Swine flu outbreak may ‘lead to cuts in services’ – Telegraph.co.uk


Daily Mail
Swine flu outbreak may 'lead to cuts in services'
Telegraph.co.uk
GP magazine requested information under the Freedom of Information Act and had responses from 107 primary care trusts out of a total of 152. ...
Swine flu costs 'may mean NHS cuts'The Press Association
NHS slashes services to meet costs of swine flu scareDaily Mail
Exclusive: Cost of swine flu forces PCTs to cut servicesHealthcare Republic
Times Online -Sky News
all 72 news articles »

Axillary Node Dissection, Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy May Pose More Harm Than Good In Patients With Pure DCIS

Medscape (5/3, Ellis; registration required) reported that "two commonly used procedures -- axillary node dissection and sentinel lymph node biopsy -- might pose more harm than good to patients with pure ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)," according to a study presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons 11th Annual Meeting. One of the study's authors said that "her findings indicate that not only do these procedures and their subsequent findings not affect survival 'in any way,' the procedure itself carries some morbidity -- albeit low."

Health Buzz: The District Says ‘Yes’ to Medical Marijuana – U.S. News & World Report


CBC.ca
Health Buzz: The District Says 'Yes' to Medical Marijuana
U.S. News & World Report
Children in Washington, DC will soon be getting 60 extra minutes of exercise at school every day, thanks to a new law aimed at combating the discouraging ...
District Gets Final Approval for Medical Marijuana ProgramAfro American
DC council approves medical marijuanaBP News
Washington DC Legalizes Medical MarijuanaHip-Hop Wired
Chicago Tribune -Washington Post
all 311 news articles »

Doctor Shortage in Maine – WABI


New York Times (blog)
Doctor Shortage in Maine
WABI
In medical school. "I wanted to be a good physician and to be able to really bring healing to people's lives. "just wanting to help and bing a role model in ...
Morning Read: Choose primary care, give up $2.5MMedCity News
Duke: Primary doctors earn $2.7M less than specialists during careerTriangle Business Journal
Study Finds Income Gap Between Primary-Care Physicians and Specialists Up to ...Hospital Review
FierceHealthcare
all 164 news articles »

News Release: Another November Featuring the Same Old Faces

Following a year of tea parties, candidate rallies and town hall meetings, the promise of change within Indiana’s entrenched parties did not materialize on Tuesday as a small majority of primary voters rebuffed the “change” message opting, instead, for more of the same brand of decision-makers that fueled the current uproar across the nation.
“We’re amazed [...]

In Cabo San Lucas, Medano Beach is Where It’s Happening

It’s not the prettiest beach. It doesn’t have the powder-fine white sand that most of us expect from what is touted as one of the world’s most popular beaches. But Medano Beach (Playa del Medano) in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico is definitely where all the action is. This two-mile long strip of sand begins at the east side of the harbor entrance and runs all the way to Villa del Palmar on the east end of the bay.

Medano Beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, seen from the harbor mouth

Medano is the most popular beach in Cabo San Lucas for many reasons, but most importantly because its protected cove offers safe swimming with little current and few waves, unlike prettier Lover’s Beach and Divorce Beach on Land’s End. It is within walking distance of downtown, but visitors need not leave the beach for services, as it is lined with hotels, bars and restaurants. Rentals for jet skis, kayaks body boards, and banana boats are readily available, as are activities such as waterskiing, parasailing and volleyball. Snorkeling and dive trips to sites near El Arco are easily arranged. Unfortunately the popularity of Medano Beach also means you will be pestered by an endless stream of vendors peddling everything from blankets to hair braiding.

Hotels, condos, and beachfront bars and restaurants line Medano Beach

If it’s serenity and tranquility you seek, you won’t be impressed by Medano Beach. But if round-the-clock partying is your kind of thing, consider Medano your ideal beach destination.

Photo Credit: Barbara Weibel
Article by Barbara Weibel of Hole In The Donut Travels

The Importance of Orbit 2.0

Duke SkardaHave you ever had one of those home projects with so many constraints you just couldn’t finish it like you really wanted? I’ve had several. Just recently, we did some work to our pool. It had decades-old plaster that needed to be replaced. While we were at it, we thought we’d update the look of the pool since, like much of the house we had recently moved into, it was stuck in about 1987. Due to cost and size constraints, we didn’t execute our entire plan, and the “update” ended up being a simple “replace.” It actually looks great, but we didn’t update the fundamental shape, design or overall feel. Our kids don’t care, but to my wife and me, it feels like we spent a lot of time and money for very little change.

Orbit 2.0 feels a little like that to the development staff here at The Planet. It has good functionality and is a perfectly acceptable self-service portal, but its design is stuck somewhere in 2005. We spent a lot of time integrating several portals to get here, and like my pool upgrade, the most substantial changes aren’t very aesthetically evident.

The biggest benefit of Orbit 2.0 was freeing up resources inside The Planet. When we released the GA version of Orbit 2.0, we passed a key milestone for the company: Completion of the systems integration that began when The Planet and EV1 merged. For three years, as we continued to grow the company, the systems development group was forced to do double and triple development for every product addition and process change. Orbit 2.0 streamlined those processes.

Now, we can focus on improving the user experience. We have a dedicated staff focused exclusively on improving three key areas of our customer interface:

  1. Self-service Portal
  2. Mobile Applications
  3. APIs

In this month’s release, look for a few improvements to our customer tools. We are going to deploy a new tool called The Wall, a site where you can give us your ideas and input. We’ll use your feedback to help us prioritize development activities. In addition to The Wall, we’ll deploy some additional APIs to the RESTful beta we began in April.

On a side note, specialists are now designing our user interfaces. As a developer, I always thought I had a great idea for the screen flow or the color scheme. Then one day someone trained in user-interface design reworked one of my screens. The updated results were so much better that I was converted immediately, and I’ve never tried to lay out another screen. We now have a few people who work exclusively on our UIs. You can see the benefit of our new discipline in this area with our iPhone Web App. It looks great and works like it should.

In the next few blogs, I’ll tell you about a few other projects we have underway. First, we’ll talk about server provisioning. Then we’ll move on to some new products we’re working on. After that we can circle back to our portal work and discuss those plans in a little more detail.

Until next time … engage …

-Duke

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