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Find Specialist Doctors | Book Doctor Appointment Online | Consult Specialist Doctors
One for the Indian cities
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Find a Doctor You’ll Love – BetterDoctor
US centric of course
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2014 Gates Annual Letter: Myths About Foreign Aid – Gates Foundation
The world is actually improving after all
Month: January 2014
What is the geekiest joke?
Yup, that's what Google does…
Answer by Bhagyaraj Jhala:
Well played Google , well played !
Apple Death Knell Counter
Apple Death Knell Counter – The Mac Observer
Taking a trip down the Apple doomsayer memory lane. The pieces from the pre-iPhone era make for particularly interesting reading including naysayers for Apple Stores and the crowd favourite Macs. Also, note the dozen times Rob Enderle has been quoted over the years – not a quitter for sure. Incidentally, the first quote (at the very bottom) comes from Steve Jobs himself, way back in 1995.
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Google will probably run the most popular online store, but there will be thousands.
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This will happen quickly because mobile phones are being turned over about every year.
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The era of the all-in-one hardware and software solution has been gone for at least the last ten years, even though Apple hasn’t quite caught on yet.
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Well, we’re comfortably past 2010 and the rest of the industry is trying its best to get their all-in-one strategies into place
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Sometime in 2006, Steve Jobs will probably get hosed
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Apple turns to Philips Electronics for a bailout and is sold to the Netherlands-based consumer electronics giant for $80 a share.
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by the time Longhorn ships, Apple likely will have discontinued active computer OS development, anyway, so that the company can concentrate on the consumer-electronics market.
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If it doesn’t offer solutions that will play on those platforms the way iTunes currently does on Windows, it will probably become a footnote by the end of the decade.
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Let’s hope Apple has broader consumer electronics plans than just the iPod.
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The panel agreed that it would be Apple, Sun and Novell.
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iTunes won’t contribute to the bottom line and iPod is not "the only game in town anymore
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some sucker, likeApple, is left holding a brand of dubious (and soon to be extinct) value.
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A few years downstream, Linux desktops will force Windows to get cheaper. At that point even Windows boxes, seriously cheaper than Apple, will be in the "too expensive" category
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press the 48-year-old Jobs to split Apple into two separate companies built around its hardware and software lines of businesses
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They have to dig themselves out of the going-out-of-business cycle they are currently in
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No one at Apple has the guts to correct the mistakes of Steve Jobs.
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Find a way to exit these businesses – preferably by spinning out or selling to a company that can continue to support die-hard Macintosh fans who are married to the ways that the Mac OS blows away Windows.
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The company is moving toward the consumer electronics space, in everything from digital media boxes to handheld players — but that is even more vicious and margin-thin territory than the PC biz.
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Even for Steve Jobs, going up against Sony has to look a bit scary.
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"Certainly by…2005, possibly by the end of 2003, Linux will pass Mac OS as the No. 2 operating environment," said IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky.
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"I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake." David Goldstein
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But Jobs’s dream of becoming the world’s biggest computer-maker will likely remain just that — a dream.
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He succeeded in the short term during this, his second, Apple tenure because he ran the whole company as a product team.
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And look what it did over the next decade
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Faced with a similar question on what he would do if he were acting chief executive Steve Jobs, Dell chief executive Michael Dell said, "I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
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I think you have done enough to "save" Apple.
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The Macintosh will die in another few years and its really sad.
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Unless somebody pulls a rabbit out of a hat, companies tend to have long glide slopes because of the installed bases.
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Even Steve Jobs hadn’t envisioned the rabbits he pulled out of the hat.
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What is the geekiest joke?
How do you measure the height of a building using a barometer?
Answer by Ankur Talwar:
Some time ago I received a call from a colleague who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed he should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student: The instructor and the student agreed to submit this to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.
I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer." The student had answered: "Take a barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."
I pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit since he had answered the question completely and correctly. On the other hand, if full credit was given, it could well contribute to a high grade for the student in his physics course. A high grade is supposed to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try at answering the question I was not surprised that my colleague agreed, but I was surprised that the student did.
I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said no. He had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on.
In the next minute he dashed off his answer which read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop that barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then using the formula H = 0.5g*t squared, calculate the height of the building. At this point I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and I gave the student almost full credit.
In leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said he had many other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they were. "Oh yes," said the student. "There are a great many ways of getting the height of a tall building with a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer and the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building and by the use of a simple proportion, determine the height of the building."
"Fine," I asked. "And the others?" "Yes," said the student. "There is a very basic measurement method that you will like. In this method you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units. A very direct method." "Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of `g' at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference of the two values of `g' the height of the building can be calculated."
Finally, he concluded, there are many other ways of solving the problem. "Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: "Mr. Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of this building, I will give you this barometer." At this point I asked the student if he really did know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think, using the "scientific method," and to explore the deep inner logic of the subject in a pedantic way, as is often done in the new mathematics, rather than teaching him the structure of the subject.
The article is by Alexander Calandra and appeared first in "The Saturday Review" (December 21, 1968, p 60). It is also in the collection "More Random Walks in Science" by R.L.Weber, The Institute of Physics, 1982.
Healthcare links 01/23/2014
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Apple continues hiring raid on medical sensor field as it develops eye scanning technology | 9to5Mac
A space to watch, especially if Apple gets into healthcare devices through iWatch or whatever device they plan next.
Healthcare links 01/20/2014
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One diabetic’s take on Google’s Smart Contact Lenses — Tech News and Analysis
A different take on the problem & solution
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why would they ignore the fact that as a diabetes patient, it is generally recommended that I not wear contact lenses. Yes, I understand that there are many different opinions about this, but it is generally thought of as smart to not wear contact lenses, as they always carry the risk of increased complications for diabetics. And on top of that if you have say, astigmatism (like I do), then contacts are less of an option.
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Diabetes is a growing problem in countries in South Asia and parts of Asia and Latin America, especially among those who fit in the lower income category; you know, the kind of people who might find contact lenses an expensive luxury.
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It also highlights Google’s fundamental challenge: it fails to think about people as people, instead it treats them as an academic or an engineering problem. Instead of trying to understand the needs of actual people, they emerge with an elegant technological solution.
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As a diabetic, the only solution I am looking for is non-invasive and one that keeps me in a state of constant alertness about my blood sugar levels while matching that data with advice about what I should do.
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Sholay (sort of) 3D
I finally managed to watch Sholay on the big screen albeit in the remastered 3D format, after having seen it multiple times on the small screen. Nothing much to say about the movie itself, as I can but only gauge its impact when it was released in 1975. No wonder why it ran for months (years?) in some theatres on its original release.
However, when it comes to the 3D and remastering parts, I have my reservations:
- The picture quality was considerably affected due to the 3D processing as it requires the frame to be brightened up considerably (3D glasses do block out a lot of light after all) and this leads to highlight clipping. The movie frames looked like it had gone through a budget image processor’s auto adjust & enhance tool.
- Considerable parts of the movie are without much 3D effects, i.e., no double images for stereo vision separation. So, you can actually watch those parts without the 3D glasses and actually enjoy it more, and this is what I did for most of the movie. Kind of defeats the whole Sholay in 3D part.
- They also recomposed and rerecorded considerable parts of the soundtrack (for the surround effects I presume), and this is most noticeable in the wrong ways during the songs. I found the vocal leads pretty subdued with the music blaring through. On top of it, the vocals & music seemed slightly out of sync due to the rerecording. If you have listened to the HMV\SaReGaMa Classic Revival pieces, then you’ll understand what I mean.
They should have probably skipped the George Lucasization and just released it on the big screen for the current generation a la the original Chashme Baddoor. Incidentally, there’s a Sholay Director’s Cut where Thakur kills Gabbar.
Healthcare links 01/18/2014
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Official Blog: Introducing our smart contact lens project
Something with an easier to digest utility than Google Glasses?
Healthcare links 01/14/2014
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Patient Portal Improves Medication Adherence: Study – InformationWeek
Portal for medication adherence that seems to work
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iBGStar® | Diabetes management on-the-go
“The innovative iBGStar is the first available blood glucose meter that seamlessly connects to the iPhone and iPod touch allowing you to view and analyse accurate, reliable information in ‘real time’. Using the technology built into your iPhone or iPod touch, you can share this information with your healthcare professional while on-the-go, to help you make better-informed diabetes-related decisions together.”
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The next frontier, attaching health sensors directly into your smartphone
“A modular phone could, in essence, make it possible to completely remove those peripheral devices reliance on indirect connections and be directly incorporated into the phone itself. For example, I have created a mockup of a modular piece that could measure EKG’s. Taking, for example, the currently available product AliveCor, it could be transformed into a module that could directly connect to the phone, therefore bypassing the need of an external battery source and feeding data directly into the phone itself.”
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“The AliveCor System gives you the freedom to easily track your cardiac rhythms whenever you want and receive a detailed report at anytime. This enables you to engage with your doctor between appointments.
The Heart Monitor leverages your smartphone to record, display, store and transfer your ECG through the AliveECG application.” -
Medication Adherence apps are all the Buzz, but are they worth it
A pharmacist’s view
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First, we need to prove that apps can actually modify patients’ adherence to apps through research and identify which patients will benefit the most.
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address privacy concerns about the tracking of patient information and ensure that there will be no negative repercussions for the reporting of non-adherence
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address issues outside of unintentional non-adherence
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Medication adherence: There’s an app for that
Nice list of apps
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Smartphone Medication Adherence Apps
No results to truly validate the effectiveness, but great potential for both pharmacists & pharma companies for top-line growth. Also, a way to capture prescription data. Chemist side kiosks to facilitate such a service might help uptake.
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HealthPrize rewards you for taking your medication
Interesting concept for gamifying the medication adherence
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Visual Wednesdays: America’s Other Drug Problem « Rock Health
Interesting stats
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Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE | Healthcare in the palm of your hand
A competition to follow
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With sensors, apps & data, my smartphone is (almost) my doctor — Tech News and Analysis
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Scanadu | Sending your Smart Phone to Med School
The Scout is here, and is going to be a very interesting self diagnosis tool.
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BlueStar, the First Prescription-Only App – IEEE Spectrum
“The app, called BlueStar, helps people with Type 2 diabetes (the most common kind) by suggesting, in real time, when to test their blood sugar and how to control it by varying medication, food, and exercise. That it requires a physician’s prescription is actually an advantage, because it means insurance companies will reimburse BlueStar’s fee.”
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We’d all be better off with our health records on Facebook – Quartz
An interesting way to think about the health cloud:
“The more I thought about it, the more I decided a Facebook timeline approach could be just what medical records need.” -
Pharmaceutical Executive: The iPad’s Future in Pharma
There are actually 2 scenarios described here:
1. An interaction tool for the doctors & sales force, for which larger devices like the iPad are a good fit
2. A diagnostic tool that tracks the behaviour and symptoms of the patient and thus needs to be with the patient most of the time, and for this, smaller devices like smartphones with dedicated motion sensors\processors are the way to go-
But physicians don’t want pretty pictures; they want help — ways to improve how they practice medicine, the efficiency of how they treat patients, and how they can affect outcomes. And the iPad is not just a visual medium; it is an interactive medium — and interactive in more than just the ability to touch different arrows to see different pictures. The confluence of these two facts offers pharmaceutical marketers what may be their greatest opportunity of the digital age: the opportunity to offer tools that use the full capacity of the iPad to help physicians do their jobs, and help patients stay healthy.
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physicians could use the iPad’s motion sensitivity to test against a measurable range of scores; with sufficient participation over time, this approach could transform the way Parkinson’s, or other movement-disorder related diseases, is categorized within the medical community.
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Smaller devices like smartphones, particularly the iPhone 5S & Moto X with their dedicated motion processors might be a better fit for such use cases
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The iPad in the hands of a patient offers the capacity to quantify disease progression to a level of detail that even the most impressive device in any physician’s office cannot match, since it can be in the patient’s hand at any time.
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Again, a smartphone would be a better fit
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Quite a list of celebrities who overcame the disease
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• Saurav Ganguly – Former captain of Team India Cricket
• Ian Botham – Former captain of England Cricket Team
• Jackey Joyner Kersey – Athlete
• Dr. Rajendra Prasad – First President of India
• Indira Gandhi – Former Prime Minister of India
• John F Kennedy – Former President of America
• Amitav Bachhan – Actor
• Sharon stone – Actress
• Kenny G – Musician
• Charles Dickens – Novelist
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The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Of over 15 million asthma patients, 15 % are children
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Dr. Bose gave a list of prominent personalities who are “winners over asthma’ and that list includes names like Saurav Ganguly and Ian Botham (cricketers), Babu Rajendra Prasad (first President of the country), John F. Kennedy (former American President), Amitabh Bachchan (actor), Elizabeth Taylor and Sharon Stone (actresses), Charles Dickens (author) and Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister).
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Bookmyshow for doctors
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Private Cloud in Healthcare – Express Healthcare
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a majority of clouds are expected to crop as private entities and not as publically owned ones. Almost all mid sized hosiptals (31-100 beds) and large ones (101 and above beds) are expected to opt for private cloud and build and maintain it in-house.
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Pharma companies will have to interface with the hospital clouds eventually
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For even the mid-sized hospitals, IT often means standalone PCs that are used for maintaining inventory records, patient check in and bill clearance. The systems lack in intergration. Also, most of the hospitals in India lack the idea of business intelligence as of now, and business applications for hospitals, like a hosiptal information management system, are just beginning to gain ground.
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bets are high on the in-premise private clouds. That is where, healthcare as a vertical is deviating from the trend. While some verticals like manufacturing are comfortable with public clouds, others like BFSI are opting for private clouds in service provider’s data centers.
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Compliance is the other big factor that is fuelling demand for private cloud.
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One of the biggest in this is the privacy of patients and confidentiality of clinical investigations. These naturally prompt the healthcare sector to prefer the private clouds.
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However, over and above these issues lies the biggest reason for healthcare CIOs opting for a private cloud.- ‘Security’. Healthcare deals with very sensitive patient data, and data security is one of the paramount concerns of any healthcare service provider.
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A few mid-sized healthcare service providers are putting their non-critical applications like HR, workloads, emails and back-end office automation stuff onto the public cloud.
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What we could also see in the future is that a consortium of healthcare service providers like dentists, cardiologists etc who are often a very well-knit community joining hands to go on a private or public cloud.
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Wowed by Charminar – The Hindu
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The Asthalin pump with medication is always kept handy.
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We’d all be better off with our health records on Facebook
Not literally putting everything on facebook, but liberally using the facebook user interaction paradigms like profiles, status updates etc to build a patient-doctor health cloud.
{Originally posted by Melissa}
AB's Reflections 