My Orthopaedic Surgeon

Orthopaedic surgeons recognize that the literature' is one of the most valuable information resources and are getting increasingly frustrated at the difficulties and cost of access.
Three useful ways to obtain free access,
1) belong to a major medical library which has most of the journals online,
2) do a Google search for the title (inside quotes) in case the full text has been posted somewhere
3) send an e-mail to the author requesting a copy.
Myles Clough, M.D., FRCSC COA Bulletin Issue 80 2008

This guide has been developed by the members of the Internet Society of Orthopedic Surgery and Trauma (ISOST) to serve as a self-guided tutorial to the Internet for orthopedists. Although there are many other guides available, we felt that a guide written by orthopedic surgeons specificially directed to the interests of fellow orthopedists might more directly address your needs than a general interest guide: searching MedLine, designing an office website, surfing the net for orthopedic information. This guide is an ongoing project and will be continually updated, in the way that only an Internet document can be. It will be highly hyperlinked, with orthopedically-oriented examples.

OTA paper 1998

Telemedicine and International Disaster Response Medical Consultation to Armenia and Russia Via a Telemedicine Spacebridge 1992 Introduction: The Telemedicine Spacebridge, a satellite-mediated, audio-video-fax link between four United States and two Armenian and Russian medical centers, permitted remote American consultants to assist Armenian and Russian physicians in the management Of medical problems following the December 1 988 earthquake in Armenia and the June 1989 gas explosion near Ufa. Methods: During 12 weeks of operations, 24 7 Armenian and Russian and 175 American medical professionals participated in 34 half-day clinical conferences. A total of 209 patients were discussed, requiring expertise in 20 specialty areas. Results: Telemedicine consultations resulted in altered diagnoses for 54, new diagnostic studies far 70, altered diagnostic processes for 47, and modified treatment plans for 47 of 185 Armenian patients presented. Simultaneous participation of several US medical centers was judged beneficial; quality of data transmission was judged excellent. Conclusion: These results suggest that interactive consultation by remote specialists can provide valuable assistance to on-site physicians and favorably influence clinical decisions in the aftermath of major disasters. (full text)

What do we know about communicating risk? A brief review and suggestion for contextualising serious, but rare, risk, and the example of cox-2 selective and non-selective NSAIDs R Andrew Moore , Sheena Derry , Henry J McQuay and John Paling Arthritis Research & Therapy 2008, 10:R20 (Abstract and full text)
We present a method of communicating information about serious risks using the common outcome of death, using pictures, numbers, and words, and contextualising the information. Using this method for gastrointestinal and cardiovascular harm with NSAIDs and coxibs shows differences between individual NSAIDs and coxibs.

National Medical Informatics Association

In this study the authors aim to determine whether custom built orthopaedic search engines are more useful than commercial search engines for identifying orthopaedic information on the Internet for various clinical problems relevant to the general public.

Provides career resources for health informatics professionals.

The aim of the association is to promote the safe, efficient and effective use of Clinical Terminologies in healthcare, by recognition of suitably qualified persons, by supporting appropriate education and training, and by participating in the setting of standards for terminology development and use.

British HealthCare Internet Association

Mini-workshop on how to edit Xray images before emailing them

Early account by Don Johnson.

A new non-commercial discussion forum for physicians with EMR, Handhelds, clinical threads and more

Controversial article by Chuck Shotton who discuses role of Geeks versus Doctors in healthcare.

Improvement in Orthopaedic Metadata will make web pages easier to searh and locate. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open forum engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI's activities include consensus-driven working groups, global workshops, conferences, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices.