Make Yourself Google-able

Whether you like it or not, we live in a Goggle world. It is important to control the online information about you because throughout your medical career people will be Goggling you all the time:

- If you are a resident applying for a fellowship, the fellowship director may search for your name online. For example, BusinessWeek reports that a college professor in North Carolina has scanned Facebook.com profiles to determine which students to accept into his class.

- If you are finishing a residency and looking for a job, your prospective employer may check you online identity.

- If you are in practice, you patients may be Googling your name.

Lifehacker has some advice how to build an online identity you can rely on. One of them is to own a domain with your name. For example, Kent Bottles, M.D. of SoundPractice.com owns KentBottles.com. For more tips, check out Geek to Live: Have a say in what Google says about you.

Google Page Creator makes creating your own website easy and free. Dr. Joshua Schwimmer's page is a good example.

References:

Geek to Live: Have a say in what Google says about you. Lifehacker.com, also image source.
Big Brother Is Reading Your Blog. BusinessWeek.com.
How to Clean Up Your Digital Dirt. CollegeJournal.
Help! If employers Google me, they'll find a racy site. CNN Money.
It’s a Big, Blog World Out There: Five Quick Tips to Building a Better Blog. ChangeThis.com.
Check domain availability on InstantDomainSearch.com

Further reading:

Doctors should Google themselves? ScienceRoll.com.
Use Facebook as a Marketing Tool. LifeHacker.com, 09/2007.
Build a Facebook Profile You Can Be Proud Of. Quick Sprout, 09/2007.
Use My Photo? Not Without Permission. NYTimes, 10/2007.
Ego Surfing: How to Perform That Daily Ritual of Googling Your Name. Digital Inspiration, 11/2007.
Racy photo costs mayor her job. CNN Video, 02/2008.
Two faces of people search. FT.com, 04/2008.
How to manage your reputation online. Medical Economics, 01/2009.
Journal of Clinical Orthodontics published an article by SEO exert "MasterGoogle .com" on how to to outrank your competition... http://goo.gl/J8pzL

Balloon in the Stomach as Alternative to Gastric Bypass

Italian doctors use an alternative to gastric bypass surgery: a rubber balloon is inserted into the stomach during a 20-minute procedure.

This is a simple and less-invasive way to fight obesity than surgery but the weight loss is often temporary.

The method also has its skeptics. Dr. Schreiber, director of the Cleveland Center for Bariatric Surgery at St. Vincent Charity Hospital, says that the procedure was used in the U.S. 15 years ago but the weight loss was negligible and there were too many complications.

References:
Stomach balloons can help in weight battle. Jan. 30, 2006. MSNBC.
Stomach balloons are latest tool to help obese patients lose weight. February 05, 2006. The Plain Dealer.
Europeans Find Extra Options for Staying Slim. January 3, 2006. The New York Times
Image source: Stomach diagram, Wikipedia.

How Can a Doctor Use Google Page Creator?

There are multiple uses for the newly-launched Google Page Creator, available at pages.google.com. See which one fits you:

Easy to Create Website

Google Page Creator is an Ajax-based Geocities clone with a storage limit of 100 MB. Your web address is examlple.googlepages.com. "Example" is your Google/Gmail account name. I think that this product actually has a future: it is easy to use and offers a great storage. This does not apply to the strange-looking Google Base. Analysts speculate that Pages is a part of the much rumored Google Web Office Suite.

100-MB File Storage

You can upload any file types: MS Word, Excel, PDF, Flash. Google Pages works like a great storage cabinet, better than the meager 15 MB offered by Yahoo! Geocities. You can easily archive your PowerPoint presentations online.

Online CV

Google Pages looks like a good solution to creating a resume page when you look for a job. This can be useful for residents applying for a fellowship or starting their first job. Don't forget to buy the domain myname.com and make it redirect to your googlepages website ($ 9 per year from Godaddy.com). "Myname" is your own name, check if it is available on InstantDomainSearch.com.

By creating a resume website, you have at least some control over your online identity. You would like your patients to see you when they Google you instead of somebody else's website.

Dr. Schwimmer's and Dr. Savatta's pages are good examples.

Small Practice Website

Google Pages can be used to host a physician practice website. Almost 50 percent of small businesses do not have a website. Microsoft Office Live is also geared towards the same customers with the goal of making a small business website very easy.

Bottom Line: Google Page Creator offers more freedom to web users which is always a good thing.

Update 4/7/2007:
Potential employers and patients will search for your name on Google before they even see you. Further reading: Googling your date. CNN, 4/2007.

Update 02/28/2008:
Google Sites based on the wiki JotSpot seems to take page creation to the next level. See the video below:



References:
Google Page Creator. Philipp Lenssen.
Microsoft Sets New Web Apps. PC World.
Web-Based Office Live Offers Basic Services But Isn't Very Flexible. WSJ.com.
How Good is Microsoft Live? GigaOm.com.
Google's push for business. Download Squad.
Simplicity and power. Google Blog.
Building a Site in the Times of Google. Google Operating System, 01/2007.
Google Digital Portfolio. Google Operating System, 01/2007.
Online Presence and Why You Need It. Paul Stamatiou, 04/2007.
Use My Photo? Not Without Permission. NYTimes, 10/2007.
Google Profiles. Google Operating System, 12/2007.

Related:
The Web 2.0 Résumé. NYTimes, 03/2008.
Two faces of people search. FT.com, 04/2008.
LinkedIn Tips and Tweaks: Do More with your LinkedIn Account. Digital Inspiration, 05/2008.
How to manage your reputation online. Medical Economics, 01/2009.

Updated: 01/27/2009

Is There a Florida Panther?

I did not know that the Florida panther still existed. According to the Washington Post, there are only 80 animals left in the southern part of the state.
References:
Plan to Protect Florida Panther Reopens Issue of Its Identity. Washington Post.
Florida Panther. NPS.gov.
Image source: nps.gov

Blogging for Beginners

ProBlogger offers some advice for PreBloggers and NewBloggers.

The topics covered so far:

What is a Blog?
23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers - Is a Blog Right for You?
How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog
Choosing a Blog Platform
Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog
Blog Tools
Blog Design
Basic HTML Tags
Making Money from Blogs


There is more in the New York Times:

- Blargon, the jargon of blogs

- Blogs to Riches. The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom. What is an A-list and a Z-list blogger?


Medical Blogs

We don't want Grand Rounds populated only by A-list medical bloggers, do we? Give Z-bloggers a chance...


References:
10 Tips for Becoming a Great Corporate Blogger. ScoutBlogging.com.
It’s a Big, Blog World Out There: Five Quick Tips to Building a Better Blog. ChangeThis.com.
Image source: Problogger.net

Watch Medical Grand Rounds Online

Leading medical institutions offer free webcasts of their Grand Rounds and other educational presentations.

A short list of free webcasts:

- The Cleveland Clinic Grand Rounds

- The Cleveland Clinic Webcasts

- The University of Arizona Medicine Grand Rounds

Feel free to add to the list in the comments section.

Several months ago I predicted that the major players in the medical education field will start audio podcasting. It's a fact now: Medical Podcasts: A Complete List.

It will not be long before these Grand Rounds videos are available on iTunes. The rumor is that the new video iPod screen will be "huge" covering the whole front side of the device.

Image source: OpenClipart

Aranesp may cause antibody production leading to RBC aplasia and anemia

Darbepoetin (Aranesp) is often given to patients with anemia of chronic disease (e.g. due to ESRD) to stimulate RBC production.

Postmarketting studies showed that Aranesp can induce the development of neutralizing antibodies to erythropoietin. These antibodies suppress RBC production leading to pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) and profound anemia. Other blood cell lines may also be affected resulting in cytopenia.

This side effect of Aranesp use was known for a while now and the new development is that FDA added a warning to the drug label. The "Dear Health Care Professional" letter was sent in November 2005 (pdf).

Any patient who develops a sudden loss of response to Aranesp, anemia and low reticulocyte counts should be evaluated for causative factors. If no cause is found, the patient should be tested for antibodies to erythropoietin and Aranesp therapy should be stopped.

Do the other recombinant human erythropoietins cause PRCA?

Yes, all recombinant erythropoetins can cause PRCA. This is not Aranesp-specific.

How often does PRCA occur with recombinant erythropoietin use?

Antibody-associated PRCA is extremely rare. During the first 10 years of therapy with recombinant human erythropoietin, only three cases of PRCA have been reported. There was a peak in the incidence of PRCA in 2001 and 2002 which was likely due to a change in the formulation of one of the epoetins.

Update 3/28/2007:

FDA added a black box warning to the labels of all currently available Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents (ESAs). Source: ASN.

References:
FDA Safety Changes: Cipro, Aranesp, Marcaine. Medscape.
Epoetin-Induced Autoimmune Pure Red Cell Aplasia. J Am Soc Nephrol 16: 67-69, 2005
Aranesp® Prescribing Information: Adverse Reactions.
Pure Red-Cell Aplasia and Epoetin Therapy. NEJM, Volume 351:1403-1408, September 30, 2004, Number 14.
Pure Red Cell Aplasia With Anti-Erythropoietin Antibodies Occurs More Commonly With One Formulation of Epoetin Alfa than Another. Medscape.
Pure Red Cell Aplasia. eMedicine.

Image source: OpenClipart.org

Medical Search Engines

A search engine that specializes in a particular field is called a "vertical" engine.

Only time will tell if the future belongs to "vertical" or "broad" search. Broad search is exemplified by Google where millions of websites fight for the coveted 10 spots on the first page of results.

If you tired of assembling queries like "pneumonia + eMedicine", go to one of the medical search engines where professional websites are included by default.

The list below shows some vertical search engines focused on medicine:

- Kosmix

- OmniMedicalSearch covers even Web 2.0 (whatever that means related to search results)

- Healthline

Notes from Dr. RW recently pointed out to Dermap: a Google Images enhancement for dermatology. Clicking on a body map generates a list differential diagnoses which can be entered into Google image search.

References:
Healthline, Kosmix & MammaHealth - Medical Search in the News. UBC Google Scholar Blog.
Image source: OpenClipart.org.

How do you deal with medical blog comments?

No Comments?

In No Comments Pushback, Russell Beattie writes why he stopped allowing readers to comment on on his blog:

The bottom line: "I’ve repeated from the very beginning in response to all sorts of criticism over the years, I will publish this weblog how I want, about what I want and you read if you want. That’s it, very simple."

Two years later, Russel turned on (and then turned off) comments once again: "The comments lately have been especially bad, so I just got rid of them all together... I mean, one moron recently suggested that I *delete* the post he was commenting on."

GruntDoc had a similar moment but then he switched the comments back on.

My Opinion

I regularly delete comments if I find them offensive to other readers or commercial rather informative in nature.

Most bloggers think of their blog as a personal space but at the same time, this space is available to the public and you want other people to visit it, right? Very few people write a blog only for themselves, admit it...

Two Schools of Thought

You have to strike the right balance between letting other people using your blog space and maintaining its original purpose.

Some bloggers, like Jacob of DocNotes, let comments stay in moderation for a while before they appear. This takes away the instant gratification of seeing your comment under the blog post and it reminds me of the journal peer review process. This is one approach and it's not bad.

Others, like Kevin, M.D., let pretty much any comments appear instantly which, I think, adds to the unique experience of reading Kevin's blog. He has short posts with a line or two of his personal opinion and 20-40 comments from different points of view (Note: Kevin has modified his blogging style since this post was originally published in 2006). The comments often dwarf the post but you get a fair idea of what the blogosphere thinks of a particular issue. See what Kevin has to say about the comments on his blog: A word on comments.

A NYTimes blogger writes about his virtual friendship (?) with a commenter on his blog:

There is a serial commenter on my blog and others at The New York Times, “Mark Klein, M.D.,” an older, accomplished gentleman with a lot of opinions and time on his hands. He can be a bit of a crank, politically incorrect to the point of provocation, and yet he always writes as though we are friends.

And maybe we are. A week ago, he posted a note saying that he was traveling to Israel and that I wasn’t to interpret his sudden silence as a sign that he’d lost interest in me. As if I cared.

Except that I did. I sort of missed him.

Conclusion

Feel free to comment. Comments are part of what makes blogs living organisms and we don't want to kill that, do we?

Consider adding a commenting policy to your blog and you can use mine as a draft:

Commenting policy

This web site has an open comment policy. All reader comments that are offensive to other readers will be deleted. Spam comments and those that are commercial rather informative in nature will be deleted.

Comments from Twitter

@SeattleMamaDoc: Rarely censor. Delete only if they are mean/off-topic/commercial

References

Comment Spam Discussed at Northern Voice. Scobleizer.
Guidelines for comments. Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO.
Dealing With Haters. YouTube Blog.
24-Hour Newspaper People. David Carr.
Bored with my blog. Russell Beattie’s Weblog, 04/2008.
The Day I Was Flamed At My Blog (And 7 Steps To Handle Flames With Grace). ProBlogger, 2010.

"Turning Off the Comment Demon" http://goo.gl/3ySR - Newspaper site requires credit card number to post a comment, no comments since then.

"Why did you turn your blog comments off?" (cartoon)
Image source: Wikipedia

Interesting Post in Medical Blogs This Week

A patient is unhappy with the hospitalists

"Although I can understand the practical advantages of the “hospitalist” movement, as a patient, I’m not at all fond of it.", writes Moof and explains why she fired his PCP who transferred her care to a hospitalist during a recent admission. DB’s Medical Rants and Notes from Dr. RW also discuss the pros and cons of the hospitalist movement. DB summarized what Moof and the commenters were saying.

How do patients choose a doctor?

"Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died" is among the other pieces of advice in The Times Union. Link via Kevin, M.D.

The physical exam is useless

Kevin, M.D.: "We already have robot doctors making hospital rounds. In the near future, doctors won't have to even touch their patients." Really?...

Why don't they teach doctors useful stuff?

The Patient's Doctor lists a few useful skills he feels medical students need to be taught to help them become better doctors:

1. How to talk to patients
2. How to run a business
3. How to network with colleagues
4. How to manage money

Notes from Dr. RW respectfully disagrees and points out that more emphasis should be placed on basic sciences.

Graham is a medical student who wants medicine to teach him how to manage chronic diseases.

Was the WHI fat reduction trial asking the wrong question?

Retired doc's thoughts comments that WHI fat reduction trial published in JAMA did not distinguish between the intake of total, saturated and unsaturated fat. This could explain why the intervention (low fat diet) had no effect on the risk of CAD or stroke. Medpundit also comments on the study.

Reference:
Low-Fat Dietary Pattern and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease. JAMA, Vol. 295 No. 6, February 8, 2006
Low-Fat Diets Disappoint for Cancer and Heart Disease. MedPage Today

Broken hearts, through the ages

Medgadget covers the scientific evidence behind the expression "broken heart".

Be Ready for a Blog Attack

Via Micro Persuasion:

"The Economist this week looks at how bloggers impact corporate reputations... Every company - and I mean every - must have a plan for how they will handle a blog crisis."

The hospitals are not different. It is just a matter of time before a major health institution realizes that is subject to negative blogging by a patient(s) or a doctor.

With sites like RateMDs.com where negative reviews are published, it is likely that soon a "bad publicity" post will make it to the top 10 results on Google. Consumers often Google their health conditions and 10% of visitors to a hospital's website become patients.

A hospital should be prepared for a "blog attack" just like any other company.

References:
The blog in the corporate machine. Feb 9th 2006. The Economist.
Bloggers: an army of irregulars. Paul Reynolds, World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website.
Blogs Will Change Your Business. BusinessWeek.com.
Blogs amplify the power of hospital critics. Kevin, M.D.

Image source: OpenClipart.org (public domain)

Digging Grand Rounds

What is Digg?

Digg.com is a Web 2.0 application that allows you to submit an article that will be reviewed by readers and promoted, based on popularity, to the main page.

Pligg Uses Digg Approach for Medical News

Pligg is Digg for medicine, it uses the same algorithm for medical news stories. Users vote (digg) to place the most interesting stories on the front page.

Are Grand Rounds Too Grand?

Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best posts in the medical blogosphere. Some bloggers have expressed concerns recently that Grand Rounds have become, well, grand -- too long and difficult to read due to the too many posts published (50-60).

Can We Digg Grand Rounds?

Using the Digg concept will let all bloggers submit a story but only the best posts will make it to the front page. You can still read the whole thing in the Digg queue area, if you want.

In case you want to start a Digg-like project, Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped released the code of Upwarded (a Digg clone) under a GNU GPL/ CC license. "All you need is Apache/ PHP5/ MySQL."

Digg Song


Kina Grannis created the “Digg Song” and became an almost instant viral success, so much so that a record company has been in touch with her. Link via Dr Shock MD PhD. Song chorus:

"Gotta digg, gotta digg, gotta digg
Gotta make this story big!"

References:
About Digg: frequently asked questions. Digg.com
Some thoughts from this week's Grand Rounds host. Barbados Butterfly
Grand Rounds: Room for Improvement? California Medicine Man
Friday: Intern Topic of the Day III “Where does Grand Rounds Go from Here?” Doctor
Image source: Pliqq.invis.net

Updated: 01/01/2008

Translate Your Website

Your blog is already visited by people from all over the world, therefore it is international but is it multilingual?

Google Translate

I included Google Translate in the template to help the international readers who want to read this blog in their native language. Scroll down to the lower right corner to give it a try. There is a simple form with a drop-down menu offering translation from English to several different languages. This machine translation is not perfect but it is better than no translation at all.

Digital Inspiration reviews different free translation services than can be embedded in your blog template:

Add Translation to your Website: Reach a wider audience
Create multilingual website with Yahoo Translation Tools
Add a custom looking Website Translator with Yahoo Babelfish

The other side of the story

Sometimes when I check the Sitemeter logs I see a link from a website written in Portuguese, Dutch or French and I am curious what they think about the blog.

For example, I saw this blog linking to my post about Web 2.0 in Medicine but it was in French and had no idea how unhappy the author was with my post until I ran it through Google Translator. She liked Writely.com though, which is a great Web 2.0 application, and I am using it to write this post.

Image source: Wikipedia

Related:
Read Googlified in Multiple Languages. Googlified.
Useful Google Translate Addresses. Google Operating System.

Updated: 03/26/2008

Medical Podcasts: A Complete List

Krafty Librarian has done a great job of compiling a complete list of the medical podcasts in a downloadable MS Word file:

http://www.kraftweb.net/kl/podcasts2.doc

"I have sifted through a lot of web sites, lists, and iTunes programs.

Please feel free to suggest any that I am missing.

As this list grows it may be necessary to create two lists: those for consumers and those for medical professionals."

UBC Google Scholar Blog features the Top Five Podcasting Articles in Medicine (March 2006).

Update 3/28/06:

Krafty Librarian has updated the list of medical podcasts:

"When I first started on this endeavor I found eight podcasts, five months later the list grew to 34 podcasts, seven weeks later I have a list of 52 podcasts."

Update 06/16/2007: More links

Podcasts and Videocasts. UBC Health Library Wiki.
Podcasts and vodcasts in medicine. Dean Giustini (PDF)

Harvard Medical School Entire Curriculum Available as Podcasts

HMS Web Weekly:

"Starting on in December, 2005, the Harvard Medical School course lectures became available for download onto the iPods of students, faculty, and staff.

This is the first time any medical school, to my knowledge, has used an iPod as an educational tool to distribute the entire curriculum, said John Halamka, the chief information officer at HMS

68 % of students have iPods, explained Halamka. “It’s the education device of the future.”

Link via Medgadget.


Professors use iPod for lectures

USA Today writes about Calvin Garbin, a psychology professor who uses a wireless microphone hooked to his shirt to record his 50-minute lectures, and then uploads them on his website for students to download.

Calvin Garbin says that the new technology enables him to teach 30% more material a semester.

Digital Inspiration writes more about Apple iPod making inroads in University Classrooms.

See a video showing how a professor from Columbia University uses iPods to teach dental students (Real Media format).

If podcasts are used even by farmers in remote Peruvian villages (BBC), why not in the classrooms across the U.S.?


References:
Nebraska professor uses iPod for lectures. USA TODAY
Podcasts reach Peruvian villages. BBC
Dental Students Launch iTunes U Initiative. School of Dentistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Apple.com
Harvard medical students learn with their iPods. The Krafty Librarian.
Image source: sxc.hu

State of the Blogosphere

"The state of the blogosphere is strong." David Sifry, who founded the leading blog search engine Technorati, has posted some key figures:

- The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months
- A new weblog is created every second of every day
- 9% of new blogs are spam or machine generated
- Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

Read the full report: State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth.

Link via Micro Persuasion.

Image source: State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth. Sifry.com

30 Boxes is for Calendar what Gmail was for Email

This is a quote from Om Malik, an IT writer for Business 2.0 magazine. 30 Days = 30 Boxes, an online calendar.

This new Ajax-based (of course, what else if it is Web 2.0) calendar is pretty sleek. You can choose you favorite display theme: OS X-gray for Mac fans, Gmail-blue or Flickr-white, which is even called 30Boxs, Flickr-style.

The beta of the calendar was opened today, so go ahead and give it a try.

There are no ads and the service is free. What is the business model? I am sure they will figure out something. The company was created by Narendra Rocherolle who founded Webshots and sold it twice (that is correct, twice) to Excite and then to CNET.

There is a mobile version of 30 Boxes. For updates, check the 30 Boxes blog or No Soap, Radio!, Narendra's blog.

If you would like to try other online calendars, check 26 resources on Best Online Calendars which lists all of them, and you can even vote for your favorite.


References:
30 Boxes, Best... Calendar... EVER! Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection
What Is 30Boxes? Om Malik
30 boxes to beat the big guys with Web calendar? Scobleizer
Going Once, Going Twice. CNN Money
30 Boxes Beta Goes Live. Paulstamatiou.com
Image source: Thomas Hawk's photostream

PXN8 is an Online Image Editor. No Download Needed

PXN8 is a product of a small Irish company which helps you edit photos in your browser. Scoble compares it to Photoshop inside a Web browser. PXN8 is not there yet but it is certainly an interesting Web 2.0 application. The image in this post was edited with the program.

You can easily edit any photo by copying the URL (web image) or uploading it from your computer. The image can be uploaded to Flickr or saved back to the hard drive. Another website for online photo editing is Pixoh.com.

If you have several images of a landscape, you can "stitch" them together in one big panorama image using Autostitch. See the result on Russell Beattie's blog.

Update 06/24/2007:
Fauxto Online Photo Editor. Google Blogoscoped.


Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

References:
Cool Web 2.0 image editor. Scobleizer
Move over Picasa - PXN8 is here! Web2.0Ireland
Autostitch :: a new dimension in automatic image stitching

Related:
Adobe Express - online tool for photo editing.
Adobe Premiere Express - online tool for video editing.

Updated: 03/30/2008

New Medications

Diabetes Type 2

Exenatide (marketed as Byetta)

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a GI peptide that stimulates glucose-dependent insulin secretion (similar to sulfonylureas). GLP-1 also inhibits glucagon release, gastric emptying and food absorption.

Byetta is a GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for adjunctive therapy for patients with DM 2 who are not well controlled on oral agents.

Byetta is administered SQ BID, just like NPH insulin. Nausea is a common side effect occurring in 40% percent of patients.

The advantge of using Byetta instead of insulin is the weight loss which can be significant. The NYTimes reported that Byetta is sometimes prescribed off-label to nondiabetic patients to induce weight loss. This use of the medications is discouraged by the manufacturer. Click here for FDA Patient Information Sheet for Byetta.

Another GLP-1 agonist is Liraglutide which is longer acting than Byetta and can be injected once a day.

FDA recently approved an inhaled insulin called Exubera which will surely be preferred by patients over any injectable diabetes drug. Exubera seems poised for an exuberant growth in its market share after its launch.

Related:
Wrong prediction -- Exubera was taken off the market in the second half of 2007.
Lilly Ends Effort to Develop an Inhaled Insulin Product. NYTimes, 03/2008.
Lilly, Amylin Disclose More Cases of Byetta-Related Pancreatitis. WSJ Health Blog, 08/2008.
FDA Issues Warning for Diabetes Drug Byetta about possible kidney problems, including renal failure http://bit.ly/1UOjwB

References:
Diabetes drugs that modify the intestinal absorption of food. UpToDate (paid subscription required)
GLP-1 and extra-islet effects. Horm Metab Res. 2004 Nov-Dec;36(11-12):842-5.
A Ray of Hope for Diabetics. NYTimes.
Novo Nordisk Shelves Inhaled Insulin. WSJ Health Blog, 01/2008.
Image source: Byetta.com

Alcohol Abuse

Acamprosate (marketed as Campral)

Campral is a structural analog of GABA, which can reduce the relapse rate in alcohol abuse. In a RCT, the rate of abstinence was higher with Campral (18 %) than placebo(7%).

Campral is well tolerated and was approved by FDA in 2004 for relapse prevention in patients who have already stopped drinking. The dose is 666 mg TID for 6 to 12 months.

FDA Patient Information Sheet

References:
Treatment of alcohol abuse and dependence. UpToDate (paid subscription required)

Updated: 11/03/2009

Web 2.0 Company Logos

Google stock quadrupled in value in one year and then lost $ 100 in one week. "From its peak, Google's market value has plunged by roughly $28 billion. That's about equal to the market value of General Motors, $13 billion, and Ford, $15 billion", writes The Denver Post.

Web 2.0 is here to stay but I wonder how many of these companies will be around in a year from now...

Steve Rubel comments on Web 2.0 bubble starting to burst.

Russell Beattie's blog is a typical example of why Web 2.0 is free: Free means that somebody else pays for it. In the case of Web 2.0 economy, using the software is free because text ads pay for it. Russell makes an average of $ 100 per day from 3,000 page views.

Update 01/13/2007:
Corporations Web 2.0 logos by gtmcknight on Flickr, link via Micro Persuasion.

References:
What would you do with an extra $100 a day? Russell Beattie.com
Sweating out the Google nose dive. 02/05/2006. The Denver Post
Google's Stock Plunge Rattles Investors. February 2, 2006. The Washington Post
The Web 2.0 Yellow Pages
The Logos of Web 2.0. FontShop.com.
Rising Dead Pool Indicates Web 2.0 Bubble is Popping. Micro Persuasion.
Image source: Stabilo Boss
Link via Russell Beattie.com

Related:
Social Media Starfish and 6 Axes of Medical Education in Web 2.0

Updated: 11/12/2007

Interesting Posts in Tech Blogs This Week

The NY Times Launches 12 Podcasts

The New York Times has launched 12 free podcasts, including:

- Health Update
- Science Update
- Most E-Mailed Articles
- An Op-Ed column
- Book Update
- Music Review
- Front Page
- Olympics
- Restaurant and Theater Updates
- Wine Update

Now you can create your own radio station on iTunes.

Link via Micro Persuasion.
Image source: NYTimes.


The best free software selected by C|Net

"The best things in life are free" and C|Net Download.com staff has compiled a collection of the best freeware on their servers.

The chose the most downloaded programs in each category:

Audio & Video.
I tried VLC Media Player, it has an interface which could not be simpler and it works great. VLC is one-stop solution to playing any video or audio file: OGG, MP2, MP3, MP4, DivX, DVD, and various streaming protocols.

Business
Design & Photo
Desktop Enhancements
Developer Tools
Games
Home & Education
Internet
Mac
Utilities


AlmondRocks is the Easiest RSS Reader on the Web

AlmondRocks is a two-pane reader which is simple and fast. It is Ajax-based and you can try it as a "guest" without registration. The service is free.

Source: downloadsquad.com

Interesting Posts in Medical Blogs This Week

Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best posts in the medical blogosphere. It is hosted by a different blogger every week. The collection below is my own "Mini" Rounds of interesting posts in medical blogs this week.


Thundering Clouds in January. Dr. Charles is Being Sued.

"I was sitting at my desk. There were charts piled high and I was dutifully making my way down the stacks, calling patients with their test results and following up on their many ills, when I caught sight of a thick letter addressed to me. It was from the risk management department of the hospital at which I completed my residency. It stated that I was being sued...."


Chest radiology teaching files

Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University has a new Lung Learning Module. There are Teaching Files, Lectures and Videos. You can test your skills by trying to diagnose the cases with the "Diagnosis Off" mode and then check if you are correct by switching to "Diagnosis On". Link via Sumer's Radiology Site.

Yale University School of Medicine has a nicely designed Introduction to Cardiothoracic Imaging.


New EMT shocked a co-worker with a defibrillator in a fatal prank

"Defibrillators are used to restore heartbeats, but they can also stop a heart.", writes Times–Dispatch. Link via BookOfJoe.


Obesity: An Infectious Disease?

Nobody believed the two Australian scientists who claimed that peptic ulcer disease is caused by a bacteria, 30 years later they were awarded the Nobel prize for medicine for their discovery. Is the same story repeating now? A new study found evidence that human adenovirus causes obesity in chicken. What's next? Vaccination against obesity?, asks Medgadget.


U.S. primary care near collapse

Markham's Behavioral Health: "A PCP can make $125,000.00 per year if he or she is lucky. An anesthesiologist can make $400,000 no sweat. Both have equivalent training, and the anesthesiologist has much less overhead and call."

Kevin, M.D. also comments on RIP primary care. Retired doc lists More things he did not become an internist to do.

Medpundit writes about the The Competition: My local grocery store is opening a QuickClinic.


Diabetes as a Social Illness

Medpundit discusses a recent NYTimes article series on DM care. She also comments on the sense of smell which is almost as important as another quality of a good doctor - the common sense.


Grand Rounds: Room for Improvement?

California Medicine Man has some suggestions on improving the future editions of Grand Rounds: "Is it possible that Grand Rounds are getting too big? Perhaps those that host it might consider paring down the number of entries that are actually published more? It's getting difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff..." Barbados Butterfly also adds Some thoughts from this week's Grand Rounds host.


I read medical blogs daily via RSS and I decided to collect some of the interesting posts in one place. My RSS reader of choice is Bloglines. Medlogs.com makes reading blogs easy by offering an aggregate RSS feed of all medical blogs (more than 100) included in its directory.

Do We Need a Free Medical Encyclopedia?

The answer is clearly yes. Although Google works fine, sometimes you just want to check the facts in Wikipedia, and you type "example + Wikipedia" in the search box instead of browsing through 10 million results.

There are two approaches to creating a medical encyclopedia.

1. "Close source" but reputable. Medical Media

WebMD owns Medscape and it just acquired eMedicine. The content offered by this medical media conglomerate is peer-reviewed, up-to-date and generally of good quality. The former JAMA editor George D. Lundberg, MD discusses the new acquisition in WebMD, Medscape, eMedicine, and the Relevance of a Medical Encyclopedia in 2006 (free registration required)

2. Open source but difficult to verify? Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a Medicine portal which is growing fast and it is free to copy, as opposed to the WebMD offering, which is copyrighted. For exampe, I often use Wikipedia images to illustrate posts on this blog. I cannot use the WebMD copyrighted images.

Just recently, a few U.K. and Australlian doctors launched a wiki-based textbook of medicine which can be edited by any registered medical practitioner willing to do so, and which may be copied and redistributed unchanged non-commercially by anyone. The problem is that the name (Ganfyd) is impossible to remember and this effort duplicates the Wikipedia Medicine project to a large extent.

"Ganfyd is an old medical mutterance whose meaning is known only to the initiated." Really?...

Also, the contributions are limited to "doctors registered with the General Medical Council (UK) or the equivalent bodies in Canada, Australia or New Zealand." This leaves out more than 800,000 U.S. doctors who are potential contributors to the Ganfyd wiki project.

The idea of creating an open wiki-based textbook of medicine is a a good one and it will be implemented in one form or another.

The Alternative. Just search

Nothing beats the simplicity of typing your question in Google and getting the answer within the first 10 results...

UBC Google Scholar Blog writes that "medical search on the Web is an untapped market, both on the consumer and physician side of the equation. We are still waiting for that next great thing."

Kosmix is a new search engine which, although still limited, looks promising. It has clustered categories relevant to physicians: Basic Information, Definition, Causes, Symptoms, Treatments, Expert Information, Case Studies, Clinical Trials, Journals, Practice Guidelines, Medical Organizations, Blogs.


Wikis in Plain English

References:
WebMD, Medscape, eMedicine, and the Relevance of a Medical Encyclopedia in 2006. Posted 02/01/2006. Medscape General Medicine
Healthline, Kosmix & MammaHealth - Medical Search in the News. February 01, 2006. UBC Google Scholar Blog
Start-up hopes to challenge Google. Feb. 04, 2006. The Mercury News
A new medical search engine and more... The Palmdoc Chronicles
Is a medical Wikipedia a good idea? Respectful Insolence.
Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. Boulos MNK, Maramba I, Wheeler S. BMC Med Educ 2006;6:41.
Which Wiki is Right for You? School Library Journal, 5/1/2007.
Elsevier’s WiserWiki. DavidRothman.net, 11/2007.
Image source: Wikipedia.

Updated: 11/15/2007