Beginning March 2009 the number of hospitals on using social media such as twitter in the US was 206, the current number is 214 (March 31). The growth is mainly due to popular social media app Twitter. But hospitals are also on facebook, have a blog or website. For an overview of the use of social media by hospitals with links please visit the list with the most current hospitals on social media on Found in Cache Now what should they do with twitter, how can hospitals and physicians benefit from twitter? According to BrainTwits of Michael Lara, MD. According to Michael .....read more »

Metformin reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease after a follow-up period of 4.3 years. The risk of cardiovascular disease is reduced on average with 39% when metformin is concomitantly used with insuline for diabetes mellitus type 2. Cardiovascular disease such as heart attack, cerebrovascular accidents. Metformin, added to insulin in patients with DM2, improved body weight, glycemic control, and insulin requirements but did not improve the primary end point. Diabetes mellitus often lead to complications such as cardiovascular disease, this is most often the cause of death. Most patients with DM2 first start treatment with metformin and with progression of the disease .....read more »

Exercise boosts brain power is one of the rules of the book: Brain Rules John Medina's Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School pulls off a terrific trick: combining popular science with touching personal memoir and a bunch of practical conclusions for improving work, education and personal life. Besides the book there is also a DVD the author has put the cool companion DVD online for free as an introduction to the paperback release of the book. More on the book: Brain Rules takes the brain's mysteries apart into twelve pieces: Exercise, survival, wiring, attention, .....read more »

This is the world's most complicated corkscrew. It not only opens a bottle, but pours it into your glass as well. The machine was allegedly made out of 300+ found parts and is going into limited production of 100 units. Which makes me wonder just how "found" the parts really were. Thanks GeekologieRelated posts: Strengths and Challenges of Medical Education in Virtual Worlds Street Art with end of the world perspective ..read more »

With profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father's wisdom. New definition of success and the importance of teaching, very inspiring and wise opinion, wish he would talk a little bit slower, enjoy.Related posts: Beyond Bullet Points in Medical Education Reprise Bullet Points in Medical Education Online Gaming Can Make a Beter World ..read more »

In psychiatry space is an important factor when approaching patients. Psychotic patients can easily misinterpret someone approaching as invading their privacy. Other patients admitted to a hospital value their privacy which is often very limited in crowded units. The space between people creates and defines the social dynamics of our interactions with others. You can probably remember situations in which the space between yourself and others was beyond the painful or even embarrassing limit. In social psychology, the space around the body has been defined as the ‘area individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort .....read more »

A systematic, easy-to-use tool for physicians when appraising the quality and objectivity of information presented during educational presentations sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. If you need them for these presentations that is. We have abolished these kind of presentations during residency training but residents also attend symposium with pharma sponsored speakers. So to enhance the instructions for appraisal of these talks the acronym PRESCRIBE was invented as I found in a recent publication in the Canadian Family Physician. PRESCRIBE is an easy-to-remember “checklist” for physicians to use when attending a drug industry–sponsored presentation in order to gauge the degree to which .....read more »

This is the second review on a book on twitter and so far the best book to buy especially when starting with twitter. If your like me and value a good book about a subject above websites this book is good. Nevertheless blog and websites about twitter are very good and more up to date. The way twitter is developing and gaining more and more participants it is hard to keep up to date on all the new widgets and gadgets for twitter. One of the best blogs about twitter is TwiTip.com. For Dutch readers their is an excellent post .....read more »

Medical Web 2.0 Guidance Packages about depression on Webicinia. All the necessary online information about Depression gathered and judged by Bertalan Meskó. He is a medical student about to graduate from the University of Debrecen, Medical School and Health Science Center. He is a medical blogger, a microblogger, a manager of medical projects in Wikipedia and an organizer of scientific events in Second Life. He has selcted an excellent collection of wikis, blogs, videos etc on depression. A personalized set of web 2.0 tools designed to solve the problems of physicians, health care workers and patients. The package contains all the .....read more »

This is an important question. until now all medication for Parkinson's disease relieved the symptoms of this disease for a while. The medication couldn't prevent the progression of the disease resulting in lack of efficacy of the medication. Increasing the dosage until side-effects or adding another therapeutic temporarily resolved the symptoms until the progression again decreased their efficacy. Hundreds of putative neuroprotective agents have been tested in clinical trials over the past two decades, but none of these agents has been successful at preventing the progression of PD. In a recent Viewpoint in Nature Clinical Practice Neurology the authors claim that: We believe .....read more »