I’m not going to talk about how to read here. This section is about how to use the web to enhance your reading.
A great and underused resource by most GP’s is an RSS feed. Almost all magazines, websites and organisations have such a thing, that allows instant updates to be viewed by any person. Sometimes subscriptions can be enforced by limiting access, but in essence it’s a great way to keep up to date.
For the social mediaphiles out there, using Twitter is a great option as most organisations, magazines and companies have embraced this phenomenon, and allows you to read articles of interest, easily.
A better way is to bring all your feeds into one, called a reader where you can click and read articles in your own time, and sort out ones that you wish to keep and review, from those that you find less useful.
A good simple introduction is using Google Reader which allows all this to be done easily.
An example is the following feed which is my own personal linked feed from the BJGP, GP magazine and InnovAiT.
Gandalf’s Runes
- Clinical Review – The management of HIV
- Key questions on managing chronic pain (1.5 CPD hours)
- Ten tips on H.pylori eradication
- The business side of general practice
- Successful presentations and GP registrars
- Blistering skin conditions
- Bacterial skin infections
- Management of pruritus
- Therapeutics in older people – the challenges
- Key questions on epilepsy (1.5 CPD hours)
For revalidation, it is also possible to extract a feed into a PDF as proof of articles you have read; this can be easily stored for proof of reading.