[silk] My invention already invented
Ever since computer use became widespread among doctors and hospitals in India I have interacted with people who have asked me my vision and how computers can actually help me. Basically (and without devaluing the importance of computers in medicine) my attitude has been that they are completely useless for my day to day work - personally. I walk on to a ward, pick up case notes next to a patient's bed and am able to see hour by hour records of several days of observations and in between notes and diagrams. No database with columns to fill has ever been as versatile as several sheets of paper on a notepad. And I can repeat this action with ease next to every patient's bed. I would be willing to read the info off a computer screen but the ease and functionality of paper has to be retained for all others who make entries in a patient's case notes - nurses, other doctors, physiotherapists, pharmacists etc. I invented the gizmo to do this in my mind and told a whole lot of people - the last person to be told was about 2 weeks ago. But it's here now. I was approached by a sales rep from WIPRO selling a little gizmo the size of a cellphone with a screen to match and it comes with a pen. The gizmo is called a mobile e-note taker and clips on to a pad of paper. Writing on the paper with the pen provided produces an accurate image of what you write on the LCD screen of the note taker. It's all wireless (maybe IR - didn't ask/look) and it stores 50 pages - (2 MB flash memory - non upgradeable). You can connect it via USB to a computer and see what u write on the screen like a standard whatchamacallit. It comes bundled with image editing and handwriting recognition software (Windows only) The first 50 doctors to buy it (first 50 suckers?) are getting it at the attractive price of Rs 6500 (as opposed to a regular price of Rs 11,800) I am buying one. If anyone else thinks the price is good and the item is worth it for him tell me. I may even get a free gift if he sells you one. shiv
[silk] Fwd: [FoRK] [Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires]
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA256 Eugen forwarded this to FoRK, and I'm forwarding it here. While nothing surprises me about Bush's tax policies anymore, I love the Britney rant. On a tangent, does anyone know anything about Sheila Marikar? Marikar is a south indian surname. Ram Original Message Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 10:07:28 +0100 From: Eugen Leitl [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Forwarded message from Peter Langston [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted February 20, 2007. Now, after she shaved her head in a bizarre episode that culminates a months-long saga of controversial behavior, it's the question being asked by her fans, her foes and the general public: What was she thinking?-- Bald and Broken: Inside Britney's Shaved Head, Sheila Marikar, ABC.com, Feb. 19 What was she thinking? How about nothing? How about who gives a shit? How's that for an answer, Sheila Marikar of ABC news, you pinhead? I'm not one of those curmudgeons who freaks out every time that Bradgelina moves the war off the front page of the Post, or Katie Couric decides to usher in a whole new era of network news with photos of the imbecile demon-spawn of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I understand that we live in a demand-based economy and that there is far more demand for brainless celebrity bullshit than there is, say, for the fine print of the Health and Human Services budget. But that was before this week. I awoke this morning in New York City to find Britney Spears plastered all over the cover of two gigantic daily newspapers, simply because she cut her hair off over the weekend. To me, this crosses a line. My definition of a news story involves something happening. If nothing happens, then you can't have news, because nothing has changed since the day before. Britney Spears was an idiot last Thursday, an idiot on Friday, and an idiot on both Saturday and Sunday. She was, shockingly, also an idiot on Monday. It will be news when she stops being an idiot, and we'll know when that happens, because she'll have shot herself for the good of the planet. Britney Spears cutting her hair off is the least-worthy front page news story in the history of humanity. Apparently, from now on, every time a jackass sticks a pencil in his own eye, we'll have to wait an extra ten minutes to hear what happened on the battlefield or in Congress or any other place that actually matters. On the same day that Britney was shaving her head, a guy I know who works in the office of Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush's proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press, mainly because of the controversy over the Iraq war resolution. All the same, the Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite. Not only does it make many of Bush's tax cuts permanent, but it envisions a complete repeal of the Estate Tax, which mainly affects only those who are in the top two-tenths of the top one percent of the richest people in this country. The proposed savings from the cuts over the next decade are about $442 billion, or just slightly less than the amount of the annual defense budget (minus Iraq war expenses). But what's interesting about these cuts are how Bush plans to pay for them. Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years. The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion. Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period. Some other notable estimate estate tax breaks, versus corresponding cuts: a.. Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts b.. Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut c.. Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
shiv sastry wrote: I was approached by a sales rep from WIPRO selling a little gizmo the size of a cellphone with a screen to match and it comes with a pen. The gizmo is called a mobile e-note taker and clips on to a pad of paper. Writing on the A cut-down version of palm or similar - with stylus and all. Been around for a few years. Is this customized for doctors in any way?
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
On 3/6/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] I was approached by a sales rep from WIPRO selling a little gizmo the size of a cellphone with a screen to match and it comes with a pen. The gizmo is called a mobile e-note taker and clips on to a pad of paper. Writing on the paper with the pen provided produces an accurate image of what you write on the LCD screen of the note taker. It's all wireless (maybe IR - didn't ask/look) and it stores 50 pages - (2 MB flash memory - non upgradeable). You can connect it via USB to a computer and see what u write on the screen like a standard whatchamacallit. It comes bundled with image editing and handwriting recognition software (Windows only) Digital devices are prone to failure. The worst that can happen to scraps of paper is that you can lose it, or accidentally destroy it - however these are easy to protect against with reasonable efficiency. A digital device really helps when information needs to be shared across many people / locations instantaneously, and also does some degree of analysis. For example if you need to check on a patient at regular intervals then the device could rather easily remind you, however if the device would hook into vital sign monitors wirelessly and graph patient uptime characteristics, that would be something to carry around in your pocket. However these advanced gizmos are not usually stand-alone, they'll need a wireless network, a technician(s) to keep the backend server and the handheld devices alive and data backed up. Usually large hospitals or organizations with a lot of money and a mission critical need [1] can do this, but in general it may not be worth the effort to carry around an independent off the shelf digital device that does nothing more than what you already achieve with paper. In fact it may even hurt since you say the device is Windows only. As long as you write legibly your paper notes are shareable. Cheeni [1] The US Army has a project that embeds an RFID chip in the dog tags of all soldiers to store blood group, allergy information and medical history. It can be read by a handheld device in the field that immediately schedules a space for the wounded in hospitals upstream and orders drugs / qualified medical experts to be on standby.
Re: [silk] Fwd: [FoRK] [Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires]
Ramakrishnan Sundaram wrote: [ on 03:02 PM 3/6/2007 ] Eugen forwarded this to FoRK, and I'm forwarding it here. While nothing surprises me about Bush's tax policies anymore, I love the Britney rant. What *does* surprise me, to quote Frank Zappa [1]: The man in the White House -- oooh! He's got a conscience black as sin! There's just one thing I wanna know -- How'd that asshole ever manage to get in? [1] http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Broadway_The_Hard_Way.html#Dickie
Re: [silk] Stringfever - History of music in 5 minutes
seems to be a dead link? On 3/6/07, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: Meng Wong pointed me at this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stringfever Download the mp3 there and you'll find short 4-8 second clips from pieces like Greensleeves, Handel's Messiah, the William Tell Overture all the way to Smoke on the Water, the Jaws and Bond themes, the background music for the shower scene in Psycho, etc There's two clips - one at 2:54 and the other at 4:19 that could do with some identification. And the wikipedia page itself (which meng just created) could do with a bit of enhancement .. srs
[silk] Music and Lyrics
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA256 Udhay Shankar N said the following on 06/03/2007 14:47: What *does* surprise me, to quote Frank Zappa [1]: Anyone seen Music and Lyrics yet? While it's a forgettable film, some lovely one-liners and an acerbic parody of the music industry, Wham 80's music, and blonde bikini'd popstars makes it worth watching. Once. Ram -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32) iD8DBQFF7UtKRQoToz9njMgRCIYjAJ9NlitRd5y5NMV4CC7jGka8bZgKbACeICuQ ApKxi2dwa+hb6Kz3nUMxiow= =uXYa -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: [silk] Stringfever - History of music in 5 minutes
Ramakrishnan Sundaram [06/03/07 17:32 +0400]: Perfectly understandable. In fact, I'll probably have to kill you the next time I see you for implanting this in my head. Now I'll go nuts till I identify every piece in that medley. The damned thing is, Meng'd identified every piece but two in that lot So if you feel like you need a spoiler - email him srs
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
On Tuesday 06 Mar 2007 6:31 pm, Biju Chacko wrote: A cut-down version of palm or similar - with stylus and all. Been around for a few years. And kinda expensive -- since you can do that and more with a Palm. An entry level Palm would come at the same (or even lower) price. Actually I have a Palm. But it never worked for me because it had a lot of stuff that I DON'T need and not enough of what I do need. The stylus and writing stuff on my Palm (515 I think) required me to go though a painful process for writing, and it was completely impossible to draw figures along with written text - which are very important as far as I am concerned. One figure can indicate the exact site of a symptom or even a diagnosis. This thing does that better. I'm not kidding. These people have something good and I see possibilities of variants of this coming into widespread use in a hospital setting. No wireless required except a few cm between stylus and unit. Data transfer is via USB when convenient. This is the only portable electronic paper i have come across and I have been a gadget freak for 25 years. shiv
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
Biju Chacko wrote: On 3/6/07, Suresh Ramasubramanian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: shiv sastry wrote: I was approached by a sales rep from WIPRO selling a little gizmo the size of a cellphone with a screen to match and it comes with a pen. The gizmo is called a mobile e-note taker and clips on to a pad of paper. Writing on the A cut-down version of palm or similar - with stylus and all. Been around for a few years. And kinda expensive -- since you can do that and more with a Palm. An entry level Palm would come at the same (or even lower) price. -- b You may like to have a look at the digital pen, which is a small device (http://www.anoto.com/), looking exactly like an oversized pen and which uses specially designed stationery to capture the data, as the doctor is on the move. The experience for the user is almost close to normal. Admittedly, this is a solution more appropriate for enterprise settings, as it involves work flow analysis and form designing etc. I am helping Mumbai Police to try out this technology and the experience so far has been heartening. More information at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1493817,prtpage-1.cms http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2007/107020716.asp Will be happy to provide more information. Regards Nandkumar
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
I was approached by a sales rep from WIPRO selling a little gizmo the size of a cellphone with a screen to match and it comes with a pen. The gizmo is called a mobile e-note taker and clips on to a pad of paper. Writing on the paper with the pen provided produces an accurate image of what you write on the LCD screen of the note taker. It's all wireless (maybe IR - didn't ask/look) and it stores 50 pages - (2 MB flash memory - non upgradeable). You can connect it via USB to a computer and see what u write on the screen like a standard whatchamacallit. It comes bundled with image editing and handwriting recognition software (Windows only) Does this gizmo let you write in the normal fashion on the paper as well as make a digital copy? If it mkaes only a digital copy then it is pretty much useless: it does not imp[rove patient outcomes, it does not improve communications among care givers, and teh digital paper is not as versatile as regular paper. I.e. it may be fun to play around with it but it does improve clinical work in any significant way. Shyam Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
On Tuesday 06 Mar 2007 8:53 pm, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: Go buy a tablet pc - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_PC A tablet PC is a sham solution to paper. It is a PC that pretends to replace paper. The fact is that in an environment that is swimming in blood, pus, urine and and people who are considered far more important that my precious Tablet PC - the latter is a total misfit and a complete waste of time by the bedside or in the consulting room. This is why I wrote my invention. People who design and work with Palms and Tablet PCs have not really been able to understand the demands of the environment and keep suggesting solutions that are not solutions at all. shiv
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
On Tuesday 06 Mar 2007 9:00 pm, Shyam Visweswaran wrote: Does this gizmo let you write in the normal fashion on the paper as well as make a digital copy? Yes Precisely. That is what I found so attractive. It clips on to a pad, and you write on paper. A copy automatically goes into the gizmo (displayed on the screen as you write) to be downloaded later. Incidentally there was this news report about a bloke who used a pen scanner to scan his exam question paper and sent it over a cell phone to cheat-mates. Apparently this company will sell such pen scanners as well - but that is less useful to me than this gizmo - for which I see loads of possibilities. While this machine's capabilities are currently limited - I think it is a step forward in the tech that is being offered at a focused user-end level. I foresee a day when each patient's bedside will have a (wireless) clipboard with electronic paper - a screen on which you write like ordinary paper while what you write gets transferred to a central memory as you write. With my hands in gloves I can request a nurse or assistant to hold up the chart so I can look for some detail or other - perhaps an investigation report that can be called up at the touch of a button (as can be done now by the turn of a page). Even better than paper - I should be able to see X rays and scans on the board - an act that is now physically more unwieldy with paper, requiring the extraction of scans from envelopes and/or moving to a separate viewing area. All these details would also be viewable from any terminal. And the other uses that patient case sheets are put to can all be done without loss of communication. Let me explain. There are occasions when a patient case sheet is removed from general view because it is taken for short periods of time for some purpose - like being shown to some doctor or other, or to a pharmacy for cross checking something, or is being viewed by a billing clerk. Perhaps a doctor finds that the instruction issued by a colleague is illegible or unclear. In all these instances the details can be accessed via the central memory on any suitable terminal without having to remove the case papers - or the electronic pad from the patient's bedside. That is the way forward. And with the virtual elimination of paper records - patient records can be maintained for decades rather than the vastly shorter periods as of now. shiv
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
--- shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It clips on to a pad, and you write on paper. A copy automatically goes into the gizmo (displayed on the screen as you write) to be downloaded later. OK, it is a handwriting-capture device that is purely a supplement to current record system. That makes sense and is a small step forward. Incidentally there was this news report about a bloke who used a pen scanner to scan his exam question paper and sent it over a cell phone to cheat-mates. Apparently this company will sell such pen scanners as well - but that is less useful to me than this gizmo - for which I see loads of possibilities. Scanning medical documents can be temporary solution when moving from paper to electronic medical records. It creates extra work and hence cannot be a standard way to input into the electronic medical record. I foresee a day when each patient's bedside will have a (wireless) clipboard with electronic paper - a screen on which you write like ordinary paper while what you write gets transferred to a central memory as you write. With my hands in gloves I can request a nurse or assistant to hold up the chart so I can look for some detail or other - perhaps an investigation report that can be called up at the touch of a button (as can be done now by the turn of a page). Even better than paper - I should be able to see X rays and scans on the board - an act that is now physically more unwieldy with paper, requiring the extraction of scans from envelopes and/or moving to a separate viewing area. Imaging is the least of the problems in terms of electronic compatibility. Almost all new imaging machines produce digital images (that can be printed on paper or film if needed) and hence can be moved around on electronic networks. For imaging it is a problem of having a hospital network in place not a problem of data capture. Just the opposite is the problem in the case of patient notes. As far as I know there is no good way for electronic capture of patient notes. Handwriting capture (like your mobile e-note) is the least intrusive but is unprocessable by machines in any intelligent fashion. Handwriting to text conversion may help but is still very error-prone in the medical domain. Speech to text capture is fast but does not work in the nosiy clinical workplace. In most places where physicians record their notes the conversion to text is done by human transcriptionists. The current default is to have the doctors, nurses, etc type in their notes at a terminal. However, this usually disrupts the clinical workflow since you cannot type while on rounds. Also, there is an insidious problem with the current system of electronic notes. People tend to copy, paste and modify their previous notes rather than type in a note de novo. Ultimately you have zillion lines of text that you have to parse to extract the salient clinical features that defeats the very purpose of cinical notes. This may be a US-specific problem where documenting eveything is given undue importance. shyam Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. http://games.yahoo.com/games/front
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
On Wednesday 07 Mar 2007 8:19 am, Shyam Visweswaran wrote: As far as I know there is no good way for electronic capture of patient notes. Handwriting capture (like your mobile e-note) is the least intrusive but is unprocessable by machines in any intelligent fashion. Handwriting to text conversion may help but is still very error-prone in the medical domain. Absolutely - and in fact (you may know more about this than I do) handwriting processing by the human brain is also error prone - though less so than by software algorithms. Under the circumstances it makes sense to maintain the original note in image file format for varying and fuzzy interpretation that the multiple human brains are good at. Besides - humans quickly learn to recognize symbols and abbreviations and reasonably accurately guess their relevance and context. The handwriting recognition software that comes with this e notepad was great for the sales reps practised hand, but my handwriting will surely cause it to crash. I'll find out later today in any case. shiv
Re: [silk] The Xbox Auteurs
On 3/7/07, Bruce Metcalf [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 2001 didn't come out badly, either. At least, it was no *less* coherent than the film. That really isn't saying much. :-) -- b
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
Have you seen this: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/medtabthe-docs-tablet-pc-241986.php Adit. On 3/6/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm not kidding. These people have something good and I see possibilities of variants of this coming into widespread use in a hospital setting. No wireless required except a few cm between stylus and unit. Data transfer is via USB when convenient. This is the only portable electronic paper i have come across and I have been a gadget freak for 25 years. -- ...But always remember that irritation is what allows oysters to create pearls. Thank goodness for oysters because ulcers make crappy necklaces [Scott Adams]
