Tech Medicine

Laparoscopic Surgery Performed at 4X HD

2009-11-14T05:38:00.000-08:00

The holy grail of resolution is not high definition video, but telepresence — resolution so good it feels like you're looking through a window, not a TV set or a monitor. Resolution so detailed you feel like you are there. The RED Digital Cinema Camera Company offers a new line of high definition video cameras which have gained an enthusiastic following among directors. (For example, Steven...

Finding Doctors and Health Care Professionals on Twitter

2009-11-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Image by luc legay via FlickrA little over a year ago, before Twitter was the tech/pop culture phenomenon it is today, doctors like myself had a problem: how do you identify other health professionals on Twitter? (At the time, there must have been at least dozens. Dozens.) This was the first solution. In retrospect, it was hilariously cobbled-together: This is a feed containing the conversations...

Hilarious Journal Articles and NCBI ROFL

2009-09-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

Levitating Frog, Image via WikipediaTwo years ago, I began collecting "hilarious journal articles" and posting them on kidneynotes.com. Here's a sample: The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemicsDidgeridoo playing as a treatment for obstructive sleep apneaDifferences between male physicians, surgeons, and film starsA randomized trial of placebo versus...

Information Overload, the Index Medicus, and PubMed

2009-07-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

Image by Nuevo Anden via FlickrThe growth of medical knowledge is difficult to visualize. One classic representation is the Index Medicus — a comprehensive index of medical journal articles — whose bound copies filled the shelves of medical libraries for 125 years. In 2004, however, the National Library of Medicine decided to stop publishing the Index. The first reason was practical: the Index...

Case Study of a Physician's Use of the iPhone 3GS (Part 1)

2009-07-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

I recently upgraded my original iPhone, which I purchased two years ago, to the iPhone 3GS. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting much of a change. Sure, I read the marketing hype — faster processor! 3G speed! GPS! voice control! better camera! — but I didn't expect the new model to make much of a difference in my daily clinical practice as a nephrologist. Boy, was I wrong. I've been using the 3GS so...

Medical Apps for the iPhone: Diagnosaurus, ICD9 Consult, and WellAdult

2009-04-22T19:48:00.001-07:00

As of this writing, there are over 400 medical applications in the iTunes App Store. Whether you're a health care provider or patient, and whether you have an iPhone or iPod Touch or not, it's worth exploring the impressive range of applications available for this new mobile platform. (Later this year, when iPhone 3.0 is introduced, these applications will be able to interact directly with...

Dealing with Information Overload

2009-04-02T18:34:00.001-07:00

Information overload is an occupational hazard of practicing medicine, especially if you spend time online. There's too much potentially useful stuff out there for one person to process effectively: journals, news sites, RSS feeds, wikis, blogs, webinars, Flickr, Facebook groups, CME courses, Google alerts... And don't get me started on Twitter. Two of my favorite medical bloggers—Bertalan...

Monthly Introduction to Tech Medicine

2009-03-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Image from WikipediaWhat's this blog all about? My goal in Tech Medicine will be to explore the intersection of medicine, new technologies, and the Internet. This is a purposefully broad topic. Several times weekly I will post focused reviews of issues interesting to health professionals and nonprofessionals alike. Posts may include examinations of medical devices, pharmaceuticals, scientific...

Tech Medicine Links for 2.9.9

2009-02-09T17:15:00.000-08:00

Bertalan Meskó from Scienceroll.com attended the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) 17 conference. He's posted some pictures here and here. The Seattle Times published an article titled, "With Smartphone, Doctors Reinvent House Calls." Google is working on a peer review system, gpeerreview.1. First, you read someone's paper. 2. Next, write a review. (The review is just a simple text...

Notable New iPhone Medical Apps: ECG Guide and Safe OR

2009-02-08T14:44:00.001-08:00

Many users of the iPhone — and certainly developers — view it not so much as a phone, but as a handheld computing platform. The iTunes App Store currently lists more than 200 applications in the "medical" category. "Notable New Medical iPhone Apps" is an occasional series describing apps that I use and/or recommend. The ECG Guide is an impressively detailed ECG reference for the iPhone and iPod...

Best Tech Medicine Posts of 2008 (Part 2)

2009-01-03T16:35:00.000-08:00

Image by satosphere via FlickrHappy New Year. The following is part 2 of a collection of the best posts from Tech Medicine in 2008. The New 3G iPhone, Doctors, The App Store, and MedicineWhat follows is the result of a brief brainstorming session about potential applications of the iPhone for doctors. Some have already been announced for the iPhone, are available on other platforms, or are...

Best Tech Medicine Posts of 2008 (Part 1)

2009-01-02T16:28:00.001-08:00

Image by satosphere via FlickrHappy New Year. The following is a collection of the best posts from Tech Medicine in 2008. Take a Contract out on Yourself on StickK.comAnd this is where it gets even more interesting. Let's say you support gun control. So you tell StickK that if you don’t accomplish your goal, you want all the money you’ve put down to go to the National Rifle Association....

Electronic Stethoscope Oddities

2009-01-01T15:25:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! If acoustic stethoscopes — the kind physicians have used for over two hundred years — are the equivalent of typewriters, then electronic stethoscopes are like word processors. Okay, this analogy is non-intuitive, but hear me out. Electronic stethoscopes, like word processors, are newer, more expensive than the previous generation, and are — well — electronic, with all the...

Medical Applications in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch

2008-12-06T19:12:00.001-08:00

As of this writing, there are are over 100 medical applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store. (The link is here.) Less than six months ago, as the store was launched, I tried to guess what applications might become available. Let's revisit that list to see which apps have been released so far. (This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of applications, and please...

Tech Medicine Links for 12.5.8

2008-12-05T20:14:00.001-08:00

Lexi-Comp now offers their line of medical applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. The databases offered include Lexi Drugs, a drug database; Harrison's Practice, a diagnosis and management tool; Lexi-infectious Disease, a guide to diagnosing and treating infections, and Lexi-Poisoning & Toxicology, which includes detailed information on drugs and toxins; as well as many other...

Tech Medicine Links for 11.23.8

2008-11-23T11:45:00.001-08:00

Think Anatomy is an impressive collection of the best anatomy study aids on the net. This week, Clinical Cases and Images hosts the Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival. See especially 10 Reasons Why I Use Twitter, Strengths and Challenges of Medical Education in Virtual Worlds, New Idea: Use Twitter for Daily Q&A for Board Preparation, and Screencasting and Podcasting: Experience of the Yale Medical...

Tech Medicine Links for 11.17.8

2008-11-17T19:31:00.001-08:00

Osirix, the open-source Mac image viewer which I wrote about in my last post, now has an iPhone app. (Via Not Totally Rad.) Parentdish has a review of their favorite iPhone apps for parents, including a baby monitor, a nursing tracker, a cookbook app with over 160,000 recipes, a white noise app, a drawing app, a diaper tracking app, a grocery list app, a dictionary of food additives, and a game...

Using OsiriX to Guide Surgery

2008-11-15T17:06:00.001-08:00

Apple's Web site has a feature on the use of OsiriX, a mac-based open-source software system for viewing radiologic images. A surgical team at Teikyo University Chiba Medical Center in Japan uses Osirix to project "surgical roadmaps" on patients as they perform minimally invasive surgery. For patients with early-stage gastric or colonic cancer, the surgical team typically opts for minimally...

Tech Medicine Links for 11.14.8

2008-11-14T19:17:00.001-08:00

Image via Wikipedia A new study by Manhattan Research looks at the number of physicians who use the Internet and other digital technologies in their practices. According to the survey, 36% of physicians communicate with their patients online and 54% of physicians own a smartphone. (Thanks to Sean Khozin.) Google searches for search words related to the flu — "flu," "symptoms of the flu," and the...

Monthly Introduction to Tech Medicine

2008-10-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

Tech Medicine Links for 10.28.9

2008-10-28T18:04:00.001-07:00

Hello Health. Jay Parkinson Spoke at the Pop!Tech conference this year. Here's the video: Jay Parkinson at Pop!Tech from Jay Parkinson on Vimeo. Google Books. Google settles a lawsuit with the publishing companies over Google Book Search, which I've written about previously (Google Book Search and Medical Education). Via the New York Times: Under the settlement, which is subject to...

Twitter Dispatches from the New England Journal of Medicine's Horizons Conference

2008-10-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaThis weekend the New England Journal of Medicine's Horizons conference brought together the editors of the journal with a group of medical students and trainees, including two prominent medical bloggers, Dr. Ves Dimov from Clinical Cases and Images and Dr. Graham Walker from Over My Med Body. Via the website: The New England Journal of Medicine is seeking to bring together a...

Robert Scoble Interviews Healthline's CEO

2008-10-25T17:26:00.001-07:00

Image via CrunchBaseRobert Scoble, co-author of Naked Conversations, interviews Healthline's CEO West Shell. The interview was recorded by a jerky, hypercaffeined Scoble on a handheld Flip Mino camera. The video, from Fast Company, is posted below. This is a dramatically big web company. Crunchbase says it has 4.2 million unique visitors a month. So, getting his point of view on anything is...

Tech Medicine Links for 10.24.8

2008-10-24T17:46:00.001-07:00

Image via CrunchBaseContinuing Medical Education on Twitter. Dr. Theresa Chan, writer of the excellent Rural Doctoring Blog, is microblogging on Twitter from the 12th Annual Management of the Hospitalist Patient meeting in San Francisco. Clinical Cases and Images has selections of her postings. Theresa also provided many of the 100+ Tips for Doctors on Call. Twittering for public health. PF...

Tech Medicine Links for 10.23.8

2008-10-23T15:46:00.001-07:00

Image by Somewhat Frank via FlickrMore updates from the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco from the Health Care Blog: health management tools for consumers, an interview with the CEO of HealthGrades, and Sermo's new partnership with Bloomberg. Microsoft's HealthBlog asks, "Health 2.0 — what are we really building?" As I write this piece looking out the 19th floor window of my room at the W...