White Coat Black Art eHealth

I saw Dr. Brian Goldman give a keynote address at eHealth 2011 in Toronto.  I missed getting a signed copy of his book - The Night Shift - but I took it out of the library later that week and enjoyed reading it.  His CBC radio program - White Coat Black Art -  is excellent.  I remember him saying at the conference that his pet peeve about ehealth technologies was too many usernames and passwords.  After all, he is an ER doctor, where every second counts, so having to remember dozens of usernames and passwords under time pressure, would be frustrating.  I don't know a solution off hand to that.  I know there is Open ID, but from my limited experience with hospital IT systems, and their privacy and security requirements, I can't see them using that.  There does have to be more privacy by design put into systems, for security reasons, but designers also need to think about patient safety - and I would argue that usernames and passwords is possibly an encumbrance to that in the ER.  

Futurememes and behind the enemy lines

Here are two blogs worth following:
http://futurememes.blogspot.ca/
The tag cloud alone is worth reading.


A computer scientist in a business school.
http://www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com/
The posts I have read so far have been quite startling! Heard about this from a colleague who was doing some research on crowdsourcing and Mechanical Turk.

Tricorder Project

The X Prize Foundation announced a Tricorder competition not long ago, but a McMaster graduate and  researcher has been working on one for quite some time. See Jansen Tricorder Project. I say just add a geiger counter feature and this will fly off the shelves the next time there is a nuclear error. Hat tip to the Hamilton Spectator for publishing this.

The dire need to improve healthcare and health in the U.S. is a problem whose solution has evaded the brightest minds. The Qualcomm Tricorder
X PRIZE is a $10 million competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making definitive health assessment available directly to “health consumers.” These technologies on a consumer’s mobile device will be presented in an appealing, engaging way that brings a desire to be incorporated into daily life. Advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, wireless sensing, imaging diagnostics, lab-on-a-chip, and molecular biology will enable better choices in when, where, and how individuals receive care, thus making healthcare more convenient, affordable, and accessible. The winner will be the team that most accurately diagnoses a set of diseases independent of a healthcare professional or facility and that provides the best consumer user experience. Visit the competition website to learn more.

This prize is made possible by a generous grant from the Qualcomm Foundation.

TRICORDER is a trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. Used under license.

The Guardian Informatics Section

It would appear that the UK Guardian has a section on Health Informatics.  Quite interesting that this should be a "normal" section of one's daily reading.  Perusing the articles, you come across a series by the Patient from Hell - Dick Vinegar, who writes articles on EMR implementations, public health, the NHS, etc.

Sample Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence Weekly NewsFeed

Honeywell and Inmarsat to modernize global in-flight connectivity
Researchers boost efficiency of multi-hop wireless networks
Disruptive innovation — in education
Photoreceptor transplant restores vision in mice
New free online computer-science courses from Princeton, Stanford, UMich, Penn start Monday
Breakout Labs announces first grants to support radical scientific innovation
Brain-activated muscle stimulation restores monkeys’ hand movement after paralysis
How the presence of water changes the structure of an antibiotic
Low-cost mini-sensor measures magnetic activity in human brain
Nanomaterials offer new hope for cerebral palsy
Neal Stephenson on science fiction, building towers 20 kilometers high … and insurance
New microscope captures nanoscale structures in dazzling 3D
Serious Blow to Dark Matter Theories?
A statistical model of the network of connections between brain regions
Iris recognition report evaluates ‘needle in haystack’ search capability
Page, Cameron, Simonyi, Perot to back launch of new space venture to ‘ensure prosperity’
Spoiler alert: Your TV will be hacked
Fine-scale analysis of the human brain yields insight into its distinctive composition
Tim Berners-Lee tells U.K. that its latest snooping bill is ‘destruction of human rights’
Google Drive detailed: 5 GB for free, launching next week for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS
Nanotube electrodes may lead to solar cells at a fraction of the current cost
Nanocrystal-coated fibers might reduce wasted energy
Computer scientists build computer using swarms of crabs
Powerful X-ray technique reveals structure of printable electronics
Boron-treated carbon nanotubes soak up oil from water repeatedly
Scientists create nanoparticles that image brain tumors, increasing accuracy of surgical removal
Free videos for new iPad apps programming course at CMU now available
Fullerene C60 administration doubles rat lifespan with no toxicity
Designing the interplanetary Web
Mavericks invent future Internet where Cisco is meaningless
Homegrown labware made with 3D printer
Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google’s Sergey Brin
Is there a Japanese plan to evacuate 40 million people? [Disinformation]
Will a Dutch discovery lead to understanding dark matter and a real quantum computer? UPDATE APR 17
UCLA-engineered stem cells seek out and kill HIV in living organisms
New genes linked to brain size, intelligence
Baboons can learn to recognize words
Discovery could help to develop new drugs to treat organ transplant and cancer patients

Fitbit

Fitbit is quite a useful and potentially revolutionary device. When I was doing research for a computer science and software engineering paper, I was wondering how data from the fitbit could be wirelessly transmitted into personal health records, and stored in the HL7 standard. The problem is, there is a lot of data, so only certain trends need to be recorded. The other problem is how to program an XML or HL7 standard self-journalling area in the personal health record. I know the HL7 standards group is working on PHRs now, because I participated in one of their lunchtime teleconferences. I am not sure how this particular problem was addressed. This is one device the people in the self-tracking movement cannot afford to be without. In fact, they have latched on it, and the systems deployed with them and other similar devices they call "Health Mashups".

Trying a Dyson Sphere on for Size

Futurist and ethicist George Dvorsky wrote this article about how to build a Dyson Sphere. He makes nanotechnology robots building solar panels in the solar system by totally mining Mercury (and then Venus) for materials sound simple. I like the comment on the article by the guy who asks if mining Mercury - every last bit of it - is ethical. This reminds me to try and find a post on nanomedicine and ehealth - another subject to be considered by futurists and ethicists.

The wireless transmission of electricity from the solar arrays is a vision Nicholas Tesla would be proud of. How better to get the electricity to the Nissan Leafs we will all be driving, without waiting to plug in and recharge.