Musculoskeletal and Orthopaedic MRI blog

Another radiology blog, this one dealing with musculoskeletal/orthopaedic MRI:
http://musculoskeletalmri.blogspot.com/.

I came across this on Sumer's blog.

PostureMinder: Automatic posture monitoring for workstations

I came across this product in a PC magazine.

PostureMinder uses any standard, off-the-shelf webcam to continually check your posture while you work. If you slump or lean consistently for a minute or two at a time, the software detects this and provides an an on-screen reminder to help you avoid spending long periods in these damaging postures.

I've not seen or tried it but it's had a good review in PC Advisor.

A useful add-on for your PACS workstation? It's only £29.

http://www.postureminder.co.uk/

The website also has some good links to ergonomics sites.

Hand Hygiene

Hand washing to prevent infection transmission is a hot topic in our hospital. Only last week we had a talk from our infection control nurse. Now I see it's the subject of an editorial in Radiology.

It's worth reading (link to article below).

The most interesting bit for me was on how to avoid skin irritation, which has been shown in studies to be a real and widespread problem.

It is important to avoid such side effects of frequent hand washing, in part because they can reduce compliance and also because fissures and lesions on damaged hands are more susceptible to colonization by microorganisms, thereby fostering transmission. Multiple steps can be taken to minimize skin irritation associated with hand hygiene.

• First, a hand-friendly hygiene agent should be readily available. Alcohol-based hand rubs containing emollients are better tolerated by health care personnel than plain soap or antimicrobial soap alone.
• Second, health care workers need to be reminded of the value of regular frequent use of hand-care products such as hand lotions or creams. In one study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis, scheduled use of an oil-containing lotion improved skin condition and led to a 50% increase in hand
  washing frequency among health care personnel who initially suffered from long-standing hand irritation.
• Routine hand washing with soap and water after using an alcohol-based rub can lead to dermatitis and should be avoided.
  

Hand Hygiene Lisa R. Delaney, and Richard B. Gunderman Radiology 2008;246:15-19

GE launches health IT educational programme

According to an article in Health Imaging News,

GE Healthcare has created a vendor-independent educational program designed specifically for biomedical and technical professionals to enhance their knowledge of IT concepts for healthcare.

It was a bit difficult to get more details about the course itself, but here's the GE site: http://www.gehealthcare.com/hcit. It turns out that the courses are all held in the USA.

While searching, I came across an interesting Healthcare IT blog, run by Adam Chee in Singapore:
www.binaryhealthcare.com, to which I've added a link on this site.

Radiopaedia.org 2.0

This looks really good. In the words of the creator of this site,

The aim of Radiopaedia.org is to develop an online text where information is up to date and relevant to the needs of radiology staff, both registrars and consultants. In addition, the wiki format will allow discussion of topics and resolution of areas of confusion. There are many worthwhile online resources already, however most are not collaborative and therefore lack the ability to respond to users needs.
Anyone can create an article. Anyone can edit an existing one. Contributions remain logged to your name, and can be included in your CV, along with a link to your User Page.
Due to the immediacy of editing, new information can be introduced immediately when it becomes available. Errors can be corrected immediately, with no need to wait for the next edition.

Among other things there's a useful section on "Staging etc". Check it out:

http://www.radiopaedia.org/

radRounds

I received an invitation to join radRounds, a new radiology social networking site, a bit like Facebook, founded by Steven Chan, a radiologist in New York State. The main purpose is "sharing one's interests, expertise, and connections with others". It looks quite good, and I've signed up. At present there are only a handful of UK members, but the site is still in its infancy. Have a look.

www.radrounds.com