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Andrew Orr, Jr. serves as a Special Projects Director. Andy is responsible for taking the product development lead for certain large products being launched, including HTH Mobile and HTH Appointment Scheduling. Andy has an extensive entrepreneurial and technical background. He has served as HTH IT Director in the past as well as president of a number of entrepreneurial businesses. Andy earned his Master of Business Administration from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and his Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University.

Cruise Follow Up

Friday, April 9th, 2010 by

I am happy to report that our week at sea was uneventful from a health standpoint.  Even though there were over 3,000 passengers (including 884 children), I didn’t see anyone that looked sick or on the verge of getting sick.  A few passengers sported the scopolamine patch behind their ears, but I felt no need to take any medication or Vitamin B6 (that I dutifully packed for the trip).

There were some medical questions for the passengers when checking in, and if you said yes to having had a cough or other symptom in the past week, you were required to see their medical staff upon boarding.  There was also a Purell® station at the entrance to each dining room or eating area, and many passengers were using this.  These measures may have helped or we might have been lucky, but I would not avoid a cruise because of health concerns.  I would, however, still check the outbreak list when planning your next cruise and take precautions just in case.

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Posted in Cruise Ship Health and Safety | Comments »

New mPassport iPhone Apps from HTH

Thursday, April 8th, 2010 by

Back in November, I posted about our first iPhone app, mPassport Paris, and I am happy to announce that we now have an additional seventeen (17) available in the store.  The new destinations are (grouped somewhat geographically):

  • Barcelona, Budapest, Dublin, London, Madrid, Prague, Vienna
  • Cape Town, Nairobi
  • Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, Quito
  • Bermuda, Nassau
  • Beijing, Hong Kong

Next week, Rome and Florence should also go live.  The old post sums up the apps well, and we have made many improvements since then.  All will soon be iPad compatible, and (drum roll please) all are free for now.  So don’t wait to get one or more of these on your phone.

Finally, the mPassport tools and services are available on a worldwide basis through a subscription.  This gives you access through mobile and desktop web sites that should work on any device.  Learn more about this at http://www.mpassport.com/entry_basicInfo.cfm.

We would love to hear about your experiences using mPassport so get out there and get sick (ok, just play with it and tell us what you think).

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Posted in Travel Health & Safety iPhone Apps | Comments »

Mosquitoes – A story of bad news, good news, beer and Malaria

Thursday, March 25th, 2010 by

Two stories concerning mosquitoes caught my attention recently.  In the age-old “bad news, good news” tradition, it goes like this:

“The bad news is that if you drink beer, mosquitoes are more attracted to you and may bite you and give you malaria.  The good news is that scientists have developed a mosquito that could, in theory, vaccinate you against malaria with each bite.”

The first study, Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes, was conducted in Burkina Faso by a team of researchers led by Thierry Lefèvre from Emory University and published by PLoS ONE, an interactive open-access journal.  It concluded that “beer consumption consistently increased volunteers’ attractiveness to mosquitoes.”  The researchers believe that the alcohol in the local beer causes the increased attractiveness; however, further studies are necessary to eliminate other possibilities.  I saw that the local beer is fairly low in alcohol content and wondered what the curve would look like as the strength varied.  Is it a linear relationship, or would it yield an upside-down “U” shape?  If the latter, one could stick to more toxic drinks (although this flies in the face of the researchers who also noted that alcohol consumption has other negative health effects and can lower one’s ability to defend against parasites and other threats to the immune system).  I was lucky enough to learn about the African drink, dawa, from my wife (it was a huge hit on our wedding night).  Dawa means “medicine” or “magical potion” in Swahili and is a much stronger drink than the local beer in Burkina Faso, so perhaps they already know about the shape of the curve.

The second study, Flying vaccinator; a transgenic mosquito delivers a Leishmania vaccine via blood feeding, was published in the April 2010 issue of Insect Molecular Biology and conducted by Associate Professor Shigeto Yoshida and his research team from Jichi Medical University. Unfortunately, there are ethical issues with using wild mosquitoes (are there domesticated ones?) to transmit a vaccine.  How would the pharmas get paid for it, for example?  Oh, yeah, that is not an ethical issue so much as an economical one.  In all seriousness, it does sound like this idea may be years away if it ever gets off the ground (no pun intended).  The mere fact that they did successfully use the mosquito’s saliva to deliver the payload, however, does hold promise for other therapies in the future.

Malaria is a very serious problem worldwide, affecting hundreds of millions of people each year and killing millions, mostly sub-Saharan children.  If you took the time to read this, please think about helping to stop this disease and perhaps contributing to a worthy organization.  It is money well spent. Also, if you are traveling to areas where malaria is a risk, learn about which preventive medicine is right for you and make sure that you take it.

Photo info: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trebol_a/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
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Posted in Destinations, Malaria, Medical Conditions, News and Trends, Vaccinations | 1 Comment »

Lactose Intolerant? — No cure for intolerance in France

Friday, March 19th, 2010 by

HTH Worldwide’s COO is in France today and just sent me an urgent email from his BlackBerry.  His daughter needs Lactaid®, but they can’t find it anywhere.  It would seem that a country that is the world’s largest exporter, the third largest producer and, most importantly, the second largest consumer of cheese would have discovered the benefits of Lactaid®, a dietary supplement that contains a natural lactase enzyme that helps you break down lactose. 

From my research, Lactaid® is only available in the U.S. and Canada.  There is a great forum discussion that took place in 2005 on Wordreference.com on the subject.  It talks about the history of Europe and dairy farming, lactose facts (there is more in milk and ice cream, less in cheese, especially hard cheeses), lactose intolerance levels in different geographic regions and even the availability of public restrooms in Paris.  For a much more scientific background, check out the Wikipedia lactose intolerance page.

I am now more aware than ever of lactose intolerance and even learned that February is Lactose Intolerance Awareness Month.  I will try not to miss the exciting events next year (things like “Be kind to your bloated, uncomfortable, and sometimes odoriferous workmate” or “Promote a no-cone zone in your lunchroom”). 

If you have no tolerance for lactose, don’t leave the U.S. and Canada without your own supply of Lactaid!

Photo info: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annamatic3000/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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Posted in Medical Conditions, Travel Tips | Comments »

Spring Break Healthy Cruise Tips – You may not be green with envy

Friday, March 19th, 2010 by

I admit that I am prone to seasickness.  Even though I once participated in competitive sailing, it seems that any time I am on a boat that isn’t moving a whole lot, or is stuck in an ocean of swells, I turn green.  Being seasick is one of the worst feelings, mostly because there is no place to go for relief.  You are stuck on the boat and literally need to ride it out.  Due to this history of mine (I once got sick the night before a fishing trip just dreaming about the day ahead), I was a little hesitant to jump on board the decision to take a family cruise to the Caribbean for spring break.  Also contributing to this hesitancy is the fact that I had read the late David Foster Wallace’s title essay in “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” many years ago.  This decidedly negative piece that he wrote for Harper’s recounted his experiences on a one week trip aboard a cruise ship.

However, after a little research I learned that the large size of the ships and the generally good weather conditions this time of year in the Caribbean drastically reduce the chance of my getting seasick.  I will still be prepared by taking along some Bonine, vitamin B6 and ginger – all common treatments for nausea. There is also scopolamine, which is a prescription drug normally used in the form of a small, circular, transdermal patch worn behind the ear.  It is also available in pill form.  I am not worried enough to go that route, however.

What worries me far more is a little thing called norovirus.  It seems that as soon as we booked our trip, I started reading about horrible outbreaks of illness on cruise ships.  Doing a quick Google News search for “+norovirus +cruise” turns up 859 hits in the last day!  A small sampler of headlines:

  • More than 300 fall sick on Caribbean cruise
  • Stomach bug hits cruise ships
  • Outbreaks of stomach illness hit four cruise ships in one week
  • Charleston cruise returns early after third norovirus outbreak
  • Sick ships: cruises see rise in norovirus cases

Countering this concern was information from the CDC that outbreaks had been dropping in recent years: 34 in 2006, 21 in 200, and 15 each in 2008 and 2009.  However, 2010 is tracking about 50% ahead of those last two years.  The CDC has a web page listing the outbreaks by ship.  I won’t jinx our ship by naming it here, but it had an outbreak in 2006.  Luckily, it was the only one listed.  I will be going over all of the cruising tips provided by the CDC with my family repeatedly and keeping my fingers crossed.  I also will be packing some Purell with my Bonine.

I will be sure to follow up with a post on how the trip went.  Hopefully, the post will focus on non-health related issues.

Photo info: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stjone/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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Posted in Cruise Ship Health and Safety, Travel Tips | 1 Comment »

Geoalcoholics – Russia’s unhappy truth

Friday, February 26th, 2010 by

Earlier this month, we posted about Russia’s heavy alcohol consumption levels as a follow up to our Healthy Planet Index.  It turns out that Russians may be what Alex De Jonge has called “geoalcoholics” in his book “Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union.” 

This discovery all stemmed (no pun intended) from a link that Tyler Cowan posted on the Marginal Revolution blog.  It turns out that Europe has three fairly distinct alcohol belts – wine to the south, beer in the middle and vodka up north.  Much can be explained from climate and history, and the post on Strange Maps says it all, or at least a lot.  There is always more at Wikipedia, but I love the Terry Pratchett quotation and comment at the end of the Strange Maps post, “Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it. And grapes, grain and potatoes.”

Whoever could have known that a belt of alcohol was more than just a drink?

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Posted in Destinations | 3 Comments »

Healthy Travel App Rap

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 by

This post introduces a new weekly feature of the Healthy Travel Blog – App Rap.  Each week we will attempt to post about the latest travel apps that focus on health and safety.  It may not always be easy to find relevant information for this series, but this week is what some call a ‘no-brainer’, and I won’t even talk about the soon-to-be introduced iPad tablet from Apple.

Of course, the Haiti earthquake has been the big news ever since it first hit back on the 12th.  CNN recently reported about a survivor who relied on his iPhone while he was waiting to be rescued.  Aside from a phone’s normal functions, his iPhone had an app from Jive Media called Pocket First Aid & CPR that enabled him to treat his wounds with confidence.  He also used his phone’s alarm to wake him up every twenty minutes, as the app had warned him not to sleep if he was experiencing shock.  While there are other free apps that duplicate some of this information, this one is particularly comprehensive and well worth the $3.99 price.  It even includes the ability to load personal medical details for you and your family members.

In other news, I read about a free app from Dr. Sam Pejham called AsthmaMD.  While the features that allow users to log their asthma attacks, medications, and peak flow meter readings and then send them on to their physician are useful, I was most intrigued by its ability to aggregate data across users.  Because its data is real-time and location-based, this app can become an amazing source of data for asthma researchers.  Sure, it might be cool to receive a location-specific coupon on your phone as you walk past a store, but this app, along the lines of IBM’s “Smarter Planet” initiative, uses this data in much more significant ways.

Finally, in an update to our previous posts on mPassport, HTH Worldwide has launched its second destination, mPassport London.  By the end of March, there will be twenty destinations available!  London is currently free, so please download it, check it out, and let us know what you think.

We will be doing in-depth app reviews in the future, so also send us your favorite, and we will give you our take on it.

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Posted in Travel Health & Safety iPhone Apps | Comments »

The Year, I mean, Decade In Review

Thursday, December 31st, 2009 by

I guess I drew the short straw.  Here it is the last day of the year, and I have been tasked with writing the pivotal year-end post.  Except that this year, it is the pivotal decade-ending post.  I realize that today is not the last day of the first decade of the third millennium.  As many others have pointed out, there was no year 0, so technically the year 2000 was the end of the second millennium, and we won’t complete the first decade of the third until the last day of 2010.  I will, however, go with the flow and cave in to the lower standard that seems to prevail in the mainstream media.

This decade was marked by many changes.  The Wall Street Journal’s article by Alan Murray titled “A 10-Year Dose of Reality” offered up a view focused on the economy and business with bubbles, scandals and global upheaval, but also highlighted that this decade saw the largest reduction in poverty ever, the emergence and growth of world-changing new technologies and the election of our first black president.  He also threw in Susan Boyle for good measure.

Given that the Healthy Travel Blog has somewhat of a focus (I have been accused of trying to derail this sometimes), I will address the advances we have seen in medicine in this decade.  I could also choose terrorism, travel security (somewhat in the news today), pandemics, climate change and natural disasters, but didn’t.

I am not going to reinvent the wheel when ABC News, in collaboration with MedPage Today, has already conducted a large survey and process to figure out the top 10 medical advances of the decade.  Their authoritative list is:

  1. Human Genome Mapping
  2. Doctors and Patients Harness Information Technology
  3. Anti-Smoking Laws and Campaigns Reduce Public Smoking
  4. Heart Disease Deaths Drop by 40 Percent
  5. Stem Cell Research: Laboratory Breakthroughs and Some Clinical Advances
  6. Targeted Therapies for Cancer Expand With New Drugs
  7. Combination Drug Therapy Extends HIV Survival
  8. Minimally Invasive Techniques Revolutionize Surgery
  9. Study Finds Heart, Cancer Risk With Hormone Replacement Therapy
  10. Scientists Peer Into Mind With Functional MRI

Items 1, 2, 5, 6 and 10 seem mostly focused on the future.  3, 4, 7 and 8 are in full force now, and 9 is really a finding that past practices had big unknown risks.  Number 7 stands out for me through a personal connection.  My brother-in-law, an internist in Philadelphia, has told me how great the change has been in the United States for patients with HIV/AIDS.  Instead of a ward filled with dying patients, he now treats patients with a chronic condition well-managed by a pharmaceutical cocktail.  Outside of the U.S. the biggest advances have been in the reduction of transmission rates.  New advances are being worked on with vaccines and gene therapy.

What do you think was the biggest advance in the last decade?  How about the biggest challenge for the future?  Let us know by leaving a comment, and we will follow up in more detail.

Here’s hoping that the next decade brings peace to the world and progress for all.  Happy New Year!

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wohinauswandern/4231050474 / CC BY 2.0

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Posted in Global Medicine, News and Trends | Comments »

The 787 Dreamliner – maybe not just in your dreams anymore

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 by

787 DreamlinerToday is follow-up post day! 

Boeing’s hope for the future successfully completed its maiden flight yesterday.   The 787 Dreamliner, as mentioned here in November, has many new features that will improve passenger comfort.  We were most excited about the change in how it maintains cabin air pressure and how this benefits passengers through improved air quality.

Just as with the Fitbit Tracker, but infinitely more important to our economy, the Dreamliner has been beset by delay after delay during its development and testing period.  I hope that this first flight will help them get through the final testing phase and into ramped-up production.   They have a backlog of 865 on order – that’s equivalent to a little over 1.5 billion Fitbits (in dollars) and will definitely help put some people back to work.

Photo by: marada http://www.flickr.com/photos/marada/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

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Follow Up – Tracking the Fitbit Tracker

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 by

Fitbit TrackerI saw that the New York Times had an article on the Fitbit Tracker last week and wanted to post a short follow up for our readers.

We first mentioned that the Fitbit Tracker was shipping back in September.   We were impressed by the device’s size, features and price (not to mention that is has no monthly fee after the purchase, unlike many of its competitors).

Unfortunately, we discovered late in October that their planned shipping date had slipped from the end of October to the end of January.  We also lamented back then that their initial openness with the development and production of the tracker had disappeared.  There have been no updates to their blog since September, and the last posted comment was in late October.

The NYT article, however, was confusing at best on this issue.  It seems that the company may be communicating with some of their pre-order customers directly, but one of these potential consumers stated that he hadn’t “heard anything yet” while maintaining “They’ve been really open and transparent about where they are in the process, and that’s made it easier to tolerate the wait.”  I’m hoping that the Fitbit is fit for prime time delivery soon and that it works as advertised.

As for consumer interest, there are eleven on sale at eBay today, with two featuring “Buy It Now” prices of around $250.  That is quite a bit more than the $99 price for someone with patience, but it speaks to the interest that people have in this device.  eBay lists twenty (20) having been sold for prices between $162.50 and $405.  Perhaps some of these are destined to sit under the trees of some lucky recipients.

On a bit of related news, I learned recently about Zeo, a “Personal Sleep Coach”, that made its debut back in June.  This seems to be much more comprehensive than the Fitbit in its sleep monitoring functionality but comes at a much steeper price – either $249 plus $7.95/month (or $79.95/year) for access to guided coaching or $349 with lifetime access built-in.  The $349 price makes sense if you plan to use this for a while, and if you think the company has staying power.

Photo by player x http://www.flickr.com/photos/playerx/ / CC BY 2.0
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Posted in Technology | 2 Comments »

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