Tech Medicine Links for 10.24.8

Continuing Medical Education on Twitter. Dr. Theresa Chan, writer of the excellent Rural Doctoring Blog, is microblogging on Twitter from the 12th Annual Management of the Hospitalist Patient meeting in San Francisco. Clinical Cases and Images has selections of her postings. Theresa also provided many of the 100+ Tips for Doctors on Call.

Twittering for public health. PF Anderson, a health care librarian that I also follow on Twitter, posted a presentation on "Twittering for Public Health" on SlideShare.



Waiting for the doctor. CNN posts a story on strategies for dealing with long waits in doctors' offices. Strategy #1? Stage a revolt.

"I ended up waiting two hours to see my gynecologist once, and I just went nuts," says Joanna Lipari, who lives in Santa Monica, California. "I'm a New York Italian, and we don't go well for this kind of stuff. I was so irritated that I gathered together the other eight ladies in the room and joked, 'Let's stage a revolt.' "

The other women took her seriously, and wrote letters to the doctor. "I told her she's a wonderful doctor, but this really wasn't cool. I told her it was inconvenient, uncomfortable and spoke badly for an otherwise exceptional medical practice," says Lipari. "I was trying to change her behavior, and it worked. They changed the way they scheduled appointments."

The credit crisis and healthcare. According to MedPage today, the financial crisis will impact healthcare heavily. How?

Among those potential changes is likely to be a shake-up in the physician workforce as older physicians put off retirement while young would-be doctors meet resistance in securing medical school loans, according to a series of interviews by MedPage Today on the predicted fallout from the sharp economic downturn.

At the same time, medical group practices will have trouble making payroll or updating technology. And hospitals will be forced to change their "bigger is better" mindset and delay massive construction projects.

CME on the iPhone. The ReachMD Continuing Medication Education application has been released for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Now Continuing Medical Education content that we broadcast on our XM satellite radio channel is available to iPhone and iTouch users directly with this new application. Just download the ReachMD CME iPhone app to your iPhone or iTouch, listen to the program and easily take the CME certification test from your iPhone, iTouch or here on our web site.

Tech Medicine Links is a collection of selected developments in the worlds of technology and health care. Have a suggestion? Please email techmedicine@gmail.com.