This week in search 10/24/09

<i>This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label "This week in search" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.</i><br /><br /><b>Twitter</b><br />On Wednesday, we announced our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/rt-google-tweets-and-updates-and-search.html">newly-formed partnership with Twitter</a>. This will help Google users find more up-to-the-minute, real-time data in the search results. We will be including tweets in our search results and bringing them to you when they are most relevant, and we will also be building a real-time search that includes Twitter and other providers. This week's announcement is just the beginning of our collaboration; stay tuned for upcoming products and features that focus on real-time search.<br /><br /><b>Social Search demo</b><br />At the Web 2.0 conference this week, we demonstrated a new product called Social Search. Due to the ever-increasing popularity of social networks, we've been thinking about how your social network could influence and improve your search results. Social Search does just that by surfacing content in your search results that is written by your friends or people you follow. That way, you get the best resources from the web overall, plus the best results (blogs, reviews, travelogues) that are relevant to you, since they were written by people you know. Social Search will be launching soon on Google Experimental and Google Labs. <br /><br /><b>Recommendations in Google Reader</b><br />This week, we also launched <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-gets-personal-with-popular.html">recommendations in Google Reader</a>. This may seem far from search, but it is actually built using technology pioneered in search. The personalized ranking piece uses some of the same techniques as personalized search. The "Popular items" piece builds on our <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&type=gadgets&url=www.google.com/ig/modules/pop/pop.xml">"What's Popular"</a> gadget from iGoogle. We're very proud of both of these features, as we think they represent an interesting application of search that will help users more easily find content that they want to read.<br /><br /><b>New look-and-feel on maps</b><br />We have updated the way that maps render on Google Maps, and it is our biggest change in almost 5 years. The changes are subtle but significant. The blog post with the announcement has some very interesting <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/10/evolving-look-of-google-maps.html">before and after examples</a>. The impetus of this change is to improve usability and readability and literally help people find where they are going faster — our goal both on the web with search, and in the physical world with maps.<br /><br />Hope you enjoyed this week's features. Stay tuned for what's next!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience</span>

This week in search 10/24/09

This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label "This week in search...

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Washington Post: EMR's No Cure-All; Sen. Grassley Sends Letter of Inquiry to health IT vendors

Senator Grassley has sent a letter out to ten major health IT vendors seeking information on health IT problems and flaws. The letter can be retrieved <a href="http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/erecords102409.pdf">from this link</a> (PDF) at the Washington Post. Read the whole thing.<br /><br />It is linked via a Washington Post story "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/24/AR2009102400967.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR">Electronic medical records not a cure-all</a>", Sunday Oct. 25, 2009, by staff writer <a href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/alexi+mostrous/">Alexi Mostrous</a>. The WaPo article itself seems to require registration. I will comment on the article in future posts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Addendum 10/25:</span> I have now commented on the article <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/washington-post-article-electronic.html">here</a>.<br /><br />-- SS

Washington Post: EMR's No Cure-All; Sen. Grassley Sends Letter of Inquiry to health IT vendors

Senator Grassley has sent a letter out to ten major health IT vendors seeking information on health IT problems and flaws. The letter can b...

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"Organisational Ethics Policies; A Primer"

I regret that it took me so long to find an essay on "Organisational Ethics Policies" by Howard Whitton, available <a href="http://www.cmi.no/publications/file/?3344=organisational-ethics-policies-a-primer">from the European U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Center</a>. While it was written with international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who "administer aid programs" in mind, it seems applicable to all kinds of NGOs and not-for-profit organizations, including those in health care. In the US, most medical schools and their parent universities, most hospitals and academic medical centers, essentially all medical societies and disease advocacy groups, and some insurance companies and managed care organizations are not-for-profit.<br /><br />The main points of the paper are its summaries of the basic elements of "effective ethics policies."<br /><br />First, such a policy<br /><blockquote><br />- must first have unequivocal authority and the endorsement of boards and senior management, and must be:<br />o founded on the organisation’s core values, mandate, and ethical principle<br />o developed in consultation with those affected by it<br />o realistically achievable<br />o written in plain language, coherent with other policies, and easily available<br />o clearly understood by staff, and by other stakeholders<br />o consistent with the organisation’s policies on rewards and sanctions<br />o regularly reviewed and evaluated with all stakeholders<br />o universally applied, and transparently enforced.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />The main content areas might include such "major areas of ethical risk" as:<br /><blockquote>o financial management and accountability standards<br />o internal and external audit processes<br />o professional ethics, conduct, and conflict of interest standards<br />o fair treatment rules for staff and clients<br />o processes for the prevention of fraud and other abuse of trust<br />o integrity mechanisms governing proper decision-making<br />o provision of transparent information to stakeholders<br />o complaints and whistleblower disclosure processes<br />o principled policy dispute processes<br />o transparent and objective evaluation mechanisms.<br /></blockquote><br />So, specific policies should include the following functional elements:<br /><blockquote><br />o a code of conduct/ethics based on the organisation’s core values<br />o professional practice standards interpreting the code’s principles<br />o procedures for managing conflict of interest situations (including the registration of relevant interests and assets of decision makers)<br />o procedures for offering and accepting gifts and business courtesies<br />o criteria for the proper use of organisational assets and authority<br />o prohibition of harassment and discrimination in the workplace<br />o criteria for protected reporting of unethical or illegal behaviour<br />o rights of clients to obtain service, including complaint procedures for failure to meet standards<br />o obligations for accountability and transparency,and information provision<br />o standards for dealing with confidential and privileged information<br />o constraints on ancillary and post-separation employment<br />o standards for providing reasons for administrative decisions.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />Also the policies should include:<br /><blockquote><br />• A commitment to training staff in the full range of ethics-related activities. Training will improve personal awareness and strengthen the ability to define and manage improper conduct, whether by co-workers, managers, or external stakeholders.<br />The range of training themes should include the organisation’s integrity system, specific anticorruption measures, harassment-free workplaces, non-discrimination principles, financial management and audit, integrity in procurement practices, donor relations, personal and institutional conflict of interest, accountability, responsibility, procedural fairness, and strategic problem-solving.<br /><br />• Policies and procedures for regular management reporting to boards and executives, in particular to enable monitoring of matters which may be of particular concern from time to time.<br /><br />• Independent, external scrutiny of policies provide an important resource for boards and executives for ensuring that espoused core values and actual behaviours are aligned, and to identify areas of policy and management practice requiring<br />improvement.<br /><br />• Policies and procedures for protected reporting of improper conduct, both to enhance worker and stakeholder confidence in the integrity of an organisation, and to provide avenues for early detection of inappropriate behaviour. Genuine<br />whistleblowing must be effectively endorsed, and effectively protected, to ensure the organisation’s credibility.<br /><br />• Procedures for the sanctioning of improper conduct and failure to meet relevant standards by staff, structured so as to enhance management’s capacity to deal effectively with ethical issues in the workplace.<br /></blockquote><br />Such policies cannot be considered ethical panaceas, but in my humble opinion (and based, I believe, on at least a little cognitive psychology), visible, reasonable, clear ethics policies could reduce the sort of bad behavior that Health Care Renewal often discusses on the part of leaders of major health care not-for-profit organizations and NGOs.<br /><br />So, those of you who work for or are otherwise affiliated with a not-for-profit university, medical school, hospital, academic medical center, medical organization, disease advocacy organization, or insurance company/ managed care organization might want to go through the exercise of answering these questions:<br />1 - Does your organization have anything that resembles an ethics policy?<br />2 - If so, which of the characteristics listed above does it have?<br />3 - Which of the content areas listed above does it include?<br />4 - Which of the functional and additional elements listed above does it include?<br /><br />If much is missing, is there an obvious reason for what was omitted? If the policy seems poorly characterized or incomplete, why should it not be improved? Would you feel comfortable suggesting improvements? If not, why not, and what does that say about the organization?

"Organisational Ethics Policies; A Primer"

I regret that it took me so long to find an essay on "Organisational Ethics Policies" by Howard Whitton, available from the Europe...

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Academic Freedom Curtailed: Censorship Down Under On EHR's for the Emergency Department?

In a stunning development:<br /><br />The essay on Emergency Department electronic health record (EHR) problems in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) by medical informatics professor Dr. Jon Patrick, Health Information Technologies Research Laboratory (HITRL), University of Sydney, that I referenced in my posts "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/from-down-under-story-of-deployment-of.html">The Story of the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck</a>" and "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/nsw-nightmare-and-overuse-of-computers.html">NSW Nightmare and Overuse of Computers</a>" appears to have been <span>censored</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>This apparently occurred at the level of the the government.<br /><br />The essay was available as item 6 at <a href="http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/%7Ehitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146">http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146</a> . Attempts to download now provide a message "<span style="font-style: italic;">This document is not currently available</span>." I do not know if the vendor was involved.<br /><br />(A copy of vers. 3 of Professor Patrick's report is still available <a href="http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/ed3.pdf">here</a> in PDF; it was a work in progress when it was pulled.)<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> [Oct. 24 - see addendum below - ed.]</span><br /><br />This appears to be an overt example of <span style="font-weight: bold;">suppression of academic freedom</span> that I believe should receive widespread attention, most especially if there is retaliation of any kind against the professor.<br /><br />I also believe censorship of a document such as this could escalate to a human rights issue regarding what appears to be deliberate censorship of critical information about IT systems that could possibly be putting large numbers of patients at risk. <span style="font-style: italic;">Imagine if this was a report about potentially defective nuclear reactor control systems or containment processes at biological hazards research sites.</span><br /><br />I believe addressing the issues raised in the report would have been a far more responsible approach than censorship.<br /><br />-- SS<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Addendum 10/24</span>: The author of the paper asked me to remove it from my server as well. It is currently unavailable. This situation is in flux and hopefully will be resolved soon. Hopefully, the issues in the report will be addressed.

Academic Freedom Curtailed: Censorship Down Under On EHR's for the Emergency Department?

In a stunning development: The essay on Emergency Department electronic health record (EHR) problems in the Australian state of New South Wa...

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Celebrating free expression 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

<span style="font-style: italic;">(Cross-posted from the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/10/celebrating-free-expression-20-years.html">YouTube Blog</a><span style="font-style: italic;">)</span><br /><br />In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall became a striking symbol for free expression far beyond the borders of Germany. Just 20 years later, Iranian citizens used online tools like YouTube and Twitter to share <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUMVwkf2tEY">firsthand accounts</a> of the brutal government crackdown waged against protesters disputing the country's election results. <a href="http://www.citizentube.com/2009/06/violence-breaks-out-in-streets-of.html">Many Iranians risked their lives</a> to document the violence, despite the government's attempts to expel journalists and stifle any voices of dissent.<br /><br />The democratizing power of the Internet has enabled individuals to share their stories with a global audience in ways never before possible, and given a voice to those who wouldn't otherwise be heard.<br /><br />To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're launching a YouTube channel — <a href="http://youtube.com/googlefreeexpression">youtube.com/GoogleFreeExpression</a> — to highlight and celebrate free expression around the world, and we want to hear from you.<br /><br />This channel is designed to feature your stories and reflections on free expression. Tell us about how you or someone you know has taken a stand for free expression. Perhaps you've <a href="http://www.youtube.com/googlefreeexpression#p/c/31A28F774BE309E2/11/SDAPbRZmT6g">protested against</a> something you didn't agree with, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/googlefreeexpression#p/c/31A28F774BE309E2/8/BNf8a0fjnn8">taken action</a> when someone else's free speech was being suppressed or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/googlefreeexpression#p/c/31A28F774BE309E2/14/KVqj5lcEkBk">been inspired</a> by someone who has stood up for the right to speak out. Make a short video sharing your experience, upload it to YouTube, and add it as a reply to this one:<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NBirQbsWXw0&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NBirQbsWXw0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />We'll be featuring the best submissions on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleFreeExpression">Google Free Expression channel</a>, so be sure to check back in the weeks to come. We look forward to hearing from you.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Annette Kroeber-Riel, Senior European Policy Counsel</span>

Celebrating free expression 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog ) In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall became a striking symbol for free expression far beyond the borde...

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Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking

<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Cross-posted from the </span></span><a href="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-gets-personal-with-popular.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Official Google Reader Blog</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">)</span></span></div><div><br /></div>Today, we're launching two changes to <a href="http://reader.google.com/">Google Reader</a> to help you discover more interesting content faster. Just as the launch of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/search-gets-personal.html">Personalized Search</a> improved search results based on your search history, these changes use your Reader Trends to improve your reading experience.<br /><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Explore section</span> - We're always trying to help you discover new stuff in Reader, and today we're introducing Popular items and Recommended sources, two ways to find interesting content from all over the Internet. We use algorithms to find top-rising images, videos and pages from anywhere (not just your subscriptions), collect them in the new Popular items section and order them by what we think you'll like best. Now you don't have to be embarrassed about missing that hilarious video everyone is talking about — it should show up in your Popular items feed automatically. And to make it easier to find interesting feeds, we're moving <a href="http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2007/11/attack-of-interns-recommendations-and.html">Recommendations</a> into the new Explore section and giving it a new name — Recommended sources. Like always, it uses your <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/#trends-page">Reader Trends</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/history/">Web History</a> (if you're opted into Web History) to generate a list of feeds we think you might like.</li></ul><ul><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsZ6ttkLzpwHvZSeHQn5513pMX4gFce7bt8NWpBZc8j7BEDt2yjcX3pUFQZ0iGwZIpoiDGLAlbZ3N0BSJjB4IHG3dxfJM3gWRfWtUKvLkcCh0_dd8hJVxthGfzxWkq9wHRoX4RcI8D-xT/s1600-h/explore.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395560149323462850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsZ6ttkLzpwHvZSeHQn5513pMX4gFce7bt8NWpBZc8j7BEDt2yjcX3pUFQZ0iGwZIpoiDGLAlbZ3N0BSJjB4IHG3dxfJM3gWRfWtUKvLkcCh0_dd8hJVxthGfzxWkq9wHRoX4RcI8D-xT/s400/explore.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 168px;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Personalized ranking</span> - Only have a 10-minute coffee break and want to see the best items first? All feeds now have a new sort option called "magic" that re-orders items in the feed based on your personal usage, and overall activity in Reader, instead of default chronological order. Click "Sort by magic" under the Folder Settings menu of your feed to switch to personalized ranking. Unlike the old "auto" ranking, this new ranking is personalized for you, and gets better with time as we learn what you like best — the more you "like" and "share" stuff, the better your magic sort will be. Give it a try on a high-volume feed folder or All items and see for yourself!</li></ul><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxPahh5xbE9CNQQgPZZZGlTGQFV5kMI24lJxe61Ng1mUWJC2qn4C-3QgkIAFY468N3VAf2Gv5KFRjO8ckU-Seg7Ur_tz-IMPuBd1KEUHP3TJsx_I72EvlThyphenhyphen1dkboNd6wWoStmLGeMlrr/s1600-h/magic.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395560153703883890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxPahh5xbE9CNQQgPZZZGlTGQFV5kMI24lJxe61Ng1mUWJC2qn4C-3QgkIAFY468N3VAf2Gv5KFRjO8ckU-Seg7Ur_tz-IMPuBd1KEUHP3TJsx_I72EvlThyphenhyphen1dkboNd6wWoStmLGeMlrr/s400/magic.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 191px; height: 134px;" /></a>The goal of personalization at Google remains the same as ever: to help you find the best content on the web. We hope these new features help you do just that — go <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/pop/explore">Explore</a> for yourself.<br /><br />Finally, we'd love to hear your feedback — share your thoughts on <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/reader?hl=en">our help group</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/googlereader">Twitter</a> or the Reader section of <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/google/products/google_google_reader">Get Satisfaction</a>, a third party support community.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Beverly Yang, Software Engineer, Search Quality</span>

Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Reader Blog ) Today, we're launching two changes to Google Reader to help you discover more inte...

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Note to readers referred here from the Oct. 20 NY Times

Note to readers referred here from the Oct. 20 NY Times story "Steps to Greater Accountability in Medical Education" by Duff Wilson:<br /><br />This is a multi-author blog. The essay "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Nemeroff, Seroquel, and ACCME</span>" by Dr. Bernard Carroll is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/nemeroff-seroquel-and-accme.html">at this link</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>on the blog.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>

Note to readers referred here from the Oct. 20 NY Times

Note to readers referred here from the Oct. 20 NY Times story "Steps to Greater Accountability in Medical Education" by Duff Wilso...

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