Knowing is Better (with RFID?)

The Canada Health Infoway TV commercial (also appears on my blog as a Google ad!) is really what health consumers are looking for. Implementing it is another story. It is the ehealth mystery of the patient who arrives in the ER in a coma with absolutely no identification. A solution advocated by John Halamka (looke for the study in the New England Journal of Medicine "Straight from the Shoulder") is RFID implants. RFID readers in the ER would scan the patient for the chip. Minimal identification information on the chip would lead to the database with the patient's electronic medical record, i.e., penicillin allergy, diabetic, medications to avoid etc. I am not 100% what the Infoway solution is, but I am not sure it is an RFID one. The thing about RFID is that developments in technology might lead to less invasive ways to create identification tags. For example, take the nanosensor tatto that tracks glucose and sodium via an iphone. In the "Knowing is Better" video the ER doctor asks "Is he on any meds", and a nurse responds "Neighbour says the wife is out of town". On the rerun, when knowing is better, the EMR is already on the screen when he arrives, thus answering the question about medications. One way for the EMR to be on the screen in the ER would be something like an RFID embedded health card, just like Ontario has "enhanced driver's license" for quicker Canada-US border crossing. Otherwise, just scanning a bar code on the health card could do the same thing. What if no wallet?

Program or be Programmed

I can essentially agree with the argument that we all need to know about programming, and at a bare minimum get over any phobias about it. I am sure that many of the 1% have other people do their programming for them, probably by others in the 1%, I mean, after all, they are programmed to be the 1%. The rest of us are the "bungled and the botched". Python interests me because I am working on a Plone site now and I want to better understand the Zope database. It just doesn't make as much sense as PHP and mySQL right now. Plone can be quite the robust CMS (Content Management System). I even know a tethered Personal Health Record system that deploys it. I once tried to program Zope to connect resident forms to an MS Access database. It would have required a third party integration bridge, but it was possible. Just learning how to import, and then display, CSV data, seems to be a problem I am having at present. If anyone knows an easy way to do that, please let me know.

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?