“What’d I miss?” – Week of June 27

As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.

– Toy Story 3 was #1 at the boxoffice again last weekend. It’s done a little over $200 million since opening. Yikes! Unfortunately I still haven’t had a chance to see it. Don’t expect it to be #1 this weekend as Twilight Eclipse hit the theaters on Thursday.

– I’ve mentioned Pixel Qi technology many, many times on this blog. I still don’t know when we will see a commercial product using the technology, but according to Engadget the Pixel Qi 10.1-inch display can be purchased as a kit and placed in your netbook if you’re up to the challenge. Cool, I love weekend projects. Update: The first batch of Pixel Qi kits is sold out. Bummer.

– In a press release on July 1, HP announced that they have completed their acquisition of Palm. This is very exciting news as it means the WebOS isn’t quite dead yet. And here’s the best part, “Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.” Let’s hope it doesn’t take too long to develop a slate PC using the WebOS.

– TUAW: “Oklahoma State University is the latest school to start setting students up with iPads. Starting this fall, a pilot program will give iPads to 125 students, and the university will monitor both how the device affects their learning and what their textbook costs turn out to be.” – It was bound to happen sooner or later. I wonder if any pharmacy schools will start “recommending” that their students purchase an iPad. It happened with the iPhone/iPod Touch. I suppose I can see the logic with a decision like this as the iPad really does make a nice device for carrying around thousands of pages of text in a compact package. In addition, it is well suited for video learning as well as entertainment, which we all know college students need. You can find more information on the pilot program here.

– From the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association “The results of our study [looking at scope, completeness, and accuracy of information found on osteosarcoma in Wikipedia] demonstrate that the quality of osteosarcoma-related information found in the English Wikipedia is good but inferior to the patient information provided by the NCI. Therefore, non-peer-reviewed commonly used websites offering health information, such as Wikipedia, should include links to more definitive sources, such as those maintained by the NCI and professional international organizations on healthcare treatments.” – I’ve said it before many times, Wikipedia is not a good resource for healthcare information.

– According to EMR Daily News financial incentives provided by the stimulus package should help boost the use of handheld computers in the healthcare industry. This makes sense as everyone is trying to figure out a way to go paperless. The only real way to do that is to go mobile , and that’s where smartphones, tablet PCs and devices like the iPad come in. The information at EMR Daily News is from a report at Kalorama Information called “Handhelds in Healthcare: The World Market for PDAs, Tablet PCs, Handheld Monitors & Scanners.” If you want to read the entire report it can be yours for the low, low price of $3995. Anyone just happen to have an extra copy lying around? No. Didn’t think so.

– Amazon has a new version of the Kindle DX . It’s available for pre-order now and should ship sometime around July 7. The new DX looks pretty snazzy. I’ve always liked the Kindle DX because it has a large screen, free 3G for downloading books, is easy on the eyes and only needs to be charged about once a week. I’m considering it.

– At least one person believes the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad can exist in harmony. According to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com “It’s really a different product category”. I would agree.

– “Shouldn’t we have have a single set of evidence-based rules that everyone in the country can use?” – John D. Halamka, MD, Life As A Healthcare CIO blog. Halamka is speaking specifically about rules designed for clinical decision support (CDS) systems. The simple answer is yes, we should have a single set of rules that everyone can use. According to the post, Anvita Health is working on a solution. ASHP has a similar initiative in one of their Pharmacy Informatics Section Advisory Groups (SAG). CDS systems are important pieces of technology that are often overlooked in the overall scheme of things.

– Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) is taking a beating lately. Healthcare IT News is reporting that a 2010 report from KLAS “finds that only 14 percent of all U.S. hospitals have achieved the expected 10 percent CPOE level required for stage 1 of meaningful use.” And John Poikonen over at RxInformatics posted on a report from The Leapfrog Group that “The simulations found that the hospitals’ CPOE systems on average failed to detect half of the routine medication orders and one-third of potentially fatal orders.” Look, it’s pretty simple. Build a crappy system and you’ll get crappy results. Build a great system and you’ll get great results. So, don’t build crappy system.

– If you want to know what’s going on with Android based devices be sure to check out Android Central. The site has lots of good information, including a podcast.

– Here’s neat video: The Apple Museum – 30 years in 2 minutes. The laptop development is particularly interesting.

– “It’s fun to watch the Android crowd talk about how stupid the iPhone crowd is, it really is. But, the iPhone is still the better consumer device.” Opinion from my brother, Robert, a true Apple fanboy. If you want to see what the average Apple fanboy mentality is watch this video on YouTube. Caution, the language in the video is pretty bad and there are lots of “f-bombs”.

– Speaking of the EVO vs. iPhone 4 video, it looks like the kid that made it might lose his job over the whole thing. Apparently the kid works at Best Buy and they didn’t like what he had to say. I’ve watched the video several times and can’t find a single reference to Best Buy. That just doesn’t seem right. Boo to you Best Buy.

– The official YouTube blog has a great article on Flash and the HTML5 video tag. It’s a very interesting read.

– CrunchGear has a basic review of the Viliv N5 Ultra Mini Mobile PC. This a great looking little device. Many people think I’m crazy, but the mini-clamshell design is something that’s needed. It fills a niche that the HP Jornada 720 series and the NEC MobilePro 900 series had cornered many years ago. Nothing beats a keyboard for text input.

– I don’t often use this blog to express my personal thoughts, but I think it is necessary today. So please feel free to skip this paragraph if you’re here for my normal rhetoric. On a serious note, my grandpa passed away this week after a short battle with cancer. He would have been 83 years old today, July 2, and he will be missed more than you can imagine. He was my father figure for the most impressionable years of my life as I was raised by him and my grandma due to some unfortunate circumstances. He taught me to love God, family and country and everything else would take care of itself. These lessons weren’t given in word, but in action and I try to live by them every day as he did. He always gave of himself, even at the end. His life should be celebrated as he touched more lives than one could have thought possible and had a positive impact on everyone that ever had the pleasure of meeting the man. We could all learn something from him. He was a tough man, but not hard. A heavy equipment mechanic and welder his entire life, he continued to work until just a few weeks prior to his death. You just can’t keep a good man down, which he demonstrated over and over again throughout his life. Someone told me last night that I was blessed to have had him as long as I did. I couldn’t agree more.

Have a great 4th of July everyone and be safe. Eat lots off BBQ and ice cream and have fun.