Author: Hans
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Searching the Biomedical Literature
I’m in the midst of working on (another) systematic review for my dissertation. For this review, I am interested in identify “theory-type” papers in the biomedical literature. Guess what? It’s really difficult. At first, I thought that I wasn’t proficient at searching the biomedical literature (mostly Medline and Embase), so I contacted a librarian to…
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Baffle ’em with BS
A few years back, when I was a co-op student, a manager gave me a piece of advice that I’ll never forget: “When in doubt, baffle them with BS”. In his many years of experience, he found that most people will try to *sound* impressive by using big words in non-coherent sentences. When challenged (which…
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Portable Medical Records – Revisiting An Old Idea
Here’s an interesting article from the E-Health Insider, titled “Carry your medical records on a USB drive” reporting about the Medinfo Chip. Basically, it’s a copy of your medical record available on a USB key that you can make available to your physician. A generic version of your medical record is available for emergency situations.…
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I am the guinea-pig (not the walrus)
Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in a research study as a study participant/subject. I wanted to experience for myself what it was like to be on the “other side”, since most of my experience with research is as a researcher. The details of the study itself aren’t so interesting, so I won’t describe…
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Unreliable patients most likely to ask for SMS
Here’s an article that may be of interest from the E-Health Insider website titled “Unreliable Patients Most Likely to ask for SMS Reminders“. While I tend to support the use of technology to help people, for some reason, this aritcle seems to rub me the wrong way. I think it’s the word “unreliable” – there’s…
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Of faith and eHealth – assumptions about improved health care?
Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised, but I’m curious as to why there seems to be a sense of complete confidence that using eHealth (e.g., information and communication technologies in health care) will lead to better care, lower costs, and a more “satisfied customer”. In a short opinion piece titled “Taking a Walk on the…
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10th International Symposium on Health Information Management Research
For those interested in attending a conference in a nice, warm place, feel free to attend the The Tenth International Symposium on Health Information Management Research on September 22-24, 2005 in Thessaloniki, Greece. Here’s a quotation about what this year’s conference is about: iSHIMR 2005 aims to bring together people who are carrying out, or…
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The branding of eHealth
I’ve been thinking about some of the concepts that James Twitchell talks about in his book Branded Nation : The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld. Basically, he takes a marketing paradigm and uses it to explain some of the behaviour seen in churches, universities, and museums. His essential argument, as far as I…