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Medicines information for your iPod

Bruce — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 05:29:24 +0000

The variety of health-related multimedia available for your iPod (or other MP3 player) and online amusement continues to grow. First we had healthcare podcasts, then health news videocasts from the BBC, followed by 999 (111, 911) advice to store on your iPod. Soon your iPod will help you understand how to take your medicine. medicines.org.uk already makes a selection of patient information leaflets (PILs) available on the web in written form (just in case the dog ate yours). One potential advantage that the site already offers (aside from reading up on what your neighbour is taking) is that you can access large font versions of the leaflets. While this is a potential boon for people with some visual impairment, it doesn't help those who have problems reading or have a severe visual impairment. The next step may seem obvious. Who doesn't have an iPod or similar device these days? While I can't see this appealing to Granny, a select few may enjoy the opportunity to download PILs as MP3s so they can replay the harmful side effects they stand to experience from taking their medicines. I'm sure, however, that terms like "liver damage" and "sudden death" will loose their threatening edge when delivered by means of a reassuring sing-song voice. I know of patients who take maybe 15-20 different medications. If it takes several minutes to record each leaflet, you could fly from Birmingham to Frankfurt with nothing on your playlist but dosage instructions and the like. Great... I'll not be so quick ...

BBC testing health-news video podcasts

Bruce — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 18:48:23 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

A while back I commented on the rise of healthcare-related audio podcasts. I nearly missed the fact that the BBC have, since November 2004, been beta testing BBC News Player feeds. Among the test feeds is one for health stories. This feed contains footage from BBC's TV news reports so differs in content from the existing text-only health-news feed from the news.bbc.co.uk site. As noted here, the feeds do not link directly to the streaming video; this is displayed embedded in a web page to give it proper "context": As is typical on the Internet, a net denizen has created an unofficial feed list that does link directly to the streaming media (Real Player or Windows Media Player required). Ben Metcalfe offers links to broadband streams (also requiring a UK IP address) and narrowband streams so that clicking on an article title will open the appropriate media player rather than a web page with embedded video: The real utility of this service (official or unofficial) is that you can now catch important BBC News items without having to wait up for the next bulletin, or having to visit the main News website to see which health stories have video associated with them. Using Metcalfe's feeds also means you can be listening the audio of one article opened in Real Player (say), while at the same time be reading other posts in your RSS aggregator or newsreader (e.g. Safari). These days anything that helps us multi-task has to be a good thing, right?

Podcasting meets healthcare

Bruce — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 18:30:54 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Podcasting (from broadcasting + iPod) has become something of a phenomenon. As of today there are 304 podcasts in the "Health" category on the iTunes Music Store and most are free. True, some podcasts may be of dubious value, but there are some by well-regarded institutions. For example, the Mayo Clinic enlightens you on "Understanding infertility", or St. John Ambulance on "How to conduct a primary survey". Medical Edge Radio (Mayo Clinic, USA): a daily 60-second health segment—features general health and people-focused stories covering medical breakthroughs and compelling health information. Mayo Clinic physicians rigorously evaluate all stories for medical validity and newsworthiness. First Aid Advice (St. John Ambulance, UK); St. John Ambulance believes that everyone should learn at least the basic First Aid techniques. You may need to use them at any time at home, at school or work or even while you're travelling. Knowing what to do can make the difference to a person's recovery, and you could even save their life.