Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010 : Time.com

Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs

• AIDS Drugs Lower the Risk of HIV Infection
• Synthetic Cell
• Blood Test for Alzheimer's
• FDA Approves Botox for Migraines
• Taking the Resuscitation Out of CPR
• The FDA Restricts Avandia
• Blood Test for Heart Attack
• Predicting IVF Success
• Artificial Ovary
• Creating iPS Cells Safer and Faster

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2035319,00.html#ixzz17dbUFNgZ

Health IT far from Useful Yet.

Health Data remains stuck in silos and needs to be better integrated so as to allow meaningful analysis.

Health IT won't realize its full potential until analytics software can mine EMR databases to identify trends and help clinical leaders refine best practices, but interoperability and patient trust stand in the way. "[S]till unresolved are questions about how patients' records will be handled--and how they want their records handled," Computerworld reports. "Should they be able to opt into a system of shared electronic records, or should they have to opt out? And who will be the owners and custodians of the information--the patients themselves, or the caregivers or facilities that created the data?"Read more at www.fiercehealthit.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i0m0

Which Healthcare Workers get Assaulted the Most on-duty?

Healthcare workers get assaulted 4 times more often than any other sector!
Amplify’d from blogs.wsj.com

They looked at government stats and found that while shootings in health-care workplaces are pretty rare, the rate of assaults is relatively high — 8 per 10,000 workers vs. 2 per 10,000 for all private-sector industries. Nursing staff in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, ICUs, psych units and emergency departments are at higher risk, the paper says.

The authors — Gabor Kelen and Christina Catlett, both from Hopkins’s emergency medicine department and its office of critical event preparedness and response — cite a couple of factors that may be behind the higher-than-average assault rate. Among them: physicians are no longer “viewed with reverence,” health-care is increasingly viewed as a business and patients are often frustrated in their dealings with the system. At the same time “societal incivility may have reached new lows,” with some people turning to violence.Read more at blogs.wsj.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/i0lv

Hospitals and Doctors to Create the really Useful Apps

A recent report by Research2Guidance predicts that in the near future, creating and distributing medical apps will no longer be the purview of pure tech/creative companies, but trickle down to doctors, hospitals and other health care service providers. And seeing the enormous amount of action in this field, this prediction seems just right!

via imedicalapps.com

See this cool Symptom Checker iPad app by Mayo Clinic.

This is a great free app which provides useful patient information as well as helps propogate additional Mayo clinic services, free as well as paid.

• Guidance on self-care strategies as well as information on when to seek care for more than 40 symptoms. 
• Relevant links to MayoClinic.com, Mayo Clinic's award-winning consumer health information Web site, for more in-depth information on each symptom 
• Easy access to information on thousands of additional health topics from MayoClinic.com. 
• Information on receiving care at Mayo Clinic, including the ability to inquire about an appointment at Mayo Clinic locations in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Read more: http://bit.ly/fcaOVA

Also, going on similar lines is the Florida Hospital.

The Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital for Children is piloting a new iPad application using interactive video to explain common medical procedures such as CT scans and MRIs to patients.

“This application will support our patient resource specialists in ensuring that children and their parents understand and feel comfortable with important medical procedures and mitigate any potential fears or concerns they may have,” said Marla Silliman, administrator of Florida Hospital for Children.

Read more: Children’s hospital piloting new iPad app | Orlando Business Journal 

Creating and distributing apple iPad/iPhone apps is a low entry barrier strategy. The availability of a large number of trained, medically and technically proficient experts in countries like India can give it a great fillip. Do check www.emedsim.com for a taste of a few medical apps from a India based creative center.

Related articles

• Mayo Clinic and Social Media : Success Stories (digmed.in)

Free Market Strategies for Health Marketing

Melinda French Gates: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola | Video on TED.com

Melinda Gates makes a provocative case for nonprofits taking a cue from corporations such as Coca-Cola, whose plugged-in, global network of marketers and distributors ensures that every remote village wants -- and can get -- a Coke. Why shouldn't this work for condoms, sanitation, vaccinations too?

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• Melinda Gates Discusses What We Can Learn From the "Feel Good' Marketing of Coke and How to Investigate Some of Those Techniques And Ideas to Spread Better Healthcare For All (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)