Hospitals are using social networking sites to teach and share information about operations.
For example in Detroit last month, surgeons talked medical students through complicated brain surgery, posting instant communications on Twitter.
Sherman Hospital in Illinois posted live updates on Twitter and Facebook of a cutting-edge procedure--a hysterectomy performed using a robot. The hospital wanted to give future potential patients a window into how it worked. Social networking sites provided the audience.
The Mayo Clinic takes social networking seriously. It held a "Tweet Camp" this week to teach doctors and nurses about Twitter, Facebook and other networking sites. It also employs a manager, of syndication and social media. It's Lee Aase's job to handle online outreach.
Aase said, "A big part of our philosophy is go where the people are. So we're using YouTube to put our videos where people are looking for videos. We're using Flickr to put photos where people are looking for photos."
Article: http://kstp.com/news/stories/S882946.shtml?cat=1
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Hospital Bed of the Future?
The LifeBed senses and reports heart and respiratory rates with no wires connected to the patient. Sensors in the zip-on, washable mattress cover provide continuous heart and respiratory rate data. Nothing attaches to the patient. A monitor sits next to the bed and picks up the signals. Hoana presets defaults, but nurses can easily program the sensors to alarm at rates specific to their patients. “We have caught someone going into atrial fibrillation, that we had checked vital signs on an hour before,” Kamikawa said. “It’s an early warning system.”
Hoana received Food and Drug Administration approval for the LifeBed in 2006 and has sold or leased the beds to hospitals and other inpatient facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom. “It’s a great tool for the med-surg nurse, to help them monitor the patients when they can’t be in there,” Martinez said. “You can go back and trend things.” The nurse can assess what the alert was for and how many times it activated. “It gives a heads up to subtle changes in condition,” added Sonia Collazo, RN, MSN, a former nurse manager on a post-ICU unit at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, Florida, that uses the beds. “It gives you extra awareness that something is happening.” “It allows the nurse to be more involved in the early recognition of patients that are starting to fail,” said Heather Herdman, RN, Ph.D., chief operating officer of Hoana. “It provides data that brings the nurse to the bedside.” Herdman hopes the data, especially early respiratory changes, will help nurses and physicians prevent severe conditions that could be missed. “We see it as a safeguard for the nurse and the patient,” Herdman said. The LifeBed also has a bed exit alarm, with three push-button settings for patients at different fall risk. At high risk, the bed will alert if the patient lifts his or her head or shoulders off the bed. For moderate risk patients, it waits until the patient sits up and for low risk it delays issuing an alarm until the patient actually exits the bed. Loved ones or the nurse can program the device to play a personalized, prerecorded message to get back into bed and wait for the nurse. “It’s very helpful for Alzheimer’s patients or the elderly,” Herdman said. “They hear a human voice, saying ‘I’m coming to get you,’ and they will stop and wait.” Martinez said patients do not feel or see the sensors. Once the patient understands the system, she said, “it makes them feel more secure and safe.”
View Full Article at http://www.nursezone.com/Nursing-News-Events/devices-and-technology/Mattress-Monitors-Patients’-Vital-Signs_29448.aspx
Hoana received Food and Drug Administration approval for the LifeBed in 2006 and has sold or leased the beds to hospitals and other inpatient facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom. “It’s a great tool for the med-surg nurse, to help them monitor the patients when they can’t be in there,” Martinez said. “You can go back and trend things.” The nurse can assess what the alert was for and how many times it activated. “It gives a heads up to subtle changes in condition,” added Sonia Collazo, RN, MSN, a former nurse manager on a post-ICU unit at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, Florida, that uses the beds. “It gives you extra awareness that something is happening.” “It allows the nurse to be more involved in the early recognition of patients that are starting to fail,” said Heather Herdman, RN, Ph.D., chief operating officer of Hoana. “It provides data that brings the nurse to the bedside.” Herdman hopes the data, especially early respiratory changes, will help nurses and physicians prevent severe conditions that could be missed. “We see it as a safeguard for the nurse and the patient,” Herdman said. The LifeBed also has a bed exit alarm, with three push-button settings for patients at different fall risk. At high risk, the bed will alert if the patient lifts his or her head or shoulders off the bed. For moderate risk patients, it waits until the patient sits up and for low risk it delays issuing an alarm until the patient actually exits the bed. Loved ones or the nurse can program the device to play a personalized, prerecorded message to get back into bed and wait for the nurse. “It’s very helpful for Alzheimer’s patients or the elderly,” Herdman said. “They hear a human voice, saying ‘I’m coming to get you,’ and they will stop and wait.” Martinez said patients do not feel or see the sensors. Once the patient understands the system, she said, “it makes them feel more secure and safe.”
View Full Article at http://www.nursezone.com/Nursing-News-Events/devices-and-technology/Mattress-Monitors-Patients’-Vital-Signs_29448.aspx
Nurse Launches Program to Ensure No Patient Dies Alone
By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
Ideally, people will pass from life to death surrounded by loved ones or a nurse but, often times, patients lack friends and family willing or able to stay with them. And nurses are often too busy these days to sit with a terminally ill patient. In an effort to ensure that patients make the journey in the presence of a caring person, a number of hospitals around the country have launched No One Dies Alone or compassionate companion programs. “It’s extremely important to patients,” said Lori Caldwell, RN, BSN, an occupational health nurse and a No One Dies Alone volunteer at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. “A lot of us involved in the program sense this as a moment in a person’s existence that is best to be with someone, even if it’s a stranger. It’s someone who cares. Nursing staff would love to be at the bedside continuously during the dying experience but, time wise, often can’t. We are volunteers who step into that role.” Mission began its program in 2007. The volunteers, many from the hospital’s spiritual care service but also from other departments, stay three or four hours with the dying person and may play soft music or hold the patient’s hand. “It’s a very unique experience for everyone,” said Caldwell, describing it as moving for the volunteer. “Those of us who volunteer have a sense we can assist people and be there during those moments.” The volunteers receive eight weeks of training about the need for self-awareness when working with dying individuals and families, the impact of cultural factors, individual needs as death approaches, spiritual issues and advanced directives. They commit to meet with the patient at least weekly through the course of the person’s illness or until family members arrive. The hospital offers the volunteers ongoing support and meets with them on a regular basis.
View Full Article at :http://www.nursezone.com/Nursing-News-Events/more-news/Nurse-Launches-Program-to-Ensure-No-Patient-Dies-Alone_29616.aspx
For this Program to be available in the future to everyone would make the idea of dying especially alone less scary for those facing death.
Ideally, people will pass from life to death surrounded by loved ones or a nurse but, often times, patients lack friends and family willing or able to stay with them. And nurses are often too busy these days to sit with a terminally ill patient. In an effort to ensure that patients make the journey in the presence of a caring person, a number of hospitals around the country have launched No One Dies Alone or compassionate companion programs. “It’s extremely important to patients,” said Lori Caldwell, RN, BSN, an occupational health nurse and a No One Dies Alone volunteer at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. “A lot of us involved in the program sense this as a moment in a person’s existence that is best to be with someone, even if it’s a stranger. It’s someone who cares. Nursing staff would love to be at the bedside continuously during the dying experience but, time wise, often can’t. We are volunteers who step into that role.” Mission began its program in 2007. The volunteers, many from the hospital’s spiritual care service but also from other departments, stay three or four hours with the dying person and may play soft music or hold the patient’s hand. “It’s a very unique experience for everyone,” said Caldwell, describing it as moving for the volunteer. “Those of us who volunteer have a sense we can assist people and be there during those moments.” The volunteers receive eight weeks of training about the need for self-awareness when working with dying individuals and families, the impact of cultural factors, individual needs as death approaches, spiritual issues and advanced directives. They commit to meet with the patient at least weekly through the course of the person’s illness or until family members arrive. The hospital offers the volunteers ongoing support and meets with them on a regular basis.
View Full Article at :http://www.nursezone.com/Nursing-News-Events/more-news/Nurse-Launches-Program-to-Ensure-No-Patient-Dies-Alone_29616.aspx
For this Program to be available in the future to everyone would make the idea of dying especially alone less scary for those facing death.
Sniper
Snipers are often legendary in their own right, and you can tell that it is a popular role for glory hunters in the virtual world as gamers take pride in their "sniping ability" over a computer with the mouse and keyboard being their equipment of choice to take down digitized avatars of opponents from afar. Well, the real world works on a totally different scale, and the US Army hopes to lay the smack down in future wars with their Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS). This system is actually a .338-caliber rifle mounted to the bottom of a Vigilante unmanned helicopter, where a modified Xbox 360 game contoller will then be used to target your subject, letting you do the dirty job without having to step foot outside of the barracks. Eerie.
Future weapon
Being a cop has never been more attractive, despite the current perks of donut and coffee discounts around the precinct. Popular Science have outdone themselves by thinking up a list of essential tools that all cops should arm themselves with in order to maintain law and order throughout the country effectively. The machine gun featured above stands out from the entire bunch, boasting the ability to shoot up to 700 rounds of pepper-spray pellets in a single minute, creating eye-stinging clouds up to 200 feet away almost instantly. This is definitely more fun than a water cannon when it comes to crowd control, and you get to make people cry literally.
Future Technolgy
When we were young officers we liked to hear stories from the old heads of what police work was like in their rookie years. Then we would imagine what police work would be like when we were about to retire. I dreamed of finally ditching the archaic, costly, yet not functional, traditional uniforms for new ones that were functional and comfortable. One thing most officers agreed would happen before we retired was that each officer would have a button camera that would audio and video record everything we did during a shift. Although we hated thinking of big brother watching over us, we figured it was inevitable. Well, that time is closer than ever with the TASER AXON.
Tarkington Elementary School
The Tarkington Elementary School in Chicago, is a state of the art "Green" school.
It features large windows made of recycled glass to allow in the daylight and wood that was harvested from controlled forests. The materials were all purchased from vendors in a 500 mile radius.
The roof of the building is a roof garden filled with drought resistant plants which aid in insulation.
To read more check out this link http://www.govtech.com/gt/260565?topic=117691
The Future?
***
***************************Is this the Future of Education and the Future of School Buses?
Hybrid School Buses
http://www.govtech.com/gt/260565?topic=117691Click on the link above to see how the Indiana Department of Education joined with a local company to convert an existing school bus into a hybrid vehicle. This is the first bus of its type. Hopefully the trend will continue.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Financial News
More on Green Accounting
An Australian IT expert Bruce McCabe will spend $600 billion on Green Accounting. Looks like this will be a very hot topic for the future of accounting professions. Read more at www.energytechstocks.com/wp/?p=1017
Accounting
The Future of Accounting
The website below will talk about the online accounting and the way accountants will work, the transaction and data exchange, community on the Internet, mobile computing, and environmental movement on the roll.
visit www.cloudave.com/link/the-future-of-accounting
The website below will talk about the online accounting and the way accountants will work, the transaction and data exchange, community on the Internet, mobile computing, and environmental movement on the roll.
visit www.cloudave.com/link/the-future-of-accounting
Hot on Green
Green Accounting
With more pressure on companies to show their green credentials, environmental accounting might well become one of the hot jobs of the future.Here is a good summary of what it entails. Essentially, it's about risk management, collecting and analyzing information on materials flows and pollution controls for the company's executives, reporting to investors and regulators and analyzing how natural resources are used and how the company's environmental impact is being managed.At this stage, it's a very new area. There are no no academic programs focusing on environmental accounting, and there is no professional credential for the specialty. But that could change as business and regulators become more environmentally focused
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