Медицинская информатика

[Наталья П.]

Infodemiology and Infoveillance:
Framework for an Emerging Set of Public Health Informatics
Methods to Analyze Search, Communication and Publication Behavior on the Internet

Gunther Eysenbach1,2, MD, MPH
1Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada
2Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2009
Available online at : [Ссылки доступны только зарегистрированным пользователям ]

“Infodemiology can be defined as the science of distribution and determinants of information in an electronic medium, specifically the Internet, or in a population, with the ultimate aim to inform public health and public policy.



Infodemiology data can be collected and analyzed in near real time. Examples for infodemiology applications include: the analysis of queries from Internet search engines to predict disease outbreaks (eg. influenza); monitoring peoples' status updates on microblogs such as Twitter for syndromic surveillance; detecting and quantifying disparities in health information availability; identifying and monitoring of public health relevant publications on the Internet (eg. anti-vaccination sites, but also news articles or expert-curated outbreak reports); automated tools to measure information diffusion and knowledge translation, and tracking the effectiveness of health marketing campaigns.

Moreover, analyzing how people search and navigate the Internet for health-related information, as well as how they communicate and share this information, can provide valuable insights into health-related behavior of populations.

Seven years after the infodemiology concept was first introduced, this paper revisits the emerging fields of infodemiology and infoveillance and proposes an expanded framework, introducing some basic metrics such as information prevalence, concept occurrence ratios, and information incidence.

The framework distinguishes supply-based applications (analyzing what is being published on the Internet, eg. on Web sites, newsgroups, blogs, microblogs and social media) from demand-based methods (search and navigation behavior), and further distinguishes passive from active infoveillance methods. Infodemiology metrics follow population health relevant events or predict them. Thus, these metrics and methods are potentially useful for public health practice and research, and should be further developed and standardized….”

(J Med Internet Res 2009;11(1)

[Наталья П.]

Heridians portal into a healthier world
Wednesday 29th July 2009
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ierworld&page=article.display&article.id=17874

A Sunderland company is about to launch a revolutionary new service that will provide a massive boost to medical professionals in remote and less accessible areas across the globe.

Heridian Limited designs, develops, markets and offers revolutionary web driven solutions in the field of Telemedicine, providing medical professionals with access to advice and opinion from specialists working in any number of medical fields. Their new platform, the i-Med Portal, is set to be launched in September 2009 and will connect medical experts in remote areas of the world with an unprecedented network of medical professionals
all over the world.

Peter Fullarton, managing director and co-founder of Heridian Limited, said "The i-Med Portal allows medical professionals to seek advice and opinions from specialists from anywhere in the world. By being able to access and transfer medical information and images across the internet in a secure and reliable way, the i-Med Portal will be an invaluable tool particularly when there may be very few suitably qualified professionals in a particular country."

To test the i-Med Portal's capabilities, Heridian is conducting a pilot project in East and Southern Africa with several hospital doctors, remote specialists and patients. Following the pilots the technology will be launched worldwide, with discussions well under way to provide the service in Ethiopia, Jamaica, Kenya, Tanzania and Eastern Europe.

As a potential global provider, the first issue facing Heridian was where to base its headquarters. After reading an article about Sunderland Software City (SSC) and the support, advice and guidance it offered, Peter Fullarton considered the North East of England for the company's base.

He added "As we are primarily a software business, I was intrigued by an article I noticed in a magazine. It talked about Sunderland Software City and what the aims of the project were. I called them and that was the start of an impressive level of support and guidance that has proved invaluable to us."

Peter also participated in the Software Ventures programme, a six week programme which is run through the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) and is aimed at people who want to start, grow or buy a software related business. He said: "The Software Ventures programme was hugely beneficial to me. Not only was the content of a very high quality, but I was able to make important regional contacts. I needed to make connections with businesses, academia and like minded people and the programme proved to be the ideal platform. As I had been out of the country for a number of years,
these contacts have already proved invaluable."

Willie Herdman, special projects manager for the BIC and manager of the Software Ventures programme said: "We make sure that all of our programmes are relevant and of use to companies and individuals alike. It's great that we can help companies like Heridian to establish and grow in the North East whilst providing a global service."

Heridian Limited

[Наталья П.]

Twiddla
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web-based solution to collaborate with colleagues in different locations

Free version allows to:
- create and attend meetings
- share documents, images and email
- screen capture
- voice chat

[Наталья П.]

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Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning

This is a leading international journal in the field of open, flexible and distance learning. Open Learning is widely subscribed to and read throughout the world by those in specialist distance education institutions, and also by those using distance, flexible and technology based forms of learning in conventional education and training contexts. Readers are drawn from all levels of education and training both in the private and public sectors and from academic, administrative and technical functions.

Open Learning publishes three kinds of article:

-theoretical and evidence-based scholarly articles reflecting developments in open, distance and e-learning
-shorter practical articles describing the implementation of forms of open, flexible and distance learning likely to interest our international readership
-book reviews