Web 2.0 in health

With increasing avenues for communication and knowledge dissemination, the practice of health care is changing faster than imagined. Free services like you tube, face book, Wikis, blogs, Twitter, social networks eg. Patientslikeme and a host of other services provide a health consumer with ample information and opinions. No longer is a patient forced to blindly trust his doctor"s judgment. The patient can easily search for more opinions, review personal experiences of friends and strangers plus the latest research studies in the field. This has changed the role of a Doctor to one of facilitator of health, rather than the unquestionable saviour.

E-Health insider has come up with a 108 paged report titled ‘Web 2.0 in the Health Sector: Industry Review with a UK perspective’. {£575.00 (inc VAT)}

The report argues that e-health 2.0 will first and foremost be consumer-led. Health is consistently one of the most searched for subjects online. The application of web 2.0 technologies into health is already challenging traditional doctor-patient relationships and beginning to place far greater power in the hands of consumers. These changes are likely to be rapid and may prove highly disruptive. Further, it concludes that new applications based on social health networks and content generated by health service users themselves - such as reviews of doctors and hospitals – will rapidly evolve to challenge existing healthcare systems and create new ways of delivering health care.

The profiles provide a snapshot of innovation across healthcare: from organisations providing online communities for patients with specific conditions, tools for chronic disease management, sites that enable patients to rate the quality of care they receive, together with tools to enable clinicians to better search for and share research data.

No doubt Web2.0 has changed the game, bringing about a total rethink in long established practices.

With Web3.0 and Personalized Medical services like Webicinia and 23andMe (easy at home genetic testing) internet technologies are bound to change the rules of health care for ever.

Web 2.0 in Health: a Practical Overview

A few other interesting reads,

• Using Twitter in Health care
  
• Social Life of Health Information
  
• The Engaged E-patient Population
  
• The internet as new health-information source
• Tests set for Facebook-style, digital health system
• Selected abstracts from the Medicine 2.0 conference

Web 2.0 in health

With increasing avenues for communication and knowledge dissemination, the practice of health care is changing faster than imagined. Free services like you tube, face book, Wikis, blogs, Twitter, social networks eg. Patientslikeme and a host of other services provide a health consumer with ample information and opinions. No longer is a patient forced to blindly trust his doctor"s judgment. The patient can easily search for more opinions, review personal experiences of friends and strangers plus the latest research studies in the field. This has changed the role of a Doctor to one of facilitator of health, rather than the unquestionable saviour .

E-Health insider has come up with a 108 paged report titled ‘Web 2.0 in the Health Sector: Industry Review with a UK perspective’. {£575.00 (inc VAT)}

The report argues that e-health 2.0 will first and foremost be consumer-led. Health is consistently one of the most searched for subjects online. The application of web 2.0 technologies into health is already challenging traditional doctor-patient relationships and beginning to place far greater power in the hands of consumers. These changes are likely to be rapid and may prove highly disruptive. Further, it concludes that new applications based on social health networks and content generated by health service users themselves - such as reviews of doctors and hospitals – will rapidly evolve to challenge existing healthcare systems and create new ways of delivering healthcare.

The profiles provide a snapshot of innovation across healthcare: from organisations providing online communities for patients with specific conditions, tools for chronic disease management, sites that enable patients to rate the quality of care they receive, together with tools to enable clinicians to better search for and share research data.

No doubt Web2.0 has changed the game, bringing about a total rethink in long established practices.But this is just the beginning.

With Web3.0 and Personalized Medical services like Webicinia and 23andme , internet technologies are bound to change the rules of health care for ever.

Web 2.0 in Health: a Practical Overview

A few other interesting reads,

• Using Twitter in Health care
  
• Social Life of Health Information -
  
• The Engaged E-patient Population-
  
• The internet as new health-information source
• Tests set for Facebook-style, digital health system
• Selected abstracts from the Medicine 2.0 conference

Related articles

• Doctors 2.0 and You: Conference in 2011 (scienceroll.com)
• Why More Health Experts Are Embracing the Social Web (mashable.com)

Using iPhone as CDSS

Technology use has made the practice of medicine more accurate and more precise.One important feature has been knowledge management, in a way to achieve clinical advice for patient care based on number of items of patient data. Broadly called CDSS - Clinical Decision Support systems

"Clinical Decision Support systems link health observations with health knowledge to influence health choices by clinicians for improved health care"

The latest such application (pun intended) is eRoentgen™ for iPhone. It helps doctors order the most appropriate radiology test for their patients based on a diagnosis, sign or symptom.

eRoentgen Radiology DX 1.0- Size:- 1.6 MB

Physicians and other healthcare professionals use eRoentgen™ to choose the most appropriate imaging study for a selected diagnosis or symptom. The eRoentgen™ quickly and easily improves patient safety and the quality of the imaging workup.It is extremely useful in locations which do not have a radiologist to guide a general Physician regarding the most appropriate imaging test to be ordered for further work up of any patient. It reduces wasteful and needless tests, and also improves diagnostic accuracy.

This app can be purchased online or via the iPhone apps store.Priced at $49.99.
This app gets my Vote, for sure.

In addition to eRoentgen™ for iPhone, iAtros is in the process of developing applications for a variety of mobile devices.

Related articles

• The Evolution of Clinical-Decision Support Systems (medicineandtechnology.com)
• NIH Database More Accessible to iPhone Users (ivor-kovic.com)

Using iPhone as CDSS

Technology use has made the practice of medicine more accurate and more precise.One important feature has been knowledge management, in a way to achieve clinical advice for patient care based on number of items of patient data. Broadly called CDSS - Clinical Decision Support systems

"Clinical Decision Support systems link health observations with health knowledge to influence health choices by clinicians for improved health care"

The latest such application (pun intended) is eRoentgen™ for iPhone. It helps doctors order the most appropriate radiology test for their patients based on a diagnosis, sign or symptom.

eRoentgen Radiology DX 1.0- Size:- 1.6 MB

Physicians and other healthcare professionals use eRoentgen™ to choose the most appropriate imaging study for a selected diagnosis or symptom. The eRoentgen™ quickly and easily improves patient safety and the quality of the imaging workup.It is extremely useful in locations which do not have a radiologist to guide a general Physician regarding the most appropriate imaging test to be ordered for further work up of any patient. It reduces wasteful and needless tests, and also improves diagnostic accuracy.

This app can be purchased online or via the iPhone apps store.Priced at $49.99.
This app gets my Vote, for sure.

In addition to eRoentgen™ for iPhone, iAtros is in the process of developing applications for a variety of mobile devices.

Related articles

• The Evolution of Clinical-Decision Support Systems (medicineandtechnology.com)
• NIH Database More Accessible to iPhone Users (ivor-kovic.com)

New Swine Flu Guidelines- Too little too late

On 14 th august, Friday night, after facing flake for the past two weeks on the bungled handling of Swine Flu epidemic in India, the government has come up with a better set of guidelines.The new guidelines allow ALL doctors to treat for Swine Flu (earlier only designated hospitals and doctors could treat Swine flu!!)The guidelines were finalized after a five-hour meeting chaired by Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The patients have been categorized as follows:

• Category A: Patients with mild fever plus cough/sore throat with or without body ache, headache, diarrhoea and vomiting. They do not require Oseltamivir and should be treated for the symptoms mentioned above. The patients should be monitored for their progress and reassessed after 24 to 48 hours by the doctor. No testing of the patient for H1N1 is required. Patients should confine themselves at home and avoid mixing with the public and high risk members in the family.( I agree with this)

• Category B: (i) In addition to all the signs and symptoms of Category A, if the patient has high grade fever and severe sore throat, he/she may require home isolation and Oseltamivir; (ii) In addition to all the signs and symptoms of Category A, individuals having one or more of the following high risk conditions shall be treated with Oseltamivir: children under five, pregnant women, those above 65 years, those with lung diseases, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, blood disorders, diabetes, neurological disorders, cancer and HIV/AIDS; Patients on long term cortisone therapy. No H1N1 tests are required for Category-B (i) and (ii). Such patients should confine themselves at home and avoid mixing with the public and high-risk members in the family.( I think all such cases be tested for H1N1, and antiviral therapy started without delay)

• Category C: In addition to the symptoms of Categories A and B, if the patient has one or more of the following: breathlessness, chest pain, drowsiness, fall in blood pressure, sputum mixed with blood, bluish discolouration of nails; irritability among small children, refusal to accept feed; worsening of underlying chronic conditions. Such patients require testing, immediate hospitalisation and treatment.( All such patients should be started on antivirals without even waiting for test results!!, its already late!!)

During the meeting, various guidelines and protocols developed by the World Health Organisation, Geneva, the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Atlanta, United States, and the National Health Service, United Kingdom, were also discussed.The death toll has already reached 26 today, and is rising exponentially. Hope these3 guidelines help, but i really think its too little too late.

Related articles

• Swine flu deaths go up in India (news.bbc.co.uk)

Special Interest Group -SIGGRAPH 2009

SIGGRAPH 2009 is over.(Conference: 3-7 August (Monday through Friday) and Exhibition: 4-6 August (Tuesday through Thursday).
It was sponsored by The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges.Its one of the best scientific animation/hypermedia/multimedia platform in the world.

... to stimulate communication and growth, and foster the fusion and mutual inspiration of science, art, and technology.

It was full of galleries, competitions, events, presentations, Papers and exhibitions. A real feast!
We @markivmedcom / @LastMohican hope to participate the next time round. (2010). Here are Two interesting Interfaces which surfaced in SIGGRAPH 2009.

• 1) Immersive 3D plus Virtualization to let you move freely in Virtual world- A team from INRIA and Grenoble Universities in France (will) demo a new virtual reality system called Virtualization Gate.

Virtualization Gate that tracks users' movements very accurately using multiple cameras, allowing them to interact with virtual objects with new realism.A user wears a head-mounted display (HMD) and moves through a virtual space while several cameras track his movement. The video here shows a guy kicking over virtual vases and pushing a virtual representation of himself around. A cluster of PCs is needed to perform the necessary image capture and 3D modeling.

• 2) Teleconferencing in Three dimensions
  

MxR works with USC’s Institute of Creative Technologies and the Interactive Media Division at the School of Cinematic Arts. ICT projects create and analyze immersive systems for education and training simulations that incorporate both real and virtual elements. IMD projects push the boundaries of immersive experience design and alternative controllers. The VRPsych Lab and Graphics Lab at ICT are frequent collaborative partners.

HeadSPIN: A One-to-Many 3D Video Teleconferencing System from MxR on Vimeo.

The MxR at the University of Southern California rapidly prototypes and explores techniques and technologies to improve the fluency of human-computer interactions and create visceral synthetic experiences.

Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques - SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2009 was sponsored by The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges.Its one of the best scientific animation/hypermedia/multimedia platform in the world.

... to stimulate communication and growth, and foster the fusion and mutual inspiration of science, art, and technology.

It was on Conference: 3-7 August (Monday through Friday) and Exhibition: 4-6 August (Tuesday through Thursday). We @markivmedcom / @LastMohican hope to participate the next time round. (2010). Heres a showcase of some interesting Interfaces in SIGGRAPH 2009.

1. Hyper-Realistic Virtual Reality - A team from INRIA and Grenoble Universities in France will demo a new virtual reality system called Virtualization Gate that tracks users' movements very accurately using multiple cameras, allowing them to interact with virtual objects with new realism.

Virtualization Gate: Siggraph 2009 Emerging Technologies
Uploaded by InriaGrImage. - Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

2. Touchable Holography - This project adds tactile feedback to the hovering image in 3D free space. Tactile sensation requires contact with objects, but including a stimulator in the work space dilutes the appearance of holographic images. The Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display solves this problem by producing tactile sensation on a user's hand without any direct contact and without diluting the quality of the holographic projection

we show an example of demos. Fig. 1 shows a demo in which rain drops fall from above. When the rain drop hits the user’s palm, feels tactile sensation created by the ultrasound. In another demo,he sees and feels a small virtual creature running on his palm.

3) TELECONFERENCING IN 3D

From MxR- http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/?p=534

MxR works with USC’s Institute of Creative Technologies and the Interactive Media Division at the School of Cinematic Arts. ICT projects create and analyze immersive systems for education and training simulations that incorporate both real and virtual elements. IMD projects push the boundaries of immersive experience design and alternative controllers. The VRPsych Lab and Graphics Lab at ICT are frequent collaborative partners.

HeadSPIN: A One-to-Many 3D Video Teleconferencing System from MxR on Vimeo.

About SIGGRAPH next

SIGGRAPH 2010
26 - 30 July 2010
Los Angeles, California USA
Los Angeles Convention Center

SIGGRAPH 2011
8 - 12 August 2011
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre

Related articles

• Using Virtual reality in Psychiatry (medical-communication.blogspot.com)

Top 9 e-quipped Hospitals in India

The Cybermetrics Lab recently published their world ranking of hospitals, taking into account the instituion"s activities in field of e-knowledge and their use of digital media for communications.

Supporting Open Access initiatives, electronic access to scientific publications and to other academic material are our primary targets...The Web covers not only only formal (e-journals, repositories) but also informal scholarly communication.

The Web indicators measure electronic contents, especially those used for scholarly communication, but also basic information about the hospital, its organization, services and personnel. The rank takes into account both the volume of information published and the impact or visibility of such contents measured by the number of external links the web pages receive from others. As expected, about 45 % of top 200 and 38% of top 1000 hospitals are situated in North America.




The Laparoscopy hospital at N.Delhi is the only Indian hospital to figure in the top 100 hospitals from Asia ( 47/100, Asia), and also the only Indian hospital in top 500 worldwide. Amongst the others, Sir Gangaram hospital scores much better than Apollo and Tata Memorial.

L.R.S Institute of Tuberculosis and respiratory diseases records a very enviable world rank of 19, in number of papers and citations visible on Google Scholar., a noteworthy list headed by The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
Below is the list of 9 hospitals from India in the first 2000 worldwide , and their world rankings ( as per Cybermetrics Lab).

			POSITION
WORLD RANK	HOSPITAL		SIZE	VISIBILITY	RICH FILES	SCHOLAR
279	Laparoscopy Hospital		406	749	599	140
624	Sir Ganga Ram Hospital		2,351	788	1,834	225
632	Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre		1,015	1,429	1,174	179
921	Aravind Eye Care System		1,567	2,717	766	146
1178	Sankara Nethralaya Hospital		2,690	984	1,224	2,200
1349	L.R.S. Institute of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases		2,845	6,679	1,070	19
1407	Apollo Hospitals		3,045	938	3,453	2,200
1819	Tata Memorial Centre		2,459	3,469	322	1,497
1885	Sri Ramachandra University & Medical Centre		1,742	3,787	1,660	426