XO Laptop Now Available

Buy one, give one, read more here too:

http://www.amazon.com/One-Laptop-per-Child-Give/dp/B001GB87EI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

XO Laptop, or One Laptop Per Child Project: An Extension Idea for a Sturdy Tool

I woke up at 4 a.m. thinking how great it one be to apply the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO Laptop (http://laptopgiving.org/en/explore.php) to several ideas.

1. Educating children on health: It already has education as a mission, but I wonder how much of that is devoted to evidence-based health education practices? It uses gaming too, so it could also be adopted by groups such as Games for Health (http://www.gamesforhealth.org/). And, projects such as Re-Mission (http://www2.re-mission.net/) could be a model for how it teaches children compliance and self-care with other diseases.
2. Medication Tracking and Compliance: In the US and other country rural areas, it could have something similar to the My-Medi-Health project, which aims to investigate and research methods for improving compliance among children. What about a module within it that has a personal health record? Or even one which encourages the child to document vital signs, medications, and treatments and then can beam it back to a provider's computer in the clinic? (http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=mymedihealth&doc=9495).
3. A Remote Healthcare Provider Computer: This computer has incredible potential for remote areas for having a more robust electronic medical record. It could act as a repository for data until the healthcare provider could get back to a central computer and then, using its wireless abilities, beam them back into the main database (sync them up).
4. Home Health Care for Rural Areas: As above, especially with nursing modules it could bring about cheaper care and bedside documentation for nurses in the field.
5. Disaster Relief Use: What about developing a special model of this very durable PC for use in mass casualty disaster situations? Especially since it comes with a hand crank, and after disasters we often don't have battery and networking capabilities, note that it has a hand-crank to recharge and it has wireless social networking software built in. So, it could not only tell you where other healthcare providers are in the command zone, but share information on triage and treatment. Just a little retweaking of the system and it's ideal... especially because it is designed specifically for sturdiness, including water and sandproof and dropping and so on...
6. Transcultural Care: The team using it are experts at symbolization and crossing language barriers. They could help develop a universal standard, or even several language algorithms, for helping international aid workers work together in mass casualty.
7. Special Needs Children: I wonder how well it would work for autistic children and others within that spectrum, especially combined with http://www.zacbrowser.com/?
8. Accessories: Could other equipment be developed to accompany it? For instance, a Wii Fit board to measure weight in the field, or something sturdier and just as cheap (the board itself is $87 retail or so bought directly, not through marked-up online vendors). Or, blood glucose monitoring devices and such? A blood pressure cuff?
9. Field Database: Could a more remote version be created for use as field command centers? Even have database server versions, using the peer-to-peer wireless, to collect data? Not just for mass casualties, but healthcare in remote areas? Again, a sturdier, server version, but bring it back to the main computer and sync it up, perhaps in a healthcare truck, van, airplain, or helicopter or such? Valued data could be used for research, health care improvement, disease tracking, and even fundraising. Think of the value to groups like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The CDC could really benefit from point-of-impact data collection.

What would it take to raise the money for it? Could the XO team help raise the money to form a separate group to investigate using it this way? Maybe even the Vanderbilt School of Nursing faculty and staff could be involved and find grants to make this happen? Maybe a research project for a grad student or two? Are there others who are interested in seeing this happen? Is it visionary?

Just some thoughts. Thanks for listening! - Richard Aries, MSN, RN, EMT

Elsevier Article 2.0 Contest Site

Elsevier has posted an Article 2.0 contest site with prizes of $500-2500 for the best scientific article online presentation. It seems like theyare giving programmers the opportunity to take on the role of an innovative publisher using their xml dataset of articles...

The contest runs September 1st - December 31st, 2008 and prizes will be announced January 31st, 2009.

http://article20.elsevier.com/contest/home.htm

Also for the library Geeks amongst us:
A web2.0/library2.0 issue of Elsevier's Library Connect (October 2007): http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/lcn/0504/lcn0504.pdf

Plus three interesting library/programmer bloggers: http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/
http://mchabib.com/
http://www.blyberg.net/

With best regards,
Susanna

P.S. - If you are contemplating going for this, I wouldn't wait until 12-31 to upload. Note that Elsevier took down their website for the Grand Challenge yesterday- the deadline date (for developing an innovative data interpretation or manuscript submission/ reviewing tool with prizes of 15-35K). Perhaps their deadlines are 12:01 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time of the date specified...;-)

Source: Susanna Richards

Editorial Administrative Assistant

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Department of Microbiology and Immunology

A-5321 Medical Center North

1161 21st Avenue South

Nashville, TN 37232- 2363

http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/microbio/

Free Webinar: Accessibility of Next Generation Web Applications: An Overview of Web 2.0

Thursday, June 19, 2 PM EASTERN (New York time)
Presenter: Jared Smith from WebAIM
Register at: http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

The term "Web 2.0" is being used to describe new methods of using the web, innovative technologies, and next generation web applications. AJAX, blogging, wikis, content aggregation, tagging, and mashups arejust a few components of "Web 2.0". Even if we have not reached a new version of the web, these new technologies and ways of using the web represent a significant change.

Despite the issues that Web 2.0 technologies may have on accessibility, the very nature of these applications can potentially result in much higher levels of accessibility for people with disabilities. This session will provide an overview of what Web 2.0 is, how it can impact users with disabilities for good and for bad, and some approaches and techniquesfor addressing accessibility.

Register for this free Webinar on Web 2.0
http://easi.cc/forms/web2008.htm

Carolyn Dudas
Web Developer/Information Specialist
Penn State Behrend
4205 College Drive
Erie, PA 16563-1201
Email: ddz@psu.edu, http://behrend.psu.edu/

Wikipedia, academia & health

An interesting article in Information Today by William Badke, of Trinity Western University entitled What to Do With Wikipedia challenges the current antipathy in academia towards wikipedia.

He suggests that academics need to take on board the reality of digital information sources or be seen as out of touch by their students, and that they should embrace the educational opportunities available rather than sticking with traditional "analogue" systems.

Similar arguments need to take place in the health context, where many health professionals criticise the quality of the information in wikipedia and other online user created resources, but the patients and clients they come into contact with are most likely to be using this sort of resource.

As Badke suggests we should all be using the opportunities to enahnce the information environmnt, as well as educating "users" (which include students and patients), about indicators of information quality.

Health Information and Libraries Journal 24:1 (March 2007)

The latest edition of the Health Information and Libraries Journal 24:1 (March 2007) is now available. It has some interesting papers including:

The emerging Web2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education
Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Steve Wheeler

Effectiveness of information skills training and mediated searching: qualitative results from the EMPIRIC project
Alison Brettle, Claire Hulme, Paula Ormandy

Evaluating the impact of library user training programmes across Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority in the UK
Valerie M Trinder, Geoffrey E Fleet, Anne E Gray

Growth in biomedical publications and scientific institutions in the Emirates (1998-2004): an Arabian renaissance?
Karen Neves, Wim J. E. P. Lammers

National Vocational Qualifications: the candidates experience
Susan Isaac

Teachability: creating accessible learning and teaching in information skills
Margaret E. S. Forrest, Anne E. Simpson

Who will appraise the appraisers?-The paper, the instrument and the user
Andrew Booth