New website for after-school programs promotes 'Drink Right, Move More and Snack Smart' to fight childhood obesity

To combat the country's childhood obesity epidemic, ChildObesity180, a new initiative from Tufts University, has launched Healthy Kids Hub, a website with resources for out-of-school-time programs, encouraging kids to develop and adopt three universal nutrition and physical activity principles: "Drink Right, Move More and Snack Smart."

The Hub offers free activity, nutrition and equipment support to volunteers, coaches and leaders in out-of-school-time programs, which serve tens of millions of children and have been identified as a promising area for obesity prevention efforts, the site says.

In Kentucky, almost 18 percent of middle-school-age children and 16 percent of elementary-age kids are obese, says a recent report from the University of Kentucky's College of Public Health.

Research shows that foods and beverages, as well as opportunities for physical activity, vary greatly in out-of-school programs, so the Hub promotes greater consistency in such programs and provides resources to help children follow healthy habits while out of school.

The website was launched at the National Afterschool Association convention in Indianapolis last week, according to a release. Visitors to the website can complete a brief survey to get resources tailored to their specific needs. Click here for the website.

Cyber predators have easier access to children because of phones, video games

Child predators have it easier than ever to entice their young victims, due to the ever-growing accessibility of the Internet. "It's a lot easier now than everybody has the Internet in their pocket," Lexington Police Detective David Flannery told Karla Ward of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Every day that we think of a way to combat it, people are thinking of a way to get around us," Flannery said. "It changes every day, and you have to keep up with it."

Using the World Wide Web to lure children for sex acts has skyrocketed since 1998, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 707 reports of people trying to entice children via the Internet. In 2008, there were 8,787 reports.

"Computers and cell phones remain the primary means of communication, but game systems including Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii also can be connected to the Internet, giving predators another way to gain access to children," Ward reports.

Though parents are becoming more aware, more education is needed, said Erin May Roth, an assistant U.S. attorney and the Project Safe Childhood coordinator for the Eastern District of Kentucky. "What they don't really think about is the fact that their kids are going to sleep with their phone," she said.

Flannery is the only police officer in Lexington assigned full-time to investigate Internet crimes against children. While he does not go into detail about his methods to track down predators, the concept involves pretending. "Anything that a kid can do, we can do," Flannery said.

Sometimes officers from several agencies and departments work together. The Kentucky State Police administers an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the state attorney general's office has a similar unit, and, because cases can involve a number of jurisdictions, sometimes the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Postal Service, the Secret Service and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are involved.

Mother Frieda Curry, right, discovered her 14-year-old daughter was entangled with a 38-year-old man who initially pretended to be 16. She contacted the Richmond Police Department and found more than 40 text messages and 10,000 pages of messages and videos on the computer. "I was frantic," she said. "I was in the worst state I've ever been in." (Photo by H-L's David Perry)

But Curry, whose daughter is now in college, dealt with the problem and the predator was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 10 years in prison. Thinking about the crimes can be difficult, but "only by shining a light on the problem will we ever hope to find a solution for it," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn. (Read more)

"Netiquette" and married couples

From the study:

Men are more associated with activities that have been associated with internet addiction. Men usually take more risks in their online activity.

Women are more likely to have lower computer self-efficacy and less positive internet attitudes. Women are more aware of privacy and economic risks in online transactions.

6% of married internet users have met their partner online.

In 30% of the couples at least one person checked their partner’s emails or read their partner’s SMS messages without them knowing. In 20% of the couples at least one the partners had checked their spouse’s browser history.

References:
Netiquette within married couples
Online Snooping: Is Your Partner Secretly Watching You?

Helsper, E., & Whitty, M. (2010). Netiquette within married couples: Agreement about acceptable online behavior and surveillance between partners Computers in Human Behavior DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2010.02.006

U-shaped link between Internet use and children health - beware of heavy use or very little/none

Study participants were categorized into 4 groups according to their intensity of Internet use:

- heavy Internet users (HIUs; >2 hours/day)

- regular Internet users (RIUs; several days per week and 2 hours/day)

- occasional users (1 hour/week)

- and non-Internet users (NIUs; no use in the previous month)

Health factors examined were:

- perceived health

- depression

- overweight

- headaches

- back pain

- insufficient sleep

U-shaped link

Heavy Internet users of both genders were more likely to report higher depressive scores.

Only male users were found at increased risk of overweight and female users at increased risk of insufficient sleep.

Non-Internet users (NIUs) and occasional users also were found at increased risk of higher depressive scores.

Back-pain complaints were found predominantly among male non-Internet users.

There was a U-shaped relationship between intensity of Internet use and poorer mental health of adolescents. Heavy Internet users were confirmed at increased risk for somatic health problems.

Regular Internet use (up to 2 hours per day) is OK

Health professionals should be on the alert when caring for adolescents who report either heavy Internet use or very little/none. Regular Internet use as a normative behavior without major health consequences.

Take home point

Whatever the intensity of your Internet use is (if you are reading this, my guess is that the "intensity" of you sedentary lifestyle is high), don't forget the benefits of regular exercise:


"Health Promotion" video: Benefits of exercise.

References:
A U-Shaped Association Between Intensity of Internet Use and Adolescent Health. PEDIATRICS Vol. 127 No. 2 February 2011, pp. e330-e335 (doi:10.1542/peds.2010-1235)

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Four out of five Americans look on Internet to answer health questions; third most common reason to surf

Finding answers to questions about their health is the third most common reason Americans use the Internet, a survey by the Pew Internet Project has found. Emailing and using searching engines are the top one and two reasons respectively.

A national telephone survey conducted Aug. 9 to Sept. 13, 2010, found 80 percent of Internet users search online for health-related information. The most likely groups to access health-related websites are caregivers, women, whites, younger adults, and adults with at least some college education. Those least likely to look for health-related information are African Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, older adults and adults with a high school education or less.

The Washington Post's Nancy Szokan reports Pew has been monitoring how Americans use the Internet since 2000. "In many ways," Pew Associate Director Susannah Fox said, "the Internet has become the de facto second opinion." (Read more)

CNN: A trip into the secret, online 'cloud'

"Microsoft and Amazon, replicate data several times, on servers around the world. They scatter it all over the place so as not to lose it. Data moves around both within cloud centers and from one data center to another, often crossing oceans and trekking continents to get there.

Some of these cloud companies employ armed guards, retina scans and "man traps," where doors lock on both sides of would-be entrants before letting them inside."

My opinion: The future of computing is in the cloud. I have authored multiple abstracts and scientific papers using Google Docs to collaborate with co-authors based in different states, countries and continents. Emailing a copy of a Microsoft Word document back and forth is quickly becoming a thing of the past. We need better collaboration tools that are not tied to a stationary desktop computer, a single laptop or a hard drive that can crash. Cloud computing is the way to go as long as we all use better security protocols and common sense.

References:
A trip into the secret, online 'cloud'. CNN.

Google Voice: Usage Statistics and My Experience

From Google Operating System:

Google Voice, which provides people with a single phone number that can be used to reach them on their work, home, or cell phones, has 1.419 million users.

Google Voice charges only for outbound calls to international locations; at present, fewer than 4% of all Google Voice users place outbound international calls.

Google emphasizes that Google Voice is not a phone service, it's a Web-based software application.

I have used Google Voice for about 2-3 years, when it was still a service called Grand Central, and my experience has been positive. You can embed a Google Voice widget in your blog sidebar which lets the website visitors call you without revealing your or their phone number. Google Voice automatically transcribes the voicemail as text and emails you a copy.

One of my colleagues was wondering if Google Voice can transcribe his dictations but this practice would not be HIPAA-compliant and may be against the terms of use of the service.

Nexus One - Google Voice

Updated: 01/18/2010

How to make a Google Calendar public and embed it into a website

I have written in the past How Doctors Can Use Google Calendar to Help Patients See Their Practice Schedule and Make Appointments and How Patients Can Monitor Their Medical Condition with it.

The screencast below shows how to make a public Google Calendar and embed it in your website:



Screencast: How to make a Google Calendar public and embed it into a website, by by @jasonhbuck.

References:
Google Calendar for Doctors: Help Patients See Your Practice Schedule and Make Appointments
Google Calendar for Patients: Monitor Your Medical Condition

Video: Medical Information Mastery

Video: Medical Information Mastery. University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine physician Derek Hubbard, MD instructs family doctors on how to find clinical information at the point of care.

Video: How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself - Tim Ferriss

This is the opening keynote at the 2009 San Francisco WordCamp, titled “How to Blog without Killing Yourself”.

Tim Ferris covers the following topics:

- Why I blog
- How I blog and select best practices
- Frequency and tools — best times and days to post
- Blogging myths and how to harness data for better results
- Testing design and surprising findings that can be copied
- How I address comments and community building
- How I write and research for good social media response
- 20 minutes of audience Q&A on Twitter, branding, outsourcing, and much more

References:

How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself. Tim Ferris.
"One of the best decisions I’ve made in my career was to start a blog and a wiki, leaving a paper trail of ideas" http://bit.ly/GX7Z6C

7% of people know what a browser is, or is that a search engine?

Here’s a video some NY-based Google employees put up on YouTube a while ago, titled ‘What is a browser?’:



References:
Yeah, What Is A Browser Anyway? by Robin Wauters.

NBC video from 1994: Tom Brokaw, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and “Something Called The Internet”

Portable doctor? Rovio is a WiFi-enabled mobile webcam - allows you see, hear, and speak from anywhere in the world

What is Rovio?

"Rovio is a WiFi-enabled mobile webcam that allows you see, hear, and speak from anywhere in the world... as if you were right there in the room."

It could potentially be used as a "portable doctor" -- without the physical examination part (an important limitation).

A recent study compared desktop videoconferencing to conventional face-to-face visits for a range of commonly presenting problems in a general practice. A total of 175 patients were recruited.

In the first arm, the patients completed a visit (virtual or face-to-face) with a physician; they then completed a second visit via the other modality with another physician. In the second arm of the study, subjects had both visits face-to-face; different physicians conducted the two face-to-face consultations.

Patients found virtual visits similar to face-to-face visits on most measures, including time spent with the physician, ease of interaction and personal aspects of the interaction. Physicians were also highly satisfied with the virtual visit modality.

The diagnostic agreement between physicians was 84% between face-to-face and virtual visits; it was 80% between the two face-to-face visits.


Rovio at CES 2008, from Engadget.

From Twitter:

vene2ia Rovio is a good idea for a portable doctor. However, it can't be an interventionalist 2 minutes ago from web

References:
A randomized trial of virtual visits in a general medicine practice. Ronald F Dixon and James E Stahl. J Telemed Telecare 2009;15:115-117.

Video: What Can Amazon Kindle 2 Do for You?

Video: What Can Amazon Kindle 2 Do for You?

Features that make Kindle 2 an interesting device:

- free wireless access
- web browser in bascic and advanced mode - works for Google, Wikipedia, probably Pubmed as well
- native support of PDF
- text-to-speech
- MP3 support

Disadvantages: the price of $359 is on the higher side.

Students at CWRU in Cleveland will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks already installed, a comparison study with "regular" printed textbooks is planned according to the WSJ: http://is.gd/wHB8


Medieval Helpdesk Solves Problems With a New Technology: The Book.

References:
Shortcuts, Tips & Tricks. Amazon Kindle's Blog.
Amazon Kindle, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device
Kindle e-book reader by Amazon: you can have 200 (medical) books on one device
Amazon Kindle One Week Later: iPhone or Zune of Electronic Books?

Related:
How to Read Free Books from Project Gutenberg on the Amazon Kindle http://bit.ly/jH8Hy

"Doctors putting clauses in the forms that you sign saying you won't publish bad reviews on blogs, review sites, etc."

From The Chicago Tribune:

@ColonelTribune Doctors seek gag orders on patients' online reviews to prevent negative comments http://tr.im/h0oZ , and more doctors are... 15 minutes ago from web

@ColonelTribune... putting clauses in the doctor's forms that you sign saying you won't publish bad reviews on blogs, review sites, etc. 13 minutes ago from web

"Some doctors have started fighting back against ugly Internet reviews by asking patients to abide by what are effectively gag orders that bar them from posting negative comments online.

Here's a real, anonymous comment about a doctor from the Web site RateMDs.com:

"Very unhelpful, arrogant, did not listen and cut me off, seemed much too happy to have power [and abuse it!] over suffering people."

Segal said such postings say nothing about what should really matter to patients — a doctor's medical skills — and privacy laws and medical ethics prevent doctors from fighting back."

References:

Doctor try legal restraints on patients to prevent online criticism. Lindsey Tanner |Associated Press.

Analysis of 4,999 Online Physician Ratings: most patients gave positive reviews (2011 study) http://goo.gl/LgG5L - It begs the question: couldn't researchers add 1 more for a round number 5,000?
Rate Your M.D. on, well... RateMDs.com
Zagat "eat-and-tell restaurant guide" turns focus to medicine and physician reviews
Googling Ourselves — What Physicians Can Learn from Online Rating Sites. NEJM, 2010.
Image source: RateMDs.com.
Image source: picturestation.net, free license.

How to download and backup your Twitter posts: Tweetake

Tweetake.com works well for downloading your Twitter posts as a .cvs file for backup but it requires your user name/password.

You can follow the sequence below to avoid problems with any site requiring your Twitter password:

1. Change your Twitter password.
2. Log in the 3rd party website.
3. Get the data you want.
4. Change your Twitter password back to the original one.

Image source: Twitter.com logo, computer image is public domain.

CNN Video: Doctor will see you now -- on Webcam

CNN Video: Doctor will see you now -- on Webcam. Telemedicine takes a new turn. Now you can see the doctor while you shop, as CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.

Website Grader: See How CasesBlog Scored Only One Point Lower than NEJM

Website Grader is "a free search engine optimization (SEO) tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective."

Check your website here: http://website.grader.com

See how Clinical Cases and Images - Blog scored below:



Website Grader for Clinical Cases and Images - Blog: 98.7
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856668/default.aspx

"A website grade of 98.7/100 for casesblog.blogspot.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, the algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 98.7% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness." The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, for example:

Traffic Rank: Top 1.56 % (Traffic Rank 479,212)
Blog Ranking: Top 0.06 % (Blog Rank 43,038)
Google PageRank: 6
Inbound Links: 38,897
Del.icio.us bookmarks: 132

As you can see from the Disclaimer and Terms of Use Agreement, I try to maintain my websites as transparent as possible. For example, the traffic statistics are open to anybody who wants to verify that we really had more than 1 million visitors and 2.7 million page views as of 2008:

http://www.sitemeter.com/?a=stats&s=s17clinicalcases

Information about some of my other websites:

Website Grader for Clinical Cases and Images: 91
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856677/default.aspx

Website Grader for Allergy Notes: 81
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856680/default.aspx

Website Grader for Allergy Cases - Case-based Curriculum of Allergy and Immunology (AllergyCases.org): 76
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856663/default.aspx

Website Grader for Perioperative Medicine Summit: 39
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856689/default.aspx

Website Grader for Hit the Road - See America and the World: 69
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856701/default.aspx

Website Grader for VesDimov.com: 51
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856706/default.aspx

See the grade of the "competition":

Website Grader for The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM): 99.8
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/1856716/default.aspx

As I mentioned on Twitter:

	AllergyNotes Only 1.1 point difference between website grades for NEJM (99.8) and Clinical Cases and Images - Blog (98.7) !!! 7 minutes ago from web
	AllergyNotes Website Grader for The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM): 99.8 http://website.grader.com/w... 9 minutes ago from web

AllergyNotes Website Grader for Clinical Cases and Images - Blog: 98.7 http://website.grader.com/w... 10 minutes ago from web

Of course, I know that the "king of medical publishing" NEJM is incomparable in significance to a blog but this shows how democratic the Internet is.

Some Twitter comments:

sandnsurf @AllergyNotes Like the website grader site - thanks for that - too embarrased to post my scores though! 37 minutes ago from web in reply to AllergyNotes

AllergyNotes @sandnsurf Re: "grader site - too embarrased to post my scores" -- You publish high quality original content and the numbers will only go up 3 minutes ago from web in reply to sandnsurf

AllergyNotes @sandnsurf Re: Website Grader -- In fact, it's worse to have a score of 98 or 99 because your score can only go down... :-) 1 minute ago from web in reply to sandnsurf

Twitter works well for creating a searchable, "no login required" archive of notes. As a bonus, you can use it later for blogging ideas.

Using Twitter to Microblog a CME Meeting

Theresa Chan is family physician turned rural hospitalist with a widely popular blog and prolific Twitter posting. Her style of writing is no-nonsense, insightful and witty. Dr. Chan holds the dubious distinction of the doctor with the most Twitter posts (5,400 as of today, running head-to-head with @scanman) and in her case the quantity does not rule out quality.

Always a brave soul, Dr. Chan does not shy away from trying new gadgets -- from a portable scanner, to MacBook Pro, to Acrobat Pro to annotate presentation PDFs and save trees. She has colleagues turned informal Twitter advisers from around world to help her in the process.

Now, Dr. Chan is the author of another first (or close second, if somebody keeps track) -- she is live tweeting a CME meeting. The meeting is the 12th Annual Management of the Hospitalized Patient (in San Francisco, October 23-25th), arguably the most popular hospital medicine CME course, founded and chaired by the nation's top academic hospitalist Bob Wachter.

A few excerpts from the Twitter coverage are shown below and you can see all the posts here.

Bob Wachter is among the readers of my blog (honored to be listed in his favorite links) and he should definetly make a note of Dr. Chan's coverage which offers immediate feedback of this CME event.

I will be attending the NEJM Horizons Conference to push the boundaries of traditional medical publishing this weekend and was planning to live tweet from the meeting a few interesting observations if time permits. However, I do not expect the reach the level or volume of coverage of the meeting demonstrated by Dr. Chan.

See below Dr. Chan's coverage of the hospitalist CME meeting and a few comments from her "followers," the oldest posts are at the bottom, the newest at the top:

	ruraldoctoring Because, in Rural, I think the neurologists do maybe 2 inpatient EEGs at my hospital a year. OK, maybe 5. about 1 hour ago from web
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: Discussing need for urgent EEG, even if this requires transfer to another hospital. Trying not to laugh. about 1 hour ago from web
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: "When the EEG begins to look like the EKG, things are not normal." about 1 hour ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: "We don't think about [encephalitis] often enough." I do! Or at least I think I do. about 1 hour ago from web

	ruraldoctoring #SHM: "Delirium: A Stress Test for the Brain." I like it. about 1 hour ago from web
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: Now we're talking about my favorite hospitalist problem: Delirium. about 1 hour ago from web

	ruraldoctoring #SHM: Discussing reasons for readmit after pneumonia hospitalization: about 2 hours ago from web
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: Ah, the UCSF physician's demeanor. The brisk confidence, the articulate and slightly self-mocking humor. I'd forgotten. about 2 hours ago from web
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: Now talking about CA-MRSA pneumonia. Yes I've seen it, even in Rural. about 2 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: Oh, and btw, I *am* using Acrobat Pro to annotate PowerPoint PDFs provided by speakers. It works. about 3 hours ago from web

	ruraldoctoring #SHM: I will say they choose excellent speakers for this meeting. Good thing, otherwise I'd be sitting with 700 other bored hospitalists. about 3 hours ago from web
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: Post-stroke management must include permissive HTN--up to at least 220/120 unless tPA is planned. I knew this but the struggle! about 3 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: tPA decisions will probably be made on basis of perfusion patterns in near future, after identifying areas of salvagable tissue. about 3 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: "A lot of you work at these stroke referral centers." Ah, not. about 3 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: UCSF Stroke CT protocol: 1)noncon brain + 2)CT Angio from Ao arch to Circle of Willis, 3)CT perfusion study, 4)Post-contrast CT. about 4 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: European SITS-MOST study suggests tPA can be effectively implemented in non-referral hospital settings safely. Gotta read it myself. about 4 hours ago from web

sandnsurf Twittepathical interjection...we have many strange beasts and venomous creatures down under - but a neurohospitalist - woke me from my sleep about 4 hours ago from web

	scanman @ruraldoctoring No such animal in the entire Indian subcontinent. May never have been seen outside the US :) about 4 hours ago from web in reply to ruraldoctoring
	ruraldoctoring #SHM: We now move on to talk by "neurohospitalist" S. Andrew Jacobson. No such animal has ever been sighted in Rural. about 4 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: We now move on to talk by "neurohospitalist" S. Andrew Jacobson. No such animal has ever been sighted in Rural. about 4 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring #SHM: Talking about orthopods disliking conventional post-op anticoag guidelines. They have their own guidelines, I didn't know this. about 4 hours ago from web

	AllergyNotes @ruraldoctoring @sandnsurf Re: "SHM live tweeting, I feel so cutting-edge now" Yes, you are. And you have followers :-) about 4 hours ago from web in reply to ruraldoctoring
	scanman @ruraldoctoring YOU ARE cutting-edge material, Theresa. The #1 tweeting Rural Doctor :) about 4 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to ruraldoctoring

ruraldoctoring @sandnsurf @AllergyNotes Gee, I feel so cutting-edge now. about 4 hours ago from web in reply to sandnsurf

sandnsurf @AllergyNotes @ruraldoctoring - this is really exciting - I have watched cricket on teletext (UK) but livetweeting is the real deal about 4 hours ago from web in reply to AllergyNotes

	ruraldoctoring @AllergyNotes Yup, tweeting LIVE from the Grand Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco. about 4 hours ago from web in reply to AllergyNotes
	AllergyNotes LiveTwitting - a new/easy way to cover conference sessions! Readers can follow your session coverages in real time: http://livetwitting.com/ about 4 hours ago from web
	AllergyNotes @ruraldoctoring Re: "Finally arrived at SHM meeting" Are you live twitting from the meeting? about 4 hours ago from web in reply to ruraldoctoring
	AllergyNotes @ruraldoctoring Re: "Finally arrived at SHM meeting after sweaty sprint up 16% grade San Francisco hills." Good job! about 4 hours ago from web in reply to ruraldoctoring
	ruraldoctoring Talk is about thromboembolic disease. Discussing thromboembolic therapy, which we don't use in Rural for PE. about 4 hours ago from web

	ruraldoctoring Think I've passed my stress test--no chest pain. Near-syncope a few times, but no chest pain. about 4 hours ago from web
	ruraldoctoring Finally arrived at SHM meeting after sweaty sprint up 16% grade San Francisco hills. about 4 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring OK, now that I'm up before 6am, going to this CME seems like the dumbest idea in the world. about 8 hours ago from web

ruraldoctoring Going to bed. CME meeting starts tomorrow. about 16 hours ago from web

I think Dr. Chan should summarize her experience live blogging the CME meeting and getting immediate feedback from her followers in an abstract. This simple method of sharing public notes and professional interaction needs to be popularized beyond a niche product and deserves a wider adoption by physicians:

	AllergyNotes You have to love the term the Twitter team pioneered for social network buddies -- "followers." It makes you sound almost prophetic. 3 minutes ago from web
	AllergyNotes Easy and useful: Twitter can be used to take public notes and have you colleagues and followers comment on them in real time. 5 minutes ago from web

And the grand finale of this post is (drumroll)... a formal proposal to list Dr. Chan among the 50 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Medical Social Media:

AllergyNotes 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Media http://tinyurl.com/3rh6fy about 4 hours ago from web

References:
I will be attending NEJM Horizons Conference to push the boundaries of traditional medical publishing, suggestions welcomed
A Doctor's Opinion: Why I Started Microblogging on Twitter
Selection of My Twitter Favorites