My husband gave me an iPod. I had never thought about getting one, and I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it. I also knew that in a matter of weeks it would end up being lost, just like the 30 pairs of sunglasses I buy each year. I also thought that iPods were only for music, which was fine, but I wasn’t sure when I’d ever use it. When I got around to registering my iPod through iTunes, I saw that podcasts were available, and I became excited.

Very excited.

Podcasts are similar to talk radio shows. They focus on almost every topic, ranging from cooking to news to travel to fashion. Some, like “The Onion Radio News,” are very funny, while others, like “Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders,” are formal lectures. Many podcasts are free. I currently subscribe to 21 freebies. They run anywhere from one minute to an hour. I have learned to listen to podcasts to help me get through things that I hate to do, such as running, cleaning the house, shopping for groceries, and waiting in lines.

Here are a few of my favorites covering health and medical topics:

• 101 Tips to Improve Your Nursing Career—David Woodruff, MSN, RN, CNS, and President of Ed4Nurses, Inc. hosts this podcast. This podcast is very short—most sessions are under two minutes. 
• Medical Matters—This podcast is distributed by the British Broadcasting Company (a major British media company), and it covers a different topic each week. Some recent topics have included Downs Syndrome and organ donation. You get to hear from medical doctors, health care specialists, patients, and their families.
• Medically Speaking—This podcast is produced by the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Information is presented on ways of recognizing certain medical conditions, how they are treated, and how one might prevent them.
• National Institutes of Heath (NIH) Podcast—If you want to know about current research being conducted by the National Institutes of Health but are not a research scientist, this is your podcast. Recent topics have covered areas like cervical cancer and stem cells. 

I absolutely love my iPod. As I expected, I lost my first one, and I now listen to “Michelle’s iPod the Second.”

If you ever see me waiting in the check-out line at Target looking very focused, I’m probably in the middle of a podcast. Happy listening!

Please share any health or medical podcasts to which you subscribe.

From: Michelle Maack Friederichs, Director of Residential Faculty Development and Educational Quality

With healthy adults, a systematic review showed a significant decrease in days of work missed.

More importantly in the elderly, the vaccine decreased mortality, as well as hospital and outpatient visits for pneumonia and influenza. It also decreased death and hospitalization for influenza and pneumonia in those with chronic disease (i.e. stroke, rheumatologic disease, diabetes, heart, lung, kidney disease). Here is an interesting study published on Pubmed.org:

"BACKGROUND: Three different types of influenza vaccines are currently produced world wide. None is traditionally targeted to healthy adults. Despite the publication of a large number of clinical trials, there is still substantial uncertainty about the clinical effectiveness of influenza vaccines and this has negative impact on the vaccines acceptance and uptake.

SELECTION CRITERIA: Any randomized or quasi-randomized studies comparing influenza vaccines in humans with placebo, control vaccines or no intervention, or comparing types, doses or schedules of influenza vaccine. Live, attenuated or killed vaccines or fractions thereof administered by any route, irrespective of antigenic configuration were considered. Only studies assessing protection from exposure to naturally occurring influenza in healthy individuals aged 14 to 60 (irrespective of influenza immune status) were considered.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Both clinically defined cases and serologically confirmed cases of influenza were considered as outcomes according to the authors' definitions. Time off work, complication, and hospitalization rates were considered, together with adverse effects. Vaccine schedules were analyzed including one component matching the recommended vaccine (WHO or government recommendations) for the year of the study, and whether they matched the circulating viral subtypes.

MAIN RESULTS: The recommended live aerosol vaccines reduced the number of cases of serologically confirmed influenza A by 48% (95% confidence interval 24% to 64%), whilst recommended inactivated parenteral vaccines had a vaccine efficacy of 68% (95% confidence interval 49% to 79%). The vaccines were less effective in reducing clinical influenza cases, with efficacies of 13% and 24% respectively. Use of the vaccine significantly reduced time off work, but only by 0.4 days for each influenza episode (95% confidence interval 0.1 to 0.8 days). Analysis of vaccines matching the circulating strain gave higher estimates of efficacy, whilst inclusion of all other vaccines reduced the efficacy.

REVIEWER"S CONCLUSIONS: Influenza vaccines are effective in reducing serologically confirmed cases of influenza A. However, they are not as effective in reducing cases of clinical influenza. The use of WHO recommended vaccines appears to enhance their effectiveness in practice."