July 2008

Health literacy requires more than just knowing how to read. It involves a number of additional skills, including listening, analyzing, and decisionmaking.

Researchers around the globe are working on various breath-based technologies to not only diagnose illnesses, but identify the ingestion of drugs of abuse and provide defi nitive medication adherence documentation.

Boris Rubinsky, professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, explains his research using cell phone technology to reproduce medical imaging, which can then be transferred to a physician through his or her cell phone.

In June 2008, I participated in an online interview with Ed Silverman, author of the popular pharmaceutical industry blog Pharmalot.

Many of our patients are using the Internet to look up their diagnoses and medications as soon as they get home from our offices.

A year later, as we read and watch the breathless coverage devoted to recent moves by Google, Microsoft, and Apple, we are left asking "is healthcare IT worth the hype?"

Medicine is constantly changing, with new innovations fueled by basic science discoveries.