Steve will be presenting at the University of Chicago Medical Center this coming Monday. This would be a terrific opportunity to see a live demonstration of GIDEON. If you can’t make it, then you can always watch the online videos.

Title: GIDEON: A Global Web-based Program for Decision Support and Informatics in Infectious Diseases
Presenter: Dr. Steve Berger, Chief Medical Advisor, GIDEON Informatics
Date: Monday, May 19, 2008
Time: 2pm to 3pm
Location: Room W-632, University of Chicago Medical Center (6th floor)
5812 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637
Enter from the Surgery – Brain Research Pavilion
Maps are available near each elevator
Host: Dr. Younghee Lee

Dr. Steve Berger, GIDEON’s Chief Medical Advisor, is quoted in the article “Is Your Keyboard Making You Sick?” in the US News and World Report:

“The bottom line is it’s actually nothing to worry about,” says Steve Berger, director of microbiology and tropical medicine at the Tel Aviv Medical Center. “We’re living in a sea of bacteria. The germs that you’re dealing with are normal bacteria, and nobody’s going to catch anthrax or Ebola or anything from a keyboard.”

As America once again enters the “Lyme disease season” information regarding this major infectious disease continues to evolve rapidly. The following material has been generated using GIDEON, an interactive on line program that can be used to diagnose or explore the status of all infectious diseases: signs and symptoms, status in every country, ongoing epidemics, antibiotics, vaccines, parasites, virus … in real time. So, let’s test your knowledge about Lyme disease:

1. True or false: Lyme disease is a relatively new infection that is primarily limited to the United States.
2. You have probably heard that Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks. How many tick-borne diseases occur in the world ? In the United States ?
3. Many other infectious diseases are characterized by severe illness, involving many body systems. Are there any truly unique features to Lyme disease ?
4. How many antibiotic agents are available ? How many are effective against the bacterium that causes Lyme disease ?

I put these four questions to GIDEON … (more…)