HEALTH MEDIA: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

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:

Higher ARB doses work better in CHF than lower ARB doses - up-titrating reduced the rate of death or admission http://bit.ly/6uNiZh

Number of Americans with diabetes will double over the next 25 years, spending on the disease will triple http://bit.ly/4HiRZ9

Hand sanitizer: How it protects you - CNN http://bit.ly/66tVMc

As of 2010, the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) will no longer offer open access http://bit.ly/78joCV - Letter from the Publisher: No longer free for all.

Dirty pigs are healthy pigs - Study finds link between outdoor living and immune health http://bit.ly/8FtuQI

Medical news tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source, links, etc. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Follow me on Twitter:

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Is the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Safe? - Diagram by Information Is Beautiful http://bit.ly/8dvPHk

Micro-blogging vs Mega-blogging - by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. "New forms of social media, including micro-blogging, are complementary to blogging." http://bit.ly/5nkN5q

"A single negative review or comment on Twitter, Facebook or Youtube can lose companies as many as 30 customers" http://bit.ly/8APXVC

"The oldest continuous medical blog - 10 years is forever in the world of blogs" http://bit.ly/7r6QpR and http://bit.ly/7Zpjvu

How Does Twitter Grader Calculate Twitter Rankings? http://bit.ly/1mwrw2 - check your score here: http://bit.ly/MPGmY -- Blog Grader http://bit.ly/m3hLy and Twitter Grader http://bit.ly/MPGmY

Twitter Hospital Lists by State http://bit.ly/8WNupA

Newsweek: Cleveland Clinic is both highly effective and fiercely efficient http://bit.ly/5WUGP4

@paulocoelho: Cloning Confucius: The funniest people are the saddest ones.

Kindle, Nook and the other ebook readers may be the new "iPod" in terms of popularity and use in education http://bit.ly/81KocI

Tweets are not research articles - they are 140-character messages - please always go to the original source, links, etc. Tweets and links do not represent endorsement, approval or support. Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Health News of the Day

Extended-release niacin causes a regression of carotid intima–media thickness when combined with a statin http://bit.ly/4F97eT

Novel Antibody Against PBP Peptide Was Associated with 94% of Patients with Autoimmune Pancreatitis http://bit.ly/6mh6mp

Can we prevent diabetes type 1? Rituximab partially preserved beta-cell function in type 1 diabetes mellitus http://bit.ly/5KTcYl

New supersensitive troponin T correlated with risk of cardiovascular death and heart failure but not with MI http://bit.ly/7TmykR

Walking away or letting things pass may be an unhealthy way to deal with unfair treatment on the job, research shows. Men who used "covert" coping strategies were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack or die from heart disease http://bit.ly/5CfW22

Exercise simultaneously makes people hungrier, yet more readily satisfied by a meal http://bit.ly/6Nkzmo

An internist in Miami pays $50k a year more for liability insurance than an internist in Minnesota. A general surgeon in FL pays $180K more for liability insurance than one in MN http://bit.ly/4WFsSy - That's one internist's salary...

Physicians with names unique to medicine have a good sense of humor about the whole thing http://bit.ly/5XmdWA

Google Voice: Usage Statistics and My Experience

From Google Operating System:

Google Voice, which provides people with a single phone number that can be used to reach them on their work, home, or cell phones, has 1.419 million users.

Google Voice charges only for outbound calls to international locations; at present, fewer than 4% of all Google Voice users place outbound international calls.

Google emphasizes that Google Voice is not a phone service, it's a Web-based software application.

I have used Google Voice for about 2-3 years, when it was still a service called Grand Central, and my experience has been positive. You can embed a Google Voice widget in your blog sidebar which lets the website visitors call you without revealing your or their phone number. Google Voice automatically transcribes the voicemail as text and emails you a copy.

One of my colleagues was wondering if Google Voice can transcribe his dictations but this practice would not be HIPAA-compliant and may be against the terms of use of the service.

Nexus One - Google Voice

Updated: 01/18/2010

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Teaching With Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart http://bit.ly/4DuguL and http://bit.ly/x1q5G

Google Reader adds favicon support for RSS subscriptions http://bit.ly/8X1KLo - It looks good, give it a try.

Amazon announces firmware upgrade with better battery life and native PDF support for Kindle2 http://bit.ly/8qrmiL and http://bit.ly/12a7Jw -- Kindle support for PDF and screen rotation work very well - you can carry a full course/subject review with 100-200 presentations or more.

Are you a natural-born blogger? http://bit.ly/8RMpkv

Starting early: Discussing Blog Design in 5th Grade http://bit.ly/57Unf7)

For most blogs, the label "Classic Post" is really a misnomer... :)

@paulocoelho: "Difficulty" is the name of an ancient tool created to define who we are.

@TheTeacherPage: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok

Recipe correction: http://bit.ly/4XcaGK

Health News of the Day

Cigarettes are "widely contaminated" with hundreds of different types of bacteria - as many as there are chemicals http://bit.ly/5ITL1p

Urinary adiponectin is a novel marker for vasculopathy in DM2 http://bit.ly/50gyUT

Confirmed: High salt intake is associated with increased risk of stroke and total cardiovascular disease. http://bit.ly/9267Ev -- The case for population-wide salt reduction to prevent cardiovascular disease gets stronger http://bit.ly/6sBdsw

The Cost of Obesity in the United States (Graphic) http://bit.ly/6xlaxM

Michael Jordan: I’ve failed over and over again. And that’s why I succeed

Video: Michael Jordan "Failure" Nike Commercial. "I’ve missed 9000 shots. I’ve lost 399 games. I’ve failed over and over again. And that’s why I succeed".

Related:
"The ultimate competitor will never stop competing even though he won the fight long ago" http://goo.gl/SVLZ

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

People aren't buying $300 netbook computers with the expectation of running Photoshop (which costs $700) on them http://bit.ly/7UNnf6

"Top 40 Creative Ads Made to Stop You Smoking" http://bit.ly/80gz4W

Scoble: "Twitter has changed and has become a very powerful RSS reader, full-text isn’t as important" http://bit.ly/5rWdyd -- I don't think so. Full text is what you need to make a rational conclusion.

Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages - WSJ.com http://bit.ly/5Slt4y -- "Wikipedia volunteers dropping like flies: the site lost 49,000 editors during the first 3 months of the year" http://bit.ly/5f2uZ6 -- @LanceUlanoff " http://bit.ly/5rwlhK Without updates Wikipedia is like my old Britannica, without the accuracy."

Nephrologist Joel Topf: The complete Fluid, Electrolyte and Acid-Base e-Book Available for Free http://bit.ly/5jz0qO

Depressed Woman Loses Health Benefits for Happy Pics on Facebook http://bit.ly/5q2SBU

"New" trend among people on Twitter: repost the same update several times during the day or week to make sure it's read in several time zones. I don't think this is a good idea from my limited perspective as a reader.

3 Steps to Joining or Leading a Twitter Chat by Social Media University, Global http://bit.ly/4oCW6N

From Australia: @BiteTheDust: "It's getting to be the season. Don't forget to check your shoes for spiders and scorpions befoe you put them on. Found one of each today."

Health News of the Day

"Bacteria Key to Healthy Skin" http://bit.ly/8ylDMF

Study: 1 in 4 teen girls has a sexually transmitted infection (STI) http://bit.ly/6027wa

Stifled Anger at Work May Double Men's Risk for Heart Attack http://bit.ly/6AIBk9

Studies of mice show that only 4% of lean animals infected with the flu virus die compared to 40-60% for obese mice. The Flu Fighters - in Your Food: Contradictory Advice http://bit.ly/7ZMVor -- What is tougher - diet or exercise? Lolcats version: http://bit.ly/7FdGYs

David Beckham has had asthma since he was a child http://bit.ly/61Vfwd and http://bit.ly/7kDm96. This information is important to prove that asthma does not prevent one to excel in sports. http://is.gd/52zq7

CNN: A car crash victim who was misdiagnosed as being in a coma for 23 years was conscious the whole time http://j.mp/5mL71A

9% of Surgeons Have Made ‘Major’ Errors Recently - WSJ. Surgeons' survey: 40% of responders were “burned out” and 30% showed symptoms of depression http://bit.ly/6qhyC8

Genetic Testing Reveals Devastating Illness: Huntington's disease - NPR http://bit.ly/4uaVw1

Comparison of Caffeine Content of Coffee, Tea, Coca Cola/Pepsi, and Dark Chocolate http://bit.ly/07NBx3X

"Flying with the flu? Some may be tempted" - CNN http://bit.ly/4LtNQD

Road deaths are 3 times higher in poorer European countries - BMJ http://bit.ly/5s0K2l

Risk of HIV transmission with different modes of exposure

Occupational Exposure

The rate of HIV transmission through percutaneous inoculation (i.e., a needle or other instrument that pierces the skin) is 0.3%.

Splashes of infectious material to mucous membranes (e.g., conjunctivae or oral mucosa) or broken skin may transmit HIV infection in 0.09% of the cases.

Nonoccupational Exposure

The per-contact risk of HIV transmission from sexual exposure varies according to the nature of the exposure:

- 1-30% with receptive anal intercourse
- 0.1-10.0% with insertive anal intercourse and receptive vaginal intercourse
- 0.1-1.0% with insertive vaginal intercourse

Oral intercourse is considered to pose a lower risk of HIV transmission but there are case reports of HIV infections in persons in whom the only reported risk factor was oral intercourse.

The risk of transmission associated with sharing needles for injection-drug use is 0.67% per needle-sharing contact.

References:
Postexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Infection. Raphael J. Landovitz, M.D., and Judith S. Currier, M.D. NEJM, Volume 361:1768-1775 October 29, 2009 Number 18.
Image source: Diagram of HIV. Image source: Wikipedia.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

"Clinical judgment is the foundation of good medical decision-making. But you won’t find it on the Internet." http://bit.ly/4xLs4Y

China has leaped to second spot worldwide in academic science, as measured by papers produced http://bit.ly/5hAnsb

Video: How to get people to chose the stairs instead of the escalator: Happy people on piano stairs http://bit.ly/DNg5U

In-Tweet advertising thoughts from Scoble http://bit.ly/8LSe11 and NYT http://bit.ly/5Dh3uQ

Google Suggestions for the search query "Doctors are..." http://bit.ly/4KQtlI - Unbelievable.

Is this real? Laptop Steering Wheel Desk http://bit.ly/5vr0HL - GruntDoc's comment of choice: http://bit.ly/6zJV3z - others are similar

Nephrology Oral History Project http://bit.ly/90FFsn and http://bit.ly/6VShnL

Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn’t Tried Google Wave http://bit.ly/5RahKt - I have. Does anybody use it in real life?

Erectile Dysfunction Treatment: Alternatives to Pills

From the NYTimes:

30 million men in U.S. experience erectile dysfunction (ED), 30% of men in their 50s, more than 50% of those in their 60s.

One Viagra pill, the most common way to treat erection problems, costs about $15. Viagra, Cialis and Levitra do not work for about half of the men with ED.

After 2 years of significant lifestyle changes (and no meds), 58% of the men with ED had normal erectile function.

Self-administered injections of alprostadil for ED cost $35; a "cocktail" of alprostadil, papaverine, phentolamine.

References:

For Common Male Problem, Hope Beyond a Pill. NYTimes.
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy - New Treatment for Erectile Dysfunction Poorly Responsive to PDE5 Inhibitors http://goo.gl/h7SOh
Erectile Dysfunction Medications Related to Transient Amnesia, FDA Warns

Men who use ED drugs have higher rates of STDs, particularly HIV infection - Ann Intern Med http://goo.gl/UH78

ED, Depression, Heart Disease: Does the Existence of One Component of This Triad Necessitate Inquiring the Other Two? http://goo.gl/EKvKl
Image source: Viagra (sildenafil), Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

Health News of the Day

Photo of a Loved One Reduces Pain - a Pain Relief Technique That Doesn't Require Drugs http://bit.ly/4rOo0t

Green Tea May Prevent Kidney Stones, nephrolithiasis affects 5% of the world population http://bit.ly/5neqOp

Eating fruits and vegetables, and drinking tea and red wine may offer some protection from colon cancer http://bit.ly/8i2GKX

Seasonal Flu Vaccine May Cut Swine Flu Risk by 45% For Some People http://bit.ly/6CuBlL

Using Cell Phones, Internet to Battle Eating Disorders: Online/text messages may be more helpful than therapy for some -- 0.6% of adults develop anorexia nervosa in their lives, and 1% develop bulimia nervosa, binge-eating affects 3% http://bit.ly/6hjvJs

Deadliest drugs - visualization of real-life data vs. news reports http://bit.ly/LFMBm

Formaldehyde May Endanger Funeral Workers: Leukemia risk may increase with longer exposure to embalming fluids http://bit.ly/5N7Hvs

The Henry Ford of Heart Surgery: In India, a Factory Model for Hospitals Is Cutting Costs and Yielding Profits - WSJ http://bit.ly/6fNSOq

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Health News of the Day

"The brains of human beings seem built to process stories better than other forms of input. Without numbers, stories are just anecdotes, but without stories, numbers are just dry statistics" http://bit.ly/4u93VJ

How Much Do Doctors in Other Countries Make? NYT - http://bit.ly/3DDrz5 - Contrary to expectations, the U.S. doesn't top the list for specialists.

75% of Italian and Canadian doctors report patients wait a long time to see specialists, 28% in the U.S. http://bit.ly/2tzz8x

Movie Theater Popcorn a Calorie Bomb: A large popcorn tub packs more fat and calories than 2 Big Macs http://bit.ly/2GBIsi

People who smoke or who have high blood pressure or diabetes in middle age are more likely to develop dementia http://bit.ly/3ZeMyE)

Hospitalist Blogs selected by the Society of Hospital Medicine http://bit.ly/1jTjsF - 2 are parked domains/spam now - the others are useful.

Historic photos: Famine in Uganda http://bit.ly/1BmSxj

Pediatric growth charts and growth percentile calculators http://bit.ly/1dYHYt and http://bit.ly/3eeJXp

Forensic science: Using insects to help solve crimes - CNN http://bit.ly/134wFw

Friday, November 20, 2009

Google study: How physicians use the internet and search in their clinical practices

Embedded PDF: Google study: How physicians use the internet and search in their clinical practices.

Link via IgniteBLOG.

@amcunningham points out that the report is "unfortunately research carried out as market research for Google and doesn't help #meded very much."

Related reading:

Journal of Clinical Orthodontics published an article by SEO exert "MasterGoogle .com" on how to to outrank your competition... http://goo.gl/J8pzL

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Transbook: The Book That Contains All Books

Amazon Kindle is the early prototype of the mythical "transbook".

From WSJ:

So far the new technology has been called the "e-reader," a term obviously picked by engineers, not poets. In literary terms it's a transbook, by which I mean that it is the book which can contain all books. A book is a singular object that can contain many voices, but the transbook has the potential to be a singular object containing all voices. It is not just another kind of media; it is the dream of ultimate text.

We are still in early days, but it is obvious where the transbook is headed: It will eventually provide access to all text that is non-copyright, and to the purchase of every book in or out of "print." Kindle 2's boast of being able to hold 1,500 titles will eventually sound as ludicrous as those early ads for floppy disks boasting that they could hold up to 64k of data. We will want everything and we will get it. Possibly there will eventually develop a subscription service, which provides access to all books for a monthly fee. At any rate, a single object will contain the contents of all the world's libraries.

References:
The Book That Contains All Books. WSJ, 2009.
Image source: Amazon.com.

Health News of the Day

Exercise remodels the brain, making it more stress-resistant (in rats, at least) http://bit.ly/QHkMU

Another study: Regular consumption of alcohol reduces the risk of heart disease by 30-50% http://bit.ly/FZQl3

Young athletes should be screened for heart disease with 2 tests rather than 1: ECG and echocardiogram http://bit.ly/176Nuu

55% of adult Americans don't want to get the H1N1 flu vaccine according to a poll http://bit.ly/4qWyFj

Morphine can increase tumor cell proliferation, inhibit immune system, and promote growth of new blood vessels http://bit.ly/n1uxL

Australian hospital staff set up anonymous blog to voice concerns about hospital cutbacks - BMJ http://bit.ly/Ru9jh

Tiny chip could be used to diagnose dozens of diseases - BBC http://bit.ly/1CjTIu - Chips don't diagnose diseases, doctors do.

A Scientist's Guide to Academic Etiquette http://bit.ly/1c6fnk

Social network sites 'need help buttons' for children to report concerns about bullying - BBC http://bit.ly/1SwEx9

"How should hospitalists be cultivated?" - Dr. RW discusses 2 competing models: http://bit.ly/1astsi

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Health News of the Day, part 2

Wii sports video games may burn as many calories as moderate-intensity exercises such as brisk walking http://bit.ly/4nc2WY

Folic Acid (B9) and Vitamin B12 May Increase Cancer Risk http://bit.ly/3m4UiL -- Folic acid supplements may raise cancer risk http://bit.ly/3Rn3pr and Selenium Supplements May Raise Heart Risk http://bit.ly/15Hw4M -- Selenium and human health - there is inextricable U-shaped link with status (don't supplement normal levels) - Lancet http://goo.gl/BGpmG

Pharaoh to Friend: ‘Who’s Gonna Know I Ate French Fries?’ http://bit.ly/1hntBQ - Headline of the day, commenting on heart disease in mummies.

Universities asked how the practice of professors putting their names on others’ articles is different from plagiarism http://bit.ly/vkAIT

Library in a Pocket: “It’s a surprisingly pleasant experience to read on a small screen” http://bit.ly/2bOrxd - I don't think so.

How to make a Google Calendar public and embed it into a website

I have written in the past How Doctors Can Use Google Calendar to Help Patients See Their Practice Schedule and Make Appointments and How Patients Can Monitor Their Medical Condition with it.

The screencast below shows how to make a public Google Calendar and embed it in your website:

Screencast: How to make a Google Calendar public and embed it into a website, by by @jasonhbuck.

References:
Google Calendar for Doctors: Help Patients See Your Practice Schedule and Make Appointments
Google Calendar for Patients: Monitor Your Medical Condition

Health News of the Day

Hyperkalaemia caused by increased potassium intake of various "sports" and "detox" drinks http://bit.ly/2iQMgG

People who have had repeated flu infections or repeated flu vaccines may have some protection against H1N1 influenza http://bit.ly/DdXBm )

The Healthiest And Unhealthiest States in America: Lists & Rankings http://bit.ly/3abpwO

Cost of happiness discovered by Australian economist http://bit.ly/2Y6nBI

'Fearless' 3-Year-Olds Might Be Tomorrow's Criminals http://bit.ly/1CJn0s

Kissing as an evolutionary adaptation to protect against Human Cytomegalovirus-induced teratogenesis http://bit.ly/3Nhvrs

NPR: Ancient Egyptians Suffered From Hardened Arteries Too http://bit.ly/3TtCjC - NPR has a health blog - npr.org/blogs/health

Texting people to remind them to wear sunscreen daily actually works http://bit.ly/OAdKk

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Health News of the Day

Study: Little Benefit Seen, So Far, in Electronic Medical Records http://bit.ly/36WAYR

Study: heavily marketed Zetia was inferior to an old standby drug, niacin, in reducing buildup in the carotid artery http://bit.ly/1WH7z3

Flibanserin pill to treat pre-menopausal woman suffering from Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) http://bit.ly/2udrAS )

Positive Psychology - why optimism is good for your health - BBC Health Check audio (28 min) http://bit.ly/1LZdQ1

"Cough into your mobile phone for instant diagnosis" - Telegraph.co.uk http://bit.ly/sPgnt

Australia operates "closed shop" to restrict doctors from overseas, say critics - BMJ http://bit.ly/1eeQJX

Drug companies raising prices at the fastest rate in years in the run-up to health care legislation http://bit.ly/3lDXC

RhinoChill device pumps coolant into patient nose after heart attack and during ongoing CPR to prevent brain damage http://bit.ly/4wWcJ

7-10% decline in primary care office visits for patients who e-mail their physicians http://bit.ly/2oFJ2p

NYT interviews Dr. Blumenthal, the President's EMR "czar"

From the NYTimes:

We found that about 17 percent of physicians in 2008 had adopted an electronic health record, and about ten percent of hospitals.

The Danes have virtually 100 percent of physicians using electronic health records. In Britain, virtually 100 percent of primary care physicians use them. In Australia, Sweden, Norway, virtually 100 percent. In many, many other Western countries, the electronic record is virtually ubiquitous.

From 2011 to 2015, there is a bonus (for adopting EMR). After 2015, if you have not adopted, and you see Medicare or Medicaid patients, you may experience a penalty.

On average, the cost is between $40,000 and $50,000, of which about a third is the software and the hardware, about a third is the cost of getting it set up in the office, and about a third is maintaining it.

References:
Computerized Health Records. NYT, 2009.

Medical Malpractice Liability in the Age of Electronic Health Records - NEJM, 2010 http://goo.gl/cGZG9

Health News of the Day

Older people who walk slowly are 3 times more likely to die of heart disease than older people who walk faster - BMJ http://bit.ly/40mPqW)

Battery of tests given to a single patient having a heart attack adds up to the radiation dose of 725 chest X-rays http://bit.ly/4tzuKW

New U.S. breast cancer guidelines recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s. Guidelines suggest women 50 to 74 only get a mammogram every other year http://bit.ly/2Qdecp)

49 million Americans -- one in seven -- struggle to get enough to eat according to a government report http://bit.ly/2qVWIg

Top 10 Hospitalists for 2009 http://bit.ly/vcdwH

The new active Wii video games may be providing actual exercise, creating a healthier generation of couch potato http://bit.ly/4no2On

Some specialists will see extra cuts in Medicare pay, revisions represent a potentially fatal hit for some practices http://bit.ly/3HwrzT

Mexico international striker Antonio de Nigris has died at the age of 31 from a suspected heart attack - CNN http://bit.ly/20MHu5

NYT: Implants are best solution to replace lost teeth in most cases, more economical than bridges over time - ADA is not so certain http://bit.ly/uXyzx

Auditory Hallucination of Pink Floyd Song "Brick in the Wall" as a Warning Sign of Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation http://bit.ly/34YVz9

Monday, November 16, 2009

Mispredicting Happiness

From the Journal of Happiness Studies:

Young people mispredict happiness levels in old age, believing—wrongly—that happiness declines with age.

Young male binge drinkers are particularly prone to thinking that happiness declines with age.

References:

Mispredicting Happiness Across the Adult Lifespan: Implications for the Risky Health Behaviour of Young People. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2009.

Experienced happiness is largely set by personality, it will temporarily respond to changing circumstances. The Lancet, 2010. http://goo.gl/ot3Kx
Life satisfaction differences (graph)
Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

New Medical Blog: Education Consult Service

Education Consult Service - Web-based Best Practices Exchange is a blog authored by Christine Taylor, PhD at Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Taylor works on faculty development projects for Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM) faculty and has been writing a blog about controversies in medical education.

Each post raises questions about a situation or a particular issue in medical education and invites comments from the audience. The blog has been active since May 2008:

http://educonsult.blogspot.com

Image source: Education Consult Service - Web-based Best Practices Exchange

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Health News of the Day

Diabetes incidence in high-risk adults reduced by 58% with lifestyle intervention and by 31% with metformin. Prevention or delay of diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin can persist for at least 10 years http://bit.ly/3o4eee

Nov 14 is World Diabetes Day: 285 million people across the world are living with diabetes; 90% is type 2 http://bit.ly/2beCtl

Eating 1 dark chocolate candy bar/day reduced levels of stress hormones cortisol and catecholamines in stressed people http://bit.ly/2z0VVb

"The 7 Most Powerful People in Medicine" - Forbes http://bit.ly/C0DIj

Dr. William Ganz dies at 90; survived a Nazi labor camp, co-invented Swan-Ganz catheter http://bit.ly/2vEw3B

Friday, November 13, 2009

Health News of the Day

5 Pathogens Linked to Risk for Stroke: Chlamydia pneumoniae, Helicobacter pylori, CMV, herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 http://bit.ly/3UUisR

FDA looks for ways to regulate drug promotion on Twitter, Wikipedia, blogs and other social media http://bit.ly/1fJ1X8

5% of winter deaths are caused by influenza http://bit.ly/3tU1oR

How to avoid falling victim to a hospital mistake - CNN http://bit.ly/1dUL1T

Video: Top 10 Tips for Residency Interviews http://bit.ly/41lkLG

Doctors and Social Media: Benefits and Dangers - Medscape review http://bit.ly/23HTBP

A high-fat, high-sugar diet can quickly and dramatically change the population of microbes living in the GI tract http://bit.ly/45aiDi

"Try an organic, locally grown, all vegetable diet with Vit B12 and D and no caffeine. Your body will thank you for it" http://bit.ly/3xBoCd

CNN video: Steps to avoid medical errors

From CNN:

1. Say: "My name is Mary Smith, my date of birth is October 21, 1965, and I'm here for an appendectomy."

2. Say: "Please check my ID bracelet."

3. Say: "Please look in my chart and tell me what procedure I'm having."

4. Say: "I want to mark up my surgical site with the surgeon present."

5. Be impolite.

References:
How to avoid falling victim to a hospital mistake - CNN http://bit.ly/1dUL1T

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Health News of the Day

U.S. primary care visit duration increased from 18 to 20.8 minutes from 1997 to 2005 http://bit.ly/AIP07

Study Shows Just an Hour of Meditation Training Brings Results in Pain Management http://bit.ly/2zzJ7o

Workers exposed to high levels of bisphenol A (BPA) were 4-7 times more likely to report sexual function problems http://bit.ly/tNyxi

"Should physicians pay for their own CME to avoid ethical entanglements?" http://bit.ly/4gCZc3

Bob Wachter reviews the Japanese health system from a U.S. hospitalist point of view http://bit.ly/2pYS48 - This is a must read.

The French and U.S. approaches to training doctors - a post by a doctor who has gone through both systems http://bit.ly/EPKCQ

"Med school enrollment up, but residency slots remain flat http://bit.ly/2VF9VP = more competition for specialty slots?" via @progressnotes

"Doctor-Patient Dialog on Social Media: A Bad Idea?" http://bit.ly/3BT06I - It is a bad idea if we use the social media tools we have now.

Google "wonder wheels" are rudimentary mind maps

Update: The Google Wonder Wheel was discontinued by Google in 2011 http://goo.gl/9jdn2

Google "wonder wheel" for asthma looks like a rudimentary mind map: http://bit.ly/4tOOF (see below):

WikiMindMap provides better visual results http://bit.ly/2y4pnk (see below):

WikiMindMap is a website that organizes wiki content in a mind map format http://bit.ly/1ZV5rC and http://www.wikimindmap.org

See the "Web 2.0 and medicine" Google Wonder wheel http://bit.ly/3iHR1 - @giustini, @berci, @laikas and @DrVes make the top results:

Related:ICU Mind Maps http://bit.ly/1VIVOi and http://bit.ly/2EnZLi

Medical profession's use of mind mapping - WikIT http://goo.gl/1Kjd

Note taking with mind maps did not improve the scores of medical students (study) http://goo.gl/8qeQ

Study claims mind maps don't help learning - "you should just take tests" - NYTimes http://goo.gl/kvdSZ and http://goo.gl/6ql7n

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Effect of children on life satisfaction of married people is positive and increasing with number of children

From the Journal of Happiness Studies:

We investigate the relationship between having children at home and life satisfaction. Contrary to much of the literature, our results are consistent with an effect of children on life satisfaction that is positive, large and increasing in the number of children.

The effect, however, is contingent on the individual’s characteristics. In particular, our findings are consistent with children making married people better off, while most unmarried individuals appear to be worse off with children.

An erratum was issued after the study was published which claimed that a coding mistake made the results invlid and the author requested a retraction:

"After correcting the problem, the main results of the paper no longer hold. The effect of children on life satisfaction of married individuals is small, often negative, and never statistically significant."

I appreciate the input of the commenter who took the time to point to this link.

References:
Children and Life Satisfaction. Luis Angeles. Journal of Happiness Studies. 10.1007/s10902-009-9168-z, 10/2009.
Erratum to: Children and Life Satisfaction. Luis Angeles. Journal of Happiness Studies, March 12, 2010.

Experienced happiness is largely set by personality, it will temporarily respond to changing circumstances. The Lancet, 2010. http://goo.gl/ot3Kx
Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

BMJ video: The man who pioneered the randomised controlled trial

BMJ video: "John Crofton pioneered the randomised controlled trial in a 1948 BMJ paper which looked at the antibiotic streptomycin to treat TB. Now in his 90s, Dr Crofton talks to Colin Blakemore about the importance of randomisation and blinding, and how it has helped to make medicine more evidence based."

Sunday, November 8, 2009

BMJ video: The woman who knew too much

BMJ video: Alice Stewart: The woman who knew too much.

"Alice Stewart was one of Britain's foremost epidemiologists. However her recognition came late in her career, having spent her life fighting the establishment's enshrined views.

In the 1950s when she started her work, x-rays were routinely used in foetal monitoring. It was Stewart who first showed the link between the practice and childhood leukemia. She went on to look at the effects of low-level radiation exposure - uncovering the true adverse effects of chronic exposure, and thus earning herself the enmity of the nuclear industry."

Friday, November 6, 2009

Cure for obstructive sleep apnea: didgeridoo?

The didgeridoo has been used for over 1500 years in the Kakadu region of Australia’s Northern Territory. Apparently, it is now investigated as a treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in Switzerland:

Cure for obstructive sleep apnea: didgeridoo?

Link via Life in the Fast Line.

Mavs Fan at the Finals - Photos - SI.com http://goo.gl/tIdL3
Sleepiness and sleep-disordered breathing may be found in 19-29% of children with positive allergy test (http://goo.gl/AfCWZ).

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The answer to: "I have an empty Kindle. What is a must-read book for flight to Paris?"

Robert Scoble was "stuck in a plane" before a long transatlantic flight and asked his followers: "I have an empty Kindle. What is a must-read book for flight to Paris?"

Here are the answers from the replies he saved in Scobleizer's Favorites: