PeRSSonalized Medicine is an easy-to-use, free aggregator of quality medical information that lets you select your favourite resources and read the latest news and articles about a medical specialty or a medical condition in one personalized place.

Now here is the newest category, PeRSSonalized Pediatrics with all the quality news sites, blogs, peer-reviewed journals and web 2.0 tools focusing on pediatrics.

Some reasons why it is unique:

• You can search in the database. It means you will find medical information only from a quality selected portion of the world wide web.

• You can personalize any of the sections.

• You can also receive the newest Pubmed articles focusing on your search term. Just insert your field of interest, a therapy, a condition, etc. and click Search. Then you can add the newly created box to your personalized medical “journal”.

• It is a community-based project. Please let us know which quality resources should be added to the database.

I recently completed a discussion paper on Consumer eHealth for a client.  In my research, I found that the rapid adoption of social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter by the general public has not gone unnoticed by healthcare organizations and providers. Ed Bennett, a hospital web manager, tracks U.S. hospital use of social networking tools.  According to Mr. Bennett’s blog, 473   U.S. hospitals are currently using YouTube, Facebook, twitter, or a blog (up from 410 when I completed the report six weeks ago).

An article[1] in the Telemedicine and e-Health Journal listed offers some thoughts on how Twitter might be employed by healthcare organizations:

• Disaster alerting and response
• Diabetes management (blood glucose tracking)
• Drug safety alerts from the Food and Drug Administration
• Biomedical device data capture and reporting
• Shift-bidding for nurses and other healthcare professionals
• Diagnostic brainstorming
• Rare diseases tracking and resource connection
• Providing smoking cessation assistance
• Broadcasting infant care tips to new parents
• Post-discharge patient consultations and follow-up care

I noticed this morning that the Ontario Hospital Association is hosting a workshop on social media entitled “Social Media Demystified: Best Practices and Setting Strategy with Confidence” on 21 January 2010.  Clearly there is interest in the Ontario health sector and I look forward to seeing how Ontario healthcare organizations embrace social media.

Mike

 Telezorg Cardiologie doorslaand sukses

Zeist,  december 2009:

Rene van Dijk kan het goed uitleggen:  de 50 jarige man met episode hartkloppingen levert digitaal zijn gegevens aan, komt bij de cardioloog van de Martini Buitenpolikliniek Groningen die een onderzoekprogramma inplande  en   gaat gerustgesteld met een “event” recorder naar huis. In plaats van een x-tal losse bezoekjes komt  patient  eenmalig op het avondspreekuur voor alle onderzoek (one stop shop in het vakjargon). 

Geen 14, maar 4 uur in medische handen en geen veertien dagen ziektverzuim, maar gewoon doorwerken.Tenslotte ook nog eens 30% minder zorgkosten! Wie wil dat niet? 

De Buitenpolikliniek wordt vast binnenkort weer met vlag en wimpel Binnengehaald in het Martiniziekenhuis!

Tensions and Paradoxes in Electronic Patient Record Research: A Systematic Literature Review Using the Meta-narrative Method
Trisha Greenhalgh, Henry W.W. Potts, Geoff Wong, Pippa Bark, and Deborah Swinglehurst
University College London
The Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 4, 2009 (pp. 729–788)

Context: The extensive research literature on electronic patient records (EPRs) presents challenges to systematic reviewers because it covers multiple research traditions with different underlying philosophical assumptions and methodological approaches.

Methods: Using the meta-narrative method and searching beyond the Medline-indexed literature, this review used “conflicting” findings to address higher-order questions about how researchers had differently conceptualized and studied the EPR and its implementation.

Findings: Twenty-four previous systematic reviews and ninety-four further primary studies were considered. Key tensions in the literature centered on (1) the EPR (“container” or “itinerary”); (2) the EPR user (“information-processer” or “member of socio-technical network”); (3) organizational context (“the setting within which the EPR is implemented” or “the EPR-in-use”); (4) clinical work (“decision making” or “situated practice”); (5) the process of change (“the logic of determinism” or “the logic of opposition”); (6) implementation success (“objectively defined” or “socially negotiated”); and (7) complexity and scale (“the bigger the better” or “small is beautiful”).

Conclusions: The findings suggest that EPR use will always require human input to recontextualize knowledge; that even though secondary work (audit, research, billing) may be made more efficient by the EPR, primary clinical work may be made less efficient; that paper may offer a unique degree of ecological flexibility; and that smaller EPR systems may sometimes be more efficient and effective than larger ones. We suggest an agenda for further research.

By Tom Helou - President & COO

At each medical appointment, the doctor scratches elements of identification, specification, and direction on our charts.  Each guides clinicians, pharmacists and others in the rudiments of our treatment.  If tampered with, our very health could become victimized.

Regardless of health reform legislation outcomes in Washington, the economic stimulus package secured billions in funding for electronic medical records that could connect medical specialists, pharmacists, clinicians, and patients on one network, institutionalizing the ability to share those elements of identification and direction.  And while these e-health initiatives create efficiency and convenience, the opportunity for hackers to infiltrate the databases grows, as the health care system is ill prepared for a cyber attack.

Increasingly, experts believe the repercussions of an attack could spread beyond stolen identities, as terrorists could see value in tampering with individual treatments.  A recent study released by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society indicated that oversight and investment in the security of health IT systems is extremely deficient.  More than 60 percent of hospitals and care centers invest less than 3 percent of their overall IT budget, compared to over 10 percent for most financial sector firms. Moreover, less than half of respondent health organizations employed a chief information security officer (or similar position) who held responsibility for the integrity of health IT records.  Finally, more than 50 percent reported that they left stored data unencrypted, although 66 percent did utilize encryption before transmitting data to third parties.

By introducing this level of vulnerability, malicious hackers gain straightforward access to health IT databases, thereby acquiring the authority to change information such as drug allergies, blood type, and treatment plans that could result in improper care with potentially catastrophic complications.

As the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks to distribute more than $220 million in grants supporting the development of a national health IT network, these security gaps could be split into trenches that expose millions of patient records to our foes.

Healthcare providers, patients, and policymakers must support proactive initiatives to ensure safeguards are introduced and maintained.  Without such protections in place, our medical records have the potential to truly become toxic.

http://ntvg.nl/publicatie/therapietrouw-bij-leukemie-blijft-moeil/volledig

Peperdure pillen voor een bloedziekte worden door patienten net zo goed  vergeten.

Althans dat is de suggestie die uit een onderzoek naar voren komt. Heden in NTvG (zie link). Het patroon van inname (en vergeten!) is niet fundamenteel anders dan bij patienten die voor een chronische aandoening als diabetes worden behandeld. Enigszins verrassend is dat toch wel. De farmaceutische sector doet een moedige en veelbetekenende stap naar mijn mening. Dit gebaar kan wellicht de gewenste versnelling bij de acceptatie van EHealth bevorderen. Zie oorspronkelijke artikel !

The iPhone App Store is just over a year old and already it’s having major implications for public health. In the next year or two, I think we’ll see some really amazing apps for public health. But even in it’s infancy, I found a bunch of great health applications that you can download today!

Here are the one’s that I liked the best (Disclaimer: I haven’t actually tried all of them, but they all seemed really great, and the reviews looked promising):

*Go Pedometer ($0.99) – Use your iPhone like a pedometer. 2-in-1, I’m sold!

*Eat This, Not that ($4.99) – Based on the book series, gives a wide selection of better choices for various foods and resturant items.

*Lose It (Free) – Good weight and food tracking tool. Very well made and user friendly.

*iFitness ($1.99) – Shows how to perform workouts, tracks activity, etc.

*Diabetes Pilot ($11.99) – Helps to manage diabetes.

*HealthMap: Swine Flu + Outbreaks Near Me (Free) – Tracks swine flu outbreaks based on your location.

Last week my class on Health Behaviour Change was on the topic of eHealth. So to make the point about how information technologies can play a role in supporting change I decided to create a series of YouTube-sized bits of content for my students rather than give a lecture. The ‘lecture’ became a series of short videos starring some of my teammates at the Youth Voices Research Group and brilliantly shot and edited (with next to no time) by our uber-talented  resident health promotion videographer, Andrea Yip. This experience, plus exposure to a number of serendipitous videos over the past week had me thinking that a special film and video edition of Amazing Stuff was warranted. So to welcome the month of December, the darkest month of the year for us here in the North, I thought I’d share some sites to visit when you’re huddled inside looking for knowledge, inspiration or amusement:

1. TED. This is fast becoming THE site to waste time on and learn about amazing things from. Originally started as a meeting of artistic and creative types in Monterrey California in 1984, this annual meeting (now spawned into many international meetings) features some of the leading thinkers in such diverse areas as design, science, the arts, politics and public life. You’ll come for one talk and stay for a dozen. This is must-see Web TV.

2. Fora.tv. This newish web channel is another feed for the soul of those interested in science, the economy, technology and other issues that are particularly nerd friendly to us academics. There are some high-quality videos here and some insightful lectures.

3. Current.com is Al Gore’s digital cable channel. There are some interesting things on it, but nothing and I mean nothing beats Infomania; my favourite show on TV, or the Web, or both . Sadly, Infomania is taking a break this week, but the witty satire of the entertainment biz will return in early December.

4. The National Film Board of Canada is one of this country’s gems. It is a treasure-trove of high-quality material and insightful documentaries on a wide range of topics. Perhaps the one that has my interest most piqued is the Filmmaker in Residence program that Kat Cizek has held for the past few years. Kat and her colleagues have done some amazing work at highlighting the perils of homelessness, inner-city health, and the plight of new mothers living in poverty. This is really health promotion video at work and something that I’d like to see a lot more of.

5. And lastly, I came across Publicvoice.tv this past week as I attended the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership’s first annual Global Health Innovation conference in Toronto. Publicvoice has a great set of speakers and interviews with people out to change the world and influence Canadian and international public policy. The entire conference and interviews with the key leaders are available at Publicvoice.tv or will be available at the conference’s ongoing Ning community of practice site.

Now if anyone can help me find the time to watch all of this…

Successful evaluators know the power of benchmark. The Oxford English Dictionary describes the act ‘to benchmark’ as “evaluate or check (something) by comparison with a standard. The Wikipedia definition of Benchmarking is:

“Benchmarking is the process of comparing the business processes and performance metrics including cost, cycle time, productivity, or quality to another that is widely considered to be an industry standard benchmark or best practice. Essentially, benchmarking provides a snapshot of the performance of your business and helps you understand where you are in relation to a particular standard.”

From an evaluation standpoint, a benchmark provides us with a comparator to help assess how well (or poorly) a particular program is doing. From corporate leaders to university presidents to healthcare administrators benchmarking serves as the referent and focus for programming activities and the foundation for ‘best practice’. But what if best practice isn’t good enough? Or put another way, what if following the leader means going the wrong way?

In the world of consumer or behavioural eHealth much of what we use as our benchmarks are derived from a type of healthcare model that is institution and often technology-centred rather than patient-centred. It is more often something tied to medical treatment of specific problems and technology focused using a highly linear approach to treatment.

Yet in the age of Google Wave, these linear models don’t look to fare well. The future of healthcare, as Frog Design recently opined, is social. What are the benchmarks when your eHealth intervention is not a single technology, but a suite of interacting tools that are online, collaborative and mobile in different measures at different times within a diverse context of treatment and preventive behaviour? How do we measure success? What happens when the ‘effect’ of an intervention is social in nature and supported by multiple tools working in different combinations each time?

In evaluation, we often look for the most likely cause of a particular effect. Yet, what is the effect of any one wave in an ocean of influence? While it is impossible to deconstruct the influence of that wave, it is possible to anticipate what a wave might do under certain conditions and, if the timing is right, it might be possible to get on top of that wave and surf it to shore.

What if we took a wave model and, like surfers, read the seas to determine the appropriate time to dive in, acknowledging that the break will occur differently, the velocity might vary, the height of can’t be predicted, but through activity and practice we can enhance our anticipatory guidance systems to better select waves that might lead to some fine surfing? My research team at the University of Toronto has begun working on these models and methods because as anyone in public health can tell you, the tide is high and with complex problems like chronic disease, the waves are getting big. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, iPhone apps big and small are all collectively influencing people’s behaviour in subtle ways and through acknowledging that these collective tools are the cause and consequence of change can we begin to develop evaluation models to make sense of their impact on the world around us.

El PESI (Plan estratégico de Sistemas de Información) del IBsalut, está llegando a su fin (y con gran éxito, consiguiendo más del 80% de los objetivos planteados inicialmente!). Es hora pues de mirar al futuro y redactar un nuevo plan. Microsoft ya nos enseñó por donde iban sus tiros, y ahora quisiera recordarlo. Aunque el siguiente vídeo es del 2007, su contenido sigue siendo futurista. Veremos hasta donde llegamos.

Para más información sobre los planes de microsoft en Europa en temas de sanidad pues visitar la siguiente página.

Se nota que en Son Dureta ya estamos de lleno en la implantación del nuevo sistema de información de Cerner. Voy más liado que nunca en el hospital con mil y una reuniones (Ah! ¿pero era posible tener más?! Pues sí, vaya que sí…) y estoy mucho más cansado cuando llego a casa. Y eso se nota en este mi querido blog,  puesto que los posts se espacian más de lo que desearía.

El caso es que, sea como sea, el trabajo que se está realizando con Cerner es muy interesante. Se ha conseguido implicar a más de un centenar de personas del hospital y a muchos de ellos se los ha liberado de sus funciones para trabajar 100% en la correcta parametrización de Milenium (así se llama su sistema de información). La ocasión no es para menos y los profesionales del hospital están respondiendo perfectamente. Nunca había visto un proyecto tan ordenado, y en gran parte es gracias a la metodología M, propia de Cerner, que sigue estándares internacionales de gestión de proyectos pero que está adaptado específicamente a la implantación de sistemas de información sanitarios.

La verdad es que es una gozada poder trabajar con una empresa que tienen el mismo sistema de información en todo el mundo y con miles de implantaciones. Así es mucho más fácil extender las “buenas prácticas” y “lecciones aprendidas”. Es la única manera de poder acometer proyectos globales y de colaboración entre varias instituciones de manera casi transparente. Como ejemplo, os dejo un vídeo del proyecto de seguimiento y alerta de la gripe A H1N1 que desarrolla Cerner en Estados Unidos conjuntamente con el gobierno. Cerner está subiendo en la bolsa… creo que voy a tener que comprar acciones…

Read the new papers published in PLoS Medicine this week, including a Research Article that discusses the effects of genital ulcer disease and herpes simplex virus type 2 on the efficacy of male circumcision for HIV prevention, an Essay that argues that less data are available on the health of the poor than of the rich, and a Policy Forum that covers the ethical issues associated with data released from genome-wide association studies in developing countries.

Also published this week is the November Editorial, in which the PLoS Medicine Editors discuss shortages of artemisinin-based combination therapy in Africa at the point of care. And we publish the third Essay in a series on evaluating eHealth that considers the evaluation of health IT systems as they are rolled out following pre-implementation testing. (The previous two papers in the series, which discussed international collaborations in eHealth evaluation research and the need for continuous systemic evaluation of eHealth interventions, are also highlighted on the homepage).

You can comment on, annotate and rate this week’s PLoS Medicine articles and any of the others in the archive.

One of my favourite sources of information on Consumer eHealth is Pew Internet.  They regularly research the impact of the Internet in various of aspects of everyday life including health.   Given the tarnished “eHealth” brand, I think that there are some powerful messages from a recent Pew Internet study:

http://ehr.healthcareitnews.com/blog/e-patients-plugged-and-waiting-1

Citizens, in my view, are ready, willing, and able to use the Internet to research health related topics.  I strongly suggest that the eHealth community (including gov’t policymakers) make better use of the Internet to inform and to gather feedback regarding eHealth plans and to demonstrate the value that investments to date are delivering.   Check out the Pew Internet study as it contains some detailed data on use of the Internet for health related purposes.

Mike

Ya tenemos otro hospital de España enganchado a las redes sociales. En este caso se trata del Hospital Unviersitario Son Dureta situado en Palma de Mallorca. Los hospitales de Estados Unidos, no hace mucho más de 1 año que están presentes en este tipo de redes. La UMMC por ejemplo empezó justo hace un año, tal  como se puede apreciar esta presentación de Ed Bennett, pero parece que todos los que han empezado están muy contentos. Aunque la filosofía de los hospitales americanos se parece más bien poco a los de los españoles (para ellos cuantos más pacientes vayan al hospital mejor y por tanto necesitan captar “clientes”) ya nadie duda de que las redes sociales pueden jugar un papel importante para gestionar mejor la relación del hospital con su entorno. En un hospital como Son Dureta, referente en Baleares y que pretende seguir siéndolo, la presencia en las redes sociales es un imperativo.  En cualquier caso, habrá que ver como evoluciona la página y el nivel de interacción que consigue con su entorno. Por eso, en mi opinión, se debería permitir que los propios “fans” expongan sus propios intereses y no limitarlos solamente a comentar lo que al hospital le interesa. En fin, este tipo de iniciativas son de alabar puesto que  estamos en los inicios de las redes sociales en los hospitales y por tanto falta mucho por aprender y experimentar. Si os interesa podéis acceder desde aquí.

Deze stand in Dusseldorf (Medica) vormt  een grote verrassing voor de auteur (rechts op de foto). Wat blijkt: de Health Buddy, een telemedicine toepassing bij chronische aandoening als diabetes, copd en hartfalen, is in handen van de firma Bosch.

Het betreft een overname van het (Amerikaanse) Health Hero Network. Bosch regisseert de markt vanuit Zwitserland.

Een dag later (19-11-2009) op de Beurs Domotica in Eindhoven weet men bij de stand van Bosch niets van deze aktiviteit. Is dit bekend bij de vaderlandse afnemers?

It’s been another busy week filled with lots of ideas, but little time to post them. Expect a lot more on the blog in the coming weeks however as there is too much going on not to discuss.

Thankfully, the rest of the world was still Tweeting, blogging, You-tubing and sharing all kinds of amazing things with us and here are the top ones that captured my attention this week:

1. I love food from all kinds of sources and certainly those that come from animals are the ones I spend the most time thinking about. A new book by Jonathan Safran Foer looks at the ethics and industry of eating animals. I haven’t read the book, but a detailed and insightful review in the New Yorker suggests that I might be thinking a lot more about this in the days and weeks to come based on the arguments that Foer puts forth. Natalie Portman is one who also has thought differently because of this book — this time about vegetarianism and veganism — and she writes her review in the Huffington Post. Read any of the reviews and you’ll know that this is a book making buzz and adding to our already considerable array of options when considering the merits of what we choose to eat. Tofu anyone?

2. Keeping with the contrarian perspectives: have you thought about how healthcare might actually be unhealthy for the planet? This week Ariel Schwartz posted an interesting article in Mother Jones (and replicated in Fast Company ) questioning the carbon footprint of the healthcare industry and whether we ought to be working harder to consider how green our care facilities are. Could a sick planet be coming from healthy humans?

3. While we’re on health care, The New York Times published a story about text messaging for teens as a possible way to engage young people more in health care using mobile phones. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but will it fly in the face of most healthcare organizations, which are a little slow to adopt technologies like this into practice?

4. The international social innovation leadership group, Ashoka, announced the winners of this year’s sustainable food (GMO: risk or rescue?) contest. The blog biofortified was the grand winner. There are some novel ideas and certainly opportunities to expand the dialogue on food safety and security in some new ways through this initiative. GMO good or bad? The answer seems to be: yes.

5. Lastly, Mobifest is coming to Toronto and I was captivated by some of the novel and creative films on display as the finalists in this year’s competition. Mobile filmmaking is getting bigger, better and more creative all the time and I’d encourage anyone interested in looking at one of the futures of film to check this mini and mobile film fest out.

Brian just finished reading a paper from the CCPA (here) reviewing the performance of Canada’s stimulus plan – it’s Friday at 10am and being this pissed off is not a good start to the weekend.

In a nutshell, as of August 2009, following the $65B (and growing to probably $200B) financial bailout – sweet fannie apples has been done for infrastructure stimulus (you know, that creates jobs).

Specifically, some *fun* facts:

• “real” key infrastructure spending to create jobs has actually decreased $1.7B compared to the same period of the previous year.  This might create employment in the Bizarro World but not in Canada.
• net after-tax income for the Big Five Canadian banks for the past four quarters is over $14B.  Brian isn’t surprised, since the government now owns about 7% of all new mortgages since the bank bailout – high finance lives!
• September’s reduction in unemployment (0.3%) is largely due a drop in labour force participation.  They just stopped looking for work.
• labour compensation in the business sector declines year after year, while in the public sector it has grown.  Note to self: send resume to government jobs – non-federal of course.
• exports fell another 5% in August resulting in Canada’s largest ever monthly trade deficit.  Not a good sign of stability for current jobs in manufacturing
• only 22% of the $8.4B in promised infrastructure stimulus has been spent in fiscal year 2009.  Only $7M of the $400M budgeted for green infrastructure has been committed. Brian learned that any allocated money not spent in two years (yes, TWO YEARS) will be cut off and recouped.  Canada is obviously not eHealth or OLG!
• unlike the U.S.A. (and on a weekly basis), basic data on stimulus spending, projects funded and jobs created is not available to the Canadian public.  Apparently we, the Canadian public, are on a “don’t need to know” basis.

Can you believe it? There is much more . . . Brian wants you to read the report yourself.

Brian is of the impression that Harper is playing slow pitch in a big league game in hopes he really doesn’t have to deliver on most of the stimulus dollars he pledged to get out of the recession.

It is a known phenomenon that a population weakened by hardship and strife is easier to manipulate, less likely to revolt and rely on their leaders for comfort and guidance.  Maybe this is just what Harper and his cronies want.  Not necessarily for anything conspiratorial or nefarious, but simply because they are assholes and don’t give a shit about us.  But I could be wrong.

A year ago something that truly is amazing happened: Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States. This week there were some far less amazing things that I found — but some amazing stuff no less.

1. Wired Science published some of the newly released photos of islands from space. It is a stunning collection of visual images of our planet from thousands of metres into space. They provide a remarkable perspective on our world.

2. Are you better off owning a dog or a Toyota Land Cruiser in terms of the planet’s health? According to a New Scientist article published this week (and commented on in Fast Company) owning a pet might be worse for the environment than a gas guzzling SUV. True? It’s not clear, but it does provoke some interesting discussion on what really influences carbon emissions and the health of our world.

3. Visualization of data is one of the ways in which we can make complex information accessible to more people. A newly published TED talk by JoAnn Kuchera-Morin provides a stunning representation of some of the ways in which visualization tools can aid our understanding of our planet and our brain.

4. The New York Times has a new innovation portfolio site. For those interested in new ideas and design, this is a must-visit on the tour through the Internet.

5. Amazing or not, H1N1 is causing a lot of distress around the world. This week, Fast Company (their second mention this week!) reviewed some of the ways in which people can get on top of tracking and preventing the disease using iPhone apps. Mobile public health has never been so interesting.

Here’s one of my dreams: Coming home after a long day at work, plopping down on the couch, and turning on the television. Okay, that part of the dream is kind of lame. But I also imagine the day that when I turn on the television, every commercial that’s forced upon me is specifically selected for me! Better yet, at least half of those commercials are directed at improving my health and wellness. My gym could have a commercial on that reminds me that I haven’t been in a while. I could get special public service announcements about limiting cheese (mmm, cheessssseeee), because they know I already get plenty of fruits and vegetables. Although, this may be a little big-brother-esque, but it’s likely to happen eventually. Google already uses every search to pick specific tailored ad content. Every time you swipe a shoppers club card, special coupons print out for food you like. Facebook searches your keywords and groups to target advertising. Television isn’t quite there yet, but with the advent of online television programming, I’m sure it’s getting closer by the second.

While this may all sound a bit disconcerting, there is an upside. With more information about each person, health messages can be further targeted and provide each viewer with specialized communication. Viewers are less likely to get messages that don’t apply to their lifestyles or behavior and more likely to receive only the information that matters to them.

But there’s at least one problem with this. So far, most public health message is relatively ineffective. The challenge is to create effective personalized public health messaging that plays to the motivations, personality, and interests of each viewer that can actually create positive health behavior change. Good luck with that!

Do you remember Personas that visualizes the map of your online presence? Here is a better solution. From one point of view, it’s great to have such a useful tool as Google Social Search. A short video about what it is and how it works.

Social Search taps into a user’s social network profiles and displays relevant links and status updates that members of a user’s own social network have shared at the bottom of the default search results page. According to Google, Social Search will enhance the search experience on Google by providing users with more personally relevant search results.

From another point of view, it becomes even easier to find inappropriate content about us online. We know medical students sometimes breach patient privacy on Twitter, Facebook. We know doctors sometimes get sued because of their blogs. I think it’s not their fault. I think this crucial issue must be included in medical education. For example, in my “Medicine and Web 2.0” university credit course, there is a slideshow dedicated to the topic (how to avoid such issues).

We have to let doctors and students know about it. And not for the reason that patients will find these pieces of information easier from now via Google Social Search.

There is a huge number of online resources focusing on allergy and it’s hard to find the best ones so it’s a pleasure to present the newest collection on Webicina, the first medical web 2.0 guidance service. Allergy 2.0 is a free comprehensive resource containing all the web 2.0 tools from quality blogs and communities to online slideshows and mobile applications focusing on allergy.

Many thanks to Ves Dimov at Allergy Notes for helping me select the best resources.

Please take a look at the table of contents:

• News and Information
• Allergy in the Blogosphere
• Allergy-related Podcasts and Interviews
• Allergy-related Community sites, Forums and Facebook groups
• Microblogging: Twitter and Friendfeed
• Allergy Wikis
• Mobile Applications
• Slideshows about Allergy
• Social Bookmarking
• Allergy Videos, animations and videocasts
• Medical Search Engines

Also here is PeRSSonalized Allergy with all the quality news sites, blogs, peer-reviewed journals and web 2.0 tools focusing on allergy. PeRSSonalized Medicine is an easy-to-use, free aggregator of quality medical information that lets you select your favourite resources and read the latest news and articles about a medical specialty or a medical condition in one personalized place.

Please feel free to sign up for our newsletter.

Barbara Duck at The Medical Quack published an interesting article about new devices that help report health data compliance wirelessly. One example is the VenaHub device: