Several months ago, I signed up for TruthOnCall, a new VC company designed to survey physicians on commonly asked questions. As a physician, you can offer to complete surveys via SMS for reimbursement $10 apiece.  From a financial standpoint, the deal sounded potentially lucrative, depending on the number of surveys you complete.

Unfortunately, I have yet to receive any surveys in the months that I’ve enrolled. Perhaps they are a front to harvest physician data? Or have they run their fund dry?

In actuality, I think that there is a limited market for ophthalmology-based medical opinions. The service appears to mediate data harvesting. In order for the physician to receive a survey, there much be a client investor on the other end to field medical questions. No funding, no money. Simple as that.

Are there any other physicians out there who have actually received surveys or been paid by TruthOnCall? Let me know!

medicine medicine

I saw a guy in the clinic several weeks ago who sprayed Hongo Killer in his eye. He had a 100% epithelial defect with descemet’s folds. The cornea was pretty much in endothelial shock, although he was not hypotonous.

I chuckled when he showed me the bottle. I suppose that it was entertaining only because of my limited Spanish knowledge and I had been basking in our underground clinic’s flickering fluorescent lights the entire day.

medicine medicine, ophthalmology

I saw this on one of the floors of the building where I work. The interesting aspect is that there are many other parts of the building of similar age without this sign. I wonder what my patients would think if I wore an N95 mask every day.

misc health

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INIRLe7x0Y&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Nice.

misc tech

Those of you who have phone reception during work may be reaping the benefits of Google Voice. One of the shortcomings of distributing your Voice number, however, is that outgoing calls from your cellphone or office still display the number in use. That is thoroughly confusing for your clients, especially if they save your “outgoing number” on their caller id’s. To avoid this issue, Voice has an outgoing calling option that requires you to dial your Voice number, and enter it through a menuing system. This is the same procedure for using its international dialing service, which is relatively inexpensive.

Fortunately for smartphone users (a la Blackberry, iPhone, and Android), Google has a suite of applications for Voice that use your data line, saving your monthly minutes. After you download the app, using it is self explanatory.

For those still stuck on a voice-only cellular plan, there is still an option with outgoing calls via Voice. As I can recall from my limited phreaking knowledge, voice lines all have a pause signal that you can deliver to the telephone stream. This can be invoked to automate your responses through a menu. Depending on the model of your phone, this pause signal can be represented by a number of symbols which may include the following:

• comma: “,”
• pause: “P”
• asterisk: “*”
• plus: “+”

My Samsung flip-phone has a dedicated pause signal that is invoked from the plus key when held for 1 second. With the pause signal in mind, dialing out with Voice is simple, albeit slightly slower with so many keystrokes.

For instance, to dial out Andrew via Voice, I program this into my address book:

XXX-XXX-XXXX P YYYY P 2 ZZZ-ZZZ-ZZZZ

“X” is my Voice number. “Y” is my PIN. The number ’2′ is the option to dial out via Voice. “Z” is Andrew’s number. The pauses are spaced out so as needed so that your keystrokes are registered. I’ve discovered that I do not need to deliver a pause signal after the ’2′ option. Again, no spaces are needed.

The entire process takes about 3 seconds to make the connection, but it is a reliable work-around for those of you without a data plan.

computing tech