5 Tips to Stay Up-to-Date with Medical Literature

There is an old saying: "How do you eat in elephant? In small bites." The same rule probably applies to staying current with the ever expanding avalanche of medical literature. You can try the following approach:

1. RSS Feeds for Journals.

Subscribe to the RSS feeds of the "Big Five" medical journals (NEJM, JAMA, BMJ, Lancet and Annals) plus 2-3 subpecialty journals in your field of interest. Any of the many RSS readers would do. I use RSS Owl. PeRSSonalized Medicine by Webicina.com was one of the first services to arrange the medical journal feeds in a visually appealing way and make RSS consumption user-friendly. Feedly is one of the most popular online RSS readers.

Try to read the journal on the day it is published online, for example, NEJM and JAMA on Wednesdays, BMJ in Fridays, etc.

2. Podcasts.

Listen to journal podcasts. Many applications are available for desktop and smartphones. All major journals have weekly or monthly podcasts.

3. Persistent Searches.

Subscribe to RSS feeds for "persistent searches" in Pubmed and Google. For example, choose a search term in your field of interest, run the search in Pubmed, then subscribe to the feed for the search. The same process can be repeated with Google News and Google Alerts.


Image source: U.S. National Library of Medicine.

4. Text-to-speech (TTS).

Use text-to-speech to listen to articles you do not have time to read. For example, you can save your articles in the Pocket app for Android and listen to them later.

5. Blogs and Twitter accounts.

Subscribe to high-quality medical blogs and Twitter accounts in your field of interest -- they often review many of the important new articles.

Here is an example of the allergists on Twitter:

This is a list of the allergists who are planning to use Twitter to post updates from the 2013 #AAAAI meeting. The list is open for edit, please feel free to add your own info.



Related reading

How to stay up-to-date with RSS in medicine - presentation from the free Social MEDia Course http://j.mp/Hale12
Not a Medical Course, but a Life Course (somewhat vague advice) http://goo.gl/mDMsr - Here are 5 practical tips:  http://goo.gl/n5rbw
Medical journals that use social media (spreadsheet). Body in Mind, 2011.
Image source: OpenClipArt, public domain.

Note: This is an update of a 2008 article.

Apps help improve water quality (video)

Around the globe, more people have access to smartphones than to clean water and sanitary facilities. A competition for smartphone developers, sponsored by the World Bank, could change that. Numerous apps show how the internet can be used to help to improve water quality. Video from Deutsche Welle:

There are patients with "gluten sensitivity" in whom neither allergic nor autoimmune mechanisms can be identified

From BMJ:

It is now becoming clear that, besides those with coeliac disease or wheat allergy, there are patients with gluten sensitivity in whom neither allergic nor autoimmune mechanisms can be identified. It has been estimated that, for every person with coeliac disease, there should be at least six or seven people with non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. Gluten sensitivity may therefore affect 6-10% of the general population.

Patients with gluten sensitivity have negative immuno-allergy tests to wheat and negative coeliac disease serology; normal endoscopy and biopsy; clinical symptoms that can overlap with those of coeliac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and wheat allergy; and they show a resolution of symptoms when started on a gluten-free diet.

Currently there are no laboratory biomarkers specific for gluten sensitivity, and the diagnosis is based on exclusion criteria; elimination of gluten-containing foods from the diet followed by an open challenge is most often used to establish whether health improves with the elimination or reduction of gluten from the patient’s diet.

References:

Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity | BMJ http://bit.ly/SlOTNO
Celiac disease and nonceliac gluten sensitivity - 2017 review in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology http://buff.ly/2pI2x61

1 out of 6 doctors has been rated on a physician-rating website: are you one of them?

The current usage of physician-rating websites is still low but is increasing. International data show that 1 out of 6 physicians has been rated, and approximately 90% of all ratings on physician-rating websites were positive.

What Percentage of Physicians Has Been Rated?

Data for US physicians obtained from RateMDs showed that 16% of physicians were assessed by January 2010 (112,000 out of approx. 700,000).

What Is the Average Number of Ratings on Physician-Rating Websites?

Nearly half of the physicians had only a single rating on RateMDs in 2010, and the number of physicians with five or more ratings was 12.5%

Although often a concern, the authors of this meta-analysis could not find any evidence of "doctor-bashing".

How Should Physicians Deal With Physician-Rating Websites?

Physicians should not ignore these websites, but rather, monitor the information available and use it for internal and external purpose.

Physicians should perform “self-audits” on popular physician-rating websites to search for available information. It may be helpful if a staff member monitors these sites on a regular basis.

If nothing else, physician-rating websites often provide incorrect demographic information (eg, incorrect address, links to old practices, opening hours), which should be corrected.

Physicians should use the ratings in order to evaluate their patients’ satisfaction. Patients’ true thoughts on what makes a good doctor, what they value, etc., can be understood.

In the case of negative reviews, it is best not to respond online to try to refute the negative review point by point.

What Recommendations Can Be Made for Improvement of Physician-Rating Websites?

Some authors discuss whether a simple One Feedback Question containing a single question such as “Would you recommend Dr X to a loved one?” may be as useful as the multitude of specific questions.

Alemi et al suggest a 2-question survey: the “Minute Survey”. The first question asks patients to rate their overall experience. The second question asks: “Tell us what worked well and what needs improvement”.

References:

Eight Questions About Physician-Rating Websites - JMIR 2013 http://bit.ly/12ifjXA
Image source: RateMDs.com.

Healthcare social media #HCSM - top articles

Here are my suggestions for some of the top articles related to healthcare social media (#HCSM) in the past 2-4 weeks:

Social media for health professionals at a glance http://buff.ly/10Gopxy

Online Professionalism Investigations by State Medical Boards: First, Do No Harm http://buff.ly/10GozFe

Social media in vascular surgery. [J Vasc Surg. 2013] http://buff.ly/10L5kdJ

Study finds rampant envy on Facebook http://buff.ly/10sCUzo

Eight Questions About Physician-Rating Websites - JMIR 2013 http://bit.ly/12ifjXA

Preserving Science News In An Online World - NPR discussion. How can journalists and bloggers avoid some of the pitfalls of communicating science in an online world? http://buff.ly/UMNSAN

Dr Mike Cadogan takes the medical world beyond social media (PDF) http://buff.ly/X8RTOD

Don't Call It Social Media: FOAM and the Future of Medical Education http://buff.ly/UQQ6PD

Misleading Health-Related Information Promoted Through Video-Based Social Media: Anorexia on YouTube. Pro-anorexia information was identified in 29.3% of anorexia-related videos. http://bit.ly/12joxD6

“While the vast majority of journalists are honest, some believe the facts shouldn't get in the way of a salacious story” http://bit.ly/VhPC59

Feasibility study of using social networks for learning support: Facebook (PDF) http://buff.ly/Y07ouE

Tesla, the New York Times and the leveling of the media playing field http://buff.ly/XeHT5y - This will soon apply to medicine too.

The Geography of Happiness According to 10 Million Tweets http://buff.ly/12ILWOy - Source PDF: http://buff.ly/12JmhW2

Twitter has the potential to enhance professional collegiality, advocacy, and scientific research - for ophthalmologists http://buff.ly/ZB0cUF

The researcher of the future…makes the most of social media - The Lancet discovers Twitter (comment) http://buff.ly/133cB9O (free full text after registration)

Show Us You Are Real: Human vs. Organizational Presence and Online Relationship Building Through Social Networks http://buff.ly/ZFJZxr

Twitter may be a promising mechanism to spread brief exercise behaviors http://buff.ly/136KpD2

The articles were selected from my Twitter and RSS streams. Please feel free to send suggestions for articles to clinicalcases at gmail.com and you will receive an acknowledgement in the next edition of this publication.