TED Talk: Surgery’s past, present and robotic future
Catherine Mohr is quite an incredible women. She is both an engineer and a medical doctor. She combines these two fields with her great inventions which help advance surgery. Take a look at her TED Talk in which she presents the newest robotic tools for surgery, but also remembers the beginnings of this art/craft/science.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://ivor-kovic.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet ThisAirStrip CRITICAL CARE
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is taking place in San Francisco right now. On the first day Apple introduced the new iPhone 3G S. They also continued their tradition of presenting some interesting upcoming applications.
AirStrip Technologies has presented its new medical app called Critical Care. I really don’t have any comments at this moment other than WATCH THE VIDEO IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!
AirStrip CRITICAL CARE features include:
- Virtual Views – Remote, virtual real-time monitoring of live cardiac rhythm strips and other waveform data such as pulse oximetry, end tidal CO2 and peak ventilator pressures.
- Strip Zooming – The zoom feature maintains relative size of waveforms and the background grid allows for easy assessment and measurements.
- Automated Caliper – The automated caliper measures designated intervals, both automatically and manually.
- Strip Scrolling – The scroll function allows users to quickly scroll through stored waveform data, such as telemetry strips.
- Patient Data Display – Tidal volume, airway pressure, flow and volume readings are also available in virtual real-time, directly from patient monitors.
AirStrip already has one interesting application available in iTunes store called AirStrip OB. This application, intended for obstetricians, delivers vital patient waveform data — including fetal heartbeat and maternal contraction patterns — in virtual real-time directly from the hospital labor and delivery unit to a doctor’s iPhone.
If you are interested you can watch the whole Apple WWDC 2009 Keynote Address.
‘Medical Video Games’ Provide Great Training for Healthcare Professionals
By-line:
DENA WHITE is a freelance writer and covers topics such as nurse assistant and medical careers, health care topics, and more.
Just a quick search on the Internet and you can see some great screenshots from the video game Zero Hour. Zero Hour is a fantastic video game that has you playing as an EMT who must respond to catastrophes such as a biological weapons attack in a major US city. You have to treat and diagnose panic-stricken patients as well as manage supplies, which are disorganized and unpredictable.
The United States Department of Homeland Security created this game in some measure as a way of training responders for emergencies in real life situations. This is the perfect example of interactive virtual reality modernizing the way professionals are taught and trained.
The days when video games were seen as nothing more than tools to promote passive learning and aggressive behavior are fading fast. Video games with real world learning applications are exploding on the scene and leaving critics around the globe in a state of astonishment.
A New Way To Learn
Innovative education using specially designed or off-the-shelf video games are sweeping the fields of healthcare, education, business and government. The primary focus is on healthcare partially due to the fact that the payoffs are immediate. When it comes to meeting health care goals, many have found that one of the most cost-effective methods for training healthcare professionals is video games that simulate real-life events.
The most popular games include those based on biofeedback that teach the players how to lower biological stress signs as well as games that teach healthcare professionals how to manage individuals who suffer from various phobias, asthma, heart disease and diabetes. Other games focus on simulated exercises. One video game connects to a bicycle and allows players to race through the streets of the big cities.
Educating With Games
The educational theory that is emerging around video games comes from research indicating that a new kind of learning called information literacy has spawned from the Internet. This is different from traditional learning through reading books and attending lectures. This is a more interactive way to learn using computers.
Experts claim that video games have several benefits that aid learning:
- Video games stimulate prior education. Players have to use information that they learned previously in order to advance to the higher levels of the game.
-
Players receive immediate feedback by way of scoring as well as auditory and visual stimulus that lets players modify learning techniques.
-
Transfer of skills from video games to reality is likely to occur.
-
Motivation to learn about new tasks and ideas are higher for most when they play video games.
Video games are often used as a last resort when other forms of therapy fail in the treatment of hyperactive children who need help focusing their attention. Research is taking place to determine how such games work and the ways that they can be used to complement other therapies. In addition, experts are studying ways for video games to aid in reaching healthcare goals as a less expensive alternative to traditional, more expensive treatments. The effect of video games on the healthcare industry is an area that researchers have just begun to explore.
Interview with Lee Aase
Maybe you read the post I recently wrote about a slideshow describing how Mayo Clinic utilizes social media in fantastic ways. This slideshow was created by Lee Aase (@LeeAase), who happens to be manager of Syndication and Social Media for Mayo Clinic (@mayoclinic). Mr. Aase, despite his busy schedule, was kind enough to answer some of my questions that might be of interest to you.
I.K. Please tell me a little bit more about your background and how you ended up manager of Syndication and Social Media for Mayo Clinic?
L.A. I started working in media relations for Mayo Clinic in April 2000, focusing on cardiology, but in 2003 became manager of our media relations team. We have produced syndicated news packages for local TV stations since 2000, and for local radio stations since 2004. In 2005 we converted the mp3 files from the radio program into a podcast series, which became quite popular. That paved the way for us to do longer podcasts, a Facebook fan page and blogs, and eventually hiring another manager for national media relations, while I focus on our syndicated products and the social media platforms.
I.K. What are your duties and responsibilities? Could you maybe describe your regular work day?
L.A. My main duties are to lead the team the produces our syndicated news content and produces tailored, extended content for social media platforms. Our role is not to “do” all the social media, but to be a catalyst to involve others. We provide training for public affairs staff so they can incorporate social media strategies into all of their communications projects, and so that they in turn can offer guidance to other employees. A major part of my job is “evangelism” for our Mayo Clinic social media platforms, both internally and externally.
I.K. I saw from your slideshow that Mayo Clinic utilizes podcasts, blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Would you be so kind to bring closer to us the processes which occur in the background? Just from a practical perspective, how does this function? How many people are working on maintaining all of these services, how independent are they?
L.A. We have a small core team (about 3 people) who facilitate involvement from others in these platforms. For example, someone outside the team who covers the cardiology beat may interview one of our physicians about research coming in a journal, and will do that on a consumer-grade video camera. This will be part of a post on the News Blog, and the video will be used to help journalists better understand the story and to communicate directly with consumers and patients. Our core team does the video editing to ensure quality. In this way, social media isn’t another “silo” but is instead incorporated into all communications, involving our whole department.
I.K. Your latest creation is Sharing Mayo Clinic, a hub to integrate Mayo social media, where your patients, families, friends and employees can share their stories. How do your employees respond to such opportunities? Do you have some numbers, statistics regarding their involvement that you can share with us?
L.A. We have been pleased with the response to Sharing Mayo Clinic, as we have had more than 100 posts and over 600 comments. Traffic built steadily until last month, when one of the featured videos went “viral” and has been viewed more than 2.7 million times on YouTube. This was certainly unexpected but has accelerated growth of the blog, which only launched in late January of this year.
I.K. You are also the Chancellor of Social Media University, which is a post-secondary educational institution dedicated to providing practical, hands-on training in social media to lifelong learners. Sounds really interesting. How did you come up with the idea to start it? How are you happy with the response so far?
L.A. It started as my personal blog, which I used to get practical experience in blogging and social media so I could see how to apply the tools for Mayo. As I began doing presentations about my work, it soon became apparent there was a need — particularly for mid-career professionals — to learn about social media. So I reorganized my blog and re-branded it as SMUG (Social Media University, Global) as a fun, humorous way to learn serious work-related applications for social media tools. By creating a series of curricula covering the major platforms, it lets people work through and learn at their own pace in a logical order, such as Podcasting 101, 102, 103 etc. I’ve been thrilled with the response, with SMUGgles (as we call our student body) from every continent except Antarctica. It’s neat that through social media someone from a small city in Minnesota can interact with people from all over the world.
Swine flu outbreak in iTunes store
There seam to be more swine flu apps in iTunes store than confirmed swine flu cases throughout the World :). As of today, there are 25 iPhone applications related to swine influenza available in iTunes store.
Eleven of these apps are free, while the other 14 cost somewhere between $0.99 and $1.99. Most of these apps are either trackers, meaning that they show you maps of swine flu cases, or RSS aggregators, bringing you the latest swine influenza news. I tried all of the free apps, and can tell you that none of them really impressed me. Some are better designed than others, some offer more functions, but none are great. For example, Swine Flu Tracker Map looks great, but its map loads so painfully slow that you want to shoot yourself. On the other hand, The Swine Flu Tracker (notice how creative the names of these apps are) doesn’t offer any additional features, but has the fastest loading map. As for news aggregators, my favorite would have to be H1N1 (Swine Flu) Update.
Please excuse me now, I am very busy developing my own swine flu app, which I am going to call TA DA !!! Swine Flu, I’m Tracking U.
Clinical Trials app: video review and giveaway
Recently Kat Sanders presented Clinical Trials app for iPhone in a guest post on my blog. Now I am bringing you a video review of this great app.
But that’s not all! Geoffrey Young of StopWatch Media, makers of Clinical Trials app, was kind enough to offer us 4 promo codes which you can use to download and install this app for free on your iPhone. We will be giving away these codes to 4 fastest readers. Let me just remind you that this app is worth $25.
UPDATE!!! Giveaway is over. Congratulations Richard, Matija, Martin and Peter!
Here is what you have to do:
- Watch the video review
- Write down in which minute of the video I talk about “Top Studies via Clinical Trials.app”
- Send me an e-mail with your full name and correct answer
- If you are fast enough, you will receive one promo code and instructions how to download Clinical Trials app for free!
Good Luck!
