Archive for January, 2007

No Medical Software for iPhone?

Monday, January 15th, 2007

It looks like the iPhone is going to be a closed system (thanks for the link David!). If this is true then it will mean that companies like Skyscape, Epocrates, etc will have to come up with an alternative to their current system of installable apps on Smartphones and PDAs if they want to develop for iPhone users.

One method of solving this problem would be to deliver the applications through the Safari browser on the phone. From the demonstration videos on www.apple.com the browser offers some unique ways of viewing web pages via the ‘multi-touch’ interface. This allows you to zoom in and around a page using two finger to stretch, zoom and scroll. Almost reminds me of Tom Cruise’s hand waving interface in Minority Report.

Whether browser delivery will be off-line or live will probably depend on things like wi-fi availabilty or how cheap the data calls are going to be.

Medical Video Repository

Sunday, January 14th, 2007

Medical Videos

I’ve put together a new section of the site: The Medical Video Repository.

This section is an edited directory of free medical videos indexed by subject. At the moment, the largest category is the Anatomy Videos section, with 40 videos.

I’ll be adding more videos over the coming weeks so check back. You can see the latest videos on the Medical Videos homepage.

There’s also an RSS Feed of the latest additions.

MTAS Forum

Friday, January 12th, 2007

MTAS is the new system for allocating jobs and training schemes to junior doctors in the UK. Applications for Specialty Registrar posts will be accepted in Jan 22nd so we’ve opened a new MTAS forum for any questions people have.

Click here for the MTAS Forum.

Cisco sues Apple of iPhone Trademark

Thursday, January 11th, 2007

Seems Steve Jobs was a bit too hasty in announcing the iPhone before they had secured the rights to use the name off iPhone trademark holder Cisco.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0cc5fd98-a105-11db-acff-0000779e2340.html

iPhone - a new Medical PDA device

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

Apple iPhone

iPhone

Steve Jobs has announced the the Apple iPhone will have a release date of June 2007.

The iPhone is really a PDA-phone like the Palm Treos, Blackberrys and Microsoft Windows Mobile devices (like my i-mate K-JAM).

This has significant implications for the medical world as a large percentage of doctors are currently using PDA phones for medical references, EMR integration, calculators and so on. - Update: TUAW is reporting that the iPhone won’t allow user installable applications. This information seem to be from a “security/information” attendant so I’m not sure how reliable this information is.

I can see many old Palm stalwarts now switching the iPhone. It will be interesting to see how Skyscape, PEPID, etc respond to this new device and when we’ll see a 5 Min CC iPhone version!

Update: Apple iPhone size comparison to Moto Q, Treo and Blackberry at Engadget.

Update 2: More screenshots - this thing looks fantastic!

Update 3: Video demos of all the features are now on the Apple Website.

Update 4: Steve Jobs interviewed about the new iPhone:

Medical Videos

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

Update: We now have a section of New Media Medicine devoted solely to embedded videos: The Medical Video Repository. These include Anatomy Videos, Clinical Skills Videos and more.

Inspired by Clinical Cases Blog and their recent posts about Echos on YouTube I’ve been doing some searching for medical videos and thought I’d make a list:

Clinical Examinations

Anatomy:

Histology:

Biochemistry:

Embryology:

Physiology:

Cardiology:

Anesthesiology

Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Ophthalmology

Orthopedics

Pediatrics

Echocardiograms:

Radiology:

Haematology:

Health Informatics:

Internal Medicine:

Medical School

Innespace Sea Breacher Dolphin

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

New personal watercraft from Innespace, the Seabreacher Dolphin:

Wise words for med school exams

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

Evidence Based Medicine Resources

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

I’m compiling a list of resources for Evidence Based Medicine at the moment. Here’s what I’ve found:

Online EBM Tutorials:

Powerpoint Presentations:

PDF Files:

EBM Databases:

  • EB On-Call: Database of ‘Critically Appraised Topics’ (CATS) of 38 on-call medical conditions.
  • National Guideline Clearinghouse: EBM practice guidelines.
  • Cochrane: Systematic reviews of the medical literature.
  • Infopoems: Database of “Patient Orientated Evidence that Matters”
  • Dynamed: Clinically orientated summaries for 2,000 topics.
  • Trip Database: EBM Database.
  • DUETs: Database of Uncertainties baout the Effects of Treatments.
  • HSTAT: Health Services/Technology Assessment Text.
  • CMA Infobase: Clinical practice guidelines.
  • SUMSearch: selects the best resources for your question, formats your question for each resource, and makes additional searches based on results.
  • BestBETs: Best Evidence Topics.

EBM Journals

EBM Calculators:

Tools

  • CATmaker: Software tool which helps you create Critically Appraised Topics, or CATs.

OLPC XO Launches

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

The One Laptop Per Child project launches this year. The BBC is reporting that the first ‘XO’ machines could reach users by July.

The XO will work in a different way to ‘normal’ laptop computers in that they will have no hard-disk, just ‘flash’ memory and most of it’s functions are designed for operating in a wireless network environment. The operating system, ‘Sugar’, is a cut-down version of Linux and is designed to work differently from either Windows or Apple machines.

I think this is going to be a very interesting machine. I’m wondering though how the internet connectivity is going to be achieved through the ‘Mesh’ network. Presumably they will have to be plugged into a server somewhere in the wireless network generated by the machines. Who is going to provide this? Are arrangements being made with ISPs? Am I getting the wrong end of the stick?