Open Medicine Journal

The Open Medicine Journal is one of the wonders of our times. And so is a recent article on drug policy by some of the leading Public Health officials in the country. Ideology vs. Medicine vs. Morality.

American Journal of Bioethics - blog or journal?

http://www.bioethics.net/ If had an extra life, I would no doubt be spending more time reading the amazing news feeds from the journal of bioethics. There are so many interesting topics under discussion, and so many new ideas. I subscribe to this by email and there is never enough time in the day to catch up.

The Panic Virus

Books! I am reading the Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin. Might even see him at a conference next month where he is the key speaker at the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Board. The first 70 pages or so about vaccines and those in the public who advocate AGAiNST them, reminded me of another book I read recently by Michael Bliss on the smallpox epidemic in Montreal in the last century. The role the media plays with science stories is huge, but so is the role parents play who advocate for their kids. This book is not about ehealth or technology. It is mostly about Autism and how bad science created the impression that vaccinations were responsible for causing it.

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Just joined the website < Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies >. Was happy to see they have a Cyborg Buddhist. Very interesting. Bioethics should be looking at transhumanism more, from many different perspectives and realms of experience. This site reminded me of the work of Dr. Nick Bostrom, and I just found out he is mentioned on the site, which in fact is how I remembered him. More digging around, I find out Bostrom founded the IEET! His group at Oxford university is looking at the future of humanity. I don't think they are that optimistic. I would highly recommend reading some of his papers, even if you don't have a scholarly bent. Here is his website: http://www.nickbostrom.com/

Knowing is better ads on this site

http://www.knowingisbetter.ca/ Since I added google ads on this site, I have been following what kind of ads pop up. Most of them have been good, maybe even relevant to what this blog is about. I found the Infoway ad to Knowing is Better is popping up quite a lot. By mistake I clicked the link to it off my site, which you are not supposed to do according to the "contract" with Google. I am going to label this a consumer health informatics, and start a new label called "infoway". Not sure "Knowing is Better" would be an appropriate label. Who knows what that might mean, right?

Online physician question/answer

http://www.avvo.com/ I was reading the Kevin Pho MD e-newsletter and heard about this site. Sounds like trusted health on the internet to me. I am not talking about the rate your lawyer or find a lawyer section of the site, which I find a little paradoxical in fact. The Avvo blog had an article about a webinar that discusses how physicians can using blogging to get more referrals. Could be an American physician thing.

Drummond report on Information Technology in Healthcare

Just had a chance to scan through the Drummond report. This is the state of the Ontario economic. It is almost 500 pages, so I don't know when I will ever read it all. This section on information technology in healthcare resonated with me. I agree with it. Not only is it a way to save money, but it is also the right approach to the appropriate use of the technology. They say that the largest civilian software project failire in history was the national health service architecture in the UK for health records. My own research discovered that the best results will come when the patient and physician are working close together, and the electronic medical record is only stored locally. It doesn't mean the data is locked in a silo. The record can be programmed or make accessible through XML, HL7 or other interoperable standards. Standards neeed to start locally though, not from a national architecture. http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/reformcommission/chapters/report.pdf

Information technology (IT) is not used enough by physicians and other health care professionals across the system in a way that allows different disciplines and services to integrate their activities. Extensive use of IT is key to pushing the health care system to operate in a co-ordinated fashion. History has shown that huge IT projects are unwieldy. Most gains will come from local and regional records, so electronic record-keeping should begin with FHTs and hospitals; these could then be connected and expanded from this base. It is imperative, of course, that everyone use compatible systems that can communicate with each other.