Congratulations to my friends at CAHG for their award winning work at this year's Global Awards ceremony. The Takeda team at CAHG secured three honors for their recent Takeda hypertension awareness creative campaign!

For those of you who haven't had the chance to see it, this campaign brings to life the damaging effects of uncontrolled hypertension using the analogy of global warming. Please link to http://bit.ly/fmeQbK to see three executions of the campaign idea (heart, kidneys, brain) along with a sample of how the campaign was brought to life at the convention (see image above).

iMA article in Journal of Surgical Radiology

by Felasfa Wodajo, MD

on 12/08/10

[Editor's Note: Felasfa Wodajo, senior editor at iMedicalApps, had the following article published in the Journal of Surgical Radiology.  The iMedicalApps article is based off an experiment we performed to study the functionality of the iPad in the operating room, briefly covered in a prior article we wrote.  This is Part 1 of a two part series, in Part II we will cover the method of using OsiriX and Dropbox to transferring images to the iPad.]

The iPad has received a significant amount of attention in the health care arena since its introduction last year. The attraction is fairly obvious; it is a portable, lightweight, powerful computing device with an intui-tive interface and a large library of built-in applications. In fact, major medical schools such as Stanford and University of California, Irvine have made decisions to provide iPads to all incoming medical students this year. While predicting the future of medical technology is always precarious, here are a few things we have learned in the months since the iPad was introduced.

A short time ago, we published at IMedicalApps.com a brief entry describing the potential use of the iPad in the operating room. What we found was that a simple xray cassette sterile bag, ubiquitous in the OR, holds an iPad comfortably. Once the iPad is inserted into the plastic bag by the circulating nurse, the top can be cut off, folded back and clamped with a hemostat (see image) allowing the iPad to be safely brought into the sterile field.

Notably, we found that the iPad touch screen works quite well through the plastic bag, even while wearing gloves. Somehow, the touch of the plastic bag itself against the glass screen registers as a valid touch. There was hardly any problem navigating between and inside apps, or with gestures such as pinch and zoom. This was somewhat of a surprise since, as many people have noticed, using an iPhone touch screen with gloves is difficult at best and impossible if one is double-gloved.

 

 

[Ed. This post is excerpted from the article published in the Journal of Surgical Radiology (link)]

What is the use of an iPad in the OR? The reasons may actually be myriad but, generally speaking, the same features which make the iPad great for surfing the web, such as looking at images and viewing video, nicely translate into the operating room. Thus far, the most obvious use for me has been as a convenient way to easily access previous patient imaging. Additional potential assets of utilizing the iPad in the OR include the ability to review relevant anatomy at the point of care and enhancement to resident teaching. It can also be useful in bypassing hospitals’ restrictive networks to access remote files and office electronic medical records (EMRs) using the cellular 3G networks.

Recently, there was a report of a Japanese surgeon using an imaging application on the iPad to plan surgery in the OR (Medgadget). Although it is not clear what application was being used, I suspect it was OsiriX (seen in the accompanying images). I am not aware of any currently available applications for the iOS platform currently available which integrate with surgical devices such as laparoscopes, arthroscopes or computer-aided navigation. It is fun though to speculate about a future iPad-like device which might use onboard gyroscopes to provide an “augmented reality” view of internal structures, so that tilting the device would show different portions of the body. This could even conceivably be integrated with views from internal cameras, navigation or robotically controlled surgical instruments.

 

Black Friday shopping stats based on Foursquare check-ins.

1. Mobile is hot! It is on the top of every “digital pharma” marketer’s list.

2. The FDA is scheduled to release social networking guidelines in December 2010.

3. Waiting for FDA guidelines shouldn’t paralyze your organization’s efforts. You must ensure that your voice is heard.

4. Pharmaceutical companies are not making an effort to follow tweeting HCPs. They are missing a real opportunity to build their brand through a virtual handshake.

5. Twitter is a great way for pharmaceutical reps to build personal relationships with tweeting HCPs. It has the same kind of power as the written “thank you note” of the 1990’s.

6. Digital experts specializing in pharmaceutical advertising are embracing the iPad, iPhone 4, the Android, etc. Their love of gadgets and all things digital is just as prevalent as their counterparts specializing in consumer advertising.

7. iTunes frequently takes extended periods of time to approve proposed apps. Plan to wait for upwards of 2 weeks to hear whether your app has been approved.

8. There are strong benefits of both branded and unbranded mobile apps. Unbranded apps allow you to cast a wide net in hopes of reaching a broad target audience – beyond your current patient base. Branded apps can be promoted heavily on your branded site – to reach a large percentage of your current/potential patients.

9. Digital pharma strategists are universally turning to Morgan Stanley’s Internet Trends report and Manhattan Research’s Pulse Report for their HCP, patient/caregiver and digital usage trends.

10. Digital Pharma East is a fantastic networking opportunity for experts wanting to play in the digital pharma space. It brings out the heavy hitters.

Here's the harsh truth: Whether you know it or not, some people judge you the moment they see what comes after the "@" in your messages.

At the risk of flirting with internet snobbery, here is a look at the place where ISPs and personalities meet. (It's worth noting, we're not the first to do so. We're particularly fond of this fun graphic from The Oatmeal, a humor blog.)

These are stereotypes gathered in the name of fun and, like all stereotypes, there are exceptions. That said, let the stereotyping begin!

@aol.com

You probably have the same e-mail address you had in 1997.  You also might be 70.

Fair or not, if you send an e-mail from an Aol account, the recipient is likely to expect it to be spam, a forward of some thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory or pictures of kittens.

"I get the sense that people with Aol addresses have just been too lazy to upgrade, i.e., their e-mail address is still: IHeartKittens81@aol.com," says Brenna Ehrlich, a co-creator of the "Stuff Hipsters Hate" blog and writer for tech-blog Mashable.

@hotmail.com

Not much different than Aol. Hotmail is another ISP that was huge in the Web's earlier days but has lost cache among the technorati.        We'll pause here to point out that Hotmail remains the world's most popular e-mail provider, with more than 360 million accounts. But a lot of that is outside the United States -- it's in 10 languages -- and its longevity can be attributed to its link to the long arm of its provider, Microsoft).

@yahoo.com

We ended up with a hung jury on Yahoo mail.

Many folks in our incredibly nonscientific polling said they have Yahoo accounts, which they only use as an address to provide on sites they expect to flood them with spam.

But, to be sure, Yahoo has stayed more aggressive with its updates, spam filtering and the like than some of its competitors. And it's continued to grow -- it has 273 million users -- while services such as Aol floundered.

We'll call this one a no-decision. But be aware that there are those out there who will judge you for Yahoo. (Same goes for addresses from cable/phone/Web providers, such as @comcast.net or sbcglobal.net).

@gmail.com

What doesn't Google do?

The search giant/e-mail provider/phone system and map maker vies with Facebook for "king of the internet" honors. And its e-mail system, with 193 million users, is one of the reasons.

Gmail, its supporters point out, is free, boasts tons of storage, has a strong chat feature and acts as a portal to many of Google's other services.

The Oatmeal says a Gmail user "most likely knows their way around a computer" and "when the internet stops working, actually tries rebooting the router before calling a family member for help."

me@mywebsite.com

Owning your own domain name pretty much puts you at the top of the e-savvy stack.

No one will think you're a rube when they get your e-mail. They may, however, think you're self-centered. And possibly a megalomaniac.

Work/school e-mail

In this day and age, nothing that proves you actually have a job can be a bad thing, right?

Same for the whole higher-education thing. In its earliest days, Facebook was an uber-exclusive club that required a Harvard e-mail account to join. Nothing wrong with some school spirit, and if it brought a healthy dose of Ivy League self-importance along with it, all the better.

But if you insist on using your work e-mail for all your personal messages, then people may make two assumptions about you:

1. You spend too much time at work.

2. You want everyone to be impressed by your @whitehouse.gov e-mail account.

Here are a couple of tips: Keep a close eye on your office policies before relying too heavily on your work e-mail. What the internet at large thinks of you might become rapidly less important than what your boss thinks of you if they decide to take a look over your digital shoulder.

And if you're more than a few years out of school, dump the alma mater's account. If you're still using @harvard.edu 20 years after graduation, you'll just be the digital equivalent of the middle-aged guy still trying to squeeze on his letterman's jacket.

We all know how social media has impacted our personal lives. How has this impacted the way that people work? Has it made employees more or less productive? How do employees value social media relative to other time alternatives?

I had the opportunity to review an early copy of a two-hundred page study released today by Pierre Khawand, Founder and CEO of People-OnTheGo. In this comprehensive study of more than 1000 business professionals, Pierre found that people manage multiple "inboxes" including social media.

Which of the following "inboxes" do you check regularly?
All Responses

 

Which of the following "inboxes" do you check regularly?

Workplace Interruptions Pose a Threat to Productivity

What is perhaps the most concerning issue raised by this study is that most participants check their "inboxes" too often, constantly interrupting their work. Researchers have consistently found that multitasking reduces productivity; tasks can take more than twice as long to complete and can lead to a dramatic increase in errors. Adding to this, my research has found that there are eight key triggers ("8Ps") that redirect time and attention and create time magnets. Peers and Power are triggers that can cause addictive behaviors that we see on social media platforms.

How often do you interrupt your work to check your "inboxes"?

Social media is valuable to the workplace. New tools needed to manage.

Although some companies block social media, I believe that this is overkill. There are many benefits to social media that companies cannot ignore in areas such as customer relationships, collaboration and market research. For business-to-business providers, employees and executives are the customer making social media interaction a necessity.