What is it?
It is a newish blog “for faculty, residents and students at medical schools and teaching hospitals that highlights innovation in academic medicine.” You can find the blog at http://wingofzock.org

“Wing of Zock was created to be the online community of choice for faculty, residents, students, and executives at medical schools and teaching hospitals. Through a blog format, we hope to provide a venue for practitioners of academic medicine to share success stories; and to help academic medical centers (AMCs) prepare for health care transformation by sharing best practices. We will highlight innovations in clinical care, community engagement, medical information, technology and more. It is our goal to create an open community of learning that features idea sharing, communication, and robust discussion.”

Why is this of interest and helpful to PubMed users?
The entry for Wednesday, March 28, 2012 is titled Utility, Development, and Practice: The Learning Curve of Clinical Practice Guidelines

In the MeSH Database we are offered information about a PubMed publication type:

Practice Guideline [Publication Type]
Work consisting of a set of directions or principles to assist the health care practitioner with patient care decisions about appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic, or other clinical procedures for specific clinical circumstances. Practice guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, organizations such as professional societies or governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. They can provide a foundation for assessing and evaluating the quality and effectiveness of health care in terms of measuring improved health, reduction of variation in services or procedures performed, and reduction of variation in outcomes of health care delivered.
Year introduced: 2008(1992)

As librarians OR information gathers OR information disseminators OR information guiders OR data curators who use PubMed to search for published biomedical literature. We take advantage of a controlled vocabulary but are not involved in the delivery of medicine. Therefore it is of great interest to read about the creation and implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs).

This is not the only Zock blog entry I have found of interest. I recommend their postings as a source of enrichment for understanding not just the vocabulary but also the thinking of health care practitioners. For enlightenment on health care issues I would think the audience for these blog postings would be universal.

In case you are curious about their name, please read “our name” on their link http://wingofzock.org/about/

Another suggestion from the Bob Pike webinar I attended recently:  give your students some “quiet time” to read or reflect.  As instructors, we often feel like we have to fill every minute with talking or interactive activities, especially during online classes.

During the webinar, the leader gave participants a few minutes to quietly read a particular section of the workbook.  When he asked if the participants appreciated that time, most said yes.  He suggested that we consider adding “quiet time” to our own training sessions.

Recently, I attended a webinar led by the “train the trainer” company Bob Pike. The topic of the webinar was “Dealing with Difficult Participants,” but also included some information about training in general. Over the next few blog posts I’ll report on interesting ideas discussed in the webinar.

The webinar leader listed a number of interactive activities to help keep students engaged and encourage participation.  A few that caught my attention were:

1. Fill in the blanks:  provide a handout with course notes, but leave some important words blank.  The students fill those in during the presentation.  Students don’t have to try to scribble notes of every word you are saying, but filling in the blanks will help them retain what they learn because they are writing something down.
2. “Teach backs”:  students teach what they have just learned to another student.
3. Top 10 Lists
4. Card sorting
5. “Gallery walks”:   students review posters on a wall; see this page from Central Michigan University for a description.

Save meeting

This app allows you to record the audio of your meetings or classes, transcribe the audio, and share the recordings and transcriptions with others.

Currently available for iPhone & Android.

The app is free to download. There are both free and premium service options.

http://goo.gl/WwGcI

Do you have data that you want to make more visually appealing to the audience? IBM has a free site that helps you transform columns of numbers into interactive charts and graphs. Free to register and use.

http://http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/

There is still time to register for the TOXNET® and Beyond in-person class to be held in Chicago, IL on April 4, 2012.  This is a free class and comes with 6 MLA CE credits.

This course is designed to convey the basics of searching the NLM’s TOXNET, a Web-based system of databases in the areas of toxicology, environmental health, and related fields. The course will also teach students how to utilize NLM’s environmental health and toxicology portal which provides resources beyond the TOXNET databases. Participants will learn the content and structure of files covering toxicology data, toxicology literature, toxic releases, and chemical nomenclature. Among the databases highlighted will be TOXLINE, the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), and ChemIDplus. The course will be conducted in a computer lab and includes lectures, online demonstrations, and hands-on exercises.

Register today!

OMG! A free App that allows you to view and edit your Microsoft files (PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and more) on your iPad. First, go to http://desktop.onlive.com/ on your desktop/laptop computer and sign up for a free account (there is also a paid version). Second, download the App to your iPad. Third, upload desired files from your desktop/laptop computer to the OnLive server. Fourth, sign into your OnLive account on your iPad. Fifth, access your uploaded files from your Documents folder that will appear on your OnLive desktop.

The company is also working on bringing OnLive to Android tablets, iPhones and iPod Touches, Macs and PCs, and even to TV sets.

I have given several presentations where I want to include some historical context and make the information more than just a list of events. I recently found some PowerPoint timeline templates on Microsoft’s website that add some action to the information.

3-D timeline that spans across three slides

Pictures that move along a curved path onto the slide

Dynamic timeline

Search for the information, build a resource, and then share it

There was yet again another interesting article in the New York Times that relates to toxicology and environment health. It seems that every day in this newspaper I read about something that relates to the subject matter of a National Library of Medicine (NLM) resource. Because I am one of quite a few trainers providing instruction on TOXNET, a suite of NLM resources covering toxicology and environmental health, I find something pertinent on a regular basis. The latest article of interest to me is in the February 2, 2012 New York Times Home Section titled “To Help Make Sure Your Home Is Healthy, an Ingredients List”.

The author, Fred A. Bernstein interviewed two architects who out of the need to be informed about building materials that are free of known and suspected carcinogens had to conduct their own research. Because they did not find the product information they needed for many of their potential building materials they ended up gathering the data and finally creating their own database. It is available to anyone at http://transparency.perkinswill.com/main

Upon consultation with one of my colleagues at Specialized Information Services (SIS) division of NLM she suggested that two TOXNET resources would provide similar information. Haz-Map® is an occupational toxicology database and HSDB® focuses on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals. All of the NLM web resources are free.

For two architects with a focused need it is amazing to me what they did out of need. I laud them for their generosity in deciding to share their efforts with everyone.

I love my Asics Kayano socks for jogging because they are very comfortable, and moisture wicking. But really it is the color scheme that reminds me of puffins that led me to my first purchase.  As I read my newspaper this morning an article motivated me to look up the product ingredients of my beloved socks.  Just as I suspected, one of the products listed is “NanoGlidea”.

I first become aware and eventually very interested in nanotechnology several years ago because I am involved in the training of the use of the National Library of Medicine’s TOXNET – a collection of databases on hazardous chemicals, toxic releases, and environmental health.

The article I am referring to in the January 26, 2012 issue of the New York Times by Cornelia Dean tells us that an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences says that not enough is known about the potential health and environmental risks of nanomaterials. The panel has called for more research.  What might be the motivation for concern?  Dean goes on to say that in 2009 product sales from the nanotechnology market was $225 billion.  Who was the motivator for the study? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requested the National Research Council (NRC), the research arm of the National Academy of Science to convene the panel.  The report was issued by the NRC on January 25, 2012 and is available right now for $42.30 in the form of a “Prepublication PDF”

The website Nanowerk offers a fine summary of the report at:

http://goo.gl/FIJpX