Spending in Auckland almost all the time since I came to New Zealand, it is a hard question to me if I miss sceneries in Japan. I am missing out beautiful sceneries of New Zealand in the first place!

However, one thing for sure I am missing is the vividness of Japanese scarlet maples in late autumn. I realised it when I was asked the question from one of my colleagues recently.

In spring, we can enjoy beautiful cherry blossoms in One Tree Hill, however, in this time of the year, Waitakere Ranges would not become aflame with autumn colours.

Nevertheless, I am enjoying the late autumn in Auckland since I recently moved to the office in Auckland City Hospital and walking in Auckland Domain was added to my daily routines.

Health Hackathon at the University of Auckland

I forgot when and from whom I heard it, but the phrase has been etched in my memory: "If there had been no such thing as deadline, the human would have not accomplished anything." More famously, the importance of an encounter in limited timeframe is stressed in the spirit of traditional Japanese tea ceremony as "Every meeting is just one occasion in the lifetime."

Today I attended just a small portion of the Health Hackathon: Solving Self-Care event being held at Tamaki Campus, the University of Auckland from Frinday to Sunday this weekend. I think it is a showpiece of what people can achieve if they concentrate their efforts in well-defined scope and timeframe.

I joined the team named "Hunger Reminder" which was working in the following proposition: Giving people the ability to recognise and be aware of hunger signs and support them in their ability to make better eating decisions. The primary target of this approach is to support people with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs) to better manage their condition. It has potential to extend also to managing Diabetes, Obesity, Other inflammatory conditions, Eating disorders (such as Anorexia)

Our discussions utilise a variety of online free tools like Canvanizer Business Model Brainstorming tool, Draw.io Cloud Diagram Drawing tool and Concept.ly Application Prototyping tool. These tools greatly helped us share thoughts and formulate and visualise our ideas in tackling and solving the problems we were taking on.

Then what if similar tools are provided and available for healthcare namely self-care settings? As healthcare is about identifying and solving problems, actually we are want for health-focused equivalents of those tools. Then the age-old question, again. Why health IT cannot do what IT is doing for another industries or businesses?

However, so far in Health Hackathon, at least we are succeeding in rapid cycle prototyping in health IT. The question is how we keep and build our momentum. Maybe we should do this kind of event regularly to cultivate and disseminate the lessons we are learning.

HL7 January 2015 WGM San Antonio

It is a bit funny that it was my very first time to attend a HL7 conference or meeting held in the USA in my almost seventeen years career as a health IT specialist, throughout which I had been involved in the international health IT standardisation organisation via its affiliates in Japan and in New Zealand.

Previously, I had attended two International HL7 Interoperability Conferences (IHICs) in Acapulco, Mexico (2004) and in Auckland, New Zealand (2007). Even talking about Working Group Meetings (WGMs), I had attended those in Kyoto, Japan (2009) and in Sydney, Australia (2011). So I was not one of new faces at all, rather an old head with more than a decade of attendance records.

I think this shows the crucial importance of holding HL7 meetings and conferences outside of the USA regularly. The HL7 New Zealand (HL7 NZ) has a policy of sending one delegate to each WGM. Thus this time I was a proxy to the HL7 NZ Chair, David Hay, but in the occasion like the one in Sydney, we could send all the board members to the event. Such opportunities would help both the HL7 International and the affiliates in and around hosting countries share problems and exchange ideas for potential solutions.

My tweets and others' with the hashtag #HL7WGM pretty much covered the discussions happened in the WGM and you can dig in the wiki pages of Working Groups for further details so I would not repeat them here. I would like to conclude by introducing a music clip (although without no connections to the event except I knew about the band/tune in the return flight) which I think would summarise the meeting well. Enjoy!

Demystifying Zen

"Did Zen ideas create the kamikaze?" I was astonished when I saw the title. It was an article Ven Yushi Shimada, a friend of mine and a Zen monk introduced in his Japanese twitter account.

It argues that (Japanese philosophers' interpretations of) Zen's pursuit for "nothingness" made psychological pathway into dedication to the nation in devoting to the suicide attack.

My master wrote that enlightenment in Zen can be achievable in devotion to one's vocation as well as in practicing Zazen (sitting Zen) meditation. However, it is far more constructive context than above.

You may question reading "My master wrote" as Zen is famous for not relying on written words in conveying teachings.

In my humble opinion, the "no written words" rule should be understood this way. If you and your partner think exactly the same thing in exactly the same way and you both say a word, what would happen? Would you need to write down the word?

Reflections on HINZ 2014

The annual convention of the Health Informatics New Zealand, HINZ 2014 Conference and Exhibition was held on 10-12 November at SKYCITY Auckland.

It was a massive experience for me and honestly I am still in recovering mode. So much people to meet, so much discussions to join and so much information to absorb.

It started with the mobile health and FHIR seminar by HL7 New Zealand in which I was a part of the organising team but it really had heated up the scene. The rest of the conference was also dominated by the mood of something big were just started everywhere.

No one made the question which was heard until the last year: "How can New Zealand Health IT lead the pack again?" Here we are, back in full steam.