February 2012 Blog Posts (12)

It’s a right-handed world out there – 90 percent of it, in fact! I’ve known that for a long time, as a leftie or southpaw as we are sometimes described. How else do you describe notebooks with spirals that get in your way when you write or pens that smudge ink as your hand moves along the page? And don’t even get me started on coffee mugs, name tags or jewelry clasps.

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Pinterest recently hit 10 million U.S. unique visitors monthly, and they did it faster than any other social media site. As a result, this virtual pinboarding community has quickly become one of the most talked…

This week a hospital team from the Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital in Texas decided to tweet while performing a live heart operation. They used their Memorial Herman Hospital Twitter handle to push out tweets explaining each stage of a two hour routine double coronary bypass operation through the use of over 100 tweets, photos and video content, which they uploaded to YouTube.

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For those who remember the adventures taken by Ms. Frizzle & her class aboard a magical school bus & thought their escapades through the human body could never be duplicated, you are sorely mistaken. Well, sort of. Engineers at Stanford University have designed a wireless, battery-less medical device that can propel itself through the bloodstream.…

We’ve all heard the saying, “There’s an app for that”: Trying to locate your stolen handbag? There’s an app for that. Need help managing your caffeine intake? There’s an app for that too. There’s even an app that allows you to keep track of how long you’ve been brushing your teeth (no cheating allowed).

Recently, I’ve become fascinated by the variety of medical apps that are available for download – it seems as though there truly is an app for all of your health needs. One of my…

With HIMSS 2012 in full swing, it’s been interesting to watch the conferences’ efforts to become integrated with social media. Whether you’re attending the conference in person, or following along from your…

The Los Angeles Times’ For the Booster Shots Blog reported yesterday on a new study published "online first" on Monday in the Archives of…

I admit it, I love video games. I grew up playing Atari with a joystick, then thought Nintendo was the greatest upgrade, and Sega Gensis opened doors and windows for today’s Playstation and Xbox.  I recently learned of a new game inspired by the world’s most popular game Tetris, called Septris. Created by Stanford researchers, Septris was created to help physicians understand how to recognize sepsis, a life-threatening infection that takes more…

I ask a ton of questions. I always have. Partly it’s because I crave new facts and I love to learn. Mostly I think it’s important to speak up and seek clarification so nothing goes unsaid and the truth is known. This is especially important when it comes to healthcare, particularly in light of a study making headlines this week about doctors not telling their patients the whole truth. What?!

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As I rushed out the door this morning with my laptop in one hand and iPhone in the other, results from a new survey that aired on the morning news confirmed what I already knew - checking email and using social media is addictive.…

The biggest question waiting to be answered this weekend is 'who will win the Super Bowl, Patriots or…

Before the smart phone or mobile health apps registered as medical devices, the use of the humble email in communications between GPs and their patients has long been considered as a controversial topic.

According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal Europe, opponents worry that doctors aren’t able to properly gauge the health of their patients by reading their emails. They say important signals can be missed such as facial expressions, tone of their voice or body language…