Informatics applied

One of the newest trends in medicine is data mining -- taking vast reams of data drilling down into it to find answers to unexpected questions.

Here's a great example of that -- using the locations of Google searches for the symptoms of diseases to track outbreaks. This sort of thing is the future of science, where getting the data won't be hard, but finding what you want in it will be.

D, M.D.

Change.gov

The Obama/Biden Transition team has the best named website around:

change.gov

It's worth perusing for many reasons. Here are three.

One: it's just a nicely designed site.

Two: it has all sorts of little indicators of the way this administration is going to be run, such as a flow chart of the executive branch that puts it UNDER the constitution and includes the Office of the Vice President.

Three: it's got a link where you can apply for a job with the administration. And my personal feeling is that if you believe in these people, and more importantly you believe in what these people stand for, then you should apply and see what happens. You should give them the chance to refuse you. This is not difficult -- the form is very short.

I did it this morning. Not sure what I'll do if they actually ask me to take a job with them, since it would disrupt my medical training something awful, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

D, M.D.

Episode 28: Podcast 2.0

OK, I'm back. Took a while, I know. But hopefully the wait's been worth it.

Here we go again.