Blog Buzz: January 7 – January 18

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Pew released their Health Online 2013 report on Tuesday, exploring the use of the internet for health information by Americans. Nikki Dettmar over at EagleDawg has written a response to the report from the medical librarian perspective and highlights the findings that “One in four people seeking health information online have hit a paywall” and “Respondents living in lower-income households were significantly more likely than their wealthier counterparts to say that they gave up at that point.” These are clearly areas of concern for medical librarians, and as Dettmar points out, there remains “much to be done to raise public awareness that librarians are there to help you access the information the internet is trying to charge you for… or locate an information resource that is an even better match for your question in the first place.” Amen!

Kent Anderson, in PubMed and F1000 Research — Unclear Standards Applied Unevenly, makes points about F1000 that which may be valid, but something in the underlying point about confusion between Medline and PubMed (and the roles of PubMed and PubMed Central) reminded me of a post he had back in October… Something’s Rotten in Bethesda… to which Michelle Kraft of the Krafty Librarian offered this response. Perhaps these issues are growing pains that are to be expected (and resolved over time) as the publishing landscape changes with the emergence of new open access models.

A new open access publishing project called Frontiers is offering a radically reconfigured peer review system and publishing platform for the life sciences. This new approach has reviewers and authors collaborate to improve and work toward published articles! Check out this interview with Frontier’s president on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s blog, ProfHacker, for more on this innovative approach.

With Dr. James D. Watson in the news last week following publication of a paper criticizing the war on cancer (this piece – including quotes from several MSKCC doctors – covers the hubbub), who better than the archivist at Cold Spring Harbor to remind us in this blog post (featuring collection materials) that generating this type of debate “is really old hat” for Dr. Watson.

 

Tech Zone: DrawMD

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DrawMD is a collection of mobile apps intended to improve communication between patients and their surgeons. Using illustrations of medical procedures, physicians can create interactive visual guides to explain medical conditions and treatments.

Features:

  • Edit preloaded anatomy images
  • Upload and create new images
  • Sketch, stamp and type on images
  • Undo actions and erase sketches
  • Print, save and email images

Specialties include: Pediatrics, Vascular, Sampler (Urology, Orthopedics, Anesthesia & Critical Care, Cardiology, General Surgery), Orthopedics, OB/GYN, General Surgery, Otolaryngology, Cardiology, Anesthesia & Critical Care.

To download one or all of these apps, visit the MSK Library’s Mobile Resources LibGuide.

Cancer Research News: December 21 – January 17

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  • Overall cancer death rates are declining in America, according to The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2009.
  • The incidence of some cancers associated with HPV has increased.
  • Last year was the 20th anniversary of the discovery of the Janus kinase (JAK)–signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway, both of which have roles in hematologic cancers.
  • Massachusetts researchers have developed a high-tech camera you can swallow that may be an alternative to endoscopy for cancer diagnosis.