Frankie Speaking Frankly

Control the Social Media, Control the World: Battle for hearts and minds in Bahrain

2012-01-23T13:37:00.020Z

The phone is an essential weapon on the frontline fighting for social justice.

There's a battle currently going on online to control you. It's the battle of hearts and minds (and manipulation). I see it at play every day through my human rights campaigning for the oppressed people in Bahrain and that has made me aware of similar battles going on throughout the Middle East, which spreads over to American politics and of course Israel too (and likely right round the world, but my mind can't stretch that far yet!). Online the world becomes a very connected place.

This is what happened in previous years: powerful people got hold of the mass media. Clearly the information people read effects their every day decisions. The West prides itself in having a 'free press', but in reality it is a small handful of rich and powerful people that ultimately get to decide what doesn't get reported - everyone knows that.

Note that I state "what doesn't get reported" instead of "what does". That's because I believe our media is not so much guilty of telling us lies, but rather withholding truth. They spin us hours and hours of domestic trivia and political junk whilst real stories of unbelievable suffering take place throughout the world on a massive scale every day (often as a result of the blind eye to suffering in the West). The media outlets will tell you that they just report what people want to hear - and I'm sure there is a part of that at play - catchy headlines sell after all. But journalists have a moral duty to report the truth, and the whole truth at that, not just the catchy headlines and what people want to hear - and powerful corrupt people are ready to hide behind such excuses so they can carry on corrupt 'business as usual' whilst innocent and powerless people have their rights trampled all over every day.

Bahraini protesters are well versed in technology.

Photo from Bahrain In Pictures.

Sound like a huge conspiracy? Maybe, but I've become only too aware of this sad state of affairs over the past few months as I learn about atrocities too numerous to number, day after day in the little island Bahrain, and I watch news outlets apparently ignoring this suffering and Western governments continuing to support such oppressive regimes.

But the World is changing, thanks to the Internet. And it is changing fast. People are getting connected and sharing information like never before. We no longer rely on our main stream media outlets for news. Increasingly we are learning from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. This causes a challenge for those rich and corrupt giants who used to be able to control whole nations with relative ease through influence and control of the media. So increasingly they are spending their vast pots of money on social media intelligence and online PR campaigns to try and influence minds. How this happens is taking many different forms. I'm not going to detail all the different tactics used just now, but I will mention just one.

Some people are being paid to curate news. Curation is basically just a fancy name for selecting and gathering together news. Some people are producing some really good social media news outlets. They can include witty commentary and can be a great way for readers to get up to date with a subject without having to go look for the news themselves. But the problem is when over time those great news sources slowly start to filter out the topics they don't want you to read, and filter in those they do, and start to drop in comments in order to evoke particular responses. This is happening all over the Internet for all different causes. Everyone has an agenda. Not all of those agendas are for good.

Social media pervades every crowd.

Photo from Bahrain In Pictures.

When people say 'it doesn't matter how many followers you have it is what you say that really matters' this isn't entirely true. The fact of that matter is that the more followers you have, the more people there are that can be influenced by what you say. I have an agenda for peace - and for this I will fight very hard - that is why the number of people that follow my account on Twitter has all of a sudden become of great importance to me (Hint there to follow: @frankiedolan ) Social media experts, employed by large companies for PR and mind influencing campaigns, know this only too well, so they build up a large number of personalities online who spend their time winning friends and getting as many readers as possible. The same forces who spent their time infiltrating the main stream media are trying to do it online too - they'd be kind of stupid not to. Win the readers, control the minds, control the actions - that's how it works, and big companies are at it, as are rich individuals, political parties and governments too.

Bahrain is of great interest from a social media perspective. It is quite a small population, geographically well defined, with a great community spirit, which is where I believe social media can really work at its best, as an added dimension to real life on the ground. In almost any photo of the Bahraini people protesting you will see phone in one hand, and one eye on the constant Twitter stream. Everything is captured, uploaded and shared as it happens. This is how the people really started to really find out about each other's violations in the first place, and then also how people started to get their message of suffering out to the World despite heavy filtering from the international main stream news channels.

A phone is never far away in Bahrain.

Photo from Bahrain In Pictures.

However, this also makes it target for an online battle for hearts and minds (and manipulation) from the darker forces of this world (especially because of its strategic position in relation to Iran also, holding the USA's fifth fleet). Almost every other person that tweets me now in relation to Bahrain is likely to have an agenda, and so I have to be on constant guard for fear I too might be 'played' for use in a bigger game than that of which I am aware.

Here's my tip to all the oppressed people in Bahrain that are just fighting for their basic human rights:

Be very wary of your news sources.
Be very hesitant to trust anyone at face value over Twitter or other social media.
Be aware that there are many powerful forces at play that want to incite you towards violence - this is how they will prevent reform from ever taking place and how you will be discredited in the eyes of the international community.
Test everything you read with your heart and ask yourself 'is this news encouraging me to respond in an aggressive manner? Is this person trying to manipulate my thoughts and feelings for something other than what I am really struggling for?'

The peaceful image it the most powerful of all - and this is what forces want to destroy.

Photo from Bahrain In Pictures.

Sometimes I am almost hesitant to report case after case of human rights violations since I do not want to provoke an aggressive response, and some would say 'there is only so much a man can take'. But I continue to report what I learn since I am a strong believer that the truth must be told. But just be aware that some people are waiting for that violent response - and they will keep feeding you accounts of oppression with provoking commentary until they get it. And violence will act as nothing but a hindrance to any reform, that you have been patiently working towards for many years, and that I truly believe is nearer now than has ever been before.

Iran War: Bahrain on the Front Line?

2012-01-14T08:13:00.021Z

A short blog post for a very complicated topic, as I don't have much time before my son's judo class and think this a matter of urgency:

Last night whilst watching an interview with UK PM David Cameron in Saudi Arabia on the BBC, I suddenly woke up to the threat of war with Iran, following talk of sanctions on Iranian oil and counter-threat from Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.

For anyone not so great on their geography (like me!) the Strait of Hormuz is vital for exports of oil to the West. Never mind Iranian oil, at least not for the moment, but the West does need it to get out the Saudi oil (and gas). It's very narrow and could easily be blocked. Just have a look at this article, with maps, and you'll get an idea of the problem.

With the US fifth fleet situated in Bahrain, this would put Bahrain effectively on the front line. This concerns me GREATLY. I love Bahrain and its people have suffered way too much already. It's a small population. Any war with Iran could devastate this little island. Monthly war siren testing started a few days ago in Bahrain, and I was told that the sirens were also sounded in Kuwait. Tensions between the US and Iran are very high.

This kind of explains why the deaf ears of the West (and media controlled by Israel and Saudi Arabia) regarding the oppressed population of Bahrain - any government reform would likely see a reluctance on the part of the Bahrainis to support such a war. But at the moment everyone knows that Saudi Arabia controls what happens in Bahrain, through Bahrain's PM Khalifa who has been there 40 years and happens to be great mates with the West (the British handed back the control of Bahrain into his hands in effect in 1971).

The one hope I have is the fact that a war with Iran would be devastating for Iran and also economically devastating for the USA. Neither side could possibly want such a thing. In fact I don't see how the USA could afford another war (without the backing of Saudi Arabia). But tensions in the area are I believe being provoked by Israel who are so eager to go bomb Iran that they might not even wait for the US. And with a US election looming in November, and Zionists and oil giants holding on to Obama by a thread, plus the American hard liners constantly thirsty for more aggression, Obama will be hard pushed to take the path of peaceful negotiations that he tried to start with at the beginning of his term in office, without losing his seat. And you can be sure if he loses the election he will be replaced by a hard liner with a mandate for war.

So where does that leave the humble protester in Bahrain fighting for their human rights? I'm still trying to work this one out. One thing I am sure of is that any violence that arises among protesters, after continued provocation by human rights violations from the security forces, will block any path to reform, which would also leave the path clear for the US to run an Iranian war as the Israelis would like. So watch out for 'moles' online who appear keen to support the Bahraini revolution but who are really just intent on stirring up violence (I've suspect I've already run head into a couple).

The real victim: the child.

All photos from Bahrain in Pictures.

I recommend protesters do whatever they can to get talking to their government and find a way forward with reform asap, to refrain from any violence and not to let attempts to provoke division and hatred in your country get the better of you at this difficult time. Without huge amounts of love, forgiveness and compassion you might not have much of a country left fighting for if Israel gets its way and the West go to war with Iran. And the ones who will suffer the most would be, as always, the children.

16 Year Old Tortured and Imprisoned for 15 Years in Bahrain

2012-01-06T10:24:00.023Z

This is Sayed Ali Al-Kareem. He is a 16 year old boy from Bahrain, who loves swimming, playing billiards and handball. He is a member of the Al-Ahli Club Handball Team where he has won several medals. He dreams of becoming a famous handball player one day.

Sayed Ali is known as a very friendly fun loving boy that loves to travel and barbecue with his family. Like many of the other young people in Bahrain he dreams of a free and democratic society, which he has learnt about from other countries through his school. But this dream it appears was to lead to terrible suffering.

Following the peaceful demonstration that tool place on 14th February in Bahrain, and the massive military clamp down that followed, Sayed Ali was arrested from his bed at 1.30am on 7th April by security forces who broke down the door at his family home, smashed up the house and took with them two laptops, a game boy and a camera.

His poor parents tried in desperation to found out where the police had taken him to but it was one month before they were told his whereabouts and were allowed to visit him. To their horror they saw marks of torture on his hands and his body when visiting him in prison.

On 3rd October he was charged in a military court for: attempted killing, illegal gathering, and destruction of public belongings. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Can you imagine your own son being abducted from his bed in the middle of the night and taken away to be tortured? Is this a regime that the West should be supporting?

Please write to or email (or better still visit) your Member of Parliament and express your concern regarding this case, just one of many atrocities currently taking place in Bahrain, each case carrying with it its own personal and tragic story of suffering. It is only with international pressure that the Bahraini people will ever see an end to such violations, and young boys such as Sayed Ali will ever get their lives back again.

If you want to know more about suffering in Bahrain please also read about the children getting gassed and the doctors tortured and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

A Solution for Bahrain: Sack your Prime Minister

2011-12-28T14:20:00.012Z

Here's my thoughts on a solution for Bahrain (since some 'well meaning' people on Twitter have on occasion suggested I stop campaigning and help find a solution instead):

In all repressive regimes around the world throughout history there has as far as I can tell been one person that gets control, instills fear, and over the years turns into some kind of monster. The longer they stop in power, the more delusional they become about their invincibility and God given role to manipulate and control people. Get rid of that person, and the people can start working towards a new system that is hopefully better than the last. Usually, unfortunately, the only way history has been able to get rid of such dictators is through death, either through natural means or through bloodshed (and often lots of it). We can see that the closer a dictator comes to his (or her? not sure there have been that many women dictators though!) demise the crazier he often becomes.

Dictators are not created overnight. First they win the trust of people, then they worm their way into positions of power, and then they divide populations, ensuring that one side supports them like some kind of God that can do no wrong and the other side becomes the oppressed on which all the problems of the society are blamed. Speak one word against the dictator and you can be sure on which side you will be placed.

In Bahrain we see a prime minister that is the longest serving unelected prime minister in the World. Yes that's right *IN THE WORLD* . Since 1971 to be exact (when the Brits handed over control) - that's more than 40 years! His name is Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

Photo of Bahraini Prime Minister Khalifa taken from Bahrain in Pictures

During this period many people have been tortured - some of them to death. Wikipedia currently has that number at 21 tortured to death - but I think it is actually 22, since the BICI report said 5 people had been tortured to death in 2011. With a population of just 725,000 of which 38% are foreigners, that's a huge number. It is mostly the Shia population that are tortured - of which (by my calculations) there are a little over 300,000 - which makes it likely that just about every Shia family in Bahrain knows someone personally who has been tortured, sometimes to death. Most of the people tortured to death before 2011 were whilst British Ian Henderson was head of state security (from 1968 - 1998). But all this time Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has it appears been calling the shots.

Now Bahrain does have a King, who since 2002 has been granted the power to sack the Prime Minister. His name is HM Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa. He's actually the nephew of the prime minister. He's been the king since 2002. He came promising reform - but doesn't appear to have really delivered any tangible change so far - so the people of Bahrain are obviously getting a bit tired of this (putting it politely) and calling for his downfall.

My suggestion is that instead of calling for the King's downfall they instead call for the King to make a move and sack his PM. Everyone says "he's never going to do that, after all its his uncle". Yes I understand it does seem a pretty hard pill to swallow. Which is why he'd need like the whole country calling for him to do that and international pressure too - wouldn't happen otherwise. Get rid of the PM and then you can start reforming and moving towards the true democracy that everyone says they want (which is not going to be easy - democracy only really works when there's no corruption and everyone is fairly represented - which I don't reckon we've even got in the UK yet - but nothing wrong with working towards it). But as long as your PM is there I just can't see it happening.

Anywhere else in the world would have to overthrow their dictator usually through bloodshed before they can more forward - but Bahrain has a much easier way, all they need to do is convince their King to sack him. But I can't see this happening as long as the people keep shouting for his downfall. And the prospect of a small population like Bahrain has of overthrowing their dictator by force, when they have the Saudi army literally on their doorstep(s) - well, just can't see that happening, ever, to be perfectly honest. The population is just too small, I think the people would be wiped out before the regime ever was.

So that's my suggestion, for what it is worth. Campaign for your King to sack the PM - rather than the King to get off his throne. What do you think? Feel free to disagree :)

Children and Tear Gas in Bahrain

2011-12-23T09:56:00.011Z

Images of children getting gassed in Bahrain kept me awake last night.

This is how it happens:

And these are just some of the victims:

No more commentary necessary. Let the world be horrified.

Puzzling over Bahrain strategy

2011-12-02T13:24:00.015Z

Here's a question I've been puzzling over: What is the logic behind the continuing sham trial of the medics in Bahrain ?

Ok ethics aside for a moment, right and wrong forgotten, the big puzzle is why would the Bahraini government insist in continuing their madness with this trial of 20 medics that have already endured considerable torture and forced confessions (and now no longer 'alleged' torture but documented as fact in the BICI report)?

The continued persecution of these medics does not in any way benefit the Bahraini government. Internationally it makes them look cruel and/or stupid and will likely be a stumbling block in future business and arms deals. Locally it gives the opposition party much to shout about.

And if they were looking for a way out of their conundrum why would they dig their hole even deeper by carrying into the court room, for the world's media to view, a stock pile of weapons that had not been introduced as evidence at any stage previously, and with no evidence actually tying those weapons to the medics, and handled in such a way that contaminates them as evidence anyway, giving cause for the entire world to laugh out loud at such stupidity? (and swords???)

The continued persecution of these medics does not in any way benefit the Bahraini government. Internationally it makes them look cruel and/or stupid. Locally it gives the opposition party and protesters much to shout about. So why continue this madness?

We all know politics. Everyone believes the medics are likely being used as pawns in a political game. But who could possibly be benefiting from such tactics? One might argue the opposition are actually benefiting. But they could suffer too, since such provocation may lead to extreme opinions and result in an increasingly divided society (even the slightest whiff of Iran of course puts fear into Western governments that the current Bahraini government and the King are keen to exploit).

I'm thinking the only one to benefit from such madness is actually the King of Bahrain. Which makes me wonder if he really is in control of events after all? Encourage the government in their madness, stoke up extremism in the opposition, make both parties appear incompetent to the international community, and then step in to save the day with a hand of mercy and level headed intervention - which would leave the whole world in no doubt that the best solution for stability in Bahrain, which is of course important for the free flow of oil to the West, is after all that of the King.

Well, anyone got any other suggestions?

My recommendation would be for both government and opposition to make a stand against any such manipulation by thinking logically, tapping into their humanity, forgetting about the politics for a little while, standing up against the lies and doing what is simply the right thing to do.

But then, what do I know? I'm just an outsider, who has never even visited Bahrain.

Bahrain and A Taste of Heaven

2011-10-19T10:00:00.015+01:00

The past few weeks my world has, maybe once again, been torn apart. My sleep has been taken as I have been haunted by images of torture and feeling the pain of suffering that takes place when a parent is separated from their child.

It all began just a few weeks ago when I was watching the BBC news. I saw the news report regarding 20 medics who had been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison in Bahrain which had struck a chord of empathy within me, since I am a mother, and a doctor's wife. I wanted to do something to help these people and thought maybe I could use my website MedWorm to raise awareness about their plight and start a campaign of support.

Of course with social media these days the World is a much smaller place. It is very easy to reach a wide audience. After doing some initial research I posted a video message of my feelings regarding the matter online and I placed a link to the video from the MedWorm RSS feeds that sent it out to hundreds of medical subscribers and other medical websites. Within a few days it had been watched over 2,000 times.

I started Tweeting about the matter and decided I should build a website for the campaign, and soon I found myself communicating directly with the medics who offered to post a few words on my site. I asked them for some background information on each of them, a few photos and a written testimony as to what had happened to each of them, in their own words.

What I was totally unprepared to receive were accounts of terrible torture which were very traumatic to read, and I know far more traumatic for the medics to write as they explained to me that these were memories that they would rather forget and had pushed to the back of their mind as they were too painful to recall. However, faced with up to 15 years in prison they felt they had no option but to speak up now about what had happened otherwise they would soon be going back to the Hell from which they had only recently thought they had been released from.

You can read some of their testimonies on the Doctors In Chains website here. Others I will be posting in the coming days.

It is hard to understand what it must feel like to be living under the constant threat of your house being broken into in the middle of the night and you being abducted in front of your children by masked gunmen. But as I have got to know and love these doctors and nurses over the past few weeks, the situation in Bahrain has felt very real and near to me. Already of nervous disposition, I find myself from time to time panicking and I have to calm myself down, to remind myself that I live in the safety of the UK where my human rights and freedom of speech are protected.

Part of me would rather run away from all of this and pretend it just isn't happening, like it just isn't my problem and has nothing to do with me. But I know that it is exactly that kind of attitude that allows such abuses of human rights to occur in the first place. If I turned away when I knew I could do something to help, I would be just as guilty as the people doing this stuff in the first place. So I have no choice. I just have to swallow my insecurities and speak up. It is only when ordinary people in countries that have freedom of speech start to exercise this liberty on behalf of those who do not that the World will ever see change. And change it must, if I am to have any hope for my children.

It was about 13 years ago that I was travelling through a time of personal spiritual exploration. I went to sleep after praying somewhat egotistically that God might reveal to me in my dreams a little bit of what Heaven is like. And I did go on a journey that night, which I will never forget. But not to Heaven, but rather to Hell. I was taken to a place that was just out of sight, but right next to a busy street, where I saw the most horrific scenes of horror and depravity that I had never even imagined could exist. So awful that I cannot begin to describe. Scenes of torture and perversion that made me want to wretch. In my dream I was terrified and left one room of evil to come across another, and another, and another. I was so scared that I wanted to get away, and so did everyone that was there, but the more we all tried to escape the worse things became. People were in need of help, but no-one would help because of their fear.

When I reached what may have been the last room I said to myself that I didn't care any more, everything was so awful, I just had to help someone, even if that would be dangerous to do so. I turned to someone on a torture rack and helped them down, and then the place became less awful, and then other people started to do the same, and the evil just started to fade away. The rooms changed colour and flowers started to grow, and brick walls started to fade away to nothing. And then I woke up.

I was shocked, stunned, somewhat traumatised. I shared what I had dreamt with one lady who was older and wiser than myself. I felt people might think I was a little crazy at the time, but she understood and said she had had a similar dream once herself. As I get older this dream, that awful journey, starts to make sense.

I believe in the Power of Love. I really do. I believe violence breeds violence, and hatred breeds hatred. But I believe in the Power of Love, and I believe one day it will conquer all. With all my heart. This is my hope that I hold on to in times of despair.

So what is love, really? And how can it be applied?

I was thinking about this image:

Now what if one of those military men had got out of their tanks, walked up to this demonstrator and given him a hug. How would that have turned out? You might laugh, but I bet it would have diffused the situation better than bullets.

And what about this image of the demonstrator about to be shot at short range? (yeh I've seen the video explaining that he was shot by a blanks which I was relieved to see, but just hear me out):

What if instead of shooting the protester they tried to shake his hand? He was near enough to do that. What would have been his reaction if they did?

And what about these people demonstrating? I understand their anger. Really I do. But what if they held up flowers instead of clenching their fists? And replaced their anger with love? And instead of shouting they sang? Like what happened here.

I believe in the Power of Love. I really do. And I think love is not about anger. It is about hope and endurance. I believe love is the most powerful emotion of all.

“I strongly believe that love is the answer and that it can mend even the deepest unseen wounds. Love can heal, love can console, love can strengthen, and yes, love can make change.”
― Somaly Mam, The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine

Building the #digpen community on Google+

2011-07-13T11:45:00.007+01:00

As my #digpener buddy Sophie Dennis knows, I'm a bit of a 'new paradigm lunatic' when it comes to Google+. It was quite unexpected for me. I'm not a big fan of monopolies taking over the world, didn't jump on Buzz or Wave, and have always felt a bit of a cynic when it comes to new platforms, especially when they involve social media. But as soon as I saw the Google+ circles, it really was like love at first site.

So why this somewhat irrational willingness to fall for Google+, and is this my heart leading my head, or my head leading my heart? And why do I think it so good for our fledgling #digpen community? I have been trying to understand this myself, and find some logical reasoning to explain my passion.

At first site, there is an issue with Google+, in getting it to work well for a community: at the moment it is not possible to set up an organisation, or a shared group. It is not possible to set up that one place that says 'this is #digpen' - 'come here and talk', 'come here and see who the #digpen members are',' come here and get the latest #digpen news', etc. So we start looking for 'work arounds' and wondering why Google hasn't thought about this, and why they aren't (yet) letting people create organisation profiles (at least they are discouraging it for the moment). Is this just because it is in Beta? Surely they have thought about this?

Well I am not sure whether it is intentional or not, but I believe the creativity induced by this current constraint leads me, and maybe others, to think again about community, and how best to create a real one. Thing is, having a place for people to go and share stuff does not make a community. Like a church building will never be the house of God (am I allowed to use a religious metaphor without causing offence? - No offense intended!). It is of course all about what happens within a place, and a place is of course a limiter - trying to keep relationships and communications within a static place will stop those relationships growing, both in number and in strength - the building is always at risk of killing those relationships from really developing.

Any online forum will always be limited. There will always be just a small percentage of people in that forum who are active. The rest will be spectators, occasional commentators, at best. The majority will sit back in the assurance that things are happening, a discussion is taking place (if the forum is still alive), that can be watched, and on occasion maybe chipped in on, but only a small percentage (maybe the 20/80 rule?) will feel a part of that apparent community.

So in Google+, we are all responsible for creating, and building, our own circles, our own communities. #digpen will thrive as a movement with shared values and an emerging shared vision as lots of those circles start to overlap each other. It is that overlapping that will make us really strong. No one person and no one forum will be the making and subsequent inevitable downfall of the community.

So that is why I think I really want you all to get on there, and build your own circles of web dev types in the SW, and invite people in to your own mini communities. I am convinced as you do so, and start to really communicate and get to know people in your circles, and open yourself up to the other people in the locality, and invest in strenthening these relationships, when we all do this, that exciting thing that the world is looking for will REALLY start to happen, right here, in #digpen territory.

Does this have to all happen on Google+ - no absolutely not. In fact, it is kind of key that there's stuff going on elsewhere too. Because if Google+ starts to lose favour, our community should not be dependent on that. And it should be offline as well as online. But Google+ is a great tool for us to use, I am sure of it, because it is based on these circles that mimic a healthy essential part of real society. But it will only really be effective if we all get on there, and take our individual responsibilities, build our own circles, and invest time and effort in developing our relationships within those circles. And when we all do this, together, it will be AWESOME (even in spite of those bugs - still waiting for my +1s to appear!)

Oh yeh, almost forgot to say, if you do get on it, don't forget to add me to your circle :)

#digpen

2011-05-29T07:16:00.017+01:00

Time for an update.

In February I decided to find out where all the web developer talent in the South West lies. I suspected there was a lot of it, but I wasn't aware of it since I had been living in my own developing bubble busy with my own work for the previous 4 years. But the time has come to grow MedWorm and pull in some real investment, and one of the first things I needed to find in order to attract investment was a solid development team to take the project forward.

I started to use LinkedIn to find php developers in the area (to begin with). I found that there are actually loads of them, but many of them were working also like I had been, in their own bubbles too, disconnected from the rest of the talent around. Many of them thinking they were the only web developers in the area, others reluctant to connect with potential competitors, or just plain scared to meet people at all having lost all of their socialising skills as a result of working so long in virtual solitary confinement.

I began to visit as many developers as I could find for a cup of tea and a chat to discuss the idea of us all getting together for a meet-up. And it was whilst meeting people and chatting over ideas that a vision started to form - not my own vision, but the start of a shared vision.

The South West of the UK is perfect territory for creative talent - indeed it is already well known for its many artists, designers, musicians, theatre companies and film producers. I had suspected that the area was also crawling with web dev talent as creative types tend to migrate towards the South West in search of a more healthy life, surrounded by beautiful countryside and coastline, and the organic ethical kind of lifestyle. Of course working as a web developer actually means you can live pretty much anywhere and still do your work, so long as you have your all important connection to the web. And I was able to confirm my suspicions as I started to meet all different types of developers and I began looking at the fantastic quality of work people are producing - this area is literally crawling with hidden web dev talent.

The vision is that if we all connect, and start to work in a collaborative manner, viewing every local competitor as a potential collaborator instead, we can build a web development community that will be so strong it will start to pull in investment into this area, and in effect allow us to build the UK's own version of Silicon Valley: The Digital Peninsula.

So I organised our first web dev unconference which became known as #digpen, obviously as a result of the Twitter tag that we used, originating out of the words 'Digital Peninsula'. This was held at the University of Plymouth in March, had over 80 developers attend, and was a real success, so we then organised as a community further events to cover the rest of the peninsula. #digpen II was held at Exeter Phoenix in May, and #digpen III will take place on 11th June at the University College Falmouth - you can register here. If you want to see exactly what happened have a look at these photos and videos, and if you want to get involved you may wish to follow the #digpen Twitter list and register for our LinkedIn forum where we often hang out:

#digpen I

#digpen I photos by Jason Mayes:

#digpen II

#digpen II photos by Nick Charlton:

View more great #digpen II photos here by Dan Barber

#dipen II videos by Mark Peberdy:

Things you can do to be a part of #digpen:
- register for #digpen III
-join our discussion in the SW (UK) Web Developers LinkedIn forum
- register for our newsletter
- follow our Twitter list

New 'MedWorm Blast' Service

2011-04-05T12:10:00.008+01:00

Last week I spoked to Denise Silber who was looking for media partners for the Doctors 2.0 conference that she is organising in Paris in June this year. I suggested that I put out a simple message with hyperlink promoting the conference via all the unsponsored MedWorm feeds.

Less than one week later I ran an exact search in Google on the text used in the message:
"Find out about the Doctors 2.0 and You conference in Paris, June 22-23rd. The call is now on for posters and the start-up contest."

It returned approximately 109,000 indexed pages from across the web containing this text (and the hyperlink most of the time, except for the cases where the hyperlinks were stripped out of the RSS feeds). Here's the evidence.

Isn't that amazing? And this is just a glimpse of the MedWorm feed distribution, since there are thousands more individuals that subscribe to the feeds directly, say via Google Reader.

So today I launch a new service, called 'MedWorm Blast'. If you have an important message that you need to get out to the medical and health sector, globally, very fast, you can pay to get your message out in the same way. I'm not sure how much to charge, so am going to try $100 a day and see what response I get.

If you have reputable product, service, event or website then contact me here if you want to give this a try (and support MedWorm in doing so!):
http://www.medworm.com/rss/medicalsponsorship.php (sorry but I won't accept any messages that I consider unethical or junk).

Going Global By Starting Local

2011-02-13T10:04:00.007Z

It's been an incredible year for me of self-discovery and development. This sounds incredibly cliche I know, but I really feel like now I have 'arrived'.

Every year I promise my family, this is it, this year is the year that MedWorm really makes a success of itself. But really I was trying to convince myself. This year I don't even need to say it, because I know it, which is the most wonderful feeling. Like this really is the beginning of the exciting journey I was struggling to start.

Over 4 years I've been working on MedWorm. What have I been doing in all that time? Developing.

Not just developing the code - of course I have been doing plenty of that. But I have been developing as a person.

I remember reading Peter Jones's autobiography Tycoon some time back and being slightly frustrated with him saying that one of the key elements that need to be in place for an entrepreneur to gain success in their business was that it had to be the right time for them as a person, taking into account their family circumstances and other things that may be going on in their life. I didn't want to hear that, I guess because I knew it wasn't the right time for me, and was impatient to wait.

But the over the last year (and a little more) I grew, and now I'm really seeing the world through a different lens, which is going to be so vital to the way I grow the MedWorm vision in the years to come. Had I embarked on my journey too soon, I am now convinced I would have missed a vital opportunity which I am now about to take hold of.

Let me explain:

I started building MedWorm when my son was about 1 year old. Middle of the night feeding my baby on one arm (he never slept well, and was feeding for ages) I usually had my computer on the other. The next few years were a constant challenge, trying to build what I had in mind, a complete beginner in php and mysql, whilst juggling nappies and all the joys of a chaotic family life (and as a doctor's wife my husband's career naturally had to take priority). I knew no investor would take me seriously so had to build it myself.

Over the next few years I worked harder and harder, leaving little 'me' time, working on my own from home each day (not healthy to do for a long period of time I think) and becoming increasingly obsessed with health issues (what my husband calls 'medical student syndrome') until I reached a moment of crisis mid 2009 when we all had a nasty visit with the swine flu. During that time I realised a few truths of life - in particular that the reason why bad things in the world happen is because people who could make a difference don't - and this changed my outlook and way of communicating with the world.

What happened next was extrordinary - from that moment of enlightenment I found myself taking steps to speak up for what I believe is truth and to start fighting for justice in the world, in whatever small way I thought I could - which led to me playing a central role in a fight against the plan to build a large scale mass burn incinerator in my locality. This resulted in me stepping into the limelight to help organise and speak at public meetings and demonstrations, as well as giving interviews to the media (newspapers, radio and tv) - this was all a massive challenge, having lived the life of a hermit for several years previously (not online, there I was ok - but in person I guess I was something of a recluse).

I also got to meet, and know, many people in my local community, and came to understand what a wonderful group of people there are here - with experience and skills in so many areas. I realised I could help in linking people together to work together in all various aspects of our campaign against incineration - and as we joined forces we started to become powerful. Who knows if we will win the battle in the end or not - but what is sure is that the little town of Ivybridge has benefited in so many ways in its fight, since out of it has grown a wonderful community of people with shared values that really care for each other and are willing to give up their time to work on projects together for the benefit of society.

All this I got involved in without any thought for myself - my objective was to do something positive in the world. And if my theory was right, my issues of anxiety would resolve themselves as I got the balance back in my life that was so desperately needed.

And that is what happened!

And now I realise the huge payback I have received for my efforts over the past year. I can now translate all the skills I have learned into my own work. Communication, presentation, identifying and pulling together skills in order to collaborate on projects. Wow, how exciting!

Been struggling for years to work out how to pull together a team in order to get investment to take MedWorm forward. The plan was all great, and I know I would have no trouble tempting investors - but getting together a team that I could have confidence in, and put my trust - that was a real struggle.

But just recently I became aware (largely thanks to LinkedIn) of the massive amount of web development skills are to be found in the South West of England - people living all around me. I don't have to go globe trotting to find the people I need to work with - they are living just next door to me! This is so exciting.

A few days ago I presented at the Born Global auditions - got through to the next round. Have just applied for some funding the the Technology Strategy Board for a feasibility study for a related project I have in mind - will know about that by the end of the month. Been helping Chris build the new LinkedIn SW Web Dev group and on 5th March will be hosting the South West's first Web Dev Unconference at Plymouth Uni. Been meeting the most wonderful developers - so positive and willing to collaborate. This is the start of something exciting, the right time and the right place - keep an eye on the South West of England as we are about to see the emergence of the Digital Peninsula, our very own Silicon Valley. If you are a web developer looking for a change of scenery, this is the place to live!

Clinical Trials Feeds Added to MedWorm - Thanks Lennie!

2011-01-05T19:52:00.006Z

It was on the 3rd December 2007 that the wonderful Leonard Sender MD, adolescent and young adult cancer oncologist (now Medical Director of the Cancer Institute at Children's Hospital of Orange County as well as chair of on the board of directors on the also fabulous I'm Too Young For This! cancer foundation for young adults) contacted me with an idea for MedWorm - to use it to disseminate information regarding clinical trials. I only spoke to him I think once (or maybe twice), never met him in person, but he was so supportive and enthusiastic about MedWorm he made a big impact on me in the short few minutes that we spoke.

Well, 3 years later, I finally got round to adding clinical trials as new data streams being fed into MedWorm. They only got added properly at the weekend so it will take a while for the data to become significant, but already I'm excited about it. You can of course search on the clinical trial data using the MedWorm search options, but more interesting is to browse MedWorm. Click on any category, condition, treatment, etc, and if there is clinical trial data in MedWorm related to that topic you will be able to click on a Clinical Trials tab with all the latest trials for that topic appearing listed by date order. Of course, as with any topic in MedWorm, you can then subscribe using the RSS feed, say into your Google Reader, or you can get the data emailed to you (if you register to use the free MyMedWorm service).

For example, here's the tab of the clinical trials for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia - try browsing MedWorm by clicking on all the different topics that exist, such as medical conditions or specialties, and look out for the Clinical Trials tabs for each topic that you click on. If you know of any clinical trials feeds that you think have not yet been indexed in MedWorm please do let me know so that I can add them.

Many thanks Lennie for the idea and the inspiration - sorry it took so long! (I'm getting there slowly but surely).

New Year Resolutions

2011-01-01T08:57:00.008Z

I gave up making new year resolutions many years ago. I think I was still a teenager, or maybe I had just reached young adulthood, when I decided they didn't work so there was no point in making them. But last week I remembered that naive like optimism I had as a teenager that I really could change whatever I wanted to, with just renewed determination. Some time later in life I think I somehow lost some of that optimism. Well now I have it back, and with better skills and knowledge, I've decided to make some resolutions for this new year, and I really believe that I going to keep these.

Last week I pondered over why new year's resolutions don't work, and I reckon I've worked out why. I think they usually state what a person would like to do, but they don't usually state how the objectives are going to be achieved, and most people don't have a plan, or if they do have a plan in mind it may be unrealistic (I do believe that we can achieve amazing things, but the plan to do something must match the level of motivation and take into consideration other pressing motivations in your life, and most new year resolutions are made with no such consideration).

So my list of resolutions include not only what I am going to do, but how I am going to do those things. Here they are:

- I am going to be tidy, by tidying up as I go along.

- I am going to be on time, by aiming to be early.

- I am going to get more exercise, by walking up stairs instead of taking the lift.

- I am going to eat more fruit, salad and vegetables, by eating a piece of fruit with my breakfast each morning, a side salad every lunch time, and a side plate of vegetables with every evening meal.

- I am going to stop forgetting things to buy when I go shopping, by keeping an updated list of needed items in my kitchen to take with me when I go shopping.

- I am going to get on top of my bookeeping and not leave tax returns to the last minute, by first putting in place an efficient filing system and then allocating a regular weekly and monthly time slot in my working day to do this.

- I am going to move MedWorm into profit, by thinking business mindedly in all that I do.

All the above have had a lot of thought. Likely such thought would bore you, but here are my thoughts for the record:

- I am going to be tidy, by tidying up as I go along.

OK, confession time, I'm not the most tidy of people. Struggled with it all my life, but I am not about to give up and am convinced I am going to crack this one this year - I refuse to be beaten! When I put my mind to it, I can be the tidiest person around. When I do a job I like to do it properly. Problem is that the motivation to tidy is far down my list of priorities. I see my current house as temporary and therefore not something I should waste a lot of time on perfecting. I am so interested in so much other stuff, other than tidying. I take on a lot too so if I am short on time, it is the housework that slips. However, I managed to get myself a husband that does absolutely zero housework, who unfortunately lived all his live before he married me with a mother who was obsessively tidy - a lot of the problem there is related to culture I think, women's liberation in his home country I reckon is about 20 years behind where we are at in the UK (in some respects). But the problem I am looking to address here is not my husband, but myself.

I have over time observed some very tidy people and tried to work out what their secret is. I did wonder whether it was a genetic default that I am not very tidy, or whether it was because I was not conditioned well into tidying when I was a young child. Although I suspect there is an element of this at play, I still believe being tidy is something I can teach myself to be, just a case of finding the right keys to turn.

I asked my old neighbour with an immaculately tidy house what her secret was. She told me 'it takes years'. What did she mean? Did she really mean it takes years to tidy a house? Do you have to wait until the children have left home? Does it take years to learn the secret of tidiness? What she said may have left me in despair with the thought that it would take years for me to ever get tidy, but in fact it gave me hope, hope that she one day was not so tidy and now is, so therefore could I be.

I had another friend who was obsessively tidy. I came to learn that this was actually almost a disorder. She had so many things in her mind that she was unhappy with that by keeping her house tidy was her way of trying to 'keep it together'. I learnt that actually inside her cupboards things weren't so organised - she was great at keeping the mess out of site, but it was mostly just hidden. A few years back I went through a traumatic time and for a while I suddenly found I could be really tidy - I thought, ah, that's it - all those tidy women out there may have experienced a really traumatic event in their life and tidying helps them work through their problems. Only problem was, once I had worked through my problem, the tidiness started to slip again.

I asked another friend of mine how she keeps her house so tidy. She does have a secret weapon - her husband, who is obsessively tidy through conditioning as a child. But I think she is quite tidy herself too. You can drop in at their house at any time and it always looks a little like a show home. Her reply to the question as to how they keep it so tidy was that they 'tidy up as they go along'. After thinking about this for a few years, I figure that is the key, hence my resolution to to 'tidy up as I go along'. Whenever I do something now, once I've finished doing the job I take extra time to check that I am leaving no mess behind me - which is what I do easily whenever say visiting the beach - so it actually isn't that hard to remember. And it is amazing the mess that I realise I was leaving behind me at every task - just little things that one hardly notices at the time, but which build up over time. And of course when in a bit of a hurry I can quite easily leave a trail of destruction behind me. So I've been trying this for 3 days now - house is getting tidier and tidier without much effort at all - quite excited about this, figure this really is going to work.

OK now I have a 6 year old son pestering for my attention, so the rest of the points will probably never get written. Not that important anyway. The method in reaching my conclusions on how to do things are similar for each.

Happy New Year!

Julian Assange, Wikileaks, and Changing the World

2010-12-23T09:41:00.012Z

I watched Julian Assange's interview with John Humphrey's last night and it prompted me to write.

The part of his interview that I really like is about 20 minutes in when Assange was questioned by Humphrey's regarding his relationship with the world, his response as to the suggestion of him as some sort of a messianic figure (like it was some sort of a crime - which I find ironic since the members of Christian church are forever trying to become more Christlike and even part of the body of Christ). When asked somewhat accusingly 'So you want to change the world?', Assange replied, without any hesitation, 'Absolutely, the world has a lot of problems, the need to be reformed. We only live once and every person who has the ability to do something about it, if they are a person of good character, has the duty to try and fix the problems in the environment which they are in.'

Julian, you are so right, and I couldn't agree with you more. And why should such a belief be ridiculed or looked upon with suspicion?

Some time back in history, I believe maybe in America, economists worked out that in order for everyone to get wealthier, they need to become motivated to own more. And this motivation I believe was instilled into people and grown through use of the media as time went on. The only motivation that people therefore now seem to trust is the motivation to get rich(er). And yet any wise man will tell you that getting rich does not make you happy.

So what does make you happy? It's dead simple - doing good - helping others - fighting for what is right. Honest you don't have to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to work that one out. It may not be easy, and you may get persecuted for it, and you may get little thanks - but deep down when you go to sleep at night you'll have peace, and it is that peace that will give you that deep rooted happiness that we would all like to feel on our death bed. In this interview Julian Assange spoke of that peace which he felt when he was in solitary confinement.

I'm not saying that Assange is perfect - none of us are - but to ultimately act on your conviction to do good, and to do what you are able to right the wrongs in this world, should ultimately be what we are all about. And if we all did keep this motivation clear in our minds, this true purpose of life - wow wouldn't the world would change overnight?

I spent years trying to realise this. I finally worked it out after a mid life crisis just over a year ago - and since then my life changed literally overnight.

Now it is something I try and teach my children. When my daughter asks what career she should be heading towards, I tell her it really doesn't matter, so long as you find a way of using your skills to do the most good you are able in this life - hopefully teaching her this important lesson now whilst she is young will save her a whole lot of mistakes and soul searching in her life and allow her to move on to a fruitful adulthood from the outset.

I recently had a debate with a business man regarding my motivation in life. The question was whether I was motivated by money. I have always been very ambitious - for one reason or another, maybe instilled in me from my father's teaching or maybe something I was born with, who knows? - and with ambition comes the desire to get rich as it is proof of one's ability in your career - yet I found that there was a conflict between materialism and altruism which stopped me moving forward with any conviction. Now I am sure of my motivation and priorities this is no longer an issue - getting rich gives one more power and therefore the ability to do greater good - so I can fit in the business motivation quite comfortably in align (yet always behind) the motivation to do good and move forward in business with the peace and conviction I was always looking for.

I figure the ultimate motivation to do good, to right the wrongs in this world, is one that we should all be recognising, living, and teaching our children. We should stop looking at those who already have realised this value with suspicion. The motivation to do good I believe would move money around in a new direction, and ensure a new vibrant economy, and a secure future for our children - a new world order to replace the materialistic world in which we currently live. Not only that, but having the ultimate motivation to change the world and do good is so much more exciting than trying to get rich - honest, it works for me, you should try it!

I believe people around the world are starting to realise this - largely in part to the new lines of communications we have via the Internet - as truth gets out, as the Bible states, it is that truth that sets us free. An exciting time in which I am glad to be living.

What's Been Happening?

2010-12-18T08:15:00.008Z

I've been going through a transitionary period just recently, adding another dot to my life that I am sure is a new connection in the bigger picture - although some may see it as a diversion. Sometimes in life opportunities come up that may not appear to be directly in line with where you want to go, but I am convinced that making the most of these occasions are often crucial to the fulfilment of what a person can ultimately achieve in life.

At such times I remind myself of Steve Job's lecture to Stanford regarding 'joining the dots' in life. As you start off in life these dots seems so random that you can make no sense of them at all, but as you move on in life they do start to make sense, and even though it may not be clear to everyone else watching, you feel inside yourself that they are all pulling you in the right direction.

So the latest dot in my life has been to take on a role in a new sustainable energy company, SUST-N, of which I am now Head of Communications.

So what about MedWorm? Well, believe it or not, that vision remains my number one priority, my ultimate passion, which I will see through to its fulfilment if it kills me. It must be near to 5 years that I have working on it now - nothing will stop me moving it forward.

So what of this new dot? How did it come about? What will I be doing? How do I propose to keep MedWorm running and moving forward?

Over the past 12 months I have been working (voluntarily) on a campaign to stop the building of a large scale incinerator to burn the municipal waste in South Devon. You can read more about the proposal and see me at action in the campaign on some of the videos on the EcoIvy.org site which I built. The campaign escalated over that time until it was becoming pretty much a full time job. Campaigning for something you really believe in is all encompassing and really doesn't stop, and of course it is all unpaid, which puts a big strain on family and work as everything competes for your limited time. It does however have its benefits too, and apart from the wonderful feeling of self-satisfaction that you are doing something for the benefit of society for truly altruistic reasons, I also gained many new wonderful friends with similar outlooks in life and a real concern for the sustainability of this planet and I learned what a wonderful neighbourhood I am privileged to live in. In addition, I was given the fantastic opportunity to develop my presentation and speaking skills, and build up my confidence, through public speaking, work on my strategic thinking, and put into practice effective communication plans through full use of the Internet - all essential elements of not only a successful campaign but also in business too.

Part of our campaign against the incinerator was the developing of an alternative plan that does not involve mass burn incineration. A group of engineers from the locality got together, tasked with finding an alternative. A concept was developed and contact made with a company whose plan matched our theory, and from that a business proposal was formed. We presented the concept to the public and our local councillors in December, and from there managed to secure funding to get the plan off the ground and formed a new commercial enterprise, of which I have taken on the position as Head of Communications. I have therefore now resigned from the incinerator campaign, and have passed the EcoIvy site over to the local community to run, since I cannot afford to put the new company in any compromising commercial position as a result of my own personal campaigning elsewhere in the industry. For me this now this is about moving from campaigning against a flawed plan to instead promoting what I believe is the ultimate solution.

My new position allows me to work flexibly, so I can still keep MedWorm running at the same time, and of course it gives me an income, which actually allows me to continue to run MedWorm without the concern that I could run out of funds any day. It also forces me to think strategically about the business side of MedWorm and how I am going to get it to profit, without doing every single job on it myself. Another great advantage is I now have the opportunity to work for and learn from Terry Hewitt, my new boss, SUST-N's managing director - who I liken to the South West's version of Lord Alan Sugar. Already I am learning the mindset of someone successful at big business, which is going to be invaluable for me with future affairs in growing my own business.

I've also registered a new domain name, EngWorm.com (for an engineering flavour of MedWorm) to add to the many others I have on standby too (including EnviroWorm.com) so I know when I am ready to launch the other industry worms I'm going to have plenty of knowledge and contacts in those industries.

So what may appear at a first glance as a diversion, I hope you will understand is all just part of the journey.

I AM still very much working on MedWorm. My work at SUST-N involves a flexible working arrangement to enable me to do this. You can still contact me at anytime, as I can fit in my business calls whenever whenever I need to. This does mean that I am again working a few nights alongside my work in the day, but that's nothing new.

Vitamin D and Skin Cancer Through Windows

2010-12-05T08:58:00.005Z

Ooops, over a month has passed since I posted to my blog. Figured I best write something. Been so busy with all kinds of things that I haven't known what to write.

Well here's a simple thing I learnt just this morning when tweaking a bit of MedWorm code to get rid of duplicates that were still creeping in. I ran a query on 'vitamin d levels', with the 'Exact phrase' and 'Blogs' options selected.
http://www.medworm.com/rss/search.php?qu=vitamin+D+levels&r=Exact&blogs=on

Made for interesting reading. In particular, I learnt something that I didn't know before - sounds so elementary that you probably already know this, but just in case you didn't I thought to share it.

I learnt that UVA light, which causes skin cancer, does actually get through normal glass, whereas UVB light, the one that generates the Vitamin B and apparently helps protect against skin cancer (plus a whole lot of other stuff) does not - and office workers are therefore apparently at increasingly higher risk of skin cancer than those people that work outdoors.

This is important news for me since skin cancer seems to run in my family. I have recently started wearing a moisturiser with sun screen, but not always if I I think I am not really going outside much. But my new office has a fabulous large window that I sit right next too, that lets in loads of sunshine.

So now I'll make sure to wear the sunscreen every day, as well as making sure to get outside when I can for the natural light, plus up my intake of oily fish.

Radio Interview

2010-10-14T12:27:00.008+01:00

I was invited into the local BBC Radio station yesterday, for a half hour interview on what motivated me to get involved with campaigning. Apparently they were looking for 'inspirational' people and I ticked all the right boxes! That's got to be one of the best compliments I have had in my life :)

Of course if meant taking half a day off work, and all the nerves that go with it, but I figured it would be a good experience that would help build my confidence, plus I really did think I had a story that should be told.

I actually really enjoyed it. Justin Leigh did the interview (stepping in for the usual presenter - Justin is the one you usually see on Spotlight tv). He was incredibly nice, and made me feel at ease straight away - obviously a very skilled presenter.

If you ever get the chance to go into a radio station for an interview, I recommend you jump at it!

Here's my interview, starts just after 53 minutes, lasts for about 25 minutes. I talk about a life changing moment following a stint with the swine flu and a major anxiety attack, which forced me to change the way I look at life and get involved more with society.

(Sorry the link has been taken offline now by the BBC - but if you want to listen let me know and I'll email you a personal recording of the interview).

MedWorm Business Model - Tough Descisions

2010-10-13T09:25:00.006+01:00

Prompted by @markhawker via Twitter I had another look at the MedWorm 'enterprise design pattern'. Clearly it is essential that I find a way of ensuring that MedWorm's processing capability is used to maximum efficiency, to ensure that MedWorm can pay for itself as it grows. So I had another think about where most of the processing power is getting used up on MedWorm, and came to the tough conclusion that I will have to bring in a subscription model.

MedWorm will remain completely free to use, except for one bit of functionality, that of customized RSS feeds. At the moment there are (many) hundreds of RSS feeds for you to pull out of MedWorm that are precompiled every day, based on optimised queries for individual topics and data types. You can find them simply by browsing MedWorm - every page you go to has its own RSS feed - and these will remain free.

However it is also possible to create RSS feeds 'on the fly' from any query that you run on MedWorm. The problem is that the majority of queries that people run do not make good RSS feeds. For example, a search on the term 'breast cancer', without using the quotes, and without selecting the Exact Phrase search option on MedWorm, will return all records where either the word 'breast' or the word 'cancer' exist. When viewed by order of relevance when running the query this does not matter, but pulling out an RSS feed for that query is pointless, since not every record that you will see in your feed will be relevant to breast cancer.

This may seem obvious, but the fact is, no matter how many times I tell people, most will still continue to pull out useless RSS feeds. Following which will likely put those feeds into a feed aggregator, or worse still automatically generate webpages from those feeds, which will mean they re-run those useless queries on MedWorm every day (or if they don't cache their data at worse every few minutes), and probably pay no attention to the feeds, and fill up the Net with more useless junk - at the same time eating up MedWorm's valuable processing power.

Worse still, there are a lot of sites looking to create the maximum amount of meaningless junk that they can in order to run GoogleAds alongside, which at times pull out hundreds of these useless feeds from MedWorm, of which some of them at times use very 'unsavoury' search terms to create their feeds. I block these servers whenever I notice them, but it is a waste of my time to try to keep on top of these.

So in about one month's time I have decided to limit this 'RSS on the fly' functionality to premium members only, who will have to pay a monthly subscription. Not sure how much yet - suggestions welcome - I'm thinking about $5 a month - after which I will monitor to see which users are really hammering the server and possibly bring in a higher subscription level for unlimited use for those developers that are pulling out hundreds of feeds each day.

In doing so I'll be able to give you all a better service, faster, with more frequently updating data. I'll also hopefully avoid MedWorm going bust, so that we can all continue to enjoy the service for years to come.

If anyone is hard up, or from a developing country, and can't afford to pay, but has a real need for the customized feeds, they will just need to drop me an email and I'll give them free access anyway if their needs are justified.

Bringing in the subscription model will also encourage people to browse for feeds instead, which will likely be of much better quality for you to use anyway.

I hope you all find this acceptable. Feedback welcome! It is important that I get this right as I am primarily building a service that will be beneficial to all of society, and fair, not trying to get rich (although if I do one day get rich in the process that would be nice!).

MedWorm GoogleReader Video Demo

2010-10-08T13:37:00.010+01:00

This is the first video demo I have made of MedWorm. It shows you how to export a bunch of feeds from MedWorm into GoogleReader, grouped by medical specialty, or by topic such as a medical condition (in this case diabetes).

I should probably start with a 'What is MedWorm' video, but I was too excited to show you the OPML export which I have been working on recently, so the introductory MedWorm video will just have to come later, or you can just watch my demo at the Health 2.0 conference in Paris here.

I produced it using Camtasia Studio. Let me know what you think.

Vaccine Zombie

2010-09-03T12:28:00.005+01:00

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This video is just brilliant! Whether you agree with the lyrics or not, you surely have to admit this is a great production. I came across it via MedWorm, as its release is currently the second most read item via MedWorm this week, although I am sure by the end of the week it will be the first. (You can view the most read items on MedWorm here). In fact, the NaturalNews source is one of the most popular sources on MedWorm also, always getting a lot of hits. It is always outspoken, often controversial, and I am pleased it to have it indexed by MedWorm since I think it adds an alternative viewpoint and some much needed balance, amidst the many news releases, often by big pharma, that all send out the same messages.

Recommending this video will surely fuel speculation that I am 'anti-vaccination', which I have previously been accused of, following my comments on the cervical cancer vaccine, which I made when researching the vaccine as I investigated the topic to help me decide whether or not to authorise the vaccine for my teenager daughter (which I subsequently did not). But I really am not anti-vaccine - I believe that each individual should look at the available evidence and evaluate the risks of taking or not taking vaccines that are offered in view of their own personal circumstances - one size can never fit all, and I believe that there are pros and cons to just about every medication that need to be evaluated in the light of your own personal make-up, and that the decision whether to take something or not should be down to the (fully informed) individual, who will then also carry the responsibility of the side effects should they happen.

In fact, regarding the swine flu jab, having had my own (terrible) experience with the swine flu, I actually recommended my pregnant sister to 'consider' having the vaccine (after also reading an article about benefits of the flu jab to babies whose mothers receive the vaccine whilst they are pregnant). Notice I say 'consider', because at the end of the day I knew it had its risks, which only she could evaluate, and the decision at the end of the day had to be her own - no way I was going to carry the guilt if it went wrong. I sent her a search on everything that MedWorm could come up with in relation to the swine flu, pregnancy, and reported side effects, to help her form her own decision. (By the way she did decide to have the jab and mother and baby are just fine). Not sure I would still suggest the same, since the risk of catching the swine flu (at least in the really nasty form that I think I suffered) now appears to have significantly decreased (and I'd for sure want to first hear the results of the current investigation between a possible link between the swine flu jab and narcolepsy).

Anyway, watch the video, it's very entertaining. My kids loved it too (although I was a little concerned the youngest might start singing some of the lyrics, one line of which just wouldn't be good - I'll let you work out which one!).

Me (Frankie Dolan) at Health 2.0 Paris

2010-08-26T12:11:00.005+01:00

You can see the rest of the conference here:
http://www.health2con.com/category/h20tv/europe-2010/

For further info on MedWorm watch the new demo on MedWorm integration with Google Reader here.

To find out about how much Frankie needs your help and wants you to get involved with this project have a read of this.

Trees for Health

2010-06-21T17:02:00.005+01:00

I've been trying out the new Blogger template designer and chosen a woodland background. I figured it was representative of my life at the moment. I'm fortunate to live in an area where there is a beautiful woodland walk alongside a river that is a refuge of calm and tranquility.

A few days before travelling to the Health 2.0 conference in Paris to present in April this year I was feeling very tense. I hadn't been away from my 5 year old son in, well, 5 years, and presenting in front of an audience of over 500, after working mostly on my own for several years, was a bit of a challenge. I had booked myself onto a short workshop that was taking place in my local woods called 'Trees for Health' a few days before I was due to leave. I didn't feel like I had time for such an event, but wanted to support a friend who had organised the day and figured it would be good for my work life balance.

We spent a few hours learning about the health benefits of trees, foraging for things that we could eat, and then lit a fire to make nettle soup and wild garlic salad. It felt like stepping through the door into another world for a short while, but the benefits really were worth it. The night before my trip to Paris I couldn't sleep, so lay down and imagined I was in a forest, looking up at green leaves - it was incredibly relaxing and in the morning I felt refreshed and calm. Now whenever I need a bit of thinking space I take a short walk through the woods, breathe deeply, watch the river, feel alive, re-energized and creative. Whenever feeling a little 'down' I look up to the tops of the trees - impossible not to feel your spirits lifting when you do.

So I thought to share the benefits of trees with you. If you are feeling tense at work, find a wood and try a little tree therapy. Here's a little more about the benefits of trees on your health.

MedMatcha, the medical advertising network, coming soon.

2010-05-11T09:33:00.007+01:00

This week I launched the registration page for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical ad matching network that will be launching soon.

After 4 years experience with MedWorm, looking for a suitable advertising solution that might at least generate enough income to cover the server running costs, I hadn't found anything or anyone that I considered to be offering anything suitable.

Here's what I wanted:

Something simple to use.
No spam or junk ads.
Relevant ads that are of interest to specific topics in the medical sector.
Geographical targeting.
No exclusive contract to sign.
A solution that caters for more than just the US market.
The final say on what exactly appears on my site (ie. if I don't like a particular ad the ability to easily block it).
Some control over pricing - for example, being able to run adverts per view instead of per click, and to set my own permissible CPM limits suitable for my site.
The ability to sell my advertising space directly to my site visitors.
Transparent and fair commissions.

I looked at various options, starting with Google Ads, trying out several Google Ads alternatives, investigating medical ad agencies, and trying out my own installed ad serving software. All options had their problems.

At the same time, I started to contact companies directly to see whether they would be interested in advertising on MedWorm, and to see what kind of an ad solution they would require. I started to realise that a lot of medical companies with worthwhile products that the industry would benefit from knowing more about, do not even bother with online advertising, since there simply isn't an easy, reliable, trustworthy, cost effective way to go about advertising online. Advertisers need to be able to have control over where their ads are placed, to protect their product's reputations, and of course they also want their ads going only to highly relevant audiences, which are often hard to identify on the net. They too want a simple solution, without any big financial commitment, so that they can 'test the waters' easily, and then further invest in only those campaigns that are proven to be effective.

Having reached the conclusion that there must be a better way, I designed one myself. It is being developed by a collaboration of companies, taking the best of an existing sollution and adding to it to make it better.

MedMatcha can be thought of as the dating agency for medical advertising. You fill in a detailed profile of your product/service/website, and it finds you the most closely matched advertising partners. Both advertisers and publishers have to be in agreement about a match before the ads roll.

It will be launched when there have been one thousand quality profiles registered - there's no point in launching before, since the value of the service will come from the ability to find highly matched ad partners. You can help bring the launch date forward by registering your own medical or health site, blog, product or service now, and if you are in the first one thousand to be accepted into the network, you'll get $5 free advertising to get you started. Find out more here.

Oil Spill RSS

2010-04-30T21:06:00.006+01:00

It is terrible news about the oil spill heading towards the cost of America.
I searched the topic of oil spills on MedWorm and found it to contain some useful information.
Here's a MedWorm RSS oil spill feed for those that want to keep up date with what is happening.
The search is quite wide, so there's a number of articles that come through that are not relevant, but most of them are, and it should pick up everything going into MedWorm that is relevant.

Health 2.0 Paris - My Conclusions

2010-04-08T20:47:00.006+01:00

It's been a long time since I posted to my blog, and I realise there are some people checking me out now that the Health 2.0 conference in Paris is over, so I thought I better post some relevant content.

I have to admit I missed many of the presentations at the conference, since I spent most of the whole time discussing possibilities with some very interesting people outside the main hall. However, I caught the tail ends of many of the sessions and had checked out most of the sites beforehand so I did have a grip on what was being discussed and I think the topics and many of the presentations came up in discussion with the people I met.

So here's a few of my observations from the scene, from a European perspective:

Companies in Europe will have to be (and are being) much more creative in developing business models than in the US, due to the segmented market: language barriers, different sales territories, tighter government restrictions regarding pharma advertising to the public, greater dependence on the government sector....

Lack of big pharma sponsorship deals to be had in Europe, due to the segmented market, will force more companies to start small, develop a sustainable business model, and then grow from within, rather than get a great idea, huge investment at the start, and not worry too much about business model in the knowledge that there are big pharma dollars to be milked.

Europeans have a lot more in common than may first be apparent, and a shared identity is starting to emerge, based on good ethics and a willingness to work towards solutions that are truly beneficial towards society that will likely see the development of interesting collaborations across different cultures.

The patient has been 'dumbed down' for far too long. Time to recognise that patient power is an untapped resource that can make a real contribution towards progress in health care, medicine, and even science.

I feel my Health 3.0 post coming on soon. I considered the concept a few years back but it seemed premature to blog about before now.

Does Global Warming Really Exist? My Green Awakening.

2010-01-07T00:11:00.022Z

My local MP (member of parliament, for those of you reading not in the UK), Gary Streeter, recently confessed in our local newspaper (‘Plymptom, Plymstock and Ivybridge News’, Friday 18th December) and on his blog that he his sceptical of global warming. He agrees that the climate is changing, but questions whether it is us that are causing it or whether it is happening naturally.

He says ‘I have a confession, which will disappoint some. I have tried really heard to buy into the hard-core green agenda over the past few years but something inside prevents me from going the whole way. I realise that pumping carbon into our atmosphere can hardly be a good thing, but is it really causing a change in weather patterns of this awesome globe on which we live? I want to believe and yet…’

Gary then goes on to suggest that the scientists could be wrong because the people that built the Titanic said that it could never be sunk and that economists have been saying for the last 15 years that there will never be another recession. He suggests that experts can be wrong or can have their own agenda and that the nation is divided on the issue of global warming , the evidence being streets still full of Christmas lights. He also says that the issue of CO2 does not really matter anyway because gas and oil is running out and energy conservation is going to be driven by this driving economic fact.

He believes that reducing carbon footprint should generally be encouraged and carbon production gradually disincentivised, and that we should take care of the planet, but at a pace that we can afford.

I welcome Gary’s honesty and think he sums up what ‘many’ politicians and indeed ordinary folk truly believe on this matter. And herein lies the problem.

Gary says that he has ‘tried really hard’ to believe, but that something inside him stops him. Gary tried really hard to believe, but his heart did not want to believe. And who can blame it? People throughout the ages, in all different situations, nearly always chose to believe in what they want to believe - what sits nicely, what makes them feel comfortable. Questioning any core values or assumptions and accepting something as not true that one previously believed was true, at inconvenience to oneself, is always a very difficult thing to do. What bigger a challenge can there be to one’s assumptions than that which questions the very existence of man, or at least mankind as we currently know it, and if not in this generation very possibly in just the next?

Canadian research in 2007 reported that talking about the crisis of global warming actually stops people getting motivated to take action on climate change - much better to talk about economics and advances in technology if you want people to act - and for this reason I believe many leading green organisations are actually hold back from laying down the hard cold facts. Contrary to public belief that scientists are scaremongering, I believe they may actually be trying to explain the situation as gently as they can, for fear of turning people off the issue altogether.

But if people really believed that we were jeopardising all of our children’s futures by the way we were living today, would everyone then be prepared to change the way that they live? It is easy to risk our own futures - people do it every day, by smoking for example - but to jeopardise our children’s futures - that adds a new dimension of responsibility. Women are happy to continue smoking and drinking at risk to their own future, but much less are they likely to do so when carrying their unborn child in their womb. Of course some mothers-to-be still continue to live in denial of the damage they are doing, but only a minority. So if everyone were to believe that our continued consumption without concern for the future is likely to cause environmental instability for their children that will see many low lands washed away, warm countries in severe drought, increased hurricanes and extreme weather in places not previously seen, increased flooding on a massive scale, scarcity of food due to failure of crops, increased migration, an increase in wars over dwindling resources, people dying of thirst (not just starvation)…..I could go on, but then I would likely turn you off since this probably sounds like science fiction and too hard for your mind to comprehend. But this fact remains, that there is a very real risk that without us all making real changes now through almost every choice that we make, whilst our children if they are lucky might just get a job and a house on a hill and food on their table, many millions of people in the world likely won’t, and will that be a happy secure place in which they may grow their own families?

Climate change is happening. CO2 in the environment contributes to increased temperatures. These facts are not disputed. The only real debate to be had is whether this phenomenon is man made or a natural cycle and whether anything we can do (or stop doing) is likely to change the process.

The dinosaurs could do nothing to prevent their demise; they just continued to act as nature had intended, and one day nature destroyed them. Mankind however is unlike any other creature to exist or to have existed. We do not act purely on natural instincts; we choose how to act. It is our choice and our intelligence combined that gives us the power to protect or destroy ourselves, and it is the choices that we choose to make each and every day that alter the future for our children, whether we like it or not.

At school we all studied the ecosystem, how everything depends on each other, and how little changes can have big effects. Remove some little creature from the food chain, for example, and much bigger creatures in the rest of the chain are effected. One could argue that it is irrelevant whether global warming is man made or a natural occurrence, but for sure everything we do has an effect on our ecosystem. The choices we make now will effect what we do in the future. Can we reverse deforestation, cut down on pollution and reduce our CO2 emissions enough to stop global warming in time to avoid real hardship? We may be able to, if we all pull together in the right direction. Isn’t it worth a try? Is it worth the risk to do otherwise?

Gary Streeter argues that energy will be conserved anyway in the coming years due to the dwindling resources of oil and gas. The fact that fossil fuel resources are diminishing gives me hope for the future of our climate, but we need to slow down the consumption of fossil fuels quickly, and stop cutting down the rain forest, and get the growing population under control, etc, then our planet may cope with the amount of CO2 that is released over time from the remaining fossil fuels - but continued consumption fuelling economic growth at the current rate (never mind the explosion of development predicted for the emerging markets) will likely see irreversible, and quite possibly catastrophic, damage before we ever reach the end of our oil supplies. Political moves to alternative forms of energy other than that of oil and gas without an acceptance of the problem of CO2 emissions will result in continued emissions through the burning of waste, for example, instead of fossil fuels in their original form.

I am always reluctant to believe politicians for the simple reason that they need to keep in power to keep their positions in their job and in society. For this reason I believe many politicians are influenced primarily by economics and popularity. The current wave of green interest amongst politicians is I believe driven by the looming crisis of dwindling oil supplies, plus popularity (jumping on the bandwagon). The green banner is waved around to get consumers to adapt to a less oil dependant way of life to the benefit of their local economies - but how many politicians really believe that cutting down CO2 emissions is the most important thing, really? Like did we go to war with Iraq because of Saddam Hussein and to free the Iraqi people? No, we went to get control of their oil. And did we really go to war with Afghanistan because of Bin Laden or to liberate Afghan women or to stop the Taliban invading western countries? No, we went to ‘stabilise’ a country so that we could build a crucial new gas pipeline through the country. And do politicians really want to reduce CO2 to prevent millions of people starving and getting washed away? I don‘t thinks so; politicians mostly want to stop people consuming energy because the word is running out of oil. Politicians were never really that bothered before about people starving or getting washed away, so why now? That doesn’t however mean that global warming doesn’t exist. Many politicians know that global warming exists, I think they just aren’t that motivated by it enough to act on it, and like Gary, have something inside of them that just won’t allow them to really accept it is happening.

So the main motivation behind the current political action is likely based on oil dependence, not global warming. And because of this, if politicians can find a way of decreasing oil dependence, whilst keeping the public happy enough to keep them in power, they will do so, whatever the costs to the environment. This is why we start to see the emergence of new technologies and solutions often posing as green, yet frequently doing just as much (if not more) environmental damage than before (just with less dependence on fossil fuels). These schemes will get government backing so long as the economics look right and the public are in favour of them in the run up to an election - but if public opinion moves against such schemes, the politicians will likely carry on regardless, influenced by powerful corporations, unless they are at high risk of losing their seats.

Here just are a few examples that I know about which are encouraged by governments, under the banner ‘green’, which are actually very damaging to the environment :

Farming for Biofuels - rain forests are being gut down to provide land to produce crops for biofuels, resulting in a far greater CO2 hit than the CO2 emissions prevented from the fuel produced, and resulting in food shortages for local populations. http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/

Mining of Rare Earth Metals - crucial for the fabrication of wind turbines, energy saving cars and low energy light bulbs - the majority of which are currently mined in China using environmentally very polluting and dangerous methods with little protection for workers and disastrous consequences for inhabitants of the surrounding lands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgAZOffMj5Y

Energy from Waste (incineration) - burning of municipal waste in large scale incinerators which generate electricity. Energy from waste facilities have been painted green by large money making corporations with the argument that the energy they produce results in a reduced carbon footprint, based on the alternative of leaving rubbish to rot in landfill, thereby producing methane gasses. But the alternatives to in incineration are not untreated landfill, massive amounts of CO2 are produced, and the energy benefits are soon lost should the percentage of paper and plastics being burnt decrease (since temperatures fall, which result in the furnaces requiring the import of gas to keep the fires hot enough to avoid the release of dioxins). Incineration leaves the growing problem of ash disposal (26% of the original waste volume), risk of emissions (especially when plants are not working at their optimum) and the undermining of increasingly valuable recycling activities. http://www.no-burn.org/

As the issue of oil dependence becomes an ever growing problem, watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing. New technologies and incentives all need careful scrutinising for the knock on effects on our ecosystem, and in particular their real cost of CO2 , before they should be classed as green.

Now back to the topic of Gary Streeter and his beliefs:

Gary likens the green movement to that of another religion: ‘This new-found focus on climate change must not become another religion’. I understand the comparison. To believe that your very existence is under threat leads one to start to live in a different way and can effect every choice that you make, should you also believe that the little choices that one makes many times every day could influence the ultimate outcome of existence. However, unlike religions that are concerned with the preservation of the soul for the afterlife, the green movement is very much concerned with the preservation of mankind in this life, not in the one after.

The green movement could be considered by some as a threat to religion itself, especially since green activists are often portrayed as ‘humanists’ and sometimes sun worshipping eco warriors, but in my mind it is totally in harmony with the fundamental beliefs of all religions - putting other people’s interests, especially the weak and powerless, above one’s own, and certainly above selfish economical motivations. The green movement actually provides a uniting motivation, to preserve life, that unites people from all religions and all walks of life. Is the world in need of another religion? I don’t think so. Is the world in need of unity? I’ll let you answer that one.

I’m not mocking Gary, not in the slightest. I appreciate his honesty - that has to be the basis of all progress and I think it would help if more politicians were open enough to say what they really felt on this matter. And until recently, I have to admit I actually felt something similar. There was something inside of me that was really reluctant to embrace the whole green way of living - something there that is always reluctant to believe the hype - which is usually misguided. Plus I am a people person - my interest was more to do with human rights and health care - I left the environment to other people to worry about and sort out.

But then a few things happened to me that made the change. These things I guess were spiritual, which maybe confirms Gary’s religious suspicions. The first was something that clicked inside of me that jolted my out of a defeatist apathetic attitude to many aspects of my daily life, after a nasty brush with the swine flu (previously blogged about). At this point I was given an understanding that bad things happen in this world because good guys let them (all those nice people keeping themselves to themselves). This changed the way I looked at life and made choices, since I found in myself the new belief that everything I did, or did not do, could actually mean I was in some way culpable of some of the many atrocities that happen in this world. This is what led me to taking a greater interest in the local world around me and soon led to me getting involved in our campaign against the plan to build an incinerator in our neighbourhood.

But I still hadn’t had that all important environmental awakening. That happened to me early in the morning of Friday 20th November (the day before our public meeting was to take place about the proposed incinerator). What happened was a dream, or vision if you like. Telling you this will likely get me burnt at the stake, but I’ll tell you anyway, and you can make of it what you will.

I’ve always been a bit if a dreamer. At key times in my life I have had significant dreams that come to me very clearly, different from my other dreams, usually set against a black background, often with an almost audible voice or message on top that stays with me when I wake up. Sometimes these dreams are about relative strangers and situations of which I know nothing. I have always made an effort to tell the people that are in my dreams what I saw for them to make of them what they will - and until now they have always been of remarkable significance. So now when I have one of these dreams (which recently I hadn’t had I think for the previous 4 years) I know straight away to sit up and take note. Of course I don’t expect you to believe me, I would be very sceptical myself if someone told me a similar thing about themselves, or you may believe me but think me loopy - but I’m not too concerned about that either since a friend recently told me that it is when people start to think I am bonkers that I will know I am having a real impact.

I’m afraid that there is no way of explaining my green conversion without this dream, so I figure the best way is to just tell it as I saw it.

I was stood in water in something like the shallow waters of a sea. It was also at the bottom of a valley, and there was a single path up out of the valley, with some kind of animal gate, like a turnstile, half way up the hill, through which people had to pass to get down to the water or up the hill. There were lots of people in the water, children playing, women washing clothes, men bathing. People were from all different nationalities, wearing all different clothes, but in particular I remember seeing a lot or people in traditional Indian dress. Everyone was doing different things, moving in different directions, going about their business. Some people were swimming out too far and then older ladies started wading out after them to call them back, telling the people that they were going too far. Then the waters started to rise, and rise very quickly. People started to panic. Some people tried to go out to sea to save those further out, others started to try and push their way up the hill, but there was a bottleneck and not many could get up. Many people started to get washed away. Then I was transported to a sea barrier, that I imagine was like the Thames barrier, and from there I stood and watched whilst people got washed out to sea. I felt great fear, and then sadness, and began to wake.

I opened my eyes for a brief moment. I was aware of being awake and being fully aware of what I was seeing. I lay down again with some peace and started the dream again.

Exactly the same start. I was in the water in exactly the same place, with all the same people doing the same things. I saw the people swimming out too far and felt that that waters were soon to start rising and anticipated the panic. Then I heard a voice telling me to tell everyone to join hands, which I did. And then the voice said to tell everyone to pull in the same direction, moving slowly up the hill, which we did. Then the sea started to rise, as before, but we were strong and could pull back the people who had gone deep into the sea, and we all slowly moved up the hill together. I started to wake up. I was not completely certain that we had started pulling in time, but I had the feeling that we may have been just in time. There was no panic. No one person had to pull more than the others. We all pulled together.

As I started to wake up I asked what was meant by the holding of hands, and the voice said to me that it was communication. People had to start communicating. Society is broken, it needs rebuilding. It is together when we communicate and pull together in the same direction that we are strong.

I woke up and knew that this dream was a warning about global warming. I swear until that day I hadn’t really given it much thought, and would have been much happier to believe the articles that were soon to appear in the newspapers saying that it was all just a big lie to get us to pay more taxes. I went downstairs and turned on the TV. Cumbria had been flooded in the night (no it wasn’t on the news the night before). A close relative of mine works with the environment in the Lake District so was able to give me a first hand account, which had an even greater impact.

So this was my green awakening, but I don’t expect it to come like that to everyone. The worst case scenario of global warming is a truly terrifying prospect that I know we would all sooner deny. Much easier to surround ourselves with material possessions and drink ourselves stupid to forget the cares in this world. I hope we may all find courage to face up to the facts of global warming and urge everyone to err on the side of caution and to make the changes we can to do our best to provide a stable future for our children, before it is too late.

I am a people person, but now I realise that if we don't start respecting the laws of nature and putting our environment first, there may be little point in worrying about healthcare and human rights.

What are we doing in Afghanistan?

2009-11-17T11:14:00.004Z

Afghanistan is all over the news at the moment, it is a big problem.
But what are we really doing there and why?
This is what puzzles the general public. And just try and get a straight answer to the question from any politician. Why are we in Afghanistan? You won't ever get an answer that makes the slightest bit of sense.

Does any politician really care about the people of Afghanistan, and if they do, then why Afghanistan above other countries where people were suffering much more (before they invaded it)? Does anyone honestly believe that we are in threat of the Taliban attacking the UK if we don't stamp them out in their own country?

We went into Afghanistan to catch Bin Laden, and we went to Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction, didn't we?

Many people knew then, and still know now, that the real reason behind these wars is oil. It is just incredible that the news organisations never talk about this obvious fact.

America and its allies went into Iraq to get control of its oil, which it has now done.
America and its allies went into Afghanistan to try and stabilise (get control of) the country in order to build a crucial new pipeline to export oil from major reserves in Central Asia to the rest of the world (Afghanistan appeared to be the only route that was feasible).

As oil becomes increasingly short in supply, expect to see an increase of such wars under the pretext of fighting for human rights and liberties and the stamping out of Islamic fundamentalism (which we will of course see an increase in as differing powers use whatever means they can to control people in order to benefit their own means and in particular get a hold of the diminishing oil resources that make the world turn round).

I know this is stating the obvious, and many people have known this all along, but sometimes the obvious needs stating, many times, before people start to wake up to the truth.

Have a Google of 'Afghanistan oil pipeline' to find all the evidence you need.

Now I'm not saying we should leave Afghanistan in the mess we have got it into. I'm not saying that Al-Qaeda and growing Islamic fundamentalism isn't a huge problem, it is. I don't know what the solution is off the top of my head. But I think until we can stand on the truth and face the real reasons behind such wars, we aren't ever going come up with an enduring solution.

Just had to get that off my chest...

Saving the World

2009-11-16T13:33:00.004Z

I love this song so much it is interfering with my work (keep playing it on You Tube and can't help but singing and bopping along), so thought to share it with you. The lyrics kind of tie in with several different aspects of my life right now.

A supersized incinerator - coming to a site near you soon!

2009-11-12T13:35:00.008Z

Anyone following my blog may have noticed the psychological journey I have been taking over the past few years, wanting to put something back into society and getting increasingly interested in social issues. You may also have read about my emotional crisis as I felt the reality of my own mortality during my fight with swine flu at the same time as I was questioning what my response to evil (ie, the massacre in Rwanda and the bombing of innocent children in Gaza) could and should be.

You may have spotted my moment of liberation when I came to understand that the evil in this world comes about from the indifference of the good, the lack of positive action and intervention by the strong, healthy, wealthy and free on behalf of the weak, sick, poor and persecuted people of this world.

This conviction gave me a renewed sense of purpose that I no longer have to ask myself 'why am I doing this?' when spending time addressing an issue of injustice or social need that may not directly have any benefit for myself. Life for me is one big test. I have been given a lot (health, intelligence, freedom, etc) - what am I going to do with that which I have been given? This is the game of life.

So with this renewed sense of purpose, following my brief encounter with the grim reaper, I started to make slightly different decisions. I started to to ask myself at every occasion whether I really was doing what I could and should do.

This started in the supermarket. I would have called myself an occasional conscious shopper - the odd Fairtrade packet of tea (especially when they were on offer!), mostly trying to avoid the caged eggs (especially when Happy Eggs were on their introductory price) and using reusable bags when I remembered (especially if they looked cool and had the 'Animal' logo on the side).

Now this has changed. Turned up to the supermarket without my bags, what did I do - not use any. I got a few funny looks wheeling a trolley out of the supermarket not in any bags and loading each individual item into my car - but at least my conscience was clear and I should remember my bags next time. I got a grilling from my husband after spending an extra 50p on eggs whilst we are having to borrow a huge amount of money to pay for an operation for a family member - this made me feel bad, so we have come to an agreement, if he wants eggs from caged hens then he'll have to buy them himself - I just can't bring myself to do that anymore.

Some guy had posted a suicide note on his blog that got indexed via MedWorm. I was emailed by one of the site visitors that was concerned about the issue and wondered if I could do anything to reach out to him. I did have his email so thought to send him one. Usually I would have left it at that, but my new conviction told me that wasn't enough, so I went out of my way to track down his details and tried to call him, as well as some people in his area that might be able to reach out to him. Last I hear he is still alive after a stay in hospital - don't know the exact details, or whether my small effort made the slightest bit of difference in the larger chain of events, but my conscience was clear that I had done everything I personally could when challenged to care.

I decided to take more of an interest in politics. I did not like politics, and had yet to meet a politician that I really liked or thought I could trust at all, so generally steered clear of them like many people do. I realised that this attitude is wrong. If I am to have a positive impact on this world then I must show more of an interest. Feeling motivated by Obama's victory, believing that there must be a few good people out there, I noticed a leaflet from a local guy running for a position as our local member of parliament (Luke Pollard) - thought he seemed quite a nice guy and contacted him to ask him some questions about politics and what motivates him. I figured that even if I couldn't quite bring myself to support a party, if I could at least find a single person in politics that I liked and could share some ideas with then that would be a start.

Luke brought to my attention the matter of a huge incinerator that is being proposed for less than 2 miles from where I live. I was horrified to learn that planning permission for it was due to be submitted in just a matter of weeks, and yet none of my neighbours knew about the matter.

So I met with Luke and a few other concerned residents, and next thing I'm building a website to raise awareness about the incinerator issue, giving out leaflets and knocking on doors. I was pretty open minded about the matter, the pros and cons of the proposal, but as I researched the issue I became more and more convinced that the issue of incineration is a huge one that urgently needs addressing by people worldwide.

Huge incinerators are proposed for the disposal of our waste all across the UK, and I understand in many other countries too. The accumulative effects of a large number of new incinerators, emitting dioxins that are persistent and bioaccumulative, as well as producing ash that is high in metals and other toxins that ends up in landfill anyway, have major implications for future generations for our entire planet.

So now my social action and conscience brings me back to the matter of health, which is what I am all about!

Will tell you more about my adventures shortly....(watch this space because I have a feeling that this is about to get very interesting)

Make a Prayer

2009-10-15T15:02:00.005+01:00

Just finished posting my last blog item 'call to action' when I realised, as fate would have it, that the lyrics to the song that I happened to be listening to at that time were entirely relevant, so thought to share the song with you too.

A Call to Action

2009-10-15T11:14:00.017+01:00

I have not blogged for a while. Reason being I have so many things going round my mind I wasn't sure which issue to write about first, and of course it all takes time, which is forever in short supply.

This post explains a fundamental belief that I have recently consolidated that underlies many of my motivations, and other posts that I wish to write, hence I decided this would be the best place to start.

This is my belief:

It is the inaction of the good that allows the bad to happen.

Put it another way:

'Minding your own business' or 'turning a blind eye' makes you guilty of the bad that occurs, that could have otherwise been avoided with your intervention.

When talking of all the bad things that happen in this world, many people conclude that there is no God, or at least not a loving God. My husband put it another way to me: It is not God who causes bad things to happen, but it is God's intervention that stops bad things happening. When you look at the chaos of matter, it is apparent that God intervened to bring about creation. Looking at the beginning of life, from the very start of conception, the forming of cells, the growth of the fetus to the delivery of the baby into this world - from the very beginning there are so many things that can go wrong, the fact that anyone can even get so far as to be born is evidence of God's intervention.

Bad things happen, all the time, chaos, and it is 'the good' that must intervene. Others would have it that the bad must be stopped. But my argument is that 'the good' must intervene, rather than the bad stopped, or chaos will reign.

It is not OK to be ambivalent. It is not OK to live your own good life, in your own little shell, when you have the power to do otherwise. Not if you believe in justice.

We all have varying degrees of ability and power. Our action in this world must take into consideration the resources available to us. We must make the most of what we have to intervene and with the purest of intentions, for if our core motivations are selfish rather than altruistic, or if we are dishonest with ourselves and fail to admit our own failings, we can easily fall into the trap of self-rightousness that could lead us to become part of an even bigger problem than that which we think we are trying to solve.

The belief is a religious one, since without the fundamental belief of God, a unifying force of goodness, and also justice, it makes little sense. The justice part is important - those with ability, power, conscience, they are the ones that must act - but there has to come at the end of it all some kind of reckoning, some kind of judgement as to how well we have performed, some kind of reward for those who do well, some kind of punishment for those who do bad, some redistribution of the wealth, some recompense for those who have had their unfair share of suffering - or else justice has no meaning. But I think the principle is common to all religions - and even my friend 'the humanist' may share some of the same ideas.

As a child I learned how to share and how to care for my dolly. I learned how to forgive my brother for kicking me under the table and all those nasty 'Chinese burns' he liked to inflict on my arm, as I came to realise that the bullying he experienced at school and the punishment inflicted on him by my father were bound to result in him finding some outlet for his aggression - I just happened to be a convenient punch bag, he really didn't mean any harm. Early on I came to understand a little about chain reactions - memories of war resulted in my grandfather drinking to forget, which resulted in maltreatment of his family, which resulted in emotional instability in my father, which resulted in him coming down really hard on my brother, which resulted in him finding it hard to make friends, which resulted in him getting bullied, which resulted in my brother taking it out on me. None of it was really anyone's fault, so I learned a lot about forgiveness, which was a good lesson to learn. I made some special friends and took on board their feelings. I learnt that lying was a bad thing and that we should treat other people the way we would like to be treated ourselves. I enjoyed school, doing academically well without any major effort, found it easy to make friends, and also enjoyed doing things on my own and especially creating (all kinds of things) in my own little bubble.

As a young teenager I started to understand that there were some really awful things happening outside our relatively cosy environment. The issues with my brother and my father's quick temper were minor problems compared to the threat of nuclear war. The images of emaciated children in Ethiopia that found their way onto all our TV screens were a complete shock to me that I struggled to comprehend. Every morning I always picked up whatever was nearest to me to read over my breakfast; increasingly it happened to be a copy of the Amnesty International magazine that would hang around in my parent's post. Stories of electrical shock treatment and prisoners of conscience digested with my Weetabix.

I remember the moment when I decided not to read or watch that stuff any more. It was during the 6 o'clock news. I don't remember the story that was being recounted but I have a vague recollection of images of tanks and explosions. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed; my confusion and feeling of inability to do anything about such events led me to shut the door on my compassion. My reaction was to choose to block out such information. I would live my life, the best I could, and the rest of the world could get lost. What other option did I have?

And from that day on I left the room whenever the my father was watching the news. I stopped reading the newspapers. I concentrated on me and my future, and did everything that a rebel teenager could do to have a good time and fulfil my desires, utterly self-centred, sprinkled with self-indulging moments of empathy that served to excuse my selfishness. The only problem was that it was a road to no-where, and as I grew older, wisdom started to beckon; a void within started to ache; a voice of depression and despair emerged. Somewhere deep down there I lost everything, and was left really with nothing of my own except a small flicker of faith, which became my rock on which to build a future.

It was a long process to find the strength to face up to the dilemma of existence, good versus bad, the meaning of life, and only just these recent days that I have consolidated just what it is that I believe to be true regarding injustice and evil, and what my response can and should be.

The belief that it is my obligation to do the best I can to make a positive impact on society changes everything for me. It is not enough for me to 'live a good life' looking out for me and my family, minding my own business, ensuring I don't do any harm to anyone, for I have been given intellect, resources, freedom and health, and therefore the obligation to respond accordingly gives me purpose that changes my life. The consequence of doing anything other than my best, of keeping silent when I know something is wrong, is that one day I can expect to be held accountable for future atrocities - this is terrifying, to be considered in some way responsible for the horrors that exist is my call to action. Such a terrible thought is what actually gives me power.

This reasoning forms the basis of my future.

(If you just stepped into my blog here and like this post you may also like the 'Make a Prayer' video that I posted next.)

Little One Step

2009-08-19T20:01:00.005+01:00

One of the benefits of being a working parent with a young child is that you have are constantly forced to stop and look at the basic teachings of life. Each evening I am obliged to read a little story to my young son (one of my nicest duties in life). Sometimes they are beautiful, sometimes funny stories, often with a little (or big) life message that I probably benefit more from than my son.

One of my favourite books that I happened across is 'Little One Step' by Simon James. It tells the story of a little duckling out for a walk with his bigger siblings. He has to walk through a wood to get home, and each time he stops and looks at the tall dark trees he is afraid, but his siblings teach him to just concentrate on taking a 'little one step', and then another, and then another. Before he knows it he is home, feeling very proud of himself!

When I look at my plans for MedWorm and the mountain of code I have yet to write I often feel overwhelmed, but then I just concentrate on a little one step, and then another. I guess like swimming The Channel, running a marathon, rowing The Atlantic, just concentrating on the 'little one steps', not worrying too much about what is to come, or looking for too long at where you have been, just taking 'little one step, little one step, little one step...'

Simon James also wrote 'Baby Brains', which I stumbled upon this week. Completely different, but very amusing!

Swine Flu Anxiety

2009-07-20T23:18:00.012+01:00

Honestly today I am soooo much better. I can now say for sure that I am disease free - still weak, but today I can actually say the coughing has stopped and each day I am feeling stronger. But last week I had one of the worst nights of my life. No joke, I really thought I was dying!

As with most days over the past few weeks I woke feeling a little better, but in the afternoon my cough got worse and became very tiresome come the evening and into the night. This particular evening, feeling truly exhausted and in need of a good night's sleep, but unable to stop the coughing whenever I lay down, my husband gave me a sore throat sweet that included in it an anaesthetic to help relax my throat which he said had helped him.

Indeed my throat muscles did relax, but then I started to feel really anxious that there was mucous building up in my lungs that I was unable to cough up.

I gave up trying to sleep and instead decided to have a steam with some Vicks in hot water and a towel over my head. Whilst doing so I made the mistake of continuing with a read of 'An Imperfect Offering: Dispatches from the medical frontline'. It is the autobiography of James Orbinski, past president of Medicine Sans Frontieres. I was part way through the chapter which recounts his time spent in Rwanda during the genocide that took place in 1994, when an estimated 1 million men, women and children were butchered to death in a matter of just 12 weeks. I had reached a particularly harrowing scene which involved many orphaned children when I put down the book and realised I could read no more since I felt sick to my core. Empathy is one of my strengths and imagination is another; I had seen too much and was feeling traumatised by the scene which was now imprinted on my memory.

I then decided to try sleeping sitting up, since lying down triggered the coughing, so wrapped a quilt around me and tried to get comfortable on the couch. That is when I started to feel short of breath and my pulse increased. I also felt a little nauseous and started to panic that maybe I had overdosed on cough medicine - I had completely lost track of how much I had drunk. My husband came downstairs to find me in a traumatised state and unable to speak easily to explain how I felt.

My (doctor) husband, after running through all my symptoms (palpitations, high pulse, sweaty, dry mouth, nausea), started to draw to the conclusion that I was likely suffering from anxiety, that my symptoms where perhaps psychologically induced. I honestly believed him, everything fitted, but I still couldn't get rid of that feeling that I was fighting for my life, to the point where I suggested a few times that he call an ambulance (to which he replied 'what for? all you are going to do is sit in A&E for a few hours and then get sent home').

All night I felt sick, trying to control my breathing and slow down the palpitations, trying to get some sleep, but each time I shut my eyes I felt like I was fighting to get my breath and all I could see was horrific scenes in Rwanda that I would have liked to tell myself were just a bad dream, but which I knew had really happened. The anxiety continued throughout the night. I managed to snatch maybe 20 minutes sleep here and there come the end of the night.

The next morning I felt slightly better for a short while, and then the anxiety started to return. It was stronger than me and try as much as I wanted to control it I was struggling. After a few hours tossing and turning, and then a few hours pacing up and down like a crazy woman, I decided that I simply had to get a grip of myself or else face a life of complete hopelessness.

I agreed not to finish the book and to instead read some light material for a change. Also to stop listening to the news and counting the swine flu death toll. I also shut down my computer and agreed to do nothing for a few days except spend time with my children. All this helped. I spent the day at the park, but as evening drew closer, and I knew that my husband had to work that night, I started to feel anxious again with the fear that the night would bring back the same terror of the night before, only this time my husband would not be there to help.

I know that many young and middle aged women become somewhat dependant on tranquillizers and sleeping tablets as a result of anxiety, and for the first time in my life I understood why and just how destructive this condition can be. Probably fortunately for me I was also anxious of what effect taking a tranquillizer could have on me, so was reluctant to take drugs and first wanted to try all possible natural methods before taking any medication. My fear was also that if I couldn't get a grip of my anxiety without drugs to calm my nerves, that I would always need them in the future.

I first looked for a lighter read and returned to the autobiography of Barack Obama. Then I remembered how the Psalms of David had helped me in previous life trials and thought to read a few verses. And then I remembered my guitar. It had been years since I had played, but it had been a trusty friend upon which I had come to rely during times of solitude in a previous life.

I was surprised to find that I had not forgotten how to play and within minutes of playing and singing a few lines (to my creator) I felt all the tension drain from me and I knew I was going to be fine. That night I shut my eyes with peace. I listened to a subtle voice telling me 'relax and I will heal you'. I knew then that I didn't have to make myself cough, I just had to relax and all the mucous would just work its way up on its own. That night I slept for the first time in four weeks (no joke - had actually been much longer before I had got a good nights sleep, since before I was ill my son had woken be every night for 3 weeks with his illness).

I was only woken by my husband who called me from his work at the hospital to check if I was able to get to sleep or in need of some medication. I told him I was just fine and wasn't going to have any more issues with anxiety.

I know now that whenever anxiety returns in my life all I need do is play my guitar. Of course relaxing music has always been used to help calm people down, but I would suggest that a much more effective remedy, rather than just listening to music, is playing music (and getting in touch with your soul). Maybe all those people suffering with a long term anxiety disorder would be well to take up playing a musical instrument?

I suspect I am not the only person who will be suffering anxiety as a result of the swine flu. It wasn't just the swine flu that left me in this state, it was a combination of things (extreme fatigue, overwork, locking my keys in the car, housework building up, worry for my children's health, a growing interest in and concern for human rights and past atrocities, etc...) but the swine flu pushed me over the edge, since it exhausted me physically and it also worried me mentally.

If you are worried about the swine flu, I'd encourage you to turn off the tv, stop reading the media, eat healthily, sleep well and relax! Do lots of fun things and then maybe you'll recover a lot quicker.

For those with an interest in anxiety, here's the MedWorm topic on Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). For those stepping into my blog now interested in swine flu, make sure to check out my previous swine flu posts in the blog archive at the side, or you can start my swine flu experience here.

(Update: Now fighting fit physically, but the whole 'feeling close to death' thing has had a significant impact on me. Left me still struggling somewhat with anxiety and also revisiting some of my fundamental beliefs about life.)

My Swine Flu Update

2009-07-16T08:15:00.013+01:00

Just in case you were wondering what happened to me, another 6 days later and I am still coughing! The antibiotics have certainly taken the edge off the illness by putting a halt to the secondary bacterial infection that was starting, and took the pain away that was developing in my chest, but I was left I think with a lingering case of viral bronchitis that wasn't going anywhere fast.

Realising that modern medicine didn't have much to offer me I looked into some natural remedies and then went out and bough a big bag of licorice and a bottle of cinnamon leaf oil. Not sure how much effect the licorice has, but I have been surprised at the almost instant relief to my symptoms and also lift to my mood that I experienced from just a drop of cinnamon leaf oil (not to be placed on the skin or taken orally, but just inhaled, and not in large quantities either, just one drop seems very strong).

The day after (which was yesterday) I was feeling much better, but then in the afternoon and evening, and well into the night (2am) I did some more heavy duty coughing as whatever must have been lodged deep in my lungs from the now shifting illness started to make a move up.

Not nice to detail, but for medical purposes I will tell you that it was yellow and incredibly sticky stuff like I have never experienced before in my life. Even though I was feeling much better in myself, it was at times a little scary getting this stuff up as I started to wonder whether the sticky stuff might block my airway altogether, so did some steaming with Vicks in hot water and a towel over my head which I think helped, as did another drop of the cinnamon leaf oil.

Finally got to sleep at 2.30am, too exhausted (again) to cough any more. Hoping for further improvement in my condition today! (yes that doesn't sound like improvement, but all the while I have been feeling better in myself like the infection is diminishing).

The other symptom I forgot to mention was a white furry tongue with red spots - we've all had it. I was one of my first symptoms, nearly four weeks back now, and I noticed I still have it today. I think that when my tongue returns to normal I will know that I am finally better.

4 weeks ill with the swine flu: week 1 getting ill, week 2 definitely ill getting worse, week 3 getting better in the mornings then relapsing in the afternoons, week 4 fighting off the secondary bacterial infection and then starting to get better (I think/hope). Who said this thing would be gone in 7 to 10 days?

Let me make this clear, I am a fit and healthy women in mid 30s, my husband also (although not a woman!) suffering the same duration of illness, my father too, in his 60s, but also fit and healthy. My younger sister (in 20s) was also ill for weeks, but I think closer to 3 than 4 weeks. My son, aged 4 (also normally healthy), was ill a few days sooner than us, was more seriously ill at the beginning (very high temperature in particular) but seems to have recovered much quicker (although again this morning a touch warm and a little cough so I hope nothing is returning).

I can understand why pregnant women are at high risk since there is no way I could have managed the heavy duty coughing in my third trimester.

Lots of reports around that this is no more serious than seasonal flu. I have had seasonal flu a couple of times. Seasonal flu made me feel awful, very achy, heavy head cold, extremely week, but at no time concerned that what I had could be life threatening. With this I didn't feel as achy or wiped out, but the cough is the worst I have experienced (bar the whooping cough I had as a young child that I still remember) and at times when I was fighting to get the stuff out of my airways I was truly scared as to how much worse things were going to get and very aware of my mortality.

When my mother started to develop symptoms a few days ago she took no messing around - knowing that it is only effective if taken in the first few days of symptoms she insisted that the doctor prescribe her Tamiflu since she had seen how much my father had suffered and she was not prepared to go through the same. Good for her I say! Not normally very assertive, she was well informed and took her health into her own hands - she had strong evidence to suggest that we had the swine flu, that she was developing it, and knew that the Tamiflu had to be prescribed straight away if it was to be of any effect, and had the courage to call her GP and argue her case. I think this was sensible. The rest of us did not ask for Tamiflu since we knew it was too late for us. My father was prescribed it even though he had been ill for 3 weeks, and confirmed that it had no effect on him whatsoever, but my mother is feeling her condition improve rather than deteriorate, thanks to her own swift action.

Now finding a 'flu buddy' who would be prepared to visit my mother for her id and prescription, and then travel to the Tamiflu distribution centre to wait with other 'swine flu buddies' (risking their own contamination) - that's a different story (a strategy that has obviously not been clearly thought through and I have to tell you does not work for even those people that have lots of friends in the community - so how it should work for someone that is more isolated I don't know).

Now if you want more information on swine flu, I have to tell you that you won't find a better source than the MedWorm swine flu updates (every hour, compiled from nearly 7,000 sources):
- Swine flu official news
- Swine flu in the medical blogs
- Swine flu discussions (join in by commenting on any of the swine flu articles in MedWorm)

If you have just stepped into my blog here, make sure to also read my posts on when I first realised I had swine flu and also about my swine flu recuperation. There's also now one more post about my swine flu episode that comes after this one, which talks about a swine flu anxiety attack I experienced, to round off my experience.

Swine Flu Recuperation

2009-07-09T22:22:00.007+01:00

Today I feel better. Yesterday after posting that I was on the mend I then seemed to take a turn for the worse - my temperature started to rise again, I developed pain across one side of my chest, started to sweat a lot and sensed my cough was changing into something maybe worse. So after 10 days of fighting this thing and feeling completely exhausted, I accepted it was about time to start antibiotics since my infection was likely turning bacterial. I started to read about pneumonia and decided I didn't want to take the risk.

I then started to worry about my father who seemed worse than myself and not really getting better either. I called my mother and insisted that she call the doctor the next morning whether he agreed or not. My father, in the typical British manner, prefers to struggle on without medical intervention. We are all now so conditioned by GPs telling us that what we have is a virus and there is nothing they can do for us, that many are now scared of calling a doctor unnecessarily. Recognising when one has deteriorated enough to make that call is tricky. I believe that often when ill and gradually deteriorating you are not able to take the right decision yourself, and the call is often made far too late.

Now 24 hours and 4 doses of antibiotics later I can safely say I am now feeling better. For the first time in days I was able to lie down and have a nap without coughing almost continuously. And my father now has his antibiotics too so I can relax I think. Phew!

Let me tell you, swine flu is no 'walk in the park'. Of course one shouldn't panic, but at the same time it should be taken seriously. I am fit and healthy without any underlying conditions, but I have to tell you there were a few moments when I really struggled and started to wonder how much worse the cough was going to get. It must really be a concern for the many people that do have underlying conditions.

Here's my swine flu tip: If you start to feel a little tired and unwell, take time out then, sleep a lot, eat really well, get lots of fluids, take some vitamins. Do everything you can to get shut of it in its early days. I instead carried on about my business. Although I felt very tired I did nothing to get more rest and I think that is partly why it hit me so hard the following week. My daughter, when she felt tired, slept, and slept, and slept, and then she was fine. Maybe that helped her?

Isn't it nice when we feel illness on the retreat and normal health start to return? Isn't good health such a wonderful thing?

Yesterday I watched a lady on the TV who had been awaiting a lung transplant for the last 2 years. She had cystic fibrosis. Everyone at the hospital talked about how wonderful she was and what a positive outlook she had. But without a lung transplant soon she will not have much future.

I asked my husband about cystic fibrosis. He said to think of the annoying secretions that I had experienced on my lungs over the past few weeks, and to imagine experiencing that all my life. I can't.

I wondered whether with new lungs she would be cured, or whether she would always suffer from this terrible condition.

Here's the MedWorm section on cystic fibrosis and here's the one on swine flu. You can read what happened next in my swine flu story here or read more about when I first realised I had the swine flu in my previous post.

I've got the swine flu.... probably

2009-07-08T09:57:00.008+01:00

GPs aren't testing for the swine flu in the UK anymore, and the WHO is about to advise that countries with widespread cases stop testing, since 95% or more cases of flu are now caused by H1N1, so there is no way to prove that I have the swine flu.

But I am sure that is what it is, as is my husband (who is a doctor). My sister's friend, who is Argentinian and was living in Spain flew to visit her and then got ill - next to follow was my sister, who was visited by parents just before she presented with symptoms. My parents then came to stop at our household for a few days, and then my sister also paid us a visit. Shortly after my sister getting ill, my mother started to feel like she was developing something (although she seemed to fight it off), and then myself, my husband, my son and my father (who does not live with us) all fell ill at the same time.

My none-scientific calculations, if our source of illness is correct, tell me that the incubation period is quite long, something closer to the early suggestions of around about 8 days between coming into contact with the virus and developing symptoms. Now my son's (4 year old) friends are also starting to develop suspect symptoms, and if they caught it from him then the 8 days would also fit. However, I read that recent reports suggest a shorter incubation period that could even be as short as 1 - 4 days. Personally I think that this may be due to the virus being so widespread at the moment - when you go down with the flu, maybe your friends are too, but doesn't mean that's who you caught it from - it could well be that you and your friends were in contact with someone else at the same time, who may have had the illness that you don't even know about. After all, who wants to advertise the fact that they think they may have the swine flu? I certainly didn't want to be the one that got my children's schools shut down! I am relieved now that our government are no long taking this cause of action, since the disruption to everyone when this happens is huge, and I figure everyone is going to come into contact with this now sooner or later.

So how we feel? Why are we convinced we got the swine flu? And what treatment did we receive?

I first started to feel a little 'odd' like I was going down with a strange cold that I thought was suspicious. Felt a little unlike other colds although I wasn't sure why. I was quite tired and I remember had absolutely no energy in my aerobics class and being very out of breath. I had a slight saw throat and developed a very 'sticky' cough that came on very quickly, which I found unusual since I am not prone to catch many coughs, and certainly not so quickly. I found it 'stickier' than anything I had experienced before, but I wasn't very unwell. A slight temperature. I had started taking Sambucol (black elderberry extract) which I had researched on Pubmed and seemed to be effective in boosting immunity against flu viruses. I then seemed to be getting better and shifting whatever it was, before it came back and hit me a second time. This time the cough was much worse. It is a deep chesty cough that seems to hit you in waves - sometimes you think it is getting better, and then all of a sudden you feel really bad - and then you pick up again. The cough goes on and on and keeps you up at night. Mine didn't have any yellow secretions, although my husband's did a little (so he took some antibiotics to fight any secondary bacterial infection). Sounds like we have TB. I've been coughing badly now for 9 days, but today I would say I am definitely feeling better and can say now I think is is subsiding. My sister tells me she was really ill but is now 100% better with no symptoms at all - which is reassuring.

I did not visit the doctor. I took lots of Sambucol, which I believe took the edge off things (I would always feel better a few hours after taking it) as well as chesty cough medicine containing Guaifenesin, which I could not have done without, as well as bronchial balsam mixture, and lots of Vicks almost permanently on my chest (which I think may have helped relax me slightly). I haven't taken any paracetamol, instead preferring to let myself run with a very slight temperature, since my own theory is that helps me fight the infection better. We have also been drinking lots of red berry juice - which tastes very good to me at the moment! Have been tired and worn out, which is no surprise due to the disrupted sleep and heavy duty coughing. Now I am quite pleased I have had this and am on the mend since I figure I can relax a little come the Winter without any major concerns for the flu. One thing I would say is that this flu has seemed different to any other. The main thing has been the cough. I have felt maybe a little achy at times, and have had a slight 'sniffle', but nothing like the aches and head colds of previous flu - but that may have been due to the Sambucol which I believe is effective in fighting such symptoms.

My 4 year old son was also hit by two waves - first off he got a high temperature round about 39 degrees (under the arm) that responded after a few hours to Calpol and Calprofen - followed by a sudden cold that seemed to be clearing after a few days - but then 4 to 5 days later had a sudden temperature that rose above 40 degrees - not sure exactly how hot, since after that we were so busy trying to get the temperature down we didn't have time to take it again (well maybe we were too scared to) until it had dropped a little. After that he developed the same cough as us. He has on the whole however slept better than us, after his initial temperature, his cough hasn't been quite as bad and I think been getting well quicker (at least I hope so, although it is obviously much more worrying seeing him ill than experiencing this ourselves).

We initially called NHS Direct regarding our son, who gave us general advice on treating the flu. Later in the night we called our out of hours doctor who told us to take him to our nearest treatment centre - which was quite a drive actually to the hospital, so we didn't bother since his temperature was starting to come down. The next time his temperature flared up we took him to the GP the next day who thought it was probably a virus but saw that his throat was sore, so prescribed antibiotics as a precaution. Swine flu was not mentioned since there were not many known cases in the area at that time. However, just a few weeks later when my friend took her children to the doctor with the same symptoms they have said it is quite possibly swine flu, although they cannot confirm this. She was not offered Tamiflu, which I found was surprising since both her children are asthmatic, but told to go back if it got much worse.

Worth noting is that my mother felt she was going down with something, so on my recommendation took Sambucol and then felt fine, as did my 14 year old daughter (who we have been coughing all over the past few weeks, and after just a dry throat and slight temperature one night, and several doses of Samucol, has also stayed well).

So that's our 'probably swine flu' story, for those that are wondering whether they have it too and what the symptoms might be. Good luck with your dose! Read what happened next in my swine flu story here.

Don't forget to check out MedWorm for all the very latest swine flu news.

Learning in the Right Order

2009-06-12T08:18:00.009+01:00

Everything is easy to learn when you learn it in the right order.

The is what I realised last night. I was about to jump into O'Reilly's DNS & BIND Cookbook, in preparation for a major MedWorm migration (yes a shiny new server is on its way that will resolve all or its performance issues!) when I read in the preface 'This book expressly doesn't concentrate on DNS theory. For that, I'd (not surprisingly) recommend DNS and BIND. Without an understanding of the theory behind DNS, you're like the Southeast Asian Scrabble players who memorize the spelling -- but not the meaning or pronunciation -- of tens of thousands of English words: all syntax, no semantics.'

Now usually I think I would just ignore such information and carry on regardless, but this time for some reason I realised the importance of really getting to grips with the theory behind DNS before I learnt the details of how to configure it. So I put down the book and instead got myself a copy of DNS and BIND. Glad I did, since I began to realise how simple DNS actually is if you learn it in the right order. Just a question of laying a few foundations and then putting the bricks one on top of the other. It is important to put those bricks in the right order though. Like the little toddler learning to build a pyramid style tower, when they have to place the largest bricks at the bottom and then choose the right brick to place next in order to reach the top.

A lot of people think I.T. is difficult, and that you have to be really clever to understand it. My self-belief that I could program came from reading the first few chapters of the basic manual as a child - I did nothing much with computing after that until I had reached adulthood, but I had the confidence to enroll on a softwear engineering course because I had written a little basic program adding a couple of numbers together when I was aged about 10; I knew that I understood the basic principal of programming and that the rest would just be adding pieces of that understanding together.

This is also why children start with the alphabet when they learn to read, why my first chemistry lesson started with the atom, and why my first biology lesson began with the cell (as far as I can recall).

Everything in I.T. is easy if you learn it in the right order. Next time I am reading something that seems difficult, it is just a question of identifying which area of knowledge I am missing and then going back and learning a few basics in that area, and then building on that basic information to find my way through to the destination - a bit of patience, starting at the beginning rather than jumping straight to the end. I can however 'fast-track' my way to the end, because I know where I want to go and can take a straight route there.

I was pleased with my moment of revelation and shared my new understanding with my husband, who just said 'Of course, it is the same with everything. Didn't you know that?', with the tone of voice that made me think that this is something everyone else already knew, and it was just me that was taking a long time to recognise this fact. Next time I am proof reading his medical publications, wondering where he gets his knowledge from, I'll just remind myself that he too just started at the beginning, and then carried on putting one brick on top of another, in the right order.

But just in case you hadn't realised this yet, thought I might share my moment revelation with you:

Everything is easy to learn when you learn it in the right order.

Swine Flu - Better to live in the UK than the USA

2009-05-24T08:44:00.005+01:00

Once again the NHS is proving its worth in the UK. Swine flu cases have now reached 122 here in the UK, but the rate at which it is spreading I find somewhat reassuring. I live in the South West where 3 cases evolved weeks ago. A family returning from a holiday in Mexico brought it back with them. The girl's school was shut and all her class mates given Tamiflu. I anticipated as a result that spread in the South West was inevitable, but weeks later still no further cases have been reported.

In the UK, I understand that people presenting with even mild symptoms of suspected swine flu are being tested and are prescribed with Tamiflu, and even close contacts who are not presenting with symptoms are offered Tamiflu as a precaution. Reason being, according to the NHS guidelines, 'Testing has shown that the swine flu can be treated with the antiviral medicines oseltamavir (brand name Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). However, the drugs must be administered at an early stage to be effective'.

If you develop flu like symptoms in the UK, the advice is not to visit your GP, but to call a help line, to avoid spreading the virus.

In the USA, however, the guidelines are completely different. The CDC says that treatment is available for those that are seriously ill (therefore no treatment is available for those who are not seriously ill?), even though it also goes on to admit that antiviral drugs work best if given within 2 days of becoming ill. The CDC advice if you develop the flu:

'It is expected that most people will recover without needing medical care.
If you have severe illness or you are at high risk for flu complications, contact your health care provider or seek medical care. Your health care provider will determine whether flu testing or treatment is needed. Be aware that if the flu becomes wide spread, there will be little need to continue testing people, so your health care provider may decide not to test for the flu virus.'

Wow, I would have to wait until I am seriously ill before seeking medical treatment in the USA? And even then no clear direction on how to get treatment, just that I should 'seek medical care' - so I guess I would turn up at the emergency room and contaminate everyone there right?

Of course I understand why this course of inaction - money. But surely the savings in not treating people early with antivirals are going to cost the economy a whole lot more in the long run?

So no surprise that further deaths are anticipated. Also inevitable that it is just a matter of time before the swine flu becomes widespread throughout the USA. Glad I don't live there. And I figure not a good idea to visit the USA either, at least not for the next 12 months!

The only useful tip I picked up from the CDC is that aspirin should not be given to children 18 or under with the swine flu, due to the increased risk in Reye's syndrome - something I knew nothing about (although I know in general is it not a good idea to give children aspirin).

Here's the MedWorm swine flu page with RSS feed, updated every hour, for all the very latest information from offical sources.

Innocent Man in Guantanamo

2009-04-23T21:51:00.016+01:00

I'm currently reading Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo, by Murat Kurnaz. I pick up random books to read from my local library, but almost always true stories, preferably autobiographies. Reason being I realised as a teenager that life was short, and interesting, and I had a lot to learn. Since time was limited, I had better learn about truth rather than spend my days dreaming about fiction - I had read plenty of fiction as a child; I then took the decision to try to spend every minute of my life as effectively as I could, learning from others who had succeeded in life as much as I could.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this book since I knew it would be pretty grim and depressing. But since the guy had come out the other end and had found the strength to write about his ordeal, I thought that I could probably learn something from him about endurance under difficult times.

As a young adult I once had a vivid dream about Hell. It was like I actually went there and had a look around. It made a lasting impression on me that I will never forget. I think up until then deep down I didn't really believe in Hell; I did believe in a loving and forgiving God and the concept of Hell seemed somewhat in contradiction to this understanding. However, my journey that night, and what I saw, although in a dream, was so vivid that I will always remember. Such images I could not have conjured up myself, having always avoided watching scary movies, the shock of this terrible vision altered my view on life. Now I know that Hell exists, and that it is of man's making. It is a product of the very opposite of love and compassion. It is the ultimate destination of selfishness, a place where a combination of self-indulgence and fear removes all feeling towards others; however, place into that terror just one person who puts another person's needs above their own, where compassion brings one to care for another, at the cost of pain and great danger to oneself, then those bonds of Hell are broken.

Reading this book, about this innocent man in Guantanamo (who I believe was just one of many innocent men), it suddenly dawned on me, 'this is it, this is what I saw, this place was Hell, Hell on Earth'. The constant abuse and torture, the inhumanity displayed by the soldiers towards the prisoners, day after day, year after year, is at times too much to comprehend. I can only read this book in small chunks, since it weighs too heavy on my heart. But I am glad I chose to read it and would recommend all people that believe in facing up to truth to have the courage to do the same. This is a story that needs telling to the World.

Let me tell you what I find the most appalling: the way in which so called 'doctors' were instrumental in the abuse. I have read how doctors were often brought in to determine whether an inmate could withstand any further torture; Murat was strung up in chains left hanging from his handcuffs for days on end; every so often a man with the label 'doctor' on his uniform would come in and check his pulse to see if he was still alive and to decide whether he could withstand any more - the answer for Murat was always that he could. Seems the doctor got it wrong with the man in the room next to him who appeared to be left hanging dead.

I read about a young man who had had his legs amputated due to frostbite, with just stubs left for fingers. He was thrown into one of Camp X-Ray's cages with wounds full of puss. His bandages were never changed, rather he was often beaten and was not even permitted to pull himself up on the cage to use the toilet bucket. A man with frostbite in one finger, the rest all ok, was told that they would amputate his finger; instead they took off all his fingers leaving just his thumbs. A man with toothache in one tooth was taken to a dentist, who took out all his teeth. Terrible fractures that were left to heal on their own. A blind man over 90 interrogated, beaten and tortured with the rest.

Murat says that he had many toothaches and health problems, but that he avoided seeing the doctor at all costs since he wanted to keep his teeth, fingers and legs.

I ask myself what these doctors are doing now. Have they maybe returned from service, maybe to practice medicine in a top medical hospital in America somewhere, maybe with some kind of honours? I think of the Nazis living undercover lives in society. Will these men one day have to face up to their participation in such crimes?

But even under inhumane circumstances, a compassionate spirit is shown impossible to break in some of these men. The guy with his legs and fingers removed never cried when he was beaten, but cried loudly when he saw other men being beaten. Murat writes that he was a really nice guy. Had been married shortly before being arrested. Enjoyed playing soccer, before he lost his legs. Murat later learnt that this man had survived his injuries, had gained weight and was trying to keep in shape, had even learned to do push ups. As of 2007 he was still being held captive at Guantanamo. His name is Abdul Rahman. I look forward to the day when all these men are released and they get their chance to tell their own stories to the World .

Healthcare in Need of a Global Solution

2009-03-10T10:33:00.004Z

I have this maybe childlike notion that the solutions to many of the World's problems will become apparent when pieces of knowledge from across the globe, from all walks of life, are pieced together. No more so than in the field of health care and medicine.

The Internet provides us, for the first time in history, the ability to start putting those pieces together. Making new connections, different people with different beliefs, but with shared purposes, uniting like never before behind common objectives. It is unity, the sharing of information and the willingness to work openly and together that will see major steps forward in science and medicine for the common good like never before.

To say that I am excited about the role MedWorm can play in this facilitation of shared knowledge and communication is an understatement.

This is my vision, this is my dream.

I am currently in the process of contacting medical and health charities to see if I can find some ways of working together with them, since we share the same social objectives: we both want to see improvements in communication, the raising of awareness and ultimately the advance of knowledge and improved treatments and cures for illnesses.

Here's my offer: any medical or health related charity can sponsor any of the topics on MedWorm for free for a two week period. They get their message and hyperlink under the title of every page on MedWorm within that topic area, and also at the bottom of every fifth item within their topic's associated RSS feed. At the end of the two week period, if they want to keep their message there they can, at a monthly price that they name. There's really no catch involved here. At this stage I'm not looking to raise lots of cash, rather just raise awareness for the site and also some token of financial support (I would even accept a cent, and that's the truth). I've lots more ideas of how MedWorm might be able to help them in the future, but this is just a start.

There is an issue however in that I am not at this time planning on splitting up the message targeting by country, so if you put your message on MedWorm, everyone gets to see it in all countries. Some charities might then decide that this is not something which they want, which I think is a shame. Surely any charity could benefit in some way from some global exposure and would be somewhat foolish to close off the outside world.

One charity that I spoke to was very small with only one full time employee. She was very excited to talk to me and wanted to know if I had come across any other such charities in other countries focusing on the same medical condition as they were, since their charity was the only one in the US, and she was keen to hear of any similar work being done in a different country. What a fantastically forward thinking lady - I am sure that her charity will make great advances with such an approach!

At the other end of the scale was a large US charity that was initially very enthusiastic about the offer, but then decided not to go ahead since I was 'based' in the UK, not in the US. I had made it clear that the majority of MedWorm's users are from the US, as is much of the data, and to be completely honest most of its supporters and probably future employees. In fact, even the MedWorm server is hosted in the US. So close is my involvement with the US market that I was at one time considering setting up MedWorm as a US entity without any UK presence at all! But it appears that the MedWorm traffic wasn't actually the issue - the problem appears not to be in relation to MedWorm's audience, but rather that MedWorm was 'based' in the UK.

This is a puzzle to me. I am therefore asking the question as to whether this was honestly the real issue, or whether this insular way of thinking is possibly a form of protectionism that has come about as a byproduct of the recession.

Whatever the case, I am genuinely saddened, since I think it only when such barriers come down that my vision of a healthy Utopia can ever give us real hope.

In the meantime, I'll approach instead the UK equivalent of the charity who I am sure will welcome some global exposure to their cause.

Excitement and Fear

2009-02-25T12:55:00.011Z

I was interested to read Theo Paphitis talking about the combined feelings of excitement and fear in his autobiography, which I can relate to. I remember experiencing an overwhelming combination of these two emotions throughout my life, even from early childhood, and still now in my mid thirties as a mother of two.

It is the exact same feeling, and I both love it because it makes me feel alive and I hate it because it petrifies me. As an older teenager I wondered whether it would be best just to avoid it, to live a safe life within my comfort zone, and almost straight away drew to the conclusion that the minute I do that I would start to get old, I would start to die. So instead I choose every time to walk through those fires, but the feeling never gets any easier. No sooner do I get comfortable with one new situation I am faced with another, bigger, more exciting and more terrifying challenge to match the bigger braver me.

It was in researching Julie Myer from Ariadne Capital that I came across a famous quote from Marianne Williamson:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I also came across this talk by Marianne which I particularly enjoyed, where she speaks about the power of love, in particular that within a woman, the protection of children worldwide, the importance of depression and the need for nationwide remorse in response to war. Moved me to tears.

Motivators

2009-02-14T09:01:00.011Z

One of my favourite TV programs is Dragons' Den, for many reasons. It is the BBC version of the show where entrepreneurs pitch before a group of 'dragons' for their investment, up to a total amount of £250,000.

I've often thought of applying to pitch for MedWorm, but I'm not sure any of the dragons actually have the background I would be looking for in an investor.

I recently decided to read the autobiographies of the dragons to see what I could learn from these self-made multi-millionaires. Just finished Duncan Bannatyne's and now working my way through Theo Paphitis's. Both guys started with nothing, no money and no education. Both always had lots of self-belief, put in a lot of hard work to get to where they are now, were great at spotting opportunities (and acting on them) and were out to prove to all the people that ever doubted in them that they were wrong.

Theo says that one of his biggest motivators came from his ex-manager who begrudged Theo leaving his work and setting up his own enterprise. He told him 'you could end up selling matchsticks at Victoria Station'. Theo says 'It was all the motivation I needed. It was my driving force - I simply wasn't going to be selling matchsticks at Victoria Station and this guy had got it all wrong'. He wrote down his comment about matchsticks on a big piece of paper and stuck it on the office wall, where it remained for the rest of the time he spent there.

I have one such great motivator in my life - my husband. Whenever I tell him about my latest achievement, he just says to me 'show me the money'. He tells me frequently that I am a dreamer and is quick to point out my weaknesses (of which I am only too aware). It's really quite comical and completely infuriating. Is this why so few women make a life for themselves as an entrepreneur I wonder? He certainly had confidence in my ability to climb the ranks in a corporate environment, and I think that is where part of the problem lies - there was a time when I was earning a very good salary and had an extremely bright corporate future. But I was never satisfied and much happier chasing my own dreams, all be it without any pay. I started my working life as an entrepreneur before trying out life as an employee, but I always said to myself 'once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur' and knew it was a destiny to which I would have to return.

The other motivating people in my life are probably all my siblings and my mother, who have never outright said that they think I am a dreamer, but I have always understood that glazed look that comes over them whenever I start to share with them my vision. My father, however, although maybe the biggest cynic in my family, is the one that gave me my self belief. I always remember how infuriated with him I was as a child coming home from school when I told him I had received 98% in a test, and he asked me what happened to the 2%, or when I told him that I came second and he asked me why I didn't come first. The day I realised I could draw, having sketched the house that I could see from my bedroom window - he told me that I had got the perspective a little wrong - at that age I didn't even know what perspective was. When I decided at a young age that I was going to be an artist (probably partly in rebellion against my father, who was a scientist, I wanted to make it very clear I did not want to do anything scientific with my life), he told me that if I was to be an artist, I should decide in what profession, and make sure that I was the best.

The fact that he believed I could be the best, could be first, could get 100% in an exam and draw a building with completely accurate perspective, I think was key in the self-belief that was somehow installed in me as a child and remains with me to this day. It does not matter how many people doubt my ability to succeed - the more doubters, the greater the motivation. Of course it is also great when I meet people that have complete confidence in what I am doing and conviction that I will succeed - those moments give a great boost to my moral. The two kind of balance themselves like a carrot and a stick.

I do see I might be turning a little corner with my husband however, and just maybe he is starting to believe in my ability to succeed on my own, particularly since he is now starting to admit that MedWorm really is a useful resource for his own work, and one that he should use more often. I have always promised him that I will dedicate my first award to him - the one person who never believed in me and constantly put me down!(hey you know I'm only joking - not!)

However, he does pay all the bills right now and gives me the freedom to work for little very little pay, often neglecting the housework and making the dinner very late, so I guess I can't complain too much.

DEC Appeal for Gaza

2009-01-26T00:22:00.007Z

I'm looking forward to viewing the DEC appeal for the innocent civilian victims in Gaza, that is to be shown today by ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Shame on the BBC for deciding not to view it - just goes to show how much the BBC media really is controlled. I encourage you to make a complaint here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml

You can always trust Tony Benn to tell it like it is:

What a guy!

There seems to be a lot of talk around now about people not paying their license fees in protest. Will be interesting to see if we have a sudden increase in unpaid TV license court cases in the coming year.

Hypocrisy

2009-01-18T23:11:00.003Z

Wikipedia has a good definition of hypocrisy:
'the act of preaching a certain belief, religion or way of life, but not, in fact, holding these same virtues oneself'.

In French a hypocrite is apparently slightly different:
'one who hides his intentions and true personality'.

Almost Funny

2009-01-18T16:48:00.004Z

Some of these opinions would be amusing, if it wasn't against the backdrop of suffering, the hundreds of children lying in morgues, or under the rubble, hundreds more suffering terrible injuries, and the thousands left traumatised.

3 Life Truths from Steve Jobs

2009-01-18T16:15:00.004Z

Reading this blog recently you could be forgiven for thinking that my life consists of nothing other than a struggle against the injustices in this world. In actual fact, I do have other interests. In particular I am interested in life fulfilment and personal success. Thanks to my husband for sending me a link to this inspirational speech from Steve Jobs, given a few years ago at Stanford. I'm posting it here as a reminder to myself.

In it he talks about:

- Joining the dots in life. Sometimes the path we follow in life, the skills and life experiences that we pick up, make little sense, until later on in life when we look back. Follow your heart and have faith.
- Loss and love. Sometimes we have to face loss to understand what it is that we really love. Don't settle for less, keep searching for that which you love. You'll know when you have found it.
- Living each day as if it is your last. If you live each day as if it is your last, then one day you will be right! Steve recounts the day on which he was told he had just 3-6 months left to live.

Final message: Stay hungry, stay foolish!

Collecting the Bodies

2009-01-18T13:32:00.005Z

I've posted this slide show before, but the photos are constantly being updated, so I thought to post it again. Does frequently seeing such images desensitize ourselves to the reality of the horror? Maybe there is something so terrible about seeing a baby or child blown to pieces that it will always have an effect. It is important that everyone faces reality, however gruesome, and doesn't forget what has been happening, until there is some accountability and justice found. I think it is only when some kind of legal justice is found for these atrocities that people can ever begin to lay such terror to rest and that the cycle of violence can ever be expected to come to an end.

Find more photos like this on Palestinian Mothers

Doctor's Tragedy Caught Live on Israeli TV

2009-01-17T21:00:00.002Z

Health or Peace and Justice?

2009-01-15T12:17:00.007Z

In case you were wondering, this blog is usually related to health, but right now I just can't get past what is happening in Gaza - everything else at the moment seems somewhat trivial. Similar to the fact that we can't really begin to think about personal fulfilment, satisfaction and development if we don't have the basic necessities in life, food and drink, a roof over our heads and our illnesses treated; how can we think about good health and cures for the sick, when in the middle of such mass human destruction?

Now over 1,000 dead, more than 300 of them children, more than 4,800 injured, and there is no end to this ongoing massacre in site.

A couple of days ago I turned on the TV in the morning to watch an interview with a 16 year old survivor of an attack on their home. They were bombed repeatedly. He remembered the third missile in particular. The first two killed his brother and injured family members, the third one killed them all. He watched his brother bleed to death in front of him. He too was injured. He lay there for 4 days, amongst the bodies, before he was rescued. Also found in the house was a 6 year old who had been lying there next to dead uncles and brothers with just tomatoes to eat. He is now very ill himself with infected wounds and cries all the time.

The paramedics were not allowed to access that area for days. Even when they were allowed, they had to walk 1 km from the ambulance to reach them. They feared that there may be more injured lying amidst the rubble that they could not yet reach. Can you imagine your own children, lying injured, next to dead family members, for days on end?

This is Hell on Earth. I cannot imagine any greater misery, any greater sin, than to inflict such injury and terror on innocent children and then to leave them in such a state of torment for so long. This is pure evil and anyone with the slightest bit of faith that supports such actions should consider very carefully the consequence of such support to their own soul.

I feel sick to the core.

Realising that my own mental health was being effected with a poorly son that needed attention, my husband leaving the country urgently to attend to his sick mother, housework neglected and business to run, I turned the TV off for a few days and returned to a life or normality (or pretense?)

Tuned back in to the events today hoping to see some relief, some kind of progress on the political front, some kind of reduction in the level of violence. No such luck.

On the contrary, today I learn that the onslaught has moved in to the centre of the extremely highly populated Gaza city. A UN compound, a hospital and a media building have been under attack, hit by white phosphorous. Thousands of tonnes of food, medical supplies and other emergency assistance is now burning. Apparently horrific accounts of people trapped in buildings are now coming in.

I ask you to choose which of the 3 possibilities are the case when Israeli politicians apologise for such increasingly frequent events (and others previously reported, such as UN schools being hit, UN convoys and paramedics deliberately shot at):
1. They are lying and such actions are deliberate to keep out humanitarian aid and media coverage.
2. The army is out of control.
3. Israeli intelligence is unintelligent.
4. Weapons used are not accurate in hitting their targets.
I can't think of any other option - can you? I'm not sure what the truth is. I'm leaning towards the first option.

Two medics in a hospital in Gaza give a report to the BBC and put out a plea 'We are asking for the help of all physicians across the world - what type of weapons cause these injuries and how do you deal with them?'

It came as some respite to receive an email of support in response to my blog from a dear Jewish friend and also to see some evidence of disapproval to the assault from within Israel itself when thousands took to the streets in protest in Tel Aviv.

Professor Mark Levine from the University of California asks 'Who will save Israel from itself?'

Song for Gaza

2009-01-11T19:02:00.001Z

White Phosphorous

2009-01-10T23:17:00.007Z

Please just go and have a look at some videos on white phosphorous. Have a search on Google video and You Tube, there's plenty of footage. It burns through to the bone and it will burn through anything, including buildings and bomb shelters. Now there is evidence to suggest that the Israelis are using it over Gaza. It is true that the American army used it to devastating effect on Fallujah in Iraq. There is evidence from medics that it was also used previously by the Israeli army against civilians in Lebanon.

Listening to the Israeli spokesperson this evening he did not deny its use in Gaza, but justified their choice of weapons saying that they only use the same weapons that are used by other armies in the world. Last week I heard the same spokesperson talking about the Israeli army being the most ethical army in the world. Says a lot for ethics.

Please, can anyone explain to me what would be unethical in this so called war against Gaza, if using phosphorous bombs over a densely populated area is acceptable?

This evening I sat down to watch some entertainment on TV to take my mind off things. Final Destination 3 was on. I'm not one for horror/thrillers, but unfortunately my dear husband is, so I decided to watch a little in amusement. I watched two girls getting fried alive on sunbeds - would have been amusing, but all I could see in my head were images of children, right now, getting fried for real.

I kissed my son goodnight like every night this evening, tucked him into bed, just 4 years old, an angel. He has fair skin and dark eyes, chubby cheeks and red lips. He is adorable, and it is all the more apparent when he sleeps. Every night I look at him and thank God for this little miracle before me. Only now, every night I give him a kiss, I think of the poor father I saw giving his child his last kiss before they take him away forever. When I kiss my son's cheek is is warm and soft against my skin. How would I feel if it was cold? And what if that cosy blanket I wrap around him was actually a shroud? These are the things playing on my mind.

Tell me I shouldn't watch so much TV, that I shouldn't let myself get so effected by these things. I could turn a blind eye, as so many do, but then wouldn't I be just as guilty? I choose to feel this pain. It is the pain that gives me the courage to speak out against this evil. There is no other word for inflicting should suffering on innocent children, no justification. It is evil, dress it up however you want, spin it round as much as you like, I know what my conscience tells me, it is evil.

The US government is moving to send 3,000 tonnes of ammunition to Israel. As the other countries of the world call for an immediate cease fire, let us be clear about who is really in control of events here. American people, are you for terror or against?

A Holy Day

2009-01-10T17:39:00.004Z

Humanitarian aid is not allowed through the border of Gaza today, because it is a holy day of rest. The bombing, however, continues. 13 Israelis and over 800 Palestinians are dead now. Over 400 of them women and children. A further 3,500 injured, 400 seriously (you know, life threatening burns and dismembered limbs, that kind of thing). Now I hear that war tourists are gathering on the borders of Israel, over watching the terror through binoculars, laughing and cheering on the dropping of bombs - please someone correct me and tell me that isn't true.

Very few of the dead have been identified as militants. How many innocent people can one justify killing in order to kill a militant I ask myself? Let us imagine one hundred people lined up. Let us say that 35 of them are children, 20 are women, 45 men. Of the 45 men, lets say that 10 of them are militants. Let us line them up and shoot them all....is that ok? Let's now say that if you don't shoot those 100 people, then one of those militants might just find a way to kill one other innocent person - maybe that makes it ok to kill the 100? What if half of the innocent people were in some way related to the militants - is that ok now? Well, if not shooting, how about putting them in a building and dropping a bomb on them, and some of them might live, but will be badly injured, with memories of other family members that they have lost. Is that ok? Or what about dropping bombs around them for 2 weeks, completely terrorising them, then kindly dropping leaflets on their home telling them to get out before their house is bombed - but they have nowhere to go. They go to bed awaiting their fate. Can you imagine, little children, not knowing what will come in the night? Is that ok?

I hear that 91% of the Israeli population are in favour of this bombardment. I am really struggling to understand this. I simply cannot condemn a whole nation as being supportive of such violence. Please I would love to hear from any Jewish people that are against these acts. I know there are some, I would like to think many. I understand that being under threat yourself from missiles must be very difficult to live with, but I like to think that whatever the circumstances I would never support a war that uses such an armour of artillery against a civilian population. Surely there are many Israelis who are against this?

I also hear that if America decided that this had to stop, it would stop, but not until then. And yet it appears that the American public are either oblivious of what is going on, or don't care, or are in support of this violence. A recent vote in by the US House of Representatives voted to back the offensive by 390 votes to 5.

I believe that any politician that votes in such a manner is directly responsible for this massacre, and anyone that prefers to turn a blind eye is also guilty. I think there is one day that all 3 religions here believe in, and that is the Day of Judgement, when everyone will have to answer for their own actions. I also understand that all 3 religions have some strong words to say about the consequences of harming an innocent child. If you are a religious person, and have forgotten what humanity is, and have lost all compassion, and feel nothing but hatred for Hamas which clouds any feeling for anyone else caught up in this war, maybe you still have some fear of God? Better start preparing your argument now.

Here's the latest video footage, especially for any American reading, since I understand news channels are not giving America the full picture (word of warning, these images are very distressing):

I have been warned that by voicing my opinion and concerns here that I risk loosing the support from the Jewish population with my work on MedWorm. Of course I really hope that is not the case. I have seen great integrity from and have huge respect for my Jewish friends, and would love to see Israel living in peace next to its Palestinian brothers. I can understand what leads people to violence, but I would never support it, on either side of the fence.

What I am trying to do here is help people to remember what war and bombs are really all about - they are about killing, and terrible suffering, and right now children are very much the victims.

Gaza and Popcorn

2009-01-08T13:39:00.006Z

Awoke feeling extremely 'groggy' this morning. The situation in Gaza has really got to me and I can't get out of my head images of the darling little angels I have seen lying on the floor as if peacefully asleep, but actually dead. Going to bed way too late after watching endless news reports from around the globe. Not sleeping well as I ask myself question after question. I have been shocked by what I have seen, but such images are not new to me as I have for a long time had an interest in human rights and have often sort out such information. But the scale of this ongoing tragedy, and the live images of suffering that I know is ongoing whilst I lie on my very comfortable memory foam mattress, now with a newly added luxurious furry blanket, are of particular torment.

Tried to concentrate on my work, have so much to keep me occupied right now as I work out how to get the funding to take MedWorm to the next level, but my head was pounding. Was it morbid curiosity that led me to seek out yet more images and film footage of grieving parents saying goodbye to their infants? Finding it hard to stop my tears.

And then the postman arrives with a package from a colleague (and I think already a friend) from America. A big tub of Jody's popcorn and fudge, sent to me from a shop in Virginia Beach. Wow this stuff is so scrumptious! You really should try some. You can buy it online too. Doesn't make me forget, fudge and popcorn, but certainly lifts my spirits that someone took the effort to send me this most delicious package.

Feeling re-energized now, back to work!

More on Gaza

2009-01-07T20:10:00.008Z

Let me be clear. I don't care for politics or politicians. They have failed, abysmally. What I care about is innocent people, and especially children, living in such terror, danger, and often real pain, both physically and psychologically.

The official death toll in the Gaza war now stands at over 600 Palestinians, and round about 10 Israelis (apologies if I have made a mistake on the latter number, it seems very low, please feel free to correct me anyone if I have got that wrong). Many of the dead are children, and thousands more are injured.

This evening I watched on the news video footage of paramedics coming under repeated fire as they tried to retrieve a dead body. The paramedic leaving the ambulance was clearly identified by his uniform. 13 shots were fired, one through the dead man's head, which then struck into the paramedic's leg. Apparently over 20 medical personnel have so far been killed in this tragedy.

I also watched the funeral of over 40 people, many children, killed in the recent school bombing, and an old lady being treated in hospital who had been rescued during the 3 hour cease fire. She told how 6 houses had been set alight in her neighbourhood, so the families had all been forced to take refuge in another building, which was then in turn bombed and all the 6 families were killed.

I hope all people of conscience, from all faiths, especially all those within the field of medicine, whose profession it is to treat suffering and save life wherever possible, might rise above the politics and speak out against such terrible violence. Surely every life is of equal value? Can violence ever bring about anything other than further hatred and violence?

Here's a BBC article written about the psychological consequence of the bombing on children on both sides of the conflict. The article mentions research that 30% of children from Sderot were showing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and 1/3 of children from Gaza were suffering from psychological symptoms that needed intervention. Imagine how many that must be now? What does the future hold for such children? Can we expect them to grow up as stable people? Let us remember 20 years from now where we bred the next generation of terror.

The Real Death Toll

2009-01-06T01:29:00.004Z

According to a (foreign) doctor at the Al-Shifa hospital, the total number of women and children injured as of today was 801, the total number of children killed 101. Thanks to the BBC for getting a reporter inside Gaza. Be warned that these clips are distressing, the second one in particular I found, as it shows a close up shot of a father saying goodbye to his dead child. Sometimes though it really does seem that the only way to get a message across is to show people in graphic detail what is going on - and even that is often not enough.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7812547.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7812495.stm

I'm told that these clips may not work outside the UK, so apologies if that is the case.

The Least I Can Do

2009-01-05T22:13:00.007Z

The least I can do is to post these latest videos on the suffering...

Slaughter of the Innocents

2009-01-03T21:36:00.005Z

Such a terrible night. I am so sad in particular for the thousands of innocent children trembling in their beds tonight, some of whom will be killed and others maimed. I feel so powerless. If I was very rich would I hold some kind of influence? .

Find more photos like this on Palestinian Mothers

Lack of Health Insurance - I know you know this is awful!

2008-12-07T08:53:00.005Z

The New York Times has written an article on the growing problem of lack of health insurance in the US.

It doesn't really need much commentary. Women bringing on their labour early to try and deliver before their health insurance runs out. No Christmas presents for a child with asthma, so that her mother can buy her medication. Awful. Come on all you rich American philanthropists, there's a lot of people in really desperate circumstances on your doorstep. Yes you have Obama ready to step in, but change to your health system is surely going to take some time and there's a lot of people that need your help now.

Thank God for the NHS!

Getting Excited about Global Enterprise

2008-11-23T08:38:00.005Z

I never imagined I might feel some kind of connection with a speech given by Gordon Brown, but then I also never thought I would get excited about the president of the United States. Hey, just goes to show that even politics can turn up pleasant surprises!

Here Gordon states that:
- the principals of social action and enterprise should be linked;
- 'free markets' should not mean 'value free markets';
- markets should be underpinned by social purpose;
- due to emerging markets the global economy will inevitably double over the next 20 years;
- there will be massive oppotunities for enterprise and social action due to communication through the Internet, email and other such technologies.

I couldn't agree more. In a time full of 'doom and gloom' I have my eyes completely focused on the future. Yes it will be a changed landscape, but I am full of optimism. Go Gordon!

Health Consumer or Patient?

2008-10-23T14:29:00.008+01:00

I've seen it mentioned a few times recently that the term 'health consumer' is not a good one, and that the word 'patient' is better.

Living in the UK, I had actually never heard of the term 'health consumer' until a few years ago when David Rothman suggested that I might want to consider separating MedWorm information into 'consumer health information' and 'professional information'.

I found this 'health consumer' term really quite bizarre, that a patient should be looked upon in such a manner, as some kind of business entity, yet as I came to learn more about the American health system, I understood why.

Over My Med Body! asks us to stop calling patients consumers. Nancy Turret at Edelman's Health Engagement Blog suggests that 'consumer implies consumption'.

For me, the word consumer is related to the word customer and makes me think money. The 'health consumer' buys healthcare, and the healthcare industry is ultimately focused on how to get consumers to buy their products, not how to cure the patient, or as Nancy also highlights, not how to keep the individual healthy.

In the UK the focus is different. The NHS is very much focused on cure, and the government also focusing increasingly on prevention. The words patient and individual come naturally, the term 'health consumer' is strange and uncomfortable.

I am much happier talking about patients and individuals, rather than consumers. However, I hate to say that I see the American 'health consumer' actually becoming even more of a commodity as people are almost encouraged, and often obliged (through inadequate health insurance) to cut out the middle man (the family practitioner for example), to research their own condition and make a self-diagnosis and then purchase their drugs and treatments directly, all online.

I don't imagine that the Internet and Health 2.0 is going to solve the current health care predicament in the US - it will bring about advantages, but at the same time will likely give rise to a new set of problems, and I think the term 'health consumer' will become increasingly appropriate. Of course, you could always drop the term and pretend that patients are not actually consumers, if it makes you feel better, as I think I might.

Miscarriage for the Uninsured

2008-10-18T09:21:00.010+01:00

What do you do when you suffering from a miscarriage, and you live in the US, but you are not covered by your insurance? Simple! Just go to bed and pretend you are having a big period.

That's what Gina from Missouri did (thanks to Meagen Bohne for highlighting such a case).

But not only is a miscarriage extremely traumatic psychologically, it can also be a very dangerous time for the woman, who has to, in effect, go through labour, and all the risks with which that is associated.

Let me tell you another story, in contrast, of a lady who was 18 weeks pregnant when she experienced a slight bleed. She called her local family practice just to make sure that it was nothing to worry about and was invited straight down to the surgery where she was given immediate attention, as a precaution. The doctor listened for a heart beat and could not find one. He showed genuine concern for the lady, although did his best to reassure her that he was not very experienced using the doppler. He called the hospital to see whether she could be given an immediate scan; the hospital told her to come straight away.

At the hospital she was treated with the utmost dignity. Since they did not want to distress the lady by leaving her to wait with the other pregnant ladies, she was taken straight to her own private room. A consultant doctor came almost immediately to give the scan, and at her side was a nurse, holding her hand the whole time to give her support. It was a complete shock for her to be told that there was no heart beat and that the baby had indeed passed away. The lady was given all the space and support that she needed at this emotional time, was brought a cup of tea and was then consulted regarding the options on how best to deliver the baby. After discussing the pros and cons of the different options in as much detail as she wished, she decided to deliver the baby by natural methods with the help of a tablet that would turn off the pregnancy hormones. She was able to decide when would be the best time for her, and when she returned to the hospital later that evening to begin the process again she was treated with great care and sensitivity.

Even though she had to deliver in the labour suite she was given her own private room from start to finish and she was never confronted with having to face any of the other pregnant ladies or babies that had been delivered successfully. She was given the exact same attention as if she had been delivering a live baby, with a midwife to attend to her personally from start to finish and regular visits from the doctors. The midwife was able to answer all of her concerns and helped to mentally prepare the lady for the actual event.

Before the baby was delivered she was consulted as to how exactly she would like the events to proceed, every step of the way, and was given time to hold the baby for as long as she wished. After the process was complete, in her own time, she was consulted on what she would like the hospital to do with the body, and given booklets explaining her options. The lady had a personal point of contact to help her through the process in the coming weeks, which included an autopsy of the baby and genetic testing in accordance with her wishes, as well as liaising with the hospital and undertakers to arrange for a burial in the local cemetery, in an area specially allocated to babies that die in the womb. She was also given aftercare, from a community midwife who called at her house, by the local doctor to ensure that she made a good recovery in the following months, and a visit back to the hospital to discuss everything including the autopsy results with the OBGYN consultant doctor.

The whole event of loosing your unborn child can be psychologically very painful and can carry many of the same risks as delivering a live baby. This hospital did everything it could possibly do to help keep the pain, and risks, to a minimum, and provided follow-up care to ensure a good recovery, and testing to see if there was anything that could be done to prevent a recurrence of the miscarriage in the future. They made what was a very difficult event somewhat easier to bare.

And the cost of the the whole treatment from start to finish, including the autopsy, genetic testing and burial? Well, nothing actually, at least not directly to the lady, since everything was paid for by the NHS.

Investment in Generosity - A Solution for the Uninsured?

2008-10-17T16:42:00.007+01:00

In the run up to the US elections (your politics I have to admit are so much more fun to watch than ours in the UK), let me suggest, from an outsiders viewpoint, that you might all like to consider the mess you have got yourselves into with your health care, or rather lack of it.

I know you know this, and honestly the problem is so huge I have no suggestions, other than one major revolution. But just in case you can't see the wood for the trees, thought I'd take the time to remind you guys that there is a lot unnecessary suffering going on over there, probably going to get a lot worse before it gets any better, due to lack of insurance, underinsurance, and problems getting paid even when you do have the right insurance.

The Cover America Tour is a great project that puts some human faces on to all that suffering.

Makes me angry you know, and it's not even my country. If I were you, I think I'd be on the streets shouting. The situation simply isn't acceptable in the developed world. Problem is, the time when it will really matter to you personally, you'll probably be too ill or too weak to make a loud noise about the injustice. How many people in good health, with a job that includes good health insurance, are prepared to make a fuss and vote to pay higher taxes to give better provision to those in less fortunate circumstances?

If you do have a good job, imagine what life will be like if you loose it and your insurance - can happen to anyone, as you are currently well aware. Maybe selfishness with some foresight might lead to a better solution, if consideration for others is not enough? You pay for insurance to protect you against misfortune, yet insurance alone is often not enough when real misfortune strikes - and in those cases you will be dependent on the generosity of society. It is your generosity during a time of strength that will provide you with real insurance the day that you fall. Maybe generosity, consideration for the less fortunate, is something that you would invest in, if you could understand its benefits to you in the future?

Here's a MedWorm news feed for the uninsured.

Searchme Searches MedWorm

2008-10-08T10:33:00.005+01:00

I came across searchme yesterday when looking through MedWorm's stats. Like many webmasters these days I have to keep a constant check on what robots are trawling on my site - many I have to block since they only have a basic understanding of my robots.txt file and insist on trawling all the pages I don't want them to, using up way too much bandwidth and processing power for the amount of traffic that they actually bring back to MedWorm. Since I do not big financial backing for endless upgrades just yet, I have to ensure that I get maximum use out of my few resources, so have to act a little ruthlessly when it comes to dealing with inconsiderate robots.

Searchme caught my attention since it appeared a little 'aggressive' in its approach, and I was actually considering putting it on to my blacklist, but fortunately decided to check out their site first - and what a surprise! I know that everyone is constantly looking for the next big thing, an alternative to Google (which of course I will tell you is MedWorm for the medical sector), but not often am I sufficiently impressed enough with a site to really think that it will go far. But this time, I am; I think searchme brings a new approach to the Internet that will indeed go far.

I found it extremely useful in quickly finding out what other sites are doing with MedWorm feeds, and to complile a list of MedWorm recommendations from what people are saying in the blogs. From my search, I was able to create a new 'stack' of MedWorm recommendations from the blogs. Check it out:

Searchme

Maximize stack view

Tip: Normally I would never dream of recommending something like this, but I think it worth pointing out, for medical purposes, that if you change in your preferences not to filter content, you do get returned many more results - I tried this since I wanted to be certain that MedWorm content is not appearing on any 'unsavoury' websites (and was relieved to find that it doesn't appear to be), but in doing so I found many more records returned from excellent websites. I guess due to the medical nature of a lot of sites that MedWorm appears on, lots of those sites are thought to possibly contain some adult content.

Third World Healthcare on your Doorstep?

2008-09-15T10:33:00.004+01:00

Every now and again I receive a plea for help via MedWorm, for some poor soul suffering from a number of terrible ailments, living in desperate conditions and with no access to health care. When I first built MedWorm I took the hard line decision to never respond to such enquiries, for the following reasons:

1. I can never be certain which are genuine or not.
2. I really don't have any money to help these people (every penny I take keeps MedWorm running).
3. I might run into legal problems if I start trying to help people, especially if I give anyone advice.
4. It might break my heart and then I'd be no use to anyone - much better I devote my attention to MedWorm that is likely to be of much greater benefit to all.

Most such pleas I therefore hardly read and send straight to the bin. However, every
now and again one does catch my attention - usually a disjointed rambling that goes into some little detail that leads me to believe that the case is genuine.

I sometimes read these cases to my husband, who like me finds such stories tragic, and somewhere in my heart I offer up a prayer for these people in the hope that it may help them in some small way. My husband always asks me where the person is from, which I can usually tell from the IP address.

And here's the where real shock lies. The accounts I read would be of no surprise coming from a third world country, especially since MedWorm has a truly international audience. However, almost without exception, they come from people living in some of the richest states in America. People without health insurance who can't even afford a visit to a GP, lying in squalor, suffering truly awful afflictions, not knowing where to turn for help.

I see lots of great initiatives in the USA, charities to help develop health care in the third world, doctors that take some time out to work in poor countries abroad - but what about the poor sitting on your own doorstep?

Looking for Physician Assistant Blogs

2008-08-31T22:32:00.001+01:00

I had a physician assistant (PA) approach me to set up a new category in MedWorm. New to me since it is not a job that I have heard of in the UK. If you know of any good medical assistant blogs that I can add to the new MedWorm Physician Assistant Blogs directory please let me know.

Flystrike

2008-08-21T08:43:00.009+01:00

A lot has happened to us as a family this year, related to health, all of which would make good material to blog about, but for one reason or another I have so far not been able to do so. The most recent of events though I find I can write about.

My daughter's bunny, 'Niffo', very sadly, and quite tragically, died a few days ago. Tragic because he died of a simply horrible and distressing condition know as 'fly strike' or 'myiasis'. We felt awful since had we known about this condition beforehand we could have taken steps to avoid this happening, but we had never heard of it, despite having done some research into caring for rabbits and it actually being quite common condition in Summer months.

Niffo was so soft and very cute. See here for yourself:

He had become a best friend for my daughter, who he used to follow around the garden. He knew his name and would run to my daughter whenever she called him. He loved affection and gave my daughter all the cuddles she craved whilst her little brother usually succeeded in winning all the adult affection in the house.

If you know anyone with a rabbit, or maybe own one yourself, or are thinking of buying one for your children, then do take some time to check on how to avoid this often fatal condition, which can result in a distressing and almost certainly painful death for any rabbit if it is not caught in the very early stages.

The following information is quite gruesome, but is written here to help inform people and thus maybe avoid some others suffering such a horrible occurrence.

Fly strike happens when a fly lays some eggs either in your rabbit's fur or near to your rabbit in its hutch. They are attracted to damp warm conditions. Any damp uneaten food or dirt from your rabbit, even a small amount, can provide ideal breeding conditions for flies. The eggs quickly hatch into tiny larvae which bury into the rabbits warm fur and into their skin where they feed on your rabbit as they grow into maggots before hatching into flies.

By the time you notice your rabbit is not himself, and then find the disgusting maggots (usually underneath your rabbit where they cannot easily be seen), it is often too late to save them. All maggots need to be removed, which is difficult, especially if they have a lot of fur, since they bury deep into the rabbit skin. The rabbit needs to be bathed well and all maggots need to be removed alive since if they are crushed they release toxins into the rabbit. Any wounds need treating with antiseptic and the rabbit needs an immediate course of antibiotics to treat infection, and should also be treated for shock. Immediate veterinary treatment is required, but unfortunately for many rabbits they do not survive, unless the maggots are removed very early on before they have had time to grow and do much damage.

The condition is obviously very distressing not only for the rabbit but also the owner. My daughter is now suffering horrible maggot dreams as a result, as well has coming to terms the loss of what had become her best friend.

Had we know in advance the high risk in the Summer months of this condition, especially since we have had a lot of rain this Summer and it has been hard to keep the hutch dry at all times, we would have taken precautions with extra cleaning of both hutch and rabbit, checking the rabbit's fur every day, fly repellents and even products Rearguard and Xenex in the Summer months that I hear provide a 10 week protection for the rabbit from this condition.

I had not previously understood the grieving process that a devoted pet owner has to go through when loosing their animal, but I do now. I have previously experienced tears and sadness from loosing a number of small pets such as fish, a budgie I had for 11 years, my sister's guinea pig and a little wild bird we had nearly nursed back to good health, but I had always been a little confused when seeing an extreme reaction from a pet owner who treats the death of a pet as if they had lost someone dear to them in the family, but now I have a better understanding as this event resurfaced the same feelings in myself from other sad losses in the family over the past year.

I also have yet again a renewed sense of just how important it is to get the right information regarding health to the people that need it. So many awful conditions are preventable with the right knowledge, which brings me once again back to MedWorm...

The Birth of the NHS

2008-07-06T07:15:00.007+01:00

It has been a long time since I wrote my last post, due to a succession of difficult events that effected me personally, and it was hard to know where to restart. Watching a documentary last night on the birth of the NHS, celebrating its 60th anniversary, gave me the inspiration I was looking for.

I'm coming to love this national institution more and more. I don't actually care much whether the UK offers the best health treatment or not in the world - comparison with other health provisions that are essentially private are in my mind unjust. Our NHS system is free for all, and works well most of the time, and for that I am proud and eternally grateful!

Here's a great collection of legacy interviews and documentaries from the BBC regarding health provision (or lack of it) before the NHS, and how it came into existence.

Memorable observations made whilst watching last night's documentary included:
- the ferocity of the fight that the BMA put up to stop the birth of the NHS;
- the courage of the student doctors at that time who supported the NHS and the way that they where shunned and bullied as a result at medical school;
- the strength of character of the health minister, Nye Bevan, who risked everything to see his dream seen through to fruition;
- the nail biting vote by the Royal College of Physicians for their new leader, which was to decide the fate of the NHS, which came down to a difference of just 5 votes at the end;
- the terrible health circumstances of living without the NHS prior to 5th July 1948;
- the thought that costs of the NHS would fall after the initial backlog of treatment requirements had been worked through, which was never going to happen due to ever improving technology that would require an ever increasing amount of funds.

I finished watching the program with a feeling of national pride that I had never really felt before - I am uncomfortable with nationalism, and know that is only by chance that I was born into this country. The birth of the NHS was nothing to do with me, and yet I benefit. But still I am proud.

Regarding the NHS's future, it is my strong belief that this is the one national institution always worth fighting for and defending. It should always remain a free system for all. It needs proper funding and the British people should be prepared to pay for it through their taxes. I would be more than happy to pay higher taxes as long as I knew that this tax was going to fund the NHS. I would even be happy with a separate tax that was dedicated to health. I also believe that the government should look to significantly increase spending in medical research. The only way to really keep down the ever increasing costs of drugs and other medical technologies is to invest in their research in the first place. Get a stake in their creation and that way claim some power back from greedy pharmaceutical companies.

Health 2.0 : No Website is an Island

2008-01-31T14:55:00.009Z

I like the film 'About a Boy', based on the book by Nick Hornby, not because it is hilariously funny, gripping to watch or beautifully directed (I actually found it somewhat amusing and enjoyable), but because I took away from it a contemplation of the meaning behind John Donne's famous words 'No man is an island'.

I now often hear Hugh Grant's protest at the back of my mind as he tries to argue the case that he is an island (which he comes to realise during the course of the story that he could not actually continue to be), and also the dialog from the young boy in the film as he comes to the conclusion that one parent is not enough - you need backup (his point not being that you need two parents, but in fact a whole network of people to give you the support you need if you are to be happy in life).

I am by nature an extremely independent person, always someone to try and work something out myself before asking for help – in fact, I could probably count the number of times I have asked for help in this life, and each time it was a difficult thing to do. I'm the type that will always look to the map rather than ask for directions and finds it incredibly difficult to admit when I don't know something, much preferring to quickly dig deep into a manual somewhere to find the answer myself. I guess I am also a bit of a perfectionist and probably am reluctant to delegate a job, especially when I think I can do better myself. And because of these traits, I guess I also could easily fall into the trap of arguing that I too, and my work, is an island - I don't need anyone else because I can do it all on my own - in fact, other people would probably slow me down.

Add to this character another trait that is fiercely competitive. If anyone has the same ideas as me, does something similar, or worse still, better, I can't help but fume inside - something close to hate, or envy, maybe some feeling of inadequacy - I simply have to be the best, or at least hold within me the belief that I am the best, or else remain ignorant of the reality of the situation - maybe that is why I sometimes don't like to look at competitor sites, for fear that they might be better than mine!

But all these sentiments are strictly not Health or Medicine 2.0

Health 2.0 in my mind is all about forming relationships in order to build a framework that might release the full power of the internet (3.0!) and take us that step closer towards the healthy utopia of which we all dream. This takes some courage when many entrepreneurs are often by nature both independent and competitive. It means opening up a little, sharing ideas, looking at building partnerships and new ways of working with other people and other websites, some of whom may be considered potential competitors and others that you may never have considered as relevant to what you are doing at all. Any websites that follow this ethos I believe will grow - those that hang on to their NDA's (non-disclosure agreements) as some kind of armour in an attempt to keep their company ideas under lock and key I do think will likely wither over time and die. Sure there has to be a little balance - I'm not talking about broadcasting your 5 year business plan to the world - but I am talking about throwing a little caution to the wind and saying 'what the heck - maybe this other person/website might be competing with me somehow somewhere in the future? (especially since we all have similar ideas about what we should be building – honestly, there really isn’t much in the way of original ideas), but if we can find some way of helping each other out, chances are we can actually help each other get to where we want to be a little faster, and build something much more powerful than we originally thought'.

Think about relationships with other websites, and relationships with your site visitors - who may not always be who you think they are - think relationships both vertically and horizontally - near and far - outside the box - functional and philosophical. Remember that the Internet is a web and I think you'll be keeping on the right track.

Health 2.0 - Love it or Hate it?

2008-01-24T15:49:00.000Z

David Rothman dislikes the phrase "web 2.0", and the terms "medicine 2.0" and "health 2.0" bug him even more. Why? Because he is just too cool!

I used to be cool once - in a younger life I owned a 'way cool' clothes shop. I was the ultimate trend setter. I took pride in spotting trends way ahead of their time. The downside of this was that as soon as something became mainstream, I would hate it - which meant I was never going to earn my fortune in the fashion industry. Now my daughter tells me I am 'past it'. I'm not, honest! (I'm trying to convince her that I am even cooler - I just don't care any more!)

Now David is a cool geek - he saw the phrase "Health 2.0" coming way before the rest of us - and now everyone is using it he has to hate it. This dislike I think started back when he first added the category 'Web 2.0' to LibWorm over a year ago, and has been simmering ever since, until it reached boiling point a few weeks ago.

Hey David - you know I'm only pulling your leg ;)

Now, in order to make amends for my tomfoolery David, please let me agree with you. I think that the term "Health 2.0" is not helpful for medical librarians or other information specialists when trying to promote the use of internet technologies amongst physicians and other medical professionals.

The majority of doctors do not care and simply could not care less about "Health 2.0 ".
They may be interested to know how the Internet can be of use to them in their work, but mention "Health 2.0" to them and generally the response you are going to get is Health What??? followed by very rapidly increasing disinterest (trust me, I've tried it, on my nearest and dearest!)

My understanding is that the majority of doctors also have not heard of and do not care to hear about mashups, aggregators, folksonomies, AJAX, widgets, the semantic web, RIAs, or for that matter, 'Really Simple Syndication'. They want to know where to click to get to the information they need, quickly, and that's about it! I know there are exceptions to this rule - in fact, there is quite a big group of technically savvy doctors out there - but in terms of world wide health care professionals, this big group is really tiny and in no way representative of the majority. When talking to my target users on a daily basis about MedWorm, I often drop the term 'RSS', since it usually isn't necessary, and I find that 'newsfeed' works better.

But I do think, as much as it annoys me also, that the term 'Health 2.0' has its uses:
1. It helps money makers to exploit the health internet business as much as possible by whipping up frenzied interest from venture capitalists.
2. It gives previously disheartened American citizens some hope that there may be some solution to the disjointed health care provision in the US (hee hee! now I may complain about the NHS and its failings, but it is with some pride that I hold on to this national institution!).
3. It brings me more visitors to my blog - which is great for MedWorm.
4. (The only use that I believe is honest in its application.) It helps me, and I am sure others, conceptualise what has happened/is happening/will happen in regards to communicating and sharing (health and medicine) information on the internet, and helps bring like-minded individuals sharing this same interest (and excitement) together, to discuss how we can push ahead with such progress.

Let me elaborate point 4 a little further, for it is the reason why I can continue to justify my blog dedicated to this topic.

Sure we all know that in real terms there is no second version of the Internet. But thinking about 2.0 helps me to stand back and see the wood for the trees. I started MedWorm really by chance - probably jumping from one lily pad, to another that was bigger and greener, to another and another, until I found one that suited me just fine - the biggest and greenest in the pond - my destination - how nice! But I hadn't really stood back and looked at the pond as a whole, to see what else was growing there - I hadn't really given a thought to its ecology and how we all depended on each other for our future growth and success.

An example of my ignorance at that time was when David suggested that I might think about inviting people to give their comments and suggestions about MedWorm, and possibly writing a blog. My immediate reaction was that I was just too deep in code to have time for such activities. I've come some way since then! Not only do I love to hear about what people have to say about MedWorm and get feedback (and more), I realise that MedWorm's growth absolutely depends on such relationships, both with its users and with other compatible websites.

Thinking about Health 2.0 and the coming Health 3.0 (sorry David! and yes the dreaded 3.0 posting is coming!) has made me realise that not only is investment in communication with both users and what could actually be seen as competitors, both enjoyable and helpful, it is actually MedWorm's destiny - and I can run ahead with it, or fall by the wayside and let MedWorm slowly die.

So to summarise my opinion on the term "Health 2.0" - do I love it or hate it?
1. It annoys me, because I am cool like David - honest!
2. It helps me conceptualise health developments on the Internet and form my plans for the future.
3. It helps bring together like-minded people to discuss such developments.
4. It does not help when trying to encourage the majority of physicians and other health professionals to try out MedWorm and other emerging Internet technologies.

I guess therefore that I am 50/50 - some may say sitting on the fence!

And what about you? Health 2.0 - do you love it or hate it?

Wanted - Medical Professionals with an Interest in Health 2.0 / Medicine 2.0!

2008-01-12T00:33:00.000Z

Are you a doctor, or other health professional, with a particular interest in one or more of the following?:

Health 2.0/Medicine 2.o

Blogging

The Internet

If you are, please drop me a line - I'd love share ideas with you!

If you are reading this and are a physician, probably you are one of a minority. You take a keen interest in IT. You like reading medical blogs and maybe you have one of your own. You probably know a bit about RSS and are even familiar with Health 2.0.

Do you realise that if you are one of these unique people, you have a responsibility to share the good news of the coming Health 2.0 revolution with your colleagues, who may not be so technologically inclined? Without your encouragement, it will never really happen. You are bridges. You are champions!

There are many people excited about Health 2.0, but I increasingly find myself asking the question: How many of us enthusiastic people are really 'in' medicine, and how many of us are just technology medical wannabes like me? I'm an IT professional that would love to be able to cure the sick, but sadly can't, so spend my days dreaming up and building an infrastructure to help medical professionals, but the problem is this big gulf between IT and medicine. How to make that leap? How to convince my husband that RSS really is the best thing since sliced bread?

If you are really 'in' medicine or medical research, and have an interest in Health 2.0, please get in touch. Maybe we can work together to convert the masses? Maybe you might even me interested in becoming a MedWorm Associate?

Health 2.0 is all about finding new ways of working together, so drop me a line and build another link in the big brain.

What is Health 2.0 / Medicine 2.0?

2007-11-18T16:13:00.000Z

This definition is written for two purposes:

To clarify what Health 2.0 / Medicine 2.0 is for myself. I figured that if I was going to make a contribution to discussions in this arena, I had better first make sure I had my facts straight - this is a chance for me to say what I think I know, and then for all the Health 2.0 Seasoned Veterans out there to correct me/argue with me where any inaccuracies are identified.

To explain in simple terms what Health 2.0 / Medicine 2.0 is to the medical professional who does not have a special interest in technology. I figure that if I can write one simple definition/explanation, I can save myself having to construct a comprehensive answer each time the question arises - I'll just reuse this one.

I understand that there are plenty of definitions/explanations already out there, so I ask for you patience whilst I take this opportunity to reinvent the wheel (and sorry if I may seem to be stating the obvious to some of you - the real target audience here is the doctor without much knowledge of IT terminology).

The Background - Web 2.0

Both Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 are derived from the term Web 2.0, which implies a second generation/release of the Internet.

The '2.0' part is based on computer programming - as a new edition of a an application is released, it is common practice for the programmers to add an incrementing number at the end of a program's name, to label the new version. A completely new release would see the increment of the whole number, and any intermediate releases (often referred to a 'patch', as it may be patching up problems with a previous release) would see an increment to the decimal number. An example of this is Internet Explorer 7.0 - there have already been small patches to fix Internet Explorer - mine currently says that I am on version 7.0.5730.11 - I guess if there is a substantial release that enhances IE 7.0, but is still fundamentally the same program, it may be called IE 7.1, 7.2, etc - a new generation of IE could for example be called IE 8.0

Web 2.0 implies the 'second release' of the Internet - which of course is not based on anything concrete - the Internet being made up of millions of interconnecting computers running lots of different programs - but is more of a concept to describe the type of programs/applications/functionality one can now find on the Internet.

The Internet was originally based on mostly static pages of information. Soon to follow were email, web forums and chat rooms where discussions could take place. Web 2.0 refers to a trend on the Internet that saw a step forward in the way we communicate on the Internet, which includes the use of blogs, videos, podcasts, wikis and online communities where people with common interests get together to share ideas, media, code and all types of information. RSS (really simple syndication) is a format/method to help pass around updates about all this new information we are now broadcasting.

Think of the Internet like a big brain - there is no 'central repository' of information - it is stored in lots of different locations, but each part of the brain has its own important part to play. Web 1.0 was a bit like the brain cells developing and Web 2.0 is what is happening now that communications are taking place between those cells.

Health 2.0 / Medicine 2.0

So now you know what Web 2.0 is, the rest is easy. Health 2.0 is the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the area of health, whilst Medicine 2.0 is the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the area of medicine. Some examples can be seen in the Medical 2.0 Directory. I have come to think of Health 2.0 websites as being those that provide services geared towards the consumer, and Medicine 2.0 those geared towards services for the medical professional - although I am sure there will be those who will debate this with me. Regarding my own website, MedWorm, I decided that it was MedHealth 2.0, since it was providing a service equally for both consumer and professional alike.

The Future - Web 3.0 / Health 3.0 / Medicine 3.0

Of course many are now speculating ... (to be continued)

Just realised that the future - Health 3.0 - would make a better post of its own.

RSS 2 Email - Progress or hindrance?

2007-10-22T08:24:00.000+01:00

Subscription to TOCs via email has been a popular method amongst physicians of keeping up to date with their favourite medical journals for some time. I was hesitant to provide such a service on MedWorm since I wanted to introduce physicians to the benefits of RSS.

My reluctance to provide an alternative to an RSS aggregator was based on experience in rolling out new systems in large companies. There are always a core group of pioneers that are eager to try out the implementation of a new system, but the majority will need 'cajoling' and there will always be the 'die hards' that need forcibly removing from their old ways of working. The final solution, if management really want to see a new system take off, is the turning off, or outlawing use of, a previous system.

My reasoning, therefore, was that if doctors are going to really embrace RSS, an alternative, such as subscription via email, should not be made available. If I did not provide a subscription via email alternative, doctors would have to, at some point, make use of an RSS aggregator if they wanted to benefit from the information that was available.

However, this argument was flawed by a few factors. Firstly, an email alternative will always be available. Doctors can usually go directly to a publication to subscribe to a journal's table of contents or can use a third party RSS 2 Email service. Secondly, my argument was assuming that the use of an RSS aggregator in place of email was in fact progress and a better way forward.

Watching the uptake of RSS by doctors over the past year has been frustratingly slow. I just have to look at my husband (a doctor) to realise what a big problem this is, and will continue to be. He has RSS forced on him every day. He knows what it is, how it can benefit him. He has an RSS aggregator installed for him and a personal tutor breathing down his neck. I have even been offering to install some feeds for him on his mobile phone - an offer which he hasn't yet taken me up on. Now my husband is young and technically savvy. He loves technology and the latest gadgets. Often it is him who points me in the direction of the latest advances. But does he use an RSS aggregator? Well, not exactly I would say; occasionally; at a push. Why not? Well, it means either opening another application, which takes a fair few seconds, and then waiting for those feeds to refresh, which takes some time more, and having an RSS reader running in the background does seem to add to the performance hit on his computer.

The alternative, an online RSS reader, also has its drawbacks. First you have to open a new web browser. You have to navigate to your online service and then you have to log on. Before all of this, you first have to find a service that you like, add your feeds (which will often fall over for a variety of reasons) and familiarise yourself with how the service works.

Either solution does not qualify with motivational criteria by which my husband operates:

1. Things that are essential, or time saving, in order to complete his work.
2. Enjoyable and absolutely nothing to do with work.

Some would argue that using an RSS aggregator is time saving and would actually help him complete his work (as indeed would I), but the problem here is that the time saved is indirect. In trying to write a report, or find the best treatment for a condition, or pass an exam, RSS would not often be a tool to which one would turn.

Others would argue that using RSS is enjoyable. But for my husband, and I guess the majority of doctors, his idea of enjoyment is something that helps him forget everything that is medically related (although I have noticed that he particularly enjoys watching House, which is a bit of an anomaly).

Now time for a confession. Quite shocking really. I don't really use an RSS aggregtor that often myself. At least not on on the face of it. Ouch! That hurt! Why don't I? And how can I expect others to use it if I, who has realised that RSS is the Bees Knees, don't make full use of it?

I don't often use an RSS reader for a few reasons. Most of the online RSS readers I don't like that much. Google Reader is the most accessible, especially since I have a reminder that is is there whenever I log on to my Google account, which I do for emails, AdSense and my blog. But I find it a little clumsy and wastes a lot of screen space. When starting out on my RSS adventure I tested every aggregator I could find on the market. My favourite was the free, somewhat 'amateur' FeedReader which I really liked for its simplicity. I found that its navigational tree and three window layout enabled me to scan through hundreds of articles in seconds without any clutter. But its disadvantage was the time it took to load and refresh all the feeds, and unless I kept on top of the data and cleared it out regularly, I found that it was slowly filling up my hard drive with thousands of cached items.

The other reason I don't use an RSS aggregator that often is that I am quite lazy in keeping up to date with the latest advances in, well, just about everything, hence just 'can't be bothered'. Regarding technology and Web 2.0, I tend to leave it to David to do the research and let him point out to me if I am trying to reinvent the wheel. I find myself far to preoccupied with my own work that I forget to look at what other people are doing (yes to my own detriment I am sure - something I am currently trying hard to change by spending/wasting a lot more of my time reading other people's blogs).

But hang on a minute, it's not that bad after all, since MedWorm is actually one big aggregator in disguise. Even without bothering to log on I find I can easily keep a track on the latest ideas in which I am interested. I like to keep a watch on the Blog Cloud, in particular items tagged RSS, Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0, as well as keeping an eye on the Information Technology section of the publications directory, the Technology Consultant and Medical Librarian section of the blogs, as well as the Cancer section of the blogs (which I find keeps me a check on reality and the priorities in my life). And then when I want to pay particular attention to my reading list, I do log on, which enables me to read items I am really interested in via my River of News, keep a track on my reading history and easily save items that are of particular interest to me.

Excuse-me, I digress. The topic was RSS 2 Email. I knew that people wanted this. A medical librarian from down under was specifically looking for such a service which prompted me to finally give way and implement this functionality on MedWorm. The design of the service was tweaked by valuable input from medical technology analyst, Dr Sheela Sharma, who very kindly provided me with the following feedback:

"RSS is a great idea, but I just don't have enough time in the day to look at both my e-mails and RSS feeds. So the service that you are providing is ideal!"

Funnily enough, even though I was dead against the idea in the first place, I'm actually finding I really like receiving RSS 2 Email myself. I don't think I would want to receive hundreds of updates from lots of feeds to my email, but for my favourite, carefully selected feeds, having a nicely formatted email conveniently land in my inbox with the latest updates is working really nicely for me and has given me some ideas on how I might further develop this area, to incorporate the best of both worlds - RSS and email working together - in perfect harmony - maybe that's what would really bring RSS to the masses.

MedWorm - Medicine 2.0 or Health 2.0?

2007-10-10T06:56:00.000+01:00

I've been sitting on the fence for a while reading about Medicine 2.0 and Health 2.0. Now I'm the kind of person that really hates hype and likes to go against the trend, and see myself as a 'doer' rather than a 'talker', so up until now I've resisted getting involved in this 'idle chit chat' and laid low whilst I spend my days building MedWorm.

But now I'm thinking, what the heck? Just so long as I don't get drawn into the ongoing debate between Sermo and Medgadget regarding security/privacy loop holes in social networking models ;)

To begin my debut into the 2.0 arena, I have been looking at the difference in usage between the terms Medicine 2.0 and Health 2.0 From what I understand, Medicine 2.0 is used when referring to Web 2.0 sites primarily for medical professionals, whilst Health 2.0 is a term used for sites geared towards health consumers (a term that I find somewhat strange coming from the UK - here we don't really consider patients as 'consumers', probably due to the provision of the NHS - health is considered a basic right, not really something that we buy/consume).

So is MedWorm Medicine 2.0 or Health 2.0? Is it for the doctor or the patient? My original intention was that it would be for the doctor (and other health professionals) with articles grouped by medical speciality. But then I realised that a lot of people assumed it was actually for the patient, since it was providing a user friendly way for people to find the latest information about their particular conditions.

I was sent a kind comment by another webmaster who is using a MedWorm feed to help populate his own site with relevant new content for a particular condition:

'Medworm fits in a sweet spot between medical professionals and the lay public.'

It was at this point that I began to clarify my vision for MedWorm. It would provide a forum for understanding and discussion among both medical professionals and consumers. Note that I say discussion 'among', rather than 'between'. A lot of Health 2.0 sites are providing an extension of service between doctors and their patients - patients ask questions, doctors give answers, which is all well and good.

However, as I see it, for Medicine/Health 2.0 to take that real leap forward (to dare I say it, Medicine/Health 3.0?) I don't see an automation of services being the end result as some might (for example, the diagnosis of a patient by computer - input all the information and the computer tells you what the problem is, and the cure/medication). I believe that computers will never replace man's intelligence, rather assist it. The Internet opens up new lines of communication that before were never possible. Like the building of roads, the invention of the automobile, the aeroplane, the telephone - all of these things opened up new ways of communicating and hence working.

In today's society, patients now want to know much more about their conditions (and rightly so!) Many want to know all there is to know, will read all the latest research, and will often know more (about their particular condition) than their physician. Not that I think the physician has any less an important role to play than before - their medical education and experience will always be vital in guiding the patient down the right path of thought, to put their limited understanding into a wider medical context - but this for sure will become increasingly a different role than previously understood, whereby almost everyone followed the doctor's instructions without question.

The Internet provides an amazing opportunity for medical professionals and health consumers to unite in the battle to solve many of life's ills. I'm talking here about truly working 'together', not just side by side. Think about it - patients, and their families, have motivation that a physician never could. Often their lives are at stake. Patients will go to extraordinary lengths to raise money and awareness for their cause. Increasingly, this is becoming the same for research. Look at the advances in Aids/HIV research that were made in the 1980s - wasn't this due largely to the patient led Aids awareness groups that were busy raising the public profile , drilling up funds and even getting personally involved with research into this devastating disease? But without the knowledge and firm grounding in science that a medical professional holds, this enthusiasm can be easily misdirected. I think that patients, physicians and medical researchers working together is vital if real advances are to be made in solving some of life's' biggest problems.

Already we are seeing a move towards this new way of communicating, with patient blogs being increasingly subscribed to by physicians, and vice verse. It is my hope that MedWorm can help facilitate the opening of such lines of communication. First off, by ensuring that the right people get the right information - both patients and physicians want to read consumer style health news and the latest research. Secondly, it now provides a forum for discussion centered around the latest publications - it does not matter whether you are a professional or a consumer - MedWorm is visited equally by both and the ultimate objective between these two groups is the same. For this reason MedWorm does not have any issue with identifying who is a professional and who is not - all are welcome, and since discussions are centred around professional publications and authentic news sources, and are moderated, this helps to keep discussions focused on MedWorm's objective - the advance of medical knowledge. Thirdly - well, watch this space - don't want to give too much away about my plans for the future!

As for an answer to my question, is MedWorm Medicine 2.0 or Health 2.0? It is neither, or maybe it is both. It is Medhealth 2.0.

RSS Reader in my Mobile Phone

2007-10-01T11:54:00.000+01:00

I've just bought a new phone. It is a Sony Ericsson K800i
What a pleasant surprise to see it includes a pre-installed RSS reader!
This will surely increase the take-up of RSS, as people scroll through the available functions on their phones they are bound to ask 'what is RSS?' when they see 'RSS Reader' with its little orange icon listed. And what better a way for busy doctors to receive all the latest news updates on their speciality than directly to their mobile phone/Blackberry?