Adoption studies of social media use by clinicians were systematically reviewed, up to July 26th, 2011, to determine the extent of adoption and highlight trends in institutional responses. This search led to 370 articles, of which 50 were selected for review, including 15 adoption surveys. The definition of social media is evolving rapidly; the authors define it broadly to include social networks and group-curated reference sites such as Wikipedia. Facebook accounts are very common among health science students (64–96%) and less so for professional clinicians (13–47%). Adoption rates have increased sharply in the past 4 years. Wikipedia is widely used as a reference tool. Attempts at incorporating social media into clinical training have met with mixed success. Posting of unprofessional content and breaches of patient confidentiality, especially by students, are not uncommon and have prompted calls for social media guidelines.

We present a simple method for fabricating chemically-inert Teflon microfluidic valves and pumps in glass microfluidic devices. These structures are modeled after monolithic membrane valves and pumps that utilize a featureless polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane sandwiched between two etched glass wafers. The limited chemical compatibility of PDMS has necessitated research into alternative materials for microfluidic devices. Previous work has shown that spincoated amorphous fluoropolymers and Teflon-fluoropolymer laminates can be fabricated and substituted for PDMS in monolithic membrane valves and pumps for space flight applications. However, the complex process for fabricating these spin-coated Teflon films and laminates may preclude their use in many research and manufacturing contexts. As an alternative, we show that commercially-available fluorinated ethylene-propylene (FEP) Teflon films can be used to fabricate chemically-inert monolithic membrane valves and pumps in glass microfluidic devices. The FEP Teflon valves and pumps presented here are simple to fabricate, function similarly to their PDMS counterparts, maintain their performance over extended use, and are resistant to virtually all chemicals. These structures should facilitate lab-on-a-chip research involving a vast array of chemistries that are incompatible with native PDMS microfluidic devices.

Improved methods are needed for routine, inexpensive monitoring of biomarkers that could facilitate earlier detection and characterization of cancer. Suspended microchannel resonators (SMRs) are highly sensitive, batch-fabricated microcantilevers with embedded microchannels that can directly quantify adsorbed mass via changes in resonant frequency. As in other label-free detection methods, biomolecular measurements in complex media such as serum are challenging due to high background signals from non-specific binding. In this report, we demonstrate that carboxybetaine-derived polymers developed to adsorb directly onto SMR SiO2 surfaces act as ultra-low fouling and functionalizable surface coatings. Coupled with a reference microcantilever, this approach enables detection of activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM), a model cancer biomarker, in undiluted serum with a limit of detection of 10 ng/mL.

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