WikiDoctor

I know there are plenty of wikis around. I got interested in contributing to the wikipedia quite recently. I had another project on my mind - inspired by a friend. A website for Indian patients. The aim would be to provide simple, reliable, evidence-based, health/disease related information in english as well as every regional language of the country. The lack of a strong regulatory body for the medical profession combined with the collective ignorance of the common Indian public results in some very sad situations. I have often been a part of this in the past - a hapless spectator watching the system fail again and again. The surest way forward in my opinion is to empower the people with knowledge. With knowledge comes enquiry. With knowledge comes the freedom of choice. Patients can question the decisions taken by their healtcare providers. The informed patient is a formidable entity who can take on the medical practitioners whop often try to squeeze every last paisa out of a sick patient and his/her family.

This is where WikiDoctor comes in. A wiki in English and every Indian language, providing healtcare information. Eminent and 'honest' healthcare prefessionals will contribute to its developement. The information provided will be simple and evidence-based. Articles will be written to dispose off myths and superstitions using simple logic and common sense. Maybe a few articles about some of the top healthcare institutions in India.

A wiki dedicated to the dissemination of health related information to the common man in the Indian subcontinent. And, I cant wait for the day when a farmer asks me about the complications of a certain procedure that I propose to do on him. I cant wait for the day when patients in India act as a check on fradulent practices and medical incompetence. And, what better way to start off than start experimenting with building a wiki myself.

So, here is where I have got to so far.

* Wiki software research - complete
* Basic understanding of how it works - complete
* Chosen a wiki software - complete (initially chose pmwiki, then switched over to mediawiki for scalability)
* Installed a local mediawiki server on my computer - complete
* Uploaded an experimental wiki on to the internet - complete with pmwik

Pending jobs
* confirm name for wiki - WikiDoctor sounds good
* customise mediawiki
* translate into my own native language first
* design the first page to allow navigation to all major sections of the site
* create several stubs
* choose a good skin
* buy a domain and host the website
* get people invloved

HOLY S*&! - that is a lot of work!

Experimenting with Ubuntu

After much persuasion by my boss, I decided to switch from Suse 10 to Ubuntu 6.06. And, like all proper decisions this was taken at 1 am when I could barely keep my eyes open let alone think straight. I have had Suse for over 6 months now. I spent a month installing it. That is right. Just under a month. For a variety of reasons. First and most importantly, it was my first linux install. Then I had to find all the drivers for my Dell laptop bits. I had quite a job getting and configuring Suse to play mp3 and mpgs. And, I am not even mentioning manually editing the xorg.conf file. Phew!

And what a difference Ubuntu is. It is the easiest linux distribution to install. It took me little over 30 minutes to do. And, it is a breeze. It comes with a prepackaged set of software that should set your computer up to do most daily chores. You get OpenOffice, Firefox, photoediting tools, some games and more. There aren't any fancy complex programs as these are all available on the online repositories. It recognised all my hardware with ease . Broadband and Ubuntu is a linux marriage made in heaven. I downloaded EasyUbuntu which is a wizard to install numerous multimedia options. And, I had mp3, wmv, mpg support all in under 10 minutes.

And, as a thank you to the man who recommended Ubuntu to me, I have decided to try and convert atleast one other person to Ubuntu. So, now wherever I go, I carry a Ubuntu 6.06 installation CD with me. Happy converting!

Buying a new computer

Is this meant to drive you crazy? I have spent over two weeks now desperately trying to configure a new desktop for under £600. I thought this would be relatively easy. I only had two non-modifiable factors: first, it would be a AMD dual core processor based system and second, it will run only linux on it. I decided to build a system to run only linux for a number of reasons. The most important is out of respect for the man I work for who has taught me a lot - in surgery, life and computers. The next reason is that it will force me to learn and become good at linux. And, this has huge implications when I go back home and start running my own hospital. A linux based network would be infinitely simpler to manage and cheaper.

I have so far decided on the processor (athlon fx x 2 3800+) and the motherboard (an asus one with the nvidia ultra 4 chipset). I am yet to decide the rest of the stuff and hopefully should have ordered all the components before the end of next week. And, for the next 10 days I will spend a lot of time staring at online catalogs. So much for the pleasures of building my own computer.

My first wiki entry

Today I made my first entry into the world of wikipedia. I operated on a lady with an irreducible, painful femoral hernia a couple of nights ago. She did not have any clinical evidence of obstruction or strangulation. I chose to use the infra-inguinal approach as this is much simpler and a much lesser procedure. She had a bit of omentum incarcerated in the hernia. I excised this and fixed the hernia using sutures.

My consultant had a little chat (the kind you get when you have done something silly) the next day. He thought I should have used the high-approach, so I would have had better access to the abdomen. This would have been useful if she had needed bowel resection. I was planning on opening the lacunar ligament to get bowel out through the femoral canal. This, he said, was not ideal.

So, I decided to read up and was looking on the internet and came across a wiki stump. And, I decided to add some stuff to it. I hope to add to more medical articles in the coming days.