Medical students use Google for rapid route to useful imaging information

Another story of how the use of the Internet is boosting healthcare.

This article from DiMag shares that researchers from Johns Hopkins University have designed a test to determine which web resources best delivered accurate information to medical students most efficiently (efficiency was based on the number of links one had to view). The study was conducted with students being randomly selected to complete the exam by using either Google or any other web resource. Participants repeated the exam with the alternative arm in two weeks.

Here’s the interesting part:

• An analysis of the results from 86 medical students who completed the protocol showed that Google was more efficient compared with all alternatives (mean links 1.50 versus 1.94, p = 0.002). Following a Google search, 89% of end-sites identified that provided correct answers were medical websites
  
• The most frequent alternatives used to initiate a search were the search engines Yahoo and Ask, and the encyclopedia Wikipedia. Yahoo yielded comparable correctness to Google (96% versus 97%) but was less efficient (mean links 1.90 versus 1.54, p<0.001).

Havins said that, the study also indicated that non-Google search engines were more efficient than other resources such as medical websites, Wikipedia, and Pubmed.

More bandwidth anyone?

Microsoft, Mayo Clinic to develop web-based healthcare tools

More signs that Microsoft is establishing themselves in the healthcare informatics sector?

It seems that the health solutions division if Mayo Clinic will work with Microsoft’s health solutions group to develop tools (building on its HealthVault web portal platform) to help consumers manage their health and become more engaged with their physicians.

Further details concerning their collaboration will be announced by the end of 2008.

Healthcare providers to deepen clinical technology adoption in next year

Not exactly something that applies directly to the Asia Pacific region but hey, when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.

An annual study from Gantry Group, (read here) indicates that by the end of 2008, more than 80 percent of provider facilities will be invested in:

• Digital medical imaging
• Medication management/ ePrescribing
• RFID patient identification/drug distribution
• EMR/EHR
• Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)
• Mobile applications (e.g. charge capture, rounding, prescriptions)
• Patient documentation
• Patient care planning solutions

I’d say not bad, judging from this study it seems that binaryHealthcare.com is covering most of the stuff that will be in demand.

Therefore, a big thank you to all readers who have send in their comments and suggestions. Keep your opinions rolling!

Healthcare IT execs and marketing execs not on same page

Accordingly to a report from HIMSS Analytics and O’Keeffe & Company, a marketing consulting agency, there exist a disconnect between healthcare IT marketing executives and their customers – healthcare IT purchasing decision makers.

The study mentions the following points

• The study showed that functionality is the most important criteria for healthcare IT execs in their decision process (77 percent) versus only 57 percent of marketing execs.
• Marketing execs consider price to be of more concern (57 percent) compared to 44 percent of healthcare IT execs who consider price the most important criteria.
• Marketing execs commit only five percent of their budgets to facilitating peer-to-peer communication which is at odds with 72 percent of healthcare IT execs who think their peers are the most influential information sources.
• 70 percent of healthcare IT executives consult with four or more sources when researching a new technology investment, while approximately one-half of marketing executives report that less than 50 percent of their tactics are part of multi-channel programs.

Having work on both side of the fences (hospital and vendors, well actually, also on the consulting side, so thats the middle of the fence) I find this article rather amusing but very true.

Harnessing the Power of Virtualization for Dynamic IT

Virtualizatio is no doubt, a current biggie in the IT industry and CIOs in Healthcare settings are fast catching on to this trend.

It is without hesitation that I would name VMWare (now part of EMC) as the industry leader when it comes to Virtualization, in fact, I was contemplating of doing the relevant certification but I reckon I can learn just as much from the Internet and some good old hands on (did I mention that I have a old uni mate working in EMC as a senior consultant?).

Now we all know that Microsoft has been working towards the virtualisation industry with their Virtual PC solution and it seems that the industry leader has gain further foothold since then. Do take some time to read this article from Microsoft.

Enjoy.

Ramblings: What a week!

Yes, it has been a long and tiring week for me, not only at work but in almost all aspects of my life.

Request for Proposals and demo sessions have occupied most of my time with remaining daily ‘to dos’ creeping up on the rest, I didn’t even touch a book this week (nor last week) and had missed seeing my baby gal on two mornings, had not washed my car for 3 weeks and I’m too tired to even think what else I didn’t do (although the pile of bills lying on my table are ’glaring’ at me)

Busy week indeed but hey, thats life, I reckon that next week will be better, I’m taking 3 days off to do some spring cleaning (but a looming tender response is most probably going to ruin it) as its going to be Chinese New Year in less than 2 weeks time (and I’ve not started on my preparations yet). I’ll also have to make some time to login to RadRounds.com, seems like something is brewing nicely over there.

Such is life in the fast lane! Whoa Whooo!

National PACS steering group disbanded

Seems that the UK’s PACS steering group has been disband as part of a wider review of the PACS governance model involving all forums and groups associated with the national PACS programme.

I was under the impression that the systems (chosen) were not all deployed yet, let alone integrated. Interesting to see how this turns out, lets hope its not an attempt to cover up more hiccups at the NHS implementation.

Read the full article here.

KLAS ranks digital mammography players

KLAS has published a report on Digital Mammography and the report highlights an interesting trend;

“despite tremendous market growth, there are currently relatively few full-field digital mammography (FFDM) vendors with FDA approval, but several more are poised for entry, pending FDA approval”

I had a recent discussion with another Product Manager in my company that deals with digital mammography and although we are dealing with the ASEAN market, FDA approval is  a defacto requirement in the tender selection process.. a necessary evil in my opnion.

Digital mammography is fast picking up in Asia and with FDA approval being necessary, relevant vendors should seriously ‘go for the kill’ before competitors catches up.

Read more about Digital Mammography here .

Floor Planner – Useful Tool for designing the Reading Room

In the midst of a discussion with my Managing Director (MD) on an upcoming exhibition, he mentioned a free (useful) tool off the Internet that I could use to design the exhibition booth (well its not really my job but its a good learning experience )

Although my MD can’t recall the name of the free tool, I managed to locate something similar to his description and the first impression I had was – wouldn’t this make a useful tool for designing a reading room?

The tool can be located here. I wish I had this tool when I was working as a PACS Administrator :) 

Don’t Forget to Laugh!

Now this is an interesting piece from RT-Image.com.

To quote the article “The answer is “yes,” if you want to work with a more productive team, increase patient satisfaction, improve staff recruitment and retention, and increase overall job satisfaction. Even though we take our jobs seriously, we need to also remember to take ourselves lightly.”

I actually do believe in the above quote, to the extend that I practice it myself in (almost) all aspect of life (well, the drawback is sometimes people take you lightly too, but that just motives me to excel further). I think humor, especially the ability to laugh at oneself is important in keeping our sanity at this age in time.

For those who don’t know, I did an Advanced Certificate in Teaching English to Young Children many years back (I’m an eternal scholar) and for my “graduation paper”, I wrote a mini paper entitled “Humor in TEYL – Reducing Classroom Anxiety” (I did a quick search off goggle and actually found it here).

Anyway, back to topic. As the saying goes “Laughter is the best medicine” and I take great lengths to ensure I include humor into presentations, be it speeches, lectures, sales / management presentations, I think humour is useful in many many situations and accordingly to this article from UMM, laughter is good for your heart.

Maybe its time to incorporate laughter as a treatment for cardiac diseases

So lets laugh more, make the world a better place while keeping healthy!