Blog Summary

Throughout the entire semester, I have read a wide range of articles involving medical technology and different aspects of healthcare throughout the world. I have learned a lot about different countries and about the positives and negatives associated with their healthcare systems. As a future physician, I think that it is important to me that I understand global healthcare and the disparities that exist in other areas of the globe. I hope that this post will effectively summarize my blog, and will help to highlight the best of my blog so far this semester.

My favorite blog post was the one about Health's Angels, but since I wrote something about this in my last post, I will choose another one to highlight in this post. I enjoyed the posts including the photographs that I took as well as the ones I chose for my visual representations of medical technology. I enjoy looking at photographs, especially from other countries around the globe, and as we discussed in class, a photograph can say so much without any text to go with the photograph. I particularly enjoyed going into the doctor's office and taking photographs related to my blog, and I found it interesting that I took around 150 pictures, and only ended up using three of them. I had a few other good ones, but those were clearly the best and most of the 150 were not of good enough quality to post. It was an interesting assignment, and I enjoyed feeling like a professional photographer for that day.

My least favorite post was probably my first post about social networking, because I don't feel that social networking related very well to my particular topic so I had trouble producing quality posts during the week of that topic. While I understand that it fit in with our class themes well, I think it was one of the most difficult topics for many people to apply. While facebook and other sites have come a long way in various fields, I think that have a long way to go to encompass all topics, especially medicine.

Overall from this blog, I learned that there are a lot of stereotypes that exist about other countries and the healthcare that they have and the technology associated with medicine used. Particularly, I was surprised with the information that I learned about India. I didn't know that they were so far behind in many areas of medicine, including public education and medical technology. However, I also learned that India is advanced in their medical education, and they have a strict and rigorous path for aspiring physicians, and India produces a lot of great and well-known physicians. In addition, I learned ways in which technologies that I never thought could be applied to medicine are used in the medical field in some way. Particularly interesting to me was the use of cell phones in Africa for health professionals to receive information to help them to provide better and more comprehensive healthcare.

I hope that from my blog, my readers have expanded their horizons regarding medicine and their perceptions of others areas of the world and their levels of technology. For those with a science or medical background, I hope that I have expanded their knowledge and helped them to have a better understanding of the United States in relation to other nations in the area of healthcare and medical technology. For those with no science background, I think that I avoided the use of medical terms or anything extremely scientific so that everyone was able to hopefully learn something from this blog. I hope to have changed the way people think about areas of the world like India and Africa, and maybe even changed their perceptions of healthcare and medicine in the United States.

After a semester in this class, I feel that I've had a valuable experience and that I have learned a lot about a variety of subjects. I am glad that I signed up for the class, and would recommend it to future students. Not only did I learn about various technologies including video games, social networking, and mobile technology, I also learned a lot about my personal blog topic as well as the others that I have read. I think the peer evaluations were an important part of the class because it gave me the chance to read other people's blogs that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. I enjoyed learning about technology and communication, fashion, and sports/exercise, and I think that I'll continue to read blogs more often after the culmination of this class. In addition, I think that I will keep blogging, either on my blog from this class, or on another personal blog about a topic of choice. I'm glad I was introduced to so much technology, and I think the class was extremely educational.

Medicine in today's society

As I've read various articles on the topic of medicine and technology around the globe this semester, I've really really valuable information and beyond that, lessons about some misconceptions that I had about other areas of the world. First and foremost, from the beginning, I have been surprised and awed by the amount and caliber of the technology that exists in India. The medical education that occurs in India is incredibly structured, strict, and demanding, and I find it so interesting that they have on reputation among many people while they actually have a widespread and advanced medical system. One of the most interesting articles that I read this semester regarding India was the one that described the medical schooling that aspiring physicians have to endure in order to become doctors in India. In the United States, medical school is seen to be one of the most demanding types of graduate schools possible, along with Law School, but in India the curriculum is much more demanding, structured, and detailed. I think that the U.S. could stand to take a lesson from India in their medical school requirements because India is well known for producing exceptional physicians.

Aside from the places in the world that surprised me, certain parts of technology surprised me a great deal along the way as well. For example, the use of iTunes for medical games or other applications to be used on iPhones or other apple devices by physicians in the field was surprising and interesting for me to learn. The fact that society is utilizing resources not originally meant for purposes like medical education in order to educate and inform people of medical information, is a great testament to the ability to use technology in any aspect of life if used correctly. Another example of surprising technology was the use of mobile phones in places like Uganda and Malawi in order to deliver important information to health care professionals in those areas of Africa. I think the use of mobile phones in this way is so essential to the spread of potentially life-saving information to areas of the world where resources and knowledgeable individuals are lacking due to location or poverty. The lack of supplies and resources that exists in parts of Africa amazes me, and I think that with the use of technology, they are slowly making the forward progress needed. An important example of an improvement in the health care system of Africa, or at least in the awareness of the people of Africa, is the decrease in the number of people affected by AIDs throughout the continent. The spread of information is often done through the use of various technologies, and people are becoming more aware of the treatment and prevention of AIDs in Africa.

I'm currently reading a book about Dr. Paul Farmer, an infectious disease doctor who practices both in Boston and Haiti helping to cure infectious diseases. The book presents the stark contrast that exists between health care in Haiti and in the United States, and offers some examples of technology that Dr. Farmer has in Boston and lacks in Haiti. I've never touched on Haiti in any of my posts specifically, but I think the book brings a good point up regarding health care in various areas of the world. In one part of the book, he discusses a patient being brought to his clinic by "donkey ambulance" and the young, inexperienced doctors available to help her. Dr. Farmer successfully took over the spinal tap on the young female, but stressed that he wants to try and build a medical system that can work as well in his absence as when he is present. It is an interesting look into the differences that exist between a doctor's office in Boston and a clinic in Haiti, including many references to technology and availability of various resources. I look forward to continuing the book and am sure that I will have more to say about it in future postings.

When I started writing this blog, I thought that my focus would mostly end up being on devices used in medical offices and settings, like MRI machines and X-rays, and not on how other technology like mobile phones and social networking relate to medicine and it's advancement in different areas of the world. I've been surprised and I have learned a lot from the various articles that I've read throughout the semester. Through this blog, I was able to learn a lot about the technology integrated with the medical world, and I think that as I enter into medical school, I may continue writing on this blog new information that I learn about the use of new technologies in the medical discipline.

Anchorsplash slideshow

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Maryland Day Alternative Assignment

For the Maryland Day alternative assignment, I decided to cover an annual event called Anchorsplash. The event is hosted at the indoor pool at the Eppley Recreation Center on campus by Delta Gamma to help raise money for their philanthropy, Service for Sight. Sponsors are asked to donate money to help obtain prizes for the winners, and teams can sign up to participate in the events of the day. Most of the time, the participants include other greek organizations, but other teams have also been formed like the Water Polo team that signed up this year. At the event, each team competes in a variety of events including: biggest and smallest splash, rubber ducky races, and "Save a DG." The highlight of the day is always the synchronized swimming event at the end, in which each team prepares a routine to preform for the audience. Seeing fraternity men preform synchronized swimming routines to songs like "My Heart Will Go On" always proves to be entertaining. This year, the guest judges included Davin Meggett (UMD football player), a DG advisor, and the PHA advisor, Liz Brown. Zeta Psi won Anchorsplash this year after a heated competition, and some very entertaining routines. I've posted two videos of different synchronized swimming routines and a slideshow of photos from the event (seen in the post above). In addition, I have interviews with a few of the people present, as well as Sarah Horvitz, the coordinator of the entire event. The audio clips are posted on the class blog and are titled "Anchorsplash 1...2...3...and 4."

iTunes and Medicine

As I began to search for topics to fill my blog requirement for these past two weeks, I typed in "iTunes and medicine," not expecting to find much about the topic. However, I was surprised as I have been throughout this whole blog that there is a wealth of information about iTunes and its relation to medicine. The number of apps that can be purchased through iTunes for iPhones and iPod touches relating to medicine, is overwhelming. There are applications for everything related to medicine, from drug databases to interfaces for electronic medical records of patients. As someone who has shadowed in the offices of various doctors, I have seen a number of doctors pull out some sort of "smartphone" or iPod device to look up a piece of medical information that they couldn't recall from memory. On more then one occasion, I've seen a physician refer to an application on an iPhone to help them remember doses of various drugs.

The use of iTunes to download medical applications has become more and more common over the years, and I think its interesting to realize the use of technology not originally intended to act in the field of medicine now serving such an important role. The ability for doctors to virtually have hundreds of reference books at their fingertips on a daily basis helps to improve the quality of care provided to patients while they visit their doctor's offices on a regular basis.

As discussed on a blog posted by Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, MD about medical technology, there are a lot of applications related to medical technology available in iTunes. Some of the specific applications referenced include: Netter's Anatomy Flash Cards, iChart EMR, and Lexi-COMPLETE. Doctor's have access to a wealth of information to help them to practice better medicine on a daily basis, and if this technology could be expanded to developing countries, I think that medicine would improve in those areas substantially as a result. For example, as discussed in an earlier post, many people in rural areas of the developing world are forced to treat patients based on what they can recall from their medical training. Access to applications like the ones mentioned above would help health care professionals to be able to better treat patients because they would be able to gain access to information quickly when they don't have extensive personal memory of the particular topic at hand.

Visual Representation of Medicine

As I searched for more examples of visual representation of medical technology around the world, I found some interesting examples of photographs related to medicine, especially in areas of the world like those that I've been discussing throughout the semester. In each of the photographs below, the photographer uses different portrayals of medicine in various areas of the world in order to convey an assortment of feelings and ideas.


The first photograph is of a typical operating room or procedure room in a typical doctor's office or hospital in the United States. There are various screens hanging from the ceiling, an operating table, shelves full of supplies, and machinery to monitor vital signals. In this photograph, the photographer seems to be trying to portray the cleanliness of a medical room and the various technologies that are used in these types of rooms in the U.S. or other countries that have advanced medical systems. The stark white floor stands out, as well as the steel and off-white appliances that represent the medical technology in place in the room. The photograph is very impersonal, and uses the clean lines of the room to portray a serious and sterile environment. As far as the photograph goes, the rule of thirds is applied well as the table designates the bottom third of the photograph, and the beginning of the ceiling designates the top third of the photograph. The rule of the thirds in the other direction isn't as clear, as the table is centered in the middle of the photograph, but I still think that the clarity is good and the photograph is pleasing to the eye.


The second photograph portrays an operating room being used by two surgeons to operate on a patient. Immediately, it is easy to see that this room is far less advanced as far as technology compared to the first photograph. The lack of computer monitors and screens in the photograph is the most obvious difference in this room. It seems to be a much more elementary operating room that would be located in a country with a more developing medical system and less advanced technology. The subjects are centered again in the middle of the picture so the rule of thirds isn't followed very well in that sense, but the horizontal parts of the picture are divided into three basic sections, with the top of the operating table designating the bottom third, the surgeons in the middle portion, and the bottom of the light beginning the top third of the picture. The lighting in the picture is a little dark, but I think it helps with the message of the photograph and the feeling that the operating room is supposed to convey.


This picture displays a different type of medical "office" located in Africa. It displays a traditional healer treating a patient with some kind of plant or root. The setting is obviously completely different from the past two photographs, and it is clear that this is a completely different type of medicine than in the previous photographs. It offers an insight into the world of traditional medicine that is still often practiced in developing countries in the face of various illnesses and medical issues. As far as the photograph quality goes, it is a clear photograph that includes a lot of emotion and has a lot of story behind it. The rule of thirds is followed vertically, as the people are in the two side thirds and the middle third is the space between them.


This last photograph depicts a doctor that is listening to the chest of a young African boy from a developing part of the continent. It is clear that the boy's stomach appears distended and he doesn't have a shirt on, which indicates poverty in the developing world. The doctor appears to be with some sort of organization visiting the country to offer medical assistance to the natives. The photographer is attempting to portray despair and poverty with the little boy, and extreme focus and concentration in the face of the doctor. The rule of thirds is used because the stethoscope against the boy's chest is off-center, and he makes up the third that is furthest to the left in the picture. Overall, its a great picture portraying intense emotions with a potentially moving story behind it.

Overall, the photographs included in this post do a great job of portraying medical technology in a visual way. Each of the photos conveys incredibly different emotions, and each captures a different type of moment or scene. The photographs go from a highly advanced and technological operating room, to a doctor listening to a young boy's heart beat in the field in a developing country in Africa. The stark contrast between the first picture and the last picture provides insight into the differences in medical technology between different areas of the world. This post follows my blog nicely in that it progresses from the advanced technology of the United States to the medical technology of the developing world.

Personal Photographs

The following photographs are the ones that I have shot to visually capture medical technology throughout the world. Keeping the rule of thirds in mind, I shot the photographs in a medical facility and edited each of them using the Picasa Google program.