ifttt Medical Applications

I’ve started using the new web service ifttt. It stands for If This Then That. It allows one to use the internet to create various tasks in a If This Than That structure. The This part is what they call a Trigger. It’s the event that has to happen to trigger the task. Triggers can be such things as every time you add a video to your YouTube favorites or every time a photo is tagged with your name in Facebook.

If a task is triggered, then an Action is done. For example every time you add that YouTube favorite, an email is sent to your friend saying you found another YouTube gem, or you get a text message to your phone when you get a photo tagged in Facebook.

These Triggers and Actions come from what they call Channels. This includes such things as Facebook, Twitter, email, and phone calls. They currently have 41 Channels, and growing. This gives enormous possibilities.

Finally one can share created Tasks, in what they call Recipes, that others can download.

I created some recipes with medical tasks in mind. I wrote reminders to take one’s medications. This can be done with a text message or phone call. You could use it for yourself, or set up an account for a friend or family member that needs help remembering to take their pills. You can find the recipes at: http://ifttt.com/people/ginsberg.

Author: Daniel Ginsberg, MD, FACP

I'm an internal medicine physician and have avidly applied computers to medicine since 1986, when I wrote my first medically oriented computer programs. So yes, that means I'm at least 35-years-old! View all posts by Daniel Ginsberg, MD, FACP