CasesBlog - Medical and Health Blog: August 2009

How to use Twitter for teaching: Professors share their real-life experience

From JS Online: Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel:

Professors experiment with Twitter as teaching tool http://bit.ly/HP4RZ

Facebook may be the social medium of choice for students, but Twitter has found adherents among professors. Twitter is helping them build community in their classes in a way that appeals to the Facebook generation.

Some students are assigned to live tweeting: publishing the speaker's thoughts on Twitter during the presentation.

Twitter helps students develop key skills: listening, information-gathering, multitasking and succinct writing.

Twitter allows professors to post links to what they're reading - students "follow" them.

Professors "listen" to conversations students have with each other on Twitter to gauge what questions they have.

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

A cardiologist who works in both the U.S. and New Zealand compares the 2 health systems http://bit.ly/RnFt0
"Over the past 3 months, 70% of the blog carnivals I submit to have either quit or stopped publishing. 7 out of 10 people will quit blogging within 3 months of starting" http://bit.ly/14QaPt
Use humor in your classroom. - http://bit.ly/3U0UG

Tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source, links, etc. The inclusion of a Twitter update (tweet) is not an endorsement or agreement of any kind. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Follow me on Twitter:

Health News of the Day

Health News of the Day is a daily summary made from the selected links I post on Twitter. It is in a bullet points format with links to the original sources which include 350 RSS feeds that produce about 2,500 items per day.

Study: Brilinta (ticagrelor) prevents heart attacks better than Plavix, the world's second biggest selling drug. Patients with ACS who took Brilinta were 16% less likely than those on Plavix to die from CV causes or suffer a heart attack or stroke. Pradaxa (dabigatran) BID reduced the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in Afib by 34% compared to warfarin. Pradaxa, or dabigatran: no increase in the risk of major bleeding, and there were no signs of liver damage http://bit.ly/18HXsQ
An Orthopedic Surgeon Shares His Experience with Social Media, Email and How They Benefit His Everyday Clinical Work http://bit.ly/IYqpO
How to coach children away from unhealthy eating without sowing panic. Study: Father’s projected attention to and remarks about a daughter’s weight may increase her risk of eating disorders http://bit.ly/CBhBZ

Medical news tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source, links, etc. The inclusion of a Twitter update (tweet) is not an endorsement or agreement of any kind. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Follow me on Twitter:

Health News of the Day

An Easy Fix for Tennis Elbow? http://bit.ly/k9qug
Health Advice from the Frugal Traveler’s Doctor http://bit.ly/Xeyac
Colorectal cancer attitudes vary by ethnicity http://bit.ly/fe51l
Former residents suing hospitals http://bit.ly/11BhOH and http://bit.ly/15sz4g by http://bit.ly/4EQYIt
SAT Scores and Family Income http://bit.ly/4Ak2Qp
Being a nocturnalist or night float is an endurance event: see some tips how to cope by Rural Doctoring http://bit.ly/PahUl

Thinking about medicine: Ideals

From Oxford handbook of clinical medicine (OHCM) by Murray Longmore et al.

The OHCM goes beyond being simply a medical handbook, for a start, it often reminds you that patients are much more than "strokes" or "pneumonias" and there is more to life than medicine. The section Thinking About Medicine -- Your Inner Peace on ClinicalCases.org is named after the first chapter of the OHCM.

Related:

Nine facts you may not know about the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (OHCM) http://buff.ly/1crUrgA

WSJ Video: Farmers' Market at the Hospital

Hospital food isn't usually described as "appetizing," but some health-care centers are aiming to change that by offering healthier menus and even hosting weekly farmer's markets. MarketWatch's Kristen Gerencher reports.

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Is Twitter Taking Over Your Home Life? http://bit.ly/7M1yK
5 Social Media Lessons Learned From Whole Foods http://bit.ly/YReOH
"Staring at the ceiling, thinking about ways to cut health care costs. Will "B.Y.O.P." Bring Your Own Pills work?" http://bit.ly/4uJ9nX
In Health Care Debate, Fear Trumps Logic http://bit.ly/4q3KM8 - Fears trumps logic most of the time, e.g not a good motivator when studying
I don't participate in "Follow Friday" (any day is good to recommend somebody) but @Dr_Steve_Ponder offers great diabetes info as Dr/patient
Using a nickname for conferences: "Would like to be listed as Andrew Roberts, Andrew “Robbo” Roberts or Robbo Roberts?" http://bit.ly/15zJfx
Photo: "Hamlet Was Nuts" http://bit.ly/S1Dye -- The Artist and His Model http://bit.ly/9lYvn

Health News of the Day

In sepsis, a higher serum bilirubin level on ICU admission is associated with subsequent ARDS development and mortality http://bit.ly/1Vks3
142 out of 1,155 cases of influenza A (H1N1) tested were resistant to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) http://bit.ly/EK529
Self-plagiarism: unintentional, harmless, or fraud? Journals increasingly seeing submissions in which large parts of text have been copied from previously published papers by the same author. Lancet http://bit.ly/4B0DO
8% of men and 0·4% of women have impaired colour-vision, of whom half are unable to recognise the main colours. 2% people with impaired colour-vision confuse their medication because they had mistaken the colour of tablets. http://bit.ly/11mFyT
Kudzu, a fast-growing vine considered a nuisance covering everything in its path, may help metabolic syndrome http://bit.ly/r990F
People who are heavily in debt are more likely to be heavy themselves, too http://bit.ly/13R7rf
Cooking gave early humans an advantage over other primates, leading to larger brains and more free time http://bit.ly/gv227
Multitasking Doesn't Mean Higher Productivity, may weaken cognitive ability http://bit.ly/ZmtUW
Restaurants are substituting cheaper fish, like catfish, for more expensive species like grouper and red snapper http://bit.ly/16WPz2
Reaching across the globe, Cleveland Clinic will provide fellowships to Australian doctors http://bit.ly/12HFt4

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

"10 Awesome Things to Make Your Blog Rock!" http://bit.ly/yJP4r -- I added LinkWithin - a free service that provides a sleek looking “Related Posts” widget to your blog, with images http://bit.ly/k6g6r
Google Docs and college life. Check the video: How to write a love letter with Google Docs (for nerds only) http://bit.ly/42fwF3 -- Tips & tricks for using Google Docs in college http://bit.ly/18FkPf
100 Free Online Books Everyone Should Read - http://bit.ly/33pRo3
Translate Google Docs And Share Them Around The World http://bit.ly/kE697 and http://bit.ly/NTaqR
Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices http://bit.ly/2lDiod
Google Reader has a feed for your unread items only, try http://bit.ly/edLJv
"Give Me Your Data, Said the Spider to the Fly - Google Opens AdSense to 3rd Party Nets" http://bit.ly/3F35d8
10 Steps to Find a New Job http://bit.ly/zFGcF and Top Interview Mistakes http://bit.ly/2LUJgE

Health News of the Day

Spiriva Begun Early in COPD Slows Loss of Lung-Function http://bit.ly/QSLqA
For women, feelings of hopelessness are not just unfortunate, they are a stroke risk. Women who scored high on the hopelessness scale had neck arteries that were 0.02 mm thicker than hopeful counterparts http://bit.ly/AJkF9
Google enters the health encyclopedia business with Google Health OneBox in the U.S. http://bit.ly/19C0O2 and http://bit.ly/1JA3xo
The journal Nature on How Google Wave could change scientific publishing and scholarly communication: http://bit.ly/7wZEO

What makes a blogger go on in a field where so many others stop, fail and disappear?

See a few reasons below from Dean Giustini's blog:

I had no clue that five years later, I'd still be blogging - and that I'd want to keep blogging. I guess you could say I've grown to like it.
On reflection, I realized blogging is an extension of my digital identity as a health librarian working in the Google age.
I'm not interested in promoting myself as a speaker or using the blog for commercial reasons.
I am very grateful that anyone wants to read what I have to say.

Maintaining a blog is simple, and if one enjoys the experience, there are few reasons to stop. For example, I use this blog as an educational portfolio and since education is a life-long process, it should be around for a foreseeable future.

Tips for Medical Bloggers

- Write as if your boss and your patients are reading your blog every day
- Comply with HIPAA
- List your name and contact information.
- If your blog is work-related, it is probably better to let your employer know.
- Inquire if there are any blogging guidelines. If there are, comply with them strictly.
- Use a disclaimer, e.g. "All opinions expressed here are those of their authors and not of their employer. Information provided here is for medical education only. It is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice."
- Get your blog accredited by the Heath on the Net Foundation

References:
Rebirth (Soon). UBC Academic Search - Google Scholar Blog.
Another blogger quits due to "blog fatigue"
Why Physician Blogs Close Down?
Has Blogging Peaked?
Why Do I Blog?
Why I Blog: Andrew Sullivan from The Atlantic Shares His Thoughts on Blogging
Image source: public domain.

Health News of the Day

Sensitive assay for troponin I improves early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction http://bit.ly/1o6iP -- Diagnostic performance of sensitive cardiac troponin assays is excellent, can substantially improve early AMI diagnosis http://bit.ly/LBSmo
Imaging procedures are an important source of exposure to ionizing radiation and can result in high cumulative doses. During a 3-year study period, 68.8% of U.S. adults underwent at least one imaging procedure with radiation exposure. http://bit.ly/wswZG
Understanding How Americans View Health Care Reform - NEJM http://bit.ly/18DZRv -- Table: U.S. Public's Expectations of Results of Health Care Reform on Various Measures. http://bit.ly/12sqG9
A nosebleed for 7 days. What is the cause? http://bit.ly/19W9a0 - A living leech!?
It's a hot topic amongst dialysis centers around the country: bundling. http://bit.ly/36d3Yf
How to critically appraise an article http://bit.ly/tSarT - The "PP-ICONS" approach is simpler http://bit.ly/dgczP
Falling coconuts can cause injury to head, back, shoulders, and cause 2.5% of admissions in Papua New Guinea http://bit.ly/4dnjYh
Potential biases in web-based studies: Women, elderly, high-income groups more likely to enroll http://bit.ly/HrBr6
Showyourcase.com - a professional case discussion forum for doctors with various subspecialty forums - mostly ortho cases for now

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Portions and Servings According to the Social Media Pyramid for Medicine http://bit.ly/3tSCbP - See here: http://bit.ly/SQakv
"Want to know what journalists, foodies, and tech bloggers read? Check Google Reader Power Readers" http://bit.ly/2y6qLY
Who was the first member of congress to have a website? http://bit.ly/wrxkK
Examples of standards for medical blogs http://bit.ly/CAbfx and http://bit.ly/19HjA3 - I have a blog disclaimer: http://bit.ly/RbZJZ
"Twitter retweet project leader, @Zhanna, has never retweeted anything." http://bit.ly/6a7j0 via @Scobleizer ... :)
"KFC's crazy new sandwich has 2 pieces of fried chicken as the bun and cheese & bacon in between" http://bit.ly/AIy97

Managing the Online Reputation of Your Practice

Quotes from a recent NY Times article extrapolated to the medical field:

Your customers are talking about you and the whole world is listening: Managing Your Small Business’s Online Reputation http://bit.ly/Jfrui

84% of Americans say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions - How do doctor rating websites relate?

“Social media for business now is life or death" a restaurateur says about online reviews.

Doctors: Do you have a Web page and blog, and are they kept up do date? Is your practice (and you) reviewed in online forums or blogs? What is the first impression?

A Google alert can automatically inform you when your business is mentioned in a review, blog or online publication.

A snarky review may make your blood boil: Give yourself time to cool off and engage in a respectful, courteous manner.

“The most important thing is not to argue with your customer. Listen. Try to put yourself in the customer’s place.”

Doctor rating websites and physicians: "Don’t write fake reviews to puff up your business or trash a competitor."

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

The Social Media Pyramid in Medicine. Microblogging is the base - easiest to start and you should have more “servings per day.” Blogs are the peak - multimedia platforms for embedding, venue for longer, more reasoned arguments. Ed Bennett’s Hospital Social Networking List contains 253 hospitals on Twitter accounts, 174 on Facebook and YouTube, but only 31 have blogs. http://bit.ly/U3okm
"How to get residency: Letters of Recommendation" http://bit.ly/F0FKZ
Slideshow: Online Reputation Management (for companies) http://bit.ly/WhbCu
Business Week: How to Give a Lousy Presentation http://bit.ly/131C4l - That's easy, anybody can do it... :)
How Facebook Ruins Friendships - WSJ http://bit.ly/7VLFh
"Work To Live or Live To Work?" http://bit.ly/iBsSy - Scroll down the page to read the joke... :)
Best of History Web Sites - http://bit.ly/llhih
Facebook Conversations Used As Evidence In School Exam Cheating Case http://bit.ly/1QUPJA
Blogger.com launches label/category improvements for hosted blogs - label word cloud is included http://bit.ly/GuHrv - Just switched to the new cloud view of labels for Allergy Notes. Not bad. Check the sidebar: http://bit.ly/nJeC
Twitter haters see no point in tweeting - USA Today. "People are losing human contact. They would rather text/Twitter/tweet than actually speak face-to-face with a person" http://bit.ly/oOWNY

Health News of the Day

30% of UK NHS primary care trusts are flying in GPs from abroad to cover the evening and weekend call schedule. The average salary of a GP in the UK is £108,000. UK: 'Relying on doctors being flown in for a weekend shift is not a sustainable way to cover" the gaps in the system http://bit.ly/3a7R9
Common gene variation CYP2C19 explains why 30% of people are not helped by widely prescribed blood thinner Plavix http://bit.ly/1UhtC -- However, a 2010 study published in the NEJM contradicted the statement above.
A list of health care's big money wasters http://bit.ly/sCRFq
Statins and fibrates - increase 5-fold the risk of myopathy. Simvastatin is associated with the highest myopathy rate of all the statins. Easy way to detect prolonged QT - if greater than 50% of the RR interval, then it is prolonged - Cleveland Clinic Cardiology Review via @medpedshosp
Primary care doctors fed up, dropping out of the business, financial incentive is less than half what it was 20 yrs ago http://bit.ly/165vxu

Twitter And Health 2.0: A Visual Story

Twitter And Health 2.0: A Visual Story by VizEdu.

Be sure to check their other presentations ("visual stories") as well.

Health News of the Day

Smokers are twice as likely to develop active tuberculosis compared to people who have never smoked http://bit.ly/110Aow
Does wine really prevent heart problems? http://bit.ly/lZBFZ
Research Trove: Patients’ Online Data http://bit.ly/RzXIn
Entire German City Bans Hand Shaking http://bit.ly/1udesD
People know little about human anatomy http://bit.ly/lpR0O - Study: http://bit.ly/18ARQ3
Multitaskers are bad at multitasking - BBC http://bit.ly/ynQFM
Sentiment analysis: Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts http://bit.ly/2ZjWi
In Europe, Swedish and Danish hospitals lead on social media - 11% of Swedish hospitals use RSS feeds, 4% use blogs. Dutch and English hospitals use the widest variety of SM: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and particularly blogs (8.13%) http://bit.ly/CioE7
Cleveland Clinic is expanding its telemedicine program to include "eICU" http://bit.ly/Gyha
First-of-its-kind Internet addiction treatment center opens in the U.S. http://bit.ly/M65jC

FDA: Mercury dental fillings cause no harm

Dental amalgam is the most commonly used dental restorative material in dental fillings. First introduced in France in the early 1800s, it contains a mixture of mercury with at least one other metal.

According to the FDA, mercury dental fillings cause no harm and are considered "moderate risk" devices. http://bit.ly/31d85M

The American Dental Association (ADA) was "happy" with FDA decision not to place any restriction on the use of dental amalgam. The FDA categorized the encapsulated dental amalgam as a class II medical device, in the same class as gold and tooth-colored composite fillings http://bit.ly/43jfAE

Find and Compare Mercury in Commercial Fish http://mercury-commercial-fish.findthebest.com
Image source: Amalgam filling, Wikipedia, public domain.

Health News of the Day

Infant Car Seats May Lower Oxygen Levels, Car Seats Are No Substitute for Crib. Infants placed in car seats for 1 hour had lower blood oxygen levels, upright position partially compresses chest wall http://bit.ly/1zkSkG
Cut Sugar Intake: Experts recommend far fewer teaspoons a day than average American now consumes. Recommended: No more than 6-8 teaspoons of added sugar per day, current intake is more than 22 teaspoons in the U.S. One 12-ounce (355 ml) can of regular soda contains 8 teaspoons of sugar - above the recommended daily limit for women http://bit.ly/2K8u7P
High blood pressure is linked to loss of mental function in people over 45. 10-point increase in diastolic blood pressure increased the odds of having some impairment in thinking ability by 7% http://bit.ly/Xik5L
Moving to U.S. tied to 40% higher cancer risks for Hispanic adults http://bit.ly/pJeTM
When patients lose jobs, physicians feel impact. 91% of Ohio doctors are seeing patients who have lost insurance. http://bit.ly/AeHzY
Women with higher levels of testosterone turn out to be less risk averse, more willing to take risks - similar to men. Female MBA students with higher levels of testosterone were almost seven times more likely to take risks. Male stock traders with higher levels of testosterone in AM were more likely to make an unusually big profit that day http://bit.ly/G08is
For the body conscious, "cankles" are ankles that connect to the calf in a straight line, with no curve. "Cankles" can point to diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular risks, lymphedema" http://bit.ly/1xUEjO
Human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer is also to blame for half of all cases of cancer of the penis. Penile cancer is rare, less than 1% of adult male cancers in Europe/North America, but 10% in parts of Africa and Asia. HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix likely to be marketed for prevention of penile cancer http://bit.ly/Omys7
Weight loss drug Xenical/Orlistat/Ali linked to liver injury by the FDA http://bit.ly/aDbOL and http://bit.ly/lX8wk

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Is There a Doctor on the Plane? http://bit.ly/3wPcqX - A real life experience.
CNN: How social media can hurt your career http://bit.ly/4AQz7k
Washington Post site gets more than 20,000 comments/week, only 100-150/day are deleted for violating the rules. Legally, The Washington Post isn't liable for comments. Under federal law, responsibility rests with the commenters. http://bit.ly/CQOTn
How a hematologist prepares for the internal medicine boards http://bit.ly/2ne0eL
“Your blog is your mothership. Don’t neglect it for lesser tools.” http://bit.ly/O1gvo - I wouldn't call my blog a "mothership" though :)
Note to bloggers: Seeing a pop-up inviting me to subscribe when I check your blog will make me less likely to visit again in the future.
Google Reader is way more efficient for reading tweets than Twitter.com, I like it even better than TweetDeck and Seeesmic. I don't use groups for Twitter, but one has 2 ways to "group" in Google Reader - folders and tags... I group all Twitter subscriptions in one folder in Google Reader called "Twitter", automatically sorted by Twitter account, then I review them by account in a "condensed" one-line view.
Aboriginal Health Service Video: "You gotta finish the antibiotics!" http://bit.ly/13nyFu
This is the "What's hot" feed by the Google Reader team: http://bit.ly/5Bgv
What to Bring to Clinical Rotations http://bit.ly/xC0Y
50 Best Websites 2009 by TIME magazine http://bit.ly/cezWp
"There was a call for an orthopedic surgeon in the labour ward. Why?" http://bit.ly/2Dd4WH
Typical hours awake each day for a social media "guru" = 19 http://bit.ly/QevpR

American Healthcare: A 4-Napkin Explanation

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

Part of slide 10 is incorrect: "Providers like to prescribe new and expensive treatments to keep money flowing in". This does not generally apply to non-procedure based specialties.

Selected abstracts from the Medicine 2.0 conference

Medicine 2.0 is an annual international conference (September 17-18, 2009) on Web 2.0 applications in health and medicine, also known as the World Congress on Social Networking and Web 2.0 Applications in Medicine, Health, Health Care, and Biomedical Research.

A low resolution version of Medicine 2.0 map (fair use). Click here to see the full resolution image from Gunther Eysenbach 's blog.

The congress is organized and co-sponsored by the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the International Medical Informatics Association, the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, CHIRAD, and a number of other sponsoring organizations.

Here are some selected abstracts that caught my eye when reviewing the program:

Pandemics in the Age of Twitter: Content Analysis of “Tweets” During the H1N1 Outbreak http://bit.ly/VnGnv
Young, Interconnected, Innovators Examine Strategies for Multi-Generational Success in the Era of Social Media http://bit.ly/zmt3p
Facebook: An Innovative Influenza Pandemic Early Warning System http://bit.ly/xZi8e
Use of Youtube for Dissemination of Information about the Potential Pandemic of H1N1 Influenza http://bit.ly/mKF0J
Patient-Physician Communication about Internet Use: Why “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Doesn’t Work http://bit.ly/LAd9P

Medicine 2.0 (R) is a registered trademark.

Related:
Announcement: Conference on Web 2.0 in Medicine in Toronto, September 2008. What is "Apomediation"?

5 Videos: Mayo Clinic staff training for using Twitter

Mayo Clinic held Tweetcamp II in April 2009 to provide basic training for staff in using Twitter, and to suggest practical applications in the health care environment. Five training videos were posted on YouTube.

See the rest of the playlist on YouTube.

If you work for Mayo Clinic, social media is not an option, it's a job requirement http://bit.ly/IHf3lM - Others will follow.

Medical Geek Humor on Twitter

The tweets below are part of the series Medical Geek Humor on Twitter:

laikas Hi folks, I'm in Quebec, Canada watching beavers, bears, moose & wales. Gr8! 13 minutes ago from web

BiteTheDust are they all romping around together? 8 minutes ago from TweetDeck in reply to laikas

laikas almost, except the wales. Moose and beavers together, as well as bears and deer. (luckily all predators fed well) 2 minutes ago from web in reply to BiteTheDust

The inclusion of a Twitter update (tweet) in Medical Geek Humor on Twitter does not represent endorsement or agreement of any kind. If you are included in this post but you would like to have your tweet removed for any reason, please email me and will comply with your request the same day.

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Sending and receiving email at breakneck speed can make life queasy; a manifesto for slow communication. How many of our most joyful memories have been created in front of a screen? http://bit.ly/xIWDM
Twitter Mood complies the mood of all tweets for which the author has provided a location on a Google map http://twittermood.org
Half the time that Wolfram|Alpha doesn’t give a result, it's because it doesn’t understand what’s being asked http://bit.ly/Xp5TA
Rules for conversation in social media: "1. Don't wait" http://bit.ly/3TUEGh - I disagree. Many times, waiting is just fine, even preferable.
Survey Results: Which Smartphone Will Own the Healthcare Market? http://bit.ly/SM2fm
Former BMJ editor Richard Smith "feels the shame of the monoglot" http://bit.ly/mHyah
A patient story on Slideshare: http://bit.ly/AFDnr

Health News of the Day

NYT: Where’s the Rulebook for Sex Verification? The gene SRY on Y chromosome turns fetus into male, but SRY can show up on an X, turning an XX fetus essentially male http://bit.ly/JhKP8
Urbanization - An Emerging Humanitarian Disaster: world’s population living in urban areas crossed the 50% mark in 2008 http://bit.ly/J8Zxq
Britons complain endlessly about the National Health Service but get a bit touchy when outsiders are the critics. http://bit.ly/Wf0X0
Do patients really need their complete lab and radiology reports? http://bit.ly/Ik9kd - I think so. Dr. Rob and KevinMD seem to disagree.
The Medical Beard chapter, from the book One thousand beards: a cultural history of facial hair http://bit.ly/Jsbm4

Health News of the Day

Lack of sunshine may cloud memory and other cognitive functions in some people with depression. Sunshine-cognition link not seen in adults without depression http://bit.ly/IyRYz
PLoS to use Google Knol for rapid open sharing of scientific data: PLoS Currents: Influenza http://bit.ly/4uvdPE and http://bit.ly/mvO0m
Mathematical model might suggest that flu shot guidelines got their priorities wrong http://bit.ly/4ezFq
Heart rate monitored hypothermia and drowning in a 48-year-old man http://bit.ly/Fjp9R - Happy outcome, see the PDF.
A tablet PC in the ward, a tablet PC, a computer on wheels (COW), an ergonomic COW - Which one is preferred by doctors? http://bit.ly/KOgFI
WaPost: "Physicians have been cast as the villains in the drama that our national health-care debate has become." http://bit.ly/IoVmz
Does Exercise Reduce Your Cancer Risk? http://bit.ly/18giFl
"If jealous - women try to win men back, while men walk out to protect esteem" - CNN http://bit.ly/1Mm5K
South Africa rallies to defense its new world champion who has been told by athletics officials to prove she is female http://bit.ly/P4Bs1
Candlelight, Toluene And You: Hazardous to your health? http://bit.ly/VOp61

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Readability bookmarklet removes all the clutter from web pages so you can read content without getting distracted. http://bit.ly/Dpnsv
10 Ways To Avoid Being Sued On Twitter http://bit.ly/uV4aE
A Tale of Three Kidney Stones: http://tinyurl.com/m97p4x
45% of employers are using social networks to screen job candidates - more than double from a year earlier. 7% of employers followed job candidates on Twitter http://bit.ly/pVZv1
How to Use "One" Email Address with Multiple Twitter Accounts http://bit.ly/13a4JB
Video: Meet The Fune, Microsoft’s New Smart Phone (It’s Really Hot) http://bit.ly/2lD1Iy
You can add contributors to Picasa Web Albums (Google Photos) http://bit.ly/wszDh
Google Launches An Audio Search Engine/podcast manager For Android Phones: Google Listen http://bit.ly/lqMlS and http://bit.ly/3LQnpJ
Embedded video displays holding up to 40 minutes to appear in traditional paper magazines in September http://bit.ly/qq8ti

Is It Time to Abandon the Lab Coat in the Fight Against Germs?

From the NY Times:

The Lab Coat Is on the Hook in the Fight Against Germs http://bit.ly/CP99r

48% of neckties worn by a sampling of New York City doctors carried at least one species of infectious microbe. The British NHS has adopted a “bare below the elbow” hospital dress policy: no long fingernails, ties, jewelry, lab coat.

A comment from Twitter:

rebel85 No matter what we wear, it will have germs, including skin. Granted we need to be cautious. Has anyone studied stethoscopes??? about 2 hours ago from web in reply to DrVes

Actually, yes. There are around 30-50 studies indexed by PubMed.

One of the more recent ones focused on ICU patients. All 32 non-medical staff were supposed to clean their stethoscopes at least every day; however only three out of the 12 medical staff cleaned this often. Out of 24 intensive care unit bedside stethoscopes tested, two diaphragms and five earpieces were colonised with pathogenic bacteria. MRSA cultured from one earpiece persisted after cleaning. Three out of the 22 personal stethoscope diaphragms and five earpieces were colonised with pathogens. After cleaning, two diaphragms and two earpieces were still colonised.

Dedicated stethoscopes are also a source of nosocomial pathogens: 94% of ear tips were contaminated, MRSA was found in 1.3% http://bit.ly/6SlWk

New test (KeyPath) determines whether Staph. aureus infections are methicillin resistant (MRSA) within 5 hours http://goo.gl/w1wWt
Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

BMJ: Scientific publishing no longer only about print, must include online publishing, broadcasting, communities

From the BMJ blog:

Scientific publishing is no longer about print but increasingly includes online publishing, creating online communities http://bit.ly/3EmXfH

The BMJ has its own social network, doc2doc. What about NEJM, JAMA and Lancet?

Most journals now produce videos and podcasts to go with their written material - publishers are broadcasters as well.

Soon almost everyone will have an internet phone and publishers will be able to to send specific content to each user http://bit.ly/3EmXfH

Medical news tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source/links, etc. The inclusion of a Twitter update (tweet) does not represent endorsement or agreement of any kind. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support.

Health News of the Day

Children as young as 9 years of age can learn and do CPR and use AEDs. School systems should include a 4th 'R' - resuscitation," to the traditional 3R's of reading, writing, and arithmetic http://bit.ly/47DhBd
Children recovering from a broken arm should get ibuprofen to treat their pain, not codeine-laced acetaminophen. Ibuprofen preferable to acetaminophen with codeine for outpatient treatment of children with arm fractures http://bit.ly/M0Wsj
North America has about a million heroin addicts. Treating heroin addiction with... heroin may work better than oral methadone for keeping addicted in treatment programs http://bit.ly/5ZRFB
U.S. life expectancy is the highest it has ever been at 77.9 years. Life expectancy for babies born in Japan and Singapore has reached 82, France 80.9, Sweden, Italy, Australia, Canada 80. AIDS-ravaged Zimbabwe has an average life expectancy of only 39.7. http://bit.ly/G3HTh
A bad night’s sleep was one of the top two factors that upset people’s daily moods http://bit.ly/RgUIy and http://bit.ly/1rf9w3 -- "Getting one extra hour of sleep each night would do more for your happiness than getting a $60,000 raise" http://bit.ly/SnjNa
The Daughter Deficit: what happens where parents have a fervent preference for male offspring http://bit.ly/2NRg0N
When Parents Scream Against Ice Cream: Some parents can’t stand the the ice cream man http://bit.ly/6nqdc

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

How to Publish a Scientific Journal Comment in 123 Easy Steps http://bit.ly/3OaOM and http://bit.ly/iOAmf (PDF)
Visual Map of Your Online Presence http://bit.ly/3OaOM and http://bit.ly/dVmeZ - Somewhat incorrect results but pretty colors...
45% of Employers Now Screen Social Media Profiles http://bit.ly/10OWib
"URL-shorteners are bad for the Internet" http://bit.ly/mSd7a
Will famous blogger Scoble name his next child after RSS ("Really Simple Syndication")? http://bit.ly/TtIgc
Dogs kill 10-20 people each year in the U.S., vast majority of those involve a single dog attacking a small child http://bit.ly/9XFk2
7 Steps to Promoting Your Organization on Twitter http://bit.ly/EhOq1 - I don't suggest you become a "Rogue Tweeter" however... :)
Three Tips for Managing the "Stream" Before it Manages You http://bit.ly/sdWAl
According to a Chinese Internet addiction camp: "Physical punishment is an effective way to educate children" http://bit.ly/3q9iiI
CNN: Overused words like "absolutely" are spreading like a verbal virus http://bit.ly/lxZkG

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