Does Foursquare have application in medicine or health care?

I'm an avid user of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I've been a late adopter of Foursquare but a few weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge and see if I could see whether it made any sense to try Foursquare. I often speak at conferences about social media, so it would only make sense for me to get on Foursquare and use it for a while. I have to admit that I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the things I've seen so far and I think I could make an argument that the medical and health care community could learn quite a bit from this rather simple social media app.

Here's how foursquare is described on their site:

foursquare makes the real world easier to use. We build tools that help you keep up with friends, discover what’s nearby, save money and unlock deals. Whether you’re setting off on a trip around the world, coordinating a night out with friends, or trying to pick out the best dish at your local restaurant, foursquare is the perfect companion.

Now, there are plenty of other apps that provide similar services. For instance, Facebook has the "check in" function. But, most people don't use Facebook to check in to places. On Foursquare, you can view who else is currently checked into a place. This can be both good and bad (it really depends on your comfort level with your personal privacy). When you check in using Foursquare, you're effectively telling the world (even though privacy settings can get adjusted).

What is Doximity?

Author: Thuc Huynh, MD

Doximity is a private social and business network for healthcare professionals with iPhones.

It’s like Facebook in that you can connect with other healthcare professionals that you went to school with, did residency with, or work with. I want to say it’s like Sermo, but it really isn’t. They are two different services and Doximity is worth taking a look at.

In addition to the social aspect of being able to connect with others, Doximity also gives you useful tools to help with your daily workflow.

For instance, the app has a feature called DocText. It’s a HIPAA compliant, secure and quick way of sending messages. Essentially, it’s a secure text message service.

What do we do currently when we need another opinion? We stop seeing patients, look up a physicians number, dial it, ask the nurse to speak with the physician, wait for the physician to get out of a patient’s room, then tell them your concern with expectations of an immediate [ and pleasant ] response.

Stay connected using Plaxo for Mobile

Plaxo for Mobile unites all your contacts into one place, provides access to your complete, up-to-date address book on your phone and everywhere else you need it, and securely backs up your contact info in the cloud.

Plaxo for Mobile apps feature:

• Full, 2-way synchronization, including over-the-air, auto sync
• Easily browse and manage all contacts, groups, and favorites
• Quickly get in touch with your contacts; call or email directly
• Compatible with our Outlook, Mac, and Gmail sync products

Now, you can sync your Plaxo address book with your Blackberry, iPhone, or Android smart phone for a portable, up-to-date address book and single-source for all your contacts.

Learn more here.

Review of the QuantiaMD smartphone app for Android

Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to review the QuantiaMD smartphone app for Android. I've used QuantiaMD on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch, so I'm quite familiar with this innovative medical app. QuantiaMD also has a smartphone app for the BlackBerry, but they don't currently have an app for Windows Mobile (but you can access QuantiaMD using your mobile web browser).

The QuantiaMD interface on Android is very similar to that found on the iPhone. The main difference is that there's a small gray bar that sits on the bottom of your screen. Slide that bar up and you'll get access to the main navigation menu. Here, you can access clinical activities, educational content, communities, and much more. You'll even find a case challenge involving H1N1.


After you log in as a validated member, you'll have the opportunity to participate in the Monthly Medical Challenge. It's a great way to test your knowledge of medical trivia and earn some Q-Points. I spent most of my time in the Expert Practice Series where you can learn about clinical topics or non-clinical topics such as "coding for revenue," or "understanding and complying with HIPAA." I also enjoyed earning "Q-Points" through activities like the Expert Practice Series. You'll see a multimedia presentation of a clinical case that also includes some embedded multiple choice questions. I love the clinical photos. Some of these are creative market research activities and you can earn Q-Points that can lead to Amazon credit. Here's a brief explanation of Q-Points:

Validated members of QuantiaMD can only earn Q-Points by engaging in market research activities which offer clinical value and unique peer exchange opportunities focused on the improvement of patient care. Validated members who accrue Q-Points by participating in market research activities may exchange them in increments of 100 Q-Points for an electronic Amazon.com® Gift Card.

The QuantiaMD smartphone app also allows you to interact with a clinician-only community when you click on the "Question & Consult" section of the app. You can also go to the "community" section and access short clinical cases and other presentations that are relevant to your specialty. Once you start exploring QuantiaMD on your smartphone, you'll quickly realize that the app is unlike any other medical smartphone app. The interface is unique, the content is engaging, and you have the opportunity to interact with other physicians. It's a portal to a host of medical presentations, clinical cases, and an online physician community. Before you realize it, you'll be collecting Q-Points and you may end up with an Amazon gift card.

So, here's a summary of some of the key features you'll find on QuantiaMD:

Expert Presentations

• Leading physicians deliver multimedia presentations on the most critical clinical and performance issues in medicine. Interact and debate with peers and download and collect completion certificates.

Earn and Redeem Q-Points

• Be rewarded for contributing your valuable time by completing surveys, finishing the monthly clinical challenge, and referring colleagues. Q-Points are redeemable for Amazon.com gift cards.

Compete Nationally

• Compete for national ranking in our exciting monthly medical challenge, as well as specialty challenges.

Free CME

• QuantiaMD brings you outstanding CME from partners in an interactive and concise format you can’t find anywhere else.

100% Clinician

• Each member’s identity is verified. You can be sure that only other clinicians are commenting, posting a question, or contributing presentations

Go to quantiamd.com from your smartphone's browser and follow the download instructions.

How do you organize your social networks?

When it comes to social media and social networking websites, I mainly use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. These days, people have accounts with Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Friendster, Twitter, AIM, MSN Messenger & Yahoo! Messenger. How do they keep up with all these accounts when they're out and about? I use a few social media clients on my smartphone, but I don't have everything under one roof. Here's something to consider: OrSiSo stands for Organize, Simplify, Socialize and is a ground breaking new software tool which helps you connect to multiple social networks from one place. OrSiSo connects you to your friends on some of the most popular social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Bebo, Friendster and Flickr; as well as offers chat integration across multiple IM platforms including Facebook Chat, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo! and AOL.

OrSiSo has several unique features, including:

· Single status update for all networks, choose the same status or a different one for each network.
· Photo album browsing and viewing
· Pop-up notifications to let you know when new information is added
· The ability to merge friends who have profiles on multiple networks into one contact
· Grouping of friends into different levels of closeness so you can filter the information that is most important to you.

At OrSiSo’s core lies SocialCraft™, an adaptive algorithm that prioritizes information based on relevance and closeness to you in real time; helping you to keep up-to-date with your most relevant friends and contacts across all their social networks and giving you more time to socialize both online and offline. You can download OrSiSo from their website, follow them on Twitter and become a fan on their Facebook page.

PC World reviews the Palm Pre

How did the editors at PC World rate the Palm Pre? They gave it an 82 (very good). They say: "A responsive touchscreen, an engaging interface, and a few flaws." Now, I'm referring to the PC World magazine. The website (PCWorld.com) reviewed the Palm Pre back in June and gave it an 87 (very good).

Pros:

• Pre's webOS is gorgeous and easy to use
• Highly responsive multitouch display

Cons:

• Keyboard feels cramped and flimsy
• Lacks removable memory

Going back to the magazine, the key components they highlighted included:

• Hardware
• WebOS
• Social Networking Features
• Multimedia

I really like the form factor of the Palm Pre. You get a nice large capacitive touch-screen device. The phone is a slider, but instead of a wide keyboard that requires both hands, you get a narrow one that could be managed using one hand. I was spoiled when I had my old Palm Treo. I used to type on that device using only one hand. It was very efficient when my other hand was tied up.

Although the Palm Pre has a really nice design, it lacks medical software right now. Unless you use an emulator that mimics the old original Palm OS, you really won't find much out there for webOS. Let's hope that quickly changes.

Twitter Tools for Smartphones

Do you Twitter with your smartphone? What application do you run? You've probably already heard of these popular Twitter tools like:
TwitterBerry for BlackBerry, Tweetie for iPhone, and Twidroid for Android. Are you running any of these applications? Can your battery handle all your tweets?

Twitter from your Mobile Device

Do you Twitter? You probably know that you can use your mobile phone to update your tweets. If you carry your phone everywhere you go, then it becomes easy to use it to send updates. More and more medical students and healthcare professionals are using smartphones in their daily practice. They are becoming ubiquitous and essential to the regular work flow and more clinicians are using them for social networking. Smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry are playing a huge role in the world of Web 2.0.

Do You Twitter?

I admit, I haven't been a huge user of Twitter. However, I've recently been bitten by the Twitter bug and I've started to explore the world of Twitter. If you care to follow me, then click here:
http://twitter.com/DrJosephKim