Web 2.0 and Medicine is about Values in Practice

"Solidarity is more than give just a hand, it is more than share with a brother. It is an universal feeling that disappears borders between countries no matter believes, races or colors."

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eb 2.0 and Medicine is an amazing combination. It is something that has lot of potential in our field. But Medicine and Web 2.0 - or Health 2.0 - are not only about information and technologies. It is about values that we can put on practice. Solidarity and collaboration with no interest. It is a big idea. From my point of view, they can only generate more well being for more people, and sometimes for ourselves. Last months I was working on my personal statement. It was not easy to put all my ideas in just one page. Now this work is done. But I know lot of International Medical Graduates (IMG) each year have the same problem, trying to write something good about themselves. That is why I made this post, to share some templates and guidelines that where really helpful to me. If you know about more templates or guidelines to write a personal statement, please leave your comment and the link to these resources.

   Personal Statement Examples
   Personal Statement for Surgery
   Personal Statement for Family Medicine
   Personal Statement for Internal Medicine
   Personal Statement for Internal Medicine 2
   Personal Statement for Internal Medicine 3
   Personal Statement for Pediatrics
   Personal Statement for Pediatrics 2
   Personal Statement for Emergency Medicine
   Personal Statement 6 Examples

Web 2.0: Medical Collaboration with no Borders

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ollaboration is an interesting word. The understanding of this concept is important when we talk about the tools of Web 2.0. A definition I found in Wikipedia says, "Collaboration is a process defined by the recursive interaction of knowledge and mutual learning between two or more people who are working together, in an intellectual endeavor, toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature". The fact that there now exists new and better tools to collaborate with others -no matter the time or the place- does not mean that we have to leave the use of classical interaction with other people, but at the same time we have to recognize that the learning of the use of these tools has a tremendous potential to create new and better content and more. Web 2.0 does not mean we have to become techno-freaks, it is about using the tools that exist online to do our work more efficiently. It is about hearing others' opinions and improving our ideas. In medicine the Web 2.0 could be used to interact with other colleagues and with our patients. In medicine the access to the information and the sharing of experiences among colleagues is paramount. The Web 2.0 allows us to do that. If we learn about it, I am sure in the future doctors will not have to leave small towns -and patients- in order to remain current in their field. Because I think the place does not matter for medical practices in times of Web 2.0, or does it?

Interesting Links:
Rural Doctors on a Global Stage: Do Local Communities Make a Difference?
Liberate your control freaks

Why Web 2.0 is so Important

One aspect really important among other of the Web 2.0 is the fact that it is really easy to share your ideas with others, It is really easy to find someone who have the same ideas and what is more important for me, is the fact that you can work with people you don't know and are far apart, but who have ideas is common with you. Working in collaboration with others, applying what is called Collective Intelligence will let us to improve as a society. But, somehow this is a time of mass education, schools create professionals that think in the same way, schools are like factories were people are programmed to think in determined way, with a narrow view of life, and the mass media give a huge help with that too. We just see, hear and learn what some people want. Nevertheless, internet nowadays allow us to choose what we want to see, hear, learn, but for how long more? This presentation show us a positive perspective of what the future will be, and how important Web 2.0 is, and give us really good examples of that.