VirtualOT

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Australia
I am an Australian occupational therapist, educator and researcher. I have worked as an OT in mental health, vocational rehabilitation and a private surgical hospital. I am passionate using online technology to enhance the knowledge and growth of the occupational therapy profession. In my PhD research I am looking at the role of online technologies in information management and knowledge transfer in occupational therapy. Views expressed and stories shared on this blog are my opinion and do not represent views of my employer or professional registration body.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Hawaii tries out online health care

For people in Hawaii, going to see the doctor just got as easy as booting up their PC.

The state is the first to offer online physician visits statewide, under a program that kicks off Thursday. Residents can chat with a doctor over a standard Web browser (IE 7 or Firefox 2) or carry out their visit over the telephone. Those with a Webcam can also use that to share video with the doctor. The service will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week (with a few monthly maintenance outages during low-volume times). Members of Hawaii's largest insurer, HSMA (which operates the state's Blue Cross and Blue Shield) pay $10 for the 10-minute consultation, while non-members pay $45.

Click here for the whole story.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Year's Resolutions

This year I will try to be more focussed on what I do and how I do it. I have the usual teaching load and a few projects to complete but I now seriously need to focus on commencing my PhD.

So, the backlog of projects that need to be completed are:
  1. Complete writing the chapter of the fieldwork book with Helen Larkin at Deakin University
  2. Commence and complete writing the chapter of the fieldwork book with Merrolee Penman from Otago Polytechnic
  3. Complete the wiki project at the University of Alberta with the PT group
  4. Commence and complete the wiki project at the University of Alberta with the OT group and with the SLP group
  5. Respond to ethics committee requests for the blogging project with EBIRS so that this project can get going by February 2009 (we're presenting the findings at CAOT in June!) It was hopefully going to commence in January but hey... ethics is not through yet!
  6. Write the articles I was going to write for OT Now looking at the role of Web 2.0 in OT education and practice
So, my resolutions are to keep gradually moving ahead with each of these projects and NOT take any more on. I also want to be calm and organized in my teaching and marking load, and enjoy watching our students develop, grow, learn and then fly out into practice :-)

This year I will commence my PhD and I will use Web 2.0 from beginning to end! I even thought about asking Commoncraft if I could use their approach in developing my proposal. You know the guys... "hmm hmmm hmm... XYZ in plain English"

So, this blog will be a place this year for keeping focussed by downloading my brain regularly!

My slideshare uploads