Weeks ago , Dr. Hosam Ismael MD ( Plastic Surgery department . Mansoura University ) , asked me to design a course , or a set of seminars  for Involving Computer and Internet Technologies in Medical Practice in General For Surgeons in his department  , Before Dr. Ismael ask me , Me and Dr.Moaz we were working on our book of  Medical Informatics Book , cause somehow we believe our perspective is not that simple to be listed in a blog , as separate articles , so we agreed to list the articles in sections involving some case study and distupating our vision as a developers ( Medical Informatics Project’s Manufactures ) and as  Physicians ( Back-end Users ) .

Somehow all our attention were completely focus in using Computer in Medical Practice , somehow for the Doctors who are ready involved with the internet and computer and good daily users , somehow the environment suggests that : a wide scale of doctors don’t use the computer in practice , somehow they don’t realize the importance of it in practice . Though With Our Dr. Hosam Ismael , he suggest to give an introduction ( Historical , and Basic Background Science ) on Medical Informatics and That How its Done Yesterday ( Monday ) .

Dr.Ismael agreed on My list of seminars suggested though , it would be more with live examples , so here is the list of the seminars :

• Introduction To Medical Informatics and Web2.0 .
• Talking Informatics : Common Terms Used In Medical Informatics  .
• Web2.0 : Introduction ,Concepts , Terms and How is it different from Web1.0 .
• Web2.0 : Tools  - Services - Projects .
• Web2.0 : Use In Medical Practice .
• Search 2.0 : Search in Web2.0 , How is it Different ?
• Computational Practice : Adapting Common Used Technologies in Medical Practice .
• EMR , EHR : What are They ? , And How Do You choose an EMR for your Practice ?
• Adapting Web2.0 as a Research Tool .
• Computer Based Medical Training . The Dream , The Progress and The Goal . Case Study .

That’s it for now , soon as the the first seminar was successful and the attending were some mix of MD Doctors , and Surgeons  as well as some  Medical Interns  .  i can say it was satisfied as an introduction .

The Next Seminar will be in an hours , and i think i have a lot to do on the presentation .

Hamza Emadeen Mousa

Tags: Informatics, Course , Medical Informatics , Health Informatics , Seminars

N.B : This is a set of topics , and this one is related to the previous and next one ( soon ) .

Introduction :
Solo Research it not a prime type of medical research or many scientific researches , Most of these researches depend of team . so

” it’s a team work , that need a collaboration of the members ( group ) to establish something ( target ) , in certain time . ”

That simple definition Rings a bell in my mind that i wrote a definition of group-ware similar to that one :
“so Groupware: it’s about Individuals (People => Team), those who communicate have a shared goal (Project) with same interests , willing to do it through tasks (missions) in certain time (time line).” ( link )

So here is a lot of elements that we should consider when :

• Working -on- a research .
• Working -on- a project .
• Working -with- a Team .
• Attached -to- certain time -in- work and -for- production .

Groupware as an Example to Collaborative Software :

Here i Want to consider the Groupware as an example to collaborative software , which will ease on the new to web2.0 to reach the concept of e-Collaboration .

Elements of Groupware :

Groupware as it suggest from it’s name a Group software , it developed for multi users capabilities , and interaction , and as i listed before in the definition of group ware it consider the main basic elements for production as :

1. Individuals .
2. Time .
3. Tasks .
4. Production .

So in simple few steps :

1. What should I do ? : Management the People : Tasks , Duties , Tracking the work process .
2. I finished this what’s Next ? Time Management : Calender and roadmap .
3. Did you finished that ? : establish a proper communication pathways .
4. Involve Them : Feedback , The result , online meetings . and open discussions .

That would help you to consider the importance of collaboration in many level of medicine either in practice or , education .

The main goal of e-Collaboration is to Organize that collaboration , and make it less time consuming , more interactive , more time oriented , also more productive . as it also aims to decrease the lack of communication between the team members . which unfortunately is one of the major problems between the members in some work groups .

Collaborative Software and The use in research purpose :

Social Writing ( Documents ) and research Papers : Researchers who used to write papers in collaboration with other colleagues ,Needs an interactive tool , which suppose to be built on what are the people really need ? , However social writing is a web2.0 that can be used to speed the process up ( writing , revisions , editing , and finishing ) .

Examples of social writing softwares :

1. Google Documents : Include Word Documents , Spreadsheets , and Presentation , it’s easy to invite your friends , colleagues , partners or you team to collaborate ( write , revision , edit ) . the usability of Google Documents has it’s compatibility features ( with common office file’s extensions )
2. Zoho Online Office.
3. ThinkFree Online Office .

Social Bookmarking : Sharing The Bookmarks between the researchers is one of the best ways to share the resources , however this type of sharing developed on the top of web2.0 to social search engine powered for web sites , as well as social web links directory . that is an easy to search , browse , and share again .
Facebook.com has many application and modules which ease the sharing and increase the connectivity for the team members .
Examples of social bookmarking :

1. Del.icio.us : the famous usable targetable one , but also there are many others, but the usability and simplicity of it allow the users to pull up the needed tags , that the users submit . as it build a networking system , allow you to submit and share your bookmarks to certain users ( friends ) in your network
2. Nature has build an old social bookmarking service for scientists , doctors and researchers . easy to search , favorite , and share with your team there.

Sharing resources : Resources could be confusing her a bit but , we still talking about web2.0 , so the resources those i mean are ( Feeds , search results , Bookmarks , Social media , Broadcasts , Podcasts , Online documents) .

Social Networking : It’s about connecting the people , ( Work , Interest , social relations , ) , which provides now these days the capabilities of working teams , in the ease of communication and support tools , adaptation of Social networking in research purposes , may be not that far . as well as it can be used for sharing the resources with the team members and the people .
Example : Facebook.com , It can handle the events , communications and discussions , also has many application that teamwork members can use ( todo lists , calenders ) and portabilities of other web2.0 and social software into facebook as applications ( Zoho online office , google documents , )

Groupware : Was my primary example for collaborative software , it’s primary use to management the team work in the research team , and that includes ” management their time dedicated for the research , assign tasks and duties , keep tracking the results , and handle the project ( research goal ) rodamap .
Example of groupwares :

1. Simple Groupware : is a Free Open source Groupware software build on top of PHP flexibility , Which i personally consider as a revolutionary generation of groupwares , it takes care of the main elements of any successful Team work need ( Communication , Time , and Members ) , as it attended more to be a suitable plateform for everyone whom may work on as it has a syndication system ( emails online documentation ) , and compatibility and portability capability with other softwares and services .
2. Horde Groupware : another free open source groupware , could used in team management in research purposes .Horde Takes more care of syndication and notification as ( Syndication to Cellphones and PDAs )

N.B : These are just simple examples , i’ll list a special topic with details on groupware for research purposes with many examples , tips and more attention to Online groupware services .

Social Online File Storage Services :Sharing Your Files with your network is a piece of cake in web2.0 , now there are many free services , which allow you to share and organize your files online . which will be accessible anytime , anywhere , and shared with you want them to ( edit , review , comment , revision ) .

1. Box.net :
2. omnidrive.com
3. fluxiom.com

Social Calenders : Calenders are part of Groupware , and at the same time Calenders are common used Web2.0 tools used there days . however the capabilities of Calender expanded to notification ( Email , RSS , SMS ) and becomes more socialized by allow you to assign and mark some of your events to the public .
Examples : one of the most featured examples is : Google Calender

Social ToDo Lists : ToDo List , is another way to manage our tasks , however Web2.0 ToDo lists makes it a little bit amusing . there is many social ToDo Lists , which allow the researcher to share and view the shared tasks .

Social Statistics : Soon as Google Lunched Form Designer for for google spreadsheets , it’s easy now to create a survey which collect the results in shared Spreadsheet file with your research team members
.

P.s This was a little summarized introduction and incomplete classification to collaborative softwares . adding related articles soon .

Hamza Emadeen Mousa

Tags: groupware, medicine2.0 , web2.0 , Collaborative software , Research ,

Web2.0 is a Gift for researchers , it lunched many concepts that help the researchers to perform their tasks than before , however they were considering these tasks ( before web2.0 ) time consuming . especially if they pointed or redirected to a wrong place , either in search or at the applied research .

These Series of Topics , is a part of Book we are working on ( Me and Dr. Moaaz ) , which we don’t hesitate to lunch them in this blog to spread the message to more audience , which we hope these topics will contain helpful useful information and tips .

Introduction :
We can not say we know much about the academic researchers as we never had been in much situation , either under academic pressure or in word group , but we are surly in some much more pressure as we are Geek , who perform self-studies as long as they are moving . these self studies , not just about medicine , or computer , but also it’s about many things that we gather and open discussions about it and analysis the issue and try to share our understanding , opinions and trying to reach a suitable conclusion .

We are Geek , and member of a Community Driven company , which needs as well to collaboration between it’s members in certain topics . so we deal with collaboration software for Projects Managements . which speed up and ease all the communication problem as handle our road-map for us .

Soon the last day 17/Feb , me ( hamza ) i was into discussion between 2 researchers sharing and on discussion , about their research papers , and as i notice , there is no much organization in duties of both of them , as there is a complete time overlapping as well as a lack of communications and decision making which could takes wake .

That situation ring some Bills in my Head : ( Web2.0 , Sociality , Collaborative software , Google , Social writing , Group-ware , Time management software , Web Calenders , Outlook ,…. ) , ( Oops My Mind is on Tagging system )

So i decided to move some chapters of the books here . which also will ease the message that we wanna to spread , and move the usability of Web2.0 forward to a medical practice and research use .

Next Topic : Collaborative software

Hamza Emadeen Mousa

Tags: Web2.0, Medicine , Medicine2.0 , Research , Collaborative software , collaboration , groupware , time managment , google , productivity

An Interested old article list in the Journal of American Academy of Family Medicine , By Jennifer Bush , it’s a collection of Tips and some sort of an answer to “ How do Family Physicians Balance their personal and professinal lives ? ” .

Top Quote :

“in an environment that continually asks physicians to know more, do more and be more, is it really possible to practice good medicine and still have something left at the end of the day to be a mother, father, wife, husband, partner, son, daughter or friend? Recently, we decided to give our time-management experts a break and take that question straight to the source: you. We asked family physicians to write to us with their own tips for maintaining life balance and for getting more satisfaction out of their busy lives .“

continue reading to the article .

P.s : i find it quite useful  to print it and put it on my wall

Hamza E.e Mousa

Tags: FamilyMedicine , Medicine , Tips , Doctors , Life

Someone asked me for a medical wordpress themes , hmm , somehow using a special platform for publishing , a medical stuff , wordpress medical themes can a take the shape of what you are aiming to publish , first ;

Wordpress is more than blog ( web2.0 publishing system ) , it is an adjustable CMS Framework , means you can adjust it as you want , minimum usage for the customization needs a xHTML/CSS skills , more than a PHP , but soon as you move to the plugins development part , now it needs some php attention , ( i suggest you do some search on the plugins you want , before u waste time ) , and i manage to customize it as i want ( Wiki , News system , Podcasts Directory , Forum , and something like yahoo answer ) ,even , start proving to some guy i can make EMR Wordpress Based , it was easy and simple when you treat the wordpress as it is ( wordpress framework ) . ( which also i believe it’’s meaningless unless it was secure enough to run on the desktops .( the gang refuses the idea in usability of it and wanna to focus on other stuff ) .

Now in medicinal ePublishing , What we may need the wordpress for ( NP.this post not for How ) ”

1- Blog : That’s the default WP Install a blog , you wont to do much if u just need a blog .

2- Medical Journals :
In Medical Journals , the structure is more like an archived and classified article, which is titled and tagged with ( Date , Author(s) , Publishing Date , Issue Number ) , adding some life ” associated materials , related literature ” , related articles and pages . of course the view here would be quite different , as you may  view the abstract of the article and may be downloading the full article PDF .

Yes ,it’s simple and it would be more interactive , and more simple and customizable later if there is a need to add some media as broadcasting and podcasting ( that would be away from the classic journals , but also it would be Journal2.0 )

my recent fast Wordpress design . Hamza

Tags: WordpressTheme, Wordpress, CSS, Template , Inkscape