http://thedesignspace.net/ My daily explorations, troubleshooting, solutions and discoveries. en-us ellen@thedesignspace.net Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:04:49 -0500 http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/001014.html Watching patient/provider interactions in realtime can make it easier to see the process from the patient perspective and spot opportunities for improvement. In healthcare interactions, as in just about any people-oriented service, issues that are obvious when seen in context can get lost when an interaction is described by bare data. In an era where structured data is so important,... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000745.html Research starting in the early 90's has suggested a neurodevelopmental basis for schizophrenia. Other studies suggest a biochemical basis for this abnormal development in schizophrenics related to insufficient fatty acids - fatty acids that contribute to the phospholipids which are the building blocks of neuronal membranes. Growth of axons and dendrites, making new synaptic connections and pruning of old ones,... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000740.html Photo by Two Big Paws [CC] Around 15 years ago, Tasmanian Devils, those cute little bad-tempered creatures from Down Under, began vanishing as a consequence of a new disease spreading rapidly among the population. Around 1996, a photographer documented severe facial tumors in the Devils in the northeast of Tasmania. By 1999, similar tumors appeared in Devils on the... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000730.html According to CDC statistics, U.S. childhood asthma prevalence more than doubled between 1980 to the mid-1990s and has since plateaued at those historically high levels. Although many triggers and risk factors for asthma have been identified, the reasons behind this increase are not yet understood. A recent study by University of Adelaide researchers Whitrow, Moore, Rumbold, and Davies may shed... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000714.html Back in the 90's, a woman named Dixie Lawrence made a splash on the internet by describing how her daughter with Down Syndrome experienced improved growth, health and cognition after starting a regimen of nutritional supplements and piracetam. I recall reading that she noticed that her infant daughter was not actually retarded - at least not yet. Dixie's routine for... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000667.html Where is the best spot for an educational (or other) intervention? When there is a workforce performance or knowledge gap to fill, trainers understandably think first of using training to fill it. But is more training really always the best answer? Depending on the skills involved and the characteristics of the audience, process improvement, usability improvement, training or performance support... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000587.html Back in early 2008 I remember hearing about a cluster of cases of Hepatitis apparently caused by reusing needles at an endoscopy clinic in Nevada. I've heard other news stories like this over the years and always wondered who in this day and age would ever use a needle on more than one patient? It never occurred to me that... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000626.html Serious Games: Learn while PlayingView more presentations from ellenm1. These slides are from an inservice I gave the other day on the attributes and effectiveness of Serious Games. Thesea are mostly pictures so you will probably get more from viewing the narrated, captioned version of the presentation HERE Narrated version of the presentation Resources and more information on serious games... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000486.html The problem: Over the last few years, public attention has been focused increasingly on the problem of nosocomial or hospital acquired infections (HAI's). Why is there so much concern? A study by the CDC published in the March/April 2007 issue of the journal Public Health Reports, estimated that 1.7 million hospital patients per year ― 4.5 of every 100 admissions... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000624.html Quick, what is the the fifth leading cause of death in the United States? Heart problems? Liver failure? Cancer? You probably won't believe me when I tell you it is flying in airplanes. Deep Vein Thrombosis in air travelers is far more frequent than most of us know. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a dangerous condition where lack of movement... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000618.html Anecdotal evidence that autistic children improve when they have a fever was confirmed last year when the journal Pediatrics published a study documenting their positive behavioral changes. In November of 2008, scientists at Yeshiva University's Einstein College of Medicine published a theory that may explain these changes. They suggest that the brains of autistic people are structurally normal but disregulated,... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000599.html There is growing interest in the use of intranasally administered insulin for treating symptoms of early alzheimers and for improving memory and cognition in general. An article published in Neurology in 2008 describes the results of a double-blind study of 25 participants with early alzheimers who were given either insulin or a placebo using an electronic atomizer, daily. They found... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000572.html Norovirus is a highly infectious stomach virus that thrives in closed communities like dormitories and cruise ships. It only takes a few virus particles to cause illness, and is relatively hard to kill. Like the flu virus, it rapidly undergoes genetic modification, and thus defeats any immunity that may have developed in the population. Every year the news is full... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000557.html An enormous breakthrough. Research by Professor Ruth Itzhaki and her team at the University of Manchester confirms earlier suspicions about the role of the HSV1 virus as a cause of Alzheimer's disease. As reported in Science Daily and Slashdot, researchers in the University of Manchester have published research that suggests: "...that HSV1 (the Herpes cold sore virus) enters the brain... http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000549.html If you have every tried to help out with finding care for someone who is just returning home from a hospital stay, or for someone who has need of long term care within their home, you know how difficult it can be. Since patients are frequently discharged from the hospital before being fully recovered, it's often necessary to rapidly...