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Posts from the ‘Health’ Category

14-Year-Old Discovers iPad Could Shut Off Implanted Defibrillators

Do you remember the story of Jack Andraka? It seems this is going to be a trend now. A 14-year-old teenager in the US discovered that the magnets inside an iPad could shut off implanted defibrillators if the device is left on the chest for some time.

Chien’s study found that 30 percent of patients with defibrillators who put iPads on their chest were affected by the device. Most defibrillators will turn back on once the magnet is removed, but some must be reactivated manually causing a potentially life-threatening situation.

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The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media: In the Advisory Board Again!

It’s an honor to serve my second year as a member of the Advisory Board of The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. Let’s work together for a better healthcare worldwide with the help of social media.

The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media exists to improve health globally by accelerating effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and spurring broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients.

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13 years with homemade dialysis machine?

There is a very interesting story of a Chinese man who has been keeping himself alive for 13 years with a homemade dialysis machine because the hospital is too far away and too crowded. Well, should we complain about the care we receive?

He was a college student when he was diagnosed in 1993 with kidney disease, which means waste  products cannot be removed from his blood.

He underwent dialysis treatment in hospital but ran out of savings after six years. His solution was to create his own machine to slash his costs.

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Health Online 2013: Survey Results

Pew Internet Research published its new findings about online health. Here are the most important results:

1 in 3 U.S. adults use the internet to diagnose themselves or someone else – and a clinician is more likely than not to confirm their suspicions.

1 in 4 people looking online for health info have hit a pay wall.

11% of internet users have looked online for information about how to control their health care costs.

14% of internet users have looked online for information about caring for an aging relative or friend.

16% of internet users have looked online for information about a drug they saw advertised.

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When bone grows in your eye socket

There is a brutal story in Scientific American about a US woman who could not open her right eye as bone grew in her eye socket following a stem cell cosmetic treatment.

In this case the doctors extracted mesenchymal stem cells—which can turn into bone, cartilage or fat, among other tissues—and injected those cells back into her face, especially around her eyes.

During the face-lift her clinicians had also injected some dermal filler, which plastic surgeons have safely used for more than 20 years to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. The principal component of such fillers is calcium hydroxylapatite, a mineral with which cell biologists encourage mesenchymal stem cells to turn into bone—a fact that escaped the woman’s clinicians.

He successfully removed the pieces of bone from her eyelid in 2009 and says she is doing well today, but some living stem cells may linger in her face. These cells could turn into bone or other out-of-place tissues once again.

Top Medical Social Media Stories of 2012: Month by Month

Just like last year, I again collect the most important and interesting news about the relationship between medicine/healthcare and social media, so here are my favorite stories from 2012 selected and featured month by month.

January

There was a support for Bald Barbie campaign on Facebook, a funny Nature documentary showing pharma reps in the wild, the most amusing medical story ever about how not to communicate new scientific information, the Hands-Only CPR video with Vinnie Jones and my keynote at Games for Health.

February

The world’s first Live-Tweeted Open-Heart Surgery was reported, how to get better at online search, the e-patient became a patient again, ambulance crews tweeted ‘working life, I explained what I use Twitter for with 10,000 followers and Medical Social Media Curation was described:

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March

Telemedicine was predicted in 1925, a patient designed an infographic about 20 years of medical history, developments about the social media guide were published, we initiated a directory of European Doctor Twitterers and The Social MEDia Course was launched!

The Social MEDia Course main page

April

6 Cool Things People Have Done Inside MRI Scanners, the first open Facebook page launched by a pharma company was over, digital literacy in the medical curriculum became available worldwide, and a doctor reviewed the episodes of House, MD.

May

Teaching older physicians about social media is trickyMicrosoft’s new community site, So.cl was launched, how a blog post can turn into a community, Facebook’s organ donor campaign was not successful, and the #HCSM Leaderboard was revealed.

June

10 physicians to follow on Twitter, we visualized the #MDChat medical Twitter hashtag, we had the first graduate of The Social MEDia Course, Doctors 2.0 and You 2012 was the event of the year, I published an open letter to pharma about employing a Wikipedian, a social media guide for authors of medical resources was released and I described the way I filter information online through crowdsourcing.

July

I was mentioned in the TIME magazine, we did a podcast about pharma and Wikipedia, I was in a list with Barack Obama, I tried to help a husband crowdsource the diagnosis of his wife, and my keynote video about Facing Traditional Medicine as a Geek was uploaded.

August

Patients Sued Physician Over Online Photos, fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer’s patients from wandering off were reported, the very first website was still accessible, there was a great social media cancer campaign with a celebrity, and the way patients choose doctors online was described in a comic.

September

A brain cancer patient wanted to crowdsource his diagnosis, the first social game of pharma was launched, the real anatomy of a Barbie was revealed, I started documenting my steps towards becoming a medical futurist, and I spoke at Harvard.

October

An amazing breast cancer self-check iPad ad was presented, how to deal with patients on Facebook, I spoke at TEDxYouth and in Denmark, the second step towards becoming a medical futurist, and the Key Trends in the Future of Medicine: E-Patients, Communication and Technology:

 

November

The first smartphone was 20 years old (as well as the first text message), the ultimate health startup resources guide was published, a positive pregnancy test diagnosed a man’s cancer on Reddit, and I got a PhD in clinical genomics.

December

Curēus, an open-access medical journal with crowdsourcing was launched, I published my PhD thesis, I had an interview about telehealth, I was among the top ten Internet-Smart Doctors in the World, and it turned out we are digital junkies.

I’m going to post my predictions for 2013 soon and I hope you will stay with me on Scienceroll.com next year as well!

Scientific Games Exhibit

I’ve recently come across this very interesting exhibit of scientific games such as the Game Arthritis or the My Life Walkthrough.

My Life Walkthough is a platform adventure game version of the popular lifebook format used in reminiscence therapies for older adults with dementia. Reminiscence therapy is a format which acknowledges that older adults with dementia may not remember the recent past, but their retention for early life is good. Building upon recall of early events has been shown to improve communication and mood among older adults with dementia, and can even improve their memory of later life events.

A few words about Game Arthritis:

In 2011, IOCOSE and Matteo Bittanti worked together to create Game Arthritis, a staged photographic documentation of deformities induced by video gaming. What are the real effects of digital gaming on our fingers, hands and bodies? Game Arthritis is an ongoing project that imagines a future where the conformity of interfaces on everyday devices is beginning to produce real physical consequences for the users.

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Microsoft Lync tries to improve patient care and clinical workflow

Have you seen the latest innovation of Microsoft? To be honest, I’ve been using Microsoft OS since the first time I used a computer so I watch their developments closely. Now they came up with a solution for improving clinical workflow. I haven’t given Windows 8 a try yet, but it seems it’s going to happen soon.

To help you understand the tools being used by the most progressive healthcare organizations today, we’ve prepared a short video. I think it effectively demonstrates why there’s more to contemporary clinical workflow and patient care than having an electronic medical record at your fingertips. Take a look at the video and then continue reading.

 

Home health nurses are using it to check on clients remotely and lessen the frequency of travel.

Health Literacy in the EU: Video

Here is an animated infographic about how they tried to measure health literacy and identify potential problems in 8 European countries. To be honest, the results are quite negative. I’ve been talking about the importance of digital literacy and how we should include it in the medical curriculum, while patients sometimes struggle understanding the information their doctor provides them with.

This animated infographic shows the main outcome of the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU), which formed part of the European Health Literacy Project from 2009-2012.

The project reached its objectives of measuring health literacy in Europe, establishing a European Network (Health Literacy Europe) and of creating advisory bodies on health literacy in eight European countries to manifest health literacy as a topic on the European health agenda.

Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care: Book by Mayo Clinic

It’s a great honor for me to be a member of the external advisory board of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media and when I had a chance to contribute to a book they started to work on, of course, I was in!

The book was just published and it contains great essays about how social media can help bring revolution to healthcare.

That’s the title of our new book, published by the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, and developed in collaboration with members of our External Advisory Board and members of our Social Media Health Network.

We announced the book’s launch this morning during the opening keynote of the 4th Annual Social Media Summit, which we are hosting in collaboration with Ragan Communications.

Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Health Care is available on Amazon ($9.95 Paperback) or in bulk from the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

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