Supercourse

The Supercourse is an international repository of epidemiology and public health open source lectures on numerous topics including: family health, multiple aspects of epidemiology, diseases, public health, global health, and telecommunication.  There are over 4096 lectures in 26 different languages in PowerPoint format which can be located based on author, keyword, or topic.  The major objective of the Supercourse is to provide a means for faculty to share their lectures with other educators from all over the world.  Supercourse was originally funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and is now supported by the National Library of Medicine.   The course materials are peer reviewed to ensure quality, and lectures come from faculty members of varying disciplinary fields, including nine noble prize winners and the US Surgeon General.   The Supercourse is maintained and produced by the World Health Organization Collaborating Center at the University of Pittsburgh and is a valuable resource for accessing free educational materials that are of exceptional quality.

Health News Review

Have you ever wondered about the accuracy of health stories that appear on the news?

Healthnewsreview.org evaluates current news items for accuracy and comprehensiveness.   Stories concerning treatments, procedures, and diagnostic tests are rated by a panel of medical professionals.  Coverage of the reports are given zero to five stars on the ability of the journalist to provide thorough information on the particular topic.   Ten specific areas of criteria are measured including the use of additional independent sources, the discussion of advantages and disadvantages for the treatment, and the ability to assess the quality of evidence.   The aim of the website is to appraise the news story itself, not the actual treatment or procedure. 

The website examines the nation’s top 50 newspapers, network newscasts, and weekly news magazines.  Transcripts and links to the original article are provided for users.  Individuals can search for reviews by date of publication, news organization, number of stars, and keyword.  Consumers can view a general critique of the article as well as detailed information on the ability of the news story to address the ten areas of assessment criteria.

For instance, a recent story from the Wall Street Journal, “Bone Proteins Costly in Surgery, Study Says” received two out of five stars for its inability to address the  cost, benefits, problems of the procedure,  in addition to the failure of the news story to include limitations of the study.

Health News Review is an excellent website that you can use to get a second opinion on the latest medical news story.   

Acetaminophen in the News

You may be hearing a lot about acetaminophen in the news right now.  An advisory committee for the FDA is recommending that the dosage instructions be changed to lower amounts to prevent possible liver damage.  According to Medscape, the FDA is not required to follow the advisory committee’s advice, but usually does.  It will be months before a decision is made and publicized. 

 Acetaminophen is a drug found in many over the counter medications such as Tylenol and Excedrin.  It is also found in prescription drugs like Percocet and Vicodin. This is part of the concern. A lot of people are unaware that prescription drugs contain acetaminophen, so they are more likely to exceed the recommended dosage amount. 

 For more information, see the following articles:

 FDA News Release

Introduction. Prescriber’s Letter: July 2009; Vol: 16, No. 7

What is Wolfram|Alpha?

 Wolfram|Alpha considers itself to be a “computational knowledge engine”, which in laymen’s terms consists of a site where you can search for factual information.  The website handles quantitative knowledge and directly answers questions as opposed to supplying the user with links to locate the information themselves. 

Launched May 18, many people thought Wolfram|Alpha would be a new search engine that would compete with Google, but that isn’t the case.  The website is in no way similar to Google.  For instance, it will not provide you with driving directions or information about local events.  However, it will provide information on medical computations, hospital information, mortality data, and human growth charts. 

The site is updated frequently and claims to obtain most of its data from systematic sources.  For example the weather and financial inquiries are continually streaming.  In addition, references can be located at the end of each results page.

One of the major drawbacks with using this search engine is that it is not exactly user friendly.  Unfortunately, you have to utilize very specific syntax or search within the examples provided.  Also the majority of information contained on the site seems to involve scientific information; as such your results can be nowhere near what you expect.   Results that concern questions on science and math have the best answers, this is due to the fact that Wolfram|Alpha stemmed from the developers of Mathamatica software.  If you are a first time user, it is suggested you start with examples.   Similar to a “gigantic brain, it doesn’t know everything, but it knows a ton — and discovering what it knows is half the fun of using it (Conlon, 2009)”.  There are still kinks in the site, but Wolfram|Alpha possesses great potential that has yet to be seen.

 For additional information:

The Grouse Weighs in on Wolfram by Tom Conlon  

Wolfram Alpha Searching for its Niche by Tom Krazit

Wolfram Alpha Show Data in a Way that Google Can’t by Stephen Shankland and Rafe Needleman

Wolfram Alpha the New Greek Almanac by David Coursey      

New England Journal of Medicine Image Challenge

Every week the New England Journal of Medicine presents an image challenge where you can view a picture and attempt to make a diagnosis. When taking the image challenge, a photograph, question, and several answer choices are provided. Prior to submitting an answer individuals can zoom in on the image or see the response of others. An explanation of the diagnosis is provided once the correct answer is chosen. Additional challenges are available through the thumbnail gallery, as well as the option to download a power point slide of the challenge.