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OMHE: Open Mobile Health Exchange – Health Microsyntax Nirvana

OMHE: Open Mobile Health Exchange – Health Microsyntax Nirvana:  here is a screen cast I put together to explain OMHE.

VIDEO: Use Videntity to Monitor & Communicate Blood Pressure

Here is a screen cast showing OMHE Microsyntax in action.  It also illustrates identity verification and sending information to your physician.

-Alan

Taking Your Blood Pressure at Home – Use Case, Best Practices, and Discussion

Dr. Ted Eytan  MD/MS/MPH recently contributed this wiki page to the OMHE Microsyntax Project on measuring blood pressure at home. Good evidence exists to support home blood pressure monitoring. His article discusses the “why” and the “how” of home blood pressure monitoring.

http://code.google.com/p/omhe/wiki/bp

Dr. Eytan works for Kaiser Permanente and lives in Washington D.C., the epicenter of health care transformation and mHealth innovation.  His personal blog is www.tedeytan.com and his Twitter name is: @tedeytan

Nepali Cooking

If you know me well, then you know that I love to cook (and eat) Indian, Nepali, and Thai cuisine.  I really like Nepali achars (pickles) as well as momos.  Momos are like Chinese dumplings but stuffed with Nepali goodness and served with tomato or timur achar.  I’ve found this website very helpful and tried many of the recipes here:

http://nepalicooking.tripod.com/

One important tip: timur is hard to find and you probably won’t find it in an Indian grocery store; however, it’s a very important ingredient in many Nepali achars.  The trick is knowing that it is the same as “Szechuan pepper”,  which is not really a pepper at all.  Look for it in the herb section of a large well-stocked Asian grocery store.   On a side note, timur can also be used as a rub for fish and meats.  Try grinding the timur seeds in a coffee grinder and then coating a steak with them and a little Kosher salt and grill.  Yummm!

Jimbu is another hard to find spice used in Nepali cooking.  I only have some because our friend (Shana) brought it back for us the last time she went to Nepal.  If anyone knows of  where you can get in the States, please let me know.

Namaste,

-Alan

A Few of the Great Places to Eat in Baltimore

My sister asked me to compile a list of some of the best places to eat in Baltimore for her friend.  I thought a blog post would be better in case someone else asks.  Check this blog in the future for  great places to eat in  Morgantown WV,  Monterey & Carmel CA, and Washington D.C.

Here is the Baltimore “it” list  in no particular order.

The Black Olive ($$$$ – Fells Point):

Greek seafood. This is my favorite…and everyone else loves it, too!  Specializes in whole fish. Very, very good. Make sure to try the baklava ice cream!

814 South Bond Street
Baltimore, MD 21231-3346
(410) 276-7141

http://www.theblackolive.com/

The Helmand ($$$ – Mt. Vernon) :

If you’ve never tried Afghan food, you’ll love it after going here.  Both the veg and meat dishes are great.  Apps are also awesome.  Make sure to try the bread.  Desserts are also good. Hamid Karzai’s cousin owns this place and it’s considered the best Afghan in U.S.  Kind of fancy, but not too expensive. You need a reservation!

806 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-5349
(410) 752-0311

http://www.helmand.com/

Lumbini ($$ – Charles St., Mt. Vernon):

Nepali/Indian.  I especially like going for their lunch buffet.  They have momos on the Saturday buffet, which must be tried.  I also really enjoy the goat curry, radish pickle, and the carrot dessert. No reservation necessary.

322 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-4302
(410) 244-5556

http://www.lumbinirestaurant.com/

The Woodberry Kitchen ($$$$ – Woodbury):

Great food.  Almost everything is local and/or organic. I first saw this place on the Food Network. You need a reservation.

2010 Clipper Park Road, No. 126
Baltimore, MD 21211

http://www.woodberrykitchen.com/

The Brewer’s Art ($$$ – Mt. Vernon):

The pub fare in the basement is great…try the garlic fries with a Resurrection Ale.  Yes they make the beer. More formal American/Belgian menu available upstairs in the restaurant. Reservations recommended if eating upstairs.

1106 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-5557
(410) 547-9310

http://www.thebrewersart.com/

The Waterfront Hotel ($$$ – Fell’s Point):

It’s not actually a hotel.  Downstairs is a bar, but if you go upstairs there is a nice dining room and lounge.  Go for brunch on the weekend.  $1 raw oysters all the time.  Try the crab hash. Reservations highly recommended.

1710 Thymes St Baltimore (Fell’s Point)
Baltimore, MD 21231-3416
(410) 537-5055

http://www.waterfronthotel.us/

Tamber’s ($$ – Charles Village) :

This is a regular American diner, but with an India menu in the back.  We didn’t try anything but the Indian food, which was great!  We had the mushroom dish and the eggplant dish and both were top notch.  Right beside Homewood Johns Hopkins Campus. Reservations not needed.

3327 Saint Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21218-3254
(410) 243-5777

http://www.tambersrestaurant.com/

Jack’s Bistro ($$$$ – Canton):

American/contemporary food, steaks, seafood, etc.  Very good.  Reservations needed.

3123 Elliott Street
Baltimore, MD 21224-4911
(410) 878-6542

http://www.jacksbistro.net/

Sip & Bite ($ – Fells Point):

Classic diner with Greek food.  Great crab cakes….try them grilled.  Open 24 hours.  No reservation needed.

2200 Boston St
Baltimore, MD 21231

(410) 675-7077

Faidley’s Seafood at Lexington Market ($$$ – Downtown):

Try a Jumbo lump crab cake at Faidley’s!  Wow!  You can eat there but you have to stand.  Great place for lunch.  Lexington market has a little of everything.

400 West Lexington Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-1752
(410) 685-6169

http://www.faidleyscrabcakes.com/

http://www.lexingtonmarket.com/

Give us our ‘Darn Data’ – Accesing your medical records is hard

I was mentioned in this article on cnn.com posted January 12 a part of the “Empowered Patient” series.  Also mentioned in the article are  my sister Leslie Crytser, e-patient Dave, Jen McCabe, and Regina Holiday.

Here is the link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/14/medical.records/

Twitter IDs are:

@aviars (me)

@ePatientDave

@JenSMccabe

@ReginaHolilday

Access to Your Medical Records

Hello all. I wrote this article about my father’s heart surgery and the struggles we went through. It was published on e-patients.net here:

http://e-patients.net/archives/2010/01/my-father%E2%80%99s-medical-record-fiasco.html

-Alan

Introducting Open Mobile Health Exchange (OMHE): A microsyntax.org project

I’m pleased to introduce Open Mobile Health Exchange (OMHE): A http://microsyntax.org project.

Simply put, OMHE is a language for saying things over SMS, Twitter, and similar services.

Read More Here:   http://code.google.com/p/omhe

…and here http://microsyntax.org

Fun with Bit.ly in Python

I was just playing with the bit.ly python library and wrote a quick function & command line utility to shorten URLs.

Prerequisites = bitly.py, simplejson

Run it like this………….
# python mybitly.py your_username your bitly_api_key http://google.com/foo/bar

Here is the source code.


##########################################
# mybitly.py by Alan Viars,
# Open Source License: Apache 2
# Last Updated: November 15, 2009
# Copright: Videntity Systems, Inc.
##########################################
import bitly
import sys

#prerequisites = bitly.py, simplejson

# Run it like this………….
# python mybitly.py your_username your bitly_api_key http://google.com/foo/bar

def shortenURL(login, apikey, url):

try:

api = bitly.Api(login=login, apikey=apikey)
print api
short=api.shorten(url)
print “Short URL = %s” % short

except:
print “There was an error shortening the URL.”
print sys.exc_info()
return None

return short

if __name__ == “__main__”:

try:
login =     sys.argv[1]
apikey=     sys.argv[2]
url =       sys.argv[3]
except:
print “There was an error getting the command line argumnets.”
print “USAGE: mybitly.py [login] [api_key] [url]”
#print sys.exc_info()
exit(1)

try:
shortenURL(login,apikey,url)
except:
print “There was an error executing shortenURL.”
#print sys.exc_info()

I hope this is useful. You have to have a bit.ly account to use this. You need an api_key which is not the same as your password. Get the api_key from your accounts page. Finding where to get the api_key wasn’t obvious.

Thai Beef BBQ Recipe

I get asked for this recipe or I’m asked to make this dish it all the time.  And for good reason…its sooooo good.  Trust me, almost everyone loves this dish.  If you are a fan of hot and spicy food and beef this will be your new favorite.  I don’t follow a strict recipe here.  This is an “eyeball” recipe but it always comes out great.  You’ll likely need to go to a decent Asian grocery store to get all the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Soy Sauce (use a high quality one..not the cheapest one you can find)
  • Dark Sesame Oil
  • White Wine
  • Minced Ginger (or ginger paste..DO NOT USE DRY POWDERED GINGER)
  • White sugar
  • Ground Black Pepper
  • Small Thinly cut steaks..between 1/4-1/2 inch thick.  Top sirloin works well for this.  A little marble is desired so don’t use Fillet Mignon for this recipe
  • Limes 6-10 depending on how much your making
  • Fish Sauce (Thai – Preferably Tiparos brand..it has  a yellow label)
  • Fresh Thai green chillies.  This are the real little ones.  I don’t recommend using Serrano, Jalapenos.  Get the Thai peppers.
  • You also will need an outdoor grill and some friends

STEP 1: Preparing the Marinade  (Make enough depending on how much meat you have to marinade)

  • Mix 1 part soy sauce, 1 part dark sesame oil, and 1 part white wine.
  • Add very finely minced ginger.  Ginger paste, the kind in a jar from an Indian grocery store, works well for this and can save you time.  Do this “to taste”. I’d say you need at least a couple tablespoons.
  • Add white sugar to taste and block pepper to taste.  Add a good bit of black peeper (1 teaspoon at least).  Add 4-5 teaspoons of sugar.
  • Mix well and set aside while preparing the meat.

Step 2: Preparing the Steak

  • Cut you steaks to be about as thick as your little pinky. about 1/3 inch.  Better yet just have a butcher cut it this way for you.
  • Pour the marinade from step 1 over the cut meat.  Let marinade for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, but overnight is much better and highly recommended.
  • As with any grilled meat, take it out of the refrigerator an hour or two before grilling.  Room temperature meat cooks better, especially if  rare or medium rare is desired.

Step 3: Preparing the Condiment (Thai Chili Fish Sauce)

  • Squeeze limes to get lime juice.  Don’t get the seeds in there.
  • Mix lime juice and Thai fish sauce in a 1-to-1 ratio.
  • Add sugar to taste (you’ll need quite a bit).  Stir well.  Taste it until the sour lime is balanced well with the sweet.
  • Chop Thai green chilies into little rings.  You’ll want to use plenty maybe 30-50 chillies.  It depends on how much you’re making.
  • Add chillies to lime, fish sauce, sugar mixture.
  • Set aside in a serving dish with a spoon.

Step 4:  Grilling the Steak

  • Use an open flame gas or charcoal grill.
  • Heat the grill to a high temperature.
  • Add  marinated meat to the grill and cook to your preference ..medium or medium rare is recommended

Step 5: Serving

  • Let the cooked meat rest for 5 minutes
  • Serve
  • Instruct your guests to pour the chili fish sauce condiment over the steak with a spoon.  If you like hot like me, then eat the peppers too.  If you like it more on the tame side, just pour some of the liquid.

This is always a crowd pleaser.  Enjoy!