Social Media in Medicine course: The Announcement! December 14, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Medicine 2.0 Course, Web 2.0.10 comments
I launched a course at the University of Debrecen, Medical and Health Science Center in 2008 in order to help medical and public health students learn more about social media. Now, after several semesters, the course developed a lot and I still teach students about the basics of social media, through blogging, Twitter, Facebook, searching and many other topics. Here are the weekly summaries of this semester. This was the last semester in Debrecen and I’ve got two announcements to make.
1) From February, I will teach the course at Semmelweis University of Budapest, the oldest medical school in Hungary (1769) with even more students (hundreds of them) and through 14 weeks instead of 10.
2) I will make the course totally online in February! It means any students, medical professionals or even patients could watch the Prezis, take the course and get the certification that they know what they have to know about social media and medicine. More details later!
I’m very excited about these and I hope you are also looking forward to seeing the site online!
Pocket Body iPhone app December 12, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0.4 comments
I remember when I had to study all the details of human anatomy from textbooks and some old books with many pictures, but I didn’t have a chance to see things in 3D (which would have made it much easier to understand, learn and memorize). After medical school, I started to discover new apps and solutions for this problem.
I’ve been using the Biodigital app on Google Chrome, it’s free but a bit hard to use.
And recently, I’ve received a letter from the makers of the Pocket Body iPhone app which is just great, although fairly expensive.
Award winning Pocket Body features a fully anatomically accurate human character with nine layers of musculoskeletal, neurovascular, and internal organ visual content…plus over 30,000 words of learning material.
I hope you check it out and let me know what you think!
7 Features of the New Generation of Physicians November 21, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health 2.0, List, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.19 comments
For the last 4 years, I’ve been teaching medical and public health students about the use of social media and generally digital technologies in medicine and healthcare and I got a good picture of what kind of medical professionals they would become soon. They represent the new generation of physicians.
Here are my points and observations:
- They are technophile. I remember the time when there was no internet, I remember the first website I first saw online. They were born into the technology and internet-based world. For them, websites, Facebook, Twitter and blogs represent the basics. They love gadgets and devices.
- They are fast. They use smartphones, read news online, follow blogs and know what RSS is, they are familiar with multi-tasking. They are much faster than the previous generations therefore they need different tools and solutions in their work.
- But they use the technology for non-professional purposes. Even if they know a lot about social media, they use it like everyone else outside medicine. As long as they don’t have professional motivation regarding the use of social media, they keep on using it for personal reasons. We must help them find the way to use the web in an optimal and efficient way.
- They like balance. They don’t want to become “Gods’ for the patients even if they are trained like that and hate hierarchy. They soon realized common hierarchies are missing in the online world and what matters is the quality of work you do (just see Wikipedia). They need informed patients and want to work with e-patients. They are not afraid of them as they see such patients day by day in the circles of their families, friends and relatives. For them, the concept of being an empowered and enabled patient is absolutely not new.
- They live on the internet. They not only accept the dominance of the online world in almost all processess and activities, but it’s so natural for them. They have been doing banking, messaging, reading, studying and even shopping online in their entire life. It’s obvious they want to use the internet when practicing medicine and they don’t really understand why they cannot use it right now in many areas of medicine.
- They are mobile. They don’t feel they should stay in one place and they are not afraid of moving to new places or even countries. They are also mobile because of their smartphones through which they are connected all the time to those who are important to them and to the information they need.
- They are the future. And as it strikes me, they don’t even know it (fortunately). They just want to use the online word in medicine and healthcare as well.
I’m trying to help them become better doctors who can meet the specific needs of e-patients, the new generation of patients. In this long process, I will make my course totally online this January. So then any students, medical professionals or e-patients could take and finish my course and know more about the medical segments of social media and the entire world wide web.
More details later!
Social Media in Medical Education November 18, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Video, Web 2.0.4 comments
Social Media in Medical Education is a topic that is very close to my heart. I launched the world’s first and still only university accredited course for medical, dentistry and public health students abut social media and medicine and will have a major announcement soon regarding this course.
Now I would like to mention a blog entry on Life in the Fast Lane:
Social media (the internet) is a game changer. In medicine we are able to connect with colleagues, discuss medical literature, share evaluative thoughts, ponder hypotheses and join in collaborative thinking. We already engage in these activities in the physical world, and now can extend the conversation globally through these new digital technologies.
Case Presentations on Google+ and Facebook? November 11, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Facebook, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.11 comments
Last week, I wrote an entry about how a French colleague organized case presentations on Google+. I said that based on the very simple privacy settings of Google+, it can be useful for such purposes. Then I received a comment from Aitor:
Hi, in Spain we’re using also Facebook for that kind of case-presentations. There’s a group called Med&Learn where several cases a day are uploaded. Since the group is closed I send you an screenshot but without names or avatars.
I’m also into an other group of medical students on Facebook where we talk about our preparation for the Spanish USMLE (called MIR) and we share cases we see in our daily medical practice or that we found on the Internet.
I just asked to be a part of this group and will publish more details later.
New possibilities in education of medical students October 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education.add a comment
Recently, I got a request from a colleague and friend to become a co-author of a short article he has been working on based on the materials I present in my Internet in Medicine course. Now our work is published in the Medical Teacher journal.
Revolution in education–new possibilities in education of medical students.
If you need a copy, just let me know.
Organizing virtual medical events: Interview July 15, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Interview, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Second Life, Virtuality, Web 2.0.add a comment
I did an interview with a medical professional (virtual name is Vera Zhaoying) who has been organizing medical events for years in Second Life.
- When and why did you start organizing medical events in Second Life?
That is I think 4,5 years ago that I spoke for AMMC (the Ann Myers Medical Center), I was still a student and in real life I was not happy to talk in public. During that time Ann (founder of the AMMC) still taught in AMMC. When I proposed a subject, Ann said OK and you go do it yourself. Looked it up on the website. That was the 10th of September, 2007 and the topic was spinal cord injuries. I think during 2008 I began to organize meetings on a regular bases and created the AMMC intern group. By that time Dr Ann began to have more serious health problems and had asked me to do this, and i did 
- What do you do in real life and do your colleagues know about your online activities?
What I do in real life, actually I think it is better to say what my roles are. First I am me and that can be tricky enough (joking) and have been an MD sinch March 2010 MD (proud proud proud). Now I’m a resident of Internal medicine and due to a trial already also in Oncology.
My online activities, some do know it and are interested and see the potentials, some think it is just a game and I should not waste my time on it. Surprisingly enough the more enthousiast collegues are those a bit older/old. I had not expected that, the younger ones are way more familiar with new technology and applications and mostly they don’t see it as a possible addition.
- What about the Ann Myers Medical Center? Are there any live events these days?
Sadly currently not, AMMC does not have land and believe me I did try to find it, so I hope I win state lottery soon and simply buy a SIM
What is now under development is a mobile solution, I asked a builder to create a truck and trailer. The trailer is the key part, it has a double that swings open in an angle of 90 degrees showing the interior. The first trailer will be about breast awareness. I wait with other plans till this one is completed.
I'm attending a simulation at the Ann Myers Medical Center
- What are your plans for the near future?
Well actually I miss a house in Second Life to call home and have a small office in it. So I probably go rent one. Other plans are 3 extra trailers for several topics: Diabetes is one and for the more near future a ship. That might sound funny but I don’t see AMMC getting land anytime soon, in order not to lose the momentum, I thought of the ship, it must have a place for meetings but also instead of trailers have containers with the option I just described, the containers can be used in for instance mobile hospital. Bit like medicine sans frontiere, I have to plan that in more details.
Many thanks for the answers and I wish you luck with your virtual medical education projects!
Kinect for CPR training: Video July 13, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Video, Medical education, Virtuality.2 comments
Federico Semeraro sent me this description about his project:
The main objective of this research project is the development of a training platform for quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation of lay and health care personnel. The proposed training platform is composed of a traditional manikin for the physical interaction and Kinect Sensor, that will beautomatically reconstruct trainee’s hands position and posture while performing chest compressions.
The system will automatically extract and analyse the movement features performed by the trainee, to assess the trainee performance in terms of compression rate and depth and the correct arms‘ position and alignment with the mannequin. An on-line feedback correction will be provided during the performance. The training session will be also endowed with an augmented reality simulation, showing the current view from the camera enriched with superimposed graphical information to improve the compression performance (arrow, text, bars) and the 3D graphics representation of the mannequin as a virtual character, allowing the detection of chest rising and correct standard position during inflation for checking the proper application of ventilation.
Being a co-author of a medical textbook: Medical Communication June 22, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in About me, Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0.1 comment so far
I had the honour to write a chapter for a new medical textbook focusing on Medical Communication. My chapter is about medical communication, online tools, telemedicine, using e-mails between patients and doctors, virtual worlds, mobile applications and more.
The textbook is available in English and German and will be used at medical universities.
Prognosis app for Android! February 1, 2011
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medical education, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile.1 comment so far
Last November, I wrote about a great iPhone application, Prognosis, that is actually a clinical case simulation game for doctors, medical students and nurses. I also wrote that I couldn’t wait to see it on Androids, and now here it is! I had a chance to test it on my Galaxy Tab and it works perfectly.You choose a simulation, read the family history and symptoms, choose investigations and get to the final diagnosis.
