Yale Medical Students Get iPads

TUAW is reporting that medical students at Yale are all being issued iPads in an effort to reduce printing costs.

The program will distribute 520 iPads. If that sounds expensive, consider this: Dean Schwartz notes that the school spends about US$100,000 per year to copy, collate and distribute course materials. So far, he's spent about $600,000 on the iPad program. Within a few years, Schwartz notes, money saved on printing costs will pay for the initiative.

Anybody else using electronic distribution of materials to reduce photocopying costs?

Twitter Use in Higher Education

Have you ever experimented with Social Media in your teaching? A number of academicians incorporate Twitter in their course work.

The following are two great compilations of tips that can help a novice or an experienced user.

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/09/22/50-terrific-twitter-tutorials-for-teachers/

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2009/07/21/100-serious-twitter-tips-for-academics/

If you incorporate Twitter in your pharmacy courses, please share with us what you do.

Inkling 2.0 for the iPad

I've previously written about reviewing Pharmacotherapy on the iPad.  The company that created the platform for the book, Inkling, is preparing version 2.0 of it's textbook software for the iPad.  There is a video demonstration of the software available at GigaOM.

Papers 2 and Papers for the iPad

TUAW has an article about using the combination of Papers 2 and Papers for iOS to manage your collection of journal articles.

Papers 2 creates a database of references, grabbing their metadata from Pubmed, Google Scholar and directly from science repositories like Science Direct, and attaching the PDF files.

Papers for iOS syncs with the desktop version to transfer your journal article collection with your iPad.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a Windows version, so I'm afraid I'm going to be missing out.  

Hackers Hijack Websites In Online Pharmacy Scam

Somewhat related to the previous post is a report on NPR about hackers redirecting search engine results to illicit online drug sellers.

Hackers work the scam by sneaking their own code into a legitimate website. That way the site shows up on a Web search for a prescription drug. If someone clicks on the search listing, it forwards them to an online pharmacy, not to the legitimate site. The owners of the hacked site usually have no inkling their URL has been hijacked.

The image in the blog shows a link to the University of Massachusetts being redirected to a site that sells Cialis for $3.30 each.

Google pays $500 million for selling illegal prescription advertising

Here's something for my colleagues who teach pharmaceutical marketing.

The New York Times has a summary of the $500 million settlement that Google reached with the federal government regarding charges that Google had "knowingly shown illegal ads for fraudulent Canadian pharmacies in the United States".

Illegal online pharmacies have been a challenge for regulators, because the Internet makes it easy for them to operate under the radar and emerge under different names when they get shut down.

There are some comments in the discussion section that suggest that

"These so-called 'illegal' pharmacies exist purely because the cost of pharmaceuticals are artificially, ridiculously (and intentionally) high-priced in the U.S. If the costs were more equitable the online pharmacies could not compete and it then becomes an automatic non-issue."

What do you think?

MakeUseOf Guide to Best iPad Apps

In preparation for the upcoming school year you and your students might be looking at some new mobile devices.

MakeUseOf created a nice guide to best iPad applications - many of them are free or relatively inexpensive. http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-ipad-apps

If you are already using an iPad, what are your favorite applications? (for your personal and/or professional use)

Researcher Hacks Insulin Pump

Well, this is worrisome.

A computer security expert who has diabetes discovered that he was able to hack his own insulin pump and remotely send it signals to give incorrect doses.  Apparently, there are no systems in the pump that would require authentication of signals that are sent to it.

“My initial reaction was that this was really cool from a technical perspective,” Radcliffe told the Associated Press. “The second reaction was one of maybe sheer terror, to know that there’s no security around the devices which are a very active part of keeping me alive.”

Two lawmakers have asked the General Accountability Office to investigate the matter.

Best Ebook Reader for Scientific Papers?

There is a discussion over at Slashdot about which e-reader is best for scientific papers.

Many of the opinions favor the iPad while others debate the pros and cons of using a Kindle or a Nook to view articles.

Do you read journal articles on a tablet or e-reader?   What works and what doesn't?

Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Shut Down Facebook Pages

The Washington Post is reporting that several pharmaceutical manufacturers are choosing to shut down Facebook pages rather than comply with new rules that state that they have to allow user to post comments on the "walls" of pages devoted to particular disease states and patient communities.

The industry is concerned that users might write about bad side effects, promote off-label use or make inappropriate statements about a product, and that the comments could raise concerns from government regulators.

Facebook will continue to allow companies to block comments on pages related to specific prescription products.

Epidermal Electronic "Tattoo" Collects Biomedical Data

A research team at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and has developed a type of electronic sensor that is applied to the skin much like a temporary tattoo.

We report classes of electronic systems that achieve thicknesses, effective elastic moduli, bending stiffnesses, and areal mass densities matched to the epidermis. Unlike traditional wafer-based technologies, laminating such devices onto the skin leads to conformal contact and adequate adhesion based on van der Waals interactions alone, in a manner that is mechanically invisible to the user. We describe systems incorporating electrophysiological, temperature, and strain sensors, as well as transistors, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, radio frequency inductors, capacitors, oscillators, and rectifying diodes. Solar cells and wireless coils provide options for power supply. We used this type of technology to measure electrical activity produced by the heart, brain, and skeletal muscles and show that the resulting data contain sufficient information for an unusual type of computer game controller.

The research is published in the journal Science.

What pharmacy-related uses can you see for such technology?


Gary Theilman
University of Mississippi

New in AJPE This Month

Computer-based Simulation Training to Improve Learning Outcomes in Mannequin-based Simulation Exercises

Lindsay B. Curtin, PharmD, Laura A. Finn, Quinn A. Czosnowski, PharmD, Craig B. Whitman, PharmD, and Michael J. Cawley, PharmD

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, University of the Sciences


Objective. To assess the impact of computer-based simulation on the achievement of student learning outcomes during mannequin-based simulation.

Design. Participants were randomly assigned to rapid response teams of 5-6 students and then teams were randomly assigned to either a group that completed either computer-based or mannequin-based simulation cases first. In both simulations, students used their critical thinking skills and selected interventions independent of facilitator input.

Assessment. A predetermined rubric was used to record and assess students' performance in the mannequin-based simulations. Feedback and student performance scores were generated by the software in the computer-based simulations. More of the teams in the group that completed the computer-based simulation before completing the mannequin-based simulation achieved the primary outcome for the exercise, which was survival of the simulated patient (41.2% vs. 5.6%). The majority of students (>90%) recommended the continuation of simulation exercises in the course. Students in both groups felt the computer-based simulation should be completed prior to the mannequin-based simulation.

Conclusion. The use of computer-based simulation prior to mannequin-based simulation improved the achievement of learning goals and outcomes. In addition to improving participants' skills, completing the computer-based simulation first may improve participants' confidence during the more real-life setting achieved in the mannequin-based simulation.


Lindsay B. Curtin, Laura A. Finn, Quinn A. Czosnowski, Craig B. Whitman and Michael J. Cawley (2011). Computer-based Simulation Training to Improve Learning Outcomes in Mannequin-based Simulation Exercises. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education: Volume 75, Issue 6, Article 113.



Gary Theilman
University of Mississippi

Pharmacy Textbooks through Facebook

Kno is a publisher of electronic textbooks and has a few pharmacy-related titles in their catalog.

According to Techcrunch, Kno had originally developed their own e-reader but decided to forego it in favor of the an iPad app.  What caught my eye is that they also offer reading textbooks through Facebook.

I signed up for the Kno application through Facebook to see what it looked like.  Within Facebook the student is given a menu which includes links to all the textbooks they have purchased.   Clicking on the title of the textbook opens an external browser window that loads Kno's web-based reader.  

You could also launch the web-based reader directly from Kno's website.   At present, several features are labeled "Beta" and it appears to be a work-in-progress.

What do you think about using Facebook as an entry portal for textbooks and other class materials?

Outsourcing grading to a computer?

There was a very interesting article today on The Chronicle's web site about outsourcing grading, possibly even to a computer. What do you think about this development? The arguments for are that it makes assessment entirely merit-based, as graders have no preconceived notions of who the students are or what their capabilities are -- they just see their work and evaluate more neutrally. Thoughts?

EHR on the iPad

dr chrono is an electronic health record app for the iPad.   


An interesting thing about the app is that it has been certified under the HITECH Act for "Meaningful Use" which makes it's users eligible for financial incentives from the government.   The website claims that physicians can receive up to $44,000 if they start using the app.

Free Textbook Chapters from inkling

inkling is a platform for publishing textbooks on the iPad.   I had some exposure to the platform earlier this year when I reviewed a preview chapter of DiPiro's "Pharmacotherapy" on the iPad.


inkling is making available several free preview chapters for their textbooks (it doesn't look like "Pharmacotherapy" is available, yet).   Here's a few links to books that have free preview chapters


Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology

Essential Clinical Anatomy

Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry

Using iPads interactively in the classroom

There's a short story and video about a pharmacy school in Australia which custom-built a classroom to enable interaction between faculty and students using iPads.


Those schools that require/encourage their students to have tablet computers:   What are you having them do with them?