Record of Family Health Update Loop

Annual Review: Family Health Update Loop Performance Period: March 15 to April 17, 2021

Summary of Activity

The Family Health Update Loop is a group messaging thread comprising four to seven members, depending on how loosely family is defined for these purposes. The thread was created in March 2020. It remains active.

During the review period, the loop generated forty-three messages. Twenty-six of these messages were acknowledgments of prior messages. Nine were requests for clarification about prior messages. Six contained new information. Two were photographs of meals, included by a member who has not fully distinguished between this thread and another.

Performance Indicators

The loop's stated purpose is the exchange of health updates. Its actual purpose appears to be the maintenance of contact between people who would otherwise not contact each other except during emergencies or major holidays. These purposes are related but not identical.

Each member of the loop receives all messages and sends their own messages, which are received by all members, who respond to confirm receipt, which generates new messages requiring confirmation. This is the loop. It is functioning as designed.

Notable Findings

A message sent on April 3 asking whether anyone had been vaccinated received five responses. None of the five responses directly answered the question. Two contained questions in return. One contained a link to a news article about vaccine scheduling that all members had already read. One said "checking." The fifth was the photograph of the meal.

The question was rephrased and sent again on April 7. This generated three more messages. One of these contained a direct answer.

Assessment of Output Quality

The new information produced during the review period concerned two medical appointments, one test result, one follow-up appointment, and one piece of information about a member's neighbor that is technically health-adjacent.

The loop produces intimacy as a byproduct of administrative overhead, which is not how intimacy is typically described but may be how it actually works.

Recommendations

No changes are recommended at this time. The loop is performing within normal parameters for a system whose primary output is the assurance that all participants are still present and available to be updated.

Discontinuation of the loop has been proposed informally twice, once in the loop itself and once outside it. Both proposals were not acted on, which is itself a message of a kind.

Review Period Conclusion

The loop continues. This is the finding.