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Over the past decade, nudged by new federal regulations, hospitals and medical offices around the country have been converting scribbled doctors’ notes to electronic records. Although the chief goal has been to improve efficiency and cut costs, a disappointing report published last week by the RAND Corp. found that electronic health records actually may be raising the nation’s medical bills. But the report neglected one powerful incentive for the switch to electronic records: the resulting databases of clinical information are gold mines for medical research.
The monitoring and analysis of electronic medical records, some scientists say, have the potential to make every patient a participant in a vast, ongoing clinical trial, pinpointing treatments and side effects that would be hard to discern from anecdotal case reports or expensive clinical trials. The use of electronic records also may help scientists sidestep the rising costs of medical research. “In the past, you had to set up incredibly expensive and time-consuming clinical trials to test a hypothesis,” said Nicholas Tatonetti, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia. “Now we can look at data already collected in electronic medical records and begin to tease out information.”
Mining Electronic Records for Revealing Health Data Researchers Mine Data From Clinic, Big Insurer (WSJ)
Thirty-five percent of smartphone owners use their devices while driving, according to a McKinsey study on “Mobility of the Future.” Of respondents who said they use their smartphones while driving, 89 percent said it was for calls, 68 percent for navigation, 39 percent for SMS and 31 percent for using the Internet.
Survey: 35 Percent of Smartphone Owners Use Them While Driving
Google, Samsung and Apple are filing for patents at an increasing rate as a defensive measure in an uncertain and litigious world for tech innovators. Their patent race with one another and competitors has for the first time pushed chemical and medical companies off the Top 50 list of patent awardees — and signs indicate the tech industry’s patent dominance will continue in coming years.
Fueling this patent race have been the smartphone and tablet wars, which have pitted tech companies against one another in courts — and stores — worldwide. But there is also uncertainty as the U.S. shifts to a first-to-file patent system on March 16 as part of the implementation of the America Invents Act, the first congressional overhaul of patent law in six decades, which was signed into law nearly 18 months ago. Even as Congress has changed the law and the Federal Trade Commission settled its patent case with Google, the policy issues surrounding patents show no sign of diminishing.
Tech companies occupy top of the patent heap
A plan to offer an array of online college classes at a California state university could, if the students are successful, open the door to teaching hundreds of thousands of California students at a lower cost via the Internet.
Udacity, a Silicon Valley start-up that creates online college classes, will announce a deal with San Jose State University for a series of remedial and introductory courses. Because the courses are intended to involve the classroom instructor, it could also help to blunt professors’ unease with the online classes. The state university’s deal with Udacity is also the first time that professors at a university have collaborated with a provider of a MOOC — massive open online course — to create for-credit courses with students watching videos and taking interactive quizzes, and receiving support from online mentors. Eventually, such courses could be offered to hundreds of thousands of students in the state.
California to Give Web Courses a Big Trial
The debate over violence on television is heating up, with a parents' group attacking ABC for a "graphic and disturbing" torture scene on the political drama "Scandal." "On the very same night that Vice President Joe Biden met with entertainment industry leaders to discuss the issue of media violence and its impact on children, ABC — the television network owned by a company named for Walt Disney — aired an intense, explicit and bloodied torture scene during its show 'Scandal,'" the Parents Television Council wrote in a statement. The PTC has repeatedly clashed with TV networks over content it deems overly violent or sexual. "For nearly three minutes, viewers were subjected to graphic and disturbing scenes of a man struggling to breathe while being waterboarded, his nose being broken and his face beaten into a bloody mess, blood spattering on the walls, and being kicked and beaten into submission," the statement added.
Parents Television Council attacks ABC for 'graphic' 'Scandal' torture scene Parents Television Council Blasts Torture Scene in ABC's Scandal (AdWeek)
The lure of access to China’s fast-growing film market — now the world’s second largest, behind that of the United States — is entangling studios and moviemakers with the state censors of a country in which American notions of free expression simply do not apply. Whether studios are seeking to distribute a completed film in China or join with a Chinese company for a co-production shot partly in that country, they have discovered that navigating the murky, often shifting terrain of censorship is part of the process.
Billions of dollars ride on whether they get it right. International box-office revenue is the driving force behind many of Hollywood’s biggest films, and often plays a deciding role in whether a movie is made. Studios rely on consultants and past experience — and increasingly on informal advance nods from foreign officials — to help gauge whether a film will pass censorship; if there are problems they can sometimes be addressed through appeal and subsequent negotiations.
To Get Movies Into China, Hollywood Gives Censors a Preview
[Commentary] In the last few years, amid rising social unrest, the Chinese government has intensified its efforts at “preserving stability.” One consequence has been a dramatic increase in control of the media.
Investigative reporting and opinion commentary are the two hallmarks of Chinese journalism, and the party has moved to crack down on both. Is there, in fact, room for professional journalism to survive and develop within the Chinese system? It is on this question that not only journalists but Chinese in every sector of society have expressed doubt and exasperation. The repression of journalistic professionalism is not merely a journalistic issue, but also signifies the government’s assault on society in general, and has exceeded the limits of public tolerance. The fate of journalistic independence in China will depend on whether the authorities implement or backtrack on their tacit concessions. Public vigilance is essential if progress is to occur. Does the political system have the flexibility to tolerate the professionalism pursued by journalists, and the press freedom demanded by society at large? How much will the new party leadership make good on its commitment to governance reforms and adherence to the Constitution? The Southern Weekend episode does not provide a clear answer. Any sign of progress is worth encouraging, but rather than shedding tears of gratitude for promises that may prove empty, the Chinese people need to keep their shoulders to the plow and continue their own efforts to create the society they wish to live in.
[Xiao Shu is the pen name of Chen Min, who was an opinion writer at Southern Weekend until 2011.]
Dim Hopes for a Free Press in China
China's population of Internet users rose 10 percent last year to 564 million even as communist authorities tightened controls on content. Driven by a surge in mobile Web surfing, the country added 51 million new Internet users, a number bigger than the population of Spain, the China Internet Network Information Center reported. It said the number of Chinese Web surfers who go online from mobile phones, tablet computers and other wireless rose 18.1 percent last year to 420 million. Chinese leaders encourage Internet use for business and education but try to block access to material considered subversive or obscene and are tightening controls.
China added 51 million Internet users in 2012
One of Iran’s most popular satellite channels, GEM TV, operating from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and broadcasting illegally into the country, was taken offline without explanation. Its Web site was also down, adding to the mystery. Most people saw the hand of the government.
The authorities here have fought what they call a “cultural invasion” from the West, starting with the introduction of videotaped Hollywood movies in the 1980s and, more recently, the Internet and dozens of satellite channels based abroad, broadcasting in Persian. Millions of Iranians in possession of illegal satellite equipment smuggled into the country and sold for less than $150 can watch an array of news programs, political talk shows and sometimes raunchy soaps. On Monday, another popular channel, Manoto, operating out of London, broadcast the Golden Globes. Needless to say, none of these would appear on Iran’s state television, whether as a matter of taste or politics. Police officers regularly rip satellite dishes from rooftops, and clerics warn of the corrupting effects of non-Iranian programs on children and families.
Starring in Drama in Iran: TV Itself
Myanmar’s government has begun the process of opening up the country’s telecoms industry, inviting foreign companies to submit expressions of interest for two national licenses by January 25.
The licenses, to be issued by June, will be the first of four telecoms licenses planned for the sector and could run as long as 20 years with an option for renewal, the government said in a statement. The move signals the opening up of a sector long controlled by Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, the state-owned telephone service provider. It comes amid rapid economic liberalization as Myanmar rushes to attract foreign investment after decades of isolation under harsh military regimes. The tender comes as Myanmar’s parliament considers a draft telecoms law – which could be passed within the next few months – that sets out a sweeping overhaul of the industry.
Myanmar opens telecoms to foreign groups