The Clinical Blog: Publish With Care

A new study of medical blogs is available from the Journal of General Internal Medicine. [Link: PDF from SpringerLink, restricted to UCSD users and other subscribers] [Link: PubMed abstract] The authors analyzed the content of 271 medical and nursing blogs and identified numerous problems. In some cases, bloggers posted potentially personally identifiable information about patients. In other cases, bloggers who were easy to identify wrote negative comments about patients or their employers, which could potentially harm their professional reputations. So is it possible to express yourself without peril? The medical education blog Clinical Cases has a useful guide to maintaining patient privacy when writing about cases. An informal blogger group has also created the Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics which has some good ideas about making sure your blog doesn’t come back to bite you.

Medicine 2.0 blog carnival

Medicine 2.0 is a weekly “blog carnival” that features a roundup of blog coverage of Web 2.0 applications for medicine and healthcare. Each week, a different medical blogger takes a turn compiling and hosting the roundup - this week’s edition, “summertime” is hosted at ScienceRoll. Topics range from electronic health records to specialized search tools, communication and geeky fun. The “home” for this weekly feature is at http://medicine20.wordpress.com/

HealthMap: new tools for disease surveillance

Healthmap.org is a very cool new web-based tool that tracks news sources about emerging diseases and outbreaks and makes them available to public health officials, researchers and the public via a map-based interface.

• Link: http://www.healthmap.org
• Summary from Wired News
• Full article on the project published in PLoS Medicine

Cell Phones in Health Care

Several ongoing projects are evaluating the usefulness of cell phones as a tool in health care delivery. Those ubiquitous cell phones that can be so annoying at times, might just be the latest tool to help advance medical care.

One project from MIT is focusing on the cell phone’s video capability that would allow emergency responders send video images while en route to the hospital so that a physician could assess the patient before arriving at the hospital.

Another project is a pilot program from Blue Cross that would allow physicians to access electronic health records via their cell phone. Other programs are providing a web site for patients to set up regularly scheduled reminders, delivered via a text message, about taking medications.

A key issue with these applications is security and patient privacy, including those times when a cell phone is lost.

For more details see the iHealthBeat blog.

Medicare promoting PHR

A pilot program was launched this week in South Carolina for Medicare beneficiaries providing online access to claims information for either their hospital, their doctor or both.

Patients will be able to use the PHR to enter prescription information as well as any over-the-counter meds. Links to informational web sites related to their own health condition will also be available, and they can designate friends or relatives that can access their records.

Read more about this in Government HealthIT.

Hat tip to iHealthBeat blog.

UCSF Researcher Shares $500K Prize

The Albany Medical Center (New York) started awarding their prize in 2000 to recognize preeminent scientists whose work “has significant implications in medicine.”

This year’s prize is shared by two individual researchers for their work in molecular research - Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D. of UCSF and Joan Steitz, Ph.D. of Yale. Dr. Blackburn works with telomeres and discovered the enzyme telomerase which strengthens telomeres. Dr. Steitz works with RNA - especially pre-messenger RNA. This is the first time a woman has received this prize.

Albany’s CEO offered high praise for the two researchers. “Dr. Steitz and Dr. Blackburn are among the greatest scientists of our generation. The potential impact of their research is extraordinary and we all owe them a great debt of gratitude.”

For full details, see the press release from Albany Medical Center. Curious about who else is on the list?

Hat tip to the Chronicle blog.

Happy DNA Day

Today is the 6th annual DNA Day and there is something to celebrate.  Yesterday, the very day before DNA Day, the U.S. Senate passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.  The Act will protect individuals against discrimination based on their genetic information when it comes to health insurance and employment.  The House is expected to approve the legislation as soon as next week, and it is anticipated that President Bush will sign the bill into law shortly thereafter.  Yea!

IOM report on Aging America

The Institute of Medicine has release a new report “Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce,” highlighting the need for changes in schools of medicine, nursing, & public health in order to meet the needs of an aging and long-living population. Some of the reforms suggested call for more training and also higher pay.

Some changes are already underway with new medical schools and new programs specifically for meeting the needs of the elderly population, but more needs to be done. John Rowe from Columbia University warns of an “impending crisis” and the need for new health care delivery models.

Last summer, PricewaterhouseCooper’s Health Research Institute estimated a severe shortage of health professionals in the next decade. See previous blog story.

Hat tip to Chronicle blog.

NIH Policy Takes Effect Today

The NIH Open Access Policy takes effect today, April 7.

If a paper is published based on your NIH-funded research, you need to make sure that a copy of that paper is deposited in PubMed Central within 12 months after publication.  A number of journals submit articles on behalf of authors.  If not, if the journal allows you to submit your manuscript (with peer review changes) yourself, it only takes about 10 minutes to do that.

To make sure that you have the right to deposit your paper, you need to attach this letter from the UC Office of Technology Transfer to the manuscript you submit and/or the copyright transfer agreement.  We recommend that you attach the letter on BOTH occasions.

Confused about what you need to do?  Consult our website, or sign up for a brief overview session about the policy, or contact Nancy Stimson at (858) 534-6321 or nstimson@ucsd.edu or Dominique Turnbow at (858) 534-1195 or dturnbow@ucsd.edu.

Student-directed online interactive medical curriculum

The University of Alberta School of Medicine has embraced one of the newest trends in medical education - providing online interactive and collaborative study tools within their learning system. Homer - think Greek mythology and students setting out on “an epic journey of lifelong learning” - is their newly created system that contains links to the information med students need - class notes, slides, and schedules - and also learning games, journal articles, email, Facebook and other networking tools.

The assistant dean for health informatics and an associate professor of medicine, Robert Hayward, headed the team that invented Homer. In a field that is typically dominated by “top-down instruction” via lectures, U of A “wanted to make a change from the traditional system of regurgitating notes at exam time and competing with other students to a cooperative model,” said Hayward.

What is particularly unique is the student interactivity. Students can post their own quizzes or questions, provide study tips and help monitor others posts for possible errors. The project is mostly self-policed by the med students who find and correct any errors. As one might expect, “Some first-year students objected at first, saying they just wanted to know what they were going to be tested on.” However, perhaps offering the high praise Homer’s creators were hoping for, they acknowledge later that “Homer helped them study.”

See the full story at The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Medical-School Curriculum Goes Interactive, Online, … and Hip-Hop.

Watch the “Diagnosis Wenckebach” video by a group of 2nd year med students at U of Alberta.