Category: How To – Technicalities

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How To - Technicalities Main Quick Tips

How to create an alert for a specific author in PubMed

1. Go to the US National Library of Medicine PubMed website – www.pubmed.gov

2. Create a free account, called myNCBI (right-top corner of your screen) if you don’t have one already

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3. Click on “Single Citation Matcher” link on the left side blue toolbar

4. In the “Author name” box, type the name of a researcher you want to keep current, for example Hodges Paul and click on “Go” button

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5. You will see everything this person has published so far (that indexed in PubMed database – the largest biomedical database, however, to be really comprehensive you also have to work with CINAHL and EMBASE databases)

6. Click on “Save Search” blue link on the right side of the search box to subscribe to anything new published starting with today

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7. Select the desired frequency and format of your updates and click on “OK” – congrats! You are done! From today on, you stay up-to-date with this particular author, isn’t it cool?

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How To - Technicalities Main Physiotherapy and Web 2.0 Tutorials

Mastering Google for Health Information – The Very Quick Guide> Online tutorial

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Some time ago, I played with the trial version of Captivate software to create a quick guide about using Google to locate reliable health information.

This tutorial is also a part of the educational suite of tutorials that we will release soon with our new website (with Consumer Health component).

Here is the end result. It is possible to view the tutorial in two different ways:

1. Download it to your machine as a stand-alone version. The tutorial is approx. 4MB and will run itself if you double-click on it. Here is the link. Personally, I would actually prefer this option, since you save the tutorial for any future reference on your machine.

2. Run it in a browser window – any browser should work. Here is the link. The tutorial will open a new browser window and will run automatically.

Please let me know your thoughts and remarks about this short (12 min.) tutorial. Was it helpful? Too long? Too short?

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How To - Technicalities Main Physiotherapy and Web 2.0

New way to “contact me” on the blog – Instant Messaging

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There is a new way to contact me from the blog. I added a “Contact Me” window on the right side menu. If you type anything in it, I will promptly respond to you by instant messaging in the same window (if I am online at that time).

Just a note: our information and research services are intended to the Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC) members and University of British Columbia (UBC) faculty, students and staff, so if you require my research help – let me know whether you belong to one of those groups!

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How To - Technicalities Main Physiotherapy and Web 2.0 Quick Tips

PhysioSearch is alive! Using Google interface :)

PhysioSearch is alive!

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All some of you may have noticed our earlier version of the physiotherapy search engine is not with us any more.

I admit that I sinned – I switched to Google. I created a new version of a search engine for high quality physiotherapy information using Google customized search engine (Google Co-op).

How to search it?
The PhysioSearch is searchable from this blog. Just type your search terms in the search box found on the right upper part of the screen and a new window will open up with your search results which you would be able to narrow down by clicking on the labels on the upper part of your screen. Good luck – let me know how it works for you. It is also searchable from here – http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=009072055596341291981%3A7ldb1tpbl-w

Why I did it? Why switching from the previous Rollyo engine using Yahoo indexes?

Well, four (4) reasons mainly: 1) No ads – by using Google I eliminate all unwanted advertising that clutter our web results, so we don’t have any ads at all right now!; 2) Easier interface – many people are used to Google layout – so why not using it; 3) Number of sites indexed – with Rollyo tool I could use only 25 sites , with Google I am unlimited to use as much site as I want; and finally 4) Narrowing the results – with Google tool I can narrow the results by simply labelling them, so if you want Canadian content – sure , just click on the Canadian content link and there you go!

What’s included? The following sites were included in the current version of the search engine:

1. 129.78.28.173 – PEDro database – not working yet, I am working with PEDro to resolve this problem
2. www.ptjournal.org – Founded in 1921, Physical Therapy is the official publication of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and is an international, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal
3. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus – MEDLINE Plus. MedlinePlus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations.
4. www.canadian-health-network.ca – Canadian Health Network – The Canadian Health Network (CHN) is a national, bilingual health promotion program found on the Web at www.canadian-health-network.ca. The CHN’s goal is to help Canadians find the information they’re looking for on how to stay healthy and prevent disease.
5. www.csp.org.uk –The U.K. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy is the professional, educational and trade union body for the country’s 47,000 chartered physiotherapists, physiotherapy students and assistants.
6. www.hc-sc.gc.ca – Health Canada. Health Canada is the Federal department responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health, while respecting individual choices and circumstances.
7. http://apa.advsol.com.au – Australian Physiotherapy Association. The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) is the peak body representing the interests of Australian physiotherapists and their patients. The APA is a national organisation with non-autonomous state and territory branches and specialty subgroups
8. www.physiotherapy.ca – Canadian Physiotherapy Association. CPA is the national professional association representing almost 10,000 members distributed throughout all provinces and territories.
9. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez – PubMed
10. www.opa.on.ca – Ontario Physiotherapy Association
11. www.physiosa.org.za – South African Society of Physiotherapy
12. www.rehab.queensu.ca – School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen’s University
13. www.omni.ac.uk/subject-listing/WB460.html – U.K. OMNI gateway
14. www.bcphysio.org – PABC
15. www.cirrie.buffalo.edu – Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange – University of Buffalo
16. www.phac-aspc.gc.ca – Public Health Agency of Canada
17. www.ubc.ca – UBC
18. www.utoronto.ca – UofT
19. www.guidelines.gov – U.S. National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC), a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.
20. bmj.bmjjournals.com – Venerable BMJ journal from UK
21. www.otseeker.com – OTseeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy
22. www.cma.ca – Canadian Medical Association site
23. www.healthportal.gc.ca – The Canada Health Portal (CHP) is an internet site that provides Canadians with an authoritative and integrated view of health information and services from various government jurisdictions and organizations across Canada.
24. www.gov.bc.ca – All BC provincial government sites

More sites would be added after some evaluation process. Please do keep recommending sites!

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How To - Technicalities Main Quick Tips

Evaluating Health Information on the Web – The very quick guide

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How do you know whether information on a particular website is trustworthy or correct? This is a problem many of us encounter daily. Here is the very quick guide to evaluating health information on the Web.

Always check the following:

1. Who runs the website? Check the “About Us” section to learn who is responsible for the site and its information. If this information is not listed – not good, this is a warning sign.

2. Who pays for the website? A website is an expensive endeavour. The source of website’s funding should be clearly declared. It is obvious that the source of funding can affect what content is presented. Remember that “.gov” are U.S. federal government-sponsored sites, “.edu” indicates U.S. educational institutions, “.gc.ca” indicates Canadian federal government, “.org” is often used by noncommercial organizations, and “.com” denotes commercial organizations.

3. What is the purpose of the website? “About This Site” section should clearly state the purpose of the site and help users evaluate the trustworthiness of the information on the site.

4. What is the original source of the information on the website? Many sites post information collected from other resources. If the person or organization in charge of the site did not write the material, the original source should be clearly identified.

5. How current is the information on the Web site? It is particularly important for health Web sites that medical information is current, and that the most recent update or review date be clearly posted.

6. What information about users does the Web site collect, and why? Any Web site asking users for personal information should explain exactly what the site will and will not do with the information. Please do read and understand any privacy policy or similar language on a site, and not sign up for anything you do not fully understand.

7. How is information reviewed before it is posted on the website? Health-related websites should give information about the medical credentials of the people who prepare or review the material on the website. Moreover, medical facts and figures should have references to the original research.

8. How the Web site does interact with users? There should always be a way for users to contact the Web site owners with problems, feedback, and questions.

This guide was adapted from the following publications:

• 10 Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web (U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine), NCCAM Publication No. D142

• How to Evaluate Health Information on the Internet (U.S. National Cancer Institute)

For more interactive information on evaluating health information on the Web, see the Flash tutorial prepared by the U.S. National Library of Medicine – Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine (* this tutorial requires a Flash Player)

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How To - Technicalities Main Quick Tips

Quick tips – Google

I decided to add this “Quick Tips” section to our blog for those of you, who don’t really have time to go through all my rambling….:), here I will offer only the very brief tips.

Today, we will cover Google’s SITE: command. When you type this command to your search box together with your search terms, Google will restrict your search results to the site or domain you specify. Useful domains include the following – .edu (US universities), .gov (US government), .ca (Canadian content), .ac.uk (UK universities), .org (mostly NGO’s). You can also restrict your results to a site or domain through the domains selector on the Advanced Search page.

For instance, if you search Google in a usual manner for arthritis, you get approximately 86 million hits! With some .com websites coming at the tops of the list. Can you trust this information? Can you recommend it to anybody? Not always!

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So, how about maybe searching information on arthritis published by the Canadian government (of course I am assuming here that you trust the information compiled by the Canadian government 🙂

So, you could type arthritis site:gc.ca into your Google search box, and this command will restrict Google to search only information on arthritis published on the Canadian Federal Government websites (which end with gc.ca)

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You can see that by using this simple command we retrieve only 80,000 results and the first hits are an information sheet and a book on arthritis in Canada, published by the Public Health Agency of Canada (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/). Reliable information, isn’t it?

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Play around with the site: command and let me know how do feel about using it 🙂

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How To - Technicalities Main Presentations Workshops

Mastering Google for Physiotherapists – Google “Cheat Sheet” for PABC members – Spring 2006

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Preparing for my Kelowna’s presentation this Friday – May 5th (I will be posting my presentations in PDFs tomorrow here at our blog…), I would also like to share with the “most innovative” Cheat Sheet I ever wrote about how to use the command language on Google to find high quality health information 🙂

This Cheat Sheet (in PDF format, 75KB) is fully hyperlinked, so you could click on any of the links to run an actual search in Google…

This Cheat Sheet will also be included in all Google workshops handouts – I am planning to start running the “Mastering Google for Physiotherapists” workshop in the Lower Mainland in approximately two week – stay tuned !

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How To - Technicalities Main Physiotherapy and Web 2.0

RSS feeds – the “How To” guide

Yesterday, I was asked whether it is possible to be alerted when I post a new entry to our blog without physically going to our URL – http://migrator.rab.olt.ubc.ca/physio. The answer is YES, certainly.

In order to be alerted you would need to use RSS feeds. What is RSS you might ask at this point?

Here is my insight on RSS feeds and its use (for more information of RSS use in health sciences take a look on my recent article published in JCHLA)

RSS – (RDF Site Summary, or Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) – is an easy-to-use XML format for distributing content on the web. It has been around since the late 1990s, but has received considerable attention very recently due to the expansion of blogging.

In short, RSS is a simple XML syntax for describing recent additions of content to a website. These additions might include news items, blog updates, or any other information elements. Users subscribe to the feeds using an RSS aggregator or newsreader that crawls the sites on a regular basis, usually several times an hour. An aggregator displays feeds and enables users to organize them and to access related web pages when these are available.

RSS feeds might have the following applications for you:

1. Blog updates – RSS feeds mean that blog readers might be informed immediately when a blog is updated. Most blog software (including ours) include embedded RSS feed generation.

2. Newspapers and journals articles. Increasingly, many newspapers and scientific journals provide new content via RSS feeds. My daily favorites are New York Times Health section feed, International Herald Tribune Health and Science RSS and CBC Health and Science News

3. Press releases and announcements – RSS can be very useful for more formal announcements. For instance U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides seven (7) RSS feeds including the agency’s press releases, recent recalls, withdrawals and institutional alerts – http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/rss.html

4. News and Database updates. Some major services such as Google News and PubMed have recently started to enable providing search results in RSS format. RSS is likely to become increasingly common for users to stay current in the future, particularly with respect to keeping up with new research.

There are a number of RSS aggregators available. However, these might be easily categorized as follows:
• Web-based readers – These websites collect RSS feeds online and might be accessed from any Internet-enabled computer. Bloglines is my favorite free online RSS reader, allowing an easy access to selected RSS feeds from both my home and work desktops.

• Standalone clients – These software packages access selected RSS feeds and download results to your computer. SharpReader is my favorite free standalone RSS reader.

• Plugins – These programs are integrated into software packages installed on your desktop, such as Microsoft Outlook.

For an easy introduction to RSS feeds, I recommend a simple web-based aggregator such as Bloglines. Being web-based, there is no software to download and subscribed feeds can be accessed from any Internet-connected machine.

To subscribe to our RSS feed for UBC Physio Info-Blog, please do the following:
1. Find the orange RSS/XML button on our blog or alternatively use Subscribe to this blog’s feed link on the right-hand menu.
2. Copy the URL
3. Go to you favorite RSS reader and add our URL to your feeds
4. At this stage your reader will automatically download any new posts we blog here

Enjoy 🙂

Categories
How To - Technicalities Main Physiotherapy and Web 2.0

New Physiotherapy Search Engine – for high quality physio information

Exciting news! Today, I have completed the preliminary version of physiotherapy search engine. I called it PhysioEngine…Any other ideas for the name?

What does this search engine do? Well, I designed this tool to search only for high-quality physiotherapy content on the Web. Are you tired of wading though thousands of irrelevant search results to get to the information you want? Ever wish you could narrow your search to sites you already know and trust? So, here is the tool to do just that!

How does it work? Using Rollyo, which in turns is using Yahoo! Indexing system, we are limiting our Web searches to only 25 selected domains (e.g. ubc.ca or .edu). So far, I included the following web domains in my search:

1. 129.78.28.173 – PEDro database – not working yet, I am working with PEDro to resolve this problem
2. www.ptjournal.org
3. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus – MEDLINE Plus
4. www.canadian-health-network.ca – Canadian Health Network – federal government
5. www.csp.org.uk – U.K. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
6. www.hc-sc.gc.ca – Health Canada
7. http://apa.advsol.com.au – Australian Physiotherapy Association
8. www.physiotherapy.ca – Canadian Physiotherapy Association
9. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez – PubMed
10. www.opa.on.ca – Ontario Physiotherapy Association
11. www.physiosa.org.za – South African Society of Physiotherapy
12. www.rehab.queensu.ca – School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen’s University
13. www.omni.ac.uk/subject-listing/WB460.html – U.K. OMNI gateway
14. www.bcphysio.org – PABC
15. www.cirrie.buffalo.edu – Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange – University of Buffalo
16. www.phac-aspc.gc.ca – Public Health Agency of Canada
17. www.ubc.ca – UBC
18. www.utoronto.ca – UofT

All of them are high quality websites or web portals with reliable physiotherapy information, in addition all of these are FREE, which also was one of my criterions.

How to use this search engine? You can either search this resource from this blog by:
1. Typing your query into the red search box on the top-right corner of the blog
2. Click on the drop-down menu which says “Select” and choose “PhysioEngine”
3. Click on “Go” to view your high-quality tailored results

Alternatively, you can just go to this URL – http://rollyo.com/tuta1/physioengine/ and run your search from there. The results would be the same!

Let’s try “knee replacement” as an example. Running this query in our own engine will result MedlinePlus webpage on knee replacement and Current Bibliographies in Medicine on this topic by the U.S. National Library of Medicine to be the first few hits! Exciting stuff. Compare it to the general Yahoo search for “knee replacement” – http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=sfp&p=knee+replacement , where the first half of the screen are just sponsored links and then some .com sites.

In any case, please give it a try and see how it works for you! Share your thoughts in the comments for this post. I am looking forward to hearing from you 🙂

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