V-Learning: Targeting MET with an emphasis on NSCLC

Solange Peters, Lecturer of the new V-learing module on MET

ESMO’s strategic goal is to continually develop on-line educational tools for professionals in the field of Medical Oncology and foster new challenging CME opportunities for ESMO Members

What is ESMO V-Learning?

Recent scientific discoveries in cancer and signalling pathways for which an update of knowledge is needed and for its complete understanding additional video material is beneficialScience in cancer is moving rapidly and to keep in pace with rapid progresses, more complete understanding of molecular biology/pathology, or technological advances is needed. The V-Learning platform is ideal to present such novelties end enhance understanding of clinicians by additional visual components beyond classical slide presentationIt present in more realistic way what’s going on at the cancer cell level and provide in more details the mechanistic aspects involved in different cancer processes

Relatris‘s insight:

The European Society for Medical Oncologists has many great resources for (continued) education. The newest family member are V-Learning lectures: slides and video sections combined (with questionnaires). Video lectures with slides are the format of the widely popular MOOCs, providing a more personal way of teaching than just hearing a voice from the off while seeing some slides. This integration of new trends in education into their continued education lectures is an innovative way of ESMO to further improve their programms.

See on www.esmo.org

e-ESO ePatCare

ESO has just launched ePatCare:

ePatCare for ESO is an innovative and interactive platform for viewing, creating, sharing and presenting patient cases.

Visit the ESO ePatCare store to view the ePatCare for ESO patient case library.

Simply select the cases that interest you and save them to your own personal ePatCare Cloud – you can now view your cases whenever you wish!

Navigate cases either chronologically or one department at a time by taking a virtual tour. Just choose your preferred view.

Creating cases is intuitive and sharing with your colleagues is simple.You can also edit your cases, adding more information as your patient’s treatment progresses.

Relatris‘s insight:

e-ESO, the electronic European School of Oncology, now offers an ePatCare plattform for its participants. This tool was developed by Boehringer Ingelheim and launched in 2012. It offers an easy and intuitive way to present patient cases for education (like at e-ESO) and discussion. Unfortunately there is no description of any implemented social tool (not even a comment function?) to fasciliate discussion of cases, which would enable some kind of virtual tumor board meetings.

http://www.inoncology.com/oncology-case-studies/epatcare-patient-cases-program.html

See on www.e-eso.net

The ASCO Impact Report

What was the most important information at ASCO 2013? How is the impact of the presented data on clinical routine? Which company did the best job in providing information? Read the survey of Encuity Research at www.encuity.com/asco.

Hashtags for oncology conferences July & August

July 3rd: ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2013 – #WorldGI

July 18th: 12th International Congress on the Future of Breast Cancer – #ICBC13

July 25th: 14th International Lung Cancer Congress – #LCC14

August 6th: Prostate Cancer World Congress – #pcwc13

 

Social Media for Oncologists

Today we discuss the dissemination of research results, clinical trials, and other oncology news using social media, as well as what type of media oncologists use, how useful and relevant this type of information is for most oncologists, and where oncologists can plug into information and communication sources.

We speak with Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, who was the medical director of cancer research at ProHealth Care Regional Cancer Center, in Wisconsin, and clinical trials lead investigator of the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program. Dr. Thompson has a blog over on ASCO Connection, a professional networking site for communication within the worldwide oncology community, and he is active on Twitter. You can find his tweets at the Twitter handle, which is the same as a username, @mtmdphd.

Relatris‘s insight:

A very insightful interview with one of the leading onoclogists on Twitter and other social networks. Read it to understand what’s evolving on social media for oncologists and how to get into it.

See on member.ubmmedica.com

New Mobile App Assists Oncologists In Navigating Ever-Evolving Sea Of Cancer Information

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced an exclusive sponsorship of MDLinx, a web property of M3 USA, for a searchable mobile application that provides reviews of the latest oncology-specific journal articles.

The journal aggregator app, called MDLinx Oncology Articles, is available for Google Android® and Apple iPhone® platforms and allows users to access the oncology information that is most important to them wherever they may be. Physician editors at MDLinx rank, sort and summarize oncology articles from more than 150 oncology journals, allowing oncologists to not only choose what journals they want to follow and filter by sub-specialty, but also search articles by key term or tumor type. The content is selected and controlled exclusively by the MDLinx Editorial Team at M3.

Relatris‘s insight:

I downloaded this app about two weeks before its official launch and did a small analysis of the publications chosen by the MDLinx team.

The app has a straight-forward, lean, and appealing design with a sponsor screen quickly showing up while the app is starting and a clear and easy to handle journal search/add.

First, I chose 6 journals (BJC, CCR, EJC, IJC, JCO and Lancet Oncology) in the app and compared the articles in the app stream with the TOCs on the journal website. With the exception of Lancet, all articles were “online first” and showed up in the app randomly distributed from the date of online publication up to one week after.

I then analyzed the percentage of main articles published by 4 of those journals (BJC, CCR, JCO and Lancet) that appear in the app stream within this week for the last couple of issues. The number was 70% to nearly 90%, which still leaves you with a high number of articles in your feed.

Last, I compared the articles in the app with those in MDLinx email newsletter for 5 consecutive days for the journals chosen. On 4 of the 5 days, the app suggested more publications than the newsletter (25-45% more), while only few publications showed up in the newsletter but not in the app. The newsletter therefore provides you with a stringer selection of the published articles.

Taken together, the app is an appealing and handy way to get publications-on-the-go, but to enhance the value of the app (especially compared to other journal aggregator apps), I think even more curation is needed- even when now and then, some important information may get lost.

See on www.prnewswire.com

Beyond16,000 #ASCO13 tweets: leveraging the use of social media for ASCO and the oncology community

See on Scoop.it – oncoTools

the 2013 gathering of ASCO on Twitter has been just as impressive as the physical one taking place in Chicago–the congress’ official Twitter hashtag #ASCO13 has already generated more than 16,000 tweets. […]  There is not doubt that more tweets will be generated at #ASCO14 and we will see an even more diverse group of online participants at #ASCO15.

The question here is “then what?”

As I mentioned in an earlier post, emerging communication channels like Twitter has made medical information much more available for the general public. To become a member of the ASCO 2013 online community, all you need is to include #ASCO13 in your tweets. But  including the hashtag is the easy part. Moving forward, it is more important for us to ask what we can do to make the online conversations more relevant, how Twitter can be used in a more meaningful way, how we can continue the online discussion when the meeting is over, what else can be done from a social media perspective in the future to facilitate engagement and whether channels like Twitter can ultimately create value from a healthcare perspective.

Relatris‘s insight:

Steven Shie wrote a very nice article about the increasing use of twitter at ASCO13, and he asks the relevant question: Then what? He discusses 4 areas where he sees potential to improve conversations via Twitter at big scientific meetings as ASCO. For me the most important one is- Making tweets more relevant. Use sub-hashtags (to lower the number) and feature important ones. In our days, when oncologists get completely overflown with studies and data (the daily newsletter of MDLinx offers around 100 new publications- per day! and it’s curated), we need to find ways to emphazise the relevant stuff. And the relevant sources. It’s not about numbers, it’s about quality.

See on thoughtsfrombroadstreet.com

Study shows only 50 percent of cancer apps actually contain clinical evidence

See on Scoop.it – oncoTools

In a recent study by Pandey et al in the Journal of Cancer Education, the authors sought to identify mobile applications related to oncology as of July 29, 2011. Results of the study included 77 apps in the final analysis.

Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, only a quarter of the apps were uploaded by health care agencies. Clinical evidence was noted in slightly over half the apps, and even those created by health care related agencies demonstrated that only 79% had scientific evidence provided.

Relatris‘s insight:

“Clinical evidence was noted in slightly over half the apps”…. This is really an unacceptable status, for clinicians as for patients. There clearly is a high need of quality control in the field of medical apps!

See on www.imedicalapps.com

Residency programs grapple with use of smart devices

See on Scoop.it – oncoTools

An estimated 85 percent of residents have smartphones, which they use an average 2.1 hours per day—including for clinical work. While such smart devices as phones and tablets promise advances in medical efficiency and functionality, there may be unintended consequences as well.

Relatris‘s insight:

Read the linked article!!! (we cannot scoop it here as it is a pdf file) It raises several core concerns about how we use mobile devices (we think it also applies for desktop computers on your consultation table) in clinical practice. It not only applies to residents but also to clinicians. Do you watch your computer screen during consultations? How does your patient feel in this situation? It happend to me several times- and it felt very wired and rude…..

“It is important to pause and consider the unintended consequences of the adoption of this technology. For example, there have been multiple reports of medical errors caused by information technology, such as computerized provider order entry and clinical decision support systems
[…]
Because of the increased connectivity of these devices to work colleagues as well as to residents’ personal life, interruptions may increase in both realms. This may result in ‘‘distracted doctoring’’ and increased medical errors.
[…]
From an educational perspective, we have found that providing residents with smartphones makes them, in effect, more global and less local. This combined with increased interruptions can create professionalism issues. A resident may be providing good care for a patient on a distant ward when he responds quickly to a request from a nurse via smartphone or tablet. However, this act may be viewed as rudeness by the patient right in front of the resident.
[…]
Because devices make reaching supervisors easier, residents may defer most decision making to supervisors, with resulting loss of autonomy and learning.
[…]
Tablets and smartphones also increase connections to residents’ personal lives. Recently at our institution, an attending on rounds observed his medical student accessing Facebook while the attending was discussing a recently diagnosed cancer with the patient.

See on www.ama-assn.org

Audio-Digest Foundation Announces the Release of Oncology Volume 04

See on Scoop.it – oncoTools

Audio-Digest Foundation Announces the Release of Oncology Volume 04, Issue 06: Advances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Benign and Malignant Brain Tumors.

The goals of this program are to improve management of brain metastases and review recent and ongoing research on immunotherapy for gliomas. After hearing and assimilating this program, the clinician will be better able to:

1. Compare the efficacy of different dosing strategies for whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) in the treatment of brain metastases.
2. Determine whether a patient with brain metastases is likely to benefit from the addition of radiosurgery or conventional surgery to WBRT.
3. Evaluate the effect of WBRT on neurocognitive function in patients with brain metastases.
4. Explain principles of immunology that are manipulated in new approaches to immunotherapy.
5. Recognize the advantages of a patient-specific in vivo approach to immunotherapeutic induction vaccination.

Relatris‘s insight:

New audio programm for continued education- learn while driving a car or cleaning your house!

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1267922#ixzz2UTWhFYf8

See on www.digitaljournal.com