“We hope it gets the message out that being bald is beautiful and is no big deal.  There’s no need to cover up,” she said.

Sypin’s own daughter is one of those children.  The 12-year-old, named Kin Inich, lost her hair after chemotherapy.

Even though her daughter isn’t a huge Barbie fan, Sypin said she is excited about the idea.

“She said if they make one, she would totally get it,” Sypin said.  “The first thing she said was if they make that doll, she would buy a bunch and take them to a children’s hospital and give them to children with cancer.”

Here is the Facebook page on which you can support this great idea!

We know that in this digital age, the best feedback happens when a broad group of individuals has the ability to upload and comment on content being shared for all to use and digest. We’ve built a resource, or wiki, that, by design, will grow through the input and insight of people interested in the healthcare marketplace, mobile technologies, and apps. The PharmApps wiki aggregates pharma/healthcare apps and gives users the ability to add comments, write reviews, rate apps, and share and upload new apps. The apps are categorized by branded, unbranded, audience, and operating system so users can easily sort through this growing resource. The site will continue to evolve, addressing ongoing feedback, new developments, and our collective learning along the way.

Personally, I still like this database as well.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association accents the limits of web-based health management tools that are currently available.

• Dr. Bryan Vartabedian – The MDigitalLife Interview

• Mobile health trends and challenges in 2012

• Top 15 Hospitals are very wired

Health Populi’s Hot Points: I’ve studied the “Healthcare’s Most Wired” Health Providers from Hospitals & Health Networks and the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Hospitals for many years. It strikes me in 2012 that with meaningful use and patient engagement on the front-burner for providers adopting EHRs that a useful metric for these studies could be patient engagement.

• 9 Tablets Fit For Doctors

• Headphone-wearing pedestrian injuries triple as audiophiles stop noticing onrushing trains

The number of pedestrians injured or killed while wearing headphones has tripled in the last six years: 16 oblivious PMP users were offed in 2004, the number rising to 47 for last year.

• Hugo Campos challenged himself to eat only vegan meals throughout last December and took pictures of everything he ate or drank from an almond to a cup of coffee.

Please take a look at the distinguished speakers list.

I gave a prezi last year.

Topics include:

• Connecting the ePatient and the 2.0 Doctor
• Online Patient Communities
• Online Physician Communities
• Social Media and Personal Health Records
• Social Media Campaigns for Government, Hospitals & Pharma
• Mobile Apps for Chronic Disease
• Mobile MedEd
• Quantified Self
• Pharma Strategies & Partnerships
• Regulatory Issues

This is indeed a conference to attend if you are at all interested in International Social Networking in HealthCare.  I will be a keynote speaker.  I really hope to see you there!  Early Bird Registration ends January 31st!  Hurry and Register!

Please follow Doctors 2.0 on Twitter at @Doctors20 and #Doctors20.

Here is my top 10 social media selection for Sports Medicine:

1. Dr. Howard J. Luks`s Blog (blog)
2. About.com Sports Medicine (blog)
3. Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance (podcast)
4. British Journal of Sports Medicine (blog)
5. National Academy of Sports Medicine (Twitter)
6. American College of Sports Medicine (Facebook)
7. Karim Khan (Twitter)
8. Evidence Based Medicine Guidelines – Physical and Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics (Mobile app)
9. National Academy of Sports Medicine (Youtube)
10. ScienceDaily Images (image collection)

And PeRSSonalized Sports Medicine, 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.

Participatory Medicine is a movement in which networked patients shift from being mere passengers to responsible drivers of their health, and in which providers encourage and value them as full partners.

You should definitely join the Society for many reasons:

Thank you for your interest in furthering the cause of participatory medicine. Membership is open to any individual or organization who desires to further the goals of the Society for Participatory Medicine. The Society is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity, so membership fees are tax deductible as allowable by law.

Membership Dues should never be a barrier to anyone eager to join. You can nominate yourself or someone else to receive a partial or full scholarship. Only Individual Memberships and Innovator Organizations can join online. All other companies and organizations must fill out the application form and fax or mail it to us.

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.

The Professor wanted to make his case in the most convincing style possible. He indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be erotically stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes (hence the track-suit) to make it possible to exhibit the results. He stepped around the podium, and pulled his loose pants tight up around his genitalia in an attempt to demonstrate his erection.

Here is my top 10 social media selection for Psoriasis:

1. Inspire Psoriasis (community)
2. Psoriasis International Network (community)
3. National Psoriasis Foundation (Facebook)
4. Talk Psoriasis (blog)
5. My Psoriasis (mobile app)
6. Howard H Chang, psoriasis blogger (Twitter)
7. Psoriasis Symptom Monitor (mobile app)
8. Psoriasis 360 (Youtube)
9. Psoriasis Help UK (Twitter)
10. Psoriasis Association – Medical Information Podcast

There are many similarly great resources on Psoriasis and Social Media collection!

And PeRSSonalized Psoriasis, 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.

Blogs and online libraries have grown to be valuable resources for students, professors, working professionals and the general public who have not traditionally had such easy access. As an organization involved with medical research and providing medical resources, HighBeam Research would like to acknowledge our favorite medical blogs.

These top 10 blogs for medical research were handpicked by the HighBeam Research staff as our favorites and included based on their level of insightful and original content as well as the authority and trust that the authors enjoy in the Medical space.

DXY.com recently conducted a large-scale, online survey of physicians (with 2218 physicians participating) to assess their recognition of the academic marketing approaches implemented by major international pharmaceutical companies. See the results below. An excerpt from the announcement:

International pharmaceutical companies have led the revolution in marketing models and tools. Since the entry of major international pharmaceutical companies into China, the academic style of marketing has gained rapid acceptance throughout the country. However, this “exotic” style of marketing needs to be adjusted to reflect both the unique culture and medical practice approach favored by Chinese physicians. Not all pharmaceutical companies are capable of succeeding at this. Physician perception of seemingly identical “academic marketing” strategies varies significantly. DXY.com recently conducted a large-scale, online survey of physicians to assess their recognition of the academic marketing approaches implemented by major international pharmaceutical companies.

Click on the image for a much larger version.

“What everybody was looking for was never going to happen. If you’re waiting for divine guidance, you’re still waiting,” Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, told Ad Age. “I doubt there is ever going to be definitive rules for social media-marketing like there are for TV and print. And there’s a reason for that. FDA has made it very clear they were not going to make platform-specific guidelines, like how to use Facebook, how to use Twitter, because social media evolves every day.”

- here’s the FDA’s guidance (.pdf)

I’m pretty sure it does not do what it should do and help pharma use social media properly. Two fellow bloggers tried to interpret this paper (one and two). As Dose of Digital said:

It’s been a long wait, but the FDA finally delivered. They’ve come through with at least some direction for how pharma companies can properly use social media. It’s not a complete answer to every issue, but it is a good start. I’ve reviewed the full contents of the guidance that the FDA released on December 30, 2011 and found it, not surprisingly, a bit hard to follow at times. The full title of the guidance they released is: “Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information About Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices.” Catchy.

Then I wrote a letter to the FDA and the European Medicines Agency to get some feedback from them. EMA responded quickly:

“Dear Dr. Mesko,

Thank you for your email of 16 December 2011 regarding guidelines about using social media.

Please note that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a European scientific body responsible for the evaluation of medicines for authorisation purposes within the European Union and the supervision of their safety thereafter. Providing guidance to healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical industry on using social media is not within the Agency’s remit.

You may find it useful to know that the European Commission adopted on 11 October 2011 two revised proposals clarifying the information that industry can supply to the public on prescription-only medicines. For more information please refer to the following webPage:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/human-use/information-to-patient/legislative-developments_en.htm

We hope you find this information useful.”

I replied to them saying that while the FDA is working on such a guidance, are they sure they are not doing something similar?  They replied again:

Thank you for your follow-up email of 3 January 2012 regarding guidelines about using social media.

We can confirm that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is not developing any guidance for healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical industry on using social media.

That’s it, my friends. The FDA came out with something but we expected much more; and the EMA is not even planning to deal with social media.

We are alone, but don’t worry. In a collaborative effort, we can create a detailed guide for us.

Now, 2 years later, a study came out with the title “Challenges since wikipedia: the availability of rorschach information online and internet users’ reactions to online media coverage of the rorschach-wikipedia debate.“. The abstract:

In the first study, the authors conducted 2 Google searches for Web sites containing Rorschach-related information. The top 88 results were classified by level of threat to test security; 19% posed a direct threat. The authors also found Web sites authored by psychologists that divulged sensitive Rorschach information.

In the second study, 588 comments to online news stories covering the Rorschach-Wikipedia debate were coded as expressing favorable or unfavorable opinions regarding the field of psychology, psychologists, and the Rorschach. Eight percent of comments described unfavorable opinions toward psychology, 15% contained unfavorable opinions toward psychologists, and 35% portrayed unfavorable opinions of the Rorschach.

Common themes and popular misconceptions of the Rorschach contained in these comments are described. Implications and recommendations for practice are discussed. Limitations, including the second study’s narrow sample and self-selection bias, are also detailed.

Here is my top 10 social media selection for Geriatrics:

1. GeriPal (blog)
2. POGOe – Portal of Geriatric Online Education (clinical resource)
3. Geriatric Nursing (podcast)
4. CareGiving (community site)
5. The American Geriatrics Society Like (Facebook group)
6. Wen Dombrowski MD (Twitter)
7. American Geriatrics (Twitter)
8. GeriPsych Consult (mobile app)
9. Health AGEnda (blog)
10. John A. Hartford Foundation (Youtube)

There are many similarly great resources on Geriatrics and Social Media collection!

And PeRSSonalized Geriatrics, 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.

The organizers now are pleased to offer ten (10) discounted registrations to my colleagues: $400 for the Thursday through Saturday program.

Please contact James Westwood, the program coordinator for details on how to register at this discounted rate.

Please keep  in mind that the hotel discount rate ends January 16.

“Use my name as a reference when you book to save 200 EUR off the normal ticket price.”

For the conference, we recorded a short podcast in which I describe my views on social media and pharma.