El Rincon del Dr. KakaWate

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine @josehfloresmd recommended a reference manager that had an innovative concept. He recommended  Mendeley, a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research. 

I was so impressed with it and how easy it was to use that decided to write this blog about it and try no to bore you. These are the reasons I liked it. If you read this and are into research… Give it a try.

1) Easily find and store bibliographies

2) Upload the article pdf to your account and access it from any computer, smartphone or tablet with a connection to the internet.

3) Share the articles, pdfs, etc with others in specific groups.  Ex. If your research team is working on a paper they can all have access the files uploaded and modify as needed.

4) Find people with similar interests to your line of work.

5) The ease of use is impressive and the best of all it is FREE!

In brief, if you are into research and want something fresh, give Mendeley a try… I doubt youll be dissapointed.

I recently read an article on how the natural environment affects our being and our energy levels; I think it is of no surprise to us all that this interaction has beneficial effects. Every single one of us has experienced the pleasure of fresh air, be it on a mountain hill, at the beach, in the woods, or around a lake, you name it. Connecting with nature is very powerful, somehow allowing us to release and forget about stress, disease, and other concerns. Interestingly enough it appears that “virtual environments” may share the same effect.

Before I further develop my point about nature’s medical effects, I want to share a story that involves my wife. She volunteers in the pet shelter, trying to bring little moments of love and happiness to these animals who have been deprived of such wonderful and powerful emotions. One random week Mia came in; she had been in other homes, returned to the shelter by uncaring owners, and escaped a final time to endure the hardships of a “stray dog” which include injury, starvation and malnourishment.  To top it all off, the Home she escaped from did not want her back, and such carelessness tore my wife apart. We already had a dog in the apartment and she was considering adopting this little fellow.  I went to the shelter and saw Mia…I was speechless. After all the hardship this dog had been through, fights with other animals, rejections from other humans, one would think  there was something “wrong” with her, when in reality she  came to us like a long lost child just looking for someone to love and who would love her back. You can guess where Mia now resides, taken care off in our Home full of Love and Life. Seeing all the love that Mia had to offer, my wife thought about bringing this happiness to nursing homes. Mia instantly became a “celebrity” amongst the residents. Now, every time she goes she brings huge smiles to everyone that is there, they speak to her like she is a person, a person who can listen really well. They love her. They love her so much that one of the elders that lives there recently told her with a broken smile “I am glad to see you again! You have made my week”………

             (My own personal record-scratching sound went off…)

Excuse me? Could you repeat that?  A dog that you barely know, has made your week?  The amazing part is that there is not only one person who expresses this, but there is a whole group of them! Just hearing them talk and get excited upon seeing Mia was unbelievable. The happiness that an animal could bring was shown to me; perhaps its Mia’s energy or perhaps she just understands where these people are, what they are feeling or going through. Whatever the connection may be, there is something definitely there.

So back to the topic at hand. Today reading the environment article it hit me.  Call it crazy, futuristic, but now that I’m in touch with healthcare and technology more than ever, I am going to vocalize it. Adding a Natural “Virtual” Environment + maybe  a “Virtual” Pet to the equation of a nursing home could finally change the lifestyle of these people.

Read the following paragraph and then close your eyes… Imagine yourself in a white room with a bed. Now imagine you are listening to beautiful music with random sounds of nature. Take it further and imagine virtual room  where the walls transform into bubbling cascades with huge towering trees, colorful flowers everywhere, and maybe a lake with a boat floating by. Come on, use your imagination and keep adding things that make you happy, the sun, the freshness of it all.  Then, last but not least, a screen where the nursing home resident can see their loved ones, communicate through actual face time at any moment of the day; sons and daughters telling their mother or father, “I am thinking about you. I haven’t forgotten!”

Hopefully this is a scenario that just sounds futuristic, but not unrealistic.  A scenario that would change these people’s lives, maybe hopefully changing the fact that a dog’s routine visit is the highlight of their week.

This is just an idea, right now it could be too expensive, but in a couple of years with the right vision, a nursing home could become a Virtual Heaven.