Sunday, January 31, 2010

10 Get Fit Tips for 2010 from ConsumerReports.org

The text below consists of some edited excerpts from Consumer Reports and is illustrated with Amazon products:

- Take the stairs. Just 7 minutes a day of walking up stairs may help protect your heart. Only 6% of people take the stairs in public buildings.

- Weigh in. 75% of "successful weight losers" weigh themselves at least weekly. Frequent weigh-ins help you keep small weight gains from accumulating.

- Lose the TV. People who lost 10% of their weight and kept it off for five years or more had fewer TVs in their homes than overweight people.

- Try exercise toys. Dumbbells, resistance bands, a jump rope, stability balls, and more can be used to keep your workout interesting, particularly if you work out at home.















- Use an exercise machine: a treadmill, a bike, a ski machine, or an elliptical machine.















- Do your chores. You can trim your to-do list and your waistline at the same time. a half-hour of dusting burns about 75 calories; painting and decorating, 90 calories; vacuuming, 105 calories; and lawn-mowing, 165 calories.

- Get the right shoes.

- Be more social. People are happiest when exercising with people in their age group.

- Join a close-by gym.

References:
10 get-fit tips for 2010. Consumer Reports.

Related:

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Plantar Fasciitis - Mayo Clinic Video



"There's nothing like foot pain to make you crazy. That's what an expert at Mayo Clinic says he hears from patients who have a condition called plantar fasciitis [fashee-EYE-tis]. It's very common and can make walking across the room a miserable experience. What can you do about it?"

Related reading:

The Barefoot Running Revolution - INFOGRAPHIC  http://goo.gl/7SUGs

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:

Preoperative cardiac stress testing associated with improved one year survival and length of hospital stay if RCRI higher than 1 http://bit.ly/9WTjxQ

Among Internet users, 5% participated in online support group, 7% reported blogging, 23% used a social networking site http://bit.ly/c1rsRt

Stillbirth Linked To Gum Disease In Pregnant Mothers http://bit.ly/bPGsdW

Higher Ambulatory Care Co-payments Decrease Outpatient Visits but Increase Hospitalizations among the Elderly http://bit.ly/aaFLSU

Study: Doctors Reduce Working Hours As Medical Malpractice Risk Rises http://bit.ly/bFBpMG

What You Eat After Exercise Matters: Eating a low-carbohydrate meal may maximize the health benefits of exercise. http://bit.ly/bJmuWq

The Lancet: Commercially sponsored supplements are now firmly off this journal's agenda. http://bit.ly/d7xDlm

Combination lithium plus valproate or lithium alone more likely to prevent bipolar relapse than valproate monotherapy http://bit.ly/caONyx

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.

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Slideshow: Practicing Medicine in the Web 2.0 Era

There are few people who are more innovative in using the Internet for medical education than Berci Mesko. He is very gracious to list me among his mentors but this is one case where the mentee has far surpassed the mentor's achievements. Berci is the founder of the RSS-powered medical journal called PeRSSonalized Medicine and the web-advisory portal Webicina.com.

This visually-entertaining presentation is about the use of Web 2.0 by physicians, healthcare workers and patients:

Practicing Medicine in the Web 2.0 Era

View more documents from Bertalan Mesko.
References:
Medicine 2.0. ScienceRoll.com.

Related books:

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Animation: Human Body as a Machine



Animation: Human Body as a Machine (best viewed in full screen)

Fritz Kahn, a German gynecologist born in 1888, was a famous medical illustrator. More than 100 years later, Henning Lederer, an audiovisual artist, paid tribute to his genius by creating the video above based on Kahn’s work.

Link via ScienceRoll.com.

Related books:

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:

How Exercising Keeps Your Cells Young. Regular physical activity can have a profound effect on cellular aging. http://bit.ly/dkLUJw

Using ear drops to remove impacted ear wax is better than no treatment, but no particular drops can be recommended http://bit.ly/dCjcJ0

FDA approved Victoza (liraglutide), a once-daily injection to treat type 2 diabetes http://bit.ly/5b09pa

A doctor shares his own experience as a patient with LASIK and PRK http://bit.ly/9VfCgs

"Doctors who are not on Facebook, Twitter and blogs risk becoming irrelevant" - USA Today http://bit.ly/98flBN - I don't think so. Web is global but most medicine is local. For example, a nephrologist thought Twitter would be a useful tool for promoting his practice but it did not work: http://bit.ly/6uOP3W - Medicine is still local.

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.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Video tour of the Cleveland Clinics new heart center with its architects



"Take a video tour of the Cleveland Clinics new heart center with NBBJ architects Edwin Beltran, senior associate, and Lisa Baker, ASID, IIDA. The nearly 1-million-square-foot Miller Family Pavilion serves as the main entrance to Cleveland Clinic and the home of the Cleveland Clinic Heart & Vascular Institute.

The double-height main lobby is bright with soaring luminous white walls, terrazzo floors, frosted interior glass, and floor-to-ceiling windows that infuse the space with natural light."

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:

Drivers take their eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting, increases crash risk 20 times. Drivers of commercial trucks and buses will be prohibited from texting under U.S. federal guidelines - CNN http://goo.gl/PCnp

57% of diabetes patients are intentionally skipping insulin injections they know they should take http://goo.gl/mG1A

Catheter Ablation Is Better Than Medications at Treating Some Atrial Fibrillation Patients - WebMD http://bit.ly/aFgy05

Hard lessons, humility for big-city doctors in Haiti: "I came here a very fancy doctor, I'm leaving as a humble man" http://bit.ly/cXDfLn

"Weird home cures" http://bit.ly/5WC0oF - Useful info to get an idea what patients may have tried before they see a doctor.

Herbal use common among pregnant women in U.S. - 1 in 10 expose their unborn baby to herbal products http://bit.ly/aeShyJ

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.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Metallica drummer struggles with tinnitus: "Once your hearing is gone, it's gone"



From CNN:

"I've been playing loud rock music for the better part of 35 years," said Ulrich, 46, drummer for the heavy metal band Metallica. "I never used to play with any kind of protection."

Early in his career, without protection for his ears, the loud noise began to follow Ulrich off-stage. "It's this constant ringing in the ears," Ulrich said. "It never sort of goes away. It never just stops." It is a condition called tinnitus, a perception of sound where there is none.

"I try to point out to younger kids ... once your hearing is gone, it's gone, and there's no real remedy."

The military is generating a tremendous number of tinnitus patients."

References:

Metallica drummer struggles with ringing in ears. CNN.
Tinnitus relief: Suggestions for patients. CCJM, 2011.
Noise Chart as It Relates to Hearing Damage and Hearing Loss http://goo.gl/tjZh1

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:

Nephrologists Using Social Media Connect with Far-Flung Colleagues, Health Care Consumers http://bit.ly/6uOP3W

The 2009 Medical Weblog Awards Finalists by Medgadget http://bit.ly/738YM0

Withdrawal of sibutramine leaves European doctors with just one obesity drug - BMJ http://goo.gl/mNg0

Histoptysis or oncoptysis: suggested terms for tissue expectoration of abnormal tissue leading to pulmonary diagnosis http://goo.gl/AGxk

Diuretics plus calcium channel blockers (D+CCB) were associated with a higher risk of MI than D+BB and D+ACEi http://goo.gl/Uy5r

Teen Drinking May Cause Irreversible Brain Damage - NPR http://goo.gl/BhI6

Human history: hunter-gatherer men of Europe could not compete with farmers made attractive by their new technology http://bit.ly/7NcQKo

Up to 16% of mentally healthy children and teens may hear voices - British Journal of Psychiatry http://bit.ly/4Tgqyr

Wisdom, openness and life satisfaction are positively intertwined - from the Journal of Happiness Studies http://bit.ly/7J9Kzn        

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.

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Google Chrome Gets More Than 1,500 Extensions and Bookmark Sync

Google Chrome (version 4) now includes two of the browser's most frequently requested features: extensions and bookmark sync.

Extensions

Extensions let you add new features and functions to your browser. Some provide one-click access to some of your favorite web applications like Twitter, or news and information sources such as NPR. Others are useful tweaks for performing common online tasks such as browsing photos, getting directions or shopping.

Now you can browse over 1,500 items in the extensions gallery and install them on the stable version of Google Chrome.


Using Extensions on Google Chrome

Some of the extensions I installed:

Forecastfox Weather
Feedly
Google Share Button
Google Voice (by Google)
NPR: News, Music and Books
RSS Subscription Extension (by Google)
Page Rank
AdBlock by gundlach

Bookmark sync

Bookmark sync is a handy feature for those of you who use several computers — say, a laptop at work and a desktop at home. You can enable bookmark sync to synchronize your bookmarks on all of your computers so that when you create a bookmark on one computer, it's automatically added across all your computers. This means that you won't need to manually recreate the bookmark each time you switch computers.


Bookmark sync for Google Chrome

References:
Over 1,500 new features for Google Chrome
Extensions, bookmark sync and more for Google Chrome

Updated: 03/02/2010

Monday, January 25, 2010

CNN video: TV doctors' dual role in Haiti

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:

Advances in multiple sclerosis treatment from NEJM: Treatment with cladribine tablets reduced MS relapse rates, the risk of disability progression, and MRI measures http://bit.ly/8g2lyG -- Oral fingolimod improved the MS relapse rate, the risk of disability progression, and end points on MRI http://bit.ly/7RNMyr -- Oral fingolimod was superior to interferon beta-1a IM with respect to relapse rates and MRI outcomes in MS http://bit.ly/6DFJCj

Addition of monoclonal antibodies against C. difficile toxins to antibiotics reduced the recurrence of C. diff. http://bit.ly/7TCPxg

Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents — Time for a Reevaluation - NEJM http://bit.ly/4Ig0aq

Accelerating the Use of Electronic Health Records in Physician Practices - NEJM http://bit.ly/8YuxCX  

More than 1,400 protein-rich insect species are regularly enjoyed as food by humans around the world http://bit.ly/8N2BVK

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.

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Web 2.0/Social media tools for scientists

@Berci asked: "Will talk about science 2.0 for scientists on Wednesday. Any suggestions what to cover beside the obvious things (RSS, Twitter, etc.)?"

Beyond the obvious:

- Google Docs for manuscript collaboration and data sharing.

- Google Trends for research. We have some very interesting data from Google Trends regarding prevalence of allergic diseases - it is very useful for hypothesis generation and is free. Google Trends use does not require an IRB approval or patient consent and therefore the research process can be quicker.

- Google Chrome has become my preferred browser, I don't store many files locally, work from the cloud (Google Docs) and move bookmarks between computers.


Video: Google Docs in Plain English.

Updated: 02/12/2010

Friday, January 22, 2010

New trends in social media and medicine

* There is a new trend during the last 6-10 months: Some medical blogs are adopting the Huffington Post model (or something similar) with extensive use of guest- and cross-blogging.

* Independent solo medical bloggers may be going the way of the dinosaurs... Only in this case, they are being replaced by content aggregation or group blogs.

* Many medical bloggers/Twitters start strong, microblog their tail off, and then disappear - doctors are not quitters - why does this happen?

* We all have an ecosystem in social media, believe or not, you're part of it.

* Twitter HTML code of your profile automatically includes several "me" variables - making it your primary home on the web - this should be "opt in". Add One Line To Your Blog - or Twitter Could Become Your Primary Identity http://bit.ly/2lFRNH

There are an exponentially increasing number of ways to "follow, tag, talk, poke, nudge" and communicate in the virtual world. The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis (see the expanded flickr image) shows most social media facets:



This "flower" of Internet communication replaces the old starfish of Web 2.0 shown below:


Social Media Starfish created by Darren Barefoot (Creative Commons license).

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:

Shaving 3 grams off the daily salt intake of Americans could prevent 66,000 strokes and 99,000 heart attacks http://bit.ly/7TTsPm

"The Stanford Mini Med School: A Free Course Now Online" http://bit.ly/63CABZ and direct iTunes link: http://bit.ly/8IFfWO

Dr Wes: Hospitalist services are increasingly finding themselves overwhelmed with admissions and are introducing "caps" http://bit.ly/5qC5bo

Women devastated by their husbands' secret lives - CNN http://bit.ly/5a8biv - Drug-abusing surgeon caught selling infected body parts...

49.6% of Americans exercise regularly vs. 31.3% who don't exercise at all http://bit.ly/5Zj78X    

Study: Men with sexual activity of once per month or less had a 45% increased risk of cardiovascular disease http://bit.ly/5Wnpq5

One in five American teens has unhealthy cholesterol levels http://bit.ly/6aV9uG

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:

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Night shifts/calls may increase risk for cardiovascular disease

The cardiovascular risks associated with night shift work in medical staff have been suspected for years.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence was investigated in a previous study of 79,109 women from the Nurses Health Study, and observed raised rates among night shift workers, particularly those who had worked for more than 6 years on rotating shifts (51% increased risk). Studies have also demonstrated an increased incidence of the metabolic syndrome in shift workers.

The authors of this study evaluated the effects of a 24 hour physicians on-call duty (OCD) (‘night shift’) compared with a ‘regular’ day at work on:

- 24 hr electrocardiogram (ECG)
- heart rate variability
- blood pressure (BP)
- serum and urine ‘stress markers’

Each physician completed a 24 h OCD and a 24 h control period including a regular 8 hr non-OCD, 30 healthy physicians with a median age of 33.5 years were included.

- ECG showed a higher rate of ventricular premature beats (VPB) during early morning hours during night shift.

- BP monitoring revealed a greater diastolic BP throughout 24 hr associated with a higher rate of systolic BP during sleep time.

- Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha concentrations increased during night shift. Urinary noradrenaline excretion was greater during OCD.

The authors concluded that the study results highlight the association of OCD with an increased risk profile for cardiovascular disease. In addition to the acute effects observed, frequent night-calls over a longer period may lead to sustained alterations in cardiovascular homeostasis.

References:
Arrhythmias and increased neuro-endocrine stress response during physicians' night shifts: a randomized cross-over trial. Markus Rauchenzauner et al. European Heart Journal 2009 30(21):2606-2613; doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehp268
Night shift work and the cardiovascular health of medical staff. A. Steptoe. Eur. Heart J., November 1, 2009; 30(21): 2560 - 2561.
Image source: A halo around the Moon. Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

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:

Alternative to injections in MS - 2 new drugs can be taken orally to slow the disease progression http://bit.ly/8pWP8T  -- Two new oral drugs - cladribine and fingolimod - are able to reduce the rates of relapses in multiple sclerosis http://bit.ly/8R4cfz
Aspirin/dipyridamole within 24 h of stroke onset prevents disability no more than later initiation, after 7 days http://bit.ly/64qYBf

PAM4 Protein Can Reveal Early-Stage Pancreatic Cancer - identified 62% of early cancer and 81% of all pancreatic CA http://bit.ly/64ozDb

Should Surgeons Meet Patients Online? Surgeons dispense opinions to patients they’ve never met http://bit.ly/78GGoy

Rabbits are being milked to create drugs for stroke and angioedema patients http://bit.ly/65M3cy

Medical schools, print publishers, and independent doctors are sharing videos of clinical skills on YouTube http://bit.ly/7PBA7H
Insulin pumps may be more effective than insulin injections in type 1 diabetes http://bit.ly/8zZYUi

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:

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

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:

Fish oil protects against cellular aging - after patients have had a heart attack, it reduces the risk of a repeat attack or death http://bit.ly/71OAjz

People who sit for prolonged periods (desk workers, coach potatoes, etc.) have a higher risk of death http://bit.ly/5MV5Gb        

DocTalker Family Medicine practice charges for time rather than procedures, $45 for 10 minutes, no 3rd party insurers http://bit.ly/59PsVk

Q&A: Could colon-cleansing teas be harmful? - Yes, and there’s no evidence for any benefits. http://bit.ly/8vmFpR

Will China Achieve Science Supremacy? Academic fraud and limited Web access are hurdles. http://bit.ly/6wK6le

Corn oil is used for cooking french fries at fast food outlets, though "healthier" oils are available http://bit.ly/7jWlPy

Drowsiness, staring off into space, and losing your train of thought may be early signs of Alzheimer’s disease http://bit.ly/6vd31m

Most common brain cancer in adults, glioblastoma multiforme, probably is a set of diseases rather than a single disease http://bit.ly/5RPfQP

5 years ago it looked likely that resveratrol in red wine could slow down the ageing process. Not anymore. http://bit.ly/7L5lV8

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.

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Quadriparesis After Chiropractic Manipulation for Neck Pain

From The American Journal of Medicine (text modified):

18 million people annually visit chiropractors for treatment of neck pain and spinal manipulative therapy is a frequently applied for back and neck pain.

A 41-year-old man with chronic neck pain presented with weakness of the legs after he underwent chiropractic manipulation. He recalled hearing a snapping sound during the manipulation. He felt tingling and numbness in his arms and legs immediately after the manipulation. After a few hours, he was unable to move his legs and presented to the hospital.

The patient continued to deteriorate in the motor power of the extremities and rapidly developed complete quadriparesis.

MRI of the cervical spine showed large C6-C7 disc herniation with cord edema

He was treated with IV methylprednisone. An emergent C6-C7 anterior cervical discectomy and fusion was done. He showed partial improvement and regained power in his upper extremities, but continues to remain paraplegic 3 months after the incident.

References:
Catastrophic complication of chiropractic manipulation: a report of quadriparesis. Talluri SK, Talluri J, Besur S, Kakarala R, Klair N. Am J Med. 2009 Nov;122(11):e3-4.
Image source: A cervical vertebra. Wikipedia, public domain.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Essential Thrombocythemia - Mayo Clinic Video



Hematologist Ruben Mesa, M.D., of Mayo Clinic in Arizona, provides a comprehensive overview of Essential Thrombocythemia, also known as ET.

Dr. Mesa describes the fundamentals of this myeloproliferative disease, covering symptoms and how it is diagnosed to current and potential future treatment options.

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:

Math formula makes third Monday in January the worst day of the year - post-Christmas gloom is at its worst. http://bit.ly/7wf4ya

Forbes: If you've got health insurance, get ready for higher premiums to pay for the new health care bill http://bit.ly/6w81qz

Patient Voices: Stroke - NYTimes http://bit.ly/6edW73 -- Rate of pediatric strokes has been growing in recent years, estimated at 12 per 100,000 (25 per 100,000 in newborns) http://bit.ly/8b6hdT

Living With a Formerly Fatal Blood Cancer - CML transformed from deadly to 90% treatable by imatinib - NYTimes http://bit.ly/4EYLBQ 

Darwin's lifelong illness gets a diagnosis: cyclical vomiting syndrome (CVS) http://bit.ly/8MrU7J - Not sure how correct this is.

How Clean Are Your New Clothes? Harmful bacteria found on brand new clothes. http://bit.ly/76n64l

MD/reporter involvement in Haiti: The ethics of Gupta, Ashton, and Besser reporting on themselves http://bit.ly/7Rwsyh  

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.

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Monday, January 18, 2010

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:

Initial concerns over Spiriva (tiotropium) effect on cardiovascular death may be unfounded http://bit.ly/8RcJpU

Paclitaxel-eluting stents should no longer be used in everyday clinical practice. The Lancet, 2010 http://bit.ly/6OUgnH

Identification of bacteria with DNA microarray was sensitive, specific, faster than gold-standard culture-based method. DNA-based microarray assay could enable faster and earlier evidence-based management for clinical sepsis http://bit.ly/5K1PEd

Driveways could spread toxins into the home - carcinogens found in coal tar–sealed pavements http://bit.ly/8m1K6f

55 Million Americans Already Had H1N1 Swine Flu According to CDC http://bit.ly/88t9RD  

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.
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Google Wave Overview (7-minute video) - Possible Application to Health Care?



Google Wave Overview  (7-minute video): Product managers, Stephanie and Greg explain many of the features of Google Wave. Learn more at http://wave.google.com

I started working on some possible applications of Google Wave to healthcare - both in education and in patient/physician communication. We are testing it now with a few colleagues and will see what happens. Some preliminary results should be available in time for Case Western Reserve University Research ShowCase in April 2010 and the ACAAI Annual Meeting in November 2010.

Further reading:
Dreaming of a Health Information System Built on Google Wave. Hospital Songs.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Wave by Gina Trapani, 2010.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

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:

20 great foods you aren't eating http://bit.ly/8vVSOj - Well, I do eat some of them...

Athletes, Doctors, and Lawyers with First Names Beginning with “D” Die Sooner - from the journal of Death Studies http://bit.ly/8CFoms

Observing ovulation: Human egg makes accidental debut on camera http://bit.ly/8BKMfK

How do I get a website? A primer for medical professionals. http://bit.ly/7A1ZUc - Alternatives include Blogger.com and Google Sites.
  


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:

Saturday, January 16, 2010

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:

Patients have the right to receive their medical records. Some CNN advice to patients: "You have to be a jerk. Get angry. File a complaint." http://bit.ly/7EYeqQ

91% of primary care physicians are satisfied with medicine as a career? http://bit.ly/5xoSUx

Study: The scent of an ovulating woman is enough to trigger a surge of testosterone in men http://bit.ly/5aZkNZ

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, detected in 64% of college couples http://bit.ly/5lAlcO

Worlds apart: The moment the tallest man meets the smallest for the first time http://bit.ly/7GTmxV - It's just hard to believe...


How many drugs the FDA approves in a given year? Most people guess in the hundreds. In fact, it’s normally 18-26. http://bit.ly/5dscoO


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:

How to Access Facebook and Twitter From Gmail

From LifeHacker.com:

The Twitter gadget is made for Gmail and goes "fullscreen". The same goes for Facebook, although it's originally made for iGoogle, you just have to click on "Expand" inside the gadget box.

To install them, do the following:

1. Go to Settings –> Labs, find "Add any gadget by URL" and activate it.
2. Find a XML gadget for Gmail or iGoogle.
3. Go to Settings –> Gadgets, enter the gadget URL into the text box and click Add.

These are the gadget URLs:These are the gadget URLs:

For Twitter: http://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml

For Facebook: http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml

References:
From the Tips Box: iPhone Stylus, Touchpad Middle-Click, and Focused Browsing. LifeHacker, 2009. LifeHacker, 2009.

Friday, January 15, 2010

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:

Male-oriented fitness supplements are not hard to find, but they are hard to figure out - NYT http://bit.ly/4zRTu8

Sylvester Stallone issues X-ray of neck fractured during shooting fight scenes http://j.mp/5FaZfP

Caregivers who said tending to their ailing spouse caused "a lot of strain" were 23% more likely to have a stroke http://bit.ly/4AZc3q

"Cough Trick" May Reduce Pain of Routine Pediatric Immunizations - Medscape http://bit.ly/7YkGp2 

Management of Cocaine-Associated Chest Pain and Myocardial Infarction http://bit.ly/54M3SE

Your Pet May Predict Your Personality: cat people may be more creative and dog people more outgoing. Self-identified "dog people" were 15% more extroverted, 13% more agreeable, and 11% more conscientious than cat people http://bit.ly/70ylER

"Needle in Haystack" Biomarker Elafin is likely to change the way we treat graft-vs-host-disease of the skin http://bit.ly/6qoPE4

Radiation exposure and circulatory disease risk: Doses above 0.5 Gy associated with a risk of stroke and heart disease http://bit.ly/6smZog

Patients have the right to receive their medical records.
Some CNN advice to patients: "You have to be a jerk. Get angry. File a complaint." http://bit.ly/7EYeqQ


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.

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Available at Google Books: Our chest pain chapter from the textbook Comprehensive hospital medicine

Embedded below is "Chest pain chapter from Comprehensive hospital medicine: an evidence based and systems approach, by Mark V. Williams, Scott A. Flanders, Winthrop F. Whitcomb, Franklin A. Michota, Jr. M.D, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2007, 1045 pages. The co-authors of the chapter are my former colleagues from Cleveland Clinic, Ashish Aneja and Paul Grant.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

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:

Human Male: Still A Work In Progress - Y chromosome is changing far more rapidly than the rest of the genome. Y chromosome is in "an evolutionary freefall", looks like a house that's constantly being remodeled http://bit.ly/7LV50B

Primary care doctors could see a 1.1% Medicare pay increase this year but cost of practicing medicine will rise 2.5% http://bit.ly/6nmApE

Oncologists Using Twitter to Advance Cancer Knowledge - Oncology Times, 2010 http://bit.ly/4vpcn8 - Applicable to most physicians.

At Hospitals in China, Caesarean Rate Nears 50%. Commentary called the study results “surprising and chilling" http://bit.ly/5sXthF

Relenza (Zanamivir) should be inhaled, not nebulised http://bit.ly/58c1bL

Caffeine Poster Chart http://bit.ly/4yFjbC and Caffeine content for coffee, tea, soda http://bit.ly/4OVo8

Stelara (ustekinumab) may be one of the most effective drugs for psoriasis, works better than Enbrel in a new study http://bit.ly/6S1nI2

How do you convert Vitamin D dose from IU to mcg and vice versa? 1 mcg vitamin D = 40 International Units (IU) http://bit.ly/89hAHQ  

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.

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"At the simplest level, a blog is just a gift exchange"

"At the simplest level, a blog is just a gift exchange. People you may never meet from countries you may never visit, show up at your blog and give you the most precious resource they temporarily have in their hands – time. Whether it’s 30 seconds or 3 minutes, they offer you something really special, minutes of their day that they will never get back.

In return, you give them something. You give them an idea. You give them a photo of a sunset you loved. You give them your analysis of a recent policy change in the government. You give them something that is important to you."

Source: 1 secret I’ve learned about blogging, via @problogger.


This Google video shows that it takes about 2 minutes to start a blog on Blogger.com. Creating a web site has never been easier.

Related:
Why Do I Blog?
How to write a medical blog and not get fired?
Why you should write a blog for yourself rather than for a shifting audience

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

23% of U.S. pediatricians are working part time

From the NYTimes:

More and more pediatricians are working part time, a new survey by the American Academy of Pediatrics reports.

Almost one in four, or 23%, reported they were on a part-time schedule in 2006, up from 15% just six years earlier and 11% in 1993.

Part-time doctors spent about 14.3 fewer hours a week delivering direct patient care than their full-time colleagues and reported greater levels of satisfaction with their work and personal and family lives.

References:
Patterns: Pediatricians Turning to Part-Time Work. NYTimes.
Pediatrics and Medicine
Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

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:

Free resource: Several Merck Manuals are available online at merck.com/pubs http://bit.ly/5Bm2iy
Angiotensin receptor blockers reduce incidence and progression of Alzheimer disease compared with ACEi, other BP drugs http://bit.ly/4Q7Qb6
Vit. D given alone is not effective in preventing fractures. By contrast, calcium and vit. D together reduce fractures http://bit.ly/6w5osi
Primary care doctors make 55% of what all other specialists earn http://bit.ly/539DRt
"Audiences experience depression after seeing Avatar because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora" http://bit.ly/7XbX76

Top 10 Most Common Ingredients in Fast Food http://bit.ly/55E2j7

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.

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Allergy and Immunology

Editor: V. Dimov, M.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago

Allergy and Immunology Cases at AllergyCases.org

News About Allergy and Immunology at AllergyNotes

Patient Information

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Published: 01/12/2010
Updated: 06/28/2010

Neurology

Editor: V. Dimov, M.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago

Neurology Cases at ClinicalCases.org

Neurology News at CasesBlog

Neurology: Images in Clinical Medicine

Patient Information

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Published: 01/12/2010
Updated: 06/28/2011

Infectious Diseases

Editor: V. Dimov, M.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago

Infectious Disease Cases at ClinicalCases.org

Infectious Disease News at CasesBlog

Infectious Diseases: Images in Clinical Medicine

Patient Information

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Published: 01/12/2010
Updated: 06/28/2011

Rheumatology

Editor: V. Dimov, M.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago

Rheumatology Cases at ClinicalCases.org

Rheumatology News at CasesBlog

Rheumatology: Images in Clinical Medicine

Patient Information

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Published: 01/12/2010
Updated: 06/28/2011