This blog is moving to a new site (health-info.org.uk/patient2pointzero)
The free version of WordPress is OK, but as with anything the more you pay the more you get, and the version I can use on the health-info.org.uk website offers much more functionality.
Please come and follow patient2pointzero over there
Looking at accu-check’s list of finger prickers I had a wry smile at the names they’ve given them.
FastClix, makes sense, gets it done quickly
MultiClix, has a little canister with several lancets so they don’t need loading each time
but SoftClix???? this is a gadget designed to shoot a lancet into my finger – and they call it soft clix
I’m still trying to plan the papers I want to listen to at Medicine 2.0.
Daniel Swayze’s paper – What Are They Talking About?: How Digital Diabetics Use Social Media Features in Online Patient Communities certainly sounds interesting. In brief he found that ‘Discussion forum analysis revealed that food, medication and blood glucose levels were major themes for original posts. Replies usually included the empathic and personal experiences of other members. Group guidance emerged from the multiple replies from the community, providing members with a sense of the normative experiences of the other participants.’
With every conference abstract some things get left out because of the word limit but I’d have found it interesting to know what ethical approach was adopted in carrying out the research.
It’s tough to only have one vote in the EHI Healthcare IT Champion of the Year award as there’s several people nominated that would be worthy winners.
It’s especially good to see a fellow member of BCS on the nomination list, Glen Griffiths, the Vice chair of the BCS Primary Health Care Specialist Group
In a few weeks time I’ll be at the Medicine 2.0 conference in Boston. The website has a useful feature for attendees. It’s possible to create a personal timetable of the papers and presentations you want to go to, so I’ve been trying to look through and do some advance planning.
I thought I’d share one paper that has caught my eye
Physicians’ Motives for Professional Internet Use and Differences in Attitudes Toward the Internet-Informed Patient, Physician–Patient Communication, and Prescribing Behavior, by Martina Moick and Ralf Terlutter (full citation below)
Briefly they found that the reasons Doctors used the Internet affected their attitudes to patients who brought information from the Internet to their consultation (it didn’t however affect their prescribing).
They identified 4 types of internet using Doctors. The Internet Advocate, who could most easily imagine increasing use of the Internet communication with patients, followed by the Driven Self-expressionist. Efficiency-Oriented physicians were neutral whilst the The Internet Critic saw almost no reason to use the Internet for communicating with patients
The results are, perhaps, not surprising. They sound to me the sort of things you’d find when you ask anyone about why they use the Internet. More important is will these results be picked up by the people responsible for educating Doctors to ensure that, where patients want to use it, Doctors aren’t allowed to impose their personal preferences on their patients
Full reference for the paper:
Moick M, Terlutter R
Physicians’ Motives for Professional Internet Use and Differences in Attitudes Toward the Internet-Informed Patient, Physician–Patient Communication, and Prescribing Behavior
Med 2.0 2012;1(2):e2
URL: http://www.medicine20.com/2012/2/e2/
doi: 10.2196/med20.1996
Here is a Webicina image explaining how patients might choose doctors online even nowadays:
The annual Medicine 2.0 conference is being held in Boston (MA) in Septemer
Along with Osman Hassan Ahmed I’ll be presenting a paper about using online discussion boards in research.
