Can You Tell Your Life Story In 6 Words?

Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser talk to NPR about the fun and the challenge of capturing real-life stories in six little words.

Some examples related to medicine:

Alzheimer's: meeting new people every day.
Phil Skversky

After cancer, I became a semicolon.
Anthony R. Cardno

Normal person becomes psychotic on Twitter.
Robin Slick

Yale at 16, downhill from there.
Anita Kawatra

References:
Can You Tell Your Life Story In Exactly Six Words? NPR, 2010.

Johns Hopkins Medicine podcast now has a blog

The weekly podcast by Johns Hopkins Medicine now has a blog hosted for free at Blogger.com by Google:

http://hopkinspodblog.blogspot.com

I have been a regular listener for years and have found the podcast to be both educational and enjoyable - not a common combination.

The weekly podcast looks at the top medical stories of the week for people who want to become informed participants in their own health care. The presenters are Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Rick Lange M.D., professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins and vice chairman of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

See my list of health podcasts at Google Bookmarks here.

Image source: Johns Hopkins

NPR: Patients Turn To Online Buddies To Help Healing

61% of adults say they look online for health information. There's a term for them: e-patients.

20% of e-patients go to Internet and social-networking sites where they can talk to medical experts and other patients:

"They are posting their first-person accounts of treatments and side effects from medications. They are part of the conversation. And that, I think, is an indicator of where we could be going in terms of the future of participatory medicine", says Susannah Fox, with the Pew Internet and American Life Project, "The Internet now is not just information. There is a social life of information online."



There are an exponentially increasing number of ways to follow, tag, talk, poke, nudge and communicate in the virtual world. The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis (see the expanded flickr image) shows most social media facets:



This "flower" of Internet communication replaces the old starfish of Web 2.0 shown below:


Social Media Starfish created by Darren Barefoot (Creative Commons license).

References:
Patients Turn To Online Buddies For Help Healing. NPR.

Doctor Rob launches The House Call Doctor podcast on iTunes

Doctor Rob is one of the 70 people I follow on Twitter and I am happy to post this press release about his latest project (edited by me):

The House Call Doctor, hosted by Dr. Rob Lamberts, joins the highly successful "Quick and Dirty Tips" iTunes podcasts on July 14, with free content also available for download at www.quickanddirtytips.com.

How can I lower my cholesterol? Is Tylenol really safe? Why do my bruises itch? No topic is off limits for the House Call Doctor—the newest addition to Macmillan’s Quick and Dirty Tips self-improvement franchise. Dr. Rob Lamberts practices full-time in his primary care private practice in the southeastern US. He is board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics, and has doctored for the past 15 years. Lamberts’ recent involvement in the advocacy of electronic medical records has received national recognition and his popular medical blog, Musings of a Distractible Mind, was named one of Tara Parker-Pope’s “favorite medical blogs” in her New York Times Well blog.

With his trademark sense of humor and straightforward advice, Dr. Lamberts answers a wide variety of questions in this QDT podcast, mixing his extensive experience in the medical field with accessible advice that is both accurate and easy to understand. Filled with friendly and in-depth answers on listeners’ most pressing health issues, House Call Doctor offers progressive and innovative ways to look at medicine and the healthcare industry as a whole.

The House Call Doctor’s first series of podcasts will cover a wide range of health concerns and medical inquiries, including:

- What do I really need to know about cholesterol?
- How do I talk to my doctor about medical information I’ve found on the Internet?
- Where do bruises come from, and how can I get rid of them?
- What are the dangers of using popular pain relievers, such as Tylenol?
- What should I look out for to prevent the over use of antibiotics?

Dr. Lamberts’ expert tips will give listeners the tools they need to understand their bodies better and improve their health and quality of life. His goal with the House Call Doctor is to “make medical things easier to understand and hopefully to offer a little entertainment in the process.” As Dr. Lamberts says, “People want to understand their health, but unfortunately many of the explanations out there are either confusing or boring.”

You can subscribe to House Call Doctor via iTunes or any other RSS reader and you can also subscribe to the transcripts on the website using the following links:

The House Call Doctor on iTunes

The House Call Doctor Podcast RSS

The House Call Doctor Transcripts

Related:
Top 5 Medical Podcasts I Listen To, 2006.