Wireless Electricity

The medical applications of wireless power is endless. Batteries is one of the greatest challenges to any implants or nanotechnology.

iUsask

What: iUsask is a free iPod Touch & iPhone app that allows you to access lots of info, sorta like PAWS
Who: Developed by the UofS, it's the first of its kind for Canadian university students
Where do I download it: Apple App Store

Via PAWS Blog - Read

PDF Editors

This morning as I was scrambling to download all of the notes for our classes tomorrow, I realized that the majority of the notes are in pdf. Since I am going to make the attempt at studying from my computer this year rather than printing a forest worth of notes, I did a little searching for pdf editors so that I can make my own comments on the pdf notes. The two editors that I have personally tried are Foxit PDF editor for Windows and I'm currently trying out PDFpen for Mac. The following are links to the web pages where you can download a free trial of each editor:

Foxit for Windows users:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/editor/

PDFpen for Mac users:
http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/

See everyone tomorrow!

-Jill

iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, Android, or WinMo for med?

Wondering what mobile device to get as a med student, well we're putting together a comprehensive article to answer that question. We'll let you know all the benefits and weaknesses for each, and then finally what we think. Stay tuned!~

NewScientist: A Wii warm-up hones surgical skills

Idea: one hour warm-up on the Wii (Marble Mania) makes you better surgeon!
Proof: "Wii-playing residents scored 48 per cent higher on tool control and performance than those without the Wii warm-up"
Reasoning: surgery = fine motor skills
Use: $250 surgery training tool for the developing world
Future: developing realistic surgery procedures software
Remarks: Wii's in our classroom! no study on Halo or the Sims yet

Via NewScientist - Read

Wired: Virtual Reality Could Keep You From Being a Surgical Guinea Pig

Idea: virtual surgery makes surgery training safer
Proof: dead or scarred patients?
Use: train new surgeons, practice patient data customized procedures
Future: learn, practice, and get licensed this way
Remarks: touch feedback & custom drill sounds are clutch!

Via Wired - Read

Because computers need love too...

Technology in Medicine (tMed) can sometimes be intimidating, out-of-date, or just simply frustrating to use. But if you subscribe to Asimov’s Laws of Robotic (ex: iRobot) and not Terminator’s Skynet, then you’d appreciate technology is here to help us, not destroy us.

tMed is a love-child conceived by Lei and James Z. when they were in first year medicine. The goal of tMed is to help make your lives in medicine easier with the technology you have to work with.

Main goals:

• Information sessions/blog posts (bring your tech problems to us)
• Technology advocacy (ex: improving the academic calendar system in the CoM)
• Tech support for fellow classmates and professors (If there's something strange in your neighborhood, Who ya gonna call?)
  

Topics covered last year:

• Tackling one45 and Blackboard
• Adding calendars to your mobile devices and laptops (iCal)
• PAWS/Blackboard email forwarding
• Gmail and Google Calendar
• Adding notes to PDFs
• Backing up data! (how many students have to lose all their school notes before someone cares)
  

Future plans:

• Changing PDFs to other formats
• Importing a custom contact list
  
• Laser printer vs. Ink printer (Please buy laser)
• Orientation on RSS feeds & Twitter
• How to buy a laptop or mobile device
• Time Machine & backing up
  
• Classroom multimedia equipment
• Horror stories of lost data!
• And much more!
  

If you are tech savy or just care about this wonderful cause, email Lei (lei.xia@usask.ca) or James (james.zheng@usask.ca) for more info. Diphile, DaveRishi, James H., and Jill all helped out with tMed in its inaugural year, so talk to them too!

Because computers need love too...

(Originally published in the SMSS First Year Handbook - 2013 Edition)