Edgewood & others, plus racerdb another good race!
Good discussion, I'll try to keep my reply short as like Skinnandbones I could go on and on, and I don't want to abuse the privilege of this thread.
First, Exercise Is Medicine (EIM), Edgewood's link. Yes, I'm aware of them, I have some emails sitting in my inbox that have been tossed around over the last few weeks with them. I think they can do much better with their mission (how many had heard of them until Edgewood's link?), however, that mission is prevention oriented, and I'm focused on cancer and exercise AFTER diagnosis. One thing I'm trying to get them to be a stronger leader in is IT integration and exercise. There are no standardized codes for recording exercise into electronic health records (EHR) or into other healthcare IT tools (apps, Garmin, etc.), so everyone records the data differently. When database integration becomes possible this will be a problem with the exercise data stored in different formats and in different silos - lack of foresight, slower research, more expensive to translate the data, and just plain not keeping up with the IT revolution.
There are two entities that seem to be dealing with this issue, and I'd like to see EIM or the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) get involved with them. IT developers share codes, and most likely know little about exercise, but they will use what others are using and what is simple. Once EIM or ACSM can get standard codes to these developers then they can get the base codes incorporated into new healthcare IT tools. The two entities of interest to me are: HealthVaulthttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/healthvault/track-manage/overview.aspx and FitnessSyncerhttp://blogs.msdn.com/b/familyhealthguy/archive/2012/11/18/welcome-fitnesssyncer-aka-why-ecosystems-are-awesome.aspx Patientslikeme.com also records data that is user entered.
I haven't fully investigated either of these, particularly FitnessSyncer, but emails will go out to FitnessSyncer this week. I posted on the HealthVault developer forum about exercise codes and was linked last week to the FitnessSyncer blog. These developers are moving along, unprompted, without ACSM or EIM, and appear to be solving the database integration issue. It seems like a good opportunity to easily get standardized exercise codes into a lot of healthcare IT tools, and for ACSM or EIM to establish themselves as an exercise leader, far beyond what they are doing now.
There will always be a need for more specific exercise studies beyond the capability of many of the new healthcare IT tools, but many people are readily offering up their health information, and the data being collected is similar to that which is being collected in many recent and current exercise studies anyway, except the IT data is being uploaded continuously - go get it EIM or ACSM! This may just be a way to spot trends and assess risks, but it seems like a tremendous opportunity to utilize people and their data to speed up research, cheaply.
Why can't my Garmin be loaded into my EHR (which I don't have yet with my general partitioner) and merged with any Rx's from CVS, my state's tumor registry (each pathology report is recorded into a registry), available for my oncologist to merge with the drugs I took, USDA's food SuperTracker, and even merged with the VO2max test I had two weeks ago? The possibilities are fascinating, I may not benefit from it but in time others may.
Lastly, regarding carrots - perhaps a sliding deductible for exercise compliance: zero deductible for compliance to 20% for non compliance. Measure BMI, bodyfat, VO2, blood markers, etc. at an annual check-up? It may motivate more to comply, but as many have said, there will always be some who won't exercise, but even a 20% improvement would be significant. Us aging baby boomers and the rising obesity rates are going to hamper the US economy.
Training this week was affected by traveling for the holiday and my back issue, which I hope will feel better today after some more improvement with a few new exercises, one a hip flexor one. I'm confident that this can be resolved soon.
Week of 11/19
Mon PM 5 mile run, 6 strides on grass, feel hams on acceleration but not at full stride. PT4, new weights, light stretching, PT1.
Tue AM 5 mile progressive run on treadmill @ 1% grade, last two miles 5:44, 5:20, jog 1 mile, walk 600m then 1/2 mile in 2:30, jog/walk 800m then 1 mile in 4:53, 1 mile cool down. Leg plant feels solid, still some soreness in hamstrings, and legs a bit stiff from all the wts & PT exercises. I hope to feel normal next week. PT2
PM slide board, weights, stretching.
Wed Drive to D.C., back exercises.
Thur AM 5 mile run, 6 strides on grass - can't accelerate properly but feel ok at full stride. Back exercises.
PM stretching
Fri PM 3 mile warm-up on treadmill @ 1% grade, 1 stride then stopped when right hamstring got tight & sore, 1 mile cool down, back exercises. Right hip was tight all day from walking & standing.
Sat AM 5 mile run, legs feel good running except for ham tightness when step onto a curb or step. PT3, back exercises, plus new hip flexor exercises.
Sun Drive home. Hip flexors sore - which feels good, once at home I felt better walking around. Hope new stuff helps.
Health and good training to all, including the heel spur and ankle sprain!