We've all heard of Wikipedia – the world's largest web site. I'm sure almost everyone who uses the internet has read an article or two on Wikipedia, thanks to their incredible search engine ranking. Let's take a look at exactly what Wikipedia and wikis are.
From the "kettle calling the pot black" file, here is Wikipedia's definition of itself:
Wikipedia (pronounced /ˌwiːkiˈpiːdiə/ or /ˌwɪkəˈpiːdiə/) is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau (a combination of portions of two words and their meanings) of the words wiki (a type of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. from wikipedia
We all know what an encyclopedia is, but the definition of a wiki might not be quite as familiar.
A Wiki
A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language (a set of annotation that tell text how to displayed. Example: Mircosoft WORD showing bolded text). Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and Knowledge Management systems". from wikipedia.
The word "Wiki" is a Hawaiian word for "fast".
The first web site that could call itself a wiki is WikiWikiWeb, started in 1994 by Ward Cunningham. The largest and most familiar wiki is Wikipedia.
So, a wiki is easy to use (very easy to use) knowledge management and distribution system that can be completely private, semi-private or public. Are there applications for a wiki in healthcare? Absolutely – from department-level intranets to a professional-level wiki where doctors share cutting-edge research.
Wiki's and HealthCare
Here is a list of different applications of a wiki in healthcare. This is not a comprehensive list nor is it a list of the best healthcare wikis, it's just a list of some of the good ones.
AskDrWiki
"Dr Wiki is a nonprofit educational web site made by physicians for physicians, medical students, and healthcare providers. Its purpose is to serve as a online repository of medical information that can be accessed by anyone."
MedPedia
"In association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations, Medpedia will be a commons for the gathering of the information and people critical to health care."
Clinfowiki
"The Clinical Informatics Wiki." "The Clinical Informatics Wiki is an implementation of a wiki devoted to topics in clinical informatics.
Consumer Health Information service - Toronto Public Library
"This site, created and maintained by the Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS) of the Toronto Public Library, is designed to help you find reliable, understandable health information for you and your family. The information on this site is constantly being revised as changes or new information comes to light."
Diabetes Wiki
"A consumer-focused diabetes education site. Allows anyone to tell their story and share their knowledge."
ECG-pedia
"A wiki electrocardiography (ECG) course and textbook designed for medical professionals such as cardiac care nurses and physicians."
Journal of Medical Internet Research e-health Wiki
"This is a platform for the eHealth research community to collaboratively develop eHealth and Internet research ideas and observations into papers, proposals, research protocols, projects and programs."
FluWiki
"The purpose of the Flu Wiki is to help local communities prepare for and perhaps cope with a possible influenza pandemic. This is a task previously ceded to local, state and national governmental public health agencies."
Ganfyd
"Welcome to ganfyd.org - The free medical knowledge base that anyone can read and any registered medical practitioner may edit. "
WiserWiki
"WiserWiki is a wiki that will allow accredited physicians to comment, collaborate and update medical information online and is viewable by everyone. The site was originally seeded with content from John Noble's 'Textbook of Primary Care Medicine' (3rd Edition)"
Showing posts with label e-health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label e-health. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Mashup – Smashup
This week, I thought I'd start covering some standard technologies that are floated around all the time in Web 2.0 conversations. Today, let's review Mashups.
Official Definition
The official definition of the term Mashup is (taken from our favorite web 2.0 encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org):
"In web development, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. The term Mashup implies easy, fast integration, frequently done by access to open APIs* and data sources to produce results that were not the original goal of the data owners. An example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source."
Shorter Explanation:
"A mashup is a combination of data sources to create a unified interface and experience."
Laymen's Explanation:
You can think of a mashup like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup: peanut butter + chocolate: individually two pretty good items and some would argue that chocolate is beyond pretty good. And when you combine those two pretty good items together, you get something greater than the sum of its parts. That's what a mashup is - two technology-based products that are combined to make something new.
Mashup's can be web-based (two different web programs slammed together), or digital art, or video, or music.
Best Examples of an e-Health Mashup
It's always hard to stick your neck out and say "this is the best" of anything on the web, but let's say that this is the best examples of an e-Health mashup that I've found.
Fight4Rx
Fight4rx.org is a brand new web site, having only been live for about 24 hours. It is an excellent example of how a mashup can be used to provide relevant information to a health care consumer. "Fight4Rx is a non-partisan grassroots effort of the National Community Pharmacists Association aimed at educating patients about the value of their local community pharmacy." (from the Fight4Rx.org web site) Although there are more tools on the site than the mashup, their mapping component that allows a user to type in their zip code and find the closet community pharmacy.
"Who is Sick".
"Who Is Sick was started in 2006 with a mission to provide current and local sickness information to the public - without the hassle of dealing with hospitals or doctors. With a strong belief in the power of people and a faith that user generated content can be extremely valuable, our team set out to create an entirely new system for tracking and monitoring sickness in your area and obtain sickness information. Information retrieved by tracking sickness in my area can also be used to map sickness trends in my region." Taken from the Who Is Sick web site.
People go to the site and enter their zip code, age, gender, symptoms, length of illness (anomalously) and any additional details about their illness, and results are plotted on an easy to read Google map, so visitors can see the types of illness any state, city or neighborhood.
Pretty neat eh?
*API
Explanation coming soon.
Official Definition
The official definition of the term Mashup is (taken from our favorite web 2.0 encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org):
"In web development, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. The term Mashup implies easy, fast integration, frequently done by access to open APIs* and data sources to produce results that were not the original goal of the data owners. An example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source."
Shorter Explanation:
"A mashup is a combination of data sources to create a unified interface and experience."
Laymen's Explanation:
You can think of a mashup like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup: peanut butter + chocolate: individually two pretty good items and some would argue that chocolate is beyond pretty good. And when you combine those two pretty good items together, you get something greater than the sum of its parts. That's what a mashup is - two technology-based products that are combined to make something new.
Mashup's can be web-based (two different web programs slammed together), or digital art, or video, or music.
Best Examples of an e-Health Mashup
It's always hard to stick your neck out and say "this is the best" of anything on the web, but let's say that this is the best examples of an e-Health mashup that I've found.
Fight4Rx
Fight4rx.org is a brand new web site, having only been live for about 24 hours. It is an excellent example of how a mashup can be used to provide relevant information to a health care consumer. "Fight4Rx is a non-partisan grassroots effort of the National Community Pharmacists Association aimed at educating patients about the value of their local community pharmacy." (from the Fight4Rx.org web site) Although there are more tools on the site than the mashup, their mapping component that allows a user to type in their zip code and find the closet community pharmacy.
"Who is Sick".
"Who Is Sick was started in 2006 with a mission to provide current and local sickness information to the public - without the hassle of dealing with hospitals or doctors. With a strong belief in the power of people and a faith that user generated content can be extremely valuable, our team set out to create an entirely new system for tracking and monitoring sickness in your area and obtain sickness information. Information retrieved by tracking sickness in my area can also be used to map sickness trends in my region." Taken from the Who Is Sick web site.
People go to the site and enter their zip code, age, gender, symptoms, length of illness (anomalously) and any additional details about their illness, and results are plotted on an easy to read Google map, so visitors can see the types of illness any state, city or neighborhood.
Pretty neat eh?
*API
Explanation coming soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
