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)
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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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