davidrothman.net

Google Flu

David Rothman — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:45:29 +0000

(Please see previous post on infodemiology- full text here. Also of potential interest this flu season: WhoIsSick?)

http://www.google.org/flutrends/

We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for “flu” is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and discovered that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States.

It’ll be interesting to watch this year trend against previous years’ data- I’m going to be watching New York especially closely.

I also like that Google embeds a search panel on the page (via the American Lung Association) for finding the nearest place to get a flu shot.

Google will also let you download the historical data and/or the data for current estimates.

NYLA’s ‘Meet the Bloggers’ Panel (slides)

David Rothman — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:30:43 +0000

Jill Hurst-Wahl’s slides are available here.

UNYOC (CE slides) and NYLA Tomorrow

David Rothman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:27:47 +0000

My apologies to the awfully nice folks who attended the CE course I taught at UNYOC a couple of weeks ago! I’ve taken far too long to get these slides posted:

Also: I’ll be on a panel at NYLA tomorrow (Friday, 11/6/2008) afternoon at 4:00 PM- please say hello if you’re going to be there! As usual at these sorts of things, I’ll know almost nobody. But hey- I might get to meet Polly Farrington!

Screencasting and Podcasting: Experience of the Yale Medical Library

David Rothman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:30:36 +0000

Lei Wang’s slides from his presentation for the Connecticut Library Association on 10/24/2008:

Web 2.0 in Physical Therapy: A Practical Overview

David Rothman — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:28:42 +0000

Eugene Barsky and Dean Giustini wrote an editorial for Physiotherapy Canada on practical tips and useful Web sites for physical therapy that is short, practical, and chock full of resources I know and like. It isn’t comprehensive by any means (and doesn’t seek to be), but I think it provides a really good, digestible introduction to some useful tools for those in physical therapy.

Barsky E., & Giustini D. Web 2.0 in Physical Therapy: A Practical Overview. Physiotherapy Canada, 2008; 60(3): 207-215.

Available at either of these URLs:
http://www.swetswise.com/eAccess/viewFulltext.do?articleID=38506191

http://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/j767550n62473718/?p=6d30aec4e9ba49ae905cefbbfa34e113&pi=0

I Didn’t Have a Heart Attack

David Rothman — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:28:47 +0000

I read you had a heart attack!

Yeah, I just recently read that myself.

How are you feeling?

Thanks for asking. I’m feeling very grateful that I have *not* had a heart attack.

Are you sure? I could swear that I read you had a heart attack.

I’m pretty sure. I checked.

David H. Rothman of TeleRead DID have a heart attack. I don’t know him well, but on the many occasions where a confused emailer has been routed from one of us to the other, he’s always been awfully pleasant. Best wishes to David and his family for a speedy recovery.

If you’re not ill, why haven’t you been blogging?

I have noticed a pattern: Those who have asked me this question generally do not have children. Those who have ever had a new baby at home don’t bother to ask- they correctly assume that all of my priorities have been radically shaken up. I’ll probably resume blogging when things settle down and I figure out where in my order of priorities this blog figures.

Survey: Health Sciences Librarians and EBM

David Rothman — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:48:02 +0000

Posted by request from Lin Wu:

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting all medical librarians to take this survey. The purpose of the survey is to explore the roles of health sciences librarians in enhancing and supporting evidence-based medicine (EBM) practice. Results will be reported only for research purposes. The survey will take no more than 10 minutes.

Take this link to the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ghjbae2_2fJaeUMVJ_2bK7z0HA_3d_3d

Thank you for your time and participation!

If you have questions about the survey, please contact Lin Wu directly:

Lin Wu
Reference Services Librarian
Health Sciences Library
University of Tennessee Health Science Center
877 Madison Avenue; Memphis, TN 38163
Email: lwu5 [AT] utmem [DOT] edu
Toll-free: 877-747-0004; Local: 448-5404

Congratulations to Mark Rabnett

David Rothman — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:56:34 +0000

Mark Rabnett, Pharmacy and Pharmacology Librarian, was the recipient of a 2008 CAUT Dedicated Service Award. Each year the Canadian Association of University Teachers recognizes individuals for exceptional service to their academic staff associations. Recipients are nominated by their association.

Mark served for six years as the Contract Administrator for the University of Manitoba Faculty Association and eight years as UMFA representative for the Libraries Constituency.

[via]

Mark is hereby forgiven for not posting a lot of excellent entires lately on his blog.

iPod Touch (NOT iPhone) in the Healthcare Setting

David Rothman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:03:29 +0000

I don’t own any Apple hardware (dang it), so I’ve stayed out of discussions about the use of the iPhone in a healthcare setting- but when someone like John Halamka opines about such things, I pay attention.

Check out John’s post on why “…the iPod Touch is a device to watch for clinical and educational applications.”

If anyone would like to buy me an iPod touch, please feel free.

(If you’re interested in technology and healthcare, you should be reading John’s blog: Life as a Healthcare CIO [feed])

Where to Find Embeddable Health Information Videos

David Rothman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:07:10 +0000

There are a good number of sources for online health information videos, but I tend to take special note of those sites that will allow me to embed videos on any Web page I want.

Insidermedicine

http://insidermedicine.com/

Self-description:

“The Insidermedicine Project is a physician-led news and knowledge-translation initiative that allows patients, doctors and medical students to keep up on the latest medical information by watching our unique videos that are created each and every weekday by our team of medical experts. Our goal is to reach patients, medical doctors and students around the world to ensure that each is receiving a daily “evidence based” health and medical update.”

[Full disclosure: I did a very little bit of consulting for Insidermedicine]

Medical Videos

http://www.medicalvideos.us/

Self-description:

“MedicalVideos.us is an online library dedicated for videos and movies related to Medicine and Surgery to provide one easy place to find whatever a doctor,medical student,nurse or any individuals involved in medicine to find whatever he/she looks for.With a simple broadband connection you can enjoy the high quality medical videos either to learn new techniques or to be updated with the latest advances in medicine.”

eMedTV

http://www.emedtv.com/

Self-description:

“The content on the eMedTV Web site is designed to help users better understand their health and play a more active role — together with their physician — in planning their healthcare.”

CDC-TV

http://www.cdc.gov/CDCtv/
Self-description:

“CDC-TV is a new online video delivery resource available through CDC.gov. Web visitors can now view or download videos on a variety of health, safety and preparedness topics. Most videos are short and all include closed-captioning (some videos are also open-captioned), so they are accessible to all interested viewers. The library of videos will expand to include single-topic presentations as well as different video series focused on children, parents, and public health professionals.”[via]

icyou

http://icyou.com/

Self-description:

Above: Embedded video in which icyou describes itself.