AskDrWiki - a new medical Wiki

AskDrWiki.com is a recent addition to the world of wikipedias. Created by a few cardiologists and electrophysiologists, it was launched in 2006 and gets about 200 visitors a day. A total of 350 articles are currently available with a heavy emphasis on cardiology & electrophysiology.

AskDrWiki invites a wide-variety of content including clinical notes & pearls, images and video clips, and tutorials. Medical professionals (including physicians, nurses, technicians and medical students) in other fields are welcome to contribute content.

Critics of the site are concerned that information could be unreliable and that with just the 4 founding editors, expertise in all specialties is not possible. To overcome some of the issues of unreliable information, Dr Wiki now requires contributors to submit their credentials before they are allowed to create or edit content.

Hat tip to iHealthBeat.org

Hillcrest/Campus Shuttle Service changes

Beginning Monday, April 2, 2007, the Hillcrest/Campus Shuttle and Med Center Connector routes will become one route providing service between the Hillcrest and La Jolla Medical Centers (east campus). The Hillcrest/Campus Shuttle will stop at the Gilman/Myers intersection near the School of Medicine.

Campus riders traveling to the La Jolla Medical Center must board on the south side of the intersection. Campus riders traveling to the Hillcrest Medical Center must board on the north side of the intersection.

For detailed route and schedule information, please visit the Hillcrest/Campus Shuttle website.

Current Protocols in Microbiology Now Available

The UCSD Libraries now have access to Current Protocols in Microbiology online. This resource “provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for analyzing bacteria, animal and plant viruses, fungi, protozoans and other microbes. It offers updated coverage of emerging technologies and concepts, such as biofilms, quorum sensing and quantitative PCR, as well as proteomic and genomic methods.” (From the publisher)

You can access this resource here. In the near future you will also be able to access it using Roger, the UCSD Libraries catalog and using the orange UC-eLinks button in any UCSD databases (e.g. BIOSIS Previews, PubMed).

If you have questions or comments about this resource, please Dominique Turnbow.

Important new ejournal package

The UC libraries have recently agreed to a large-scale license to over 1,000 electronic journal titles published by Taylor & Francis. Over 150 of these titles are in the health and life sciences. We hope you find access to these journals enhances your research, patient care, and educational activities.

3/9/07 from NIH Radio

Could Baby Boomers Be Approaching Retirement in Worse Shape Than Their Predecessors?

Americans in their early to mid-50s currently report poorer health, more pain and more trouble doing every day physical tasks than their older peers reported when they were the same age in recent years. Listen or read this news release from NIH Radio.

There’s some surprising indications in research supported by the National Institute of Aging that suggests something quite different. According to a report by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research, Americans in their early to mid-50s currently report poorer health, more pain and more trouble doing every day physical tasks than their older peers reported when they were the same age in recent years.
Continue reading 3/9/07 from NIH Radio…

Teaching heart sounds via iPods

Dr. Michael Barrett from Temple University has been teaching his medical students to identify heart sounds using mp3 files. Students can put those tracks on their iPods and listen to them just like the music tracks. If you check his students iPods, you might just find at the top of their playlists heart songs like, “innocent systolic murmur,” “aortic regurgitation” and “mitral stenosis.”

Dr. Barrett’s method is not only trendy, but effective, with students obtaining a proficiency that exceeds 80%. “The key”, Dr. Barrett says, “is repetition” — lots & lots of repetition. A study (abstract in MSWord) presented at the recent American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference, found that intensive repetition (400 - 600 times) of the same heart sound would significantly improve the stethoscope abilities of medical students and residents.

For more details on Dr. Barrett, his instruction project, and a sample of 3 heart sounds (mp3 files), check out Temple University’s newsletter, Temple Times. If you would like a complete collection of Dr. Barrett’s heart sounds, you can order the CD “Heart Songs” for a fee ranging from $50 - $105 from the American College of Cardiology.

From the Patient’s Side

Laurel Fox, a third year medical student at UCSD, has written a sensitive and moving account, “Marrying a Hand,” in the March 2007 issue of San Diego Physician. Her account of a young woman’s courage to give her fiance hope after an industrial accident takes the reader into a space where most of us rarely go.
Continue reading From the Patient’s Side…

Use Firefox and Block Those Annoying Adds

In learning more about the special add-ons available in Firefox, I selected a long list of them and am becoming more familiar with them little by little. My new, extremely useful favorite, is Adblock Plus.

Are you ever annoyed with the adds, especially the flashing ones, that appear on many of the online news sites. I just noticed this morning those annoying boxes do not appear anymore. I simply get a bit of white space and the word ADVERTISEMENT in the middle of the space. I love that - what a great tool!

Look for some more Firefox & add-ons tips in the upcoming Spring edition of Currents. You can read Currents online or in print. Need to be added to the mailing list? Find details at the Currents web page.
Continue reading Use Firefox and Block Those Annoying Adds…

We get suggestions (and a compliment!)

Some recent items from our suggestion box:

- “Thank you for keeping everything so clean!! The deskspace, keyboards, computer screens, chairs, bathrooms. WAY better than other libraries (i.e. *****)” NOTE: we edited out the name of the library referenced in the message, we don’t want any hurt feelings, or to get the cold shoulder at the library-wide holiday party…
Thanks for the compliment! We have been actively working with our custodians as well as library facilities to keep the facility as clean as possible. As I’m sure you can imagine, when the building gets crowded at midterms and finals time, it gets harder to keep the place clean, so we appreciate the help of our users by adhering to the library’s food policy, and making sure trash makes it into the trash cans. Please report any building cleanliness issues to the service desk.

- “Limit foods allowed in the library to small items or non-crunchy foods.”

Hmmm…, sounds like we need to do a better job informing everyone of our food policy. The restriction on the crunchiness of the food in question is an interesting idea, but I’m not sure how we would enforce it. The library is looking at the possibility of creating a “silent” study zone for users wanting an ultra-quiet study environment, and it’s possible that we may impose a more stringent food policy in this area. In the meantime, you might want to consider moving to another area of the library, or take advantage or our free earplugs. Personally, I’d just ask them to share.
Thanks for the suggestion!

Wii may fight obesity but PS3s fight cancer!

Just announced yesterday, Sony will have a software upgrade in the next couple of weeks for its PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game consoles and this update will allow owners to join a supercomputing network at Stanford University. Reminiscent of the SETI@home project, this new project Folding@Home takes advantage of the power of PS3s in between the game playing. Vijay Pande, associate professor of chemistry at Stanford and spokesperson for the project, says “We’re applying the technology to study biomedical questions such as [protein] folding, misfolding and Alzheimer’s.”

The new update will allow internet connected PS3 game consoles to join the approximately 200,000 home PCs already involved in Folding@Home. Vijay is hoping at least 1% of the PS3 users will sign-on which would mean about 10,000 game consoles. Some estimates put the PS3’s computing power at 10 times that of a PC.