bioneural.net » health

Tooling up to read, write and cite

Bruce — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:56:28 +0000

It's not taken me long to rediscover that a major facet of the student experience is the reading of lecture notes, journal articles, reports, book chapters, and other material. When much of this material is available in electronic form (notably Office documents and PDF) you need software that lets you work with and manage those formats effectively and efficiently. Sometimes this necessitates ditching your preferred tools in favour of de facto standards for the sake of compatibility: function must take precedence over form. And don't forget to shop around. The de facto Office standard I happen to like Pages and Keynote, part of Apple's iWork suite. But every time you need to open a Microsoft Office document you have to convert it, then re-save as .doc or .ppt for outside compatibility. I decided it would be easiest to obtain Office 2008 for Mac, since most downloadable teaching materials on my course are in Office formats. Just because a university promotes a certain supplier, however, doesn't mean you'll get the best deal. For example the Microsoft HE/FE Student Select Agreement offered by Viglen makes Office 2008 available for £36.00, but they add £10.00 for media plus VAT plus £3.53 delivery—total £57.58. Software4Students offer the same product for £30.15 plus VAT with free delivery and a £1.95 transaction charge—total £37.35. Reference and citation management EndNote is the de facto reference manager used at University of Sheffield, and they sell the Windows version directly to students for £80. For the Mac version you have to go to ...

A return to academia

Bruce — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:58:04 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

With introductory week and the first week of lectures behind me it seems like an opportune time to reflect on my initial experiences upon returning to campus. I'm hoping to relearn some of what I thought I knew about "health", gaining a perspective somewhat removed from my erstwhile clinical observation of individuals. To do this I need to study new subjects, fully engage with a new learning environment, take on the new adventure of commuting by public transport, and consider utilizing opportunities for extracurricular learning and activities. Different courses for different horses It's 16 years since I last graduated from a university, and I'm at the beginning of an intensive postgraduate taught course that should lead, initially, to a Master of Public Health. Full-time study entails 2 days of direct teaching but most postgraduate education is self-directed (they say 3 hours of independent study for every hour taught). Other buzz words used to distinguish it from undergraduate teaching include "critical thinking", "challenging assumptions", and "problem-centered learning". A Master degree requires 180 credits—60 of those being derived from a dissertation. There are four core (obligatory) modules on my course worth 15 credits each, all delivered in the first semester: Introduction to public health; Introduction to research methods; Introduction to statistics; Needs assessment, planning and economic evaluation. I have made up the remaining 60 credits by choosing the following optional modules: Systematic review and critical appraisal (systematic reviews are one of three possible dissertation types, and good preparation for a PhD); Epidemiological research design (essential for the FPH exam—see below); Public health ...

First track logger for iPhone released

Bruce — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:55:08 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Hot on the heels of the first geocaching tool for iPhone, iTrail by Justin Davis (£1.80) records your position and altitude over time to calculate speed and distance (horizontal and vertical) travelled during sports activities—a great addition to the growing list of fitness-related apps for the device. Tracks are stored locally for comparison, but GPX and KML export is planned (and should permit use for geotagging with a "real" camera). Meantime you can graphically plot distance vs. speed or altitude (preview) and view your tracks on a Google Map (preview) within this very cool app.

Medical and health app bonanza for iPhone

Bruce — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:28:42 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

A year ago I bemoaned the lack of third-party native iPhone apps and could suggest few workarounds for absent medical applications. Looking back at The medical Palm (written in 2004) serves to illustrate how stagnant the Palm platform has become—my list of software was essentially unchanged when I retired my Palm from clinical practice earlier in 2008. Although I did experiment with Windows Mobile and tried equivalent medical applications, it wasn't a relationship with a future. Following the lukewarm reception of Web apps Apple's native App Store for iPhone/ iPod touch opened on July 10, and the mobile medical landscape has been transformed in the space of just three weeks. Already we have seen the release of some impressive tools aimed at doctors, medical students, and patients/ well-being enthusiasts. iPhone apps for clinical practice Epocrates Rx (free) is a cross-platform drug formulary featuring monographs, a new visual "Pill ID" tool, an interaction checker (something I found especially useful on home visits using the Palm version), prescribing formularies (downgraded to US-only), and free wireless updates: Which "little white pill" do you mean Mrs Smith? (© Epocrates, Inc.) iChart EMR (£80) is an electronic medical record manager with patient lists, lab reports (manual or automated* retrieval), electronic prescribing*, diagnostic/ procedure codes and billing, and notes (with drawings and graphing of vitals) modules (* requires additional $US100 pa subscription for sync via a web-based application): A clinical information system in your pocket (© Caretools, Inc.) MIM (free) will appeal to referring physicians who can download non-diagnostic radiological images for ...

A meme of eight random things

Bruce — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:15:16 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Baby-brained Lynn—a reference to present uterine cf. cerebral capacity—has tagged me to propagate a blog meme. What is a meme? We all know that genes transmit biological inheritance from one generation to another. Darwinist Richard Dawkins termed the concept of transmitting units of cultural inheritance a "meme". A meme is transmitted (e.g. by imitation or teaching) from person-to-person or group-to-group, as a single (e.g The Lord's Prayer) or related set of ideas/ concepts/ factoids (a "memeplex" e.g. Christianity) and—like genes—may be subject to mutation (the basis of Darwinian evolution). You can read more on this subject here. The term "memetics" is used to denote the study of memes. Memes seem to spread fairly rapidly on the web, so I guess you could think of them as a sort of ideological contagion. Many of these "ideas" may be deemed to be of passing value, and this would certainly seem to be the case for the chain letter kind of meme propagated from one blogger to the next. Some blog-propagated memes have a specific focus ("What is your favourite...?") while others are more general ("10 random things about me"). In a social networking sense that later type is particularly interesting, because it highlights how little those in the blogosphere know about each other. As an exercise, try listing 10 things you know about each of the most frequent visitors to your blog. Hard isn't it? I even tried to start a creative writing meme once, but it failed. Evolution is like that sometimes. On with the ...

Obesity arithmetic

Bruce — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:15:20 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

We took a couple of days between Anzac Day and the weekend to make a short holiday on the Wanganui River. At the place we stayed we were presented with meals that were impossibly huge, a diet that would super-size us in no time. In 2002-2003 one in three adult New Zealanders was overweight (excludes obese) and one in five adults was obese (MOH). Some people are quick to ascribe their weight problem (if they identify it as such) to extrinsic factors, such as genetics, time or financial constraints, marketing, or poor social support. However you rationalise it, being overweight or obese comes down to simple mathematics. The only certainty among all the theories is that energy and mass are interchangeable. Einstein had the answer Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2, relates the concept that all mass has an energy equivalence, and all energy has a mass equivalence. On this basis: You cannot create mass from nothing; The source of mass is energy; Less energy in leads to less mass out; Mass can be reduced by conversion to energy. Now energy isn't bad: we need it to keep moving, breathing, or even thinking. Think of yourself as like a car: you need a certain amount of fuel to get from A to B. If, when you come to the end of your journey, you still have fuel in the tank, you can store it there for later use (in the case of the body, as fat). If you finish the journey with an empty tank, you're going to have ...

Google maps and public health surveillance

Bruce — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:08:42 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Public health doctors are apparently "hopeless" at using traditional media (BMJ 2003;327(7422):1056); it's probable that their use of new media is even worse. WhoIsSick have come up with the idea to use Google Maps to track illnesses in local communities. Perhaps this is something that public health physicians should explore as a means to both inform populations about disease patterns and for encouraging their participation in reporting? There is no need to register with WhoIsSick (as of this writing). To post a sickness anonymously you enter your city (or ZIP code; UK postcodes work too) and detail how many days since the onset of your symptoms; the symptoms you are experiencing; your age; your sex; and additional details (optional): Enter the details of your sickness Make sure to include all your symptoms! Posting this will get you added to the map, with a colour-coded disc to indicate certain common symptoms: Red for "Runny nose" linked to a UK postcode In the search tab you can look for specific symptoms in a specific location within a specific timeframe, narrowed by sex or age: Filter results according to your epidemiological interest In terms of reporting the site offers a number of features: Receive outbreak alerts by e-mail; Percentage breakdown of symptoms (in a pie chart); A graph of no. of cases against timing of sickness (potentially indicating onset of an epidemic or recovery!); A tag cloud for filtering results on a per-symptom basis. Statistics may offer comfort in knowing you're not suffering alone Imagine the consumer power that could be brought to bear if local residents ...

YouTube health videos

Bruce — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:48:39 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

As reported by the BBC, a general practice in Wales has begun using YouTube to distribute health information videos. The Builth and Llanwrtyd Medical Practice has thus far uploaded videos relating to inhaler technique and spacer devices in respiratory disease, having a smear, and blood sugar testing in diabetes. It's a novel approach to patient education in a primary care setting, and one that might appeal to that sector of the the population seemingly infatuated with YouTube. Explaining how to use a metered-dose inhaler and spacer without props during a 10 minute consultation is challenging, and video lessons may be a valid alternative to my standard "Ask the pharmacist to demonstrate for you". There's only so much you can convey in printed leaflets, and moving pictures can convey much more detail in a very short time. Inhaler technique (Builth and Llanwrtyd Medical Practice) The practice also offers iPod-friendly QuickTime and Windows Media versions for download.

The medicalisation of (anti-)social behaviour

Bruce — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:28:00 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

I'm overdue for a rant, damn it—I've got intermittent explosive disorder (IED) don't you know? Oh, and while we're on the subject of your knowledge, you do realize it's your fault, doctor, that since you won't give me codeine I have to steal to do drugs? I know I smoke doc, but what are you going to do about my chest? But I don't eat too much. I hit her because I was having some sort of seizure—can you give me something for it? Well, it's like this: I can't afford to keep my house tidy. I've had a bad day; can I have Prozac? Familiar? When are people going to wake up and take responsibility for their own actions (or lack thereof)? The BBC is reporting a study suggesting that the entity formerly known as "bad behaviour" be re-classified as a mental illness called "intermittent explosive disorder". This is the latest effort to transmogrify something traditionally considered "non-disease" into something for which you can receive absolution from your doctor. The suggestion is hot on the heels of the rise to stardom of CKD (chronic kidney disease) which, although measuring eGFR is undoubtedly useful, also seems to be about attaching a new medical term to "getting on a bit" (think of eGFR as a percentage measure of kidney function; the percentage naturally gets less as you get older). What is medicalisation? I discovered a useful presentation by Richard Smith, a former Editor of the BMJ, given in September 2003 asking "Where are the limits ...

999 advice on your iPod

Bruce — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 03:14:51 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

As reported by the BBC, the Sussex Ambulance Service NHS Trust are providing MP3-based first aid advice on how to deal with common and potentially serious situations (such as fits, collapses and resuscitation). This joins first aid advice available as a podcast on the iTunes Music Store by St. John's Ambulance. The Trust's website provides further details: Did you know you can now download first aid advice in mp3 format to store on your iPod (or any mp3) player? They are copyright free and have been professionally recorded so they will always be crystal clear when ever you need them. They cover all the situations where giving the correct first aid may mean the difference between life and death. All the advice provided is up to date and complies with Resuscitation Council guidelines. Of course, we realise that everyone hopes that they are never confronted with these situations. But unfortunately, the facts are otherwise. What is more, the chances are the victim will be somebody close to you. At first the whole idea seems a bit bizarre. Imagine the scene: there's been a road traffic accident, and several people are injured. In the midst of the chaos stands the wo(man) in charge, identified by the tell-tale white earbuds that scream "I know first aid!". Gesticulating in one direction then the other, shouting instructions to passers-by with eyes and thumbs on the iPod controls to review that last instruction, our luckless hero is unable to hear the approaching ambulance and becomes the incidents only fatality... Worst aid ...