CarePages – Erlanger’s Own Web 2.0 Tool for Patients

Erlanger now offers a great Web 2.0 tool for connecting our patients to their families and friends. CarePages is a service that creates free, easy-to-use Web pages that help family and friends communicate when a loved one is receiving care. In simple terms, CarePages, through Erlanger’s partner Revolution Health, can change a patient’s healthcare experience. CarePages will create a virtual meeting place on the Web where people can share news and photos as often as needed. Erlanger has good company in the use of CarePages. Other medical facilities that use this system include the Cleveland Clinic, UCLA Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, and the City of Hope.

When a loved one is hospitalized or receiving care, it can be difficult to communicate the situation to all those who might care be concerned. With CarePages, updates are shared via email automatically and visitors can leave messages for the patient and family on the Web page. Patients and their loved ones receive emotional support during a time of need through the Photo Gallery for captioned pictures as well as the Message Board for messages of support.

Since security and privacy in the hospital environment are essential, CarePages claims the most complete online protection and security of any web-based healthcare communication service. Email and telephone customer support and
real time feedback is available. A very nice feature is called CareCompliment. This feature enable patients to recognize Erlanger staff for providing excellent care

Create a CarePage – it takes just a few minutes. Start here

http://www.carepages.com/erlanger

Why not a Blog? Try Blogger

About five years ago I was at a meeting in California where I heard people talking about “blogging” and “blogs.” I quickly grasped that it was some form of writing that was distributed on the World Wide Web. I stopped at the local Border’s Books and found a thin book titled The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog, by Rebecca Blood. Upon my return home, I passed the book on to my sons, then 13 and 18 years of age. A few days later, the boys showed me their new Blog. Lesson learned: Sometime the quickest way to learn about a new technology is to let your kids figure it out.

Right now, you are reading one of my Web logs or Blogs. To me, Blogging is a quick, easy way to create content on the Web. In basic terms, a Blog is a web site where you write content on an ongoing basis. Thus, my content is readily accessible to anyone with Internet access using a browser, most likely Internet Explorer or Firefox (my preference). The Web 2.0 tool I use is Blogger – part of the many Web tools from Google. Blogger is simple to use and it is free.

To get started your first create a free account. Next, you name your Blog and then choose a template from a large selection of designs. Once you have the look set, you add written content by “posting” to you Blog site. You can also add some basic graphics and create a list of hot links. Your newest stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new first. Older content is still viewable, either by scrolling down or by clicking on archive links. One of the best things about a Blog is that all of the content is available at one place. On this Blog, I also encourage people to go directly to Web tools that I have written on by clicking on resource links (top left).

Visitors may comment on any posting. But, Blogger has some limitations. The Blogger who sets it up is the only one who can directly post on that Blog. Also, Blogger is not very friendly to Rich Media, such as video. There are plenty of Blogging tools out there, but the more powerful ones, such as TypePad or WordPress are more complex and they require a modest payment. Blogger can get you up and going quickly.

Comments, Please

It may not be easily noticed, but it is possible to leave a comment about any of the postings on this Blog. Below each posting, in very small letters (thanks Google), you will find a link that says "comment." Just click and a pop-up box will give you a place to write a comment. This could be kudos, a criticism, a reference to another Website, or some other message. Comments can be attributed to your real name, some other name, or you can be completely anonymous.

If you prefer, you may communicate offline with the Blogger in Chief at

larry.miller@erlanger.org

A Time to HEAL?

The Health Education Assets Library (HEAL) is a digital library of multimedia teaching materials for the health sciences. This collection is substantial, with 22,000+ freely accessible “learning objects.” HEAL is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, and the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah. There are currently over 7,000 active registered users of HEAL.

The collection utilizes a schema of cataloging standards that is derived from the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) standard developed by Educause, a nonprofit association that promotes the intelligent use of information technology. HEAL uses a rigorous peer-review process, with reviewers who are physicians n bio-scientists, and experienced users of instructional technology. They systematically examine both the quality and usefulness of the submitted resources. Potential health sciences-related resources are rejected, accepted conditionally, or accepted as-is. Reviewers can also accept outstanding resources "with acclamation." In addition, HEAL is a leader in developing a process to provide academic recognition for digital scholarship. Upon acceptance, resources are permanently published in the HEAL Reviewed Collection.

HEAL also presents other collections in their affiliated collections. For example, you can explore the UCLA Interactive Neuroscience Collection. It contains multimedia resources to support first year neurosciences curricula and includes videos of brain dissections, a brain atlas, an MRI atlas, and interactive quizzes.

More information about HEAL, as well as free access to HEAL's Reviewed Collection and affiliate collections of health sciences educational resources, is available at http://www.healcentral.org.