All Scrubbed Up

More Ubuntu stuff soon... Keep reading! Some important news though... just in. It happened the other day. Anything 900g or less must breathe by itself or die. There are reasons of course, like not enough staff or intubators. Studies have also shown poor prognoses in lower grammages. Therefore those with a higher chance of surviving - will get the intubators. This one is 3500 grams. Makes you think. Doesn't it?

To all our readers... And a great New Year...

Andy eventually got me to sit down and give some prelim views. The trickiest thing, if you REALLY want to make a difference in South Africa is planning. There are a couple of lovely third world things that get in the way: *Politicans *Egos of management *Distribution *Concentrating on PATIENT MANAGEMENT, not financial management. * Training *Training *Training For instance, if the open source community can help with the situation I'm about to describe, and just this, you have no idea how much of a difference it will make to primary healthcare in this country. Build the "system" so it can be grown, sure. But little steps is the only way you'll get anywhere in a third world country. Here's the situation. Primary healthcare patients (GP-based needs, meant to go to clinics, both rural and metro BEFORE they get referred up to secondary and tertiary centres - where they would get seen by specialists and clog up already clogged hospitals) HAVE to carry around a green pie...

So far, our little post-on-a-whim "Ubuntu across the medical industry" idea has been featured on (and mighty thanks to!): Linux Today Centromimir.IT Centromimir LiveSpace Shashum.Com.Ar The Open Source Pimp Netscape Redtram Linux Medical News Africa By Art We've also started doing a bit of digging... nothing like a good idea to inspire some late night surfing-with-purpose... Mercy Hospital Opens Arms to Open Source... (Tina Gasperson) "For almost 100 years a group of women called the Sisters of Mercy have been instilling a spirit of excellence into Baltimore's biggest hospital, appropriately named Mercy. Right from the start, the Sisters have made it their goal to push the medical institution beyond the ordinary by creating teaching affiliations, feeding the hungry, building state-of-the-art emergency services, and launching a neighborhood health center for the inner-city poor. In today's world, all that excellence requires a solid technology infrastructure-...

Hello chaps... Thanks for all the interest shown in the Ubuntu story so far. We are quite serious about pursuing the merits / sustainability of such an idea - with a view to handing over implementation to a non-profit... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. A special thanks to the first couple of people to prick up their ears: Mike Stopforth , Aaron and Farrel . We'll keep gathering interested parties together and see what happens. That's usually how these things start. Things we're particularly interested in, and will research for a couple of new year posts... 3rd World PC Projects. Who exports old PC's and to where? Sustainability. Nothing is for free anymore. If the idea on the table allows national collaboration in the medical field, and empowers the medical profession to be more efficient - who pays the bills? Software. I'll bring SA Doc into the fold here - we need to figure out firstly, what do hospitals / doctors / nurses ACTUALLY need in terms of soft...

The start of the argument about Health 2.0 got me thinking. As sexy, functional and efficient as the health software trend may be - I think we all agree on the fact that it's just not applicable in the African context... yet. So what might be applicable? SA Doctors need lab results, need to do research, need to store and retrieve patient records (on demand)... How do you get a connected, low cost, easy to use, low maintenance technology infrastructure into South Africa's hospital system? And then keep it there? We've been using Ubuntu Linux (a proudly South African distribution of the Linux operating system - with our very own billionaire Mark Shuttleworth as the brains) around the office a bit - mainly to do tricky techy stuff, but I've been absolutely blown away with the new version (6.06 I think). It's funky, it's African, it's VERY easy to use (provided you don't mess with settings / use installed packages - which are more than ample for everyday u...

Software like Click 4 Care is a great idea if you were trying to manage a million dollar medical aid company or private hospital. In fact I'm sure Discovery and Netcare already have something similar. But in the public sector (where management in this country is needed most) it would never happen. The Public Sector can't seem to even afford to keep the Pentium 1's running (and thus provide us with lab results)... How on earth would they manage to network entire systems and then control/manage them? Great idea in the 1st world.... but alas, Africa will just sit and look from the side line again.

It's arrived. Just when we're truly sick and tired of Web 2.0, Business 2.0, Consumer 2.0. Agh! Drumroll please... Health 2.0 Just what is it? Will have to find out. Here is, apparently, an example (got this off The Health Care Blog - worth a read). Click4Care is a relatively new software company (although a lot older than most of those Health 2.0 companies I've been featuring) that’s spent a lot of time building a very, very complex system for what can broadly be described as care management, sold primarily to plans and payers—with United HealthGroup being the marquee customer so far. Hmmm. Will wait for SA Doc to wash off the snot - and take a look at what this means in a South African context. (SIDEBAR: SA Doc is on call at Coronation Hospital tonight. Thinking I should encourage a blow by blow pictorial of 8pm to 7am in the scary kiddy ward?)

Har Har. Good one. More here .

No, we're not dead. Just too many Christmas snotty noses and Blogger Beta is giving us a LOT of hassles!

There's a dearth of medical news. SA Doc is treating snotty noses and stress... and I'M NOT EVEN A DOCTOR. But I can find funny doctor stuff. Har Har. This one's peachy. Artery - The study of paintings. Benign - What you be after you be eight. Bacteria - Back door to cafeteria. Barium - What doctors do when patients die. Cesarean Section - A neighborhood in Rome. Cat Scan - Searching for Kitty. Cauterize - Made eye contact with her. Coma - A punctuation mark. Dilate - To live long. Enema - Not a friend. Fester - Quicker than someone else. Fibula - A small lie. Hangnail - What you hang your coat on. Impotent - Distinguished, well known. Labor Pain - Getting hurt at work. Medical Staff - A Doctor's cane. Morbid - A higher offer than I bid. Nitrates - Cheaper than day rates. Node - I knew it. Pelvis - Second cousin to Elvis. Post Operative - A letter carrier. Rectum - Darn near killed him. Seizure - Roman emperor. Tablet - A small table. Tumor - Mo...

Har. Har. More here .

Vindicated! Yes! I wasn't as much of a zealot as I thought I was . The DSTV Streetpole ad series that featured pouty-lips Rihanna with a subheading 'Be Unfaithful' - of couse referring to decoders at a special special low price... has been changed. It now says Visit Paris . That's clever, while not encouraging promiscuity. Win win. PS. Buhle Dlamini wrote a piece for Business Day on the same subject. Published 5 December. Self-congratulatory pat on the Scrubbed Up back for scooping the story by 15 days !

Andy's post (Google Health... some thoughts) , although opinionated and not medically based - is correct. I understand and support the notion that a patient HAS to be educated. They take their pills regularly, they look after themselves, they’re more compliant patients if they understand what’s happening to them. But... What’s wrong with the Internet is that patients have no guidance on what they’re educating themselves with – what to hold onto vs. what to discard. They end up wrongly informed – which is far worse than not informed at all . I worry about Google's content rating system. You’re asking non-medical, ignorant people to judge the relevance of medical content. There’s a reason doctors study for 6 years and then practice for 2! It’s like me trying to make a judgement on the performance of the latest BMW – I just don’t have a clue! Prime Example . Had a patient the other day who’s 6 year-old daughter has rectal prolapse. She’s been seen by a GP and paediatricians and ...

Here's something. Reading an article on the Official Google Blog called " Health Care Information Matters ". This is a really fascinating argument that seems to be resurfacing. Interesting link back to the TV Doctor Showdowns that we've been doing... House MD has been making a LOT of jokes in Series 1 and Series 2 about the danger of patients diagnosing themselves. Ah, the Internet. Diagnosis tool of the future. No, you don't have "insert-ridiculously-rare-tropical-disease-name-here"! So, Google is getting in on the action. Their blog post says: In the end, one key part of the solution to these problems is a better educated patient. If patients understand their diseases better -- the symptoms, the treatments, the drugs, and the side effects, they are likely to get better and quicker care -- before, during, and after treatment. We have already launched some improvements to web search that help patients more easily find the health information they are l...

Just realised I don't know any more TV doctors. Well enough to write about them at least. Thinking of adding Dr. John Dorian (Scrubs) to the contestant list - but I used up my "Appletini, STAT!" picture... and that just ruins the comedic value of the post. I've got the one above, but those shifty eyes... Then there's George Clooney (so hot!) and a couple of others. Further research and some DVD box sets needed. The Showdown will continue at a later stage. In case you missed out, here are the current contestants, in order of merit: Dr Perry Cox (Practices in Scrubs and scored 6 / 10) Dr Gregory House (Practices in House MD and scored 5 / 10) Dr Meredith Grey (Practices in Grey's Anatomy and scored 4.25 / 10)

This word, STAT has always bemused me, being around Doctors so much. STAT. What is it? It sounds so doctory... We all know what it means, but can only the cool doctors say it? Or is it part of medical vocab and something more serious. Good 'ol SA Doc tells me it NEVER gets used in the South African context. Porter! Move that bleeding patient. STAT! Unlikely. So, turned to AskYahoo (nice service by the way) for an answer. We've all heard the harried medical team on ER call for something "stat." From the context, we knew it meant "quickly," but had no idea what the normal definition of the term was. We turned to the Net to cure our ignorance. After various searches on phrases like "stat terminology" and "stat meaning" failed to provide an answer, we sat down and rethought our strategy. Several of our searches had turned up acronyms for the term, and while they weren't what we were looking for, they did point us in a new direction. Reme...

Great fan of the NHS Blog Doctor - such a spoofy, yet real insight into a health system where you have to get a consent form before giving an injection! Here's to hoping that Dr John Crippen Esquire - take's a look at some of the fantastic medical blogs coming out of South Africa! Read more here... NHS Blog Doctor: The BritMeds Or take a turn by some of SA's finest... All Scrubbed Up (you're on it, wombat) Just up the Dose (angsty, studenty, funny) Try not to Kill yourself this Year (pity it's closing) I actually thought there were a couple more when starting this post. Hmm. Any others out there? I'm sure I'm missing a bunch...