FDA Transparency Blog

This is really nice.

http://fdatransparencyblog.fda.gov/

A good-faith effort open the kimono and solicit feedback from the public.

Just added the feed to my iphone app.

New Logo?

Wife and kids made this for me for father's day

it's made of FLOAM (watch out...floam web-site has annoying sound effects)

Credit Card Data

This is only tangentially related to health informatics...unless you feel that public display of your credit card # is dangerous to your financial health.

Today, I used the FAX machine at my local public library. The FAX machine is run by a company called FAX24, and the instructions are pretty standard.

• pick up the phone on the FAX machine
• Dial *3
• Listen to the instructions
• Enter your credit card number on the keypad
• Enter your credit card expiration date on the keypad
• Enter the destination FAX #
• Add your sheets and press START

Works like a champ, and at the end the machine releases a small confirmation printout to tell you whether your transaction was OK or whether it failed.

Today was the first time I really looked at the printout.

There's my Credit Card # and expiration date prominently displayed.

I wonder how many people toss this confirmation printout into the trash on their way out of the library.

Is it me or does everyone think this is a major no-no?

Warning Letters Part II

FDA provides a web-page where you can Search Warning Letters by Issue Date and Export to Excel. Previously, I wrote about how the output of this information is not actually Excel, but here's something cute.

When you actually select a range of dates and download the "Excel" file, you get a file named something like this:

fda_wl_search_results_06302009110030.xls
the digit "code" at the end of the filename isn't that difficult to crack

fda_w[arning]l[etters]_search_results_MONTH DAYYEARHOURMINUTESECOND.xls

But what happens when 2 people request results within the same second? This will probably never happen, but it's a bad idea to dynamically name files like this.

FDA Mobile News Back on Sale in iTunes App Store

errors fixed.

prices slashed in half (we're practically giving it away!!) !

get it here!!!

FDA Search Graduation Day

I posted earlier about creating a plugin for Mozilla's Firefox that allowed users to search the FDA and CDCwebsites and FDAble's search engines by right-clicking on a highlighted word.

Turns out that you can submit a plugin, but it's considered experimental until you've received reviews.

You also have to write a short justification of why your plugin is worthy of release to the public at large.

I'm happy to announce that, as of today, the FDA Search plugin has graduated from experimental to public.

How to use it?

1. download the plugin.
2. if you're on a web-page that contains a drug name or other health related term, highlight the term
3. right-click on the highlighted term and choose whether you'd like to use the term to search, the FDA, CDC or FDAble search engines.

That's it!