Thursday, September 24, 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:

Downward mobility tied to depression in immigrants http://bit.ly/FXsFm

Doctors add expert insights and comments about websites in Google Sidewiki: Michael Roizen http://bit.ly/132azY and Steven Nissen http://bit.ly/10HWLk

Many cancer patients who receive chemotherapy report "chemobrain" - often described as difficulty thinking. http://bit.ly/2inRU5

Women with vitamin D deficiency are 3 times more likely to have high blood pressure http://bit.ly/4Etcgl

Bob Wachter: Board Certification for Hospitalists: It’s Heeeere! http://bit.ly/wdw2W - In about a year.

Are Medical Student Tweets Breaching Patient Privacy? http://bit.ly/2HD1q5 - Are we blaming the medium instead of the people using it?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN: "I went to Afghanistan and all I got was H1N1" http://bit.ly/eKnLX

Inventor of fried Coke and fried cookie dough is ‘back with a vengeance’ - Deep-fried butter is here http://bit.ly/BbNpp

Bizarre case of hypernatremia: a suicide attempt by a Japanese man who drank massive amounts of soy sauce. http://bit.ly/2naYoJ

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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Rule of Twitter: When one million followers is actually... zero

From Twitter account of David Pogue of NYTimes:

David PoguePogue 1 million followers today. A little scary: that's more than read the Times, more than watch CNBC, more than read my books... NO PRESSURE!

David PoguePogue via @ridgeley: 1M followers for @pogue, but most are spam. [DP sez: Probably true. Rule of Twitter: # of followers, divided by 10?]

David PoguePogue OK, you guys are telling me: 1/2 of my 1M followers have moved on. 25% are spam. 25% are auto-follow. So that comes to... NO FOLLOWERS! :)

Wednesday, September 23, 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:

Some Medical Students Break Confidentiality of Patients on Facebook and YouTube http://bit.ly/ruSya -- 60% of medical schools reported incidents of students’ posting unprofessional content online http://bit.ly/1oHJ3 -- Medical schools report unprofessional online postings by students, but still don't not have adequate policy in place http://bit.ly/10fsIu

Apparently healthy people with normal or even low cholesterol might benefit from taking a statin if their CRP is high http://bit.ly/niu8k

Mediterranean diet is heart healthy, but expensive, maybe even prohibitively so http://bit.ly/1e6j8B

Tired, and Stressed, Doctors Make More Mistakes, Study Finds http://bit.ly/TvV4I -- Among internal medicine residents, fatigue and distress are associated with self-perceived medical errors. http://bit.ly/11WhJ9

2 new blood tests (SYNE1 and FOXE1) may help to make the diagnosis of colon and other GI cancers simpler http://bit.ly/Lf7Ip

The Number of New Twitter Hospital Accounts Reaches a Flat Line http://bit.ly/1ayn1N - Not unexpected.

"Hand Washing 10 Times a Day May Help Keep Flu Away" http://bit.ly/11ka8W

"7 ways to fewer wrinkles" http://bit.ly/GiFaJ

F.D.A. Bans Sale of Flavored Cigarettes but Consumers Switch to Flavored Cigars http://bit.ly/119nbi

Camel logo is back advertising Camel Snus, a tobacco packet that wedges in the upper lip http://bit.ly/8MZJT - R. J. Reynolds is test-marketing “dissolvables” Camel Orbs, finely ground tobacco in small mint pellets like Tic Tacs. Snus has been used in Sweden since the early 1800s, 19% of Swedish men (and only 4% of women) use snus. Smoking for men in Sweden is among the lowest in Europe, 12%, compared to France 30%, Germany 37% and Greece 47% http://bit.ly/7cNqQ

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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Video: World's tallest man had a pituitary tumor as a child

CNN video: Don Riddell meets the world's tallest man, who lives in Turkey, and finds out why it's tough at the top.

Social Media Related Tweets and Insights

From my Twitter account:

Who is Doc Ernie? "In 2004 while bicycling Dr. Franz was struck at nearly 50 mph by an intoxicated teen driver" http://bit.ly/2U2sD

Electronic Portfolios with Google Apps http://bit.ly/3R1ckc

New Picasa 3.5 scans photos in your computer's collection to create groups of similar faces http://bit.ly/21vmSC

Google Has A Solution For Internet Explorer: Turn It Into Chrome http://bit.ly/sqIT1

Push Gmail for iPhone and Windows Mobile with Google Sync http://bit.ly/2n48kt - Do you still need a BlackBerry now?... :)

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.

Tuesday, September 22, 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:

If deaths due to smoking were excluded, U.S. would rise to the top half of the rankings for developed countries http://bit.ly/P0djw

Head-injury patients are less likely to die if they have drunk alcohol, though they experience more complications http://bit.ly/BWh1c

Influenza may account for a 35 percent to 50 percent rise in heart attack deaths during flu season http://bit.ly/2xsFwe

"Should you keep patients from commenting online?" http://bit.ly/EKQ92 - The answer is simple: No... :)

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. http://bit.ly/zeD1Y

NYT: Squeamish? A Nature Video Not to Watch http://bit.ly/1sttl2 and http://bit.ly/1VbAa7

Chilling: Final statements of prisoners executed by the State of Texas are available on a government Web site http://bit.ly/H0tEV

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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How to Prepare a Physician for a Media Interview (TV, radio, etc.)

A physician friend asked: "I am invited to a local TV channel to answer the viewers' questions on pneumonia this Wednesday, it will be live. They just told me that today. Do you ave any experience on this? How should I prepare? Do you have any idea?"

Here are few links and videos to help you:

Asthma TV News Spot. Doctor Anonymous.

Interview techniques and tips for doctors: How to sound and look good on camera. The Doctor's Channel.

Preparing Physicians for Media Interviews Helps Them Communicate More Comfortably and Effectively. The Permanente Journal, Kaiser Permanente.

1. Be prepared.
2. Expect off-the-wall questions.
3. Speak in plain English.
4. Be concise.
5. Guide the interviewer.
7. Don't guess.
8. Nothing's off the record.

Media Tips From Your PR Doctor For Effective Electronic Media Interviews.

Image source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.