“If you build it, he will come,” Shoeless Joe whispers to Ray in the baseball class movie, Field of Dreams. Ray then takes a leap of faith, building a baseball field on top of his corn fields there in the middle of Iowa, and miracles happen.

Will it take a miracle for people to adopt health apps? A panel, now in the midst of PanelPicking as one of many Interactive sessions for South-by-Southwest 2011 (SXSW), will respond to that question. The panel is called,

Health: Is There Really an App for That?

Voting ends midnight CDT on Friday, August 27, 2010.

We’ll talk about the proliferation of health and medical apps, and discuss what will drive meaningful use (not in the PPACA sense!) of these tools by “real” people. In this case, meaningful use means adopting, using, and sticking with the apps to drive meaningful personal change and measureable, healthy outcomes. And that will require savvy design, informed by real-peoples’ needs, desires, and motivations.

We’ve assembled a panel that gets this challenge. Sharing that panel with me, if the votes fall in our favor, will be:

BJ Fogg, director of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. BJ co-wrote the seminal book, Texting4Health, researchers how technology can nudge us toward better health behaviors, and consults with clients the world over on these issues. Follow him on Twitter @bjfogg.

Margaret (Margie) Morris of Intel creates apps for people to use to get and stay healthy. She’s   Follow her on Twitter in several ways: @margiemem, @IntelLabs, @Intel.

Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, works globally on media, online and technology trends for clients such as PepsiCo, Zagat, Unilever, and Microsoft. Edelman launched the Health Engagement Barometer in 2008, and the company’s Digital Division knows health. Follow Steve on Twitter @steverubel.

And if you’re reading this blog, you already know ‘me.’

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  Please do vote for our panel at the SWSW site by midnight CDT on August 27. If you give us a “thumbs-up,” that will count in our favor and help us win a spot at this important conference, on this important topic. Thanks for your support…and hope to see you in Austin in March 2011!