Should I take HRT? The perfect answer

Dr Crippen, the NHS Blog Doctor shares his thoughts on the subject. It may not help you to make your mind up but it's a good read anyway.

Mapping the Human 'Diseasome'

From the NY times , an interactive graphic display map linking different diseases to the genes they have in common.

Microsoft's vision on the future of healthcare

Schizophrenia Poster from SANE

Mental health poster from SANE.

3D Medical Animation of Normal Vaginal Birth

Amazing video! Choice of music a bit cheesy!

Virtual cures

VirtuallyBetter provides virtual reality treatments consisting of virtual environments that have been carefully designed to support exposure therapy of anxiety disorders. The treatment involves exposing the patient to a virtual environment containing the feared situation rather than taking the patient into the actual environment or having the patient imagine the stimulus.

How obesity harms a child's body

A quite frightening interactive article from The Washington Post using images to describe the adverse health effects of obesity on children.

Medical education in second life

Watch this student nurse go through a simulation with a patient avatar experiencing chest pain and then cardiac arrest in second life.

Head Lice

Management of Head Lice in Primary Care from the National Prescribing Centre

Google Health

Even Google are at it now. They have finally entered the healthcare market and you know they will put a lot of resources into this and who knows where this will go.

Drug Addiction - support and advice

A round up of anti-drug websites and places to find support

trydrugs - a clever site from the Norwegian Dept. of Health

Addaction - UK's largest alcohol and drug treatment agency

Frank - a useful site for friends, families or anyone else worried about the effects of drugs

Release - confidential helpline giving advice and information to users, families and friends

Hungerford Drug Project - have been providing innovate substance misuse services in the centre of London for over 30years

Cocaine Anonymous

Healthy Eating

A clever idea from SmarterFitter - healthy food templates that you can use as shopping lists when you go to the supermarket.

Mental Health Poster

Healthcare is

Web 2.0 language

For those who feel a bit behind with the new language of Web 2.0 this collection of You Tube videos will explain the basics and put you ahead of the game.

PatientsLikeMe

Another example of how poweful shared communites can be on the web. The PatientsLikeMe site connects patients online with life changing medical conditions. It embraces the open sharing of personal health data believing that information and empowering patients can change the course of the disease. As the website states, this is the genesis of patient-led research.

Heron Sanctuary

A fascinating concept. The Heron Sanctuary, a place where physically disabled people can meet in the virtual world and be unshackled from their real world day to day limitations. This video is from Alice Krueger, the founder of the Heron Sanctuary, who suffers with severe multiple sclerosis and is unable to walk without the use of her crutches.

Filthy as a loo seat: hazard of computer keyboards

Not only should we be washing our hands in between patients but perhaps every time we use our keyboards.

There are several articles in today's Guardian discussing research published on behalf of Which? magazine which showed that type pads on computer keyboards sometimes harbour more bugs than the average loo seat.

A further article by Michael Cross looks at how this problem is being addressed at University College Hospital, where Dr Peter Wilson consultant microbiologist, found up to a quarter of keyboards in wards are contaminated with MRSA and other pathogens.