Number 239 - April 2003

A Wealth of Subject Matter
Meeting Program Presentations reveal the wealth of computer applications used by User Group members. Last month Sandee Gumblett (see Page 1) gave us at Tacoma Open Group insight into the computer-aided world of quilting and embroidery. Here is another glimpse into yet another field where the computer is used. In her report of a recent meeting, Dianne Gamble of Los Angeles Computer Society wrote the following about a presntation by Dr. Garred Sexton:    "On what may be the biggest little presentation" of the year, our January meeting was presented by Dr. Garred Sexton, retired physician and president of the South bay Users Group. Using his Palm Pilot and Will Rogers' style wit, we were treated to very technical information that kept us engaged and amused.    "The first term we were introduced to was Evidence Based Medicine, and as it's name implies, there must be some evidence to substantiate it being medically accepted. The second point was how that information is evaluated, and thirdly the source of the evidence.    "As you might expect, the Internet has risen to be a major source of information for the medical community, as well as the lay person. So now medical journals that were traditionally circulated only amongst doctors, are now online. Even the Physician's Desk Reference is available for Palm Pilot (ePocrates.com). Other sites such as the American Medical Association, Center for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration were noted as good ones. Ovid.com has pay-as-you-go subscriptions for health topics.    "In the search for information by traditional means, we were told that most large hospitals have their own library, and the hospital librarian can usually direct you to the latest study, or source of information on a given subject. Dr. Sexton also gave us a few things to	keep in mind about studies: 1) the randomly controlled, double blind is the best kind; 2) information is usually at least one year old (the time it took to pass through proper channels to be presented); and 3) in evaluating them, if the confidence level crosses 1 (either + or -), the study is meaningless.    "While it is true that most of us will not be so scholastically minded as to read medical studies, you never know when it might become needful. Of the practical sites that many of us do want to look into, there are sites that will tell us about drug interactions, and sites for cash purchases of prescriptions from Canada(PBM Rx) and Mexico (SafeMeds.com) each with annual membership fees.    "My personal favorite is the site that allows you to look up your physician and see general information about their education and practice. (Now if it could only tell us if we're dealing with an honor's student or the class clown (Smiley) In what turned out to be a handy coincidence, Kay Deeney, a former president of LACS, distributed bookmarks and pens from the national health organization which (www.medicineplus.net.) which she uses as a UCLA Medical librarian. (For your convenience, a list of all the websites Dr. Sexton brought to us is available on the LACS website and was sent to the LACS PC e-maillist.. While access to all the info is nice, Dr. Sexton mentioned many times that all of us are unique, and no one set of rules/medications works for everyone."    Are there other stories out there ready to be tapped--other presentations to enthrall our members? How about you--do you have an application that you can describe at a future meeting? We'll help you put together a presentation slide show if that is all that is holding you back.    Any volunteers?
Number 239 - April 2003