Finally, what took them so long? Now you can play games in the palm of your hand.

We present Skinput, a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as a finger input surface. In particular, we resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always-available, naturally-portable, and on-body interactive surface. To illustrate the potential of our approach, we developed several proof-of-concept applications on top of our sensing and classification system.

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Who retires gracefully, who adjusts to retirement easily and who doesn’t. Which personality traits play a part in successful retirement?
The five factor model of personality or the Big Five can be used to see how personality traits are linked to how people adjust to retirement. It has been done in the past for other life transitions.

The researchers not only used the Big Five but also the Satisfaction with Life Scale and questionnaires devised to measure reasons for retirement and the quality of experiences in retirement. These questionnaires were all part of an online survey on which 365 individuals responded, of whom 86 were close to retirement and 279 were already retired.

From this research extraversion was found to relate to life satisfaction while still at work but not during retirement. Extraversion seems to be less adaptive when retired. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness promote satisfaction after retirement not before. Neuroticism is the strongest related to life satisfaction both before and after retirement.

Individuals with high Neuroticism are prone to negatively appraising their life situation, and so the trait may be a cause of low satisfaction, while dispositional Neuroticism can be elevated by difficult life events and so higher levels may be an effect of a stressful retirement

These findings are from an observational study so cause and effect relations can not be found with this design, we’re in need of a longitudinal within subject design, meaning to evaluate people before and after retirement in order to find a cause effect relationship.

Why is this important?
People approaching retirement could be given a personality test that could provide information on how to cope with retirement and identify those at risk for a difficult retirement.

Robinson, O., Demetre, J., & Corney, R. (2010). Personality and retirement: Exploring the links between the Big Five personality traits, reasons for retirement and the experience of being retired Personality and Individual Differences DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.014

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Both the hidden and informal curriculum take place after or next to the theoretical teaching, the formal teaching and has an important part in the shaping of the medical students’ professionalism and professional values. Moreover, these forms of the curriculum have a major impact on the learning potential of med students. Yet little is known about this subject. A lot has been written but only from a theoretical stand point. I’ve written about the hidden and informal curriculum in a previous post. Most of the research to date has been generally focused on the undergraduate and graduate medical curricula in general. This time we’ll talk about the formal, informal, and hidden curricula of a psychiatry clerkship.

During clerkship medical students are confronted the most with the informal and hidden curriculum. In this research the researchers conducted six focus groups , four with medical students during their psychiatry rotation, one with psychiatry residents and one with teaching faculty of the psychiatry department.

After providing several examples of the kinds of curriculum phenomena we sought to identify, we asked participants a series of open-ended questions designed to prompt thinking about how they perceived and experienced the various enactments of the formal, informal, and hidden curricula reflected in the teaching environment of the psychiatry department.

Results
The formal curriculum during psychiatry clerkship was mostly perceived by all three groups besides the formal curriculum as the time with high value placed on building relationships with patients. All three groups didn’t distinguish between the informal and hidden curriculum (the informal curriculum “is the process by which a learner’s knowledge and skills become situated in the context of daily work”, hidden curriculum, which includes the ideological and subliminal messages of both the formal and informal curricula).

All three groups were similar in their perceptions of the formal curriculum. Which is amazing when you think of it. The attendings were the role models with the most significant influence on the students and residents belief about the practice of psychiatry. For students the most influential role models were the attendings, more than residents. Students and residents had no trouble in distinguishing positive and negative role models.

Similarly, all three suggested that elements of the informal and hidden curricula were expressed primarily as the values arising from attendings’ role modeling, as the nature and amount of time attendings spend with patients, and as attendings’ advice arising from experience and intuition versus “textbook learning.”

This again proves the importance of increasing the number of role model physicians in medical education. This again proofs that medical education is in need of full time faculty members with good professional qualities performing interaction with patients in the presence of students and residents. They should be devoted to teaching students and residents. But who will pay for their precious time?

Wear D, & Skillicorn J (2009). Hidden in plain sight: the formal, informal, and hidden curricula of a psychiatry clerkship. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 84 (4), 451-8 PMID: 19318777

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During a wedding the oxytocine of those involved in the wedding party rises, the testosterone level of only the groom rises, naughty, naughty. Watch this video and find out why people like to have a wedding.

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For 40 years, the choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo has captured the hearts and minds of people around the world, including former South African President, Nelson Mandela

Also see Nelson Mandela’s Life and Leadership

Twenty years after his release from prison, a look at the career of the world’s great hero. Narrated by TIME’s Managing Editor, Rick Stengel

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Couldn’t resist, phenomenal clip, imagine all the timing and work to make this exhibition and even the music is OK. Hilarious.

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs. Produced by Shirley Moyers. The official video for the recorded version of “This Too Shall Pass” off of the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”. The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Synn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.

It’s a so called Rube Goldberg machine. It’s a deliberately over engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg. Since then, the expression has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system such as this one.

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I was a great fan of Google Notebook but Google decided to drop the development of Google Notebook. I used it mostly for blogging. It’s integration with Firefox made it an easy to use tool for saving links, web pages and blogposts. At the beginning of the previous year I decided to give Evernote a try and I was very satisfied with this capture tool. You can sync your evernotes with all your devices, even with the iphone. It’s integration with Firefox is smooth.

Recently found a better alternative reducing the time to save links etc. with another click less and as such more comparable to Google Notebook: Read It Later. It’s faster than Evernote, because especially in Windows Evernote has to start up, you have to approve each note and tag it if wanted. Read it later is also an onlineservice but you can also save your notes directly in your browser, add ons are available for all the major browser platforms. You can also read it on any device such as iphone. Articles are saved text-only or with images, and formatted for easy reading. You can also read your notes off line.

Read It Later Digest as shown in this video below, analyzes all of the articles in your list and automatically groups them into topics. Simply put, it is like having folders in your list, but Read It Later takes care of sorting them for you.

Makes saving web pages, links and posts a breeze.

Thanks Lifehacking.nl

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Medical Schools or medical education is mainly done in universities. Medical education in universities especially undergraduate education in North America as well as in Europe are full with very basic science such as chemistry, physics, but also laboratory branches such as biochemical education. I can still remember long afternoons using a pipette in endless rows of test tubes. Scientific research is also integrated in Med Schools. Even community based schools are strongly connected with universities.

This model stems from the beginning of the previous century. Obviously medical education liaised with the universities has many benefits, the close partnership results in a scientific approach and early adaption of scientific discoveries in the medical curricula. But medical education is also about training good professionals as well as good communicators. The modern physician also needs knowledge about prevention, medical decision making, ethics and cultural competence to name a few. This kind of knowledge needed by modern physicians is very different from the knowledge learned in basic sciences taught during medical education.

The solution to this problem is according to some authors:

A richer, broader education that can be achieved through more flexible and individualized paths to the MD and facilitated by realizing medical schools’ full academic citizenship in the university.

This proposal for more individual learner-centered education is the new buzz in medical education. Medical students should have the opportunity to follow their intellectual curiosity about phenomena of illness and disease, their understanding of the human condition, and their exploration of the many other disciplines that relate to medicine and the life sciences.

Students might explore issues of stigma or disability, or the economics of health care. Those interested in pediatrics could study the history of childhood, cross-cultural breastfeeding practices, or public policy that affects children’s health. The possibilities are legion, and few (geology, perhaps?) are irrelevant to clinical practice, medical research, or the societal contributions of the profession.

The main problem is the fact that medical curricula are all ready overcrowded with required content. This limits the pursuit of individualized interests and learning goals. The solution to this problem from the authors of one of the recent publications on this subject is the adaptation of the medical curriculum to the need of the medical student. Those wanting to become a surgeon can have different needs with more procedural and technical skills than those becoming a psychiatrist.

Psychiatry medical student education e.g. should consist of three subsets in addition to a core curriculum. A track for students bound to become primary care physicians. This curriculum would include more detailed knowledge and skills in assessment and actual treatment of straightforward presentations of common mental disorders. Another track for them interested in neuroscience research. This should consist of the core curriculum and additional emphasis on neuroscience electives and research throughout the course of medical school. The last track is for those aiming at becoming psychiatrists. They should broaden their knowledge and skills in other fields since this could be their last available opportunity before becoming a psychiatrist.

The new medical education should be broader and more personalized with flexible and individualized paths to the MD. Choices should be made also during clerkship towards future interests, but how many students already know what they want to be. To my opinion very few, what do you think?. These are just a few options mentioned in the articles discussed. To me the personalized view on medical education was the most interesting part and important overlap between the discussed articles.

Curry RH, & Montgomery K (2010). Toward a liberal education in medicine. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 85 (2), 283-7 PMID: 20107358
Thornhill JT 4th, & Tong L (2006). From Yoda to Sackett: the future of psychiatry medical student education. Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 30 (1), 23-8 PMID: 16473990

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Healthtalkonline is a website with a lot of information from the point of view of the patient on a lot of diseases. Both mental and physical health. I tried their information on depression. They interviewed 38 people about their experiences of this condition. This resulted in a whole list of topics. Stories about discovery of depression, how to negotiate with the health system (doctors included), self care, support, and living with depression and discovery. Awesome information for patients and their relatives. The information is presented very clearly mostly with video interviews of patients. Saw an interview on video of a women who

Wanted her GP (who was also a friend) to notice her problem, but was worried that if she told him how she was feeling he might judge her badly.

Many more videos to see about this and other topics. An enormous database of very valuable information for patients with all kind of ailments and diseases.

The information on Healthtalkonline is based on qualitative research into patient experiences, led by experts at the University of Oxford. These personal stories of health and illness will enable patients, families and healthcare professionals to benefit from the experiences of others.

There’s also a similar website for younger patients, adolescents, called youthhealthtalk.org

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Her mind works like Google for pictures. Nice introduction to autism in it’s different forms, the autism spectrum disorder, does DSM V already have this one?

Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works — sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

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