Time to prove medical crowdsourcing works: Please join! #medCR February 23, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, twitter, Web 2.0.add a comment
I used Twitter for crowdsourcing for medical purposes several times when I was looking for a rare diagnosis and it always helped. Now I came across the blog post of a Swedish fashion blogger and mother who described his son’s condition and is looking for help, experts or patients from around the world who might have the solution for the kid’s problem. Based on the symptoms, it’s clear this is something rare and unique, but hopefully people who can help will comment on her post.
This is my son, Mio. He has barely been to school the last couple of months. And he has almost not played with his friends. Cause he is always sick. He’s got pain behind his right eye. Every day. Sometimes he vomits. I feel so sorry for him and feel powerless. What can I do? What’s wrong? How long will this last? Should we just accept that life does not work? And that he’s always in pain? And above all – is it something dangerous?
Dear friends on Twitter, use the #medCR hashtag to discuss the potential diagnoses.
Scienceroll.com: Weekly Introduction February 19, 2012
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.
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.
Lucien Engelen: Crowdsource your health February 18, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Ted Talks, Video, Web 2.0.add a comment
A TEDx talk from my friend, Lucien Engelen, who described an amazing area, crowdsourcing in medicine through social media.
The E-Patient becomes a patient February 13, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in e-patient, Health, Health 2.0, Healthcare, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Video, Web 2.0.2 comments
E-patient Dave deBronkart has been the most important and amazing voice of the e-patient movement for years now after surviving a kidney cancer years ago. When I asked him to comment on how medical students should become doctors who are aware of the e-patient movement, he sent me and my students this message.
He announced a few days ago that he has skin cancer again.
An odd consequence of speaking at medical conferences is that sometimes my face is displayed, real big, on monitors at the front of a room. That happened in November at the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) annual meeting in Washington.
At the end, Lisa Letourneau MD, MPH of Maine Quality Countsraced up, pointed to my jaw, and said “You should have that checked. I think it’s a basal cell.” (That’s the least serious type of skin cancer – see Wikipedia: “Basal-cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common type of skin cancer. It rarely metastasizes or kills.”) A few days later I took the picture at left, and started watching.
And now here is the newest piece of the story, Dave approaches the issue from a different angle:
I’ve decided to explore my options by doing what companies do when they’re shopping for a solution: they write a Request for Proposals, and let vendors reply. But in this case what I published isn’t cast in stone – I invite discussion and suggestions. And, significantly, I start with the context: partnership; participatory medicine -
I cannot wait to see how the industry and the healthcare system respond to such innovative approach.
Most comprehensive picture about doctors February 13, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Fun, Medicine.2 comments
Great picture for a Monday start. Have a very successful week!
What about HealthTap? February 11, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Community Site, Health 2.0, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.1 comment so far
I guess you have heard about HealthTap, I even saw Ron Gutman’s talk at Stanford a few months ago. I’ve never thought that letting patients ask questions and letting physicians answer these questions without providing clear credentials, without knowing or seeing the patient in person is a good idea. To be clear, I think it’s a very dangerous idea, because people will probably use the service and while this Q&A approach would work in all areas, medicine is an exception. Practicing medicine happens in person, through real doctor visits, or even when online communication between doctor and patient is encouraged, a first real meeting is required (remember the model of Jay Parkinson,MD?).
I just found a great article covering this issue. An excerpt:
[U]sers post questions and doctors post brief answers. The service is free, and the doctors aren’t paid. Instead, they engage in gamelike competitions, earning points and climbing numbered levels. They can also receive nonmonetary awards — many of them whimsically named, like the “It’s Not Brain Surgery” prize, earned for answering 21 questions at the site.
So far, so good. But there’s more. The professional credentials of the physician answering your question, such as a board-certified specialty, are not available on the site. Instead, you get a crowdsourced “reputation level” built up by accumulating HealthTap awards, by clicks of approval from other doctors and by other measurable activities at the site.
The advice itself is limited to 400 characters, a length the Times worries is “hardly well-suited for providing nuanced answers to some medical questions.”
I would love to hear what you think!
The Power of Global Collaboration on Clinical Cases: Podcast today February 9, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Interview, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.add a comment
For the invitation of Eric Glazer, I’ll tell my stories about global collaboration on clinical cases through social media today in a podcast. Please see the times below. I hope you register and will listen to our discussion.
| Date and time: | Thursday, February 9, 2012 4:30 pm Europe Time (Berlin, GMT+01:00) Change time zone |
| Thursday, February 9, 2012 4:30 pm Europe Time (Madrid, GMT+01:00) |
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| Thursday, February 9, 2012 7:30 am Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00) |
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| Duration: | 1 hour |
Scales: From blood cells to galaxies February 8, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Game, Medicine.add a comment
I’ve come across a flash educational application that lets you get a picture of the scale of the universe from blood cells and atoms to galaxies and planets. Give it a try!
Google Correlate shows what correlates with weight loss February 7, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Google, Medical Search, Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Web 2.0.add a comment
Google Correlate is a tool on Google Trends which enables you to find queries with a similar pattern to a target data series. The target can either be a real-world trend that you provide (e.g., a data set of event counts over time) or a query that you enter. I found a slightly good correlation between weight loss and wedding checklist. Is it surprising?
Try other medical conditions as well.
Pocket.MD: A Directory of Pharma and Medical Mobile Apps February 7, 2012
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, Medicine 2.0, Mobile, Web 2.0.add a comment
POCKET.MD is the first and only online directory specifically focused on mobile applications created by healthcare companies. It was launched by Fabio Gratton.
POCKET.MD is the world’s first and only online service focused exclusively on providing the most comprehensive directory of mobile applications created by phamaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies.
