Inside the Mind of a Third-Grader

I asked a grade 3 student to draw anything that comes to his mind so we can describe it in Tigrigna, as part of a Tigrigna lesson; and this is what he got:

Tech Ease

Why are online newspaper articles on current events easier to read than, say, an academic article that deals with even a slight deviance from the area of the reader's interest? Well, some of the answers are as obvious as pointing out the fact that news articles and analysis are going to be readable simply because they are intended for an average consumer with the most standard and comprehensible language possible. But other less obvious answers may be that these online articles are presented in the most readable format. My attention was brought into this thought by a function on Safari browser that I just discovered. It is a "reader" function located at the rightmost side of the URL box. I was about to give up reading an article until I discovered this function and changed my mind and went back to reading it from the first paragraph.

Seeing is believing:

Here is a shot of the article in its original form:




And here is the same page after reader is activated:

Hooked

My eShelf

I never thought I'd find myself in another phase of awe after I transitioned from a "basic" phone to a Blackberry last year. Back then, playing around with the smartphone was such a novel and exciting experience. The excitement wasn't a fleeting one, like what I usually find is the case with new technology. It was just another level from which I didn't see myself turning back.

And then there's the iPhone. I'm as excited about this phone as I was for the Blackberry, which is to say that I'm very very curious to know how thin thing operates and what I can do with it. It turns out that I can do A LOT. I've had the machine for only a day and half, and I've to admit that I spent half of that time with it. Actively exploring.

It appears as if there is nothing this machine won't do that a regular computer can't (especially given that I've been using the computer mostly for internet browsing lately, and so this is not a mere exaggeration).

So far, I would say I've explored half of the functionality I need to know to effectively use the iPhone. Given the amount of stuff that I can do with it, I won't be surprised to find out later that I've overestimated what I know of its workings.

I'll have more to say about the phone -- if we should call it one -- soon, but this is what I've spent the last couple of hours doing: Filling my eShelf with books. Before I could realize my dream of having to have a great shelf-full of great books, I've virtually built one on this tiny machine and stacked it with books (picture above). iBooks is an app that allows you to purchase, download, and organize eBooks on the iPhone. If the size of the screen is going to make it convenient enough to read these volumes of books that I've already shelved is to be seen, but for now, I've a stack of books that I'll be carrying in my pocket everywhere I go.

EMR: Good or Bad?

A physician blogging at the NYT describes what she sees as glitches with the electronic medical records (EMR) system.

To me, what she points out to be the problems, if they are what she sees as the major problems, seem fairly minor. One of the problems was the limitation the system puts on the number of characters they physician can input into an assessment field. This problem, from a programmer's point of view is not a difficult one. Viewed from a higher view, it is a matter of altering parts of the program and changing the allowed character numbers to one that is determined to be sufficient. It shouldn't be a major problem from a storage point of view either, as plain text doesn't take up much storage space. Of course, there could be other reasons behind the initial design and decision to make the limit of 1,000 characters. Still, this is a simple issue that can be resolved by a better communication with the physicians/management and software developers/management.

The second "glitch" Dr. Ofri points out is:

...Nobody, for example, leafs through a chart anymore, strolling back in time to see what has happened to the patient over many years. In the computer, all visits look the same from the outside, so it is impossible to tell which were thorough visits with extensive evaluation and which were only brief visits for medication refills. In practice, most doctors end up opening only the last two or three visits; everything before that is effectively consigned to the electronic dust heap.

The root of this discomfort is also, I think, similar to the first problem. It could be simply a matter of the physician being resistant to change (for, people are almost always unappreciative of changes to any part of a frequently visited web site or blog, even if that means the new design will have a better functionality, let alone a change from a paper-based work that has been in place for decades to a computer based one).

If resistance to change is really not the major problem, then the issue can be easily resolved or improved, again, with more (or better) communication among the users and the designers of the programs. It seems to me just a matter of enhancing the interface of the program to make it visually easier for the physician to see what Dr. Ofri would like to see -- make a color based button for each visit on the top right hand corner of the window to show if this visit were extensive or brief, etc. In fact, I see a better outcome from such design than the paper-based record. For example, assuming that an extensive visit in the traditional visit meant that there were more paper work for that particular day than others, the major visual indicator of the type of visit would have been the size of the pile of papers. On the other hand, adding a brief/extensive visit field to indicate the type of visit in the electronic system would make it easier to visualize and access. More helpful detail would be made easily accessible through the EMR than would have been through the traditional paper-based record system.

A Rare HIV Cure

A formerly HIV positive man who had undergone a blood stem cell transplant to treat leukemia, is reportedly clear of the virus:

It is a rare case of fortunate coincidences though, and it may not be very practical: the donor happens to have had an HIV resistance gene mutation, the procedure is complex and expensive.

Still, a glimpse of hope and perhaps a lead towards different approaches of researching HIV infection cure.

Can malaria be eradicated?

A report by BBC citing a Lancet article says may be not:

Efforts to eradicate malaria in some countries may be counter-productive, an international team of researchers suggest.

In the Lancet, they suggest some countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, may be better pursing a policy of controlling the disease.

They also criticise the World Health Organization (WHO) for not providing adequate direction.

But a WHO spokesman said beating malaria must remain the ultimate goal.

I will try to locate the Lancet article and post more on this later.

On a related news, Dideir Drogba has just been diagnosed with malaria:

Story from The Independent here.

In a classic malaria case, it took weeks (and even possibly months) to detect what a "mystery virus" Drogba had contacted. Who would have thought a Premier League player living the highest standards of life in London would contact malaria? Now that I've learned form the same article that Drogba will be able to receive treatments for 48 hours to keep him fit enough to play in the next game, I personally think this is a blessing in disguise. This will further raise the awareness of the brutal disease worldwide. It will also give Drogba, already a figure known for his humanitarian work especially in his country of Ivory Coast, a strong personal drive to push the cause even further.

I've got to say that the man has an immense strength: he played almost a full game just two days before the announcement of the diagnosis, even though the symptoms of malaria had already kicked in at least a month ago. According to the Independent, he "has been suffering from headaches and high temperatures off and on for the past month." He also played in at least two other games in the past two weeks alone.

More to come on malaria soon...

Vision Challenges

I had my eye exam yesterday, after about 3 years. The last time I had one, I was fitted with a pair of eyeglasses for the first time in my life. And it was good. I had my eyes examined because I started to miss my bus because I couldn't clearly read the bus number, and because I had hard time judging the distance to curbs when making left turns while driving. Failing to read street names and numbers, while others could clearly do so was also another reason.

On my way home wearing my first pair of glasses, I was awed by the level of detail I was able to see. I could now read, not only the letters and the numbers on a license plate of a car moving away from the bus I'm on, I could also read the smaller letters on the license plate edge -- those letters that usually advertise the car dealership from which the car was bought, etc. My delight was such that I questioned if the level of detail that I was able to visually perceive my surrounding was normal. Could I be walking with a binocular on?

My trip yesterday was long overdue, as the last eye physician had asked me to see another eye physician within a year the latest. In addition to the regular eye exam, I am also being trained to use contact lenses. I definitely didn't foresee how challenging it would be to put those delicate lenses into an even more delicate part of the body. I was never brave enough to touch any part of my eyeball with my fingers or any other object, and so it was expected that I would never be brave enough to put a lens on it. It must have taken me at least a half hour for each of the two trials that I had to do before I left the eye-doctor's office.

Today, I put my contacts on, with some, but less challenge. Aside from the frustration of putting them on, what I found surprising was the level of detail that I was able to see things with. Again. This time, looking down from the window of the kitchen in my high-rise apartment, I was able to see things that I didn't see yesterday. This is not because I paid more conscious attention today than I did yesterday. My view yesterday was deliberate, too, as I have just moved in to the place and I have been introducing myself to the new view from my daily-to-be standing location. At a long distance, I could see that there was a highway-like road with big, green signs hanging. I could see the cars speeding there, and I can almost read what the signs said, from a distance that I would have thought was amazing just yesterday. Cars and were also moving on a street that seems to join the highway, also at a distance that I never saw cars just yesterday. What's more, I can even see the colours of the window curtains of the building next to mine.

Despite the challenges of putting them on, contact lenses and my newly corrected vision has been a pleasurable change.