My name is Daren Nicholson. By training, I am a physician (graduate of McGill University) and a biomedical informatitianw (graduate of Oregon Health & Science University). Currently, I am an associate consultant at Sujansky & Associates. If you would like to learn more about me, please view my CV.
My links page includes great info and links on Salsa music and dance, medical informatics, and more! (Not to mention a piquant photo of me)
Personal Health Records (PHRs): As an independent consultant and then a product manager, I worked on the development of PHRs and other healthcare IT applications.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) adoption: Some of my colleagues and I completed an inventory of EHR adoption in Oregon's ambulatory clinics.
Quality of health information on Wikipedia: My master's degree capstone project evaluated the quality of health information on Wikipedia.
Use of 3D models in anatomy instruction: In collaboration with colleagues at McGill University, I have created an online ear anatomy tutorial called the 3D Ear that employs text, 2D images, and 3D interactive models of the middle and inner ear. The tutorial was developed and is maintained at Professor W. Robert J. Funnell's Auditory Mechanics Laboratory at McGill University. My papers page (see link below) has a link to a study that we recently published concerning the educational effectiveness of our 3D ear model.
Over the years, I've written papers on some interesting topics (all of which are related to health and health care). Peruse my papers to read about the role of race in medicine, the controversy surrounding circumcision, the use of GIS in public health, and my published works (a case study of NMS in a geriatrics patient, an evaluation of the distribution of medical errors across physicians, and an evaluation of our 3D ear model).
A few years ago I took the plunge and switched from Windows to GNU/Linux. I prefer the Ubuntu distro of GNU/Linux, and thus run that on my laptop. Ubuntu installs easily on desktops, but there are a few quirks with laptops, especially mine (a Dell B120). Go to my Ubuntu on Dell B120 page to see some tips about fixing these quirks.
I created this site long ago to learn HTML and CSS skills. My main goal when I designed this site was to link to other web sites that are important to me. I know, that's so early 90s. Well, my interests in the web have progressed since then. Lately, I've become very enamored with visual design. It's what I like most about software. I'm quite enthusiastic with some of the new trends in web page design, though you wouldn't know it from this page. But don't be alarmed by this circa 1990s web site. I do realize that this site is not aesthetically pleasing, and I do think that aesthetics have their place in web design; however, I don't think that my personal web site needs fancy icons and clever layouts. I'm not trying to sell you anything, nor am I trying to convince you of my mesmerizing artistry. Thus, basic text, with sufficient hyperlinks, still seems to me to be the best design choice for this site. I hope you agree.
Comments? Email me at: _ _ _ _ _ mailbox-general@yahoo.com where the spaces are filled with my first name.
Last modified: 2009 March 05