- Podcasting from Yale medical library-

Yale medical library published an interesting study-cum-project-cum-guide for use of screencasts and podcasts by medical learners.

The study finds many more off-campus users of the medical podcasts and videos than on-campus users. Not surprisingly, the cost benefits were very obvious. What i found particularly arresting was the suggestion of using only 1 to 3 minute long videos for teaching purposes. I would have thought that Ten minute videos would prove very effective. But apparently, yale students have difficulty viewing high quality content for more than a couple of minutes!!

See this slideshow for the complete report.

Screencasting and Podcasting: Experience of the Yale Medical Library

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: cla yale)

- Imaging technologies, Connectivity and the markets.-

Let the commoditization of medicine begin! | Trusted.MD Network

I was tempted to read this article, though the headlines(COMMODITIZATION of medicine) don't appeal to the Human rights aspect of my personality. I find the choice of word very cynical and it brings to question the motives of the author. But the services he describes are definitely noteworthy.

I believe the author talks about providing the best radiology service in the most cost-effective manner. Looked at it this way, the services provided by Nighthawk teleradiology services is a boon for patients.It has the potential for bringing down the costs of healthcare. Any measure taken to reduce health costs will benefit the patient, even if the healthcare is being provided via third party ( Insurance) paying for the service.

Telerays.com is a new service allowing bidding for radiology services. You can understand more about the process here.

Since radiology involves interpretation of digital images, it makes real sense to get the best doctors at the best prices (wherever they may be) by making good use of technology.. Simple economics here. And, i dont think quality will really suffer. After a few possible initial hiccups and pruning out of "sub-standard" opiners, I am sure only quality work will prevail.Quality radiologists will always get work, wherever they are. Teleradiology services now being woven into this kind of business model shall definitely be a positive step towards health rights.After all, "TIMELY, best possible quality healthcare for all without discrimination" is what health rights is all about, in essence.

Wonder when will a chunk of pathology services go this way. Very soon, i believe.

Imaging technologies, Connectivity and the markets.

Let the commoditization of medicine begin! | Trusted.MD Network


I was tempted to read this article, though the headlines(COMMODITIZATION of medicine) don't appeal to the Human rights aspect of my personality. I find the choice of word very cynical and it brings to question the motives of the author. But the services he describes are definitely noteworthy.


I believe the author talks about providing the best radiology service in the most cost-effective manner. Looked at it this way, the services provided by Nighthawk teleradiology services is a boon for patients.It has the potential for bringing down the costs of healthcare. Any measure taken to reduce health costs will benefit the patient, even if the healthcare is being provided via third party ( Insurance) paying for the service.


Telerays.com is a new service allowing bidding for radiology services. You can understand more about the process here.


Since radiology involves interpretation of digital images, it makes real sense to get the best doctors at the best prices (wherever they may be) by making good use of technology.. Simple economics here. And, i dont think quality will really suffer. After a few possible initial hiccups and pruning out of "sub-standard" opiners, I am sure only quality work will prevail.Quality radiologists will always get work, wherever they are. Teleradiology services now being woven into this kind of business model shall definitely be a positive step towards health rights.After all, "TIMELY, best possible quality healthcare for all without discrimination" is what health rights is all about, in essence.


Wonder when will a chunk of pathology services go this way. Very soon, i believe.

Also see http://teleradproviders.com/, a complete radiology diagnostic support from Dr. Sumer Sethi

- Web 2.0, Copyrights and Plagiarism-

the Web2.0 Rights project.

Web 2.0 has changed many things. But the most profound change, IMO, is in the field of Intellectual Property Rights.

New content is being created collaboratively, from distant locations. We now have the concepts of Joint authorship and joint ownership. Joint authorship means a work produced in collaboration by two or more people, where the contribution of one is NOT DISTINCT from other collaborators.The term joint ownership refers, in general, to a situation in which two or more persons share interests in property rights.Performers rights are another important field because of easy distribution of videos online (Youtube) . Many IPR theories have not yet been tried in court, especially in use of deep linking, embedding of content and use of crowd sourced content.

When one talks of IPR, how can talk of plagiarism stay far behind?

According to Wikipedia, Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the
language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them
as one's own original work. Plagiarism is a huge problem in schools with thousands of students passing off content from the web as their own content. But it is now quite simple to detect frank plagiarism. One way is to use "" quotation marks and search within google. Advanced search features of google allow for better search of copycats.You can learn using gogle to detect internet plagiarism on this link of Marywood university Library.

You can check whether your own content is being copied elsewhere by using copyrightspot.com. You can also download free software for detection of plagiarism here.(University of Virginia).

You can access useful links to sites on Plagiarism here.

This link talks of everything related to IPR in the Web 2.0 environment. Check it out.

- Imaging techniques in Pathology-

Israel's ASI gives pathologists a vital second opinion - ISRAEL21c

-I have written previously about the subjectivity involved in the practise of Pathology. Its difficult to get two pathologists to agree on any one diagnosis if both pathologists insist on looking at the case through the prism of their own experiences.Besides, it is always tough disputing any one"s diagnosis as it is merely an opinion and reflects the Pathologists own "view" of the case.

Now, ASI (Applied Spectral Imaging), a privately held company in Israel has come up with a colorful solution for the problem. Instead of depending totally on the "morphology", ie shape and size, it provides a way to visualize the antigenic proteins present in the tissue. Using their Spectracube family of products, It allows researchers to distinguish between
different materials on a chromosome by highlighting its features with
unique colors, instead of the black dye that had been used previously. This leads to better identification in suspicious cases and the test also lends itself to reproducibility.

The company has already launched " TB Finder" in the market.In addition to TB Finder, ASI is already selling
or planning to market additional tools for pathologists, including
PathEx, as well as for morphologists, who examine protein structures
and alterations in cell structures.

The company presently promotes its products only as a backup / second opinion. But this seems to be more out of its desire not to rub the so-called "Specialists" the wrong way. Being able to corroborate one"s opinion by a scientific and a reproducible test is a tool sorely needed in the practise of Pathology. I shall not be surprised if such corroboration of opinion of a pathologist soon becomes a norm rather than an option.

All in all, a very very useful service to improve accuracy of diagnosis.

- Imaging techniques in Pathology-

Israel's ASI gives pathologists a vital second opinion - ISRAEL21c

-I have written previously about the subjectivity involved in the practise of Pathology. Its difficult to get two pathologists to agree on any one diagnosis if both pathologists insist on looking at the case through the prism of their own experiences.Besides, it is always tough disputing any one"s diagnosis as it is merely an opinion and reflects the Pathologists own "view" of the case.

Now, ASI (Applied Spectral Imaging), a privately held company in Israel has come up with a colorful solution for the problem. Instead of depending totally on the "morphology", ie shape and size, it provides a way to visualize the antigenic proteins present in the tissue. Using their Spectracube family of products, It allows researchers to distinguish between
different materials on a chromosome by highlighting its features with
unique colors, instead of the black dye that had been used previously. This leads to better identification in suspicious cases and the test also lends itself to reproducibility.

The company has already launched " TB Finder" in the market.In addition to TB Finder, ASI is already selling
or planning to market additional tools for pathologists, including
PathEx, as well as for morphologists, who examine protein structures
and alterations in cell structures.

The company presently promotes its products only as a backup / second opinion. But this seems to be more out of its desire not to rub the so-called "Specialists" the wrong way. Being able to corroborate one"s opinion by a scientific and a reproducible test is a tool sorely needed in the practise of Pathology. I shall not be surprised if such corroboration of opinion of a pathologist soon becomes a norm rather than an option.

All in all, a very very useful service to improve accuracy of diagnosis.

- Telepathology made simple-

MEDTING - MedicalTube, medical meeting; exchange video and image



As a pathologist, I know the importance of collaboration and second opinions. The practice of pathology is sometimes very subjective and its not unusual to get three different diagnosis for the same tissue sample/ histopatholgy slide from three different pathologists.Besides, all pathologists at one institute tend to think along similar lines, further increasing chances of bias. But getting distant doctors to review any one case and histopathology slide has been difficult till date. The best we could do was "store-and-forward" telepathology, where the images of a histopathology slide were forwarded to known experts via email for second opinion. A very primitive means of practicing telepathology, if i may say so!


Enter Medting.

"MEDTING is a clinical web portal that provides a platform for exchanging clinical cases, images, and videos. Physicians can post clinical cases with associated images or videos for discussion among colleagues. In addition, independent images or videos can be sent to the Atlas space for other to review. Other members of the community can then vote and write comments on the cases and images posted."

Medting allows doctors from around the globe to offer their opinions on any histopathology slide (or any other clinical image). Any doctor can upload the facts and images related to any case for second opinions from experts all over the globe.Patient privacy is not compromised as names are not revealed and the site claims to be 100% HIPAA compliant.


The images uploaded presently on the site were of very good resolution. One could easily scan the whole slide, Zoom in on interesting areas of the slide, leave comments, tag images, share them, etc. It provides an excellent collaboration platform and can serve as an excellent educational tool. At present, it boasts of 1840 cases and 15760 images and videos. Cases and images are tagged with keywords using the SNOMED CT terminology.


Medting also offers premium membership and individual institutional support.


I like their service, though it is still very BASIC and has tremendous scope for improvement.

Related articles

• Medical consultation on the Move (medical-communication.blogspot.com)
• Web 2.0 in health (neeleshbhandari.blogspot.com)
• Using Cellphones to diagnose Malaria and Blood disorders (meducationtechnology.blogspot.com)

=

- Telepathology made simple-

MEDTING - MedicalTube, medical meeting; exchange video and image

As a pathologist, I know the importance of collaboration and second opinions. The practice of pathology is sometimes very subjective and its not unusual to get three different diagnosis for the same tissue sample/ histopatholgy slide from three different pathologists.Besides, all pathologists at one institute tend to think along similar lines, further increasing chances of bias. But getting distant doctors to review any one case and histopathology slide has been difficult till date. The best we could do was "store-and-forward" telepathology, where the images of a histopathology slide were forwarded to known experts via email for second opinion. A very primitive means of practicing telepathology, if i may say so!

Enter Medting.

"MEDTING is a clinical web portal that provides a platform for
exchanging clinical cases, images, and videos. Physicians can post
clinical cases with associated images or videos for discussion among
colleagues. In addition, independent images or videos can be sent to
the Atlas space for other to review. Other members of the community can
then vote and write comments on the cases and images posted."

Medting allows doctors from around the globe to offer their opinions on any histopathology slide (or any other clinical image). Any doctor can upload the facts and images related to any case for second opinions from experts all over the globe.Patient privacy is not compromised as names are not revealed and the site claims to be 100% HIPAA compliant.

The images uploaded presently on the site were of very good resolution. One could easily scan the whole slide, Zoom in on interesting areas of the slide, leave comments, tag images, share them, etc. It provides an excellent collaboration platform and can serve as an excellent educational tool. At present, it boasts of 1840 cases and 15760 images and videos. Cases and images are tagged with keywords using the SNOMED CT terminology.

Medting also offers premium membership and individual institutional support.

I like their service, though it is still very BASIC and has tremendous scope for improvement.

- Health support services in Hindi-

Many Seek Second Opinions From Health Sites and Online Communities - NYTimes.com

Web 2.0 has certainly changed the way Medicine is practiced.
Now, if you are a lazy Doctor, your patient might come to you with more knowledge about his own disease than you do!! I cant help feeling amused when i think of some of my classmates and how they would be coping with today's super-informed patients.

And its not just about the information available to the patient.
Its also about the support.

Its easy to join any forum/group of people having the same illness as you. Have a Migraine? Log onto the headache blog and find out how other people are coping with theirs. Want to talk to someone about your migraine? Join a chatroom. Want some advice from a doctor? Log onto the Live chat service of Organized wisdom. Want to know more about the drugs the doctor prescribed you? Check it here. The options available are endless. Gone are the days when the doctor simply prescribed you acetaaminophen and sent you home.

My only crib is the lack of such resources and support in the Hindi language.Hindi is spoken by almost 500 million people and is the third most spoken language in the world. Native speakers of Hindi dialects account for 41% of the Indian population.And yet, we have no such services available for this huge under served population.

I am hoping to soon start similar services in Hindi, encompassing the whole patient education and support services. I hope to do this through RAKSHA, a non profit organization working for democratization of knowledge and health. This is a huge task and will take time. But then, SOMEONE has to do it. Why not me? :)


Read the original article here.

-Obvious uses of data and technology-

Scientists to use satellite imagery to predict disease outbreaks

At last, scientists are correlating what they know and what they see to come up with new ways to fight diseases.

Seen from a distance, both figuratively and literally, it is ridiculously easy to predict an epidemic or infectious disease outbreak.All you need is good dependable information about the current environment at the location. Tie this up with what we already know about the infectious agent life-cycle and the disease process and Voila!- We have our own Crystal Ball.

Scientists now plan to use satellite imagery to predict some seasonal and climate dependent infectious diseases like Cholera. Similar models can later be developed for other diseases like Hepatitis A, Malaria and Leptospirosis.

Hoping more money is spent on such life-saving use of Technology in preventive medicine.
Read the original news item here

-Web 2.0 strategy for Business-

Ten Aspects of Web 2.0 Strategy That Every CTO and CIO Should Know [Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog]

Web 2.0 has changed the way things are or can be done. Organizations need to adapt to these new trends ASAP. A few key points of note for business to survive in the new world-

# It's not about technology, it's about the changes it enables.
# The implications of 2.0 stands many traditional views on their head and so change takes more time than usual.
# Get the ideas, concepts, and vocabulary out into the organization and circulating.
# Existing management methods and conventional wisdom are a hard barrier to 2.0 strategy and transformation.
# Avoiding external disruption is hard but managing self-imposed risk caused by 2.0 is easier.
# Incubators and pilots projects can help create initial environments for success with 2.0 efforts.
# Irreversible decisions around 2.0 around topics such as brand, reputation, and corporate strategy can be delayed quite a while, and sometimes forever.
# The technology competence organizations have today are inadequate for moving to 2.0.
# The business side requires 2.0 competence as well.
# Start small, think big.

-Web 2.0 strategy for Business-

Ten Aspects of Web 2.0 Strategy That Every CTO and CIO Should Know [Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog]

Web 2.0 has changed the way things are or can be done. Organizations need to adapt to these new trends ASAP. A few key points of note for business to survive in the new world-

# It's not about technology, it's about the changes it enables.
# The implications of 2.0 stands many traditional views on their head and so change takes more time than usual.
# Get the ideas, concepts, and vocabulary out into the organization and circulating.
# Existing management methods and conventional wisdom are a hard barrier to 2.0 strategy and transformation.
# Avoiding external disruption is hard but managing self-imposed risk caused by 2.0 is easier.
# Incubators and pilots projects can help create initial environments for success with 2.0 efforts.
# Irreversible decisions around 2.0 around topics such as brand, reputation, and corporate strategy can be delayed quite a while, and sometimes forever.
# The technology competence organizations have today are inadequate for moving to 2.0.
# The business side requires 2.0 competence as well.
# Start small, think big.

-Characterstics of a medical blogger-

Examining the Medical Blogosphere: An Online Survey of Medical Bloggers | Kovic | Journal of Medical Internet Research
Blogs are the major contributors to the
large increase of new websites created each year. Most blogs allow
readers to leave comments and, in this way, generate both conversation
and encourage collaboration. Despite their popularity, however, little
is known about blogs or their creators.This was a study on 197 medical bloggers, their backgrounds, blogging habits, reasons for blogging, etc.
Majority of medical bloggers were highly educated, white, American males, between the ages of 30 and 49 years.Almost half of them had a personal website before they started blogging. Most had been blogging for more than two years. More males offered news via RSS than female bloggers.
Major motivations for blogging were sharing practical knowledge or skills with others, influencing the way other people think, and expressing oneself creatively. Making money and staying in touch with friends and family were not reasons to blog for a majority of the participants.
All in all, a very informative study. Read it here.

Health wisdom , not just information

I am always on the look out for web services delivering knowledge services in the field of health. I run a non-profit organization, RAKSHA, for exactly this purpose and seek new ways of achieving democratization of knowledge in health.

Organized wisdom is a well thought out web service. This interview with the team at Organized wisdom clearly spells out their views and visions for this knowledge service. The talk with their Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Howard Krein and Esther Dyson , one of the investors was very interesting.




The service claims to be " a free service that provides patients with easy access to the best information available in easy to navigate Wisdomcards, helps patients to prepare for their appointments and helps streamline some to the conversations that must take place."
So, I decided to explore this service logged in as a patient searching for information about my imaginary headache. The first thing i noticed was the cleanliness of the welcome page. Simple, no unnecessary multimedia ( as is VERY often the case with medical information sites) and therefore, fast navigation between pages.

The fonts were friendly, the letters bold and easily legible. It didn't intimidate me, as a patient, with its vastness of information. There was a large search box in a major location with built in prompts via a drop down menu. So far so good.

What really won me over was the neatly laid out information. Not too deep on the first page, just plain English medical speak for an average person.There were links to more scholarly items, but everything i could possibly want to know as a patient was easily available within 2 degrees of separation. There were links to support forums, foundations and drug information ( again in plain English).There were chat rooms, message boards, personal blogs, every useful service i can think of today. They were also initiating a" LIVE chat with a doctor" service, which is now in a beta phase.

All in all, I really liked this service and i am sure something like this will soon be up and running in India, preferably in the Hindi language.
Amen.

Health wisdom , not just information

I am always on the look out for web services delivering knowledge services in the field of health. I run a non-profit organization, RAKSHA, for exactly this purpose and seek new ways of achieving democratization of knowledge in health.

Organized wisdom is a well thought out web service. This interview with the team at Organized wisdom clearly spells out their views and visions for this knowledge service. The talk with their Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Howard Krein and Esther Dyson , one of the investors was very interesting.




The service claims to be " a free service that provides patients with easy access to the best information available in easy to navigate Wisdomcards, helps patients to prepare for their appointments and helps streamline some to the conversations that must take place."
So, I decided to explore this service logged in as a patient searching for information about my imaginary headache. The first thing i noticed was the cleanliness of the welcome page. Simple, no unnecessary multimedia ( as is VERY often the case with medical information sites) and therefore, fast navigation between pages.

The fonts were friendly, the letters bold and easily legible. It didn't intimidate me, as a patient, with its vastness of information. There was a large search box in a major location with built in prompts via a drop down menu. So far so good.

What really won me over was the neatly laid out information. Not too deep on the first page, just plain English medical speak for an average person.There were links to more scholarly items, but everything i could possibly want to know as a patient was easily available within 2 degrees of separation. There were links to support forums, foundations and drug information ( again in plain English).There were chat rooms, message boards, personal blogs, every useful service i can think of today. They were also initiating a" LIVE chat with a doctor" service, which is now in a beta phase.

All in all, I really liked this service and i am sure something like this will soon be up and running in India, preferably in the Hindi language.
Amen.

Using Social Media Effectively

Heres a good starfish created by Darren Barefoot ( and generously provided under a creative commons license). I am already using most of them. You can have a look at a few of my networks and groups in the widgets table on the right which is provided via MyBlogLog.com ( a yahoo service).

My only point to make here is that its all too disjointed. Everything,,,,the content, the networks, the relationships online, are all without structure.

We need to get busy using all these services better and in a specific, goal oriented method instead of just going gaga over the facilities and possibilities of social media networking.

Lets USE them.

Read about specific facilities/applications here.

--Web 2.0 in medicine- A slideshow--

The impact of web 2.0 on medicine and healthcare

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: medicine medicine20)

This is a fine presentation on the use of Web 2.0 in Medicine.

It just puts into focus the importance and uses of Web 2.0 in today's connected world of doctors,health care and patients on the same continuum.

--Data for Doctors--

E-Health Insider :: From data to information to transformation

Information is power. Everywhere.
Information is made up of chunks of data put together into a meaningful structure.

As health care professionals, we produce lots of data everyday when we treat our patients. It includes the patient"s past habits, family history, past diseases, current symptoms, response to certain drugs, reactions to drugs......and on and on.

We need to be able to collect and collate all this data so as to help us in making better decisions in the future. The currently followed practise commonly is -- we treat all the patients according to what we were taught in medical school--.

But illness and disease don't remain static. They evolve everyday. They follow the path of least resistance. Whenever a disease finds a path not blocked by doctors, it pursues rapidly down that path.And we doctors are left guarding only the fixed doorways that we were taught of in Medical school ( or even later, via medical journals)

The only way to stay in the game is to continuously monitor the evolution of the disease by real-time/continuous data gathering and monitoring. This helps us spot very early trends in disease evolution and "block" those paths and escape routes for all diseases.

This article here provides some very good examples and methods of data capturing for clinicians. I hope all doctors in India soon realize the importance of data gathering and analysis in their day-to-day practice.

Read more.

An open letter to the Physicians of the world

Open Letter to the Physicians of the World « ScienceRoll



I am attaching a link to an open letter published on the internet.



That we doctors need to use Web 2.0 applications to ease our burden and improve the quality of our work is given. I have never come across any colleague or senior who disputes the usefulness or necessity of using these applications.



The biggest hurdle is achieving relevant computer skills. No doctor who wants to continue practicing even for next 5-10 years can shy away from regular use of computers and the internet to ease and improve work. But the inbuilt inertia of our seniors is hard to overcome.I should know that. I had this teacher during my pathology post graduation who didn't allow me to introduce evidence based practices in our department. He insisted that HIS opinion was the final and the best opinion and to think of using information retrieval technology for improving diagnostic skills and education was not encouraged ( Frankly, i would say " actively discouraged". He flunked me in my exams a few times after that, from spite or otherwise).



But i sincerely hope and KNOW that there is a vast majority of doctors out there who require and seek appropriate training in the use of the Internet for medical practice. What is required is a method to tap into this enthusiasm and train all currently practicing doctors in proper use of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications like email lists,blogs, social networks, bookmarking, wikis, medical search engines, instant messaging, podcasts, vodcasts.... the list could go on.



Anyways, read this letter here.

An open letter to the Physicians of the world

Open Letter to the Physicians of the World « ScienceRoll



I am attaching a link to an open letter published on the internet.



That we doctors need to use Web 2.0 applications to ease our burden and improve the quality of our work is given. I have never come across any colleague or senior who disputes the usefulness or necessity of using these applications.



The biggest hurdle is achieving relevant computer skills. No doctor who wants to continue practicing even for next 5-10 years can shy away from regular use of computers and the internet to ease and improve work. But the inbuilt inertia of our seniors is hard to overcome.I should know that. I had this teacher during my pathology post graduation who didn't allow me to introduce evidence based practices in our department. He insisted that HIS opinion was the final and the best opinion and to think of using information retrieval technology for improving diagnostic skills and education was not encouraged ( Frankly, i would say " actively discouraged". He flunked me in my exams a few times after that, from spite or otherwise).



But i sincerely hope and KNOW that there is a vast majority of doctors out there who require and seek appropriate training in the use of the Internet for medical practice. What is required is a method to tap into this enthusiasm and train all currently practicing doctors in proper use of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications like email lists,blogs, social networks, bookmarking, wikis, medical search engines, instant messaging, podcasts, vodcasts.... the list could go on.



Anyways, read this letter here.

The Ten commandments of blogging

The Ten Blogging Commandments: Thou shalt not linkbait -

Each of the commandments takes its inspiration from the real ten commandments:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity
2. You shall not make an idol of your blog
3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin
4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog
5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes
6. You shall not murder someone else's honour, reputation or feelings
7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind
8. You shall not steal another person's content
9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content

Top 100 tools for learning-2008

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008

The list is compiled from the contributions of 207 learning professionals (from both education and workplace learning) who shared their Top 10 Tools for Learning both for their own personal learning/ productivity and for creating learning solutions for others.

Top few include del.icio.us, Firefox, Skype, Google reader, Google search, Wordpress, Powerpoint, Google docs, Blogger and Audacity.

Complete list here

21st century classroom

An overview of efforts to integrate new technology into the classrooms at the middle and high school levels from a town in southern Maine, USA.

E-learning in Medical education

The use of elearning in medical education: a review of the current situation -- Choules 83 (978): 212 -- Postgraduate Medical Journal

Computers are increasingly used in medical education. Electronic learning (elearning) is moving from textbooks in electronic format (that are increasingly enhanced by the use of multimedia adjuncts) to a truly interactive medium that can be delivered to meet the educational needs of students and postgraduate learners. Computer technology can present reliable, reusable content in a format that is convenient to the learner. It can be used to transcend geographical boundaries and time zones. It is a valuable tool to add to the medical teacher’s toolkit, but like all tools it must be used appropriately. This article endeavours to review the current "state of the art2 in use of elearning and its role in medical education alongside non-electronic methods—a combination that is currently referred to as "blended" learning.

Read the full article on BMJ health intelligence.

The Party @ Delhi

The manthan Award : India's best e-Content Practices

THis conference at New Delhi from October 16th to 18th, 2008 should be informative, fun and a great place to network. I really look forward to meeting some real* enthusiasts there.

The Manthan Award has been known for the 5th year of
its existence to recognize the deep and impactfull linkages between
Information Communication Technologies to the National development
through the involvement of masses. Manthan Award is now a network of
more than 1000 organization across 30 states of India and 7 of South
Asian countries.

The process of Manthan Award 2008,
with the inclusion of South Asian countries, is closing and the final
events are going to take place on October 16-18, 2008 in Delhi.

This is primarily the occasion
where the best of ICT for development innovators and practitioners and
the best of e-Content for Development practitioners and architects get
together and hundreds of delegates gather to see the best of the world
networking and deliberating and enjoying being recognized.

Its divided into--

- Inaugural session with India’s best minds who would enlighten on the role of e-content and ICT in development of the nation.

- ICONECS [International Conference on e-Content & Sustainability]:
Where selected and short listed Manthan Award nominees would make
presentations of their innovations across topics like Health,
e-business, rural enterprise, culture & entertainment, mobile
content, community radio, education & learning, governance and
environment & science.

- High Impact Policy driven Roundtable Discussions [1/2 Day each] on selected topics like:

o Content, Connectivity & Accessibility in Education

o ICT in Drinking Water & Sanitation

o Inclusive Governance through Digital Panchayat & Constituencies

o ICT in Health for Masses o Voices from the Ground: Community Radio

o ICT in Social Enterprises o World Summit Award e-Content Summit –
India [15 Countries Participating]

- ICT Mela Connecting Masses: Where
one could experience the content and ICT bazaar with special focus on
masses connecting devices, content, technologies, initiatives including
governments, corporate, NGOs, international organisations, and even
individuals. Of course ICT Mela would be dominated by the nominees of
the Manthan Award 2008, and the previous year awardees.

- Manthan Award Gala & Folk Musical Evening:
Where one could experience the pure rural folk music followed by Award
Gala where around 35 awards would be conferred for year 2008 by some of
the most eminent people of the country and world.

The Manthan Award South Asia 2008 and its processes and
events are being brought to you by Digital Empowerment Foundation,
Center for e-Governance, DIT, Ministry of Communication &
Information Technology and World Summit Award.

How to produce and distribute a Podcast.

She makes it real simple.
Listen to it and then let others listen to you :)

Everyday things i do, put here concisely.

eLearn: Feature Article

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional
By Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada

The following list was inspired by eLearn Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lisa Neal's blog post "Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional." We'd like to offer the "Web 2.0 Edition" of Lisa's list:

1. Listen to a conference presentation. When you run across conference presentations while reading your RSS feeds (EDUCAUSE Connect is a prime source, as is OLDaily), save the conference site as a bookmark and revisit it to hear a presentation.
2. Record a 10-minute presentation about something you are working on or learning about, either as audio (use Odeo) or video (use Ustream), and post it on your blog.
3. Do a search on the title of your most recent post or on the title of the most recent thing you've read or thought about. Don't just use Google search, use Google Blog Search and Google Image Search, Amazon, del.icio.us, Technorati, Slideshare, or Youtube. Scan the results and if you find something interesting, save it in del.icio.us to read later.
4. Write a blog post or article describing something you've learned recently. It can be something you've read or culled from a meeting, conference notes (which you just capture on the fly using a text editor), or a link you've posted to del.icio.us. The trick here is to keep your writing activity to less than 10 minutes—make a point quickly and then click "submit."
5. Tidy your e-portfolio. For example, upload your slides to Slideshare and audio recordings to Odeo and embed the code in your presentation page. Or write a description and link to your latest publication. Or update your project list.
6. Create a slide on Zoho. Just do one slide at a time; find an image using the Creative Commons licensed content on Flickr and a short bit of text from a source or yourself. Add this to your stick of prepared slides you use for your next talk or class.
7. Find a blogger you currently read in your RSS reader and go to their website. Follow all the links to other blogs in their blogroll or feedroll, or which are referenced in their posts. Well, maybe not all the links, or it will take hours, not ten minutes.
8. Write a comment on a blog post, article, or book written by an e-learning researcher or practitioner.
9. Go to a website like Engadget, Metafilter, Digg, Mixx, Mashable, or Hotlinks and skip through the items. These sites produce much too much content to follow diligently, but are great for browsing and serendipitous discovery. If you find something interesting, write a short blog post about it or at least a comment.
10. Catch up on one of your online games with a colleague—Scrabulous on Facebook or Backgammon on Yahoo. Or make a Lolcat. Or watch a Youtube video.

Everyday things i do, put here concisely.

eLearn: Feature Article

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional
By Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada

The following list was inspired by eLearn Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lisa Neal's blog post "Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional." We'd like to offer the "Web 2.0 Edition" of Lisa's list:

1. Listen to a conference presentation. When you run across conference presentations while reading your RSS feeds (EDUCAUSE Connect is a prime source, as is OLDaily), save the conference site as a bookmark and revisit it to hear a presentation.
2. Record a 10-minute presentation about something you are working on or learning about, either as audio (use Odeo) or video (use Ustream), and post it on your blog.
3. Do a search on the title of your most recent post or on the title of the most recent thing you've read or thought about. Don't just use Google search, use Google Blog Search and Google Image Search, Amazon, del.icio.us, Technorati, Slideshare, or Youtube. Scan the results and if you find something interesting, save it in del.icio.us to read later.
4. Write a blog post or article describing something you've learned recently. It can be something you've read or culled from a meeting, conference notes (which you just capture on the fly using a text editor), or a link you've posted to del.icio.us. The trick here is to keep your writing activity to less than 10 minutes—make a point quickly and then click "submit."
5. Tidy your e-portfolio. For example, upload your slides to Slideshare and audio recordings to Odeo and embed the code in your presentation page. Or write a description and link to your latest publication. Or update your project list.
6. Create a slide on Zoho. Just do one slide at a time; find an image using the Creative Commons licensed content on Flickr and a short bit of text from a source or yourself. Add this to your stick of prepared slides you use for your next talk or class.
7. Find a blogger you currently read in your RSS reader and go to their website. Follow all the links to other blogs in their blogroll or feedroll, or which are referenced in their posts. Well, maybe not all the links, or it will take hours, not ten minutes.
8. Write a comment on a blog post, article, or book written by an e-learning researcher or practitioner.
9. Go to a website like Engadget, Metafilter, Digg, Mixx, Mashable, or Hotlinks and skip through the items. These sites produce much too much content to follow diligently, but are great for browsing and serendipitous discovery. If you find something interesting, write a short blog post about it or at least a comment.
10. Catch up on one of your online games with a colleague—Scrabulous on Facebook or Backgammon on Yahoo. Or make a Lolcat. Or watch a Youtube video.

Evolution of Information and its current forms.

I always like videos like this one. :)

Personalized Learning environment.

Giving Electronic Learning A Personal Touch

This is a link to an interesting vision for a totally personalized learning environment.

All students need to have freedom to choose their methods of learning. Give them access to all the functionalities you can technologically provide and then help him/her find a method which suits him/her best. The advent of Joomla, Wikis, Wordpress, Drupal et al signals effective ways of increasing personalization of e-learning and bringing down the costs of creating a GOOD, Working e-learning system.

Hope it sparks you as much as it did me :)

New technology promises tests for diseases such as cancer in 15 minutes

Scientists at Leeds University in the UK say soon, testing for diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis, could take as little as 15 minutes and could be as simple as using a pregnancy testing kit.

The team of scientists have developed a biosensor technology that uses antibodies to detect biomarkers - molecules in the human body which are often a marker for disease - and they do it much faster than current testing methods.

They say the technology could be used in doctors' surgeries for more accurate referral to consultants and in hospitals for rapid diagnosis.

Tests already conducted have shown that the biosensors can detect a wide range of analytes (substances being measured), including biomarkers present in prostate and ovarian cancer, stroke, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and fungal infections.

The team also believes that the biosensors are versatile enough to test for diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.

The technology is the result of a collaboration of European researchers and commercial partners in a 2.7 million Euro project called ELISHA and features new techniques for attaching antibodies to innovative surfaces, and novel electronic measurement methods that need no reagents or labels.

ELISHA was co-ordinated by Dr. Paul Millner from the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds, and managed by colleague Dr. Tim Gibson.

Dr. Millner says they believe this to be the next generation of diagnostic testing as it is now possible to detect almost any analyte faster, cheaper and more easily than the current accepted testing methodology.

Current blood and urine are tests for disease markers takes an average of two hours to complete, is a costly process and can only be performed by highly trained staff.

The Leeds team believe their new technology, which provides results in 15 minutes or less - could be developed into a small device the size of a mobile phone into which different sensor chips could be inserted, depending on the disease being tested for.

Dr. Millner says they have designed simple instrumentation to make the biosensors easy to use and understand, which will work in a format similar to the glucose biosensor testing kits that diabetics currently use.

Professor Séamus Higson, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Biosciences, Cranfield Health, and one of the partners within the ELISHA programme, says the speed of response this technology offers will be of great benefit to early diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, and will permit testing in de-localised environments such as GP's surgeries.

A tangent company - ELISHA Systems Ltd - has been established by Dr. Gibson, commercial partners Uniscan Instruments Ltd and Technology Translators Ltd to bring the technology to the market.

Dr. Gibson says the analytes used in the research simply scratch the surface of the potential applications - the team have also shown that it can be used in environmental applications, for example to test for herbicides or pesticides in water and antibiotics in milk.

Using technology in medicine.

A new advanced facility at the University of Minnesota is harnessing big ideas for medical devices.


It's called the Medical Devices Center.


"I don't think there's any place across the country in an academic setting with this kind of facility," said Art Erdman, director of the Medical Devices Center.


Located on the East Bank, the center is a place for engineers and medical professionals to come together and capture the ideas of graduate students often lost when they graduate and move on. "[Ideas] are lost all the time," Erdman noted.



At the center, medical device prototypes from the simple to the complex can be mocked up faster than the weeks it can take if a design has to be made off site. Sometimes prototypes can be finished in a day.


One prototype currently on display that was created at the university is a device that would conduct radial breast compression for MRI's, potentially replacing the bilateral breast compression plates that are currently used.


In addition to prototype manufacturing and providing facilities to test devices on tissue, the center also has new 3D cameras that will be used in about 40 operating rooms around campus.


These cameras will allow groups of engineering students to sit in on surgeries remotely so they can help medical experts solve problems.


Surgeons will also be able to see the students on monitors in the OR and communicate with them during surgery.


"Right now you're lucky if you can get into a surgery suite as an engineer. [They] maybe allow one to two people at a time," engineering graduate student Nathan Knutson said. "So to be able to project those surgeries here and have the prototyping equipment to sit down and start solving the surgeon's problems with their devices and handheld manipulators we can really come across with some great innovations and
breakthroughs."


Not only will graduate students be able to advance their ideas more easily, the center has also hired a team of engineering and medical experts well established in their fields to brainstorm ideas.


And a new fellows program will bring together four experts this fall.


"We put them in a think tank and for one year they seek out relevant clinical needs," Fellows program director Marie Johnson said. "So they actually put on scrubs and go over to the OR's, sit in the clinics, watch rehab, participate in all aspects of medical care and they ask stupid questions."


Those stupid questions though, could lead to the next big idea.


Erdman said harnessing these ideas will be good for the University of Minnesota, and potentially great for the state.


"Arguably, this is the center in the United States for medical devices, certainly in cardiology and urology, so how do we sustain that?" he asked. "It's very important for the economy of the state."


Read it all at:
University of Minnesota Opens New Medical Devices Center - MPO Magazine

Related articles

• Medical device makers' lobby bill:$20M (medcitynews.com)

Introducing e-health

A short multimedia course explaining all the implications of the term "e-health".
A must read+see for all new age doctors.

One of my Fav. slideshows

This is really an old post but its an all time favorite of mine.
101 Free Learning Tools

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: thinking tools)

Touching on Medicine 2.0

Image via Wikipedia

Medicine 2.0: Social Networking, Collaboration, Participation, Apomediation, and Openness | Eysenbach | Journal of Medical Internet Research

While it may be too early to come up with an absolute definition of Medicine 2.0 or Health 2.0, the figure below shows a suggested framework, created in the context of a call for papers for the purpose of scoping the Medicine 2.0 congress and this theme issue [5]. The program of the first Medicine 2.0 conference [6] also gives a good idea of what academics feel is relevant to the field. An explanation of why we chose the title “Medicine 2.0” over “Health 2.0” has been given elsewhere [4]; it suffices to say at this point that most authors do not necessarily see a significant difference between Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 [7]—if anything, Medicine 2.0 is the broader concept and umbrella term which includes consumer-directed “medicine” or Health 2.0.


According to the model depicted in this figure, five major aspects (ideas, themes) emerge from Web 2.0 in health, health care, medicine, and science, which will outlive the specific tools and services offered. These emerging and recurring themes are (as displayed in the center of Figure 1):

1) Social Networking,

2) Participation,

3) Apomediation,

4) Collaboration, and

5) Openness.


[view this figure] Figure 1. Medicine 2.0 Map (with some current exemplary applications and services)

While “Web 2.0”, “Medicine 2.0”, and “Health 2.0” are terms that should probably be avoided in academic discourse, any discussion and evaluations concerning the impact and effectiveness of Web 2.0 technologies should be framed around these themes. Each of the 5 themes will be considered in detail below.

Figure 1 also depicts the three main user groups of current Medicine 2.0 applications as a triangle: consumers/patients, health professionals, and biomedical researchers. While each of these user groups have received a different level of “formal” training, even end users (consumer, patients) can be seen as experts and—according to the Web 2.0 philosophy—their collective wisdom can and should be harnessed: “the health professional is an expert in identifying disease, while the patient is an expert in experiencing it” [8].

Current Medicine 2.0 applications can be situated somewhere in this triangle space, usually at one of the corners of the triangle, depending on which user group they are primarily targeting. However, the ideal Medicine 2.0 application would actually try to connect different user groups and foster collaboration between different user groups (for example, engaging the public in the biomedical research process), and thus move more towards the center of the triangle.

Putting it all together, the original definition of Medicine 2.0—as originally proposed in the context of soliciting submissions for the theme issue and the conference—was as follows [5]:

Medicine 2.0 applications, services and tools are Web-based services for health care consumers, caregivers, patients, health professionals, and biomedical researchers, that use Web 2.0 technologies and/or semantic web and virtual-reality tools, to enable and facilitate specifically social networking, participation, apomediation, collaboration, and openness within and between these user groups.

Interestingly, Benjamin Hughes' extensive literature review published in this issue concludes with a very similar definition [7].

There is however also a broader idea behind Medicine 2.0 or “second generation medicine”: the notion that healthcare systems need to move away from hospital-based medicine, focus on promoting health, provide healthcare in people's own homes, and empower consumers to take responsibility for their own health—much in line with what others and I have previously written about the field of consumer health informatics [9] (of which many Medicine 2.0 applications are prime examples). Thus, in this broader sense, Medicine 2.0 also stands for a new, better health system, which emphasizes collaboration, participation, apomediation, and openness, as opposed to the traditional, hierarchical, closed structures within health care and medicine.

Original article here- http://www.jmir.org/2008/3/e22/

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Newage ambulances.

Requires early adoption in India. We have the technology, the skilled human resources and we NEED this..

Edutools for medical education

Edheads - Virtual Hip Surgery - Total Hip Replacement Surgery - THR

Follow this link and perform virtual surgery.
A great tool with immense potential in medical education..
Virtual Hip Replacement :


Take on the role of the Surgeon throughout a hip replacement surgery!

Edutools for medical education

Edheads - Virtual Hip Surgery - Total Hip Replacement Surgery - THR

Follow this link and perform virtual surgery.
A great tool with immense potential in medical education..
Virtual Hip Replacement :


Take on the role of the Surgeon throughout a hip replacement surgery!

Using API for creating new health tools.

Explains the meaning of API ( Application program interface) and discusses some uses.

Get Free learning resources here.

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What are health rights?

A short power point presentation by me trying to explain the basic concepts of health rights.

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by drneelesh

My baby steps with moodle :)

The best open source LMS in the netiverse " Moodle "
Easy to create and easy to use.
Online support available.
and its FREE!!