Is it only Google Wave? October 28, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Technology, Web 2.0.4 comments
Yesterday I found out I had 20 invitations for a Google Wave account. I asked my followers on Twitter whether anyone needed one, and I got over 80 requests. It seems people would like to give it a try. But what about other developments that also aim to change the way we communicate. Here is one example, Raindrop from Mozilla.
Raindrop’s mission: make it enjoyable to participate in conversations from people you care about, whether the conversations are in email, on twitter, a friend’s blog or as part of a social networking site.
Raindrop uses a mini web server to fetch your conversations from different sources (mail, twitter, RSS feeds), intelligently pulls out the important parts, and allows you to interact with them using your favorite modern web browser (Firefox, Safari or Chrome).
Google Wave or RainDrop, at the end, both will revolutionize the way we communicate with our collegues or with patients.
Web 2.0 and Allergy: New Collection October 26, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in eHealth, Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, PeRSSonalized Medicine, Web 2.0, Webicina.2 comments
There is a huge number of online resources focusing on allergy and it’s hard to find the best ones so it’s a pleasure to present the newest collection on Webicina, the first medical web 2.0 guidance service. Allergy 2.0 is a free comprehensive resource containing all the web 2.0 tools from quality blogs and communities to online slideshows and mobile applications focusing on allergy.
Many thanks to Ves Dimov at Allergy Notes for helping me select the best resources.
Please take a look at the table of contents:
- News and Information on Allergy
- Allergy in the Blogosphere
- Allergy-related Podcasts and Interviews
- Allergy-related Community sites, Facebook groups and Forums
- Microblogging: Twitter and Friendfeed
- Allergy Wikis
- Allergy Videos, animations and videocasts
- Mobile Applications
- Social Bookmarking
- Medical Search Engines
- Slideshows about Allergy
Also here is PeRSSonalized Allergy with all the quality news sites, blogs, peer-reviewed journals and web 2.0 tools focusing on allergy. PeRSSonalized Medicine is an easy-to-use, free aggregator of quality medical information that lets you select your favourite resources and read the latest news and articles about a medical specialty or a medical condition in one personalized place.
Please feel free to sign up for our newsletter.
Scienceroll.com: Weekly Introduction October 26, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine.3 comments
I would like to share my favourite and ongoing projects with you so I can give you a proper introduction to Scienceroll.com. You can also find me on Twitter or on Friendfeed.
For news and articles about the impact of web 2.0 on medicine and healthcare, please follow the Medicine 2.0 Friendfood room.
For news and articles about personalized medicine and genetics, please follow the Gene Genie Friendfeed room.
Medicine 2.0 University Course: This is the third semester of the first university course that focuses on web 2.0 and medicine for medical students. Now, almost 100 students attend the 20 slideshows through 10 weeks and they fill a survey out before and after the course.
Medicine 2.0 Collection: I maintain the biggest collection of links and posts focusing on web 2.0 and medicine.
Webicina.com is my service that aims to help medical professionals and patients enter the web 2.0 era by providing them with e-courses, consulting and personalized packages.
PeRSSonalized Medicine is a free tool that lets you select your favourite resources and read the latest news and articles in one personalized place. You can create your own “medical journal” and as we are totally open to suggestions, let us add the journals, blogs and websites that you would like to follow.
Scienceroll Search is a personalized medical search engine powered by PolyMeta search and clustering engine. You can choose which databases to search in and which one to exclude from your list. It works with well-known medical search engines and databases and we’re totally open to add new ones or remove those you don’t really like.
List of biomedical and scientific community sites: More than 30 communities with links, descriptions and screenshots.
List of Biomedical video sites: Almost 40 sites featuring scientific or medical videos and videocasts.
Second Life News: Midwifery and Molecules October 26, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Video, Web 2.0.add a comment
Mary Anne Clark describes the organization and uses of Genome Island, a virtual laboratory complex constructed in Second Life. Genome Island was created for teaching genetics to university undergraduates but also provides a public space where anyone interested in genetics can spend a few minutes, or a few hours, interacting with genetic objects—from simple experiments with peas to the organization of whole genomes.
I’m not against virtual environments – it’s SL I have a problem with. There are many potential applications, the ones that particularly attract me being travel replacement and carbon footprint reduction. However, I don’t feel that virtual environments are good conferencing tools – I don’t need a 3D representation and the lighter touch of tools such as Eluminate and Skype are much more appropriate for this application.
As some readers probably already know, I received a request from Linden Lab on Wednesday in relation to the Second Life in Education Wiki requesting ‘not to use our trademark “Second Life” in your name or website name and not to use “SLeducation” in text or in your domain name…’ and to ‘..make the changes to your website name and domain name as soon as possible and let us know when you expect to have this done…’.
Diagnosis from Sequencing of Patient’s Genes October 25, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in genetics.add a comment
I found an article mentioning a promising method for diagnosing diseases without unknown origin.Though it’s still not a realistic option to perform sequencing in clinics and hospitals in many parts of the world.
For the first time, scientists have diagnosed a genetic disease by completely sequencing all of a patient’s genes. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing technology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers successfully identified a gene mutation that was responsible for the patient’s disease, but had not been suspected based on clinical observations.
Starting with DNA from a blood sample from the patient — an infant in Turkey who was persistently dehydrated and failing to gain weight – the team found in 10 days a gene mutation known to affect electrolyte transport in the intestines and cause a condition called congenital chloride diarrhea. Doctors in Turkey confirmed the diagnosis clinically and were able to provide a treatment tailored to the disease.
VenaHub Wirelessly Reports Health Data Compliance October 25, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, eHealth, Health, Health 2.0, Innovation, Invention, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Technology, Video, Web 2.0.add a comment
Barbara Duck at The Medical Quack published an interesting article about new devices that help report health data compliance wirelessly. One example is the VenaHub device:
What’s on the Web: Radiopaedia and Medical Videos October 25, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, science, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?, Youtube channel.1 comment so far
Health care is a personal issue that has become wholly public–as the national debate over reforming our system makes painfully clear. But what’s often lost in the gun-toting Town Hall debates about the issue is a clear vision about how medicine could work in the future. In this feature article, frog design uses its people-centered design discipline to show how elegant health and life science technology solutions will one day become a natural part of our behavior and lifestyle. What you see here is the result of frog’s ongoing collaboration with health-care providers, insurers, employers, consumers, governments, and technology companies.
Radiopaedia.org Radiology Teaching Files provide 50 quality cases per volume to help in the preparation for board exams, and to act as a quick reference.
This app is designed primarily with off-line use in mind, although links to online Radiopaedia.org content are present.
The Resounding Health web site is a work in progress, brought to you by a group of physicians and computer scientists who believe that there is a revolution brewing in the way health care is sought and delivered, and that this change is being led by the creation of the ePatient — people who uses all the capabilties of modern-day information technology to enhance their understanding of medical conditions and diseases, and, by becoming better informed, play an active role in their own well-being.
A new p
Healthcare and internet in the Netherlands October 24, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Video, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
I saw the Dutch version of this video at the recent Reshape conference.
Trouble with Wikipedia October 24, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0, Wikipedia.1 comment so far
I’ve written numerous entries about how Wikipedia should be or not be used in medicine. Jacqueline at Laikas MedLiblog published a fantastic report in which she analyzed the pros and cons; how students, patients or doctors use Wikipedia and what kind of changes should be made in order to make it a better encyclopaedia.
Wikipedia is an admirable initiative. It is a large online collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia written by contributors around the world.
But the key question is whether you can rely on Wikipedia as the sole source for medical, scientific or even popular information.
I had a nice discussion with David Bradley and Frank Gaillard on Facebook focusing on this issue.
Health on the Net Foundation: Problems? October 24, 2009
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, honcode, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.8 comments
Health on the Net Foundation has been evaluating and rating medical websites for years and it’s sad when we find out there might be some problems and concerns around this highly-respected system.The Bradfield Resident blog published an interesting entry:
…from a review the HONcode guidelines on the Health On the Net Foundation website, it appears that the Australian Dental Association’s site, which currently displays a HONcode seal, does not respect the HONcode principles.
Details of the water fluoridation argument (and safety of mercury in fillings, etc) aside, it is apparent that the current ADA website does not respect a number of the HONcode principles – to an obvious and significant extent – and I imagine this to have been the case for a number of years, if not from the original review in January 2004. This example does not instill confidence in the credibility of the Health On the Net Foundation seal used for medical and health websites. I seek your explanation as to how a site reviewed numerous times with such glaring inconsistencies could be certified. I have not particularly listed examples of the inconsistencies since they appear on almost every page of the ADA website – if you cannot see them, I hold little hope for the HONcode’s reputation at all.
