The Ikagen Blog

Entry 1
Welcome to the first entry in the Ikagen Blog. Many of you who have checked this site regularly have probably been wondering, "What is taking so long?!" Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been grappling with languages beyond English and Japanese. These foreign languages include CSS, HTML, ASP.Net, Javascript, SQLServer and on and on and on. I think you get the idea, even if you don't understand what I am talking about. The fact of the matter is that few people completely understand what I am talking about. Actually what I'm talking about absolutely nothing to do with medicine, heath care or science. Yet, learning the aforementioned "foreign" languages were absolutely critical to creating a platform for 医科言資料室. Moreover, as I was creating the foundation for this website and its sister site 医科書教室, I was coming up with more ideas for online self-study. Up until now, the "Word Lists," "Readings" and "Interviews" sections have been freely available. You can expect to see content added to these sections regularly and usability enhanced. New types of content are also being developed. I have launched several new sections including "Wordology" which is a place to examine individual words, phrases and concepts in medicine, health care and science from both English and Japanese. The first term discussed is "キレた" which will be followed by more entries in the near future. The second topic is the deceptively simple word "fit" which is currently in the pipeline and should be posted soon. A second section is "In the News" which is designed to serve as a portal page for articles of interest in the news across the Internet. One of the criteria used to select these articles is free access. Some sites will require registration but only free access sites have been selected. I highly recommend that you register at The Washington Post and The New York Times. Both of these newspapers have great medical and health reporters and the articles can be freely accessed indefinitely. I have selected the articles based on not necessarily because I believe that their content is "true" but rather that these articles are reflective of what is being printed in the international press. A third section that has been launched is "Resource Links" The content of this section is primarily links to academic journals with information on the journals, their sponsoring society, impact factor, instructions to authors and links to free online content. I encourage everyone to check out the links to free content to access journal articles for you to read in their entirety. One section that still is "under construction" is the Tutorials section. Fear not, I will be posting content soon. Most of the content will be in the form of short video tutorials. I can only hope they will be worth the wait. The year 2008 was, for me, a year of establishing roots. This root system is unfortunately for you, the users, not visible from the surface. However, I am anticipating that 2009 will be a year of breaking through the surface and blossoming into a truly useful site. Check back to see what transpires! Melinda Hull

Entry 1

Welcome to the first entry in the Ikagen Blog. Many of you who have checked this site regularly have probably been wondering, "What is taking so long?!" Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been grappling with languages beyond English and Japanese. These foreign languages include CSS, HTML, ASP.Net, Javascript, SQLServer and on and on and on. I think you get the idea, even if you don't understand what I am talking about.

The fact of the matter is that few people completely understand what I am talking about. Actually what I'm talking about absolutely nothing to do with medicine, heath care or science. Yet, learning the aforementioned "foreign" languages were absolutely critical to creating a platform for 医科言資料室. Moreover, as I was creating the foundation for this website and its sister site 医科書教室, I was coming up with more ideas for online self-study.

Up until now, the "Word Lists," "Readings" and "Interviews" sections have been freely available. You can expect to see content added to these sections regularly and usability enhanced.

New types of content are also being developed. I have launched several new sections including "Wordology" which is a place to examine individual words, phrases and concepts in medicine, health care and science from both English and Japanese. The first term discussed is "キレた" which will be followed by more entries in the near future. The second topic is the deceptively simple word "fit" which is currently in the pipeline and should be posted soon.

A second section is "In the News" which is designed to serve as a portal page for articles of interest in the news across the Internet. One of the criteria used to select these articles is free access. Some sites will require registration but only free access sites have been selected. I highly recommend that you register at The Washington Post and The New York Times. Both of these newspapers have great medical and health reporters and the articles can be freely accessed indefinitely. I have selected the articles based on not necessarily because I believe that their content is "true" but rather that these articles are reflective of what is being printed in the international press.

A third section that has been launched is "Resource Links" The content of this section is primarily links to academic journals with information on the journals, their sponsoring society, impact factor, instructions to authors and links to free online content. I encourage everyone to check out the links to free content to access journal articles for you to read in their entirety.

One section that still is "under construction" is the Tutorials section. Fear not, I will be posting content soon. Most of the content will be in the form of short video tutorials. I can only hope they will be worth the wait.

The year 2008 was, for me, a year of establishing roots. This root system is unfortunately for you, the users, not visible from the surface. However, I am anticipating that 2009 will be a year of breaking through the surface and blossoming into a truly useful site. Check back to see what transpires!

Melinda Hull