Discovered a new website, at least to me it seemed new. It is called PatientsLikeMe.com. You can create a profile, rate your mood and level of distress, and an important part is the Forum were you can discuss about anything related to your condition. They even have a part for research, treatment and symptoms. Health professionals and caregivers can participate as well. Found only four patients being treated with ECT. You have to register to be able to use the site. It is easy to use.
PatientsLikeMe is committed to providing a better, more effective way to capture valuable results and share them with patients, healthcare professionals, and industry organizations that are trying to treat the disease.
Am I the first one to discover this or are others familiar with this initiative? Couldn’t find commercial interest or did I miss something, please let me know in the comments.
Internet access has increased for all minority groups, narrowing the digital divide, but not entirely diminishing it. Seeking online health information does not significantly vary by ethnicity.
But among all Internet users, Whites had higher levels of discussing Internet health information with a health care provider about Internet health information than Blacks and Asians, moreover this is the same for the Internet users who are immigrants.
While the digital divide is narrowing in terms of Internet access, racial differences in patient–provider communication about Internet health information may undermine the potential benefits of the information age.
Overall, our findings suggest a new digital divide based on the interaction of race and gender. African American females have embraced IT, often surpassing in use the presumed technophile, the Caucasian American male, especially in use of the Internet. However, African American males lag behind other groups in their IT use, with one notable exception: videogame playing.
A recent study aims to assess ethnic differences in (discussing Internet health information with a health care provider) patient–provider communication about Internet health information among two samples: (1) among all Internet users and (2) among Internet users who are first-generation immigrants. Immigrants are a growing segment constituting 11.7% of the U.S. population.
How was this research done?
Analyses were conducted on 2005 data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 2005). HINTS 2005 is a nationally representative telephone survey of a sample
of (n = 5,586) United States adults (18 or more years old). The survey was a list-assisted random digit dialing (RDD) sample of telephone exchanges in the United States. The response rate for the extended interviews was 61.25%
What do you think, is it just a matter of time, or is it something to do with ethnic differences?
Future studies should explore the factors underlying these ethnic differences, which may include patient beliefs, norms, and role expectations in the patient–provider relationship.
Let me know in the comments.
Hong, Traci (2008). Internet Health Information in the Patient–Provider Dialogue CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11 (5) DOI: 18771392
Internet has an important place in our lives. People search the Internet for important information, especially health or medical information. They sometimes use this information for important decisions such as which physician to consult or which treatment options to choose from. Internet users do perceive the Internet as an alternative resource of information for health problems since there are many sites like https://biogreen.life/ that provide them the answers they are looking for. The majority still prefer to use doctors, pharmacists, and nurses as their main sources of information. So it is not used as self-doctoring as is often feared.
There are four types of commonly sought health informations:
Health improvement
Medical treatment. Information on medical treatments helps people to have more control over their health decisions, feeling more empowered.
Family health
Health issues that are difficult to talk about. The Internet reduces embarrassment and provides anonymity especially for sensitive and private health information
This study also showed
….. that those who often go to the Internet for health information and have high expectations of health information websites tend to be those who are more likely to perceive that the Internet plays an important role in life decisions.
Health information seekers especially used health information websites to weigh the pros and cons of a treatment. For someone seeking health information and a high Internet embeddedness the following characteristics of health information websites are important:
Nontechnical language
Searchable
Free
With feedback
With interactive support
information seeking experiences may lead to the perception of being empowered and make people feel more reliant on the Internet
So it works both ways. I don’t know about you but the Internet is very much “embedded” in my life. It fits in with my daily routine. Check e-mail twice a day, read my RSS feeds at least once a day, and much more. I use it a lot for most of my work, it enhances my productivity and quality of life. And with blogging I got to know interesting new people from all over the world.
Data for this study were collected from a telephone survey with a probability sample of 1,076 respondents aged 18 or above, randomly chosen from the latest telephone directory in Hong Kong. The survey instrument was pilot tested before the actual fieldwork on 42 university students, which took place August 22–26, 2006. All eligible respondents included for analyses were PC users and had access to the Internet at home. Of the 569 Internet users, 51.7% were male and the mean age category was between 39 and 40 years of age. The response rate was 55%.
Leung, Louis (2008). Internet Embeddedness: Links with Online Health
Information Seeking, Expectancy Value/Quality of Health
Information Websites, and Internet Usage Patterns CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11 (5), 1-5 DOI: 18771393
E-health is the use of Internet technology and electronic communication to support the delivery and management of health care services. Despite the advantages of the Internet and advances in electronic communication, utilization of the Internet among older adults is relatively low. Improving computer skills of the elderly can enable them to access health information on the Internet and improve their health knowledge.
Thirty elderly attending community centers in Hong Kong showed a significant increase in mastery of computer skills and interest in accessing health information via the Internet after a 4-week e-health program; knowledge of health information in the area of physical exercise also increased significantly.
The e-health program consisted of 1,5 hours per week attending sessions in the activity room of an elderly center. This program included the mastery of basic computing skills and accessing government health web sites that provide health information about exercise. These sessions were video taped and participants could open and view these sessions. Pre- and post-questionnaires about the e-health program, a knowledge test, and focus group interviews were used.
With the collaboration of community services, the use of technology in the form of an e-health program would be an effective tool in providing health education to older people. Computer skills, interest in accessing health information, and health knowledge gained were found among the 30 participants.
You’re never to old to run but you’re also never to old to learn computer skills. Moreover they both can improve your health.
MIMI M. Y. TSE, KIM C. Y. CHOI, RINCY S.W. LEUNG (2008). E-Health for Older People: The Use of Technology in Health Promotion CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11 (4), 475-479
Medicine 2 is the medical implementation of Web 2.0. This is open Web standards leading to improved collaboration and communication across applications. Social networking approaches and Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX leading to improved Web interfaces that mimic the real-time responsiveness of desktop applications within a browser window.
The five major aspects emerging and recurring from Web 2.0 in health, health care, medicine, science, are:
Social Networking
Participation
Apomediation
Collaboration
Openness
Now most of these themes are familiar but Apomediation? Users of the Internet seeking health care or medical information can identify trustworthy and credible information and services in three ways. The first approach is to use intermediaries, health professionals giving “relevant” information to a patient The second possibility is to bypass intermediaries completely, which is commonly referred to as disintermediation. Examples are patients searching for information on the web, or travelers booking their flights directly on the booking system of an airline, bypassing travel agents. The third possibility is “guidance” from apomediaries, i.e. networked collaborative filtering processes such as Digg.
Apomediation theory argues that apomediaries, such as users and friends in the case of Digg, can help users navigate through the onslaught of information afforded by networked digital media, providing additional credibility cues and supplying further metainformation. Other examples of apomediaries and apomediation tools include consumer ratings on amazon.com or epinions.com
Who uses apomediation? Not only patients use apomediation, health professionals also make use of apomediaries. Previously a libarian was consulted for searches with Pubmed, later physicians started using pubmed themselves. Nowadays physicians also use “apomediaries”, eg. shared bookmarking tools such as CiteULike, Connotea, or WebCite, where people receive pointers to recently published relevant literature based on what others with a similar profile and interests have cited or bookmarked.
Disadvantages of apomediaries But in health care these apomedi
Contact Bill Austin, CEO of Starkey Hearing Technologies: started in the hearing aid industry making ear pieces in his uncle’s shop. His role quickly expanded, and he began designing hearing aids as well.ations have to be secure, reliable and has to benefit the users and made less susceptible to fraud.
Do you know any other apomediaries and what do you think about these apomediaries? Let me know in the comments.
Gunther Eysenbach (2008). Medicine 2.0: Social Networking, Collaboration, Participation, Apomediation, and Openness Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10 (3) DOI: 10.2196/jmir.1030
I guess not. Although African American males were the least intense users of computers and the Internet, length of time using computers and the Internet was a positive predictor of academic performance. So he probably didn’t waist his time with videogames because the amount of time spent playing videogames was a negative predictor.
For your information Barack Obama’s education: B.A. in international relations, 1983, Columbia University. J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor of the Harvard Law Review.
So is Dr Shock going into politics? Never. But he sure follows the news and the democratic convention.
What about African American females?
African American females were the most intense users of the Internet, using the Internet more often than did any other group.The groups were Afro American males and females and Caucasian males and females. Overall females used cell phones more than did males, but African American females used them most. Females were more likely than males to use technology to connect with others.This last observation is consistent with previous research.
What has race to do with it?
Males, regardless of race, were the most intense videogame players, and females, regardless of race, were the most intense cell phone users.
Were does all this come from?
This research examined race and gender differences in the intensity and nature of IT use and whether IT use predicted academic performance. A sample of 515 children (172 African Americans and 343 Caucasian Americans), average age 12 years old, completed surveys as part of their participation in the Children and Technology Project.
The bottom line is that there are race and gender differences in the intensity and nature of children’s IT use and of IT use and predicted academic performance.
Overall, our findings suggest a new digital divide based on the interaction of race and gender. African American females have embraced IT, often surpassing in use the presumed technophile, the Caucasian American male, especially in use of the Internet. However, African American males lag behind other groups in their IT use, with one notable exception: videogame playing.
Solution?
Bring IT especially computers and Internet early in the lives of young Afro American males.
LINDA A. JACKSON, YONG ZHAO, ANTHONY KOLENIC, HIRAM E. FITZGERALD, RENA HAROLD, ALEXANDER VON EYE (2008). Race, Gender, and Information Technology Use: The New Digital Divide CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11 (4), 437-442
True cyberbullying, these practices must meet several criteria. They should be intended to hurt (by the perpetrator) and perceived as hurtful (by the victim); be part of a repetitive pattern of negative offline or online actions; and be performed in a relationship characterized by a power imbalance (based on “real-life” power criteria, such as physical strength or age, and/or on ICT-related criteria such as technological know-how and anonymity)
We need some clear definitions for ICT mischief. Often used forms of “deviant” cyber activities, such as cyber harassment, flaming, hacking, and cyberstalking, is often very vague. Time for some research for a clear definition of cyberbullying.
Because of the exploratory nature of the study the researchers used focusgroups: students from different ages, sexes, and educational levels, classes ranging from the last year of elementary school to the last year of secondary school; classes from general, technical, and vocational education; and classes with both boys and girls. They questioned these youngsters and taped the conversations. They wanted to obtain a wide range of opinions from different groups about their opinion on everyday (positive and negative) experiences with ICT. These conversations were all literally transcribed. The texts were then imported in Atlas-Ti (a program for the analysis of qualitative data) and coded. The analyses focused on the detection of general trends as well as on possible differences in answers between subgroups (based on sex, age, and education level).
The students easily produced examples of cyberbullying:
Several students admitted that they (or somebodythey knew) had been the victim of hacking. The word hacker has several meanings, here they meant that someone else had broken into their MSN account, for instance, and changed their password, deleted their contact list, and sent insulting or strange messages to their contact person.Actually this is usually called cracking
Students told that they were sometimes contacted by strangers. These intrusions were often unwelcome and therefore blocked or deleted
Another example was sending huge amounts of buzzers or winks to someone, copying personal conversations and sending them to others, spreading gossip, manipulating pictures of persons and sending them to others
Making Web sites with humiliating comments about a student
Sending threatening e-mails, misleading someone via e-mail, sending messages with sexual comments, spam
Humiliating someone in an open chat room
Misuse of mobile phones (e.g., getting calls in the middle of the night, being threatened through
the telephone)
The students told the interviewers that these practices could also be interpreted in other ways, depending on the precise circumstances. They should be distinguished from cyber-teasing (not intended
to hurt, not necessarily repetitive, and performed in an equal-power relationship) and cyber arguing (intended to hurt, not necessarily repetitive, and performed in an equal-power relationship).
It is important to stress that cyberbullying can be defined as intended by the sender to hurt; part of a repetitive pattern of negative offline or online actions; and performed in a relationship characterized by a power imbalanced (based on real-life power criteria such as physical strength or age and/or on ICT related criteria such as technological know-how and anonymity). This can distinguish it from other forms of cyber mischief
Vandebosch, H., Van Cleemput, K. (2008). Defining Cyberbullying: A Qualitative Research into the Perceptions of Youngsters. CyberPsychology & Behavior DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2007.0042
In Google Health you can now add your health information. You can add your diseases and medication use. The systems alarms when dangerous interactions appear with your different medications. You can also add allergies.
You can even add medical records from sources of which a few of are shown in the next figure
When you link a website to your profile, you may authorize that website to read your Google Health profile or to automatically send and update information in your profile (such as medical records or prescription histories). You decide which permissions to grant when you sign up with each website.
If you’re willing to hand over your medical profile to the big G in the name of convenient info, Google Health is for you. The more privacy-minded, of course, may refrain.
Gadgets are nice, but are they worth all the trouble? Syncing, updating, charging, bloated software, to many features? Or should we go back to good old easy and fast notebooks of paper? Let me know in the comments.
Goodbye gadgets
After years spent tracking the latest gadget trends, handing over my credit card for a PDA upgrade every 4-6 months, and receiving odd glances in public for reading The Gawkish Geek’s Guide to Gadgets (monthly), I gave up my fancy gizmos and electronic organisers for good.
Hello Moleskine
In recognition of the intense effort it takes for a self-confessed gadget geek to drop his ‘habit’, I hope you won’t mind when I admit to replacing it with another: the love of Moleskine notebooks. These simple notebooks are both beautiful and relatively gentle on the wallet.
Zittrain argues that today’s Internet appliances such as the iPhone and Xbox hamper innovation. That’s because these locked-down devices prohibit the kind of tinkering by end users that made PCs and the Internet such a force of economic, political and artistic change.
Professor Jonathan Zittrain is Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University. Zittrain’s research includes digital property, privacy, and speech, and the role played by private “middlepeople” in Internet architecture. He has a strong interest in creative, useful, and unobtrusive ways to deploy technology in the classroom.
He has written a new book: The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It. This book is due for release on April 14. He discusses the future of Internet and it’s threats. Since I am a fan of open source software I will order it an probably tell you more about this topic in the recent future. There is some comfort in knowing that iphone’s and xboxes get hacked easily and readily, besides most consumers just want a properly working device.
Zittrain doesn’t predict that PCs will become extinct any time soon. But he worries that PCs are being locked down and prohibited from running open source code that has driven much of the Internet’s new functionality.
