This is an exciting week for Usable Health, as we kick off a commercial partnership with local Atlanta restaurant chain, Tin Drum!

Starting this week, customers at Tin Drum’s Midtown restaurant can get healthy menu recommendations and order through the interactive Usable Health Kiosk. In the past three days alone, we’ve had nearly 300 unique orders placed through the kiosk, and we’re on pace to more than double that number by the end of the week.

If you live or work in midtown Atlanta, please visit Tin Drum and experience our personalized, health-based menu ordering service for yourself. For a limited time, you’ll get a 10 percent discount on all purchases made through the kiosk.

Also, if you love the experience, please help us by spreading the word! Tell your friends, family and co-workers to check out this great promotion today.

What are some examples of unusable healthcare advice? Is the advice given out by health aggregators like WebMD really usable? The wonderful Catherine and Brian from http://indiabetesdoc.com are keeping me honest with such questions in this four and a half minute clip - Jiten.

If you haven’t heard, the First Lady recently announced a campaign to end childhood obesity in America.

That’s right. Michelle Obama is challenging us all to improve child nutrition and physical activity. What’s really exciting about the campaign, however, is that this is the first time in memory that such a big societal problem is being “crowd sourced” by the federal government. Instead of pretending to have the right answer, our government is asking entrepreneurs, health experts, and software engineers around the country to address the issue by developing web-and mobile-based apps for kids (and their parents). Well, we’re pleased to announce that Usable Health has thrown a hat into the ring. Jiten entered a fun, kid-friendly version of our nutrition coaching software into the contest. It’s called “Dr. J Says.”

Please show your support by visiting the Apps for Healthy Kids website today, and voting for Dr. J Says!

You can also try our app for yourself by clicking here.

How is choosing what to order at a restaurant similar to finding your soulmate? The prospective candidates for both should be affordable and not give you a heart attack! Find out more in this standup style presentation I gave at Ignite Atlanta on the obesity epidemic. A big thank you to the IgniteATL team for letting me present on a topic I am passionate about and to Patrick at friendlyhuman.com for putting this video together - Jiten

Just last week, the US Departments of Agriculture and Health & Human Services announced the release of the Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. This is big news, if you are someone who follows food industry trends and, like us, are passionate about public health promotion through better nutrition. The report is the work of 13 independent health policy experts, whose recommendations will likely set the course for new federal rules affecting food labeling, marketing, and distribution for the next five to ten years.

Not surprisingly, the report acknowledges the shortcomings of current nutrition policies aimed at reducing obesity, hypertension, and heart disease. It also draws attention to something health care providers have long understood: most Americans do not follow published dietary guidelines. While the committee has published an ambitious “call to action” that seeks to address huge, systemic issues that affect the dietary and physical activity habits of Americans, it overlooks many public-private sector opportunities to promote healthy behavior change through better, consumer-oriented tools and technologies.

Striking in its scope, the advisory committee recommends, among other things: improving nutritional standards in public schools, regulating food marketing to children, elevating nutrition literacy and cooking skills, increasing environmentally sustainable production of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and encouraging restaurants to offer foods that are low in sodium.

Certainly, these are all great goals. But, as matters of policy, how quickly will they be implemented? Most likely, not for a while. And, aren’t there other, more cost effective ways we can help Americans to make better dietary choices in the near term? We think so.