News, Scholarly Publishing, Digital Archives: JSTOR and Ithaka Merger Announced

Two important interdisciplinary digital archival sites – JSTOR and Ithaka – announced their merger on Jan 25 2009.  Link here to the press release. The new, combined enterprise will be named Ithaka.  No word yet on when the switchover of archives will take place. JSTOR is a subscription database.  It is a unique multidisciplinary archive, [...]

News, Healthcare Administration, Benefit Surveys: Mercer Consulting Report – Nov 2008

Mercer Consulting, owned by U.S. insurance giant Marsh & McClennan, released highlights of its’ 23rd annual United States National Health Plan Survey on Nov 19 2008, which is a major source of health benefit data for U.S. employers and health care industry.  The complete report will not be available for purchase from the company until [...]

News, Technology, Pop History: The 25th Birthday of the Mac

Many of us remember the first computer we ever used (or bought), just like our first car – because it was “the first”.  Some of us can recall buying so many computers (or cars) that it requires a sit-down with paper and pencil to list all that there were.  Segue into a discussion on a [...]

The Friday Post #25: Build-A-Squid, Outside Hospital and Exercise Fail

Here’s the Friday Post #25 for Jan 23 2009. I’m always happy to write about Cephalopods which are some of the most interesting animals in the world (see several previous posts about them).  Recently I found a great interactive/ educational game for children called Build A Squid! The game is at: http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/build-a-squid/interactive, courtesy of the [...]

News, Public Health, Womens’ Rights: Today in History

On Jan 22 1973, a decision was rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court on a case which ruled that: “ Most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion [...]

News, Search Technologies: Give Mednar a Try

” Mednar [a federated medical search engine introduced in 2008] promises to become a standard tool of power searchers in the health sciences (e.g., medical librarians, physicians, health care researchers) and for savvy consumer searchers who seek supplements to such standard tools as MedlinePlus or PubMed “. Quote from AltSearchEngines.com writer Hope Leman, who ranked [...]

News: EeeK! 60 hours later… A New Look for the Blog

Finally, after many hours of staring at WordPress themes, this is what the new blog theme looks like – except of course for the top-photo which I am still twiddling and angst-ing over.  I hope you approve! Jan 19, 2009 in the U.S. is a major holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, while Americans [...]

The Friday Post #24: Public Health E-Cards in Questionable Taste, Signs, More Anatomical Knitting

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) introduced their service of providing health related E-Greeting cards to the public in 2007. While I understand the purpose of the E-cards is to promote public health via interactive media… frankly speaking they seem a bit odd.  Because <well> is the purpose of them to notify [...]

PBL, Instruction, Lifelong Learning: Ambiguity, Acronyms, Being Average and Preparedness

A conversation I had with a medical student years ago in PBL stays with me. She attended a top high school, graduated third in her class at Dartmouth College and came to UConn School of Medicine. She was (and is) a high-achiever, accustomed to placing well on exams and class rankings. Her name is Amy. [...]

News, Public Health: Physicians, MySpace and Adolescents

” Social networking sites are increasingly popular among teenagers, with 25% of 200 million MySpace users estimated to be minors. Adolescents’ web profiles can place them at risk of a number of adverse consequences because of the health risk information displayed, such as sexual activity and substance use…. In this study, pediatrician Megan Moreno and [...]