In this issue:

• Quicksilva to make NHS Spine patient data easily accessible to all NHS Trusts
• Bath University Student Business Plan Competition 2009-10
• 3D interactive tool for learning anatomy
• Want to quit? There's an app for that
• Pad Science
• Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
• ASCL conference hears that internet makes teaching children harder

Is Health That Sick?

The way the various “pledges” have dripped in from Whitehall departments gave a sort of Charity Appeal feel to yesterday’s budget...like Red Nose Day but without the silly sketches and the dressing-up...Budget 2010: How state spending will be cut

The largest of the pledges has come from health secretary, Andy Burnham, offering to provide more than a third of the total savings, cutting £4.35bn. The worrying message for me was the possibility that he can save £555m by reducing staff sickness and absence...what? How sick are health sector staff? Is it something they pick up from patients?

I'd like to see the figures behind that one.

At least he's not offering to cut a straight percentage across all departments...that is a more worrying move which values the results gained by all expenditure as equal.

Gayna

3D interactive tool for learning anatomy

From BJHC & IM

Elsevier has launched the InteractElsevier Series of anatomy learning tools. The series applies advanced gaming technology to reviewing, learning and teaching anatomy.

Quicksilva thoughts...

This innovative 3-D interactive anatomy series applies advanced gaming technology to reviewing, learning and teaching anatomy.

It allows the user to strip away overlying structures, or make them transparent, construct the body by region and by body system, remove structures to understand complex relationships, and create dynamic labels for structures to name but a few.

Healthcare and computing have come so far that a student can now watch a 3-D human model being peeled back to the core to fully understand the human anatomy. I was amazed to sit back and watch as the demo ran through some of the astonishing tools it has on board one of which allowed the user to run CTs & MRIs over the body.

One to have a look at if you have a minute...

Want to quit? There's an app for that

From E-Health Insider

The Department of Health has launched an iPhone application to help people stop smoking.

Quicksilva thoughts...

The Department of Health have really jumped on the iPhone bandwagon with their second iPhone application. The first app was released in December 2009 to track your personal alcohol consumption. This new app launched on No Smoking Day will help smokers to give up their habit.

The NHS Quit Smoking application provides you with a time since you quit and also how much money you have saved since you stopped. It also provides you with good positive feedback as well as top tips to help you fight the cravings. If things get really difficult then there’s a direct link which will dial the free NHS Smoking Helpline.

From personal experience, quitting takes a lot of effort and willpower, so applications like this are a great way to give help with the struggle to stop smoking.

Pad Science

From .net Magazine

What effect is the iPad going to have on web design and development?

Quicksilva thoughts...

Despite being an Apple fan-boy, I can't help but to agree with half of the leading web gurus' thoughts on the iPad - it's just a large iPhone.

There is no doubt that Apple's touch-screen interface has been their main drive for success and if the iPad does take off, potentially the new Apple movement could be touch-screen web applications.

Apple may have won us over with their iPod and iPhone but what can we benefit from an iPad? Portable touch-screen tablets have been around for quite some time but never got the same media attention as the iPad, nor were they available to buy at your standard computer shop.

If you really want a touch-screen tablet that runs on Mac OS X, then I recommend Modbook. This may not have the ability to make phonecalls like the iPad but do you really want to look like that guy from Trigger Happy TV?

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'

From BBC News

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

Quicksilva thoughts...

When the internet is very much part of your day to day life - at work, at home, and out and about (thanks to mobile technology such as the iPhone), it’s easy to forget that many still have problems getting online.

Our government target of getting 2Mbps broadband in every home by 2012 seems to suggest we are on the right track, however, internationally there are other questions which arise… with China censoring access to the internet, it brings up the human right to freedom of speech. With the internet having become the ideal vehicle to facilitate freedom of speech, should the right to internet access therefore be seen as a must? If so, should it ever be possible for ISPs to remove internet access as a consequence of improper use?

Setting the moral dilemmas aside, in my opinion internet access is taken for granted by those who have it, and those who don't are missing out!

ASCL conference hears that internet makes teaching children harder

From Times Online

Children are harder to motivate with traditional teaching methods in the internet age as they expect instant results, a head teachers’ leader said yesterday.

Quicksilva thoughts...

For children today or ten years ago, traditional teaching methods will never be effective after a break time filled with 15 minutes of sugar consumption leaving the mind warped and weary at the back of the class room. Children require fast paced information and interaction to remain engaged in learning, and the only traditional form of motivation in the classroom that could possibly maintain focus was the cane, which I should imagine is more fear than motivation itself.

Until the introduction of technology into the classroom environment, the only interaction students had with their learning materials was scribbling who they ♥ in the back of their text book. Do you suppose that the people supporting these claims spend quality time with children, using fun and rewarding traditional teaching methods for revision? Or perhaps they would see the children banned from playtime and directed to BBC Bitesize and other educational resources on the Internet where kids can study at their own pace?

We complain when children don’t want to learn and complain when children want to learn too fast. Children will never understand why we adults complain regardless of an outcome; it's what makes us British.

"I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I only lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three." - Elavne Boosier

Quicksilva: Langley Gate, Kington Langley, Wiltshire, SN15 5SE. United Kingdom

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