Global Library of Women's Medicine

This is a resource designed to be used in conjunction with more traditional sources of medical information. The Global Library of Women's Medicine is published by Sapiens Publishing in honor of their deceased daughter Abigail Bloomer.

It is free for everyone and the interactive sections are available to medical professionals and students after registering. The information is peer reviewed and although the peer review process is not as rigorous as a research journal, each article on the site has been read by at least one additional medical professional.

Most of the chapters listed in the main contents on this site were originally published in the 6-volume textbook, Obstetrics and Gynecology, edited by Professor John Sciarra. The contents include "chapters" on gynecology; obstetrics; maternal and fetal medicine; gynecologic oncology; reproductive endocrinology, infertility, and genetics; and fertility regulation, psychosomatic problems, and human sexuality.

Also freely available is a section on safer motherhood.

In the interactive section, which is only available to medical professionals, sections include Laboratory tests, a video library, atlases, and patient information leaflets.

Public Health: The Communication Initiative Network

I'm back to school and back to blogging. I ran across The Communication Initiative Network today and thought it was worth mentioning here. Although it is not a "pure" health site, their site is about social and economic development and I see that as integrally tied in with public health. After all, the site has information about avian flu, AIDS/HIV and polio.

Their web 2.0 use is nicely integrated into the flow of their site and their mission. One example of this is their use of RSS feeds. The most current articles are called "most currently shared knowledge." I can't tell for sure but I think this is a place where their members can post press releases and articles.

They are also using web 2.0 to define their target market. For example, I don't even understand how to answer the poll. They want to know how important a bivalent OPV vaccine is to their community. To answer the poll you need to join the community. To join the community, you need to answer many questions about your organization, it's mission and your role. After that you may or may not be approved to join the community.

For an organization with a specific mission and a narrow target audience, the web 2.0 applications that they have put into place will help them to attract the members that will make a contribution to their mission, not detract from it.

Bravo! More is not always better. If average Joe and average Sue can't really contribute to your mission, you don't want them as members of your social network.

If The Communication Initiative Network wants to expand their public relations a bit, they could add some podcasts and videocasts. Anyone see any other web 2.0 opportunities they are not taking advantage of?

If your organization has a narrow target market, how are you using web 2.0 applications to attract the right people and groups to your site?

Relay For Life on Second Life

OK - This is fun. The American Cancer Society is hosting a Relay for Life in Second Life (SL). I found this information at the discussion boards of the SL Healthy Wiki. It's a wetpaint wiki designed to gather "information about consumer health locations and groups in Second Life, with general health education resources as well."

When I look to see who is behind this wonderful and well-organized resource, I am pleased - and not surprised to see that Namro Orman (one of the masterminds of Healthinfo Island on Second Life) is involved. Namro aka Guus van den Brekel designed the excellent search widget on this page.

As of today SL Healthy has 77 members and it looks like a great place to jump in and add your expertise if you are in Second Life and interested in health information. Other SL and health resources include:
Health and Medicine in Second Life Blog
Healthinfo Island Blog
Healthinfo Island BlogHUD

diagKNOWsis

diagKNOWsis was started by Trisha Torry after she was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma. It turned out that she never had lymphoma and she found this out through her, "research, networking, and the partnership (she) established with (her) second-opinion oncologist."

Now she is about.com's expert on patient empowerment. What a cool title! There is a discussion forum associated with this of course. I was drawn into an interesting thread started by Dr. L about the state of healthcare, health insurance, and the affodability of being a dr. these days. It's an anonymous forum so whether you are a physician, patient or work at an insurance company, you can add your 2 cents.

BTW - I found out about this on CNN/health. Click on the Torrey tab for Trish's article.

Inspiration From Relay For Life

I participated in a Relay for Life last year. It's a 24 hour fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. At the time I was impressed with the structure and organization of the event. They had lots of fun activities like an egg toss, noisemaker lap, and at some point they got a bunch of men to dress up as women. Hilarity ensued. They mix this fun with ceremony and education. It's a great experience if you haven't been to one yet. I recommend going during the luminaria lap. It's quite inspiring.

If you go to their website, ACS is integrating social media applications in a very organized, structured and fun way too. For example, along with podcasts available at itunes, they have a section on recommended music for the event using playlist.com. People can add suggestions which are moderated. Something to think about if you've been holding back using social media applications because you wouldn't have enough control. ACS has the right idea here in that they are allowing participation and maintaining editorial control.

They also have an RSS feed for updates to the site. There is a blog where you can post ideas for local fundraising efforts - what worked and what didn't. The cool thing is that they don't call it a blog, it's called HowTo-Do This Fundraiser. It's true that I would call it something else, but I do give them points for leaving out the word "blog". For this site it's just jargon that doesn't need to be there.

I'll have to make a note to clean up the jargon on all of my pages...

What's at the Grocercy Store?

At Zeer you can find out what's in your groceries before you get to the store. This eliminates the need to squint at the tiny print on the box while blocking the aisle. I especially hate doing that when it's the frozen aisle.

Let's skip to the best part...
I love the advanced search. It looks especially helpful if you are starting on a new type of diet. For example, if you have allergies you can search for products that are egg free, gluten free, peanut free, etc.. You could also look for sodium free, fat free, or sugar free products.

More details...
It looks like they have downloaded a large database of groceries to their site. A search on butter gives me over 2,700 results and most of them have no reviews or recommendations attached to them. So if you're inclined you could make quite a name for yourself on this site.

They have the all standard features like uploading a photo, creating a profile, connecting with friends, and joining groups.

I wish they had...
I'm thinking a recipe section would be a nice complement to this site.

The Wellness Community

I just perused another great site. This one creates a community for cancer patients and their caregivers. It's called the Wellness Community. I've never heard of them before. This is the scoop from their website: "Founded in 1982, The Wellness Community is an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing free support, education and hope to people with cancer and their loved ones." They have both on-line and physical support groups with professional staff.

They have public discussion boards - free and easy to join - that are very similar to most social networking discussion boards. They also have on-line support groups that meet via phone and chat for 90 minutes/week. Trained facilitators lead these groups of 8-10 people. Other great features include a relaxation meditation that you can download, cooking and nutrition information, and a spanish version of the site.

Navigation on the site is fairly intuitive. The only warning I have is that the social media and on-line support "join" button is only available from the home page. I'm sure they will re-design the site so that if you look at the "about" page you will be able to jump back to the on-line community and join but for now, don't panic, just click on the logo in the upper left corner of the page. That takes you home where you can sign in.