When I was moving between jobs at Pitt, I took a part-time consulting position with Penn State. I worked on several projects for the Penn State Center - Pittsburgh and the School of Engineering in College Park. In total, these projects ended up raising $19 Million for the University.
I don't know why we were so successful. I know I worked so very, very hard on each one. The power of the pen is amazing. Friday, I found out Penn State had received $5 Million in ARRA money for a $10 Million project I worked on.
I think it must be fluke and yet it keeps happening. I just wouldn't want to bet my career on it. I'd rather hold down a steady job and make extra money on top of that. I've already lived the life of an entrepreneur. It can be unbelievably hard.
Anyway, I imagine how I might be able to successfully write grants in the informatics world. Just take the skills I have gained and apply them to my current position and my own research as I continue to grow in academic skills. Synergy again!
The Internet and Heath Informatics class that has lead me to blogging has been great. I really like all the ideas and media that I have been introduced to.
Thanks to Elizabeth Larue!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Cataloging Abbreviations in Scientific Articles and Edward Tufte Workshop
As part of my Informatics Journal Club, it was my turn to summarize a chapter in our text. This particular chapter dealt with the use of abbreviations and I had to analyze two scientific articles based on what it covered. I decided to identify, catalog and count all of the abbreviations found in each article. I don't know why I like doing this kind of obsessive/compulsive thing but I do.
First, I captured every abbreviation with a yellow highlighter. Next, I created a small chart in the lower left-hand corner of each page to list all abbreviations found on that page. After that, I counted how many occurrences there were of each abbreviation. I built an Excel spreadsheet to capture all this information and created a scoring system for rating how well the abbreviation was used.
Unfortunately, I found I had to stop at that point. While I might be good at gathering data, I am not good at making mathematically significant meaning of what I gather. I see Statistics Classes looming large in my future!
So, I turned in this assignment electronically because I had signed up for the Edward Tufte workshop, downtown at the Westin Hotel, that was occuring oon the same day my class meets. At the workshop, listened to tips and tricks for making data and information accessible through the use of graphics. It was an interesting learning experience and I spent most of the time multi-tasking on my computer.
We got 4 beautiful hardcover books as part of our registration. It is really wild how important graphics can factor into the presentation of research results and the general transferring of information. One example of a supergraphic, as he calls them, was an illustration of the number of Napoleon's troops entering Russia, and making their way to Moscow, compared to the number of troops who actually made it out of Russia alive. The losses were staggering. They endured temperatures below -20 and -30. Crazy! Another reason NOT to go to war.
Check Professor Tufte out if you get a chance!
First, I captured every abbreviation with a yellow highlighter. Next, I created a small chart in the lower left-hand corner of each page to list all abbreviations found on that page. After that, I counted how many occurrences there were of each abbreviation. I built an Excel spreadsheet to capture all this information and created a scoring system for rating how well the abbreviation was used.
Unfortunately, I found I had to stop at that point. While I might be good at gathering data, I am not good at making mathematically significant meaning of what I gather. I see Statistics Classes looming large in my future!
So, I turned in this assignment electronically because I had signed up for the Edward Tufte workshop, downtown at the Westin Hotel, that was occuring oon the same day my class meets. At the workshop, listened to tips and tricks for making data and information accessible through the use of graphics. It was an interesting learning experience and I spent most of the time multi-tasking on my computer.
We got 4 beautiful hardcover books as part of our registration. It is really wild how important graphics can factor into the presentation of research results and the general transferring of information. One example of a supergraphic, as he calls them, was an illustration of the number of Napoleon's troops entering Russia, and making their way to Moscow, compared to the number of troops who actually made it out of Russia alive. The losses were staggering. They endured temperatures below -20 and -30. Crazy! Another reason NOT to go to war.
Check Professor Tufte out if you get a chance!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Pearls of Knowledge - MBA to PhD and Beyond
I am always looking for synergy between things. My ongoing fantasy is that I can somehow weave all aspects of my being into one discipline. I would like to bring my emotional, psychological, creative, scientific, business, physical and spiritual selves together into a purposefully cohesive whole.
My youngest daughter is 16 years old and I have 6 1/2 more years to help shepard her through two educational systems: high school and college. This gives me ample time to accomplish my own educational goals.
In my Decision Making in Complex Environments class, we are learning to do decision modeling using the professor's software program. Since I work in the area of Biomedical Informatics, I have been tossing around the idea that I could focus on how to improve significant decisions being made in the area of medicine.
This has lead me to considering the concept of getting both an MBA and a PhD in Biomedical Informatics. Business is really the discipline of considering all real-world aspects of a venture: benefits, opportunities, costs and risks. Informatics is a field that is so broad and comprehensive, like the universe, I haven't yet discovered even the edges. This provides me with the sensation that the door is wide open for exploration.
When the world becomes your oyster, it is easy to feel like a pearl!
My youngest daughter is 16 years old and I have 6 1/2 more years to help shepard her through two educational systems: high school and college. This gives me ample time to accomplish my own educational goals.
In my Decision Making in Complex Environments class, we are learning to do decision modeling using the professor's software program. Since I work in the area of Biomedical Informatics, I have been tossing around the idea that I could focus on how to improve significant decisions being made in the area of medicine.
This has lead me to considering the concept of getting both an MBA and a PhD in Biomedical Informatics. Business is really the discipline of considering all real-world aspects of a venture: benefits, opportunities, costs and risks. Informatics is a field that is so broad and comprehensive, like the universe, I haven't yet discovered even the edges. This provides me with the sensation that the door is wide open for exploration.
When the world becomes your oyster, it is easy to feel like a pearl!
Friday, March 26, 2010
USCAP 2010 - Washington, D.C. - People Love Truffles
I just returned from the USCAP Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. (United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology). It was attended by approximately 4,191 people involved in some aspect of the field of pathology.
I was part of a team of four conducting a research study involving 22 pathology residents, fellow and experts and a marketing effort to share information about SlideTutor, a computerized tutoring system for pathologists under development in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Rebecca Crowley serves as the Principal Investigator on the project. The system uses virtual slides and computerized tutoring tools to teach residents, fellows and attending pathologists visual identification of conditions and diseases.
Probably the biggest lesson I learned in the five days I spent in D.C. is that the only way to really make a project successful is to work it. Effort must be put forth. Thought must be invested. Energy must be expended. Adjustments must be continuously made to improve results.
As I gazed down our aisle at the EXPO, I saw many booths staffed by people who were sitting down and working on their computers or PDAs. Whether there was one person in our aisle or twenty, they did not alter their behaviors or work hard to engage attendees.
I spent almost 7 hours standing at the front of our booth each day for three days straight. I kept a perpetual smile on my face and said "Good Morning!" or "Good Afternoon" to as many people as possible. I engaged visitors and drew them into our booth for discussion and demonstration of our system. My marketing partner was the computer programmer on the SlideTutor project. He was able to continue the conversation or demo the system while I turned around and engaged more visitors.
Now, I must stop here and give credit where credit is due! Dr. Crowley suggested that our promotional item consist of very fine chocolates. She said it was a big draw for her at conferences. Based on this input, I chose Lindt Lindor Milk and Dark Chocolate Truffles which I placed in a white basket with colorful green tissue paper to draw attention. I also printed out two very large images of truffles to place in our booth and included, "Enjoy A Truffle" on our large sign outside the booth.
This combination did create a real draw! We immediately began a tally to keep fairly accurate count of the number of people who simply took truffles with no interaction regarding our computer system and the number who we were able to actively engage in conversations regarding the system.
Truffle count could not be used to tally the number of visitors since some showed great restraint and did not take a truffle, while other visitors took, literally, handfuls of truffles.
In our final count, we had over 394 visitors to our booth and actively engaged over 150 of those visitors in SlideTutor conversations and demonstrations.
Informatics Project - Success!
I was part of a team of four conducting a research study involving 22 pathology residents, fellow and experts and a marketing effort to share information about SlideTutor, a computerized tutoring system for pathologists under development in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. Dr. Rebecca Crowley serves as the Principal Investigator on the project. The system uses virtual slides and computerized tutoring tools to teach residents, fellows and attending pathologists visual identification of conditions and diseases.
Probably the biggest lesson I learned in the five days I spent in D.C. is that the only way to really make a project successful is to work it. Effort must be put forth. Thought must be invested. Energy must be expended. Adjustments must be continuously made to improve results.
As I gazed down our aisle at the EXPO, I saw many booths staffed by people who were sitting down and working on their computers or PDAs. Whether there was one person in our aisle or twenty, they did not alter their behaviors or work hard to engage attendees.
I spent almost 7 hours standing at the front of our booth each day for three days straight. I kept a perpetual smile on my face and said "Good Morning!" or "Good Afternoon" to as many people as possible. I engaged visitors and drew them into our booth for discussion and demonstration of our system. My marketing partner was the computer programmer on the SlideTutor project. He was able to continue the conversation or demo the system while I turned around and engaged more visitors.
Now, I must stop here and give credit where credit is due! Dr. Crowley suggested that our promotional item consist of very fine chocolates. She said it was a big draw for her at conferences. Based on this input, I chose Lindt Lindor Milk and Dark Chocolate Truffles which I placed in a white basket with colorful green tissue paper to draw attention. I also printed out two very large images of truffles to place in our booth and included, "Enjoy A Truffle" on our large sign outside the booth.
This combination did create a real draw! We immediately began a tally to keep fairly accurate count of the number of people who simply took truffles with no interaction regarding our computer system and the number who we were able to actively engage in conversations regarding the system.
Truffle count could not be used to tally the number of visitors since some showed great restraint and did not take a truffle, while other visitors took, literally, handfuls of truffles.
In our final count, we had over 394 visitors to our booth and actively engaged over 150 of those visitors in SlideTutor conversations and demonstrations.
Informatics Project - Success!
Photonovella Fun!
In my health informatics class, I was introduced to the concept of using the photonovella as a mechanism for health education. I learned that this form of communication is very strong in South America, Africa and many underdeveloped countries.
This surprised and delighted me. The idea that a comic book-like format could do so much social good was enlightening.
Sherry, my partner on this project, and I decided we would focus on childhood health/fitness/obesity. Sherry scoped out several programs for creating photonovellas and she suggested we use "Comic Life". I agreed that it had a very accessible format.
I started to consider what our story might consist of and began to run memories of childhood literary favorites through my head: Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Stuart Little, The Borrowers, etc.
I was enamored with the idea of including little people or characters. My daughter had a copy of "Indian in the Cupboard" on her bookshelf so I breezed through that and loved it. However, I realized that including small figures in our pictures would add a level of technicality that might be quite difficult and time consuming.
After I saw "Alice in Wonderland" in 3-D with my family, I thought it might be a good idea if our main character went to sleep and woke up in a different, healthier, world.
From that point, everything began to fall into place. Comic Life has 16 panels to choose from and the first decision I made was to use each panel at least once. I asked my husband to give me his initial impression of what each panel indicated visually. From there, my story started to take form as a young person transitions from unhealthy to healthy thoughts and habits.
Sherry has recruited family members to participate in the actual photo sessions and we are going to use computer-aided treatment of the "other" world photos to help distinguish them from the photos taken of things happening in this world.
This is a very cool project and I am really happy to be working on it.
More soon!
This surprised and delighted me. The idea that a comic book-like format could do so much social good was enlightening.
Sherry, my partner on this project, and I decided we would focus on childhood health/fitness/obesity. Sherry scoped out several programs for creating photonovellas and she suggested we use "Comic Life". I agreed that it had a very accessible format.
I started to consider what our story might consist of and began to run memories of childhood literary favorites through my head: Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Stuart Little, The Borrowers, etc.
I was enamored with the idea of including little people or characters. My daughter had a copy of "Indian in the Cupboard" on her bookshelf so I breezed through that and loved it. However, I realized that including small figures in our pictures would add a level of technicality that might be quite difficult and time consuming.
After I saw "Alice in Wonderland" in 3-D with my family, I thought it might be a good idea if our main character went to sleep and woke up in a different, healthier, world.
From that point, everything began to fall into place. Comic Life has 16 panels to choose from and the first decision I made was to use each panel at least once. I asked my husband to give me his initial impression of what each panel indicated visually. From there, my story started to take form as a young person transitions from unhealthy to healthy thoughts and habits.
Sherry has recruited family members to participate in the actual photo sessions and we are going to use computer-aided treatment of the "other" world photos to help distinguish them from the photos taken of things happening in this world.
This is a very cool project and I am really happy to be working on it.
More soon!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
More HTML Frustration
I can move forward but my ignorance holds no bounds in a new environment. I can do only so much and then, I am turned back, by a message
Error: 403
You are not authorized to view this page
You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied.
Please try the following:
Click the Refresh button to try again with different credentials.
If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Open the www.pitt.edu home page, and then look for links to the information you want.
I have worked without understanding. Look at how interesting my HTML appears in this post:
Pittsburgh Marathon
<br />
<br />
<br />
<title>This is a link to the Pittsburgh Marathon. You can use this link to access all information about the <br />
2010 Marathon.<br />
<br />
Link here:
Karma Lisa Edwards
2-28-10
link to top
Marathon Tips
This is a link to a website with marathon tips. You can use this link to access a variety of information about preparing for a marathon.
<br />
<br />
<font color="#006600"> Link Here:</font><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.essortment.com/all/marathontrain_rerg.htm"<a/a><br />
<br />
<p>put text in here <p><br />
<table border="2" width=75%><tr> <td>Race Date: .</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>Start Location: .</td> </tr>
</table><br />
<br />
<ul><li>Search 1</li>
<li>Search 2</li>
<li>Search 3</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Hunt 1</li>
<li>Hunt 2</li>
<li>Hunt 3</li>
</ol><br />
<br />
<br />
<!--Avatar picture--><br />
<img src="avatar.jpg"><br />
<br />
<!--My name--><br />
<title>Karma Lisa Edwards
2-28-10
link to top
Eating and Drinking During the Marathon
This is a link to a YouTube video about what to eat and drink during a marathon.
<br />
<br />
<font color="#006600"> Link Here:</font><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-GzSmPan60&feature=related"<a/a><br />
<br />
<p>Put text in here<p><br />
<table border="2" width=75%><tr> <td>Race Date: .</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>Start Location: .</td> </tr>
</table><br />
<br />
<ul><li>Search 1</li>
<li>Search 2</li>
<li>Search 3</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Hunt 1</li>
<li>Hunt 2</li>
<li>Hunt 3</li>
</ol><br />
<!--Avatar picture--><br />
<img src="avatar.jpg"><br />
<br />
<!--My name--><br />
<title>Karma Lisa Edwards
2-28-10
link to top
Top Marathon Injuries
This is a link to an animation I made called Marathon Man III. It covers the top ten injuries <br />
marathon runner face.
<br />
<br />
<font color="#006600"> Link Here:</font><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6065191/"<a/a><br />
<br />
<table border="2" width=75%><tr> <td>Race Date: .</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>Start Location: .</td> </tr>
</table><br />
<br />
<ul><li>Search 1</li>
<li>Search 2</li>
<li>Search 3</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol><li>Hunt 1</li>
<li>Hunt 2</li>
<li>Hunt 3</li>
</ol><br />
<br />
<!--Avatar picture--><br />
<img src="avatar.jpg"><br />
<br />
<!--My name--><br />
<title>Karma Lisa Edwards
2-28-10
link to top
It is a test. Informatics is great!
This is my second sentence.
This is my third sentence.
This is a color sentence
This is a bookman size 7 sentence.
This is an italics sentence.
This is an underline sentence.
This is a bold sentence.
This is a heading sentence.
Error: 403
You are not authorized to view this page
You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied.
Please try the following:
Click the Refresh button to try again with different credentials.
If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Open the www.pitt.edu home page, and then look for links to the information you want.
I have worked without understanding. Look at how interesting my HTML appears in this post:
Pittsburgh Marathon
Link here:
Put text in here about the marathon
| Race Date: . |
| Start Location: . |
- Search 1
- Search 2
- Search 3
- Hunt 1
- Hunt 2
- Hunt 3
link to top
Marathon Tips
2-28-10
link to top
Eating and Drinking During the Marathon
2-28-10
link to top
Top Marathon Injuries
2-28-10
link to top
It is a test. Informatics is great!
This is my second sentence.
This is my third sentence.
This is a color sentence
This is a bookman size 7 sentence.
This is an italics sentence.
This is an underline sentence.
This is a bold sentence.
this is a Heading 3 sentence.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
HTML Frustration - Not enough data - Not enough memory
I am trying to work on the creation of my website. I thought that it would be easy. I thought I had enough information and enough recall from class a week and a half ago but no such luck. What seemed natural in class, following instructions like a good little sheep, seems totally inaccessible now.
So, here I sit, struggling to even figure out where to start. I can't remember how to connect, can't access my original notepad (it has turned into an html document and shows none of the code).
This reminds me of my very first encounter with a mainframe computer. It was my first year at the University of Iowa and I took a computer class. I thought I understood it all. I thought I could reproduce what I learned. I went back in the computer lab and nothing I did worked. I looked at the instructions, I followed the instructions and could not get it to work for hours. Turned out I needed to change the capitaliztion. I can't remember now if I should have done it lowercase or uppercase but it was something that simple.
This feels the same. I know so little and yet it will be simple things that I find out I have to do to make things work.
This is the intersection between my health and my informatics. My body is not happy I am sitting and working on trying to learn HTML. I cannot learn more informatics if I stop working and trying.
There's the rub!
So, here I sit, struggling to even figure out where to start. I can't remember how to connect, can't access my original notepad (it has turned into an html document and shows none of the code).
This reminds me of my very first encounter with a mainframe computer. It was my first year at the University of Iowa and I took a computer class. I thought I understood it all. I thought I could reproduce what I learned. I went back in the computer lab and nothing I did worked. I looked at the instructions, I followed the instructions and could not get it to work for hours. Turned out I needed to change the capitaliztion. I can't remember now if I should have done it lowercase or uppercase but it was something that simple.
This feels the same. I know so little and yet it will be simple things that I find out I have to do to make things work.
This is the intersection between my health and my informatics. My body is not happy I am sitting and working on trying to learn HTML. I cannot learn more informatics if I stop working and trying.
There's the rub!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Give Me Your Definition Of Biomedical Informatics - Quick! Don't Think! Say The First Thing That Comes Into Your Head!
This week, someone at work actually asked me this question, in all seriousness. Without resorting to any long and specific answer, I replied, "Medical information and data".
Our Health Informatics online class this week focused on a variety of e-topics that were very interesting and informative and definitely gave me much food for thought.
We answered the questions below which were organized into four topic clusters:
#1
Is it necessarily wrong to not include a diagnosis in a person's EHR?
Is it necessarily wrong to not include a treatment in a person's EHR?
If the patient asks to have a treatment not in their EHR because of their current insurance fee and their present ability to pay bills, and the physician had already decided to not charge the patient for the treatment, is it okay to not document the treatment?
If an insurance company changes their grading criteria to cover an individual which would lead to a person being dropped by their carrier because of a documented diagnosis, is there any recourse for the individual?
#2
What is the process for regulating a drug in the US?
What US regulated drug is purchased online the most purchased?
Are their moneyback guarantees from online pharmacies?
Is there phone support for online pharmacies?
Is the phone support about the website or about the drug?
What is the best marketing approach for online pharmacies?
#3
What are peer-to-peer computer applications in health care?
What are some existing peer-to-peer computer applications used presently for health care?
Have there been any peer-to-peer tools repurposed to assist in health care?
What are some possible uses of peer-to-peer computing in healthcare that are not being employed currently?
#4
What are e-communities in health care?
How do e-communities in healthcare work? (e.g.this would be an e-community that discusses specific health topics)
Are health e-communities influencing the way health care is practiced?
Has there been any "harm" blamed on the information gained from or participation in a health e-community?
In attempting to research and answer these questions, we delved into governmental agencies, law, ethics, opinion, fact, fiction, online investigation, advice, projection and conjecture. Pretty impressive, if I may say so myself . . . and I most certainly do!
:0)
Our Health Informatics online class this week focused on a variety of e-topics that were very interesting and informative and definitely gave me much food for thought.
We answered the questions below which were organized into four topic clusters:
#1
Is it necessarily wrong to not include a diagnosis in a person's EHR?
Is it necessarily wrong to not include a treatment in a person's EHR?
If the patient asks to have a treatment not in their EHR because of their current insurance fee and their present ability to pay bills, and the physician had already decided to not charge the patient for the treatment, is it okay to not document the treatment?
If an insurance company changes their grading criteria to cover an individual which would lead to a person being dropped by their carrier because of a documented diagnosis, is there any recourse for the individual?
#2
What is the process for regulating a drug in the US?
What US regulated drug is purchased online the most purchased?
Are their moneyback guarantees from online pharmacies?
Is there phone support for online pharmacies?
Is the phone support about the website or about the drug?
What is the best marketing approach for online pharmacies?
#3
What are peer-to-peer computer applications in health care?
What are some existing peer-to-peer computer applications used presently for health care?
Have there been any peer-to-peer tools repurposed to assist in health care?
What are some possible uses of peer-to-peer computing in healthcare that are not being employed currently?
#4
What are e-communities in health care?
How do e-communities in healthcare work? (e.g.this would be an e-community that discusses specific health topics)
Are health e-communities influencing the way health care is practiced?
Has there been any "harm" blamed on the information gained from or participation in a health e-community?
In attempting to research and answer these questions, we delved into governmental agencies, law, ethics, opinion, fact, fiction, online investigation, advice, projection and conjecture. Pretty impressive, if I may say so myself . . . and I most certainly do!
:0)
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Technology and Snow
Similar to many in Pittsburgh, I have been struggling with snow removal for the past five days. With one crude tool, a shovel, I have tackled the weight of hundreds of pounds of snow. Compared to ideas, technology and the internet, snow is much tougher to deal with. I feel traumatized. Experiencing a big snow storm is humbling. We are fragile little people up against a powerful force of nature.
In terms of medical informatics, this would be a great time to look up all manner of medical advice on the internet.
It's a wonder we shovel at all:
http://www.usnews.com/health/family-health/heart/articles/2010/02/11/fitness-a-factor-in-snow-shoveling-injuries.html
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/10/snow.shoveling.back.heart/
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00060
Let's start with my ...
Neck:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/neck_strain/article_em.htm
I feel as if I have sprained by neck muscles with the effort of hoisting a fully-laden shovel repeatedly over my head as I attempt to toss the snow over my chain-link fence.
Shoulders:
http://www.shoulder-pain-management.com/shoulderdislocation.html
Perhaps a person can partially dislocate their shoulders through the constant motion of shoveling for five days.
Upper arms:
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_bicepten_sma.htm
or
http://www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/bicep-weakness
After shoveling for many hours, over the course of many days in a row, my arms are sore and weak. Last night, at a certain point, I was unable to lift my arms high enough to throw snow over our fence.
Wrists:
http://orthopedics.about.com/od/handwrist/a/wristpain.htm
Both of my wrists feel swollen and painful in the joint area. I have a great technique for cracking them, by wrapping my opposite hand around the wrist in question and squeezing. Usually, my left wrist does not pop but over the last few days, it does.
Back:
http://www.spineuniverse.com/wellness/ergonomics/tips-snow-shoveling-how-avoid-back-pain
I feel like a have a chronic pull in my back muscles and my stomach is sore from tightening it as I shoveled.
Ankles:
http://www.medicinenet.com/ankle_pain_and_tendinitis/article.htm
I have the sensation that my ankles are about to give way as I have had to lift up on my toes carrying 15-25 or more pounds on the shovel with each scoop.
Amazingly, even under these conditions and sensations, many of us are able to make progress and improve our situations. This must be true for other forms of progress...one step at a time, one shovelful at a time. Work to exhaustion, sleep and work again. Increase efficiency, problem solve and take action. The snow storm has been a mighty life lesson. Dig or Die. Well, not quite that dramatic since I can stop any time I want, go back in the house and re-enter all the comforts of modern technology and home sweet home!
In terms of medical informatics, this would be a great time to look up all manner of medical advice on the internet.
It's a wonder we shovel at all:
http://www.usnews.com/health/family-health/heart/articles/2010/02/11/fitness-a-factor-in-snow-shoveling-injuries.html
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/10/snow.shoveling.back.heart/
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00060
Let's start with my ...
Neck:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/neck_strain/article_em.htm
I feel as if I have sprained by neck muscles with the effort of hoisting a fully-laden shovel repeatedly over my head as I attempt to toss the snow over my chain-link fence.
Shoulders:
http://www.shoulder-pain-management.com/shoulderdislocation.html
Perhaps a person can partially dislocate their shoulders through the constant motion of shoveling for five days.
Upper arms:
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_bicepten_sma.htm
or
http://www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/bicep-weakness
After shoveling for many hours, over the course of many days in a row, my arms are sore and weak. Last night, at a certain point, I was unable to lift my arms high enough to throw snow over our fence.
Wrists:
http://orthopedics.about.com/od/handwrist/a/wristpain.htm
Both of my wrists feel swollen and painful in the joint area. I have a great technique for cracking them, by wrapping my opposite hand around the wrist in question and squeezing. Usually, my left wrist does not pop but over the last few days, it does.
Back:
http://www.spineuniverse.com/wellness/ergonomics/tips-snow-shoveling-how-avoid-back-pain
I feel like a have a chronic pull in my back muscles and my stomach is sore from tightening it as I shoveled.
Ankles:
http://www.medicinenet.com/ankle_pain_and_tendinitis/article.htm
I have the sensation that my ankles are about to give way as I have had to lift up on my toes carrying 15-25 or more pounds on the shovel with each scoop.
Amazingly, even under these conditions and sensations, many of us are able to make progress and improve our situations. This must be true for other forms of progress...one step at a time, one shovelful at a time. Work to exhaustion, sleep and work again. Increase efficiency, problem solve and take action. The snow storm has been a mighty life lesson. Dig or Die. Well, not quite that dramatic since I can stop any time I want, go back in the house and re-enter all the comforts of modern technology and home sweet home!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Artificial Memory and Computer-Aided Intelligence
I am currently taking a class in Problem Solving and Creativity. We did a session on estimating on Monday night. At first, Professor Saaty was irritated with the class because we couldn't do things like calculate the amount of energy the earth receives from the sun, like it is something we do everyday, similar to tying our shoes! After a few minutes, I pulled out my laptop to access my Computer-Aided Intelligence. This greatly improved the situation. The internet has become the Oracle. It has answers to the most amazingly diverse and indepth questions such as:
1- What fraction of the energy of the sun is received by the earth?
2- How many people can you feed from an acre? The U.S. has 343 million acres (divide by 2.47 to get hectares) of arable land. How many people can it sustain?
3- Estimate the number of people that can comfortably survive on this earth.
4- What is the total volume of all people’s body on earth?
5- How high would the seas rise if the Antarctic polar ice cap of 5 million square miles area by two miles high melts?
6- Estimate the amount of oil the U.S. consumes per day. It is 1/5 the world total (85 million Barrels).
7- Estimate the number of bricks that cover Joncaire Street and validate your estimate with data. Go gather the data. How many pickup trucks can carry that many brick?
8- Estimate the number of people in the U.S who are between the ages of 20 and 40.
9- Estimate in tons the amount of food the U.S. population consumes in one year.
10- Estimate how many egg laying chickens there are in the United States.
11- Estimate the annual budget of the University of Pittsburgh.
12- Estimate how long you are going to live using heredity, exercise and diet and how hard you strain yourself.
13- How many people die in the world each day?
14. How many squares of toilet paper does the average American use in a year?
15- How many Wall-mart stores are there in the world?
Seriously! Without help from multiple books and experts, who could ever figure these things out quickly. With the clack of a few keys, I had my answers. Now that's amazing!
The internet can be this helpful in medical situations. Of course, self-diagnosis is tricky and complicated conditions and diseases may take some real concentrated study to understand. However, we truly have the world at our fingertips.
1- What fraction of the energy of the sun is received by the earth?
2- How many people can you feed from an acre? The U.S. has 343 million acres (divide by 2.47 to get hectares) of arable land. How many people can it sustain?
3- Estimate the number of people that can comfortably survive on this earth.
4- What is the total volume of all people’s body on earth?
5- How high would the seas rise if the Antarctic polar ice cap of 5 million square miles area by two miles high melts?
6- Estimate the amount of oil the U.S. consumes per day. It is 1/5 the world total (85 million Barrels).
7- Estimate the number of bricks that cover Joncaire Street and validate your estimate with data. Go gather the data. How many pickup trucks can carry that many brick?
8- Estimate the number of people in the U.S who are between the ages of 20 and 40.
9- Estimate in tons the amount of food the U.S. population consumes in one year.
10- Estimate how many egg laying chickens there are in the United States.
11- Estimate the annual budget of the University of Pittsburgh.
12- Estimate how long you are going to live using heredity, exercise and diet and how hard you strain yourself.
13- How many people die in the world each day?
14. How many squares of toilet paper does the average American use in a year?
15- How many Wall-mart stores are there in the world?
Seriously! Without help from multiple books and experts, who could ever figure these things out quickly. With the clack of a few keys, I had my answers. Now that's amazing!
The internet can be this helpful in medical situations. Of course, self-diagnosis is tricky and complicated conditions and diseases may take some real concentrated study to understand. However, we truly have the world at our fingertips.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Medical Informaticists ... Get Crazy - Make a Real Difference!
In my Biomedical Informatics Journal Club on Thursday, we had a very interesting conversation regarding an article about the Chinese using XML to help build a medical records system. Our instructor said the article didn't seem to reveal much that wasn't already known. This lead to a discussion regarding the conservative nature of many academic and research environments.
Now, I have spent years in both university and entrepreneurial/corporate settings. In many ways, academics and research are very different from commercial environments. Businesses focuses on money, products and services, customers and, if large enough, shareholders. Academics and research center on solving problems, knowledge, sometimes only for knowledge's sake, and transferrence of ideas.
In either workspace, liberal or conservative views may prevail. Innovation is not necessarily pursued. Many people are content to do things the same way, over and over again, without improvements in efficiency, productivity, technology, etc.
To address significant advancements in technology and information science, an entire discipline has evolved to apply these progressive areas to medicine. One of the challenges of medical informatics is to take intellectual and technological ideas and create practical applications that contribute to the advancement of medicine.
I believe in continuous improvement, whenever and however possible: Personal improvement and professional improvement. I also believe in successful execution of ideas. True improvement requires both visionaries, with the freedom to think in broadstrokes, and operations experts who are supported in their efforts to bring ideas to completion.
I was raised in a very creative home with an artist father and a writer mother. Vision came easy but I have had to work very hard to become a person capable of follow-through and accomplishment. I have gained a very serious appreciation for the team effort required to complete any projects of significance.
I am really enjoying the synergy between my job, my classwork, and my personal growth occuring at this point in time. What fun!
Now, I have spent years in both university and entrepreneurial/corporate settings. In many ways, academics and research are very different from commercial environments. Businesses focuses on money, products and services, customers and, if large enough, shareholders. Academics and research center on solving problems, knowledge, sometimes only for knowledge's sake, and transferrence of ideas.
In either workspace, liberal or conservative views may prevail. Innovation is not necessarily pursued. Many people are content to do things the same way, over and over again, without improvements in efficiency, productivity, technology, etc.
To address significant advancements in technology and information science, an entire discipline has evolved to apply these progressive areas to medicine. One of the challenges of medical informatics is to take intellectual and technological ideas and create practical applications that contribute to the advancement of medicine.
I believe in continuous improvement, whenever and however possible: Personal improvement and professional improvement. I also believe in successful execution of ideas. True improvement requires both visionaries, with the freedom to think in broadstrokes, and operations experts who are supported in their efforts to bring ideas to completion.
I was raised in a very creative home with an artist father and a writer mother. Vision came easy but I have had to work very hard to become a person capable of follow-through and accomplishment. I have gained a very serious appreciation for the team effort required to complete any projects of significance.
I am really enjoying the synergy between my job, my classwork, and my personal growth occuring at this point in time. What fun!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
STAND UP FOR GODSAKE! or How to Keep Working on Informatics Even When Your @$$ Hurts!
Past a certain point, the only way I can go on working is to stand up at my desk. I tilt the computer screen upwards and have three boxes that I arrange to lift everything to my height. I put one large box under my keyboard and two smaller boxes under my mousepad and mouse. Sitting, I feel awful and know I'm doing damage to my body. Standing, I can continue.
Tonight, we are doing our first online class for Internet and Health Informatics. No matter what, doing any work after work seems like insanity.
Okay, back to business...
... I'm now returning from a several hour journey into health informatics, I am overwhelmed with the work we have been given.
Technology is wonderful. It puts a plethora of information at our fingertips immediately. However, our brains are not much further advanced than cavepeople so the level of concentration it takes to rub two sticks together has to be applied to a bunch of little, teeny, tiny marks organized into representational fragments on a page that need to be recognized, interpreted, translated, processed, internalized, analyzed and the analysis communicated to meet the requirements of this class.
In all honesty, I will need to take an estimated 3 additional hours to work on these assignments.
What I am learning is that the people who create communications are often out of touch with their audiences!!
Go figure!
Tonight, we are doing our first online class for Internet and Health Informatics. No matter what, doing any work after work seems like insanity.
Okay, back to business...
... I'm now returning from a several hour journey into health informatics, I am overwhelmed with the work we have been given.
Technology is wonderful. It puts a plethora of information at our fingertips immediately. However, our brains are not much further advanced than cavepeople so the level of concentration it takes to rub two sticks together has to be applied to a bunch of little, teeny, tiny marks organized into representational fragments on a page that need to be recognized, interpreted, translated, processed, internalized, analyzed and the analysis communicated to meet the requirements of this class.
In all honesty, I will need to take an estimated 3 additional hours to work on these assignments.
What I am learning is that the people who create communications are often out of touch with their audiences!!
Go figure!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Artificial Intelligence Article: An Artificial Intelligence Program to Advise Physicians Regarding Antimicrobial Therapy
For my Biomedical Informatics Journal Club I read the article listed above in order to make a presentation tomorrow. This was great companion work to the Medical Informatics class. It was about an antimicrobial therapy consultation system.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) seeks to mimic/approximate the reasoning techniques of an intelligent human. I think that is facinating. Tonight, we learned that the average population is reading at a 5th grade level. Therefore, conceptually, AI has the capability of demonstrating greater intelligence than the majority of the population.
As with consumer medical health education, the methodology of this therapy consultation system seeks to present information in formats that are familiar to the user.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) seeks to mimic/approximate the reasoning techniques of an intelligent human. I think that is facinating. Tonight, we learned that the average population is reading at a 5th grade level. Therefore, conceptually, AI has the capability of demonstrating greater intelligence than the majority of the population.
As with consumer medical health education, the methodology of this therapy consultation system seeks to present information in formats that are familiar to the user.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
1-7-10 Posting
Hi All,
This is my first attempt at blogging. I am inspired and plan to learn a lot.
Karma
This is my first attempt at blogging. I am inspired and plan to learn a lot.
Karma
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