Tag Archives: Health

Open-source healthcare software

December 22, 2014 <3

List of open-source healthcare software on wikipedia

Including

A free Health and Hospital Information System with the following functionality:
– Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
– Hospital Information System (HIS)
– Health Information System

Our goal is to contribute with health professionals around the world to improve the lives of the underprivileged, providing a free system that optimizes health promotion and disease prevention.

GNU Health is an official GNU Package, and the Hospital Information System adopted by the United Nations University, International Institute for Global Health, for the implementations and trainings.

GNUMed :

Free, liberated open source Electronic Medical Record software in multiple languages to assist and improve longitudinal care (specifically in ambulatory settings, i.e. multi-professional practices and clinics).

It is made available at no charge and is capable of running on GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It is developed by a handful of medical doctors and programmers from all over the world.

It can be useful to anyone documenting the health of patients including, but not limited to, doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, acupuncturists, nurses, psychologists …

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

UK health sector’s “duty to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”

December 21, 2014 <3

Check UK government Prevent duty guidance: a consultation (which will run until Friday January 30th 2015). Direct implications for the healthcare sector.

Introduction:

“The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, which is currently before Parliament, seeks to place a duty on specified authorities (identified in full in Schedule 3 to the Bill, and set out in the guidance) to ‘have due regard, in the exercise of its functions, to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. Preventing people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism also requires challenge to extremist ideas where they are used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups. In carrying out this duty, the specified authorities must have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State. A draft of that guidance is attached here, for consultation.

Purpose :

“The purpose of this consultation is to seek views on the draft guidance from: local authorities, schools, further and higher education institutions, the NHS, the police, prison and young offender institution governors, and providers of probation services. These bodies are listed in Schedule 3 and will be subject to the duty, when the provisions come into force. We would also be interested in hearing from other bodies working in these fields who feel that they should also be subject to the duty.

We have included specific consultation questions throughout the document which we invite responses on. But more generally, we would like to hear views on the practicality of the guidance, what other measures could proportionately be taken to comply with the duty, any examples of existing good practice, and any opportunities and barriers to implementation. “

The health sector (p.30-32)

119. Healthcare professionals will meet and treat people who may be vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. Being drawn into terrorism includes not just violent extremism but also non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit. The key challenge for the healthcare sector is to ensure that, where there are signs that someone has been or is being drawn into terrorism, the healthcare worker is trained to recognise those signs correctly and is aware of and can locate available support, including the Channel programme where necessary. Preventing someone from being drawn into terrorism is substantially comparable to safeguarding in other areas, including child abuse or domestic violence.

120.There are already established arrangements in place, which we would expect to be

built on in response to the statutory duty.

Health specified authorities

121.The health specified authorities in Schedule 3 to the Bill are as follows:

•NHS Trusts

•NHS Foundation Trusts

Question for consultation

19. Are there other institutions, not listed here, which ought to be covered by the duty?

Please explain why.

122. NHS England has incorporated Prevent into its safeguarding arrangements, so that

Prevent awareness and other relevant training is delivered to all staff who provide services to NHS patients. These arrangements have been effective and should continue.

123. The Chief Nursing Officer in NHS England has responsibility for all safeguarding, and a safeguarding lead, working to the Director of Nursing, is responsible for the overview and management of embedding the Prevent programme into safeguarding procedures across the NHS.

124. Each regional team in the NHS has a Head of Patient Experience who leads on

safeguarding in their region. They are responsible for delivery of the Prevent

strategy within their region and the health regional Prevent co-ordinators (RPCs).

125. These RPCs are expected to have regular contact with Prevent leads in NHS

organisations to offer advice and guidance.

126. In fulfilling the duty, we would expect health bodies to demonstrate effective action in the following areas.

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Boot Sequence

December 17, 2014 <3

Here is a video tutorial for day-to-day self-care: a “boot sequence” of movements to wake up, warm up, unlock, stretch, strengthen. Recommended in the morning, before physical activity, or to restore some flow after prolonged stillness.

Dedicated to the many courageous people striving for a good fair world.

May this help you take care and stay strong <3

Special dedication to Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

—————————————————

Julian Assange is the founder and editor in chief of Wikileaks.

The publication by Wikileaks of US diplomatic cables and the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs in 2010, exposing US wrong doings and crimes to the public, has brought considerable heat on him and the organization.

In 2012 Assange entered the embassy of Ecuador in London asking for asylum, which he was granted in protection against the political persecution and threats to his life coming from the USA. Indeed in the USA, a secret grand jury is investigating him and Wikileaks, and public figures have called for his assassination, meaning exceptional (illegal?) law and bad treatments most probably await him there (see how Manning was treated).

Contrary to what medias are spinning, Assange is not trying to escape justice in Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning (and not charged) in relation to alleged sexual offenses. Only Sweden is not giving guarantees he would not be extradited to the USA should he travel there for the investigation, nor is the Swedish prosecution accepting alternatives proposed by Assange’s legal team – among other dubious bizarreries in this case.

Meanwhile, the UK keeps the Ecuadorian embassy under constant police watch, refuses Assange safe-passage to his host country, ready to arrest and extradite him to Sweden should he set foot outside.

Consequently Assange has not been able to leave the building and see daylight in over two years, a situation effectively equivalent to pre-charge detention and a violation of his rights denounced by 59 international organizations.

More info and support :

“The siege of Julian Assange is a farce”, John Pilger

“We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Assange extradited”, Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff

This day in Wikileaks

Free Assange Now

justice4assange

RESOURCES & TOOLS

DONDE NO HAY DOCTOR and other health books free

November 26, 2014 <3

Easy indispensable basic health guides for people and communities worldwide, accessible for free in many languages HERE on Hesperian Health website – including David Werner classic Donde No Hay Doctor. Covering many topics, for when there is no doctor, no dentist, for people with special needs, women and children, disabled, and because health is a right.

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

L’assureur emboîte le pas du big data

November 12, 2014 <3

Attention, en santé aussi l’enfer Big Brother est pavé de bonnes intentions.

En Juin dernier Axa lançait “Pulsez votre santé avec AXA” un jeu concours promettant des trackers santé à qui souscrirait bon pied bon oeil une assurance, assortis de bons cadeaux à qui rapporterait le bon nombre de pas…

Ou comment se voir perdre quelques bons degrés de libertés à l’horizon…

Pour info

“Parmi ceux qui ont le plus d’intérêts à acheter les données personnelles stockées et vendues par les géants de l’informatique grand public figurent en première ligne les assurances santé, qui disposent grâce aux technologies de médecine personnalisée d’une base d’informations sans précédent sur les comportements individuels des clients qu’ils doivent assurer, et qu’elles ont donc intérêt à influencer par une forme de chantage à l’assurance.

Ceux qui refuseront de voir leur activité surveillée pour vérifier qu’ils ne font rien de dommageable pour leur santé paieront plus cher leur assurance, voire n’y accéderont plus. Ou de façon plus pernicieuse, ceux qui accepteront de porter des objets connectés qui permettent à l’assurance de vérifier leur comportement auront le droit à des réductions tarifaires, mais devront alors s’interdire le moindre écart de conduite pour continuer à bénéficier des remboursements prévus au contrat. C’est ainsi la liberté individuelle qui risque de se dissoudre dans la mode du “quantified-self”.

Guillaume Champeau, “Ça y est, Axa conditionne un avantage santé à un objet connecté”

Oui…

“Et les libertés individuelles ? Ne pas s’en occuper au motif que l’individu est volontaire pour offrir les données de son corps à son assureur, via son smartphone ? Le respect de la vie privée est-il compatible avec une nouvelle « médecine » (personnalisée et numérisée) véhiculée par les géants du marché, Axa, Apple, Nike et leurs concurrents ? Où sont, ici, les puissances publiques, les responsables politiques ?”

Jean-Yves Nau, “Offrez votre corps à Axa, Apple, Nike etc.”,

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Guide conseils pour les manifs

November 4, 2014 <3

Conseils juridiques et pratiques pour les manifs mis à disposition par Paris-Luttes – Que faire lorsque victime ou témoin de violences policières, comment se protéger des effets du gaz, des tirs, quelques précautions prendre dans les communications…

Le pdf du Guide complet ICI.

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen

October 21, 2014 <3

The Huang Di Nei Jing, a.k.a Yellow Emperor’s inner classic or canon, is considered a fundamental text of chinese medicine, going back approximately 2000 years. It exposes TCM principles and applications in the form of a Q&A between disciple and old master. The canon is divided into two sections both containing 81 chapters (where 8+1=9, 9 being the number for the sky in chinese metaphysics). The first section is Su Wen, or “Basic Questions” deploying the theories at the root of all diagnostics, and the second section is the less known Ling Shu, or Spiritual Pivot, which is more directly about applications and acupuncture.

HERE is an Annotated Translation of Huang Di’s Inner Classic – Basic Questions: 2 volumes, by Paul Unschuld (University of california Press). A complementary history and comparative literature of the Su Wen, also by Paul Unschuld, can be read HERE. A chinese manuscript (Wang Bing’s version) can be found HERE on World Digital Library.

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

The Patent Pathology (TPP)

October 18, 2014 <3

Wikileaks renders public health a vital service and releases UPDATED SECRET TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (TPP) – IP CHAPTER (2nd Publication), an economic agreement secretly in the making which would have terrible implications on access to medicine if adopted.

“Thursday 16 October 2014, WikiLeaks released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the world’s largest economic trade agreement that will, if it comes into force, encompass more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The IP Chapter covers topics from pharmaceuticals, patent registrations and copyright issues to digital rights. Experts say it will affect freedom of information, civil liberties and access to medicines globally. The WikiLeaks release comes ahead of a Chief Negotiators’ meeting in Canberra on 19 October 2014, which is followed by what is meant to be a decisive Ministerial meeting in Sydney on 25–27 October.

Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few people, even within the negotiating countries’ governments, have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while the public at large gets no say. Read the full press release here. ”

See also Julian Assange and Sarah Harrison’ editorial :

US and JAPAN LEAD ATTACK ON AFFORDABLE CANCER TREATMENTS

“Despite claims from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) states that a final agreement would be reached by the start of this year, the publication of the draft IP Chapter led to a backlash – no agreement was realised, country alignments have altered and negotiations continue. However, US negotiators have made a counter-attack. The latest leaked version of the draft text shows the United States pushing for measures that would significantly constrain affordable access to vital generic drugs, such as cancer drugs and treatments for communicable diseases such as Ebola. Continue reading here.

And also PUBLIC CITIZEN Analyses of the newly leaked IP chapter

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

Ateliers découverte des massages, Sept-Dec 2014 @Biopulse, Paris

September 12, 2014 <3

>>> Programme des ateliers découvertes des massages proposés par l’école Biopulse à Paris pour les semaines à venir. Une variété de thèmes et de formateurs, pour apprendre ou revisiter des bases et se faire du bien dans un moment de partage. Tous niveaux et horizons bienvenus. Les jeudis soirs de 19h30 à 21h30. 15 euros. Inscription nécessaire au 01 44 82 51 29.

ART & INSPIRATIONS

E agora ? What now ?

September 3, 2014 <3

Portuguese film sound engineer, producer and director Joaquim Pinto has been living with HIV and Hepatitis C for years and lost quite a few of his friends and collaborators to the virus along the way.

Beaten but not down, blurred yet bright and sharp, he offers a rare testimony with E agora ? Lembra-me a personal diary he filmed over a year as he was undergoing experimental drug testing in Madrid. His collections and recollections though, are mostly set in and outside the home he shares with his long love and husband Nuno (also infected) in a dry luminous countryside of Portugal.

As the four seasons go round we are invited to feel along the repercussions of the clinical trials, but mostly the passing of time, with its very own pace, its redundancies big and small, challenging will, challenging life, the questions and, eventually, the answers only time can bring… The movie opens with a shot of a slug crossing the screen on a dead leaf: You could not accelerate certain processes even if you would, so bear with them. The trips to Madrid, transiting through frantic airports, seem all the more brutal in that perspective (Why do we do that to ourselves ? is among the questions that are raised).

While the announced intention of the film is to record and evaluate the effects of the drugs tested in Madrid (noting side effects you’ll never read about in a drug leaflet) it soon appears that the subject is not so much that but rather other forms and ingredients of care, which although not mentioned as such (and maybe they shouldn’t!) become evaluated in parallel, much more positively. Pretty honestly or “sem merda” as some friends around me have put it.

So yes, honestly : At the end of the day what is really keeping Joaquim, Nuno, us, alive through hardships ?

Here are some suggestions from the film:

Love, definitely. Partnerships, setting the preservation of (a good) life and care of one another as priorities… Abundance of fresh air and sunlight, a connection with nature, mediated by animals, through farming, all of which help keep regular (and circadian) cycles of work, play, rest… Being responsible for someone else, caring for them, a lover, an old dog, a young tree threatened by drought and wildfires… A connection with past generations, some sort of historical inscription in the community of mankind and on the tree of life on earth (“we are not special, just recent”)… Peaceful renunciations to what is no longer suited, all the while reaffirming commitments to what matters most… Solidarity, sharing information, experiences, expression of the voices of the weak… A relative autonomy and self-sufficiency, carefully balancing the dependencies to absurd and adverse economical and healthcare systems… Critical thinking, intellectual curiosity… Creativity, art… Cinema..? As a critic notes “this hypnotic video essay eases the discomforts of the flesh with the comforts of moviemaking” and “the film repeatedly erases the neutral hues of sickness with the lush vibrancy of nature.” So it does.

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Black Cross Collective First Aid for Radicals and Activists

August 9, 2014 <3

http://www.blackcrosscollective.org

>>>> Basic first aid and safety for protesters, advice about medication in jail, protection against pepper spray and tear gas, tips for emotional / injury/ chemical weapons aftercare… A zine, the Activist’s Guide to Basic First Aid, to read / print /share…

“Black Cross Health Collective is an affinity group of health care workers who live in Portland, Oregon. We formed after the WTO protests because we saw a need for medical care that is specific to the radical community. We think our needs as radicals are different, and that groups like the Red Cross don’t give us the skills we need to keep ourselves and each other safe in the streets. So we called upon our own medical experience (as nurse practioners, nurses, EMT’s, clinical herbalists, and more), as well as our experience in demos
and direct actions, and formed Black Cross. Since then, we’ve done first aid trainings in Portland and around the country, provided medical support at local and national demos, and are conducting trials looking for a way to neutralize pepper spray.

We believe that health care is political. The kind of care we do or don’t receive, where and how we receive that care, who provides that care, who has access to training to provide care, and what kinds of trainings are smiled or frowned upon, all involve inherently political issues. We believe the system needs to be changed… the health care system right along with all the others.

We’ve put this zine together mostly to go along with a first aid training. While doing the trainings we realized there was way more to say about first aid than we would have time to say it in. So we thought a little reading would maybe be helpful to y’all.

Remember the most important words you can ever learn to say are “I don’t know.”

Fight the power, do no harm.”

Black Cross Collective

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

Prosthetic Surveillance

July 25, 2014 <3

Prosthetic Surveillance: The medical governance of healthy bodies in cyberspace

(Emma Rich, Andy Miah)

Abstract :

This paper examines how ‘surveillance medicine’ (Armstrong 1995) has expanded the realm of the medical gaze via its infiltration of cyberspace, where specific features of healthism are now present. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of biopower, we examine how digital health resources offer new ways through which to discipline individuals and regulate populations. The emergence of health regulation within and through cyberspace takes place in a context wherein the relationship between the body and technology is rendered more complex. Departing from early literature on cyberspace, which claimed that the body was absent in virtual worlds, we articulate a medicalized cyberspace within which the virtual and corporeal are enmeshed.

The range of health issues articulated through surveillance discourses are many and varied, though of significance are those related to weight and health, as they provide a particularly rich example through which to study medical surveillance in cyberspace due to their moral and regulative focus. We argue that the capacity for health resources to encourage disciplinary and regulative practices defies the designation of virtual, as non-reality. Moreover, with the advent of a range of digital platforms that merge entertainment with the regulation of the body, such as Internet based nutrition games, and the use of games consoles such as Nintendo wii fit, cyberspace may be providing a forum for new forms of regulative practices concerning health. These virtual environments expand our understandings of the boundaries of the body, since much of what takes place occurs through both a virtualization of identity, such as the use of an avatar or graphic image of one’s body on screen, and a prostheticisation of the body within cyberspace. To conclude, while surveillance medicine regulates physical selves in real time, we argue that there is a growing tendency towards a prosthetic surveillance, which regulates and defines bodies that are simultaneously hyper-text and flesh.

Full article (pdf) on Surveillance & Society journal :

http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/3256

ART & INSPIRATIONS

Milford Graves, holistic beat doctor

July 16, 2014 <3

Milford Graves is a free jazz drummer and percussionist, music teacher, therapist, acupuncturist…

Intrigued by the powerful effects of music on body and mind, he started to explore the beats and harmonics of human hearts, to the point where he could detect pathological anomalies listening to the songs of people’s hearts, and even fix them with his computer programs and custom made beats.

He was, also, going back to the source code for music…

Find more about him in a series of short interviews on Tom Hall web show ImprovLive365.

There, from his studio in Queens Milford Graves talks about human rhythm and sounds, the healing potentials of sonic vibrations, cardio-pathology, metronomic “machine” time versus biological variability in time, percussionist and acupuncturist virtuosity, focus, innovation, creativity, yin yang theory… Deep !

Read article Finding Healing Music in the Heart, by Corey Kilgannon, NYT, 2004

“Mr. Graves, 63, a jazz drummer who made his mark in the 1960’s with avant-garde musicians like Albert Ayler, Paul Bley and Sonny Sharrock, performs only occasionally now. He spends about half his week teaching music healing and jazz improvisation classes at Bennington College in Vermont, where he has been a professor for 31 years. He spends much of the rest of his week in his basement researching the relationship between music and the human heart.

After descending the psychedelic-painted stairway into his laboratory, visitors are faced with a collection of drums from around the world, surrounding a network of computers. Wooden African idols spiked with nails rub up against medical anatomical models. Amid a vast inventory of herbs, roots and plant extracts sits an old wooden recliner equipped with four electronic stethoscopes connected to computers displaying intricate electrocardiogram readouts.”

Read Interview with Milford Graves, on Perfect Sound Forever

PSF: What have you found out with different ailments and responses in your work and research?

Some of the things are very standard, like the dynamics of loud and soft. Sudden explosive loud sounds would cause a very strong skin galvanic response- it would be very stresssful on the system.

At the college, we had people who had cardiac irregularities or arrhythmias. They were diagonised as non-organic arrhythmias- people couldn’t really get any help with using medication or trying to change their lifestyles. So I would co-ordinate some music that would be considering ‘free jazz,’ entirely spontaneous and improvised. Some of it was done live but some of it was pre-recorded. We would play these things and we found that with one particular person, his heart rhythm started to synchronize with what we had performed on the tape. Then we played live and we steadied the rhythm into a regular heart rhythm and his own heartbeat stopped being arrhythmic and then it co-ordinated with us. That was very interesting. Some people don’t believe this but I have all the documents about it- electrocardiograms and a tape with one track having our pre-recorded music and on the other track we actually had this person’s heart rhythm and you could see how it synch’s right in.

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

Le “santé-mentalisme”, outil du néolibéralisme – Entretien avec le psychiatre Mathieu Bellahsen

July 7, 2014 <3

Entretien vidéo avec le psychiatre Mathieu Bellahsen auteur de “La Santé Mentale – Vers un bonheur sous contrôle” (Ed. La Fabrique), sur Mediapart par Sophie Dufau.

http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/210614/mathieu-bellahsen-la-sante-mentale-est-devenue-un-outil-du-neoliberalisme

“L’originalité de cet essai réside aussi dans la personnalité de son auteur. Psychiatre des hôpitaux (ex-président des internes en psychiatrie et cofondateur d’Utopsy), il suit au quotidien les malades d’un secteur de la banlieue parisienne. Fort de cette pratique, Mathieu Bellahsen est allé voir aux sources du concept de santé mentale pour comprendre son évolution. Le décryptage de textes essentiels – émanant de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), de l’Europe ou du Centre d’analyse stratégique (service dépendant du premier ministre) – permet de saisir combien l’intention humaniste du milieu du XIX^e siècle s’est muée, au début du XX^e siècle et sous un vocabulaire positif, en norme impérative des comportements :

– « La santé mentale et le bien-être mental sont des conditions fondamentales à la qualité de la vie, à la productivité des individus, des familles, des populations et des nations, et confèrent un sens à notre existence tout en nous permettant d’être des citoyens à la fois actifs et créatifs », écrit l’OMS en 2005.

– « Une personne en bonne santé mentale est quelqu’un qui se sent suffisamment en confiance pour s’adapter à une situation à laquelle elle ne peut rien changer », estime le Centre d’analyse stratégique en 2010.

– La prise en compte de la santé mentale permet « d’améliorer la disponibilité des ressources économiques », peut-on lire dans le Livre vert de l’Union européenne, publié en 2005.

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Medical Books Downloads

July 6, 2014 <3

“This blog is dedicated to all the people who belongs to medical profession..(medico, nursing, pharmacology, etc) and who are not able to afford for heavy priced books…”

http://medicalbooksvivek.blogspot.pt

Like this book

RESOURCES & TOOLS

MAPS’ Psychedelic Harm Reduction manual

May 13, 2014 <3

Go to MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) for psychedelic harm reduction resources and download manual !

“This year, millions of people will use psychedelics outside of supervised medical contexts, many of them for the first time. Many psychedelic users are unprepared to tend to a psychedelic-induced difficult experience if one were to arise. As part of our efforts to minimize harm related to the non-medical use of psychedelics, on this page we provide advice for helping someone having a difficult psychedelic experience”

MAPS PSYCHEDELIC HARM REDUCTION

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

“If you want to connect to me, you have to do it safely” – Jacob Appelbaum & Jillian York @ re:publica 14

May 8, 2014 <3

Like people didn’t give up on sex because of STDs, they are not going to give up using the Internet or today’s communication devices because they are bugged. There are however (transitive) risks in exposing our lives to constant capture / monitoring by third parties, and these could be minimized if the variety of us become better informed and start to adopt know-better behaviors, like in safer sex. Could we then learn how to use crypto tools like we learnt how to place condoms on bananas ? Drawing analogies with public health campaigns, environmental education for children and other social movements, Jacob Appelbaum (TOR) and Jillian York (EFF) lay out the principles of what could be a harm reduction campaign against the epidemic of mass surveillance and erosion of privacy, in their talk @ re:publica 14. Note that in a salutary queering of the debate, Appelbaum and York also point to the fact that opting out of the problem today saying “I have nothing to hide” is pretty much equivalent to (dominant white male) hetero saying AIDS is a gays thing and doesn’t concern them : false of course, and irresponsible. True, not everyone exposed to mass surveillance in their countries is exposed to the same risks (as of now white westerners might not risk to be put in jail or drone striked overnight for expressing their thoughts or gathering together on a regular basis), but understanding the interconnectedness is a vital key for all across the globe.

Watch the talk here : LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX BABY, LET’S TALK ABOUT PGP

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

Electronic health records pose challenges to privacy

April 25, 2014 <3

Published in May 2011 in The International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, here is a read for health-care professionals who care about privacy

To serve and to protect ? Electronic health records pose challenges for privacy, autonomy and person-centered medicine

ARTICLE ABSTRACT:

“This paper highlights potential challenges to privacy posed by electronic health records and proposes to increase patient involvement in maintaining the privacy of their data. Electronic health records are heavily promoted in the United States, rendering sensitive health information accessible and potentially jeopardizing patient privacy. Yet certain HIPAA regulations are consistently violated, suggesting that the Federal Government is unable to fully enforce privacy standards. On the other hand, proportionately there are few civilian complaints to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), implying that patients are unaware of privacy breaches, the means to report them, or both. Without permitting patient control over information, the proposed privacy system assumes that leakages will occur and offers to notify patients of breaches after the fact. This deprives patients of the right to defend their intimate details, which are more available to caretakers, employers, and insurers than ever. Our proposed solution is to render usage of patient information transparent by default, so that patients can monitor and control who is privy to what input. This will enhance patient empowerment, feeding into improved governmental control over health data.”

Talya Miron-Shatz MA PhDa and Glyn Elwyn MB BCh MSc FRCGP PhDb

a Founding Director, Center for Medical Decision Making, Ono Academic College, Israel; Lecturer, Marketing Department, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
b Professor of Primary Medical Care, Clinical Epidemiology Interdisciplinary Research Group, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Dangers of Sleep Deprivation infographic

March 10, 2014 <3

ARTICLES & THOUGHTS

Being programmed by a program: a review of Workrave by Sophie Hiltner

March 4, 2014 <3

Physical therapist Sophie Hiltner offers a quick review of Workrave ”a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.”

More from Sophie in the talk she gave at 30C3 last December, CODING YOUR BODY.

Workrave: being programmed by a program

A review by Sophie Hiltner

Sitting at my desk working as usual I suddenly feel the urge to stretch my arms high in the air, extending my thoracic spine. Two seconds after I had followed my impulse, the little reminder from workrave popped up to tell me I needed a micro pause. What happened here, had the one week trial phase already left its impression in my movement patterns inside my brain?

I will give you a quick overview about the program workrave (http://www.workrave.org/), my experiences with it and a physiotherapeutical evaluation of its function.

Workrave is a programm that monitors the use of keyboard or mouse. The programm offers two different kinds of pauses, a microbreak and a coffeebreak. The preset timing, of the intervals of the pauses, did not feel good to me, therefore I chose a twenty minutes rhythm for the micropause of thirty seconds and one hour rhythm for the coffee break of five minutes. During those breaks your monitor is blocked, unless you decide to skip or postpone the break by a certain period of time. In general I use these microbreaks to stretch, get out of the chair, go to the bathroom or fill up my tea cup. Choosing a small cup and putting the tea pot at the other end of the room is a great opportunity for a small walk between the sitting phases of your day.

During the coffeebreaks the programm offers excercises for shoulders, eyes, fingers and arms. For example: stretching out your fingers or neck muscles. Each exercise is about twenty-five seconds long. Depending on your motivation you can choose up to ten excercises per break. These exercises are helpful from a physiotherapeutical point of view, but especially the stretches are way to short. If you like the excercises offered I would suggest doing one maximum two and repeating those for at least one minute each. Concentrate on your breathing while stretching, for example your neck, and feel the tension leave your body while you exhale.

A friendly person sent me his comment about workrave “Since I use workrave, my room is much cleaner.”. I have to agree, besides the stretching I used the breaks also to tidy up things quickly, wash the dishes or make fresh tea.

Besides all those advantages I have two points I am not happy about. First of all, when you are not typing or using your mouse the programm counts it as a break. Since I am also reading a lot when working I need to remind myself of those breaks. But after using workrave quite often while I was writing, my body started to remind itself of the needed breaks. This does not mean, that the program became unnecessary, but that Pavlov was correct. Bottomline: the programm helped me to be more aware of continuous sitting periods and I start to move subconsciously whenever a break should be taken.

The second point of criticism: workrave is incredibly sexist, since the person presenting the exercises is a big busted woman with braided hair. A neutral person would be more suitable, at least for my taste.

Another thing is, that wordrave is not availabe for Mac L sorry to say. If anybody knows a mac compatible programm let me know.

That is what I have to say about workrave. If you have questions, suggestions or critique: Let me know! Till then keep working out in the office,

Sophie.

RESOURCES & TOOLS

Research or report prescription drugs side effects with RxISK

February 22, 2014 <3

RxISK.org is a “free, independent drug safety website where you can research your prescription drug side effects or report a drug side effect.”

There are “zones” where you can find out if the drugs you’re taking are affecting your hair, skin, sex life… or if they have been linked to violent or suicidal behaviors. There is also an “interaction checker”, and a zone to check if your symptoms are linked to withdrawal from a drug.

Tip: if you live outside of the countries covered, you might not have the same trademark medicine – try entering the name of the active molecule (ex: ibuprofen)

VARIOUS IN THE NEWS

Big Doctor will care ?! Privacy for the weak !

February 10, 2014 <3

The possibilities and dangers -closing in on us- of “pseudonymized” health records central databases, with police backdoors, scientists, insurers, and other third parties authorized to mine the “care.data” are exposed in this guardian article “Police will have backdoor access to health records despite opt-out”, by Randeep Ramesh.

This puts into light an architecture of biopower (as conceptualized by french philosopher Michel Foucault) where control over people’s destinies can technically and easily be exerted via the subjugation of their own bodies.

Let’s not forget that today, people’s personal health informations ALREADY are used against them and negatively affect their fundamental freedoms, for example of movement and/or economic interaction, whether it is a matter of crossing a border when you’re HIV+ and/or getting/keeping a job when you’re a smoker.

Overall it is a particularly aching reminder of the importance of protecting the personal data of the weak, in that it concerns the very place where people are the most vulnerable (that’s when we go to a doctor, right?), and a place that is still considered a safety and confidentiality haven – with privacy being a component of good care.

“PRIVACY FOR THE WEAK, TRANSPARENCY FOR THE POWERFUL”

as advocated and enabled by Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange,

really sounds like the right line.

Extract:

Phil Booth of medConfidential, which campaigns on medical privacy, told the Guardian: “This is precisely the danger when you create a giant database of highly sensitive information about people – all sorts of other people want to go rifling through it, including the government.” There’s always another good reason to go digging, but no one thinks of the catastrophic breach of trust this represents.”

“The lack of independent oversight and transparency is what’s most worrying. People trust their GP, but who’s heard of the Health and Social Care Information Centre or the four people who sign off on access to all our medical records?”

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

“CODING YOUR BODY”: Physical therapist Sophie Hiltner talks at 30C3

January 2, 2014 <3

In this 30 minutes talk, physical therapist Sophie Hiltner explains basic anatomy of the musculo-skeletal systems, the physical structures that hold us together and enable our actions. This is of course of interest to people who spend most of their time holding themselves the same way, not shape-shifting much, sitting all day, heads tilted over screens, forever clicking… You get the picture.

How is a little anatomy interesting ? Understanding the physiology and mechanics of the bones, muscles and connective tissues, leads to a better understanding of the constraints and stresses our postures exert on these systems everyday all day, and of the negative consequences these postures can have for the general well-being and health. Over the years, these consequences can in fact turn out quite bad, Sophie remarks, as she invites the audience to not lose more time before starting to listen to important warning signals from the body (you know, like pain). Note that the worse posture of all can be any posture in which one will let themselves become a statue, that is to say, lack of movement sabotages us in the long term. On that subject, French readers can read my post “l’effort musculaire de la statue”, on my massage blog.

From Sophie’s overview of the musculo-skeletal systems it then becomes quite clear that preventing and/or reversing the negative effects of still and sloppy habits can/should be in one’s power, as one becomes more aware and hopefully doesn’t wait to be too hurt before he or she takes simple steps that can go a long way. Like… Getting up ! Moving! A little later on after the talk, Sophie took the crowd outside (best place, given the hot air, lights, hyperactivity and electricity inside the building) for a little stretching and moving about. NICE ONE

So yes, a little knowledge in anatomy is very useful, and it can trigger a realization that movement is vital, which can save everyone some avoidable pains and strains (not all pains in life in the world are so easily avoidable, so we might as well prevent those which we can). It was great that Sophie was there at 30C3 to communicate this, because as crucial as it is, this kind of knowledge and practical body wisdom is not much represented… I myself am not fond of the analogy with machines when speaking of the body (I like to stick to the living), but I guess it helped in getting the message across at 30C3, which mattered. As an experienced masseuse I guess I also would have enjoyed it if there had been more time for Sophie to present the case studies of her patients she had brought but… next time !

“The Propeller sensor keeps track of your medication use for you, with a record of the time and place you have used your inhaler. The sensor is a small device that attaches to the top of your existing inhaler and stays out of your way when you need to use it.”

Here is a video tutorial for day-to-day self-care: a “boot sequence” of movements to wake up, warm up, unlock, stretch, strengthen. Recommended in the morning, before physical activity, or to restore some flow after prolonged stillness.

Dedicated to the many courageous people striving for a good fair world.

May this help you take care and stay strong <3

Special dedication to Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

Prosthetic Surveillance: The medical governance of healthy bodies in cyberspace