Business Continuity Planning (Disaster Recovery)

I used a LiveBinder to collate information about Business Continuity Planning.  The electronic binder is online at http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=27395

The term, business continuity plan, is the term used for disaster recovery. It has significance in healthcare because or the incentives to have an electronic health record for most Americans by 2014. If health information is stored electronically, what are the ramifications of a disaster, such as a tornado, fire, or other destroying an IT location?

Facebook Scam

There is a new Facebook scam that entices users to sign up and test an iPad or iPhone 4.  Read more about it at http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20015102-243.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=iPadAtlas

I  have already received an email with the scam from a friend in Facebook.  FYI so that you can avoid and educate others.

iPad apps

TCGeeks is a web site with information for tablet computers.  Last week they posted a web page - 175 Free Games for Your iPad.  Games are a great way to take a short "mental vacation" when working on a work project. Take a look at the site at http://www.tcgeeks.com/175-free-games-for-your-ipad/

LiveBinders

I stumbled across an interesting free website today - LiveBinders.  It allows users to create electronic notebooks, keep them private, or share them with others.  The notebooks can be made up of a combination of PDF files, videos, images, and websites.  The site is definitely worth exploring at http://livebinders.com/

It is an interesting concept that could be used to for patient education, and school projects.  There are a number of shared examples for education on the LiveBinder website.

Gmail Phone Service

I read yesterday where gmail was offering phone service (VoIP - voice over the Internet protocol), but I could not locate the phone in my gmail account.  Just over night, all of that changed!  When I opened my gmail account this morning, a flash page popped up http://www.google.com/chat/voice/

It should be like having Skype services integrated with gmail.  Enjoy!

Free eBooks until the End of August

Kaplan is offering free ebooks until the end of August. An example is the Kaplan RN Review manual. You have to download them to a mobile device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch) using iTunes. Read more at http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/25/a-barrel-of-free-books-from-kaplan-makes-a-great-back-to-school/

Insulin Dosing App

There is an insulin dosing app in iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/novodose/id384482419?mt=8
According to the website it is "a mobile insulin analog dosing guide application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. NovoDose™ gives health care professionals instant access to dosing information for Novo Nordisk’s portfolio of insulin analogs. Simply select Levemir®."  The app is free.

I am looking forward to exploring it further.  I can see the value in additional similar apps for healthcare.

Transferring iTunes FIles

I wanted to sync my iPad with my Mac laptop, since both are strictly for work (I had been syncing it with the home PC).  I wanted to continue to synch my iPhone with my home office computer, since they are strictly for personal use. It turned out to be much easier than I anticipated. Note 12/3/2011- the option to create a DVD backup is no longer available on the most recent versions of iTunes (10.3 and later).

I made a backup of the iTunes library on the desktop computer.  iTunes required me to backup to a DVD (actually, it required 2 DVDs).  I opened iTunes on the Mac laptop and inserted the DVDs in the order requested by iTunes. Amazing!  My entire library appeared.

When I synced my iPad, I was warned that I could sync it to only one iTunes account at a time. iTunes asked for permission to sync with the laptop.  Since the files were identical on both devices, I said yes.  iTunes then made a backup of the iPad files, deleted and reinstalled all of the apps on the iPad.

The only problem that I had was an annoying one where the exchange email account causes my iPad to crash.  I correct the problem by deleting and then adding back the exchange account.

Lesson learned - is that iTunes created the backup from the home office computer and installed the backup on the work laptop almost invisibly. From now on, I will worry less about moving iTunes files to a new computer.

Flash Cookies

Do you know about those hidden Flash cookies that may reside invisibly on your computer?  Linda added information on how to delete those files on the textbook web site for Chapter 5 at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Chap05ComputerNetworking/Cookies.html 

Firewalls

One of the students in my health science informatics course said that she still did not understand the concept of "firewalls." I referred her to one of my favorite websites, How Stuff Works at http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm .

Nurses hear and experience the effects of firewalls, although they may not grasp the rationale for use.  As an example, often our students will be blocked from accessing the Blackboard online learning content from their hospital computers - because of the firewall. 

If you keep your Windows operating system updated, you will receive an alert if Windows notes that your firewall on your personal computer is turned off - and provide a quick link to activate it.  If you have a suite of security software (antivirus) on your computer, a safe configuration will include keeping the firewall turned on. 

My personal visualization of a firewall is analogous to the valve in a vein.  Firewalls prevent unwanted access from the Internet from accessing my computer.  I can access the Internet, but unwanted Internet access is blocked.  That block prevents computer viruses and malware from harming my computer. 

Office for the Mac

Microsoft will be releasing a new version of Office for the Mac later this year according to an article in MacWorld.  Not surprisingly, the article noted that Microsoft is reacting to issues posed by the popularity of Apple and other mobile devices that do not run a Windows environment.  The introduction of free office apps by Google and others has also hurt Microsoft's sales.  

http://www.macworld.com/article/142266/2009/08/office_2010_outlook.html 

The competition is a good thing.  That said, the Microsoft Office product is hard to beat, but it was priced too high for many customers.  

As an example, I attempted to use the Apple spreadsheet equivalent of Excel - which is Numbers and gave up immediately.  I will have to experiment with the other iWorks apps to make better comparisons.  I am looking forward to the new Office for the Mac, though.  In my opinion, Office 2008 for the Mac is not as robust as Office 2007 for Windows.  

Mobile Computing Assessment Tool

Linda added a link to a tool to assess a mobile computing tool.
http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Chap13MobileComputing/MobileComputingTool.html

App That Closes Droid Phone programs

Tracy shared this:
http://www.droidapps.org/advanced-task-killer-free-kill-an-app-save-a-phone/


She said "I love this app. Closes down any apps you may have forgotten to close &
saves on your battery life. This is the link for the droid version. Check to see if there is an iphone version."

PS - Am still catching up on the wonderful tips shared by my "personal RSS readers."  Thanks, Tracy!

iPhone and iPad "Best" Apps

Martha shared the link below with a listing of iPhone apps.  Many of them also work with the iPad

http://lifehacker.com/5607809/lifehacker-pack-for-iphone-our-list-of-the-best-iphone-apps?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29

Copyright Info

Tracy sent this link on copyright developed by the University of Minnesota libaries.  The flow chart may be helpful to many.  The "rules" for copyright are difficult for many of us to understand, so reviewing several resources on the same topic are often helpful. The information is a good supplement for Chapter 26 in the 3rd edition of the textbook.

http://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright/

Georgia College has information on copyright with additional resources at http://www.gcsu.edu/library/reference/guides/copyright.htm

Movie Software Tutorials - iMovie, Windows Live Movie Maker, Movie Maker

This fall, our university is offering a Faculty Development Workshop (FDW) that explores pedagogical principles for the use of technology with teaching/learning process.  Participant will be using an iPad or MacBook Pro.  As one of several workshop facilitators, I am exploring software solutions.  I discovered a blog with an iMovie tutorial this morning.  It is a simple 4-page guide designed by Storychases.tv at http://www.scribd.com/doc/35390885/Quickstart-Guide-to-iMovie-09

The design of an effective movie is challenging for many of us.  Since the principles for creating a movie are universal, the site is worth exploring.  Microsoft provides Windows Live Movie Maker as a free download at http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker (Only for Windows 7 and Vista OSs).

There is a version of Movie Maker for the XP OS also.  The following link is a tutorial for that version  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx

Preventing Medical Mistakes - Using an Online Database for Public Reporting

Tracy sent me this interesting article about an online database that allows consumers to lookup hospital performance in regards to medical mistakes.  It is tragic that we (healthcare providers) don't do a better job before being publically reviewed or criticized by the public and outside agencies such as CMS and Joint Commission.

New database lets consumers track medical mistakes by hospital  The state Department of Health announced its new online database Thursday, which allows consumers to look up medical mistakes by
hospital and date.

* Read the full article at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/424609_adverse.html

TIGER Competency Wiki

Linda added this new resource to the textbook website at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Informatics.html

August 6, 2010 Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform's (TIGER) Competency Wiki. This site has a pdf report and a spreadsheet of all the competencies. (Chapter 1)


http://tigercompetencies.pbworks.com/

YouTube - Did You Know 4.0

Interesting video - Did You Know 4.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

Of course it is a year out of date already. 

Group Work Facilitation Site

While in California last week, I attended an outstanding session about a we resource to facilitate effective groupwork.  The site is called Learn Higher at http://www.learnhighergroupwork.com/

It was developed by the Centre for Excellence and Teaching and Learning at Liverpool Hope University, U.K. 

There are a series of 10 videos that learners.  Each video is accompanied by a series of reflection questions to consider when viewing the video.  Use of the learning is not discipline specific.  The site is certainly worth exploring if teaching or understanding group work.

Word Tips

I was reading the latest edition of PCWorld and ran across a couple of very useful tips.  Both are available under the View tab in Word.

• One tip is to use the "thumbnail" view to quickly navigate long documents. The thumbnails appear in an identical way as they do in Acrobat Reader.
• Another tip is to to "map document" to see an outline of the page headings as you work on the document.

Both views are very helpful when working on longer documents, such as a book chapter or journal article.