SuperPower: Visualizing the Web March 30, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Visualization, Web 2.0.add a comment
BBC News published an interesting data visualization focusing on the different sections of the internet and featuring the biggest sites in each section. The Health section is led by WebMD and Everyday Health Network. They also have a list of billionaires and top sites by country.
Wikipedia Admins: Beware! March 30, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Web 2.0, Wikipedia.4 comments
I’ve recently received quite a strange e-mail, obviously I haven’t even answered it. I’ve been not so active on Wikipedia for the last few months and they thought they could use my admin flag for some other purposes.
We tried to get in contact with you almost a year ago, detailing our desires to utilise your account to help rid Wikipedia of the corruption and bureaucracy at every level that continues to plague it to this very day. We are hoping that, almost a year on, your circumstances may have changed and you may be more willing to aid us in achieving our goal. At the end of the day we all want the same thing – an encyclopedia that is informative and accurate, but one that is also run in a fair manner so all can contribute on an equitable level. As a reminder, here is an extract from our original message:
“We are currently expanding our portfolio of administrator accounts, and as yours remains dormant perhaps you could consider donating it to us – to do so will take you only two minutes: change the password (if desired) and then reply to this email with your login details. We’ll do the rest!”
Once more, thank you for your time and consideration, and naturally do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Kind Regards,
The Wikipedia Freedom Fighters
It’s not unusual though.
Internet in Medicine Course: E-patients and Medical Communities March 28, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Medicine 2.0 Course, Video, Web 2.0.6 comments
I launched the world’s first elective course at a medical university focusing on web 2.0 and medicine for medical students in 2008. This is the 4th semester and the 5th week was dedicated to e-patients and medical communities. Here is the outline of my presentations.
First slideshow: The world of e-patients
- Who is a good patient? (referring to I am a good patient, believe it or not; Alejandro R Jadad, Carlos A Rizo, Murray W Enkin; BMJ 2003;326:1293-1295 (14 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7402.1293 )
- Types of patients: the powerful other; external controller, internal controller or google patient or brainsucker or googlers
- An e-patient is equipped, enabled, empowered, engaged, equal and expert.
- Examples (5 stories) including maartensjourney.com and youtube.com/user/geriatric1927
- What do e-patients use? Websites (Web MD), blogs (fightpompe.com, sixuntilme.com); Second Life (Healthinfo Island), services (sugarstats.com or traineo.com)
- Community sites:
- Patientslikeme.com: Featuring the research they’re doing
- imedix.com: real-time chat
- dlife.com: biggest diabetic community
- What to do with medical charts and papers? Introduction to the world of personal health records (Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault).
- How does a community work? I posted a message on Twitter, Kerri replied to it and made a video message for the students.
Many thanks to e-Patient Dave deBronkart who also had his voice heard:
Other videos from e-patients:
- Statistics about how patients use the web (source is Pew Internet Project Survey)
- How to help e-patients as doctors (don’t use jargons, be patient, show credible sites focusing on medically reliable information)
- How to judge the quality of a medical website, step-by-step
Take-home message:
Physicians of the 21st century must be qualified to meet the expectations of e-patients. They’re the new generation of patients.
Second slideshow: Doctors in social media
- What is social media?
- Traditional vs social media (pros and cons)
- I have an opinion and post it online, but others have their own opinions as well
- It becomes hard to find information and we need places/sites where information is collected and selected by other experts and collegues.
- How to find a collegue or get answer for a medical question? By using telephone, Google or Facebook? Certainly not…
- We need medical community sites
- Examples: Tiromed.com, Sermo.com, Nature Network and many more.
- Microblogging (Twitter and Friendfeed)
- Advantages of medical communities, disadvantages
Take-home message:
Without properly designed strategy, don’t even think about using social media in your practice.
Cancer Outreach And Support In Second Life March 25, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Second Life, Slideshow, Virtuality, Web 2.0, Webicina.1 comment so far
Here is a great slideshow about how cancer outreach and support work in the virtual world of Second Life.
More examples on Webicina.com.
Also e-guide about virtual worlds in medicine.
Pillbox: Pill Identification System March 24, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Innovation, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Pharma, Web 2.0.6 comments
Pillbox is the result of a partnership between the National Library of Medicine and the Food and Drug Administration. It helps you identify unknown pills and tablets by parameters such as form, color, size or imprint. The constantly updated database now has more than 7000 entries with images.
Pillbox was developed to aid in the identification of unknown solid dosage pharmaceuticals. The system combines high-resolution images of tablets and capsules with FDA-approved appearance information (imprint, shape, color, etc.) to enable users to visually search for and identify an unknown solid dosage pharmaceutical.
This system is designed for use by emergency physicians, first responders, other health care providers, Poison Control Center staff, and concerned citizens.
The system enables users to identify solid dosage forms based on physical criteria: imprint (characters or number printed on a medication), shape, color, size, and scoring. Users are shown thumbnail images of possible matches. These images are continually updated as the user enters additional information.
Internet in Medicine Course Week 4: Wikipedia and Medical Wikis March 24, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Medicine 2.0 Course, Video, Web 2.0, Wiki, Wikipedia.2 comments
I’ve been a Wikipedia administrator since 2006 so this topic is really close to my heart. First slideshow is dedicated to Wikipedia issues.
- Facebook + Google + Flickr (=) Wikipedia
- How to build an encyclopedia? Pay professionals? Certainly not.
- I believe in the power of masses.
- Wikipedia statistics, history (Larry Sanger, Jimmy Wales)
- 10 most visited websites in the world: Wikipedia is the 6th one.
- Why is Wikipedia great? (Free, fast, comprehensive, discussions, easy to edit, objective, etc)
- Why it isn’t great. (Almost the same reasons)
- Vandalism and how we fight it: Huggle
- Basics of editing an article; page history, talk pages
- A Wikipedia article minute by minute:
- Basic guidelines: Be bold, objective, no hoax, don’t copy and notability issues
- A few controversies (Seigenthaler in 2005; Congress in 2006; Essjay in 2007)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica vs Wikipedia; my analysis
- Medical Wikiproject, Medicine Portal, article assessment
- Editing process: from a Good Article to a Featured Article
- Sister projects
- Uncyclopedia
Take-home message:
Wikipedia is a great place to start your research, but should never be the last source you finish your research with.
Second slideshow was focusing on medical wikis.
- We need wikis for collaboration, teaching, organizing events, etc.
- Definition of Wiki
- Wikis in plain English:
- Medical wikis, featuring two examples: Askdrwiki and Radiopaedia
- How to launch a wiki on Wetpaint
- Semantic Wikis? Wikiproteins
- Classification of diseases, WHO project
- 3D Wiki = Second Life?
Take-home message:
If you want to share and create content online, a wiki is a great tool to use.
Personalized Genomics: Genetic Testing Registry and Next-Gen Sequencing March 24, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Genetic testing, genetics, Genome, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Personalized medicine, Video, Web 2.0.3 comments
I know I have not been updating you about the improvements of personalized genomics lately, but here are the most interesting and important news focusing on this emerging field of medicine.
- When DNA means do not ask (TIME): Quite a negative (but partly valid) article from Camilla Long about genetic testing and DTC companies.
- And the answer for this piece by Genetic Future point by point.
If Long wishes to stay ignorant of her own genetic risks – just as she has managed to remain ignorant of the entire field of genetics, even while writing an op-ed piece about it – that should be her choice. But her criticism of others who choose to pursue a greater understanding of their own genetic risk is entirely, horrendously misplaced.
- Next-Gen Sequencing in 2010 (Mass Genomics): Everything you need to know about next-generation sequencing.
- Interview: Dr. Keith Grimaldi of Eurogene on Nutrigenomics (HUGO Matters): Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei keeps coming up with great interviews.
- The First and Last Meeting of Everyone with a Fully Sequenced Genome (Wired Science): Nearly every person who has had their entire genome sequenced will gather in a single room near Boston on April 27.
- Can a gene test change your life? (Washington Post): National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins answers the question through video.
Health 2.0 News: Human Tamagotchis and Twitter Tummy Tone March 24, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Hospital, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Video, Web 2.0, What's on the web?.1 comment so far
- How to Exercise WHILE Blogging or Doing Other Computer Work (Clinical Cases and Images): From Twitter Tummy Tone to Blogger Breath
- Time to Re-think Hospital Social Media Adoption (Ed Bennett): Ed published the latest data and had a quite astonishing conclusion.
We are now at 805 hospitals out of 1,500 doing some sort of social media.
That’s a 53% adoption rate.
Not bad for a conservative industry like health care.
- Statistical Errors in Medical Studies (Curious Cat)
Intel is taking steps in healthcare 2.0:
- You Are a Tamagotchi: Turning Your Health Into a Game (Wired Science): Thomas Goetz writes about tools and applications that can play a major role in our lives. We are the modern tamagotchis.
- Use of Internet to Obtain Health Information Can Make You Depressed (Pharma Marketing Blog)
Life 2.0: Documentary about Second Life March 23, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Art, Second Life, Video, Virtuality.2 comments
I’ve been using the virtual environment of Second Life and Visuland for years now to organize conferences or just small meetings. I also published a whole e-guide focusing on this issue. But this documentary recently selected for Sundance Film Festival is something really unique. The director and creator is Jason Spingarn-Koff.
This feature-length documentary follows a group of people whose lives are dramatically transformed by the virtual world Second Life. They enter a new reality, whose inhabitants assume alternate personas in the form of avatars. The film is foremost an intimate, character-based drama about people who look to a virtual world in search of something they are missing in their real lives.
A young woman in Detroit becomes a star designer of virtual clothes and houses; an American and a Canadian fall in love online then struggle to build a real life together; a man creates the avatar of an 11-year-old girl who he believes is an expression of his subconscious.
The results are unexpected and often disturbing: reshaping relationships, identities, and ultimately the very notion of reality.
Health 2.0 Conferences to Attend March 22, 2010
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Conference, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.4 comments
I will attend a few conferences in the next 2 weeks and I thought I would share some links with you in case you become interested.
- Conference: Digital Pharma Europe
- Role: speaker
- Venue: Bayer Schering Pharma Headquarters, Berlin
- Date: 29-30 March
- Conference: Healthcare Social Media Camp
- Role: attendant/speaker
- Venue: Kalkscheune, Berlin
- Date: 31 March
- Conference: Health 2.0
- Role: speaker
- Venue: The Cité Internationale Universitaire of Paris
- Date: 6-7 April
See you there!
