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A software for fast rendering the visual appearance of a blood vessel located in human skin was developed based on a numerical solution of the radiative transfer equation. The user can specify geometrical properties, such as the depth and the diameter of the vessel, and physiological properties, such as the oxygen saturation of the vessel or the blood concentration in the skin. From these data, the spatially and spectrally resolved reflectance from the skin containing the blood vessel is calculated via Monte Carlo simulations, by which a two-dimensional image is generated. The short calculation time of about a second is achieved by precalculating and storing the spatially resolved reflectance for a variety of combinations of the optical and geometrical properties. This concept gives the user the opportunity to rapidly explore the influence of the physiological and geometrical properties of the investigated blood vessel on its visual appearance. The correctness of the lookup table was validated by comparison with independent Monte Carlo simulations. Rendering examples of different blood vessels in human skins are given. The current version of the software can be downloaded at https://www.ilm-ulm.de/software.

The Internet is becoming an important source of information about genetics and holds promise for public health applications. However, the public has concerns about the credibility of online genetics information. We conducted a content analysis of genetics blogs (n = 94). Specifically, we assessed the prevalence of various genetics-related topics and perceived credibility indicators. The relationship between content indicators, credibility indicators, and blog influence, measured as links between blogs, was evaluated. Coverage of issues related to health or self-knowledge (31%) and life science (26%) was most common among genetics blogs. In terms of credibility indicators, most blogs disclosed authors’ full names (81%) and biographical information (67%). Many blog authors reported having genetics (67%) or life science expertise (59%). However, only 7% of blogs were affiliated with educational or medical institutions. Overall, blogs that focused on ancestry, that had authors with life science expertise, and that posted more frequently tended to be more influential. Findings suggest that life scientists and those who blog frequently may figure more centrally in shaping the genetics information available to the public via blogs. There is room for institutions that are likely to be perceived as credible sources of genetics information to assume a greater presence through blogs.

Clinicians at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis print and carry clinical reports called “Pocket Rounds”. This paper describes a new process we developed to improve these clinical reports. The heart of our new process is a World Wide Web Consortium standard: Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). Using XSL-FO stylesheets we generated Portable Document Format (PDF) and PostScript reports with complex formatting: columns, tables, borders, shading, indents, dividing lines. We observed patterns of clinical report printing during a eight month study period on three Medicine wards. Usage statistics indicated that clinicians accepted the new system enthusiastically: 78% of 26,418 reports were printed using the new system. We surveyed 67 clinical users. Respondents gave the new reports a rating of 4.2 (on a 5 point scale); they gave the old reports a rating of 3.4. The primary complaint was that it took longer to print the new reports. We believe that XSL-FO is a promising way to transform text data into functional and attractive clinical reports – relatively easy to implement and modify.