A short guide for medical imaging professionals on using the latest and greatest free internet tools to stay up-to-date and ahead of the competition.

by Stuart Hall

Thanks to a really neat piece in the Clinical Cases and Images Blog I’ve put together a version specifically for Medicexchange visitors about the latest internet tools to help stay ahead of the medical imaging competition.

The six essential tips are:

1. Follow the most reliable medical imaging sites.
2. Follow the best medical imaging blogs.
3. Use RSS web feed and follow the online medical imaging journals.
4. Use services/tools like UpToDate.
5. Follow the blog carnivals, such as Sumer Sethi’s 'Radiology Grand Rounds'.
6. Keep an eye out for the rise of ‘wikis’ in medical imaging (see the articles with key examples in Related Content below)

Once you've used these tools there's no turning back:

1. Subscribe to Google News alerts in your field of interest via web feeds.
2. Subscribe to podcasts in your specialty. See the Medicexchange article on the topic below.
3. Use text-to-speech to listen to journal articles. See the IAMSE abstract on the topic.
4. Create an iGoogle page as your own 'super journal' powered by web feeds.
5. Search YouTube, VideoJug for related videos such as the one below.
6. Listen to conferences podcasts/videocasts.
7. Start a blog as an educational portfolio to record your thoughts.
8. Use Google Bookmarks to save interesting articles you find online.
9. To use an RSS feed you need an RSS reader, of which there are numerous very good free readers available online or by installing on your computer. Click here for a list of Medicexchange feeds and available readers.
10. Use a social bookmarking site like 'del.ici.ous' to easily exchange and discover medical imaging website links with colleagues. For example see Medicexchange's del.icio.us bookmarks with 240 hand chosen medical imaging sites to browse through.

A short video on how the internet is changing the way we can share information.

If you like to learn more about these free online tools when you are at RSNA 2007 drop by and say hi at the Medicexchange stand in the South Building, Hall A to find out more.

Source: See the Clinical Cases and Images - Blog piece for the full set of links and references.


Wikis, blogs and podcasts.