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The Clock’s Tick-Tock And Our “Tickers”

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With the daylight savings fall-back date for 2010 rapidly approaching (remember: “Spring forward, fall back” — which is this Sunday, November 7th, 2010), I’m reminded of some research I read a few years back suggesting a link between daylight savings and heart attack risk. The research suggested the Monday effect of increased heart attacks was not related to stress, but rather the sleep cycle.

When looked at from the daylight savings fall-back perspective, the research suggests the extra hour of sleep we gain from the November 7th, 2010 daylight savings fall-back date will be protective against heart attack risk. Good to know, especially if you’re the cardiologist on call the week following either date.

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

Monitor Your Heart Rate With Your iPhone Headphones

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Imagine jogging, listening to music, and being able to keep track of your heart rate without needing a special watch or chest belt — common forms of attempting to monitor heart rates while jogging. Now, imagine not requiring any extra peripherals at all — just your iPhone and a special set of headphones that can monitor your heart rate.

Swiss technology-transfer company CSEM has created the final prototype for their Pulsear device. It’s a tiny device embedded in a regular earphone and it sends infrared signals through the tissues in your ear to see how fast your heart is beating. A photo diode records the results and sends the information to your phone via the earphone wires. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*

How e-Prescriptions Are Just Like Twitter

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I’m surprised I didn’t notice this sooner, but e-prescriptions will only accept 140 characters in their instructions, just like Twitter. If you have longer instructions, you must print the prescription and hand it to the patient for it to be manually filled at their pharmacy.

Then again, maybe doctors will start to use some twitter-like abbreviations in their instruction fields, like: “Chk ur BP b4 taking b/c itz K 2 hold if nl. TIA.”

Dude. That’d b fab.

-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Reaching Doctors In The Virtual World

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It’s the great migration to digital. And as civilization makes its move, the pharmaceutical industry is trying to figure out how to reach out to physicians. Pharmaceutical reps are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Branded medication portals leave most doctors cold. Email outreach is marginal.

Pharma strategists ask me how to reach doctors in the new world. I don’t have an answer. It isn’t that I can’t come up with an answer. It’s just that a good one doesn’t exist. Why?

Doctors aren’t anywhere right now. They’re stuck somewhere between the analog and digital. Socially they’re nebulous. Their virtual communities are non-existent. Public social networks are sparsely populated. When they participate they watch and rarely create or discuss. Our profession is going through a lot right now and it’s evident in anemic digital adoption. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*

Medicine And The Internet: 2000 Vs. 2010

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Whenever I talk to doctors about using social media in medicine, they seem to think there are more cons than pros regarding this issue. I like reminding them about some major differences between 2000 and today:

What would I do if… In 2000 Today
I need clinical answer Try to find a collegue who knows it Post a question on Twitter
I want to hear patient story about a specific condition Try to find a patient in my town Read blogs, watch YouTube
I want to be up-to-date Go to the library once a week Use RSS and follow hundreds of journals
I want to work on a manuscript with my team We gather around the table Use Google Docs without geographical limits

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*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

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