November 28, 2006
Dentists Seeking Information via Google
Here is a very interesting study about dentists and how they use Google (and other information resources), right on the heels of the recent BMJ study of doctors using Google for diagnosing difficult cases.
Landry, Carol Fay. Work roles, tasks, and the information behavior of dentists. JASIST December 2006 57(14):1896-1908.
Link for UM patrons
"Developing an information framework is one technique dentists have applied to their seeking strategies. ... Google was favored by study participants as the means to develop this type of framework."
"Textbooks were the preferred source for the patient management/service provider task, professional associations were favored for CDE/student and patient education/educator tasks, vendors and sales representatives were first for the practice management/administrator task, and colleagues and journals were chosen for the research task."
"Although dentists continue to rely on traditional sources for their authority and accessibility, the Internet has emerged as an important adjunct in the information process because of its convenience and accessibility and the belief in the currency of found information. ... However, despite its ability to provide information quickly and conveniently, the Internet is not considered by dentists to be without flaws. Irrelevant, promotional, and questionable information flourish online. Recognizing these limitations allows one to consider the Internet a tool to augment rather than replace traditional information sources. Cross-referencing and framework building illustrate these findings. Still, the Internet is not embraced by all. An underlying current suggests that maintaining a personal connection with people remains important to a segment of this population and should not be ignored."
Posted by pfa at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2006
High Tech Toothbrushing
Today at WordSpy, they highlighted a new phrase for the techno-weary -- "feature fatigue". This means, in short, that customers and patients are burned out by too many options, choices, and gizmos.
Word Spy: Feature Fatigue: http://www.wordspy.com/words/featurefatigue.asp
What captured my attention was that the primary example given is that of a toothbrush that is so complicated it is sold with a DVD to give instructions on how to use it. Was it really true? It must be, or they wouldn't say so, would they? So I looked, and I found it.
Goodman, Ellen. The complexification of the toothbrush: Technologies for making life more difficult. Washington Post Writers Group, 05.26.06: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=20870
This entertaining article ends with a great couple lines: "Now I am sure that somewhere there is an engineer creating a toothbrush with an LCD, an MP3 player and the capacity to instant message from my mouth to yours. Beware, the feature creep is coming to a molar near you."
For the curious, the toothbrush in question is the Intelliclean System, www.intellicleansystem.com/
Now while I was searching for a toothbrush with its own DVD, I found a lot more about toothbrushes and DVDs, mostly old classic movie snips with some newer films. I had no idea there were so many films with toothbrushes as prominent aspects of the plot or title. Here are a few for your entertainment, and you can find more at IMDB (over 4,000 pages were listed).
The Toothbrush (1918)
The Old Family Toothbrush (1925)
The Toothbrush Family (1999)
Don't Forget Your Toothbrush (1994, 1995 and 2000)
The Brothers Grunt (1994) has a toothbrush-obsessed criminal; Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932) has a young man stranded on a deserted island with a toothbrush and a young woman; Boogeyman II has death by toothbrush; Goldie Hawn cleans the bathroom with an electric toothbrush in Private Benjamin (1980); and who can forget the great toothbrushing scene in Home Alone (1990)? There is even a movie called toothbrush in Slovenian -- Scetka (1999). Who'd have thought ...
Posted by pfa at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2006
Rollyo: Search Like an Expert
I have been playing with a new-to-me folksonomy tool. Rollyo stands for "roll your own search engine." The idea, as I understand it, is that an expert in any area quickly finds that they are going to the same sites over and over again. Rollyo allows you to collect a group of sites that are your favorites for a specific type of task, and then search them all at once. It limits you to 25 sites in a list.
Here are a few examples I've put together. The first one selected reputable consumer health information sources to search for information for dental patients. The second one searches vendors selling historic and out-of-print medical and dental books. The third one searches free fulltext books online for the word, phrase, or concept of your choosing. I use this to find curious quotes to enliven my professional presentations and publications.
Rollyo: pfa: Dental Consumer Health Search Engine: http://rollyo.com/pfa/dental_consumer_health/
Rollyo: pfa: Antiquarian Medical Books: http://rollyo.com/pfa/antiquarian_medical_books/
Rollyo: pfa: Do-It-Yourself Quotations from Original Sources: http://rollyo.com/pfa/diy_quotes_from_sources/
Just imagine what you could do! I promise you, I'll be doing more of these, and will share those relevant to the dental community.
Posted by pfa at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2006
Museum of Osteology (and More)
Planning your summer vacation? Check out the Museum of Osteology:
http://www.museumofosteology.org/
Right now, they are still a mostly virtual presence, but their web site shows many photos of exhibits in progress. They hope to be open to the public soon, hopefully by summer.
While they are in development, you might wish to visit these osteology resources instead.
Forensic Anthropology and Human Osteology Resources: http://www.forensicanthro.com/forensic-resources/
Human Osteology (University of Utah, V. Craigle): http://medlib.med.utah.edu/kw/osteo/osteology/
National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian): Osteology, Hall of Bones: http://www.mnh.si.edu/museum/VirtualTour/Tour/Second/Bones/index.html
Virtual Skeleton: Human Osteology: http://www.uwyo.edu/RealLearning/4210qtvr.html
Posted by pfa at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)