Bao Mei Mei

As someone who has been teaching health informatics students for a number of years, it is rewarding to find this discipline finally receiving the attention and interest it demands. Most health experts have agreed for some time that the two academic disciplines of informatics and genomics are the key disciplines that will shape the future of American healthcare by enabling doctors to have access to personalized healthcare information at the point of care.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes specific wording supporting increased funding of health informatics programs around the nation. A recent article in the New York Times has noted that there is a greatly increased demand for “health informatics specialists” who have expertise in medical records, insurance claims, clinical care and computer programming as health care providers look to utilize the $19 billion in stimulus funding directed at implementing and expanding electronic health records.

Health informatics specialists usually start their career or education in computer programming or as health care professionals, and later earn a degree in health informatics and take midlevel or senior jobs at a hospital, doctor’s office, insurance company, drug firm or other organization working with health care data. The experience of the UC Davis Health Informatics program, which I direct, is that most of our graduates have found senior positions in health informatics in both public and private sectors, including a number who have become faculty in health informatics programs, and are now teaching future generations of students.

William Hersh MD, Chair of the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health and Science University was quoted in the New York Times as saying , “The health IT people run the servers and install software, but the informatics people are the leaders, who interpret and analyze information and work with the clinical staff.” It is crucial to have highly trained experts in informatics who are able to work across both the disciplines of health and information technology, and who understand and are expert in both. Without these informatics experts it is hard to see how the Obama Administration policies for Health Information Technology can possibly be implemented.

The American Medical Informatics Association is the main professional body relating to health informatics experts and Don Detmer MD, the Chief Executive Officer, said, “My rough estimate is that we need about 70,000 health informaticists” to meet Electronic Health Record goals laid out in the stimulus bill. Prior to the stimulus bill, most experts agreed that just to keep progressing with Health IT implementation at our current relatively slow rate, it would be necessary to have another 10,000 health informaticists by 2012. All that is now changed, and there is an urgent need for many more highly trained health informatics specialists, and programs such as UC Davis are planning to more than double their current output of students within the next three years, assuming extra stimulus funding.

It is interesting how the public has caught on to the need for increased numbers of health informatics specialists. This is demonstrated by the already dramatically increased numbers of applicants to the UC Davis program, where we are currently working with more than 50 applicants to our Masters program, having recently also enrolled 30 students in the first quarter of our new Certificate program.

It is crucial that the health workforce is retrained for 21st Century medical needs, and with health being one of the relatively few expanding sectors of the workforce, training in disciplines such as health informatics is essential if we are to improve the way health services are delivered to the nation. We have to be realistic about the fact that there will be increased needs in future as the current 46 million uninsured are likely to be covered by some form of universal insurance and offered more comprehensive care than they have been able to receive in the past. This can only happen if we use Health Information Technology intelligently, and universally, and for that to happen we have to dramatically increase the number of health informatics experts around the country.

By: Peter Yellowlees

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Despite the growing popularity of HDTV and the rising sales of HDTV sets, most of the TV content that’s watched on HDTV sets is in standard definition television- the older format that’s been around since the dawn of broadcast TV more than half a century ago. There are two major reasons for this. The most obvious reason is that there are still far more standard def channels than there are HDTV channels. In other words, not everything that every HDTV owner wants to watch has made the transition to HD.

The second reason why most of the TV programming that’s watched on HDTV sets is still standard def is because HDTV programming isn’t nearly as popular as HDTV sets. The evidence for this includes the fact that there are only about half as many households with subscriptions to HDTV programming packages as there are households with HDTV sets. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, HDTV has become something of a status symbol and the HDTV sets are much more evident of this status than having the HDTV programming to watch on them is. Another reason is that HDTV sets have the wide screen aspect ratio that many DVD’s and an increasingly large number of standard definition TV shows are available in. The wider viewing area is a good way to heighten enjoyment of watching TV, and in many ways is more noticeable than the high resolution picture that you get with HDTV. Yet another reason is that modern video game systems like the Xbox 360 and Sony’s Play Station 3 can display their graphics in high def resolutions and take advantage of the 16:9 aspect ratio of HDTV sets.

Despite all of this, many people find standard definition programming relatively unsatisfying on HDTV sets. There are several reasons for this. For one thing, the analog format that a lot of standard definition TV still comes in, isn’t completely compatible with a lot of HDTV sets. This causes a worse picture in many ways than if the same programming was just displayed on a standard def screen. Another problem comes from the fact that HDTV screens are simply designed to display more pixels which result in a more detailed picture than you can get from a standard definition TV set or standard def programming. Therefore, the result of displaying standard def programming on such a high def screen is missing pixels which cause the picture to look grainy and generally low quality. This is especially obvious when standard def programming is displayed on a relatively large high def screen.

There is a way to combat this problem though- buy an HDTV set that’s good at rendering standard def programming. There are a variety of sets that are better than average at doing this and they’re made in a variety of technologies. DLP projection TV’s and Plasma screen TV’s can both be good at this, but there are more LCD screen HDTV sets on the market that are well rated for displaying standard def programming than any other type on the market. One thing that will help is getting an HDTV set with a built in up converter that will fill in the absent pixels to make the SD picture look sharper. Barring that, a smaller screen will look better because the gaps in the picture will be harder to see.

In all, this is a problem, but not one that can’t be avoided with a little bit of foresight.

By: Emily Sanderson

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People involved with the cars need to stay current with the automotive industry news. Doing so ensures a cutting edge understanding of the new technologies, designs, and trends that bring about a greater success for the industry and a better value for the customer.

The first line of defense when something goes wrong with your car is your trusted mechanic. Your mechanic probably keeps up with the latest news regarding the automotive industry, not just because it is his livelihood, but because he knows that doing so will bring him greater success. A mechanic must be well informed in order to perform maintenance on the latest models and new technologies found in them.

The new technologies often come from prototypes or concept cars. These prototypes are to the automotive industry what the bikini edition is to Sports Illustrated. It’s the sexiest and most anticipated event of the year. Manufacturers get to show off their new designs and ideas for the future of the industry. Often times you’ll find both designer and general car enthusiasts that line the walls of the annual Detroit Auto Show or similar ones throughout the world. Sometimes these cars set the stage for upcoming cars such as the Chevrolet Volt, which has new “green” technologies that have been implemented in new and upcoming cars.

In addition to designer and enthusiasts being at these trade shows, you’ll find inventors and entrepreneurs. These are the folks that often times find ways to implement new technologies in a way that can be delivered to the general public. Such is the case with Tesla Motors, an entrepreneurial company that has found a way to make high performance cars that rival world renowned sports cars, all the while using electricity to power the car.

These people’s experience and jobs culminate in serving a very critical person, the consumer. It is after all you and I that drive the industry based on not only how many, but more importantly, what cars we buy. Before we begin our shopping, we should update ourselves based on the industry news and trends. This way we can be sure to get the most bang for our buck.

Clearly, where there is a consumer, there is a dealer. The dealerships must maintain a pulse on the industry trends in order to stock his lots with the cars that we want to buy. Otherwise he won’t be in the industry for long.

No matter what role we play in the industry we need to always be sure and keep up with the auto industry news, otherwise how will we be effective at what our role is? It is absolutely critical that we all stay informed. To do so we can: keep magazine subscriptions, attend trade shows, and read blogs and other information about the industry.

By: Ben Pate

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Whole sale solar panels are now available in the market. This is shocking news to everyone interested in buying it and also to those who are particular of cost cutting. The usage of these panels helps in preventing pollution, but many of them hesitate because of its cost. If this is available at whole sale then it is definitely good news to all the buyers. Science has yielded immense benefits regarding solar power. Thus, it plays a vital role.

They have a wide range of applications as well as disadvantages. There applications have great importance. The only disadvantage is that, this system is cannot be used in cold countries such as Canada and so on. Because, in such countries, they have long winters with snow fall and very short summers. As we know, these devices works only with sunlight, it is very difficult and almost impossible in such countries.

Wholesale solar panels are being sold world wide at reasonable rates. But, as we discussed earlier they are sold in all countries except cold countries. Now, let us discuss how they work. These panels attain the energy from sun and convert it in the form of electricity. They are most commonly called as photovoltaics. To install a solar panel or a photovoltaic one need a panel professional. It can be easily done by a professional. The panels are available in different sizes and the cost varies along with their size. The foremost thing that should be known is that, these panels are a series or collection of solar cells. They generate huge amount of electricity. Many books and guides are available to give a brief description about these such panels. Thus, wholesale solar panels play a major role in not only generating electricity, but also by being cost effective.

By: Dane Bergen

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The 21st century has been the age of so many technological breakthroughs and advances, technologies aimed for one purpose and that is to make the lives of people better by helping them become more efficient in their work. One such technological breakthrough is computer technology.

Computer technology has grown in great proportions starting from a computer with a size that of a room to a small well-designed palm top computer. Computers nowadays have become an indispensable part of the lives of people, especially at work, at companies, businesses, schools, offices and even in homes.

It has made the world smaller, but has it made our world better? It would then lead us to ask whether computer technology is good or bad. Now let us try to look at first some of the bad effects. With the advent of computers and with the internet it has become easy to access pornographic sites, children are more exposed to explicit content; some students would lose focus on their studies as they play computer games. The number of obesity cases has increased and it has been attributed to too much computer activity that led to less physical activity among a number of people.

On the other side of the coin, computers have opened a whole new world of possibilities. It is now easier to gain information on world events; you can even find a job in the internet; you can spread advocacies to a vast number of people all over the world; and most importantly it is now easier to be connected with one another even if you are on the other side of the globe.

Computer technology, just like any other material on earth has been created with a common good in mind. Just like a knife, it has been made to cut and slice food to speed up cooking time for people but it can also be used to kill people, and you cannot ban the use of knives in order to stop killing. And so you can’t blame computers for the problems it may have caused for it is the people who use them who caused the problem. It has disadvantages and advantages that must be taken into consideration.

But the problem is not computer technology itself; the problem resides on the people who use it. Computer technology is generally good for it can bring in a lot of good if it is used properly, but can do great harm if used unwisely.

People have choices on how they make use of earth’s resources, and that choice will determine how certain materials will affect people, be it good or bad.

By: Jim Oneil

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After setting up your money making website, the next thing you do is to build an email list and aim for a high email delivery rates. Email marketing is useless if you have low deliverability rates, which only means you have a high bounce rate. Because after implementing your marketing techniques it still depends on your ability to gain new potential customers as well as to convert the traffic to sales and bigger profits. This strategy is only tedious at the beginning same with blogging, once you have a reputable name in the internet it is easy to attract customers, and readers to your website.

Next is check your email servers on different spam blacklist filters to know that you are on the correct path and you know that your email will be receive by your contacts. You may also want to increase your opt-in mailing list by making it viral. Of course people who are visiting your website are brought by search engines and other referring sites because they are looking for something that can be found on your site. You can offer them a free E-book with a link to your website, be sure your topic will catch their attention and will satisfy them, i.e., online money making tips or list of step to increase their email delivery rates for their email marketing campaign. Be sure to include a link to your newsletter subscription on each page. Finally place a disclaimer on the e-book saying that it can be redistributed provided all the information is left untouched.

By: Vinson Matthew Lozano

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