Here’s a good video I found that explains on the new conversations feature in Outlook 2010 helps keep related emails group in your inbox. This is very similar to how Gmail operates. I know that Conversations are a feature within Outlook 2007, but Microsoft has enhanced the experience so it is actually useful now :)
To go along with my iPhone Calendar post, here is a quick how-to for adding the same .ics calendar to your outlook. This is of course assuming you already have your Outlook set up.
Step 1: Navigate to Control Panel >> Mail or Mail (32-bit) >> E-mail Accounts >> Internet Calendars
N.B. if you’re using Vista/7, you may need to change your control panel view to see the “mail” icon
Step 2: Press “New”, paste your the URL to the .ics version of the calendar, and click “Add”
Step 3: Give your Calendar a useful name and press “ok”
Step 4: Open Outlook, navigate to the calendar function, and select your new calendar
I just figured out how to do this and I wanted to share it. This definitely works with Google Calendar, but theoretically can work just as easily with any .ics calendar hosted on the internet.
Okay, so you have your calendar on your phone, but you want to know what someone else is doing or stay in touch with some organization you’re a part of. Well. you can have access to both on the same calendar function on the iPhone.
Step 1: Get the .ics file for your desired calendar
In Google Calendar, tell you friend/association to go to Settings >> Calendars >> [Name of Calendar] >> Calendar Address: ICAL
Step 2: Copy the resulting URL ending in .ics and email it to your iPhone
Step 3: Find email and copy the URL
Step 4: Enter Settings on the iPhone and click on “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
Step 5: Select “Add Account”
Step 6: Select “Other”
Step 7: Select “Add Subscribed Calendar”
Step 8: Paste desired URL and press “Next”
Step 9: Add a name and Press “Save”
Step 10: Press the HomeButton and Enter the iPhone Calendar. Click on the “Calendars” button in the upper left hand corner and you’ll see your new subscribed calendar.
Apparently, if you don’t have a MacOSX running iCal, you can’t customize the colors of the calendar, but if anyone finds a work around for this, please let me know.
Found these across the internet and thought I’d share a few:
Silence an Incoming Call – Four options for dealing with calls you’d rather not take (when you can’t or don’t want to hit decline):
Set the Camera as Your Instant-On App -- If you frequently grab the iPhone to take photos, set the Camera app to launch when you double-press the Home button. You must still use the Slide to Unlock slider to wake the phone, but then you can double-press the Home button to go straight to the Camera.
Open the Settings application, go to General > Home and tap Camera in the list of options. If you listen to music often, set the iPod Controls switch to Off; otherwise, a double-press of the Home button brings up playback controls while music is playing.
The Autofocusing on your 3GS Camera -- The iPhone doesn’t capture a photo until you release the shutter button. Instead of tapping the button to take a photo, press and hold the button as you frame your shot. On the iPhone 3GS, you can still tap the screen to set a focus area with the button held down. When you’re ready to take the picture, release the button. This technique minimizes camera movement because you don’t have to both press and release the button with your finger.
Scrub Playback in the iPod or Music app -- When you're listening to a song, podcast, or audiobook, tap the progress slider at the top of the screen to move to another section of the track. However, the combination of a relatively small screen, the size of most people's fingers, and sometimes lengthy media make this a coarse way of scrolling. What if you just want to back up a few seconds in an hour-long podcast?
Tap the playhead on the slider and then drag your finger down to scrub the playback at various speeds; the rate appears above the slider, such as "Quarter Speed Scrubbing." The farther down the screen you slide your finger, the more fine-grained control you have over moving the playhead.
Use the Clock App to Set a Sleep Timer -- If you enjoy going to sleep to music or an audiobook, a combination of two apps lets you do it with the iPhone.
Great for making sure you are trying to be productive….I don’t know if this is the best tip, but I hadn’t heard of it before :)
For those of you looking for a better experience with your office applications (but aren’t afraid of a few potential bugs), here is a link to the new Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Suite.
They have nice video that overviews some of the new features. My personal favorites are the changes to Outlook and OneNote PLUS the Office Web Apps. Things are still in progress, but everything is stable enough that I’ve moved over to using the beta (but I still suggest you keep your previous version installed in case you hit a snag).
Microsoft Office 2010 Beta (use IE for best results)
Hi HMIGSAers,
I wanted to let everyone know that we’ll soon launch an updated website for HMIGSA. Stay posted on it’s progress by RSSing to this blog more visiting:
http://hmi.missouri.edu/hmigsa2/
THANKS!
Jared
I have spoken to several people about my experiences interviewing for fellowship positions this year, and during the interviewing process I made several pages of notes that I wanted to share to hopefully help the next group of student in the interviewing process. I thought some of this information might be useful for those interviewing for internships as this time as well. There are a lot of things that I could have done better, and I learned a lot about interviewing during the process, and so I wanted to pass some of that information on. Others may have had similar or even different experiences, so by no means are all the questions or answers going to be obtained from my experiences, but I hope they may help someone in the future.
Before I began my application process, I focused on 15 fellowships’ that I wanted to apply to. I figured if I applied to 15 places, that I would get phone interviews at half of those, and then hopefully have on site interviews at 3-4 places. I was able to phone interview at 7-8 different places, but I was only extended one on site invitation; fortunately I had a good on-site visit which ultimately resulted in an offer. After several places did not offer me an on-site interview I was able to f/u by either phone or email and ask some additional questions about my interview and some of the things they may have been looking for, and things I could have done better. I was given some very good and candid feedback, and everyone was very glad to help me with my questions. Some of the feedback that I received via email included the following:
“The bottom line is that we had a very competitive group of applicants and the interview team had to rate all candidates based on overall performance around areas like work experience, confidence/demeanor when communicating, portrayed level of commitment to the area for the longer-term, fellowship vs. job inclination and interest in/knowledge about (Organization here). Quite a few candidates ranked very closely together so our prioritization was driven by how each of you stacked against each other.”
Another said: “If there was one thing I would recommend to you in your future interviews it would be to show greater enthusiasm for what you are talking about. In the fellowship selection process we are not necessarily looking for the candidate with the most experience. Instead we are looking for people who offer great potential and a passion for the work. I have no doubt that you have both of these characteristics. Unfortunately, you failed to convey your passion over the phone.”
Another provided this feedback: “All told, I think you gave a strong interview, especially when we engaged in an active dialog. So, even though I will highlight some potential areas for improvement, these are generally minor. On the monologs, your answers were still good, but not quite as strong. I think that you used the word concise in one of your previous emails, and I think that's a fair word to use. You may want to trim the tangential details down just a bit, and focus on your actions/behavior. A couple direct sentences describing the situation that you're in is often sufficient, but if you're spending much more than about 30 seconds on the situation and haven't started talking about what you did/thought/approached/etc., you're probably going too in depth there.
In describing what you did/your actions, you should have a general understanding of what you want to convey to me. To say it another way, why does the story that you're telling me show that you're a strong candidate? Your response to the question of 'tell me about a time that you had to incorporate the input from many different stakeholders' may be a good illustration of this. Your example was good one - you worked with many different departments to create and develop a product. But, I don't know if you showed initiative involving others. Or showed leadership incorporating and resolving conflicting expectations. Or showed communication skills convincing a single party of a necessary outcome. Or showed project management skills juggling a dozen different obligations. Or show problem solving skills walking through a single complex issue that arose. So, you answered the question - which is great - but you kind of missed an opportunity to show how great you are :)
My hunch is that you didn't get a chance to prepare as well as you'd have liked (which is understandable - I know how hectic your schedule is). I say this because your most concise (and probably strongest) response was to my most obvious question 'tell me about a time that you had to show leadership.' However, questions that were still standard but less slightly common didn't elicit quite as concise of a response. For an interview like this, you should probably have a general idea of what example (around 3 minutes or so in length) you will use to a couple dozen different questions (leadership, communication, presentation, conflict resolution, ethics, teamwork, project management, managing multiple obligations, organization, etc.). Like I said, all of these are minor, and me highlighting them here is really me being nit-picky.
The first thing that I realized is that this is a very competitive process, and getting discouraged doesn’t help. You are competing with MHA or MBA grads from other programs all over the country, and there are a lot of good qualified people interviewing. I also believe that it helps to be a little lucky. Sometimes you get a person on the phone that you can more easily connect with, and sometimes you get someone that seems like they are just going through the motions. I would definitely recommend some mock telephone, and/or mock in person interviews, as this is the best way to get feedback about how you could improve your interviewing skills over the phone. If you sound enthusiastic and professional on the phone, then you will perform well on the telephone interviews.
I also listed about 18 different questions that I was asked during my interview process. Many of these are pretty common questions, and there are certainly many others that could be asked, but knowing immediately how you would answer this list of questions will help start a foundation for good phone and face-to-face interviewing.
Hello Readers!
Today was the first day of the HIMSS 2009 Conference (although they did have things yesterday, but I wasn’t here so it doesn’t count…right?) Before things got started, however, I have a few experiences to share from Saturday.
Dr. Kochendorfer and I kicked off our Saturday morning by driving to Milwaukee (from Chicago) and meeting with the Health Informatics folks at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. There we introduced from of the work we’ve accomplished at MU and then shared out thoughts about the stimulus package, our NIH Grant, and potential collaborative with UWM. We were very encouraged by the meeting and I am happy to share more with all of you’d like. Just comment on this post.
We then ate at a local Korean BBQ. The UWM folks were quite impressed with my courage to eat there since I have never had Korean food before, but were also quick to comment on how foolish it might be :)
From Milwaukee, we drove straight to downtown Chicago for a meeting with Bernard Ewigman (Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago). Dr. Kochendorfer, Dr. Belden, and I spoke with Dr. Ewigman about evaluation approaches to our NIH grant proposal. He also agreed to write a strong letter of recommendation and assist with the grant proposal as much as possible.
We attended on education session today because it seemed the most interesting. It was titled “Value-Driven Health Care: Leveraging Data to Improve Efficiency, Productivity, Quality”. The presentation was given by David Katz MD, JD. You may remember him from some classroom readings. He outlined how EMR data could improve efficiency, producitivity and quality. EMR data would help to identify outliers, empower management and physicians to address these outliers, control them. Once controlled, the organizations could implement measures to improve the group as a whole. Dr. Kochendorfer and I had a few reservations about his methods, solutions, and conclusions, but I will leave that for another time if I get comments showing interest.
After the education session, I set up a meeting with Mark Anderson (CEO of AC Group). Dr. Belden was interested in discussing out HIMSS Usability White Paper. We got that and MORE. It was evident that Mark was very passionate about his chosen professions and loved the chance to speak with me and two docs about his ideas, expertise, and experiences.
The sequential nature of the seven habits: The maturity continuum.
Low Maturity: Dependence
Dependence basically means that you need others to get what you want. It is the attitude of “you”. “You take are of me”…”You come through for me or you don’t come through for me”…”I blame you for the results”. It is very “you” oriented. Dependence means that you are not free from external influence.
Middle Maturity: Independence
Independence means you are pretty much free from external influence. That is, the control and support of others. You can get what you want from your own efforts. Independence is the attitude of “I”. “I can do it”…”I am responsible”…”I’m self-reliant”…”I can choose”
High Maturity: Interdependence
If people were interdependent they would think in terms of “we” because it is the basic approach of needing other people to accomplish with you what you desire. Examples, a marriage, family, or an executive team. “I want what you want and what we want together”…”We can cooperate” “We can combine our ability, skills, and best efforts to achieve what we want”
The important caveat for the maturity continuum is that until you and I are independent, we cannot be interdependent. We cannot work together unless we have learned to work for ourselves.
If you take some quiet reflection, where do you find yourself on the maturity continuum? Can you think of times when you or others acted ‘dependently’? How did it affect effectiveness with people? What do you think it will take to shift your paradigm to a higher level of maturity?
Are you already working interdependently? What experiences can you share?
Thanks
Hello HMIGSAers!
I was in invited to the local HIMSS meeting. Mark Anderson, CEO of AC Group, gave a presentation on the impact of the stimulus package on healthcare IT. The central theme was that EHR adoption needs financial incentive.
Click here to see the presentation.
-- Post From My iPhone
Using an established scientific technology platform developed by Entelos for the life sciences industry, MyDigitalHealth will use your health and lifestyle information to create a personalized computer simulation of you. This personal health simulation can then be used to look at your future health outcomes and risks and how those might change based on different actions you could take. MyDigitalHealth puts the power of computer simulation and "what if" analysis into your hands, letting you take control of your health.
Link
http://www.mydigitalhealth.com/about.htm
HELLO HMIGSAers,
I am not sure if you knew but I am sure that by now you noticed that Zeyana, our first year HI student, has been pregnant. Yesterday she gave birth to a baby boy. Zeyana's husband has come from Tanzania to be with her during this time.
I was wondering if anyone would like to take charge in putting some cash together... maybe to buy her some baby gifts? In America, it is customary to have a baby shower but this is usually done before the baby is born. I think that she would really feel honored to feel the expression of kindness from her classmates.
She is still in Columbia Regional Hospital today but she will be going home (University Village Apartments) tomorrow.
Have a great weekend and CONGRATULATIONS, ZEYANA!
Over the next few posts, I would like to introduce the idea of the seven habits and some of the underlying principles necessary to achieve them. I’ll start with some excerpts from Stephen Covey’s book.
The seven habits is not a quick fix program
It is the process of personal and interpersonal development requiring your best efforts and patience over an extended period of time. It is meant to increase your capacity to achieve your personal and professional goals and develop better working relationships associates and all of your loved ones.
A habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is the theoretical component: What to do and why to do it? Skill is the practical side: How to do it? Desire is the motivation side: The want to do it.
The 7 Habits are common-sense, but not always common practice.
During the beginning of the industrial revolution, there was a shift from character development to personality techniques. In other words, a shift to appearing to be rather than actually being. Because of the shift from the industrial age to the information age, this trend has accelerated.
This week, tell us what efforts you’ve put forward to practice shifting back to character development and away from personality techniques. What have you been instead of seemed to be?
Hey guys,
I spoke with Amy, Dustin, and Kyle today about an idea that I’ve been
milling around for a while now. The idea started with a simple question:
What have I done today to become a better executive? This week? This semester?
The answer may be difficult for anyone to put their finger on. However, I think it is a question perceived as important. How often do we stop and think about what we are doing to become better executives? How often do we think about what we *could* be doing? I think this is one of those things that is at least in the back of everyone’s mind. I’d like to bring it forward.
After brainstorming some ideas, I think the four of us agree that the HMIGSA Blog would be a good tool to get the conversation started on this topic.
I’d like to start with Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. He has some great strategies that can be implemented in both a personal and professional capacity.
My thought is this: Make blog posts starting with “pre-habits” and then the 7 habits. We’d post one habit per month. HMIGSAers can then spend the week reflecting on the habit and comment with their personal thoughts or experiences. Pretty simple, but far from easy. Eventually, as you read each others’ comments, you pick out a few gems that you think you want to try in your journey to become a better executive. You can then share those experiences with the group and we grow even more.
I think this idea solidified for me during the VA Friday Forum. After
hearing about the level of autonomy and responsibility afforded to those students privileged enough to work for the VA, I started to think I was missing out. I wanted to know more about what they were doing and how they were doing it. I wanted to know what struggles they faced and how they managed them.
Each of these two facets (7 habits and Shared Experiences) could have an immediate impact on how we think about ourselves, our degrees, our careers, and our lives.
Andrew
I was sent this 119 page pre-publication report on EMR strategies. Below are some elements I found to be important:
Specialists in health/biomedical informatics can serve a bridging function between the computer science community and the world of biomedicine with which computer science researchers are largely unfamiliar
In the future, health care providers will need to rely increasingly on information technology (IT) to acquire, manage, analyze, and disseminate health care information and knowledge.
Any systematic effort to change the medical and health information management paradigm from one based on paper to one based on IT must address two basic challenges:
using the best technology available today to build and deploy systems in the short term and
identifying the gaps between the best of today’s technology and what is ultimately needed to improve health care.
Principles for Evolutionary Change
Principles for Radical Change
This analysis leads to six important recommendations for the federal
government:
Encourage (or at least do not impede) efforts by health care institutions and communities to aggregate data about health care people, processes, and outcomes from all sources subject to appropriate protection of privacy and confidentiality.
Support additional education and training efforts at the intersection of health care, computer science, and health/biomedical informatics. Current programs of the National Library of Medicine and other institutes of the National Institutes of Health are exemplars of such support.
The senior management in health care institutions and health care payers have often taken the lead in the deployment of IT for health care. They should:
Let me know what you think of this report!
Thanks!
Andrew
Computational Technology for Effective Health
Care: Immediate Steps and Strategic Directions
Willam W. Stead and Herbert S. Lin, editors;
Committee on Engaging the Computer Science Research
Community in Health Care Informatics;
National Research Council
This free PDF was downloaded from:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12572.html
I’ve been approached by a few people with questions regarding summer internships, so I thought I would blog about some tips that first years might hopefully find helpful in their search for the right internship.
1. Deadlines. Most internship application periods are open in January with deadlines due in mid to late February. So this is prime time to be asking questions, sending in resumes and application forms. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your mentors if you have any questions about the process.
2. Finding an internship. There is not just ONE way to find an internship and this is usually the hardest part about the whole internship process. One of the roadblocks I encountered was the fact that some, if not, most internships aren’t even advertised. Some internships are offered through alums, networking, and a little bit of luck. If there is a particular place that interest you, find out if we have alum who are working there and ask around. Also, since some internships aren’t advertised, if they offer a fellowship, you can ask their main contact person whether they offer an internship as well. You can also check out this website from MGMA, which lists opportunities by state: http://www.mgma.com/pd/default.aspx?id=694. Go to “Student Benefits” and click on “ MGMA and ACMPE Internship-Residency Directory.” Be sure to look for “paid” internships and the length of them (12 weeks). In addition, attending the ACHE Congress is also a great way to locate your future preceptor. An intern I met during my internship found his through Congress and interviewed with his preceptor during the four day event.
3. Don’t get discouraged. Candy and Dr. DeGraaff will ensure that you will be placed somewhere for the summer. Don’t fret if you haven’t gotten one by March or if you didn’t get your first choice. Everything always works itself out in the end and usually for the better. Most of us didn’t know where we were going until late April. A lot of organizations will not make their final decisions until then.
4. Don’t limit yourself. This can be said for the type of organization and geography. Many of us know about the top academic medical centers who are usually recognized through U.S. News and World Report but if medical centers aren’t your interest, don’t hesitate to reach out to consulting firms, pharmaceutical companies and health associations. Many of them offer internships that will provide you with great exposure to management and leadership. In addition, this is one of the few times that you’ll be able to check out a completely new city for a short period of time, so don’t be afraid to absorb yourself in new experiences.
I hope that these tips will give you better insight in finding a great internship.
Best Wishes,
Anna
Hello HMIGSAers!
I hope you all had a good break and you're looking forward to a few more weeks of rest, relaxation and wellness. We had our first meeting of 2009 for MedZou today! A lot was discussed, but an important topic was the integration of HMI students. I asked for the new directors to think of how they could best utilize the competencies of the HMI department. I hope we'll have a better idea by next week.
I would personally like to call any student interested to help Chris and I write an IT grant proposal. I think it was be a great experience for all involved and it would really help serve MedZou.
Below is an overview of what we discussed during the meeting.
Minutes for 1/5/2009
We will hold clinic on Thursday 1/8
(1) We had two pediatric pts last clinic. They should have SCHIPs, but for some reason they did not. The solution was for the pts to talk with Angie.
(2) Documentation Issues
- Labs & Scripts
- No Calling in Scripts!
- Issues with forgetting to write scripts (we still need a plan)
(3) F/U for pts to ensure pts follow med instructions
- Working with Dr. Howestine in Block 3 to better educate M1 students about health literacy
(4) Information Management
- Mike Lynch came and told us the clinic’s documentation was adequate!! He will possibly help us leverage EMR integration
(5) Directorship of Clinic
- We decided that 2 new directors and 1 old director would help with clinic operations for the next month
(6) Council of Chairs
- We are inviting Dr. Churchill to the clinic for a tour (Kayla and Vincent)
(7) Scheduling Clinical Students
- Jessica is working to start a Google Calendar for Med students to sign up
(8) IT Grant
- Andrew and Chris are going to get together to discuss writing a grant for $25,000 to use for a website competition
(9) Data Management
- Ryan suggested we have a single person handle collection of data for the clinic. Kayla suggested Brett S.
(10) Labs expansion
- Training people is the biggest issue with expanding labs. The protocol is written.
(11) Nursing Oversight
- Ryan has arranged for two nursing students to help us at the clinic and his faculty advisor will serve as the nursing liason.
(12) Defining Roles
- Serve people mentioned the need for creating clearly defined roles for incoming nursing students. I suggest we do not stop there. I think it would be a good idea to record as many roles as possible within the clinic to reduce confusion during turnovers and transitions. I really like the idea Emily advocating of a true team mentality when it comes to running the clinic. Perhaps a strategic plan coupled with a solid vision, mission and goals will be the best bet.
(13) Areas where IT can help?!?!?
- Organization of Documents (HIPAA Training, Lab Training, Labs, Scripts, Pt. Records)
- Scheduling (Calendars, Invites, Appt. Requests)
- Document Collaboration (Grant Writing)
- Data Collection (RYAN’s Bag, Recording Nursing Hrs)
- Knowledge Management (Access to Articles, Chronic Disease Algorithms)
It seems like information technologies are the new frontier in health care (actually it started in the ‘80s, but who’s counting). President-Elect Obama has made it very clear that one of his first initiatives when entering office is the widespread implementation of EMRs in healthcare and internet access for healthcare providers across the nation. I think it is fantastic that all of you are ready and willing to accept the use of IT in MedZou. It can only serve to benefit yourself and your community in the future.
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