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.

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!

Later, Necafe withdrawn from the “war” and the guy posted this message on 9gag:

I made a deal with Nescafé. They will donate 5000$ to the Pető Institute, which is my brother’s school. Also they will give special treatment for my brother. Listen carfully now: we reached our goal, we did what we wanted. Nescafé made the right decision, so we need to appreciate it, and support it, so this could be a real Cristmas story, and you are part of it. Let’s finish this like a boss: can you guys write some thanks for the Nescafé walls? Also if you see hate somewhere, try to remove it, and explain it. I DO want to live on this planet, drinks and jingle bells all around.

They also created a Twitter account. What is the take home message? Well, never underestimate what one man can do online and don’t fight against 9gag.

(Hat tip: Canadian EMR)

Try other medical conditions as well.

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.

To me it seems that Sherpaa tries to help patients when there are easier solutions for a health-related problem compared to using the traditional healthcare system. They give a specific example, what happens when you cut your finger:

• You call your Guide
• We ask you to snap a photo of the cut and email it to us
• We look at it and it looks like something that can be handled outside the ER
• We give instructions on what to do in the meantime as we schedule a stitch up
• We call Dr. Sung (our plastic surgeon)
• You are free to meet Dr. Sung in his office in an hour
• You are on the road to recovery

—without sherpaa
Cost in ER: $4000
Time in ER: 8 hrs

—with sherpaa

Cost in Dr. Sung’s office: $1000
Time with Dr. Sung: 30 min

I believe the idea is timely and the structure is well-designed knowing Jay’s enthusiasm and proficiency. The only concern is how the healthcare system will look at their machinery. What do you think?

Five North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) crews from Liverpool, Burnley, Kendal, Crewe and Manchester will take part in the week-long project.

NWAS Director of Emergency Services Derek Cartwright said each crew would tweet for one day.

He said the tweets would not reveal patient details, but would show “the human side of the service”.

Then a friend from the UK informed me on Twitter (where else?) that London Ambulane has been doing the same thing for some time.

As I think this is a great idea and locally it can have a huge impact, I would love to see other examples from other countries and I count on you in collecting these examples.

• 81% of physicians are expected to own a smartphone by 2012
• 73% search the web (only 73%?)
• More physicians watch videos on WebMD than on Youtube?
• 86% of physicians use Facebook (certainly not for professional but personal reasons)

What do you think of these and the rest of the data?

For over five years, Dr. Jeff Benabio has been using social media channels to help patients learn about skin health and disease and to help doctors learn about engaging patients more effectively. In his practice Dr. Benabio uses disruptive tools such as telemedicine and mobile devices to improve patient access and reduce medical costs. In his talk he’ll show us how we’re re-inventing medicine with Twitter and Facebook, and why it’s the best thing to happen to medicine since vaccines.

Well, they say over 1.7 million Facebook users died in 2011. An Australian website collected all the information you need to know from digital preservation to digital waste you would leave behind.

Here is the over-shined iPad2 which everyone loves and would like to use at hospitals and clinical practices and we see an amazing number of  apps designed for that. A new study now concluded that diagnostic imaging on iPads is twice as slow.

A study from the University of Maryland found that radiologists using iPad 2s to evaluate patients for tuberculosis (TB) took twice as long to make a diagnosis as they did when using a 27-inch LCD monitor. Still, the study of 200 negative and 40 positive TB cases that included five radiologists, found the two displays to yield no significant differences when it came to diagnostic decisions.

Whatever tool, device or service we use in medicine, we must stick to the evidence based approach.

Here is my top 10 social media selection for hepatitis:

1. HBV and HCV Advocate’s Hepatitis Blog (blog)
2. Hepatitis B Foundation – Podcast Directory (podcast)
3. Inspire – Hepatitis-C Community (community site)
4. HCV Support (community site)
5. Global Hepatitis Initiative (Facebook)
6. Hepatitis Central (Twitter)
7. Hepatitis Australia (Youtube)
8. Mayo Clinic – Hepatitis (information resource)
9. AnswersIn Medicine Hepatitis C (mobile app)
10. Hepatitis Foundation (Youtube)

And PeRSSonalized Hepatitis, the simplest, free, customizable, multi-lingual medical information aggregator will let you follow these resources easily in a personalized way.

Feel free to share any of these resources and let us know if you think others should be added.

• Did the parents of this child agree to their child being used on a poster in this way?
• Did they know ISSVA would choose a photo were their child looks frightened?
• Did they know ISSVA would make the poster the shape of their child’s head?
• Did they know ISSVA would desaturate everything but their child’shemangiomas?
• Did they know ISSVA would put text all over their child’s face?
• Even if they knew and agreed to all of the above, why did ISSVA use the photo like this?

What do you think about this?