Author Archives: besawm

Are Pagers a Dying Technology?

Paging physicians has long been a preferred method of communication, but those days may soon be a thing of the past.  Text messaging is a solution that many doctors are interested in pursuing.  According to a study of 106 pediatricians, 57 percent described either sending or receiving texts that were strictly related to their work.  In addition, almost half of the participants recounted receiving texts from work when they are not on call.

The lead investigator of the study, Stephanie Kuhlmann, described receiving multiple text messages during a shift, “Personally, I probably get 50 to 100 text messages during a shift,” she added. “But unlike many physicians, I don’t carry a pager, so everything comes to my cell phone.”  Of those that received work text messages, 12 percent indicated receiving more than 10 messages a shift and five percent reported receiving over 20 messages a shift.

The majority of physicians are using their personal phones for this form of communication (41%) as compared to 18 percent that have a hospital assigned phone.  When questioned about their ideal way to communicate brief messages, 27 percent indicated that text messaging was their preferred method  as compared to 23 percent that preferred the pager system and 21 percent that reported face-to-face communication.

Although text messaging as an alternative to paging is growing in popularity, only a small percentage of physicians indicated that their hospitals offered a service that would encrypt text messages (10%).  This is a cause for concern because the content of the text messages can often times be considered violations of HIPAA.  The study indicates the need for this type of technology to be regulated and policies instated when used in clinical settings.   Kuhlmann indicated that, “We are using text messaging more and more to communicate with other physicians, residents and even to transfer a patient to a different unit…We’ve had such a rapid increase in cellphone use, and I’m not sure that hospitals have caught up by putting in place related processes and protocols.”

 

(http://mobihealthnews.com/18813/pediatricians-increasingly-favor-sms-over-pagers-but-hipaa-concerns-loom/#more-18813 )

(http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/More-Pediatric-Hospitalists-Using-Text-Messaging-to-Communicate.aspx)

Publishing with an Academic Press

On March 16, Joseph Parsons, Senior Editor at the University of North Carolina Press (UNC Press) http://www.uncpress.unc.edu , spoke informally at the Laupus Library. He is also the general editor of the Studies in Social Medicine monograph series.

 

Mr. Parsons recommended, in addition to the UNC Press, consulting the Association of American University Presses site http://www.aaupnet.org/index.php. Also look at the publishers of related books on your shelves. The best match is good for the book, author, and publisher.

 

A good research project should be interesting, dynamic (either show change or provide a good reason why there was no change), and cause the reader to ask “why didn’t I see that before?”

 

Most university presses have submission guidelines. He suggested submitting a cover letter and proposal rather than the whole manuscript. Be sure to proofread everything carefully.

 

He always asks the author who should and should not read the manuscript and why. These reviewers help him decide whether to publish the book and what the published reviews are likely to say. He considers who the core, secondary, and tertiary readership is likely to be.

Useful Medical iPad Apps

 iPads are becoming more and more prevalent in our everyday lives and they can be extremely helpful for those in the medical setting.  Below are a few medical apps that are available in the iTunes store.

PubMed On Tap Lite: searches PubMed and allows users to save references in a personal library.  References can also be emailed or linked to full text depending on institutional affiliation.   The free version only allows for 10 results per search, the full version which contains unlimited results is $2.99.

Medscape: contains medical news and the ability to receive critical alerts in specialty areas.  Other available content includes prescribing information, CMEs, and evidence based information on diseases, conditions, and procedural videos.  Medscape is a free app.

DynaMed: a point of care reference tool that contains over 3,100 evidence based summaries that are updated daily.  The app for DynaMed is free with an institutional subscription.

Micromedex: provides access to over 4500 medications that includes information on dosages, interactions, administration, indications, and adverse effects.  This app is freely available to anyone.

AirStrip: allows you to monitor your patient anywhere you have a Wi-Fi connection.  Clinicians can view live streaming patient data including such information as vitals, labs, intakes and outputs, and cardiac imaging.  To use the app your healthcare facility must have purchased AirStrip.

AED Trainer: helps to educate health care professionals with the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED).  The trainer features a 3D simulator, random scenarios, and exercises of proper pad placement. The trainer costs $5.99 and is designed to work with AED pads and CPR mannequins.

Not an app but still useful: Echo medical now offers sterile tablet covers designed for use in the OR.  The sleeves are available for $125 for a box of 24. http://www.imedicalapps.com/2012/03/sterile-ipad-sleeve-operating-room-exclusive-handson-review/

Internet Piracy Bills

 

You may have visited Wikipedia today and noticed that the website has literally gone dark or maybe you landed on the Google homepage and saw the blacked out Google logo.  This is occurring due to a protest of two proposed bills in the House and Senate.  Multiple sites are objecting, including Wikipedia and Reddit who aren’t allowing user to access any of their sites content.

The two bills in dispute are the Protect IP Act (Senate) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (House).  The main idea behind these bills is to stop the illegal downloading of movies and TV shows.  According to the Washington Post, “they would impose restrictions forcing U.S. companies to stop selling online ads to suspected pirates, processing payments for illegal online sales and refusing to list Web sites suspected of piracy in search-engine results.”

Tech companies are concerned that if these bills pass they will provide the government with the ability to close websites if they think they are violating copyright laws.  In addition, tech companies would have to monitor user generated sites.

For example, “Under the proposed legislation, if a copyright holder like Warner Brothers discovers that a foreign site is focused on offering illegal copies of songs or movies, it could seek a court order that would require search engines like Google to remove links to the site and require advertising companies to cut off payments to it.

Internet companies fear that because the definitions of terms like “search engine” are so broad in the legislation, Web sites big and small could be responsible for monitoring all material on their pages for potential violations — an expensive and complex challenge” (Wortham, 2012).

Andrew McLaughlin, vice president at Tumblr, “said the fear is that on large and diverse Web communities like Tumblr, any user who uploads an unauthorized clip from a movie or an unreleased track from an album is putting the whole company in the line of fire”.

Most companies support the current law that asks websites to take down content if asked by the copyright holder.  Many sites, such as Tumblr and Wikipedia, are providing users with a means to contact their local legislators.

For more information see the following links:

Fahrenthold, D.A. (2012).  Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sopa-protests-to-shut-down-web-sites/2012/01/17/gIQA4WYl6P_story.html

Wortham, J. (2012).  Retrieved from  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

Regulation of Medical Apps

Are you feeling under the weather?  Have some questions about your new prescription?  There’s an app for that.  With today’s technology there is an app for everything.  There are over 425,000 apps on the market and a good number of those are health related.  But how do you know which ones to trust?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently proposing guidelines to oversee a small number of medical apps.  They are focusing on those apps that could potentially pose a risk to patients if they are working improperly.  Currently the FDA is only focusing on what they are calling “mobile medical apps” which can be “used as an accessory to a regulated medical device” or those apps that “transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device.”  The FDA will not be regulating medical reference apps, wellness trackers (such as calorie counters), medical office functions, or electronic health record systems.

The FDA has already approved a few apps that are mainly used by professionals in the health care industry; including apps that are designed to view x-rays and other medical images.

According to FDA policy advisor Bakul Patel, “the FDA is proposing to oversee mobile medical apps that:

  • Are used as an accessory to an FDA-regulated medical device. For example, an app could enable a health care professional to view medical images on an iPad and make a diagnosis;
  • Transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device. For example, an app that turns a smartphone into an electrocardiography, or ECG, machine to detect abnormal heart rhythms or determine if a patient is experiencing a heart attack.”

The proposed guidelines can be found here: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FDA-2011-D-0530-0001 Consumers are welcome to share their thoughts on the website until October 19.

 

For more information please see the following websites:

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm263332.htm

http://mobihealthnews.com/11970/fda-drafts-mobile-medical-app-regulations/

http://mobihealthnews.com/11978/fda-wont-regulate-these-apps-for-now/

Green Apps to Celebrate Earth Day

Previous posts have discussed useful apps for your smart phones from a medical perspective but for today’s post, in honor of the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, we’ve highlighted some useful green apps.

iRecycle: Earth911 launched its free iRecycle app for Android and iPad/iPhone. Recycling is the easiest and most accessible way to get people plugged into sustainability. iRecycle provides access to over 800,000 recycling resources for more than 240 types of materials. Plus you get the latest in green news and social sharing. Take a moment this Earth Day to install iRecycle on your phone!

  

Teradesk: This app allows users to connect computers and mobile devices in a secure network, allowing you to get files and store them into the Teradesk virtual disk’s cloud storage.  Teradesk can be accessed anywhere and documents are always at the ready for sharing, which could help meetings run more smoothly without the need for printed documents. It allows file versioning, file sharing, GoogleDocs integration, and much more. Want to get to a file saved on your home or work computer? Connect to Teradesk and get remote access to any files you need!

  

iamgreen: This app aims to “ecofit” your smartphone. Use it to reduce the amount of power wasted when using your mobile phone. Save your time and money while extending your battery life, reducing your carbon footprint and conserving energy for when you need it the most. Plus, when you download this app, a tree will be planted! This one is available for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry.

  

ZipCar: Now that ECU provides ZipCar access to students, faculty, and staff, they can take advantage of a free app that enables ZipCar members to find, reserve, and lock/unlock ZipCars via iPhone. For the iPad version, ZipCar’s service could use the larger screen to integrate more rich media, including navigation, directions, entertainment, and even syncing with audio and visual content.

 

Control4: The free app basically turns the iPad into your central home dashboard, enabling the user to control a connected thermostat, lighting, entertainment systems (video, audio), and home security. To get this to work properly, of course you need to buy — and have a dealer install — the Control4 connected home system. An iPad app really plays into the sweet spot of Control4′s offer: a high-end home product, slick design, and a dashboard offering rich media around energy.

  

Find Green App: Find healthy living and sustainable businesses quickly and easily with Find Green from GenGreen Digital Media. The first green location based service; Find Green helps you make everyday choices to reduce your environmental impact and make a difference! The GPS-enabled service can determine your exact location and find everything from yoga studios to bicycle shops to organic restaurants near you.

 

Contact Christine Andresen (andresenc@ecu.edu) with any comments or questions! Go Green!

Free Medical Apps for iPhones

Previous posts have discussed useful medical apps for your iPhone, this time the focus is on free medical apps. Below you will find a list of apps designed for medical professionals.

PubMed Mobile– PubMed has finally created its’ own version of a mobile friendly interface.  The site is currently still in beta and to access the page you will need to use the following URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/.  Users now have the ability to conduct basic searches and limit to free text.  However at this point in its development you cannot use any additional limits and other advanced search features.  In addition, users cannot access the site through the libraries proxy, so to get to the full text of some of the articles you will need to go through the libraries home page.  Hopefully, in the future this app will add additional features that will provide a more controlled search.

  

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma11/ma11_pm_mobile_beta.html

MedPage Today – Produced by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the medical information website MedPage Today, users will have access to Continuing Medical Education (CMEs), audio reports, video reports, and current medical news.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/medpage-today-mobile/id319094270?mt=8

MedScape Mobile –The MedScape Mobile app provides a drug reference, a guide to over 600 procedures, and medical directories for hospitals and physicians.  The app also provides medical news, a disease and condition guide that contains more than 3500 continually updated topics, and CMEs.  A nice feature of this app is that it offers offline access to the clinical tools mentioned above, so you do not have to be connected to the internet to access needed information.

 http://itunes.apple.com/app/medscape/id321367289?mt=8#

Micromedex– This drug reference tool, published by Thomson Rheuters,  is similar to the  resource available through the library.  Content includes such information as dosage amounts, trade names, generic names, interactions, administration, monitoring, and contraindications.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/micromedex-drug-information/id390211464?mt=8

NEJM This Week – Created by the New England Journal of Medicine, this app offers access to recent articles, images of medical conditions, weekly audio summaries of Clinical Practice articles and videos of selected procedures.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nejm-this-week/id373156254?mt=8

 (Thanks to Amy Blevins for the screenshots)