Manhunt places official badges on health profiles

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STDtest.org will challenge STD & HIV testing norms

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently threw a wrench in their grantmaking process with the advent of the Changemakers supported open source competition titled: Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care: Solutions people want.

ISIS has entered a proposal to expand STDtest.org to include gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and herpes in addition to syphilis. STDtest.org will allow people to receive FREE STD and HIV testing by printing out a lap slip, going to a local test site and then retrieving results online. HIV results will be given over the phone. The service smashes barriers to sexual health care that many people experience...those who cannot afford basic tests or those who rather not speak to a doctor about their history will have access to the tests they need in order to know their STD and HIV status.

Please comment on the ISIS / STDtest.org proposal to keep the dialog going and attract attention to this crucial "disruption technology."

So far there are 150 amazing entries from 23 countries all aimed at transforming health care and health care delivery through technology. The entry period ends tomorrow (last chance to comment on the entries), followed by a four period week period where the finalists are narrowed down to 12. Then there will be a two week period ending Aug 29 with the announcement of the winners. $5,000 will be given to three winners, with the potential of 5 million dollars for the project(s) with the most potential impact.

Help make STDtest.org a winner!

MyBlackBook popularity grows

I blogged this a while back, but it is really nice to see MyBlackBook catching on. 2032+ people have signed up to keep track of their sex lives. The site makes its purpose very clear:

"What happens if you find out you have an STD? How do you know who to notify? Well, some people, both male and female keep track of whom they have slept with either in a little diary or notebook. However, this has always posed a security flaw - what if someone finds it?? Well, MyBlackBook has solved that problem by creating The Internet's First Secure and Confidential Online Sexual History Tracker!"


It's free to sign up, and easy to add an entry or session. The pull down menus are pretty rigid in some categories (like you have to be male or female and either straight, bi or gay), but the each entry also gives plenty of room for embellishing, including over a dozen "activities" to select that you tried and also nearly a dozen sexual positions to choose from.

Two extra features stand out on this site.

1. VDNote provides a risk assessment as a percent chance that you will acquire each listed STI based on your personal entries. After entering one fictitious unprotected encounter where I "had anal sex" I had a 2.91% chance of getting herpes, 0.01% chance of getting syphilis, etc. Therhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gife is a disclaimer, which I was relieved to see. I think the idea might help some realize their risk for STIs in general, but cannot paint a realistic picture of what to worry about. The site also does not mention HIV/AIDS.

2. Graphs provide a visual representation of your monthly sexual activity, hourly sexual activity (as in do you do it at night or in the morning?) and a pie chart of the sexual positions that you do. If these were constructed differently, or addressed different aspects of the sex you're having, then they could be better risk management tools. As they are now, they might just state the obvious right back to you. For example: yes I like 'reverse cowgirl' and yes, I like it in the morning.

The forums hold some gems, but the site could really pack a punch if they also talked about what to do with all the saved info if/when you do get an STI. I am making the suggestion to them. This is their chance to reach this particular record-keeping group.

Check out the press release.

Update: MyBlackBook now links to InSPOT.org. Yay!

inSPOT adds FL, NYC, MN, Seattle and Toronto

We've been busy at ISIS that last few months replicating inSPOTs, our peer to peer online partner notification system for STIs and HIV.

New to the list are Florida, New York City, Minnesota, Seattle and Toronto.

For those of you unfamiliar with inSPOT, the service has two main features.
1. If you test positive for an STI or HIV, you can send an e-card, anonymous or not, to your partner(s) who you may have exposed.
2. The e-card recipient is linked directly to a map of local clinics and detailed information about the infectious agent that they may have been exposed to.

What does it take to make an inSPOT you ask?

• We verify every clinic's hours of operation, location, services, fees, populations served, insurance details and tests offered by phone to make sure that it is up to date and reliable for e-card recipients (or anyone who uses inSPOT to locate a clinic).
• We create a custom map searchable by zip code/postal code, county/province and by region.
• We compile an area specific resource list for each new area.
• Other tech-y details of course
  

Will the list keep growing?

• There are 5 more in the pipes. Your area may be next.

It is important to understand that the e-cards can be used by anyone in any jurisdiction. For the recipient not located in a city/state there are alternative ways to find clinics in your area.

In CA, the California Family Health Council (CFHC) list title X clinics searchable by zip code. Title X is the only federal program devoted to provision of family planning and reproduction health care. Title X clinics provide patient education and counseling; breast and pelvic exams; STD, HIV and cervical cancer screenings; and pregnancy counseling and diagnosis.

For STI testing outside of CA, if title X status doesn't matter to you, or if you rather talk to a person call the CDC hotline:

(800) 342-2437 or (800) 227-8922 for English,

(800) 344-7432 for Spanish or

(800) 243-7889 for TTY service.

The wait isn't that long and I got three reliable clinic referrals when I called.

For HIV testing:
HIVTest.org is the CDCs HIV testing clinic finder. Searchable by city, county, state, zip code, and type of testing offered (oral, anonymous, confidential, free). Very comprehensive.

CheckTonight.com - hookup insurance?

CheckTonight.com is hooking up with online dating sites to provide negative test result verification. Well, so far, the list of participating sites isn't that impressive (Atomicmen being the biggest). While the move to do this among dating sites is good, there are some definite issues. It is also a bit disappointing that the group taking this plunge seems to vilify, if only slightly, anyone who may already be positive, with the prominent text: "Show You Tested Negative for HIV and Optionally Other STDs." It also offers zero mention of window periods.

Here's what signing up was like for me:
1. First join a lesser known hookup site (ha!)
2. Register at CheckTonight.com. (which includes downloading and faxing a HIPAA form).
3. Find a suitable place to get tested (you can use their search tool, or see a private doc).
4. If you choose one of the Labcorp testing sites, pick which tests you want. Here's the kicker for the insurance-less:
Full panel: HIV, herpes, Hepc, chlamydia, gonnorhea, syphilis $369!!Or you can choose specific ones. Syphilis alone is the cheapest at $32, chlamydia/gonorrhea is $174. And so on...
5. Then sign another HIPAA form releasing CheckTonight.com to receive your test results. (It's okay for minors to use the service, but an adult is supposed to sign the form, electronically though).
6. Enter credit card info, billing address.
7. I didn't go any further...but you get the point. A lot of steps.

Here's the list of steps in their words.

So what is promised after your test results are faxed back to CheckTonight.com?
1. Positive results are not kept or posted anywhere. A nice list of resources are given.
2. Negative results receive a badge (including test date) that can be posted on a very select list of dating sites, or a social networking site that accepts html (I'm assuming that it is a basic html badge).


So, my two cents are:
Can the badges be stolen, doctored and repasted elsewhere?
Why not encourage HIV+ folks to test for STDs?

I would love to hear comments about this from readers...

Update: Atomicmen has gone out on a limb to try something that some of us in public health have been asking for for a long time. Checktonight is imperfect, but Atomicmen's attitude and willingness to improve is on target:

"...CheckTonight ... is willing to work with Atomicmen on making the site more friendly so any feedback is welcome. I appreciate all feedback and knowledge and would encourage anyone to help in the education of those who are not understanding of anyones "fears", but that door swings both ways. I think that direct reaction to something with out investigation can also be fear based and should allow for the passing back and forth of ideas to make sites like CheckTonight more approachable to those who seem offended. Andrew at CheckTonight is willing to work with organizations to make his organization more open and honest in it's presentation..."

Dotmen.net - man hunting tools of the future

The STOP AIDS Project, a San Francisco fixture since 1985, is dedicated to preventing HIV transmission among gay and bisexual men. Yesterday marked the launch of their new website Dotmen.net.

Feeding off their recent realignment towards a more structural approach, Dotmen.net provides tools for finessing your online hunt, tips for staying safe when hooking up (including from identity theft and muggings), and commentary about trends and language in the hookup world.

Hookinguponline.org, an older ISIS project, is decidedly less gadget based, and offers hookup safety gems in brief a slide show. The site was an adaptation from image-based print materials, which speaks to the image based presentation.

Regardless of approach, both sites aim to help folks who hookup online make better choices. For the more tech savvy crowd, increased search capability could help you find the sharpest needle in the haystack. For the cruisers without a minute to spare, Hookinguponline.org has all the tidbits you need to keep you on your toes.

Online Clinic Listings - STD, HIV, contraception, etc.

If you need an HIV test, STD screening or contraception and family planning services where can you go? Many of us are familiar with what's in our own neighborhoods and where we can go, but in rural areas it's not always that easy. It can be even more challenging if you are seeking confidential services.

Here are some resources we know of. If you have a search tool you use let us know so we can add to this list for clinic sleuths nationwide.

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The California Family Health Council (CFHC) list title X clinics searchable by zip code. Title X is the only federal program devoted to provision of family planning and reproduction health care. Title X clinics provide patient education and counseling; breast and pelvic exams; STD, HIV and cervical cancer screenings; and pregnancy counseling and diagnosis.

HIVTest.org is the CDCs HIV testing clinic finder. Searchable by city, county, state, zip code, and type of testing offered (oral, anonymous, confidential, free).

InSPOT.org, the peer-to-peer STD and HIV notification system has clinic search functionality. Each city or state has a map with clickable regions. Shown above is Minnesota, the latest to launch. InSPOT clinics are searchable three ways.

What can we do with Wiffiti?

If you're reading this, I hope you didn't miss the Wiffiti on the right side of this page. Too many people today have asked that the hell it is. I'm starting to wonder myself. Regardless it's fun, and could have some powerful uses in public health/health communications if executed correctly (I think).

So what is it? It's a screen that you can put anywhere that people can send text messages too and have them be visible to anyone who is watching the screen. Right now it's embedded in my blog, and if you click on the mini version in the left sidebar you'll be taken to a larger screen on the Wiffiti sight. If I wanted I could feed it to a gigantic screen at an event, or display it on a laptop at a coffee shop. Get it? The Wiffiti blog explains it better than I do.

How do you use it? Send a text message to 25622. In the body of the message type @isisinc. After @isisinc add your message. If I wanted to say "what's up?" the body of my text message would read: @isisinc what's up?

So what can you do with it? Lots of things I suppose, but are there uses in public health, particularly STD and HIV prevention? Sexual health? Here are some of my ideas. Please add yours.

1. Text the location of services at large spring break events, such as where condoms can be found, or clinical services like STD testing.
2. Use in a classroom setting as a silent brainstorming tool.
3. Embed in a website and use as an easy way to get feedback from people about your projects, artwork, web design, etc.
4. Use as a billboard in an urban area with designated people updating it with prevention messages. Perhaps using a health department sponsor.

Are these boring? What do you think? Post your thoughts here or on my Wiffiti. Click the pink arrow to activate.

Planned Parenthood Pill Patrol

A kick ass move by Planned Parenthood's Save Roe campaign. The Pill Patrol is a an action tool that anyone can use to expose pharmacies with bad emergency contraception policies.

First: Find a pharmacy in your area (or several) with a simiple zip code search.

Second: Put on you secret shopper hat and ask for emergency contraception (Plan B) at that pharmacy using your downloadable Toolkit guide.

Third: Report back what happened on the Pill Patrol site. Eh em, "when we verify that a pharmacy refuses to provide EC, we'll alert you immediately and ask for your help. We'll demand meetings with the offending pharmacy. We ill apply pressure through rallies, letter-writing campaigns, and advertisements in local newspapers. We will make sure that women everywhere have every chance to prevent unintended pregnancy. "

The site has a Toolkit that can be downloaded that has a sample dialog to help seek the information that will be important to others, including tactful ways to ask why a pharmacy MAY NOT be carrying Plan B.

You can sign up for alerts via text message or email or both. I signed up with my cell to see what their text strategy is all about.

Ask Dr. K if you really want to know

A great resource that I have yet to write about is the Ask Dr. K column on the San Francisco City Clinic website. Dr. K (Dr. Jeff Klausner) is the Director of STD prevention and control services at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. His staff, including us at ISIS, help with writing, editing and column accuracy. Here are links to a few good ones:

Oral sex, anal sex and HIV

All about PEP

Yellow stain on underwear = STD?

Size matters for anal sex?

First time annual exam

Kissing and cunnilingus

Ebarrassed about HPV

Even if your question doesn't make it to the website, most are personally answered by City Clinic staff. Have a burning question? Give it a try.

"DRNK. FLNG CRZY,HOT,NKD. U?"

So we all catch on at a different speeds...especially with technology. Mark Morford's article in the SF Chronicle today titled "Wanna hook up? Let your thumbs do the dialing," made me laugh, but the way he wrote about SEXINFO, an ISIS project, did not.

It is no surprise that text messaging is used like other forms of communication to bring people together, be it for a drink, a meeting, or sex. Have a gander:

"The trends now appear and disappear so quickly, nothing is really definitive or permanent or actually essential to know. It's all just a shifting throbbing mutating gob of gizmo and sex and desire and potential heartbreak, pouring over the culture like some sort of sticky bittersweet Wi-Fi-enabled honey. Same as it ever was, just with fewer vowels and lots more tendinitis."

"And so maybe I can simply wait for the next wave, the next mode of hot tech hookup whateverthehellitis, which I imagine will be arriving any second now, if not sooner. Instant cell phone video clips? Bluetooth-enabled pineal gland implants? Viagra misters/thong detectors in the new iPhone? We'll just have to see. Can someone please text me when it arrives?"

I think the twitters, the dodgeballs, and the justintvs will have their year in the sun. Text messaging is different. It's like a landline, like a computer, like a TTY. The way we use it will change, but the tool has stuck.

Wrap it up NYC - sweet sweet city condoms

Normally I wouldn't blog this because it's not exactly technology related (although at one moment in time condoms were new), except the website is super rad and the general idea even radder. I couldn't resist.

The simple animations of New Yorkers humping in high rises, and gabbing on the bridge are awesome, and the list of spots where you can pick up free condoms is a goldmine (for those online at least).

What city will hop on next?

Update: Nordstorm did the website design and branding.

SEXINFO wins a Techie from Grassroots.org!

SEXINFO, ISIS-Inc's (with SF DPH support) San Francisco-based text messaging service for youth, has won a Techie from Grassroots.org. Our prize you ask? We get a $1000 travel scholarship to attend the Non-profit Technology Conference in DC next week, promotional space on both the NTEN and Grassroots.org websites, and a sculpture! We will also be showcasing InSPOT.org along with SEXINFO at the Innovations Plaza during the conference, handing out other project related print materials, giving SEXINFO and InSPOT demonstrations, and handing out condoms.

Yay.

Pronto, let's do it

I saw this on WIRED (one of my favorite sex/tech blogs) and also found these great little demo videos (here and here) that show how easy the condom is to put on. You can also watch these on the prontocondom website. The project isn't actually that new in South Africa, as the site has been up since january 06, and the condoms distributed for a while (and displayed in NYC at MoMA)

So, potentially, no more opening it with your teeth, and no more wondering which side is which. Think it will take? Give feedback here.

The condom contracption also won a "dezeen" award for being the "Most beautiful object" in South Africa by Dutch designer Jurgen Bey.

Black books...let's count!

I used to try and keep a running tally of everyone I've ever made out with. A good friend of mine had been trying all her kissing life to kiss someone with a first name starting with each letter of the alphabet. For her this meant once grabbing a cab driver in New York named Xavier and giving him some tongue to snag that hard to reach X. Regardless, I lost count of my own alphbetical kisses. So, my little black book could have helped me. So its for listing when you do-it, but hey, it would have helped me count how many letters I have left.

Another little black book program can be downloaded at Californiamen.net, a non-cruisy place for gay and queer guys who hookup online. This little black book takes it one step further and includes a basic risk assessment. If you record an encounter that oversteps your self-defined risk level, you are sent a kind reminder to get and STD or HIV check.

What's helpful about both of these is that you can list all sorts of info about your conquests, including their phone number, email etc. If you're a happy hussy that could come in handy if you ever get an STD and need to do the courteous thing...tell them.

KIDS Act of 2007 -- Pfft!

Of all the plans to weed out sexual predators in online spaces such as Myspace, this has got to be the worst idea. This Bill (called "Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007" or "KIDS Act of 2007") proposes that registered sex offenders hand over their email addresses, IM handles, etc to authorities so that they can be provided to network sites who will then give them the boot. The bill says that non-compliance could cost an offender up to 10 years in prison.

Another piece of the bill that seems randomly sandwiched in, is about misrepresented ages. If an offender is caught misrepresenting their age with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with a minor, it could get them 20 years.

So, I'm all about protecting kids, who isn't? That's precisely why these creepy plans can slip right through the do-gooder voters. My questions are: What idiot wouldn't submit one address and then use another? (Even sex offenders are smart, jeez) And, proving "intent to have sex with a minor..." come on, that's just one more thing in place to ensure that folks will never be rehabilitated or allowed to join society ever again (read: cruel). Did anyone see Little Children?

Come on, eavesdrop

When you hook up with someone for the first time, how do you decide how safe to be? How does being super high affect your ability to protect yourself? How do you wade through the guys who all want to party if you would rather be stoned than rubbing yourself raw all night? ISIS, Inc. and the SFDPH have partnered to ask a few gay/queer/bi men these questions, record them, and spit it back at you.

To our surprise the podcasts have already reached number 14 on itunes in the sexuality section, so we're happy. Not all of the story tellers are posted yet, so there's something to look forward to if this is your thing.

HIV/AIDS Video Game

Kaiser Family Foundation and mtvU are offering $75,000 in development and marketing support and a $5,000 prize to a college student who can pitch the best HIV/AIDS awareness viral video game (application here).

"Successfull ideas must:

1. Raise awareness about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among 15-24 year olds in the United States and educate about key methods of prevention and risk reduction.
2. Identify ways to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, with a focus on personal action.
3. Address the silence, stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS.
4. Be interactive and able to live and be spread online.

Keep the following in consideration:

1. Be hopeful and empowering.
2. Entertain and engage the audience.
3. Not stigmatize or stereotype high risk groups.
4. Be unique and not afraid to push the envelope.
5. Be original to entrants and not have been released commercially in order to be eligible for consideration in this contest."

To my knowledge, no video game has been shown to be an effective public health intervention. By taking advantage of the target audience, and harnessing their promotion powers (read: ability to click send) there may be a shot at creating some buzz. If the problem with most interventions aimed at youth has been that no one sees it, the viral approach a la "Where the Hell is Matt" or "Darfur is Dying" or any Snakes on a Plane hubbub is a good start, as well as partnering with MTV. Anything that says, in not as many words, "from your health department" will never be cool enough to share.

A game that could visualize kids' social/sexual networks with a creative HIV transmission dynamics overlay would keep my attention. But a 15 year old...? Who knows.

GVTV

You have to love sex dorks. You really do. Folks at Good Vibrations in San Francisco (Berkeley too) started a serious of Youtube shorts, with topics ranging from my personal favorite, Puppet Explain Fetishes to the Basics of Harnesses to Pot Meet Kettle. In Pot and Kettle, Good Vibes Bloggers, Pot and Kettle, answer eachother's questions about being a 'gay girl' or a 'gay boy,' which was how their blog was born (which actually shares some space on Carol Queen's blog).

Were you surprised when you got yours?

It surprises me that more people aren't blogging about inSPOT. At least I thought there would be some bloggers out there willing to write about receiving an inspot e-card. I guess that's also the beauty of it... if you get one of these puppies, no body has to know.

Spread the word folks. Take care of your hookups with many different cards to choose from. Telling them in person, or even testing together may be good choices too (right?), but if you have a lot of anonymous sex that just may be impossible.

Posts that contain Inspot per day for the last 30 days:

Get your own chart!