Friday roundup
A diverse set of interesting articles I've come across recently:
An article describing various viewpoints on taking care of Jehovah's Witnesses in life-threatening situations. I like the idea of talking openly and honestly about sympathy, empathy, and the role of the physician in terms of the patient's personal or religious beliefs. This is a touching and insightful piece that may be a challenging read for some, but highlights the very important topic of cultural sensitivity, and how healthcare professionals can frame religion and culture within the world of medicine.
A thought-provoking piece illustrating some of the thoughts of Seth Godin regarding the future of education. He posits that the "Harvard model" is dead: high-priced institutions that hold classrooms of 15-300 students, being lectured to by professors on the "accumulating credits" system. Instead, he envisions a future of online, collaborative education where students can also be instructors, and physical space is replaced with digital space. He mentions the modern notions of online communities and the free sharing of and expansion upon data and ideas.
The AAMC has released the published responses to their 2011 "Question of the Year": "What improvements in medical education will lead to better health for individuals and populations?" The replies run the gamut from nutrition to financial incentives to competency-based education and beyond. Other topics include diversity, health disparities, leadership, professionalism and global health. Must-reads for anyone interested in medical education, public health, reforming healthcare, professionalism/humanism, patient safety, and pretty much any other healthcare-related topic.
An intriguing summary of the future of computing and IT points out the importance of Natural Language Processing programs, and where they are headed. When thinking about what the next generation of computers and applications will need to do, the ideas of detailed data analytics, human-like "thinking", situation/information comprehension, and insight into users/consumers are top on the list. Sentiment analysis, contextual understanding and those kinds of data manipulation and analysis are already being researched and developed at a frenetic rate (and with astronomical sums of money). Considering the ever-increasing amounts of data being created on a daily basis, it is no surprise that the next wave of computer innovation is going to revolve around making sense of it all.
