What's better for your health, "long ties" or "dense cluster?

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz on using social networks to change
health behavior.  Ron blogged earlier about Nicholas Christakis' book
Connected, this week a new research study came of out of MIT that shows that when it
comes to changing health behavior, having fewer friends that one knows
really well is better than having many friends whom one doesn't know well.

Professor Damon Centola from the MIT Sloan School of Management tracked
the number of people who registered for a health forum from two distinct
social networks.  In one social network, participants had "long ties" with
each other, meaning each participant knew many different people but didn't
know them well.  In the other social network, participants formed "dense
clusters," meaning each of them knew fewer people but knew them very well.

The study result showed 54% of the people from the dense clusters network
registered for the health forum and 38% from long ties network did.  This
study suggests that policies may be more effective when aimed at
communities and groups that act as clustered networks.

More about Professor Centola's study

Emerging technologies in infection control

Infection Control Today published an article detailing several emerging HAI prevention technologies this week. All were interesting, but a few really stood out to me:

1. HandGiene - This company developed an automated hand hygiene technology that uses RFID, wireless, web-based data collection and reporting software to provide real-time monitoring for handwashing activities of healthcare personnel. Given that many believe that more than 50% of all HAIs could be eliminated by handwashing, HandGiene has great potential to help hospitals reduce HAIs through higher hand hygiene compliance rates.

2. Activeion - Activeion's flagship product, the Ionator, uses a process called "irreversible electroporation" to kill germs and bacteria in tap water. The process does not require the use of chemicals and therefore is very environmentally friendly. The company has a cool video that shows how the process works.

3. Agion - I came across this company a couple of years ago. The company makes disinfectants using silver. One of their products, AgionSilverClene24, provides an attractive alternative to traditional surface disinfectants because it keeps surfaces clean longer and is effective against tougher bugs such as MRSA, VRE, HIV, and Influenza.

Finally, I attended the MIT 100K Business Plan Competition Final last month and this year's second place winner is a company called Novophage. They have engineered a bacteriophage that slows the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and thereby delays the onset of antibiotic resistance. The bacteriophages could be used in conjunction with traditional antibiotics to improve efficacy.