New Health Networks February 25, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Community Site, Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.4 comments
There are over 50 (!) biomedical community sites in my constantly updated list. Here are the 2 newest additions.
bevalley is a global network where healthcare professionals and organizations share medical facts and the ways they use them. It includes several applications to work with data, such as analysis tools and graphical representations. bevalley is free of charge and grows in a controlled way through an invitation system. Each user has a limited number of exclusive invites to the network. If you already know some users in bevalley, ask them to invite you!
Vivu: a network of professionals and users that care about our health and wellness.
Can pharma companies edit Wikipedia? February 23, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Pharma, Web 2.0, Wikipedia.11 comments
Recently, I’ve received plenty of e-mails asking whether pharma companies can or should edit Wikipedia entries about their own products. Here is a quick summary of what the medical Wikipedia community thinks about that:
The Wikipedia:Conflict of interest guideline addresses this, while Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:Username policy are also relevant.
Disclosure of COI is not required by any Wikipedia policy.
- Some editors have voluntarily chosen to disclose a conflict of interest by including their employers’ names in their account names, e.g., all these folks from GlaxoSmithKline. More self-identify on their user pages.
- Self-identification is a two-edged sword: You get points from most users for being honest, but a few will use it to harrass editors. See, e.g., User:James Cantor, a world-class expert on pedophilia, who has been chastised by a handful of (minority-view-holding) editors for not re-re-re-re-disclosing his “conflict of interest” every single time he edits certain pages.
- Corporate IP addresses are highly traceable. An employee editing from the office should assume that s/he’s hung a big sign on the edit saying “I’m part of a pharmaceutical conspiracy”.
- Some employers require disclosure, and a few believe it illegal for their employees to edit these pages. (I believe the idea runs like this: We are legally required to say only X about this product; if we change the Wikipedia page, we are legally required to say only X on the Wikipedia page; if the page says anything beyond X, then we’re in violation of the law.) So employees and contractors should check with their employers.
Wikipedia does not prohibit people in the pharmaceutical industry from editing articles. (WP:PAID failed) However, there are strategies that reduce conflict:
- Vandalism = bad. As far as we’re concerned, anyone is welcome to fix it, even people who work for a pharmaceutical company.
- Correct serious errors, but leave the fine points to others.
- Propose sources and improvements on the talk pages.
- Read WP:MEDRS, especially the bits about not paying too much attention to single studies.
- Read WP:MEDMOS, especially the bits about not providing medical advice, instructions to patients, or dosage information.
- Remember that Wikipedia is not a patient guide or drug formulary. Employees might be in a unique position to provide background and historical information, which we very much want. We’d love for every page about a drug to contain some information about its regulatory status around the world, its development, its manufacturing process, and its commercial history (e.g., which companies have worked on it and what its annual sales are).
- Come to WT:PHARM to get help.
A new essay is being developed right now. See more details at Wikipedia:Conflicts of interest (medicine).
PeRSSonalized Conductive Education February 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, PeRSSonalized Medicine, Video, Web 2.0, Webicina.3 comments
Conductive education (CE) was developed by Professor Andras Peto and became an educational system for children and adults who have motor disorders of neurological origin. This area has lots of fantastic resources and it was just time for Webicina.com to publish a selection focusing on relevant CE blogs, news, Twitter users, Youtube channels and peer-reviewed journals in PeRSSonalized Conductive Education, the simplest customizable medical information aggregator that is available in 17 languages.
The idea came from Izabella Vajda, a Pető-trained conductor-kindergarten teacher as she started a great blog under the name Playing With Angels.
You can also add custom Pubmed search boxes to your personalized journal.
Some reasons why PeRSSonalized Medicine is unique:
- You can search in the database. It means you will find medical information only from a quality selected portion of the world wide web.
- You can personalize any of the sections.
- You can also receive the newest Pubmed articles focusing on your search term. Just insert your field of interest, a therapy, a condition, etc. and click Search. Then you can add the newly created box to your personalized medical “journal”.
- It is a community-based project. Please let us know which quality resources should be added to the database.
- It’s available in 17 languages.
Here is a video tutorial about PeRSSonalized Medicine:
Facebook diagnosis by surgeon saves friend February 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Medicine, Web 2.0.4 comments
It might only be a Facebook promo article, but I still think it’s interesting and it reflects the current situation between doctors and their patients when they can interact online. An excerpt from a recent BBC article:
Peter Ball had suffered from stomach ache for a while and at first thought he had pulled a muscle
A surgeon potentially saved the life of an old schoolfriend by diagnosing his symptoms for appendicitis on Facebook.
Rahul Velineni, from the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, saw Peter Ball’s status update on his stomach pains and his trouble walking.
He sent the 30-year-old from Cheshire a message telling him he should see a doctor immediately.
By the time surgeons operated, Mr Ball’s appendix was already perforated, which could have been fatal.
Scienceroll.com: Weekly Introduction February 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine.1 comment so far
If you are looking for interesting articles and news on medicine 2.0 or health 2.0, 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 Friendfeed room.
For news and articles about personalized medicine and genetics, please follow the Gene Genie Friendfeed room.
Internet in Medicine University Course: We are in the fourth semester of the first university course that focuses on web 2.0 and medicine for medical students.
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 curates medical content in social media for free fo medical professionals and e-patients.
PeRSSonalized Medicine is the simplest, free, customizable medical information aggregator covering over 80 medical specialties and conditions in 17 languages!
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.
2010 Medgadget Weblog Awards: Thank you! February 17, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medgadget, Scienceroll.7 comments
Many thanks to everyone who supported Scienceroll in this year’s Medgadget’s Weblog Awards, the most prestigious medical blogger competition in the world.
Scienceroll won the Best Medical Technology/Informatics Blog category for the third time in a row.
The Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog is once again Bertalan Meskó’s ScienceRoll. Berci, as we like to call him ever since he was one of the editors at Medgadget, is specializing in medical informatics and genetics. In the past, Berci even developed a medical school course about Health 2.0 and related topics at University of Debrecen in Hungary. ScienceRoll continues to provide timely commentary and news and reviews of everything involving computers, patients, and doctors. Congrats Berci, and keep up the good work!
Also many thanks to the Medgadget Team for organizing this wonderful competition!
WheresFlu mobile app February 17, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0.2 comments
Novartis, as a part of the TheraFlu campaign, developed free Android, Blackberry and iPhone applications for tracking flu outbreaks in the US. I believe that these days it has become an inevitable idea to develop free apps on all platforms in order to promote your product.
Keep up-to-date on the most active cold and flu reports around the country.
The WheresFlu™ app follows sickness incidence levels from week to week and keeps track of the current top 5 affected cities in the nation. The WheresFlu™ app will find your current location and provide you with results for that area. Or you can enter a ZIP code to get information for that area.
If you are wondering how it actually works and how it differs from Google Flu Trends, here it is:
WheresFlu™ measures weekly activity for cold and flu based upon real-time reports of symptoms from SDI FAN® (a source used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). As the longest-running respiratory tracking program in the US, SDI FAN® covers illness levels in 135 regions across the country utilizing panel-member reporting along with patient-specific data. Advanced tracking uses illness status levels to predict change in the affected population for the nine US Census Regions.
Doctors 2.0 and You in Paris February 16, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine.3 comments
I think one of the most exciting conferences in 2011 will take place in Paris between 22 and 23 of June: Doctors 2.0 and You. I’ll give a presentation so see you there!
How are Doctors using Social Media, Apps, and Web 2.0 Tools to work with Patients, Colleagues, Governments, Industry, Payers? There is so much excitement about Web 2.0 and Social Media in Health Care, but do we know what physicians and other health care professionals are actually doing online?
Doctors 2.0™ & You conference will be highly interactive, with workshops, contests, live tweeting, and interactive voting.
Doctors 2.0™ & You is organized by Basil Strategies, an eHealth eMarketing consultancy, founded by Denise Silber to help healthcare organizations take advantage of New Technologies, Health 2.0 tools and Social Media. Basil Strategies was co-organizer of Health 2.0 Europe 2010.
Why Denise Silber likes Webicina February 15, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Video, Web 2.0, Webicina.add a comment
Denise Silber, French health 2.0 guru and organizer of the great Doctors 2.0 conference taking place in Paris on 22-23, June (which I will attend) just published a video in which she describes why she likes Webicina.com, the medical resource curation service. This video will be a part of a huge campaign being launched this March.
