Welcome to the 17th Edition of Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival!

The Truth, Is It Still Out There?

Life, as we know it to be so far, always reserves space for seeking answers. The truth. And in our search for truth along the avenues and paths of explorations, lie many dimensions and perspectives. Other’s truths may be some other’s lies. While unfortunately, as knowledge unfolds, some opposing and constricting force, covers the light and distract those whose quest is simple—to know the truth.

 

Medicine had its share in this unraveling and evolution. It too had its share of dark times. Though these days are definitely not dark times for understanding Medicine and Life, the current state is also neither the absolute truth. I have the opinion that we are in a spasmic process—breaking down walls, tearing off false attachments from true points. We are the consequence of that leap not so many years ago. With the ever widening breadth of the Internet and communications along with more freedom in various scientific and even spiritual pursuits, we can sit and obtain information (and more!), fulfilling the curiosity of life itself. At least one if not many.

 

The prologue that is the Web, if we recall, still had so much limits in the past. With the current power of connectivity, facilitating faster transmit of data and of course, widespread use of personal computers and all sorts of devices plus a gamut of other dimensions contributes to that following leap which is the Web 2.0.

 

And with this, Medicine is just all too excited to be in the wire and meet us all.

The Story Of Healing is proud to present this week’s edition of the Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival.

And, in the pursuit of this truth…

Education Is Key, First of the Self and Allowing No Borders

We start with Dr. Uri Ginzburg’s “Open Health Education ” - For school teachers and pupils and Health 2.0 in the service of teenager“

Excellent site helping both sides to learn and get access to educational materials.   

The site called California Science from MacMillan/McGraw Hill. It contains materials, contents and activities in many aspects of science including life science and medicine /human body system.

A proponent of learning using Web 2.0 tools for Medicine is Scienceroll’s Bertalan Mesko. Aptly, he has his share of this week’s collage of potentials. “Learner’s TV: Free Education Online“

Last year, I started to create a list about sites focusing on medical/scientific videos, lectures and animations. I’ve been actively improving that list which now contains 17 websites! Through the comment section, I’ve recently come across a new service currently in beta. LearnersTV.com seems to be a unique resource of medical lectures.

Medical Education Blog of the University of Saskatchewan screams, “Techno Terror is here!“

I chose the title Techno Terror is here! because biological terrorism seems to be a popular scenario for virtual games but also because of the fear many medical faculty have of venturing into technology as a teaching tool. So here are some examples of how NEW TECHNOLOGY is being used today in medical schools and among health providers.   

Clinical Cases and Images-Blog takes us to “Free Visual Dictionary of Medical Terms by Merriam-Webster“. Learning opportunities at all levels are endless.

The new Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary incorporates 6,000 color illustrations organized by subject area.

Setting Medical Information Free, Softwares and Tools

Here is Hamza Emadeen M.’s say on “Medical and Healthcare related software at Software Repositories/Directories“. Here, he emphasizes addressing and understanding the needs of the heath care providers and the importance of these products being open source, updated, and supported.

There is a need that force us , or inspire us to create, invent, design and develop Medical software.

More light on the open source call is MedGadget’s “Collection of Active Open Source Projects for Health Care“

Open source software has been extremely successful in various technology sectors but has been slow to grow in the health care industry. However, OSS serves a vital role by breeding innovation at a break neck pace. A new blog has a decent summary of active OSS programs for the health care market.

A blog called Web 2.0 and Semantic Web for Bioinformatics:Web technologies applied in data-intensive Life Science research, has a take this week involving “Tools for (data) mashups and remixes“

These are a few tools on my radar, to experiment with for trying to easily scrape data from webpages and see how it works mashing them up.

David Rothman’s “Favorite RSS Resources and Tools“. This is a personal favorite as it took time to explain RSS and many many more wonderful inclusions on RSS. Let me usher you in beginning with some of the cocktails below.

Explaining RSS

Introduction to RSS for Librarians by Luke Rosenberger

How to Explain RSS the Oprah Way by Stephanie Quilao

Five Best Tips for Reducing RSS Information Overload by David Rothman

Video: RSS in Plain English

And, of course, it is never too early to say, “hats off!” to Dan In’s “New Journal Ranking Tool” on Bitesize Bio.

Thompson Scientific is great for gaging the impact factors of various journals, but it has had a bit of a monopoly on journal rankings. As with any ranking scheme, there can be more than one valid way of comparing alternatives.Enter a new ranking tool - that’s free - the SCImago Journal Rank database.

 

Information In Your Hands, Now What?

 

There are kinds of information that we can opt to toss away almost instantly. And there are kinds that are vital to our study, research, and work. Some information are personal and/or special that we want to know how to obtain them and/or handle them.

 

Patients first. The International Council on Medical & Care Compunetics presents a 16-minute video on “Record Acces in practice“. A very good resource.

Recently Dr. Amir Hannan from Haughton Thornley Medical in the UK has produced a video on how Record Access works.“This short video has been produced to help you, the patient, to get the best from the services that this practice is offering. Please watch the video carefully”.   

What is WiserWiki?

This website was originally started with content from the “Textbook of Primary Care Medicine” (3rd Edition) by John Noble – a leading figure in primary care medicine. It is evolving to become a key source of authoritative, online medical information.   

And speaking of the Wikipedia, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Radar asks this question: “Wikipedia: A community of editors or a community of authors?“

Having a bit more time than usual over the holidays, I caught up on various types of reading, including following old links. One of the pieces I came across that I can’t believe I missed when it was first published back in 2006 is Aaron Swartz’s Who Writes Wikipedia?This piece is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of publishing. Aaron argues that Jimmy Wales’ account of how Wikipedia happens is wrong…   

 

Take It Out For A Spin, Anyone?

 

Frankie Dolan of Frankie Speaking Frankly calls us from the U.K. with a “Wanted - Medical Professionals with an Interest in Health 2.0 / Medicine 2.0

Are you a doctor, or other health professional, with a particular interest in one or more of the following?:Health 2.0/Medicine 2.oBloggingRSSThe InternetIf you are, please drop me a line - I’d love share ideas with you!

Lovely. Start talking, Mrs. Dolan.

Health 2.0 shows us the money? Maybe so. Find out at “Health 2.0 around the web“.

While we were off having fun over the break, quite a lot got written about Health 2.0, so here’s a quick round-up. We start with Forbes which declares that this is the year of small deals (<$50m) in the Web 2.0 market. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of those continue. However, some Health 2.0 players will be pretty disappointed if they only sell for $50m–especially if they’ve had more than that invested already!  

Shawn Walen writes a health IT blog for PR company Schwartz which just coincidentally has a big franchise in health IT. Shawns’s blog is pretty straight. He tells the AMA what he thinks of their antics (he thinks it’s good news for Bimmer dealers), and he’s not much kinder about those hyping Health 2.0. Surely he doesn’t mean us?

IBM’s Jack Mason is much kinder, telling everyone to visit this blog and look at Health 2.0. We hope all 150,000 of his colleagues drop by!

Dr. John D. Halamka, MD, MS wrote a very comprehensive “Web 2.0 for the CIO” in his blog, Life As A HealthCare CIO. Another favorite.

You may have heard the term Web 2.0 and been unclear what it means. Then again, you’re reading this blog, so chances are you’re part of the enlightened who have already embraced blogs, which are part of Web 2.0.   

bbgm’s “Your Personal Health: Health and social media” answered some of my questions about social media. I was recently invited to attend a conference called, Got Social Media? A Communications Conference. Of course I did not know what business I have there and most of all, what is this “social media”?! and what has it to do with health and medicine?

Support groups have always made sense online, but the trend towards seeking out others for information is one that jumps out.Online health networks are one of the more useful applications of Web 2.0. I strongly believe that while there are some really good business opportunities there, the social relevance is also important.   

So now maybe I’ll go.

Spread Its Wings

Digital Pathology Blog talks about “Distribution of Telemedicine in Japan“

Japan and other parts of Asia have serious issues with access to care, in particular sub-specialty care for rural areas and transportation to urban centers, where for example, most pathology practice is conducted.   

John Sharp’s eHealth shares the “Future of Medical Imaging: Podcast & Video“.

Mayo Clinic and IBM are teaming up in a new center for medical imaging.    

Release Zero Blog’s Peter Murray shares the availability and expanse of access to medical information in “Health informatics and developing countries

A new health informatics journal, JHIDC - The Journal of Health Informatics in Developing Countries, has been launched. It both covers a gap in the market and provides challenges, through its open access model, to many existing health and medical informatics journals.JHIDC uses Open Journal Systems (OJS), a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project.   

A Question About Free Speech?

Dr. Flea had a blog. I was just starting to blog then when I heard of the unofficial buzz from the medical blogging community that he had to temporarily shut down the posts because of some legal issues.Bob Coffield of the Health Care Law Blog tells us some on “The Return of Flea…“

An interview with Dr. Flea (Robert Lindeman, MD) from Eric Turkewitz at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog.

The Outer Core

The following are a few samples of how 2.0 tools are used in Medicine. Getting across and making materials understandable for patients and learnable for health care students and professionals. As always, apply care when reading medical information. Identifying sources and who writes them is important.

“It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Maintenance:Brain Care 101“  

“4 Tips on How to Live Longer“

“Shoulder-Surgical Approaches“

And, before we know it, here comes “Web 3.0 and medicine” from BMJ. Jeff Leow of Monash Medical Student points us to this place.

This time last Christmas, medical blogs and RSS feeds were the hot technology topics, and we were debating the merits of newer models of scholarly publishing in web 2.0, such as open access and medical wikis.1 Can web 3.0 be here already?

The rest of the process is up to all of us. The truth is not only out there, it is here and everywhere. The knowing and awareness of it is a matter of time and vigilance to advocate for its place.For all your submissions, thank you. I regret that some submissions were not included as they are beyond the scope of today’s carnival. Special thanks again to Berci Mesko of Scienceroll. It was my pleasure to be hosting this week’s edition. The 18th Edition will be hosted back by Scienceroll on the 17th of February.

~ by timelessboulevard on 20 January 2008.